I want to play some of your hacks on real hardware, but I have no idea where to begin when looking to buy a flash cart. Just like any sensible person, I'm not in the mood to get ripped off or receive a bogus product. Which of you have experience with flash carts? Is there a single reputable place/brand I should look out for? I'm looking for any knowledge at all you might have, tell me what you know.
Everdrive would get my vote simply for ease of use - you put your ROMs on an SD card and put the SD card in the cart. That's it. =P
I'd vote for the NEO Myth MD 3in1 + NEO3 SD flash cart, personally. Especially with the awesome menu used for it (done by Chilly Willy and Conle).
IIRC the Neo MD has a benefit in that it has an YM2413 chip inside of it that can be used when playing Master System games; it and their Neo SMS stuff are the only carts that have that, to my knowledge. Kinda wish the Master Everdrive had one in it, but that's neither here nor there I suppose.
The cost on these things is the part that really gets me. I'm still more likely to buy a controller adapter than a flash cart. :|
I'd recommend an Everdrive over the Neo MD, to be quite honest. Unless you're really willing to throw a lot of money for a more full featured bundle (most features of which, not many will really need to use). I've had zero issues with my Everdrive, so, personally, I consider it reliable.
MD Myth from NeoFlash Pros: Has SMS FM chip, has EEPROM for the few MD games that want EEPROM for saves, can easily change GBA flash carts for quick change of pre-written games without buying another complete flash cart. Cons: PC client software for writing games to flash has lots of troubles on newer Windows (especially 7 ), is more expensive, may require you to get a different GBA flash cart for SD (depends on the package you get... the old ones only came with flash-only, so you have to get a Neo2-SD GBA cart for SD), and some people don't like the fact that it's bigger than a regular MD cart, and blue. EverdriveMD from KRIKzz Pros: Very simple to use - plug SD card into ED and run on MD, same size as a regular MD cart, much less expensive, doesn't need PC software unless you wish to update the firmware in the card, and you don't need to reload the game from SD if you wish to play the same game you did the last time you used the ED. Cons: No SMS FM, no EEPROM, OS for loading games is a bit plain and still has a few bugs, when you change games, the new game has to be burned to flash, and when the flash goes, that's it - the board has to be replaced. MD-Pro from Tototek Pros: Most compatible flash cart out... works with EVERYTHING, including those crappy emulation-based things from AtGames, is the same size as a regular MD cart like the ED, and can be the cheapest cart available. Cons: Only holds a few games as it only has 32 or 64 Mbits of flash with no ability to use SD cards, and requires a writer that hooks to the parallel port of your PC (does your PC even HAVE one anymore? ).
Many crappy sports games won't save :P EA games tend to have EEPROM in them, others generally stuck to SRAM+battery
I do love my Everdrive. It seems pretty compatible and the SMS games work on there too. Dunno what you mean about missing SMS FM?
It doesn't have the SMS FM chip, a YM2413. The MD has a YM2612, which is not compatible. So when you play SMS games on the MD, you don't get FM sound. The NeoMyth has the YM2413 in the cart, so you get FM sound with the SMS games. It's not a big deal - only some of the Japanese games have FM sound; US games don't use FM because the US SMS didn't come with the FM chip. It was an add-on, so of course nobody bought it. SEGA has NEVER had any luck at all with add-ons. :specialed:
I will note that, although I don't have a MD Model so I can't really say this in speciifc relation to here, I've been able to use Neo Myth software fine on my computer setup to flash N64 and SNES games to my cart. Works great for my ROM hack testing purposes. I would like to get a MD flash cart of some kind to round out my set...
