The Open Source Cartridge Reader (OSCR) is a versatile tool designed to help preserve video game cartridges and save data. Developed by Sanni and the community, this device allows users to back up ROM files and save games from a wide range of vintage consoles.
At this point are there any cartridges on earth I couldn’t find a torrent of in about 2 mins on Google? They’d have to be deliberately being kept for rarity.
Yeah honestly, what is the point of these devices when literally every retro game ever already has a perfect 1:1 dump available for instant download all over the internet? Why are new cartridge dumping devices still being produced? Even the rarest of rare games have easily-obtainable ROMs available. Who are these meant for?
That’s pretty neat about save games, actually… but this seems like a service tool not a purchase for everyone.
I definitely believe there are a few handfuls of games out there that need dumps. Most of them are owned by collectors who don’t want the value of their collection to go down. Eventually they’ll die and we’ll get those too.
Probably not, but it does add a touch of legitimacy to the claim that emulators are for playing your own backed up games.
Did that claim have any actual grounding in reality? Or is it just an urban legend that keeps persisting?
It did, yes. Emulators as a piece of software that does not do anything illegal are not themselves illegal. But piracy is illegal, and downloading roms of games you haven’t purchased constitutes piracy. But if you purchased a game and used an emulator to play it that’s a perfectly valid use case that falls within the law.
Nintendo has been trying to push the envelope on that for years though. And it seems like they might recently be succeeding in some fashion.
That’s very cool but the backup law really is only effective with drm free games on PC, your console can’t play your backups and if Nintendo had their way even modifying your console to run backups would be illegal, but thankfully only Japan is a dystopia in that sense, for now.
Honestly, as cool as this is, I just keep collections of downloaded entire game libraries like PS1, PS2, PSP, 3DS, NDS, GB, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES, etc.
I’m more interested in preserving my save games, which I can dump myself on my modded 3DS for 3DS and NDS games, plus my PSP I can just copy paste those save games from the memory card. Those are more what is really irreplacable. Everyone has my games, not everyone has my save games.
Idk about this one but my GB/C/A dumper can do both the ROM and the save (well, no save on GB because there are no batts, but on the C and A it can.).
I used it to back up my Pokemon Yellow cart, solder in a new batt, and put my save back on the cart.
I assume this likely can do the same with at least most of those systems. But out of your listed systems GBC/A would be all you need as this doesn’t seem to do disks but only carts, you could just get a dedicated GBC/A dumper for backing those up, idk if they still sell the Joey Jr but that’s the one I use.
Yeah, I could also use my DSLite to dump GBA saves at least. My GBC saves are unfortunately all long gone because the batteries dried up.
It is really cool being able to dump save games, so if these multi-dumpers can do so, that’s amazing.
I sure they can, that’s really the main point of cart dumpers.
As for the GBC games all you need is some tabbed cr2525 or cr2023 depending, a tri-wing screwdriver, and a soldering iron, replace em!
Yeah seriously.
Also are we not at a stage where most games have been dumped perfectly already?
This is for preserving one’s own library, which makes emulation fully legal instead of the wink wink “legal” that many gamers find themselves in.
In a just world, you could just download ROMs for free.
