Back Up Games *and* Saves with this Cartridge Reader! Save the Hero Builders / Sanni / Arduino

[@Jayrod64]

I bought this exact cartridge reader in purple to give it the Atomic Purple vibe. Mine just shipped from Japan, which has me super excited. What I love is that being open source makes this a very community driven project, and there's already adapters for nearly every system you can think of.

[@piplup10203854]

I been going through my closet since I’m moving soon and i found all my old cartridges and stuff and this popped up what a coincidence 👀 if I can preserve my saves too and pick up where I left off 20 years ago that would be pretty nice. I’m gonna have look into this.

[@androxilogin]

Perhaps read up on what the developers had to say about this group before deciding to make your purchase.

[@MrThugBunny]

love this dude! love the content! keep it coming brother! I try so hard to stop my self from buying these emulation devices because i already have soooo many handhelds or modded stuff, but then you just give me more reason to just full send lol great content bro!

[@svcross-do]

And I love your energy!

[@mikedonnell86]

You can also do this with the Retro Freak, I think it supports more consoles as well! It's a tad expensive but something worth picking up if you're planning a trip to Japan.

[@KnightofTime]

True, but as an owner of a Retro Freak, there is something this cart reader can do that the Retro Freak cannot- it can write save data to SNES games that use the SA-1 chip (like Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Super Mario RPG). IIRC, the Retro Freak can only read saves for these particular games.

[@Unholy_Louie]

Would it be possible to inject a patch to the rom of a cartridge? For instance, there is a known bug in Faxanadu on the NES. It was corrected a long time ago through modification of a dumped rom. My question is, could this device, or anything else on the market, be able to inject that modified rom into the original NES cartridge? Also, the same question, but with translation patches? If not this device, is there something else? I seem to remember such a device on a crowdfunding website recently.

[@slipangle3027]

That is not possible. ROMs can't be written to, hence the name.

[@TeamPandory]

Want! ... Would be cool if it were possible to write over a translated version of Chrono Trigger to my SFC cart... So many games are like that... Front Mission, etc...

[@androxilogin]

Please read into what the developers think of these guys stealing and banking off a kickstarter for their hard work.

[@bigshrimpn]

Looks cool, but I'm thinking maybe it's like 20-25 years too late utility-wise.

[@jankjetil6455]

This is such a great piece of equipment to have to enyoy your childhood games i hope they come up with an adapter for DS / 3DS cartridge aswel so you dont need to modify console with jailbreak

[@sw1tchpoint]

Preservation tech like this is always nice to see, a good thing to have. Besides sure most games have probably been reserved, but you never know what we may get, maybe a missing game or missing file that didn't have a chance to surface until now

[@Charcoal_Ranger]

Not to mention tech demos and lost prototypes and builds

[@EmperorOfTigers]

Excellent video as always. It's a nice device for sure though sadly it's price and lack of availability globally are issues for me. Definitely worth it for though you can get one though. For people just after GB, GBC and GBA I would recommend the GBXCart RW. It requires connection to a PC to work but it's pretty easy to get and a good price. I dumped my whole collection of games and saves with no issues. It also has great compatibility with flash carts (repros/bootlegs) so if flashing repros are your thing it's a nice option too.

[@RoninVincent]

Will this or the GBX Cart work if my cart has a dead battery? I want the save fro. My old cart but the battery is dead.

[@anthony92399]

Slight correction, the 3 and 5 are V for voltage, not W for wattage. You absolutely have to be careful that the voltage setting is correct or you could ruin a cartridge.

[@RetroGameCorps]

Yep, I caught it after recording and added text on the screen with the correction. Thanks!

[@anthony92399]

@@RetroGameCorps did I miss the onscreen correction when I wasn't looking? ...oops

[@alisdair42]

This looks fantastic :) Wish there was a similar solution for modern disk based games, since a bluray drive (PS3) cant read a HD DVD disk (Xbox 360)

[@crestofhonor2349]

I believe Xbox 360 uses dual layer DVDs as it’s format choice. The HD DVD player came separately so the discs weren’t that format. It should be able to be ripped straight off the disc using a PC

[@mynamehasspacesinit8687]

@Crestofhonor 23 Depends... Like I have a Blu-Ray PC drive, but I can't read PS3 or PS4 games

[@IReadTooMuchCrap]

This is amazing! I can't afford one yet, but I'd love to get one in the future.

