[Irixion]

So, I've been looking around, and I don't really know what to get for my purposes: To test out rom hacks on real hardware.

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?mai...;products_id=67


I've found this, but I have no idea whether I should get that or what. Basically, I need something that's not terribly expensive, and can serve my purposes.


Any help is terribly appreciated.

[TmEE]

It is that or the Megacart, both are highly recommended... Megacart is more awesome if you have MegaCD since it allows you to do some region bypassing for MCD Megacart cannot run over 24Mbit ROMs though, MD-Pro can.

[Irixion]

Alright thanks! I shall invest in that MD-Pro then. (Leave this topic open just in case I need help when it arrives.)



OK! Another question:

*must sure your USB port output is 5V, If not, will damage the card
*Need both parallel cable + USB A to B cable


How do I tell if a USB is at 5V?

Is a parellel cable the old printer cable? Do I need a special set? Help is appreciated.

This post has been edited by Irixion: 19 May 2009 - 09:50 AM

[muteKi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_port
Yes it is. Note that it needs to be a parallel port. Converters to USB will not work.

Most USB ports these days should be 5.0. It's only really used to power the thing rather than do any communication with the system. Makes me think that they could have just used a 5V power supply with an adaptor...



I just wish they had a version of the Megacart that only worked to region-unlock the Sega CD, since it's one of the only things I know that actually does so, and I'd assume it could make it cheaper. (I'd love it if it could work with the RAM cart I have for the system as well, but like the USB-communicating flash cart, I assume this to be a pipe dream.)

This post has been edited by muteKi: 19 May 2009 - 01:21 PM

[TmEE]

USB port is only used for power, and even my 1996 PC has 5V ports... the LPT cable must be a straight-through cable.

Megacart with just the bypass functionality won't be any cheaper since only difference would be in the flash chip itself and these things cost more or less same in bulk regardless of size.

[Overlord]

USB port is only used for power

Yeah, I never saw the logic in this. If you've added a USB port, why not just go the whole hog and use the USB port to move your data with?

[TmEE]

USB is much more pain to use than LPT port... with USB you need some extra controllers and more complex design in the cart thus driving cost much higher (I'd say up to 130USD even)

[Alan]

I would have to agree with TmEE, USB is a pain.. just because you can plug it in and it works doesn't mean its easy for us to make. :P

The first version of my flashcart used serial to load the ROMs, and always wanted to move to USB.. However, when I started looking into it I just thought to myself you know what, Ill just add SD card support on my flashcart it will be so much easier.

I plan to release the documents on how to build my flashcart sometime soon, its called MegaSD by the way

[Overlord]

USB is much more pain to use than LPT port... with USB you need some extra controllers and more complex design in the cart thus driving cost much higher (I'd say up to 130USD even)

Oh, OK, fair enough. Sucks for ease of use a bit, though.

[Vincent]

Hi Alan,

An actual SD-based flashcart is what I've been looking for long time.
Do you also support saves in your plan?

Best of luck and keep us up to date!

This post has been edited by Vincent: 19 May 2009 - 05:04 PM

[TmEE]

SD will be rather slow without additional microcontroller... CF should go quite fast, since its parallel interface, aaaand you could hook regular ATA HDDs instead of CF aswell :D

in both cases, biggest trouble lies in file system software D:

[Chilly Willy]

Just in case you're wondering, the 5V notice on the USB port means NO MORE than 5V. Less is fine. I run the MD-Pro 64 and programmer on 3.3V USB just peachy. The warning was because some REALLY old USB ports were (much) higher than 5V, which would damage the Md-Pro/programmer. Nearly all modern computers will be 3.3V for the USB, not 5V.

I use ucon64 with the uf front-end to read/write the MD-Pro. It's nice, and I helped correct a couple bugs in ucon64 while I was at it. Yes, I did submit a bug report and patch files to the maintainer. The fixes should be in the current version.

Windows users have more trouble in allowing access to the parallel IO ports than anything else. I run Xubuntu (which is why I use ucon64), so that wasn't really a problem.

The MD-Pro is an excellent card. I just wish it was a little less expensive.

This post has been edited by Chilly Willy: 19 May 2009 - 08:30 PM

[SteelBrush]

I'm not to sure about this but I did look into getting a flash cart.

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy an EPROM writer and produce your own non-re-writable carts. You could fit multiple games onto one cartridge. The only problem I can see is that you would have to write your own program for game selection.

And development of a CF flash card? That is something I would buy, the CF interface would enable me to use it over the multiple formats that I have to deal with, MacOSX (fuck you Apple), MacOS9, various versions of windows and Linux.

I did start a project to attach a HDD to my MD, Link to DevSter MD Mods. I would have used an adaptor for a jp cart, so it would just be a removable peripheral like the 32x.


Cart Slot -------------
HDD -------------
adoptor cart -------------
MD Slot -------------

The MD would hopefully view the attachment as just a large cart. I suspect there are problems in this theory as I have poor programming knowledge. I have had to abandon the project because my PC died all I've got left are macs.

[Alan]

Do you also support saves in your plan?

It does not at the moment, but I to do plan so. To be fair the only sram game I have is Sonic 3 :D

SD will be rather slow without additional microcontroller...

I use a Amtel AVR microcontroller, I am loading a 32Mbit ROM in around 20 seconds. This includes the time to erase the EEPROM, write and confirm.

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy an EPROM writer and produce your own non-re-writable carts. You could fit multiple games onto one cartridge. The only problem I can see is that you would have to write your own program for game selection.

This is where it starts, then you want to make bigger and better things . However, cheap way around the game selection is a jumper on the higher address lines.

[TmEE]

I use a Amtel AVR microcontroller, I am loading a 32Mbit ROM in around 20 seconds. This includes the time to erase the EEPROM, write and confirm.

20 seconds is rather fast :D

This is where it starts, then you want to make bigger and better things .

That's how I still do my stuff :
http://www.hot.ee/tmeeco/EEPROM/INACT.JPG
http://www.hot.ee/tmeeco/EEPROM/INACT2.JPG

I'd like to do nicer stuff, but my wallet is not in the greatest condition right now :/