Dumping contents of a rare CL console

[KaruzoHikari]

Hey there:
Some time ago, I found that the French show Code Lyoko had a gaming console, completely unknown for the CL community. After searching over thrift stores and many online shops, I managed to find a unit of it.

I analyzed it for the CL subreddit, and now I was pretty interested on dumping its contents, in order to preserve it and to check if they left anything interesting inside. I opened it and uploaded a lot of images of the circuits. My knowledge on electronics is pretty basic, so I asked for help in a few places.

I was redirected to this place from a comment in my Reddit post, so I was wondering if you guys had any idea of what could be done to dump the main chip. I've heard that it's a pretty complicated task, but it'd be awesome if any of you could help me to understand what the procedure should be.

You can find a lot of information of the console in the analysis I did. All the hardware related stuff is at the bottom of the post, including an Imgur album with the circuit:
Console Analysis on r/CodeLyoko

You can also find a lot of comments with useful information about the circuit in this other post:
Help post on r/embedded

Thanks so much in advance!
KaruzoHikari~~

 

[supersega]

Wow! One cool little console, probably a NES-on-chip or Genesis-on-chip. That Fujitsu is a flash memory chip (16MB) made by Cypress Semiconductor. Good thing is that they are very common for usage in Nintendo Game Boy carts, so finding a guide on how to dump the info off of a Gameboy cartridge memory chip will be helpful.

EDIT: seems like some programmers can read it. https://www.advin.com/universal-programmer/universal-programmer-device-list-6100.htm

EDIT x2: Never mind, that guy is only a writer. I also found a similar flash chip used in bootleg Gameboy devices that *should* have the same pinout, but if I'm being honest, throwing this chip into a bootleg GB cartridge and getting the ROM that way will be the easiest, considering those pins are gonna be hard to wire any GPIO headers to.

EDIT x3: Last one I swear! So if you do go the route of throwing it on a bootleg GB cart, make sure you do not solder the write enable pin. If by some chance it goes high, then you have risk of getting some data overwritten.

https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Macronix/MX29LV400,800,160C.pdf

 

[Bad_Ad84]

If you are going to desolder it, there's not much point soldering it to a gb cart.

Just dump the chip, I could do this with my programmer.

 

[Bad_Ad84]

Otherwise, solder it to a psop or sop44 breakout board.

 

[KaruzoHikari]

Wow! One cool little console, probably a NES-on-chip or Genesis-on-chip. That Fujitsu is a flash memory chip (16MB) made by Cypress Semiconductor. Good thing is that they are very common for usage in Nintendo Game Boy carts, so finding a guide on how to dump the info off of a Gameboy cartridge memory chip will be helpful.

EDIT: seems like some programmers can read it. https://www.advin.com/universal-programmer/universal-programmer-device-list-6100.htm

EDIT x2: Never mind, that guy is only a writer. I also found a similar flash chip used in bootleg Gameboy devices that *should* have the same pinout, but if I'm being honest, throwing this chip into a bootleg GB cartridge and getting the ROM that way will be the easiest, considering those pins are gonna be hard to wire any GPIO headers to.

EDIT x3: Last one I swear! So if you do go the route of throwing it on a bootleg GB cart, make sure you do not solder the write enable pin. If by some chance it goes high, then you have risk of getting some data overwritten.

https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Macronix/MX29LV400,800,160C.pdf

That datasheet will be really helpful, thanks!

If you are going to desolder it, there's not much point soldering it to a gb cart.

Just dump the chip, I could do this with my programmer.

Yeah, while it does sound like a proper solution I think that I'll try to dump it with other methods. However I don't really know much of this whole thing so I'll have to get creative. I checked some programmers but they're way out of my budget. I found an article of a guy that dumped an arcade cabinet with a very similar kind of chip, so I guess I'll try that.
Thanks!

 

[cta]

I don't really know much of this whole thing so I'll have to get creative

Sure, you can do that - or listen/pass it on to somebody who knows what he's doing. I mean, nothing wrong with trying yourself, but at least know your limits if this thing really is that rare...

 

[Bad_Ad84]

I have a professional grade programmer. I'd dump the chip for you.

 

[KaruzoHikari]

Hey there. Should have updated the thread months ago.
Indeed, trying to dump stuff by myself was a very stupid thought. Specially considering it's the only unit I was aware of (and still haven't found any other, to this date)

I ended up contacting MameHaze, who guided me on how to send it to a trusty team, in order to get it dumped and emulated. Everything went fine, and the data is now safe. You can even play it in MAME now!



So guess that's it. Thanks everyone in here for guiding me as well! (Specially to Bad_Ad84 since he even offered to dump it himself)