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farmerbb / RED-Project

ROM Extraction Documentation Project
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TurboGrafx-16/ PC Engine/ CoreGrafx Mini ROM dumping #112

Open kjetil-f opened 10 months ago

kjetil-f commented 10 months ago

Anyone got it to work yet?

Maybe it's possible to use a similar method as the Sega Genesis 2 Mini to achieve this?

According to this video it seems doable.

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

Anyone have the means to get in touch with them and ask them about the tool? There's no DM function on Github and I'm not sure if randomly commenting on one of their repos will get their attention. Not to mention that might come off as rude.

stuckinstyx commented 2 months ago

Sounds like the same person who posted a description of the file format on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/GMMan_BZFlag/status/1589100542894084096 You could try DM'ing them there.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

After looking at the tool itself, it appears to have been made by Cyanic from MMC. Possibly an overhauled version of this. Regardless, if you guys want this tool publicly released, then you’ll need to contact Cyanic, not the unrelated No-Intro forum member.

Does anyone have their contact info? I've found a GBATemp profile which had the same profile picture as their Nuget profile, but they haven't logged in in about four years. I'm not sure if they're maintaining an online presence at this point, so we might be out of luck.

There is a contact owners function on the website I gave earlier.

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

I've contacted them, here's their response:

That's mine, and it was passed on because someone from No-Intro needed to verify whether a claimed dump from the device was genuine (it was not). For those who want to just dump games to play on other devices, I would really rather someone other than myself do some legwork. It's been four years since the device released, someone else ought to have had a crack at it already. So here's the deal. My program actually does have import capability, but what I released was a limited version and not for public distribution. If someone can demonstrate putting in the effort and making an open-source converter that can extract the data from the format (not even a proper bin/cue, just the decompressed data chunks and an Opus stream for the audio tracks), I'll open source my program with the import capability included. I just want to see someone who's actually interested in reverse engineering the format rather than only using the end result.

I don't know a single thing about programming, but if anyone has the necessary know-how, feel free to reach out to them.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

I don't know a single thing about programming, but if anyone has the necessary know-how, feel free to reach out to them.

Maybe I'll take a crack at it despite having no experience with this sort of thing. I'll see if I can clear my schedule to work on this as well. However, I won't attempt this until I can actually dump my CoreGrafx Mini as I still can't get it to boot into FEL mode.

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

I still can't get it to boot into FEL mode

Could you share the model number of your unit? The dumping process worked fine on the Coregrafx Mini that I bought early 2022. Maybe those were from two different production runs?

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

@RealRelativeEase, mine is HTG-009.

While doing a little research, found out that there are revisions between serial numbers so I’ll include mine: 01001602 Supposedly, the 010x serial numbers are a hardware revision that fixes the USB ports. Serial numbers 009x are the old, faulty revision.

As for the model numbers: HTG-008 PC Engine HTG-009 CoreGrafx HTG-010 TurboGrafx

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

While doing a little research, found out that there are revisions between serial numbers so I’ll include mine: 01001602

Mine is 01003911. So mine is a newer model, if they're numbered in ascending order? You wrote that you've already tried different cables, so I suppose that you've also tried different USB ports and maybe even a different machine? At this point, I'm stumped.

Supposedly, the 010x serial numbers are a hardware revision that fixes the USB ports. Serial numbers 009x are the old, faulty revision.

At least that alleviates my paranoia about the faulty USB port.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

At least that alleviates my paranoia about the faulty USB port.

Don’t take my word for it. I found a case on Reddit where someone with a 010x model had broken USB ports, so still exercise caution. This is all just a rumor.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

I have only a single desktop PC, so I have no other devices to try it out on. I am using the same cable I use regularly with my controller and it was also used to dump the other mini consoles.

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

Have you tried uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling the ones packaged with the Hakchi dumper? It might be an issue with the drivers on your system if the mini doesn't go into FEL mode.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

I’ll give that a try, then.

DrAzathoth commented 2 months ago

Still no luck. I guess I'll have to wait until KMFDManiac releases his work or find some way to FTP the console with UART as I have heard somewhere that it is possible.

Levine91 commented 2 months ago

Still no luck. I guess I'll have to wait until KMFDManiac releases his work or find some way to FTP the console with UART as I have heard somewhere that it is possible.

You'll be wasting your time if you or anyone else decides to just wait on KMFDManiac. He was specifically waiting on someone else in regards to extracting/replacing stock roms, kernel flashing, etc. All he really does is on the RetroArch side of things. Doesn't develop the tools or anything that many of us have been waiting on since Spring 2020.

RealRelativeEase commented 2 months ago

He did show how to extract the files required for M2 Unpacker in one of his videos, using a (to my knowledge) not yet released version of Hakchi to access the system via FTP and grab the files from there.

jd213 commented 2 months ago

Still no luck. I guess I'll have to wait until KMFDManiac releases his work or find some way to FTP the console with UART as I have heard somewhere that it is possible.

Maybe try a Windows boot USB like WinPE or maybe a dual-boot with a fresh Windows install and see if you can get the Mini working with your PC that way. Might be some kind of software or hardware conflict preventing it from connecting, dunno.

Zorglub51 commented 1 month ago

Hi, was anyone able to extract images or elements of the UI used in the PCE mini? I am recreating the interface for emulator front ends, I find it so nice! It would help a great deal to get the original images rather then remake them :) Thanks

PW5190 commented 2 weeks ago

I have good news and bad news.

Good News: I have found a tool that extracts both the pcd and mcd formats perfectly!

Bad News: I am not allowed to distribute it.

Now who, may I ask, is the creator of this extraction tool? And why do they forbid distribution?

RealRelativeEase commented 5 days ago

I have good news and bad news. Good News: I have found a tool that extracts both the pcd and mcd formats perfectly! Bad News: I am not allowed to distribute it.

Now who, may I ask, is the creator of this extraction tool? And why do they forbid distribution?

Their name and their response is further up in this thread. https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/issues/112#issuecomment-2045772367 They developed the tool, so it's their decision to make.