Unreleased Komani NES games on a plug n play?

[homerhomer]

I picked up a "Konami Plug-n-Play TV Game at a thrift store for $5. I noticed it had some old arcade classic games on it, why not?

Anyway, I noticed that all the games were NES/Famicom games. The funny thing is I'm not aware of 3 of them being ever released on NES or Famicom, but they have that NES quality to them. Do you guys think it would be possible to get these games off this chip? It would be awesome playing them on a real NES.


[Known Released Games]
Rush 'n AttacK
Gyruss
Yie Ar Kung-Fu

[Unreleased Games]
Time Pilot
Frogger
Scamble

Frogger at 1:23
Time Pilot at 1:42
Scamble - not on the video.


Here's a video that someone posted of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pcd_6TpeMA

[Leo_A]

It isn't uncommon for these things to utilize a NOAC and for games to be specially coded for what amounts to NES hardware. I doubt something like Time Pilot was in their vaults all these years.

Probably possible to extract them if it's indeed NOAC based. But if you have to ask, it's probably safe to say that doing so is out of your reach. It's also beyond my knowledge level as well.

[buzz_n64]

Several Atari connect to tv systems were NOA as well. Extracting those games would be fantastic as well.

[Greg2600]

I'm not sure if these are actually NES roms though. I have this one myself.

[Tanooki]

Well if they aren't asking for credits or quarters on the start screen or to continue they they're likely rips of the Famicom games for two, and Time Pilot never hit the Famicom so it would be a converted arcade game or another platform maybe MSX?

[ccovell]

Very cool. It looks like NES HW from the flickering of the Time Pilot score... dunno if it's an unreleased Konami game or a re-make for NES hardware, but they both look high-quality.

[Greg2600]

I just pulled mine out. Scramble, Time Pilot, and Frogger are far more advanced than their MSX counterparts. Scramble was never even on MSX.

This plug n play was released on GBA "Konami Arcade Advanced," but the roms on there were pretty much the ones from the arcades.

So I would say these roms could probably run in an NES emulator/flash cart, but how would you ever get them out of the unit?

[Leo_A]

To extract them, you'd need some ingenuity and technical skills. It wasn't all that long ago where people viewed just dumping cartridges as a challenge. Someone involved in the early days of Intellivision emulation wrote a short post somewhere the other day that I read about the challenges there of getting the code off Intellivision cartridges 20 years ago for example.

I think that the Flashback software has even been ripped for an example of this with NOAC based plug and plays. But due to the wishes of Legacy Engineering if I'm remembering this thread that I just barely remember at AtariAge correctly, they were never publicly made available for download.

And the GBA collection isn't anywhere close to the arcade releases. Nor does this plug and play, after watching that YouTube video, look like it's based at all on the GBA code. It looks just like what the original poster said. NES roms since the three that saw release back in the day like Rush n Attack sure seem to be the NES versions in that poor quality YouTube video.

The only thing that resembles the GBA collection is the game lineup itself and the styling of the game selection screen.

[Greg2600]

Flashback 2 wasn't even a NOAC, that was re-engineering 2600 hardware exactly. So any rom on it would work in a 2600 for real, but yes Legacy wouldn't allow the roms to go out.

[Leo_A]

I didn't even say the Atari Flashback 2. Go look up the original Atari Flashback.

[Greg2600]

I know the first 7800-looking FB was NOAC. There was a guy who tried posting some FB1 roms, but got shot down on AA. He had roms that were part of the development phase, not ripped from the unit. My point was that dumping a FB2/2+ is far easier, but AA still aren't allowing them to be posted there.

[Leo_A]

Sorry, I thought you were correcting me.

I don't ever remember reading this until now, so I don't think this is what I was recalling.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/194323-apology-about-the-flashback-roms/?hl=flashback+rom

As I remember, a user asked if this was possible (Not unlike this thread) and someone popped up that it indeed was and that they had actually done it. They then asked if it was okay to post them and somebody, perhaps Curt from Legacy Engineering, said that they'd prefer it if they didn't. And those wishes were followed unlike what this character you referenced would've done.

Either way, the point remains. Not only could something like the Flashback hardware play a game like Zelda, the software coded for it could be played on genuine hardware. The challenge is extracting the rom contents. So if this Konami plug and play is what it seems to be, things like Time Pilot should be able to be played on the real deal.

The problem is removing the appropriate chip that contains the code (Especially if it's a glob top in which case it probably isn't even possible), finding a way to dump the contents, and then disassembling it into its component pieces.