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burning a rom (binary?) from MAME

mathewbeall

mathewbeall

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Hi Folks,

I have a eeprom burner that only will load .hex files.

How do I convert a (what I think is a binary) file from mame into a hex file so I can burn it to an eeprom?

Matt
 
You shouldn't have to convert anything. See what happens if you try to burn it as is. Change the file ending if needed.

What burner do you have?
 
I have an eetools TopMax II - and I use their programmer binary - max loader.

when I change the file to .hex (which is what the program wants), and load it and look at the file - its just all FF's - so I don't think its loading right?

Matt
 
There's no difference between hex and binary. Hex is just way to display binary data but the file itself should be identical.

you can try dumping a known good rom using your programmer and then use a binary editor (like HxD) to compare the files to mame to ensure they're the same.
 
Ok - I will play around with it more tonight - I think I just expected to see actual data in the ROM - not just FF's in every value.

It's a neogeo rom - from lastbld2.zip , 243-m1.m1 is the filename.
 
I just downloaded Max Loader (from the official site) and it reads binaries just fine, regardless of extension. You don't have to rename anything.

If you click on Edit Buffer under Buffer, it will show the hex values:

max_loader.png


Above is with 243-m1.m1.
 
LOL - ok, this might totally be user error then - maybe I thought I was looking at the file I loaded, but wasn't.... Thanks guys for validating... :)
 
Just some technical background. When you erase an EPROM you shine UV light into the photocell of the chip. You can imagine each bit stored on the chip like a little bucket on the surface of that chip. When you shine in UV light it "fills" all of those buckets and sets their value to "1" (eight 1s in a row is Hex value FF).

So a fully "erased" chip has every bucket filled up and every bit set to 1, which will look like "FF" through the whole chip in a Hex Editor.

When you "program" a chip. all it does is selectively "empty" certain buckets. So if a bit should be "1" it ignores it and move to the next bit, if the bit should be "0" it empties the bucket and and then moves to the next one.

Sometimes if I program a chip and it fails verification I'll just program it again without erasing and see if that works. there's no harm in it, maybe some of the buckets didn't get fully emptied.
 
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