Making Atari 2600 console: Hacking Namco TV Games

Testrun · Post by **Testrun** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:30 pm

Alright, I just recently got a Namco TV Games, As seen here

Now this comes with 5 games installed on the board inside. I does not have a rom chip it is a blob here on the right

Larger Photo of Board http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9170/dsc00035sx5.jpg
now I want to take a usb port

(keep in mind I only plan on using one of the ports)
and solder it in there so I can put a flash drive in there and run the Atari roms off the flash drive. What I need help with is were to solder to, because the provider doesn't give the pinouts for it im left in the dark. I think I should solder here (Right of the rom blob labeled 24)

but I'm unsure. Help would be most appreciated.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:31 pm

L.O.L.

Post by **gannon** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:35 pm

Nearly Impossible, unless you have the knowledge to figure out the rom pinout, dump it, disassemble it, take out the boot loader, then make a program to make a rom image loadable by the unit using a customized version of the original boot loader. Plus since you wish to use USB flash drives you'd need a way to access all of the needed data lines/etc so you'd need a USB decoder IC and the corresponding circuitry.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:47 pm

Kid, please your only the bazillion't person who's asked this. Please, do some research for you post. (this board is pretty serious about all this stuff ya know)

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:17 pm

In short...

NO

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:59 pm

Dude, you can't just solder stuff where ever and exepct it to work. Seriously, you don't even know if that glop-top contains ROMs on it, and it for sure won't use the same protocol as USB even if it does have ROMs on it. Your going to need to do a LOT of reverse engineering, electric engineering, and coding if you want this to even be at a workable state, and even then your bound to have bugs and glitches (not to mention fry the unit in the process).

While what you want to do is a good concept, the way you want to do it is illogical and idiotic. Sorry.

@gannon: Everything you said is correct, but he would also need to write a crap load of code to read the FAT file system, among some other things.

Post by **gannon** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:03 pm

iam7805, I figured he'd be putting the raw binary onto the flash, no file system.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:05 pm

In that case, he'd have to write even more code for PC to write directly to the thumb drive.

Post by **marshallh** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:06 pm

There's a very small chance that the flash ROM blob (if it is indeed that) is a serial flash rom, meaning it only uses 8 I/O lines for multiplxed address and data lines. Then it would only need /cs, /oe vcc and gnd to run.

If that was the case, it would theoretically be possible to build a parallel port dongle to dump the contents. Writing to it would be tougher because it probably has no manufacturer ID and the protocol would be unknown.

Post by **gannon** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:07 pm

Not really, IIRC a DD clone exists for windows (can directly write the .bin file to the flash)

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:19 pm

Jeez guys, stop acting so arrogant.

He just wants to know if it's possible.

Sadly, it's not as easy as that. I'd start by examining the 'blob' with an oscilloscope.

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:43 pm

That's not going to work. You could solder USB ports onto that thing if you wanted to, but you'd just make a mess.

This will not work because the game chip has to have the software in it to talk to the thumb drive. (Before you ask, no you cannot add it.)

Like gannon said, if you had the knowledge to dump the ROM onto your PC, disassemble it, figure out the boot loader, and build a new kernel for it. You would also need a USB controller that can output signals the processor and system can understand. (Of course if you knew that much you would have done that in the first place...)

Another thing: I doubt that's an Atari 2600 on a chip. Many of those plug and play systems use processors derived from NES on a chip boards, or they are completely proprietary. There are only a few new plug-and-play systems that are known to be useful (aside from pirate Famicoms):

Atari Flashback 2 - Can add a cartridge port to play old 2600 games <b>from the original cartridges</b>

Commodore DTV / DTV2 / Radio Shack Hummer game - A PS/2 keyboard can be added, which allows you to boot into Commodre BASIC.

Radica Genesis TV Games systems: Can function as a Sega Genesis with very high game compatability. (Ben's "Exodus" is made out of one.) It can only run Genesis <b>cartridges</b>.

Chances are your Namco box is a proprietary board, and the games on it are ported (re-written for the enw hardware). It's not entirely useless; you can still play Pac-Man and whatever else comes on it. You cannot add USB ports and expect it to work.

You should do some research on these things before asking. As you can plainly see, this forum does not take kindly to questions such as this.

In short: Your idea won't work without a lot of complex work, but it's still perfectly useful the way it is. If you want to play roms and stuff on the go, stick with an emulator on a PSP, DS, GBA, or GP2X or something.