That tool asks users to essentially transcribe 1s and 0s from black-and-white pictures of an ultra-zoomed portion of the chip, overlaid with a guidance grid to help pick out where one bit ends and the next begins. With previously used computer-vision algorithms apparently unable to extract reliable data from these exposed Mask ROMs, the team set up a tool that would allow human eyes (and brains) to do the visual decoding themselves. Come together, right now, over chipsĪn example of the interface used to crowdsource the ROM transcription of a decapped Fujitsu chip.For a set of Fujitsu-made chips used in Sega's Virtua Racing, though, Caps0ff needed to reach out for some crowdsourced help. In the case of chips that use a non-rewritable Mask ROM, though, the decappers can actually look through a microscope (or high-resolution scan) to see the raw zeroes and ones that make up the otherwise protected ROM code. For some chips, a bit of quick soldering to that exposed circuitry can allow for a dumped file that gets around any DRM further down the line. With the underlying circuit paths exposed within the chip, there are a few potential ways to get at the raw code. For some of those protected chips, the decapping process can be used as a DRM workaround by literally removing the chip's "cap" with nitric acid and acetone.
Mame32 games code#
Further Reading Unemulated: Eleven classic arcade games you can’t play at homeWhile dumping the raw code from many arcade chips is a simple process, plenty of titles have remained undumped and unemulated because of digital-rights-management code that prevents the ROM files from being easily copied off of the base integrated circuit chips.
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