[@chadpollman7970]

Nice! Just unfortunate it can't be more affordable, given its limited utility. (What do you do with it after you've dumped all your carts?) Definitely gives me strong nostalgia vibes thinking about being able to retrieve the saved progress from the games of my youth; oh, the memories...

[@coopercummings8370]

It can do more than just dump carts. These can also write a save file onto a cartridge, so you can dump the save of one of your carts, replace the old save battery before it dies and you lose all your progress, then write the save back onto the cartridge and you can keep playing it. This is also capable of reflashing the pcbs used in many bootleg cartridges with a different rom, so you can turn worthless bootlegs into a physical cartridge for a romhack you want to try out

[@aaronhinton92]

I just got one of these, and it's freaking awesome! I've been able to backup all my N64 roms and save files, and am now playing them on my EverDrive. The ONLY thing that's not working for me is writing save files BACK to the original cartridge. It straightup doesn't work no matter how many times I try. Any advice? It's driving me nuts and I'm finding ZERO information online.

[@mynamehasspacesinit8687]

To my knowledge, it's because those old chips in the Game Pak are degrading, and the device isn't able to write the data to a "corrupted" chip

[@lpjunior999]

This man kept all his old games growing up. Total Chad move.

[@albertraymundo]

That is pretty cool! I still have my Super Nintendo Copier from 27 years ago. The device goes on top of the SNES and it creates backup on a 3.5" floppy disc. I wonder if you be able to back up a Famicom Disk System.

[@DragonDreamVNY]

That stuff is the best thing to come out of Hong Kong. 🙌 I remember lots of pirate ships selling takes of floppies with SNES/SFC games 😅

[@mechaluigi7]

I bought this thing and it’s amazing! My only gripe is for whatever reason it doesn’t like my sandisk micro SD and says “card error” or something like that. I had to use the stock card that comes with it.

[@crestofhonor2349]

I wish it had 3DS/DS support as I’d love to back up those

[@markrotondella4689]

Obviously putting things onto a flash card make complete practical sense but part of me wants it to have a usb out that would allow my Mister to read the cart and play the game directly from it.

[@tking2199]

I'm definitely getting this. For CD based systems I've backed up my fat library but for cartridges especially n64 that's a different story. Even after looking around the price doesn't even seem that bad or high for what you get.

[@cmcristian46]

What are you using to back up CD games ? I want to do this for ps2 games. Thanks

[@oatmeal7818]

​@@cmcristian46I have that same question

[@chasehorton2324]

@@oatmeal7818normal CD ripping software should work, if you search online for good cd rippers for ur use case theres lots of options, ImgBurn is a good free tool

[@BryantheArchivist]

May as well download games you own for this price.

[@darksting77]

Love this project, wish i wouldve kept all my old cartridges. Those original NES cartridges i greatly miss. :)

[@njnjco]

This is really cool. It is expensive and I don't have all of my old carts though.

[@bfums]

I love that this dumper doesn't need to interface with a computer at all. I have a few GB and GBA dumpers and I always worry about their dependency on computer software.

[@axe6279]

Damn if there was an Atari Lynx adapter I'd buy one in a heart beat.

[@garethevans2499]

I mean, this is what we've all been doing - backing up our cartridges to make entirely legit, no grey area, ROMs - but just made substantially easier. Right? [Theatrical turn to camera, knowing look]

[@jamesrule1338]

This is so cool! Wish I knew what happened to my old master system carts.

[@rig85]

I just bought one of these, and immediately dumped my Pokémon Red/Blue copies. Problem: my saves don’t seem to open in visialboyadvance on my PC. I’m taking the .sav, putting it in the right place/name, but it just doesn’t see my save. Seemingly the same result with N64 Pokémon Stadium. Anyone know what to do with that?

[@exodous02]

I see more value in this with indie games. Sure, a lot of them sell the rom but in 20 years how difficult will it be to get the roms? I buy indie carts and now I can back them up! I backed the kickstarter and opted for a pre-production unit and it isn't nearly as nice as this. I might get another one when the next version comes out. I don't have a N64 pack reader for instance.

