CRT to BIN > How To ?

Disk drives, Monitors, SuperCPU etc.
ViperSan
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CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

Connected to my previous post ..
I have CRT files now ..but need to convert these into raw BIN files to produce EPROM files for a physical cartridge..
I know there is a program which can do this.
cartconv.exe
but have no idea how to use it.
I dont yet have VICE installed on a PC ..and no Idea how to perform a convesion even if I did ..
Can anyone help with this ..?
please treat me as a complete novice in this regard...as I have only ever used actual Commodore computers ..and not emlulators.
rgds
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eslapion
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by eslapion »

I just tried giving an answer but the forums software just flushed everything I typed...
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by eslapion »

@ViperSan
I manually do this using WinHEX but you can do it with any binary file editor.

The CRT file is a sort of 'encapsulator' which can contain one or multiple ROM chip data so using a software to perform the extraction may not yield what you look for at all.

Here is information about the CRT file format which can help you identify the ROM chip information you look for. You can then copy and paste the data into a new binary file.

Code: Select all

*** Last updated: March 11, 2004
*** Contributors/sources: Per Hakan Sundell,
                          Markus Brenner

  Cartridge files were introduced in the CCS64  emulator,  written  by  Per
Hakan Sundell, and use the ".CRT" file extension. This format  was  created
to handle the various ROM cartridges that exist, such as Action Replay, the
Power cartridge, and the Final Cartridge.

  Normal game cartridges can load  into  several  different  memory  ranges
($8000-9FFF,  $A000-BFFF  or  $E000-FFFF).  Newer   utility   and   freezer
cartridges were less intrusive, hiding themselves until  called  upon,  and
still others used bank-switching techniques to allow much larger ROM's than
normal. Because of these "stealthing" and bank-switching methods, a special
cartridge format  was  necessary,  to  let  the  emulator  know  where  the
cartridge should reside, the control line  states  to  enable  it  and  any
special hardware features it uses.

  Here is a dump of a sample 8K normal cartridge,  "Attack  Of  The  Mutant
Camels"...

      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F        ASCII
      -----------------------------------------------   ----------------
0000: 43 36 34 20 43 41 52 54 52 49 44 47 45 20 20 20   C64úCARTRIDGEúúú
0010: 00 00 00 40 01 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00   úúú@úúúúúúúúúúúú
0020: 41 54 54 41 43 4B 20 4F 46 20 54 48 45 20 4D 55   ATTACKúOFúTHEúMU
0030: 54 41 4E 54 20 43 41 4D 45 4C 53 00 00 00 00 00   TANTúCAMELSúúúúú
0040: 43 48 49 50 00 00 20 10 00 00 00 00 80 00 20 00   CHIPúúúúúúúú€úúú
0050: D3 9B BC FE C3 C2 CD 38 30 EA EA EA A9 01 85 13   Ó›¼þÃÂÍ80êêê©ú…ú
0060: 4C B3 9B A9 08 85 5A 88 D0 FD C6 5A D0 F9 60 D0   L³›©ú…ZˆÐýÆZÐù`Ð

  Bytes:$0000-000F - 16-byte cartridge signature  "C64  CARTRIDGE"  (padded
                     with space characters)
         0010-0013 - File header length  ($00000040,  in  high/low  format,
                     calculated from offset $0000). Default value is $40
         0014-0015 - Cartridge version (high/low, presently 01.00)
         0016-0017 - Cartridge hardware type ($0000, high/low)
                       0 - Normal cartridge
                       1 - Action Replay
                       2 - KCS Power Cartridge
                       3 - Final Cartridge III
                       4 - Simons Basic
                       5 - Ocean type 1*
                       6 - Expert Cartridge
                       7 - Fun Play, Power Play
                       8 - Super Games
                       9 - Atomic Power
                      10 - Epyx Fastload
                      11 - Westermann Learning
                      12 - Rex Utility
                      13 - Final Cartridge I
                      14 - Magic Formel
                      15 - C64 Game System, System 3
                      16 - WarpSpeed
                      17 - Dinamic**
                      18 - Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon (SEGA)
                      19 - Magic Desk, Domark, HES Australia
              0018 - Cartridge port EXROM line status
                      0 - inactive
                      1 - active
              0019 - Cartridge port GAME line status
                      0 - inactive
                      1 - active
         001A-001F - Reserved for future use
         0020-003F - 32-byte cartridge  name  "CCSMON"  (uppercase,  padded
                     with null characters)
         0040-xxxx - Cartridge contents (called CHIP PACKETS, as there  can
                     be more than one  per  CRT  file).  See  below  for  a
                     breakdown of the CHIP format.

