GenDumper Is an Open Source Sega Genesis Cart Dumper
In some areas downloading a ROM is illegal, which is why you may want to build the GenDumper to back up your Sega Genesis cartridges.
Video game emulation is the most convenient way to play retro games, and there are emulators available for just about every console and computer made before the new millennium — and even a few from after. To play games with those emulators, you need a ROM or game disc image. Those ROMs are usually available online, but the legality of using them varies by country. Most commonly, you need to own a physical copy of the game in order to legally download and play the ROM. But in some areas downloading a ROM is illegal altogether, which is why you may want to build the GenDumper to back up ROMs from your Sega Genesis cartridges.
The Sega Genesis (called the Sega Mega Drive outside of North America) was Sega’s fourth generation home video game console. Like other consoles of the era, games came in the form of cartridges that contained a ROM chip where the game’s data was stored. When you download a ROM, you’re downloading a copy of that cartridge’s data. Over the years, enthusiasts have backed up the ROMs from just about every game cartridge that has ever been released and put those online. They were able to perform those backups using devices the like GenDumper.
The brain of the GenDumper Sega Genesis cartridge backup device is a Microchip ATmega324PB microcontroller. That’s what actually interfaces with the cartridge’s ROM. It does that through a series of SN74HC595 shift registers that connect the cartridge’s edge connector pins to the ATmega324PB’s GPIO pins. The other major part of the circuit is the USB circuit to connect the GenDumper to a computer, which is handled by an FT231X FTDI USB-to-serial UART interface chip. All of the components are SMD and are soldered onto a custom circuit board. The microcontroller firmware has been provided, along with a Python client, which works with a Windows GUI or a simple CLI (Command Line Interface), to copy the ROM data to your computer. If you need to back up your Sega Genesis cartridges, GenDumper is an affordable device that you should consider building.