[@NarKu2011]

Is there one of ds/3ds and switch?

[@Swert_]

Hey Does the Brook xbox one SE adapter work on Ps5 to a xbox controller I really need 3 help If you test it Out can you please test out fortnite on it

[@alienJIZ1990]

Should put in a cartridge writer too like the joey64 to make it a true AIO reader/writer. Yeah you have Everdrives but you can get cheap carts and rewrite them with your own

[@patricks5686]

Hello, is there a way to Backup also my Founded new NES Cartridge Games? I testet "The House in the Cemetry, Tempered Vengeance and Dungeons and Domnights" none of them will it make a working Backup.. Thats realy not that cool :( or is there a Firmware Update that i missed? I buyed that thing only for those Games to Backup them and store them in my Collection as i only Play with Famicom Everdrive...

[@rebirthof4-waysli]

Hello, I just recently got my Alter V3 today. Everything seems to be working just fine, just some tinkering needed for the 8-bit nes. Also, when I got my unit, the Acrylic protection cover was still on, I was like wtf? Did the conducted any testing on this unit as its covering the led display, if the did, the had to test the unit while the Acrylic was not installed. Just use something like windex glass cleaner on something like a cotton ball, it will go through the protection layer like hot knife through butter. And to end it all, I just send an email to them stating that the usb port itself, the one that you use to power up the device, it snapped out very easily, I recently had it hooked up, just a slight move of the unit, I was like wtf?, it snapped out very very easy, I told them you need to find a way to secure/reinforce it better as its very weak, now I have to solder it down. Other then that, pretty good thus far, I will be soldering the usb port (Power) when my soldering kits comes in, thanks. And my comments are not showing up, please reply, thanks.

[@ichderfisch_]

I have the previous Kickstarter Version (without the N64 Controller Pak Reader) and i love it. I recently bought a lot of SNES Games on eBay and now can finish then unfinished storylines of a lot of heros on my emulators. Aside from the device itself, I really like this "Save the Heros" idea

[@ichderfisch_]

My favorite unfinished hero story of any cartidge i bought is this Link - named Tina.

[@lucid_sfc]

Could you create repros with this beautiful small device? I guess I read that somewhere on their github. That would change everything, and the checkout of this lil thing would be a no brainer for me. 😍

[@Anticleric]

Cooler than the Profighter II I had when I was a kid. lol

[@pampickle8404]

I just got a new RG351V and been wanting to play Metal Gear Solid on it, but I can save my progress. Can anyone help?

[@skibbitybebop]

I know the vid's been up for a while but i've seen comments that it can write to empty/repro carts - is that done through the cycle cart option?

[@silvaromeroluisdaniel221]

Maybe in my birthday I'll get a 351V. I'll murder for one!!!

[@moondmonvisual]

How can I verify the authenticity of a cartridge using this reader?

[@takwu0]

puyo puyo for megadrive is kinda turned into dr robotniks lean bean machine on genesis

[@inlovewithi]

I was kind of hoping to see the NBA Live 96 saved files played. Thinking that it would be a continuation from the 90s.

[@lofijedi]

So would this allow me to write roms to empty carts?

[@DavidGarcia-qf7gc]

Amber Elec, pre release???. Tell us more about that, Russ!

[@mauriciobentz]

Super Mario bros 3? Is that the game you "made"? 😁

[@MobileDecay]

I have a device for this. I don't think it's made anymore but I used to use it to play carts in emulators.

[@bricethompson1922]

So can I hook this up to a mister and play games off the cart?

[@_kukaracha_]

Дякую за творчість! 💙💛 Вдачі та всього найкращого!

[@AnthroQuirk]

7:29 barrel plug info

[@TheDogn]

Good question. The uploader said "Like I mentioned, the barrel plug is not used at all", but I watched the video start to finish at this is the only time he mentions it.

