Another World Megadrive proto/press cartridge

Not so long ago, I got my hands on this :

[GALLERY=media, 2502]IMG_03022018_015809 by KailoKyra posted Feb 13, 2018 at 11:06 PM[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 2500]1511896122-wx-camera-1511565525866 by KailoKyra posted Feb 13, 2018 at 11:06 PM[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 2501]IMG_03022018_015759 by KailoKyra posted Feb 13, 2018 at 11:06 PM[/GALLERY]

From the guy I got it from, it's likely a version lent to Joypad (a french video game magazine) for their previews.

I took it apart, and the back of the cart have some hand cutted traces, there's some awful soldering blobs on some places, while most of them others are nicely done .

The chips are apparently placed in some sort of independent sockets (one by leg for all 4 chips), and there's a little 74HC139 for address demultiplexing / eprom chip selection I guess.

I already have a chinese EPROM reader, and I also bought a little "chip lifter" thingy, but it seems quite stuck in the sockets, and I don't want to force as the last thing I want is one half of a ceramic chip . Desoldering might be also out of the question.
I'm thinking of ordering a Retrode when they get back on stock to dump that and check if it's any different from the commercial release.
I think I could also do some wizardry and dump it with the MegaCD with the little tools available on retrodev.

But I'm wondering I this will be enough to dump the cart correctly and all four EPROM entirely. Is there anything I should be worried, or make sure about before attempting this ?
What about the cut traces (I'll try to map the circuit to be 100% sure everything is fine, and maybe resolder the ugly-looking blobs...).

 

I'm not a real techie, but assuming it's the cartridge as-is after Joypad received it, I don't think you need to worry that it wouldn't function normally. The chips definitely appear to stuck in there and I'd generally avoid soldering them out since a cartridge reader like a Retrode would work just fine. I prefer taking as few risks as possible with this stuff.

If you want to send to someone with a Retrode I got one on hand But if you have the tools to get that Mega CD dumper working I bet that would work just fine.

 

I was under the impression that Retrodes weren't being made anymore...

If you're afraid of desoldering, as a last resort you could always solder wires directly from the socket (on the back of the PCB) to your rom dumper.

 

The retrode is now apparently being produced by Dragonbox (https://www.dragonbox.de/en/71-retrode-2-cart-reader-4260416650091.html). They're supposed to restock some in February.

I think I'll first try the MegaCD dump this week end !

 

So, I managed to do a backup with the megaCD, and downloaded a ROM on the internet to do a diff... And apparently, there's none ! So it's just a press version before the official cartridges were made

Here's the file : https://mega.nz/#!pEZi0JyZ!eYxilMdUopPBcGd9G-M9z5rSqG0FPjJgeMK4m1y3aFI

 

I had an inkling it might be the final. Appreciate your efforts though

 

ive never seen stickered eeproms like that before, sure ive seen them to cover them so they arnt errased accidentaly but never them actualy labling what is on them

 

I've never seen anyone cover an electrically erasable device to prevent it from accidentally being erased by light. But I stick a label on my programmed EEPROMS so I know what's on them.

 

How nice that you were able to get the files without disassembling the card.
I was interested in these tools to get games through the mega CD. Could you give me the links to these tools? thank you.

It would be this same:
https://www.retrodev.com/transfer.html
if this is already I know.