Need to extract data from Neo Geo game

[jdog82]

Is it possible to extract source data from a neogeo game cartridge? I am a developer for the iphone. Myself and my brother are apart of a small team that develops games for the iphone. We have a agreement with a company that had developed 5 titles for the neogeo years ago to port these titles to the iphone and ipod touch as playable apps. Well one of the games, a 2d beat em up, the company cannot locate the data disk containing the source files and etc for the game. All they have is the actual game cartridge. That game is the primary one that we want to port and basically I wanted to come on the forum to see if anyone knew if it is possible to extract necessary source files from an actual game. Source code files. If anyone knows how or has the capabilities to do so I can pay for the services.

I don't have experience in such things(code programming etc) , I am basically a graphic artist and modeller with expertise in 2d sprite work such as Street Fighter alpha games. My brother and his guys do all the programming and etc but he is away so I thought I post the question here. The package with the games hasn't arrived yet...it was sent by air mail from the company. Sorry for rambling just trying to provide all the info I can. Again I willing to pay if anyone can help. (As long as the mods and admins agree and I am not violating rules on this forum) Thanks again, (going for a smoke......)

[Hatta]

Generally it's not possible to decompile an executable and get source code back. The best you can do is disassemble the binary back to assembly language. If you have someone who is very good at motorola 68000 assembly, they *might* be able to read the assembly, figure out what it's doing, and write new code that does exactly the same thing.

The problem is that compilers are relatively smart, so there's no 1:1 mapping of source code to machine instructions. It's not going to be an easy port, and you're probably better off looking at emulation. There are Motorola 68000 emulators that run on ARM (http://notaz.gp2x.de/cyclone.php), and a NeoGeo emulator that runs on the DS (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showth ... p?t=108952), so the iPhone should be capable enough.

[NotBlaine]

Source code, probably not. You'll have no problem getting the graphic data out.

What game is it? There are people out there who collect all things Neo, I wouldn't be shocked if someone somewhere has original data in their posession.

[marurun]

You'll want to ask this question at romhacking.net. This is their cup of tea.