Pirate companies in
Asia were creative with the products they sold. Not
only did they flood the market with pirated
cartridges for every Famicom game of which you can
think, but they also released a number of devices
you could use to dump and write Famicom games all on
your own.
One such device is the Fami-Corder, and the process
for dumping and writing games is simple using this
device.
A cart that looks unique likely is not unique.
Essentially what happens is this: You take one of
the specially-made, blank cartridges that comes with
the Fami-Corder. You pop it into one slot. Then, you
pop a licensed cartridge with a game on it into the
other slot. You hit the Start button and the game
begins the process of "writing" -- as the
Fami-Corder calls it -- the game onto the blank
cart. It's that easy.
A cart that looks unique likely is not unique.
The only downside to the Fami-Corder, or any such
device, is that it doesn't allow you to write
complex games. The cartridges these devices use have
a defined mapper ability and do not allow you to
write games that go beyond that. The boards inside
use EPROMs, which allow whatever you write onto them
to be erased with light. That's why these carts have
holes in them and the chips (EPROMs) have "windows"
in them. The hole are covered with stickers to keep
the chips from getting erased. EPROMs are commonly
found in prototype carts.
