The next podcast & video will be about legal rom dumping/ripping. Talking about legal emulation is the precursor to then talking about the RetroPie, a Raspberry Pi setup that allows you to play just about every Retro Game in one spot with almost perfect accuracy and HDMI output. It’s my preferred way to play these games because of the preservation aspect, the better resolution, optional gamepads, better sound and game save capability. 
Right now I want to cover the NES rom ripping. It’s the most complicated to do which is ironic since most people are going to see NES as the #1 retro system to play. The only thing I can find on this is a hobbyist board called “Kazzo” that you can DIY assemble or order from other assemblers on ebay (around $50).
Once you get this board, you are going to connect it with a USB cable to a PC running a 32 bit version of Windows. I would recommend a Windows XP 32-bit project machine for this and many other projects. Then you will download and run the software, obtainable here.
As if obtaining the hardware and having to setup a Windows XP project computer isn’t enough of a pain, there’s another issue. NES cartridges have different chipsets, which means you will need to get a list of these cartridges (here) that have a handy corresponding code for the software.
The next step is to use the code for the cartridge, you will pull down on the menu the same code and run the program, ripping the file.
- Kazzo board plugged into a
- 32-bit Windows XP machine
- The software is running
- Plug an NES game into the board.
- Select code in software, run the program to extract the ROM image.
This seems overly complicated, expensive and time consuming, but for now this is the legit way to run NES games on an emulator or Raspberry Pi/Retropie. The only other option that I can think of is getting the roms on illegal site. Never ask me for roms and NEVER ask me where those sites are. I haven’t jumped in the rabbit hole yet. Did you? Post comments or questions, I’d love to hear from you!