In another topic it was mentioned that a USB based cart copier would be a good idea. I agree with that Idea, especially since MB manufacturers are moving away from Parallel and Serial ports and some people report limited success with PCI based alternatives.
I have done some googling and checking and here is what I found:
First I looked at USB and found that the memory sticks all have a common driver called USB Mass Storage Device. This is a standard driver specified by the USB standard documents.
Second I thought, this is one step away from writing a cart too so I started looking for EEPROM Programmer based on a USB Mass storage device. (I realize that because not all EEPROMs (and Mappers) are the same this may be a bit naieve). This is the closest thing I have to the idea: http://www.sslug.dk/~chlor/prom/ . To overcome the mapper problem and any exceptional situtations a CRC database could be in the device's Firmware.
Third, since there is no USB Mass Storage Device based EEPROM Programmer, is there a USB-MSD development kit. I did find a few but their descriptions are a bit beyond my current technical level. I do intend to bridge this knowledge gap.
Based on my current understanding is that the device should work this way:
A controller checks a connected cart's CRC, matchs it to the database then, creates a ramdrive of the ROM Data. If writing wants to be done, hooks in the controller can be used to store it in the ram drive then copy to the EEPROM.
Possible directory structure:
<device>/prg/<1, 2, 3, ..., page numbers>
<device>/chr/<1, 2, 3, ..., page numbers>
<device>/unif/image.unif (.nes and pasofami too)
<device>/info.txt (basic information file of the ROM ie CRC number, etc)
<device>/firmware/firmware.bin
What do you guys think?
I have done some googling and checking and here is what I found:
First I looked at USB and found that the memory sticks all have a common driver called USB Mass Storage Device. This is a standard driver specified by the USB standard documents.
Second I thought, this is one step away from writing a cart too so I started looking for EEPROM Programmer based on a USB Mass storage device. (I realize that because not all EEPROMs (and Mappers) are the same this may be a bit naieve). This is the closest thing I have to the idea: http://www.sslug.dk/~chlor/prom/ . To overcome the mapper problem and any exceptional situtations a CRC database could be in the device's Firmware.
Third, since there is no USB Mass Storage Device based EEPROM Programmer, is there a USB-MSD development kit. I did find a few but their descriptions are a bit beyond my current technical level. I do intend to bridge this knowledge gap.
Based on my current understanding is that the device should work this way:
A controller checks a connected cart's CRC, matchs it to the database then, creates a ramdrive of the ROM Data. If writing wants to be done, hooks in the controller can be used to store it in the ram drive then copy to the EEPROM.
Possible directory structure:
<device>/prg/<1, 2, 3, ..., page numbers>
<device>/chr/<1, 2, 3, ..., page numbers>
<device>/unif/image.unif (.nes and pasofami too)
<device>/info.txt (basic information file of the ROM ie CRC number, etc)
<device>/firmware/firmware.bin
What do you guys think?