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MESS Dumping Project
The goal of this project is to identify, acquire and dump the systems needed for emulation. The project strives to preserve all game consoles, handheld and computers (basically anything not found in an arcade). The MESS Dumping project parallels the work of the MAME Dumping Project. The project has a couple of different sub-pages:
- List of Systems and Games To Be Dumped that have been acquired
Other Project Information
Responsibilities
In order for the project to succeed, we need volunteers for various tasks. Two primary goals will be acquiring undumped systems and games, and then of course dumping them. Please add your name to the lists below if you're able to help. We need people in various regions to help facilitate purchases (such as on eBay), as well as people able to dump various types of hardware and software.
Purchasing
Adding your name to this list means you're willing to complete a transaction on eBay or similar sites in your part of the world, and then ship the item elsewhere. This will be particularly important when a seller won't ship internationally. You won't necessarily have to pay for it yourself, but should probably have a PayPal account to ease transfer of funds. You might also be asked to watch for wanted items. Ideally, each region should have multiple volunteers in case one is unavailable.
- Germany – Duke (startaq)
- Netherlands – Wilbert Pol (zeldzameprutser)
- United States – ht1848, lord_nightmare (lord_n1ghtmare), ranger_lennier
Dumping
Once a wanted system or game is acquired, someone will need to dump it. Add your name here if you have expertise with a particular type of media. Ideally, each media type should have volunteers in multiple regions to divide the work and save on shipping.
- Audio cassettes – ranger_lennier (United States); lord_nightmare (United States)
- CDs – lord_nightmare (United States)[standard RB-approved CD ripping setup, can rip on 2 computers to show any drive specific audio drift]; f205v (Italy)
- Computer BIOS – see ROM chips
- Console BIOS – see ROM chips
- DVDs – see CDs
- Hard Disk Drives –
- MultiMediaCards – Used for the Tapwave Zodiac and the Nokia N-Gage, same method as HDD's
- Laserdiscs – MAMEDEV currently has a method for dumping laserdiscs.
- Magnetic Disks – lord_nightmare (United states)[just about any imaginable disk format using catweasel. Cannot yet read 8“ disks, drive needs repair.];
- ROM chips – lord_nightmare (United States)[note: only DIP chips, must be socketed or otherwise desoldered; can handle weird chips like 23(C)08, 2708, 2332 or 2364 just fine, all the way through 27c040, and can read old 1702(A)s too. Can easily dump non-serial EEPROMs. PALS and PROMS are doable but not optimal as they MUST be desoldered first and I MUST know the pinout]; f205v (Italy); incog (UK)
- PROM chips – f205v (Italy)
- VHS tapes – Currently no valid method.
Information
How To:
Naming Convention
The general naming format for ROMs is [chip label].[location] for example, 136568.ic23 or 486slc.u19.