[@Darkenesis]

Awesome! My Secret of Mana cartridge has a dying battery in it, which has let me load all the save files from childhood, but I can't save over them anymore. Hoping I can keep this data alive now! Now to figure out how to get my save files off my PlayStation memory cards~

[@blubullie4850]

Dragon Warrior is 35 (33 at the time of writing) years old. Russ may be talking about the original, a remaster, or one of the side story games. Dragon Quest form 20 years ago was actually Dragon Quest VII on the PlayStation. 👦>👴 Anyway, I bought one of these and just tried to make a rom of Clue (USA) for the SNES. I got an error for the Database missing. Does this mean it thinks I have a fake cartridge, or nobody else has bothered uploading this information to the database?

[@RetroGameCorps]

Yes, I was referencing the original Dragon Warrior, the NES one that came with Nintendo Power the first year of its release if you subscribed. I'm in my mid-40s :)

[@blubullie4850]

@@RetroGameCorps My dad bought that game and played most of it back then. He wasn't able to figure out the rainbow bridge back then. We have it much easier now being able to look up guides.

[@blubullie4850]

I found out why it was giving me an error. I was missing the database TXT files.

[@Jason-td1gu]

We getting to the point where a lot of NES/SNES games are going to need their batteries replaced, it would be awesome if there was a device like this that could write save data back to the cartridge. I know there’s a way to preserve the saves while swapping the battery but it’s way more involved.

[@atinypotato7668]

I think you might have converted your yen backwards. 100 yen is closer to 75 cents and 200 yen is about $1.50. :)

[@jcchaconjr]

I will definitely consider this. While you are right that it might not be useful for many, I would certainly like to make a copy of some of the licensed reissues I’ve purchased over the past two years. These are much harder to find, sinceI would imagine that I one wants to hurt the companies that made these re-releases possible. Personally, I just want the images for convenience so that I can put store the original carts and play them from my flash carts.

[@slipangle3027]

There's a new version of this out now that has a much nicer interface and doesn't require adapters for NES, Famicom, and Master System anymore.

[@trashacct1198]

Goes into retro game store stealthily start copying all the games I want 😂 Honestly though this could be a good idea for a store to do like a service where instead of the actual game they charge like a dollar to five dollars apiece for a copy of the game A lot of people do not know how to get high quality roms or don’t want to bother. Probably wouldn’t be so good for Nintendo to know but they don’t need to know

[@bena5150]

My first ever Nes game, way back in 1997 was 3 eyes boy (Mitsume ga Tooru). Great memories. Still have the cartridge. Would love to preserve it through this.

[@roc6d]

"Yea man i want to backup"

[@olizelda]

Yep, that's an instant buy. Thanks so much for sharing!

[@androxilogin]

Please read into what the developers think of these guys stealing and banking off a kickstarter for their hard work.

[@WMARUoriginal]

This is super amazing!

[@calebthiesen]

This is amazing. Had the itch to back up my old cartridges and have been searching for something like this to no avail. Going to hit up save the hero and see if I can get one or make one myself. Thank you for this video!

[@pikabluowner]

Can it write though? Like if I have a rom hack an I put it in a cart? Or do I need to buy something else to put my back up back on the cart?

[@slipangle3027]

That is not possible. ROMs can't be written to, hence the name. You CAN, however, write backed-up save data to the carts.

[@ozmaphase2]

You have yet to make a video that I haven’t found enjoyable and compelling to some degree. Thanks for all you do for the community!

[@guitarsimon1]

11:40 Dude you don’t need to drink when wiping the connectors, they’ll be fine as long as you’re gentle.

[@kevino8420]

Hitting the easy button on this would be one way to bring back all my own old saves, but the idea of doing the hard work is also tempting.

[@silvaromeroluisdaniel221]

Love soooooooo much how put a lot of felling on the video. Man I have 20 and I want to be like you

[@Auchaser643]

This is so cool, definitely gonna pick one up.

[@androxilogin]

Please read into what the developers think of these guys stealing and banking off a kickstarter for their hard work.

[@jamesa800]

Can this play the carts on PC?

[@Goingwithafakehandlehere]

The purveyor of a retro site hasn't beat super Mario world? EXCUSE ME?!

[@RetroGameCorps]

Yep, it’s true. I never had an SNES growing up, we were a Genesis household.

[@Goingwithafakehandlehere]

@@RetroGameCorps fix that!