  (*Note: Ocean type 1 includes Navy Seals, Robocop 2 & 3,  Shadow  of  the
Beast, Toki, Terminator 2 and more)

  (**Note: Dinamic includes Narco Police and more)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHIP Contents
-------------

  The following is the contents of the CHIP packet, from position $0040  on
in the CRT file. Note I have re-adjusted the starting address to be  $0000,
since we are now looking at a file contained in the .CRT file, and all size
references are from where it starts.

      00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F        ASCII
      -----------------------------------------------   ----------------
0000: 43 48 49 50 00 00 20 10 00 00 00 00 80 00 20 00   CHIPúúúúúúúú€úúú
0010: D3 9B BC FE C3 C2 CD 38 30 EA EA EA A9 01 85 13   Ó›¼þÃÂÍ80êêê©ú…ú
0020: 4C B3 9B A9 08 85 5A 88 D0 FD C6 5A D0 F9 60 D0   L³›©ú…ZˆÐýÆZÐù`Ð
0030: F2 60 A9 04 85 49 A9 00 85 48 A2 00 A5 48 9D 40   ò`©ú…I©ú…H¢ú¥H@
0040: 03 A5 49 9D 60 03 A5 48 18 69 28 85 48 A5 49 69   ú¥I`ú¥Húi(…H¥Ii
0050: 00 85 49 E8 E0 18 D0 E4 60 A6 03 A4 02 BD 40 03   ú…IèàúÐä`¦ú¤ú½@ú

  Bytes:$0000-0003 - Contained ROM signature "CHIP" (note there can be more
                     than one image in a .CRT file)
         0004-0007 - Total packet length ($00002010,  ROM  image  size  and
                     header combined) (high/low format)
         0008-0009 - Chip type
                      0 - ROM
                      1 - RAM, no ROM data
                      2 - Flash ROM
         000A-000B - Bank number ($0000 - normal cartridge)
         000C-000D - Starting load address (high/low format)
         000E-000F - ROM image size in bytes  (high/low  format,  typically
                     $2000 or $4000)
         0010-xxxx - ROM data
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

Finally got the pcb working ..
I now have the 2x 27C256 bin files...
Just in case anyone else ever needs them.
rgds
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eslapion
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by eslapion »

ViperSan wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 9:32 pm Finally got the pcb working ..
I now have the 2x 27C256 bin files...
Just in case anyone else ever needs them.
rgds
VS
What cartridge would that be, if I may ask ?

Maybe these files are already online.
Wealth, like happiness, is never attained directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service. -Harland D. Sanders
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

Final Cartridge III
2x chip version (mid 80s-ish)
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

I have another cartridge PCB which sadly is missing it's case ..
I'm therefore clueless as to what it might have been.
The pcb is complete except for the chip/firmware.
Here is a photo ..perhaps someone can identify it from this ?
I suspect it may be a version of Action Replay ?
I'd like to get this one working as well ..but first I need to know what it was ..
then the eprom used ..
and finally aquire the bin dump..
rgds
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eslapion
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by eslapion »

Wealth, like happiness, is never attained directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service. -Harland D. Sanders
ViperSan
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

Many thanks ..
I'll report back if successful.
rgds
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Re: CRT to BIN > How To ?

Post by ViperSan »

Many thanks for the help ..
Looks like I have a winner ..
Flashed the MK4 Action Replay bin to a 27C256 ..
and I can pull up the 'duckshoot' menu with the freeze button..
I'll test it more fully tomorrow.
rgds
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