Welcome to QJimbo's...
Sonic Related Megadrive/Genesis Cartridge Dumps and Services!
Hello visitors! Welcome to my site!
08/02/10: Another update. Contact from a fellow DPF owner has inspired me just to correct my contact details. If you've sent email to qjimbo@randomsonicnet.org, please resend it to my hotmail address! I've also provided an archive copy of Ytanaka's BIOS analysis as that unfortunately appears to be offline now.
30/07/08: OMG an update! I've now provided a "win32" version of the upload tools. Basically I've packaged DOSBox with the tools, more details in the downloads section.
22/04/06: Elusive kindly sent a Sonic 2 Pirate cart, I've dumped it and it's exactly the same as regular Sonic 2, so I won't bother to upload it. However I've scanned the cart in so you can take a look. Also I've taken off all the downloads as they are a legal threat to this page and they're mirrored on SonAR anyway.
4/04/06: Just uploaded a few DPF bios dumps from Kyuusaku. Might be useful for some, and I've also put a link to a site by Ytanaka that explains the DPF BIOS' structure. Enjoy! Oh and I revised the mission a bit...
29/03/06: I CAN NOW DUMP SONIC 3! See below for how ;) - Just uploaded a dump of Zeck's Sonic 3. Doesn't have any differences with regular Sonic 3 unfortunatly.
24/03/06: My DPF is now fully functional when playing back roms on hardware. Turns out I had a faulty ram board! I've still yet
to figure out how to dump Sonic 3, I'm planning to actually dismantle a cart to figure out what pins lead where, I might try
taping over the pins leading to the SRAM.
27/07/2005: Added scans of my DPFs RAM Board and a top view of the whole PCB :)
07/07/2005: New hardware soon! I'm currently constructing Cyan's Dumper (on hold due to errors in construction >_<)
About Cartridge Dumper Workshop
The old mission of this site was to find all the versions of the Sonic games, however, all 3 revisions of Sonic 2 have been dumped, as well as all the revisions of Sonic 1 so that seems a little pointless now. So, this site now exists purely to:
1: To provide a service to the sonic community that allows any Prototype/Strange Sonic Cartridge to be dumped.
2: Provide information about the Double Pro Fighter rom backup unit.
Information
Dumper: Double Pro Fighter Q+, 32megabits of RAM, Parallel port interface.
Location: BC, Canada
Services: Will dump Sonic The Hedgehog Megadrive/Genesis cartridges for no more than the cost of postage each way, contact me to arrange a rom dump. For rare carts postage will be paid for!
How to Contact me
Email: qjimbo@randomsonicnet.org
Email and MSN: jameshansen14@hotmail.com
AIM: jameshansen14
Forum
Double Pro Fighter (DPF) Files
o SNES and MD/GEN Send Utilities FOR WINDOWS XP AND VISTA NEW: Download Zip File.
To use, simply extract the zip, then run "install_pt.bat", and click Yes to the prompt. This installs the porttalk driver. Then double click Dosbox.exe and that will create a virtual C: drive pointing at the romupload folder. Copy your SMD format rom files into this folder, and type rescan to refresh it. Now type MDL for Megadrive/Genesis rom uploading, or SDL for SNES rom uploading, and hit enter.
Porttalk driver by Craig Peacock
DOSBox modification by h-a-l-9000.
Original DOSBox homepage.
o ROM Shell v0.8 NEW: Download Zip File. Little program I put together a while ago that adds some useful rom commands to the explorer context menu. It converts .BIN/.GEN to .SMD and vice versa, it autofixes checksums, and it can split SMDs into 512KB chunks for loading off floppy disks. I was quite proud of it!
o SNES and MD/GEN Send Utilities (DOS/Win9x Only, NT/2000/XP users use Virtual PC): Download Zip File / Download Original LZH (grabbed from Schweino's file archive)
o Parallel Port Adaptor PCB Scans: Top / Bottom
o Megadrive Connector PCB Scans: Back / Front
o SNES Connector PCB Scans: Back / Front
o 32Mbit RAM Board PCB Scans: Top / Bottom
o Entire Douple Pro Fighter PCB Scans: Top / Bottom (not yet avaliable)
o GM82C765B Floppy Disk Controller Datasheet: GM82C765B.pdf
o 424400-80 DRAM Datasheet: 42(S)4400_E70.pdf
o Double Pro Fighter BIOS dumps provided by Kyuusaku NEW: Download
About the dumps: These dumps may not be 100% accurate as I myself didn't dump them, and Kyuusaku thinks the DPFX's BIOS was broken. Hopefully I'll be able to dump my own BIOS soon. Be sure to check out Ytanaka's DPF BIOS analysis! (Link now broken as of 2010, archive here (from web archive), google translated version here)
I've yet to find any software which can download carts directly from the DPF, please email me if you have a tool which can do this.