[@Beyondesp]

I bought a retron5 to get the saves off mt old cartridges. Otherwise I would have bought this. The retron5 saves need to be converted to the standard retroarch format but otherwise it's similar. I would have to hack the firmware to dump roms but I don't feel the need to. I have the roms. I just wanted my saves back.

[@TrasherBiner]

Too finicky and user unfriendly for something that costs $200. Specially something that relies complelety on hardware and software that is opensource. this seems like a massive overprice for buying something preassembled that you will struggle to use anyway (tons of little switches that should have to be automatically detected, block sizes , reading errors etc). That's my two cents. I'd love to dump all my roms from different platforms, but I think they have to rethink their format if they want to make me want to spend $200 on something.

[@slipangle3027]

The new version of this thing does basically all of that except the voltage switching. It also has a much nicer interface.

[@jimmerseiber]

A lot of people are going to use this for their childhood pokemon save files

[@jasonshiers5771]

It would be amazing if you could play the games on this also.

[@kismet8010]

keep the intro song Russ

[@thematrix2661]

If it could write to an empty cartridge it would have sold alot

[@RetroGameCorps]

Yes, it can also write to cartridges.

[@thematrix2661]

@@RetroGameCorps thanks now that is what i am talking about

[@vman245]

So is this the perfect game no intro rom?

[@TechToyTinkerCompany]

I need one of these

[@KISEwun]

Man, I love free rom sites.

[@wesmagyar]

How is it powered by MicroSD? ;)

[@njnjco]

The innovative MicroSD power delivery system. Cutting edge tech. :p

[@RetroGameCorps]

Haha, yeah I meant micro usb ☺️

[@ahmadjunaidi9219]

wwoww

[@androxilogin]

Please read into what the developers think of these guys stealing and banking off a kickstarter for their hard work.

[@garycd72]

wow

[@legocarking45]

well it's not going to be long until Nintendo sees this as a rom maker and has it removed or destroyed because making roms are illegal

[@androxilogin]

Sanni cart readers have been around for years. This shady company just stole their product and banked off a kickstarter for a product that already existed and they had no hand in making. The actual developers for them aren't keen on this bunch.

[@spragzpc1]

Perfect device😄 now send it in a time machine to me 15years ago😅. The rom backup project was done years ago and am sorry it's to easy to just download a rom pack takes less 5min.. I do love the effort 👌

[@pcmasterwraith7676]

other than the save file being copied im not seeing why this is needed, all roms are available online.

[@matthewlyons3618]

Of course but this how he gets all of his games am I right

[@mynamehasspacesinit8687]

It's more so for legality reasons. Like backing up your own games is fine, downloading from the internet is not. Also going to pirate sites can possibly get you in trouble with your internet provider. So this would be a better option

[@jamescarey4056]

Now here are some good questions for you. Can you tell the difference from a ROM that you obtained from the internet and from one that you obtained from a cartridge you own? Does one feel cleaner to you or do they feel the same? I know there are talks about bad ROM files and edited ROMs.

[@MrThugBunny]

im gonna have to go the build route, this is sick and looks super fun to work on in the workshop

[@notsuoh16Bit]

How can I take anything you say seriously after your Volts Watts mix up, bloody hell,,, JUST JOKING, annoying as hell but, great video other than that, thanks.

[@RetroGameCorps]

Fair enough, it annoyed me too when I was editing and realized I had misspoke :D

[@retrobros9684]

Blow your carts before Use ;)

[@adilator]

Completely useless for roms since all are available online in packs. May be useful to a couple people who want to backup their save files as if save files are precious.

[@RGGeek]

Could be useful for people working to preserve games if they find prototypes of old games in the archive of a game developer. Very edge case though, I admit! But having watched this, I could really feel the joy Russ got from actually doing this process himself, which has a value you can't really put a finger on.

[@mynamehasspacesinit8687]

When it comes to legality, it's okay to back up your own stuff, but not okay to download from the internet Also, visiting pirate sites could put you in trouble with your internet provider It's more or less for people who want to get ROMs legitimately without repercussions

[@i_used_adblock_to_watch_this]

With similar devices like this, their compatibility with N64 games is not 100%. For example, pokémon stadium 1 and 2 and WWF no mercy. I'm not compatible with devices like this. Are there any known compatibility issues with the save type with this particular device that you spoke about?