how exactly is a rom made?

[katuuuz]

i was playing double dragon 2 online with my pal and i felt like i was in the 80's again. (some games just bring back that nostalgic feeling, some stronger than other) and i said to myself, "how the hell do they get the game on the pc EXACTLY as it was on the console?" do you some how hook a nintendo up to a pc? something with the cartridges? something i've been involved in for years now, i never actually knew how it worked. if someone can give me a quick 101 on the subject, i'd be interested in knowing what goes into it.

[Adultery]

There's a thing called a 'coder's cable' that people use to rip the ROM image through a console's serial port - You know, the port that you could see but never really knew what it was for?

That's the most basic and easy explination I can give you.

[Atari800]

well... this is a little involved but...

grab a cartridge (nintendo, genesis, atari...) and crack it open

in there you will see 1 or more ROMS (computer chips - looks like either a black Trident piece of gum or a Wrigleys Spearmint peice of gum...with legs...or pins as they are called)

Now in the old days - they would unsoldier them unless they were in a socket

There is a device called an EPROM reader/burner

Providing it was *something* the read/writer and program could identify ...it would read it to a file on the computer

The normal use (at the time) was to burn it to a blank chip so you could duplicate it

Well with this *image* people made programs to emulate the hardware that ran it

The hardware didnt change but the cartridge did - so once you got the program to mimic the hardware - you could substitute that rom image and viola..new game

Well as times progressed technology - they developed more convenient ways to copy the roms by introduce the EDGE CONNECTOR which you plugged in the cartridge to

This made a mass flood of roms..more so than the emulators could keep up with - so more emulators where made...more compatible, faster, precise to the actual hardware

Then the manufacturers of the roms introduced - encryption (chips harded to copy {checked things that where available only on authenticate roms}) to deture piracy

Well those usually got defeated

Then enter in CD ROMS (Playstation 1)

This allowed 2 things to occur - WAY more room to program in (600 megabytes versus 4 - 12 meg a cartridge typically hold) to enhance the graphics..movies, music, and so on

Well in additon to this they added special sectors on the CD ROMS disks them selves that could NOT be reproduced by regular cd rom burners

This got defeated to with call MOD CHIPS (also in available in XBOX but thats different more so)

The MOD chip is connected to certain points on the game mother board that when a condition occured, it would "simulate" the special sector being read - then the rest of the disk would boot up and play

Dreamcast introduced a totally differnt format of disk called a GIGA DISK (or something)

This used a normal CD but with a special method could modify the layout and amount of data held on it

*thinking no one could replicate a CD (not DVD) that holds more than 600 meg - or a unique format

**look at an underside of a dreamcast disk and you'll see what I mean

Their method was simple and brilliant (until someone figured out how to copy it)

It was to use a 12 speed CD writer to write to a disk spinning at 1x speed (maybe it was 2x)

This made tighter compression to hold more data...plus no regular CD could read it

Some group (Echelon or Accension I believe) got hold of a Katana - Dreamcast developer device and learn the secrets

#1 A dreamcat cast can play a game on a normal cd providing the bootstrap program had correct settiongs

*dubbed a fault in the BIOS

#2 Made a program that boots up the DREAMCAST to listen for instruction via a seriall or modem or broadband connector

*Do this because it already uses the DREAMCAST mechanism to read their weird format and allow it to be read

This created the DREAMCAST flood which I think pretty much playyed a big part of Sega's demise

I still have 5 dreamcasts in the closet - best $30 I ever spent

Then introduce playstation2 dvd and xbox dvd and Nintendo Gamecube (tiny DVDs)

Someone figured out those methods too

So I guess the best answer the the question "HOW IS A ROM MADE"

By someone/people with lots of time to figure out how it works, determination to duplicate it, and drive to make it work on something else

Sorry to be long winded

/|\

[katuuuz]

sweet. thank you adultry and atari. i would guess an nes cartridge would "copy" fast, verses a psx.

[Atari800]

Its the result...not the speed

/|\

[nullus]

Thank you Atari800,

very illuminative!