Update: It is possible to download from the DPF with uCON64, if you firstly go to save the cart to a floppy (you only need to save one part), then use uCON64 in SMD mode and click recieve (if using the frontend). It's slow (About 10-15kb/sec) but it does dump eventually and saves you swapping floppies :)
Links
Sega Genesis Dev Ring - Database with various Genesis/Megadrive development sites. Lots of really interesting pages on there!
Cherry Rom's Forums - excellent place for finding info about dumpers and getting help.
Kaneda's Homepage - Has a cool DPF section with lots of pictures!
Double Pro Fighter BIOS Analysis (Link now broken as of 2010, archive here (from web archive), google translated version here) - Japanese site with a really informative of the bios structure (useful considering it's a wierd mix of SNES and Z80 code)
Robert Webb's backup devices info page - Can't really not put this here, a big collection of info on rom dumpers.
Currently Dumped Carts
Sonic 2 Pirate Cartridge
Donator: Elusive
History: Obtained in the UK, pirate with Asian art. From Asian country?
Scans: Front
Scans: Back
Scans: Top
Notes: Doesn't have any differences with regular Sonic 2 REV01.
American Sonic 3 Cartridge
Donator: Zeck
History: Beleived to have been ex-rental/ex-display from Blockbuster video.
Scans: Front
Scans: Back
Notes: No differences with regular Sonic 3.
Australian Sonic 2 Cartridge : Provided by Vangar. Scans: Front / Back.
- Doesn't have any differences with regular Sonic 2 REV01.
UK Sonic 1 with Japanese ROM file inside : Provided by Elusive. Scans: Front / Back.
- Doesn't have any differences with regular Sonic 1 REV01. Shows that REV01 was a worldwide update, not just Japan.
UK Sonic 2 Cartridge : Provided by Elusive. Scans: Front / Back.
- Doesn't have any differences with regular Sonic 2 REV01.
Downloads
You can no longer download rom files from here, check out Heran Bago's SonAR page. My roms are marked as being "Dumped by Qjimbo".
FAQ
Q: What is the Double Pro Fighter? Is that the wierd thing on the Megadrive/Genesis in your pics?
Yep! The Double Pro Fighter sits on top of the console (whether it be a SNES or a Megadrive), and allows you to play back carts from floppy disk, dump carts to floppy disk, and upload rom files from the pc through the parallel port.
Q: Cool! I want one! Where do I get one from?
A: Well my dumper is actually from 1994 and was made by a Taiwanese company, so it isn't easily avaliable. Many people do sell them though second hand, you can try newsgroups, ebay and cherryroms' forum. Also bear in mind the Double Pro Fighter isn't the only gen/md dumper avaliable. One of the most common dumpers around is the "Super Magic Drive". It's meant to have better build quality, however the 24Mbit/32Mbit models of this are harder to find than the Double Pro Fighter.
Q: From 1994? Doesn't that mean it's really old and slow? Why didn't you just get a tototek cart?
A: My DPF happens to be in very good condition, and works rather fast when loading off floppy, however loading off the parallel port is very slow due to the fact it's bios runs in Z80/MarkIII mode. This means the software that controls the dumper runs as fast as a MasterSystem game! As for a tototek cart, those are definatly a viable alternative for running roms on hardware, however they are unable to dump carts.
Q: I have a Double Pro Fighter too! But I don't have the parallel adaptor :( Where can I get one from?
A: Tototek sell parallel adaptors here! They're even better than the originals as you can keep a snes game plugged in.
Q: What do you have planned for the future?
A: My main plan is intercepting the floppy drive controller chip and providing a High Speed parallel link to the device that isn't constrained by the Z80's processing power. However this is still in the planning stages. I'll be sure to provide a HOWTO guide if I make it.
Q: What does that chinese writing at the bottom right mean?
A: Apparently the first two symbols mean "TWINS" and the second two mean "KING". Twins King...
How To Dump Sonic The Hedgehog 3 on a Double Pro Fighter
It's very simple, all you have to do is put tape over these 3 pins:
Like so...
Then it should appear in your Bios as 16M:
It is just as easily dumped as any other cart after this. One time it showed up as 26M, but still dumped fine, just an overdump.
The Dumping Rig
New Pics
Old Pics
Legal Note
This site isn't a roms site, it's a rom research site, I'm trying to find rare versions of Sonic games, I'm not trying to promote piracy. However if any companies feel threatened by this site feel free to email me.
