[GUIDE/INFO] Flash Carts, ODE, and more!

[Ziggy]

Thanks for the clarification, I was always under the impression that the Mode 7 effect was enabled through a special chip.

Nope, the SNES is capable of mode 7 without anything extra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_7

I used to have a Super UFO 8 (or whatever it's called) flash cart, which has a cartridge slot on top for expandable chip support. So if you put a Starfox cart on top, you can load roms of other games that require the Super FX chip etc.

The Super UFO Pro 8. As far as I can tell, it's some cheap Chinese product and I wouldn't expect it to work well. Yeah, it says, "Game Cart Special Chip Support: BSX, C4, DSP, SA1, SPC7110, Super FX (With Game Cart On Top)" but I highly doubt you can play a ROM that requires one of those chips (besides the DSP) by having the correct cart on top. As far as I know, that's impossible. It probably just works so you can use a cart with one of those chips on top, so you can cheat or save state with it.

Q: Can enhancement chip XY be realized using a pass-through adapter with the original enhancement chip on top?

A: The only enhancement chip where that would work is the DSP series (DSP1-4, ST0010) which are already supported natively. All other enhancement chips have the game ROM “behind” them and control access to it, which a cartridge plugged in parallel to the sd2snes cannot do.

Why don't you have the Super UFO Pro 8 anymore?

I can personally vouch for all of these online stores.

Yeah, I can vouch for Stone Age, Retro Zone, and Tototek.

There's also this old thread: viewtopic.php?t=25415

[Nyukki]

It probably just works so you can use a cart with one of those chips on top, so you can cheat or save state with it.

Ah, right.

Why don't you have the Super UFO Pro 8 anymore?

Sold pretty much all of my consoles about a year ago to make room for the baby etc. Have since got most things back.

[IrishNinja]

excellent thread - are the prices roughly current? was trying to sort out the differences between the Mega & Everdrive MD3.

[Ziggy]

are the prices roughly current?

The prices were posted only a month ago, they're as current as that. Not that the prices go up or down much. In most cases, they stay the same.

http://shop.retrogate.com/

[Mad_Hatter]

My bad - That site is not a store.

I just got an e-mail from him. He told me this is his online store:

http://shop.retrogate.com/

excellent thread - are the prices roughly current? was trying to sort out the differences between the Mega & Everdrive MD3.

I'm still researching, but one of the main differences Mega Everdrive supports saves states (like an emulator does). Also, the Everdrive is almost 100 dollars more at some places.

I'm still debating myself. I'm trying to see if the Mega Everdrive is really that much better in quality (will last longer than a Everdrive) and if it the Mega Everdrive is in fact that much easier to use (it says the you can just update the firmware through the SD Card).

Here are some threads that may help you out:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/127752 ... try2498499

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/6722/ ... everdrive/

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=30966

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=50405

As for the EverDrive-MD vs. the Mega EverDrive:

Virtually all the same features of the EverDrive-MD plus...
Uses Cyclone II FPGA, much more powerful
Firmware/OS are loaded directly off SD card during start up, no more need for JTAG to update Firmware
Save States - Stop and Start a game at any point
Access to menu system in-game
Has both microSD and regular SD slots, so you have option of not having to mod cart shell if you don't want to do that
Mini USB port
Games load almost instantly, no more waiting
Plays WAV audio files
Can handle larger ROM files
Built-in Hex Viewer
Supports Korean SMS mappers
Supports both Game Genie and Play-Action Replay codes
Better interface
Because of its power it has much more future possibilities as well
A few things that may be added via OS updates in the future:
FM sound support for SMS games
Emulators for earlier systems
Possibly some type of internet play via the USB port to computer (would require special hacked ROMs to work most likely)

EDIT: I also found this:

Mega Everdrive has two major things over the original, first is it uses SD Ram to load games which takes about 2 seconds, the original uses flash memory and can take up to 30 seconds to erase and then write the data to the memory.

Does anyone know which of these two methods were closer to original Genesis Cartridges? I'm guessing the first one since the Genesis pretty much loaded things instantly?

[IrishNinja]

wow...that sure decideds which one i'll be saving up for, then! thanks man.

[Anapan]

Hey Ziggy, you might want to add in the Atari 2600 Harmony Cart, and the NeoGeo Pocket Color Flashmasta. I have both and can answer questions about them.

Genesis NEO Myth MD 3-in-1
SMS NEO SEGA MKIII Myth
Commodore 64 Easyflash
RAMFactory.com has some.

Uhh, there's more too... See here:
AtariAge forum post sp957 listed. First post is up-to-date.

Also on that forum post, there's multicarts still being produced for systems that only ever had a few games.

[Ziggy]

I have both and can answer questions about them.

I'll add the carts you mentioned to the first post when I get around to it, but I wont have time to write any more reviews for a while. If you're down for reviewing some though, that'd be great. I'll edit your review into the first post. I just ask that it be unbiased, of course.

[Ziggy]

Awesome, I can't wait.

I'm sure there's info on a forum somewhere, but does any one know off the top of their head what support it will have? GB is a given, but how about GBC?

[ApolloBoy]

GB is a given, but how about GBC?

Yes, and IIRC it'll also have a real-time clock so Pokemon Gold and Silver work 100%.