Neoflash Myth MD cartrige vs. ToTotek

elan · Post by **elan** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:01 pm

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php ... 643.0.html

vs

Tototek Multicart or 64MB devCart...

Which one will be better for homebrew???

For Pal MD1???

Will work Multicart withouth megaCD (just run my homebrew roms...)???

(Sorry it is not - MegaCD... )

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:18 pm

Holy crap! They got FM sound working for Master System games!

I didn't know it could be done, I didn't believe it.

Does it send sound via the audio lines on the cartridge, or does the YM2612 get used AS the FM chip?

(dont know why im asking here, hoping someone knows)

elan · Post by **elan** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:29 pm

INNOVATION! BUILD IN YM2413 FM SYSTEM, CAN OUTPUT MARK III FM SOUND ON - Dr.Neo

I think It is only emulation.Not real YM... Maybe FPGA or I dont know...
But SMS games support is nice.

Fonzie · Post by **Fonzie** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:37 pm

Well, the myth cart is recurrently the best product for playing backups, seems. However, it look pricey and nothing is known about reliability as no one got it yet.

On my very personal point of view... I would wait and see... For some reasons, there "may" have a better product in preparation, and not a neoflash one

.
And the way neoflash replicated the Megacart's multibios mechanism (which took a lot of money to dev, I want to precise) is just TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS and deserve boycott, I think.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:23 pm

I wonder if the save feature works better than tototek's. I wasn't able to use that at all...

drx · Post by **drx** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:09 am

Fonzie wrote:Well, the myth cart is recurrently the best product for playing backups, seems. However, it look pricey and nothing is known about reliability as no one got it yet.

On my very personal point of view... I would wait and see... For some reasons, there "may" have a better product in preparation, and not a neoflash one .
And the way neoflash replicated the Megacart's multibios mechanism (which took a lot of money to dev, I want to precise) is just TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS and deserve boycott, I think.

I agree on the boycott part. I would try suing them if the code is identical/really similiar.

I'm working on my own flashcart as well. More homebrew-oriented, 2GB, USB support, no hassle, things like game genie inside etc. So it might be wise to wait until me or Fonzie develops a better product than buying Neo Flash junk.

elan · Post by **elan** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:26 am

Well that is true.But I have read somewhere - that neoflash buy that 32mb carts from 3th party developer.And put there only NF brandname-sticker.
Well is not correct to copy others work.It is bad.
But I will buy it (when will it support SD-Cards) just I want to make homebrew-nothing else (no emotions here)...
And when will be under 200usd(complete flash+link+adapter).Higher price is not interesting for me...

Every flash cartrige will be big plus for homebrew MD/Genny scene I think...
But copy others kills invention...That is true...

@DRX->
Ideal HomebrewDevCart ->

- Compact - Flash or Sd-Card /Standard,Mini,Micro/ -->Simply memory card based.
- USB on cartrige (no linker)...
- Transparent acrylic case + whitePCB + whiteLED when is reading something...
(standard screws not that Sega special screws)
and battery change system like on GBA or Walkman or ...
with topologic logo like commodore amiga has...
- PC - client (Win/Linux)
- build-in simple menu (looks like old dos file commander)
- updateable eeprom (battery based - cheaper)
- in future *.TFM and *.VGM player build in (when it will be possible)
- Development site (intern - internet development)
- Community site (but pure homebrew - gametools ,compos ,forum...)
- EU/USA/... distribution (distributors can translate language - menu)
- price under 200usd (55-125usd will be ideal)
- cute name ( what about cuteMD

)

I dont know anything about electronics.But I can help You with cartrige plastic case (skin) design+one real ABS plastic prototype (white ,ot transparent)+documentation and css+html(but not php - forum)+pixel art logo for webpage...for free (or for one cartrige)...

drx · Post by **drx** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:32 am

elan: I have read your PM, I will reply later today, am posting from school right now (boring programming class ;P)

As for details: I plan to make this work without any linker, or anything like that. I was going to program the firmware so it works as a Mass Storage Device, so it would work just by connecting the cart to the PC with a USB cable. Win XP and Vista (and all Unix OSes) have automatic MSD support.

I was planning to sell the device for $100-$125, depending on how case manufacturing costs turn out.

As I planned it, the firmware will be updatable using two methods - first by uploading a certain file to the cart and firing it up in the Megadrive, and a second one (failsafe) using an other method like some special pads on the cart or something.

I plan to release the source code to all the firmware so people can edit it as they like. Your translation idea is a very good one, I will be sure to implement that.

Blah class is ending, will finish my post later ;)

Fonzie · Post by **Fonzie** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:36 am

It's just supporting such companies that is problematic...
While they don't hesitate to manufacture 10.000 units, the production price goes easily under the 20usd limit... Then they sell the stuff at 10x the price and make lot of quick cash. I have some problem knowing where the unsold units goes... maybe in deep china?
In the same way, they don't hesitate to copy existing things to reduce even more development prices.

I agree that tototek's previous product are a bit "outdated" because of the non-usb support. However, there are some solutions coming, it cost again lot of money because the sold quantities are always very... low.
Why would drx or anyone spend time adding more features if it gets hacked & copied immediately by some bastards.

@ drx

Yeah, It's nice to have some "homebrew" products, I wish you best luck getting all the stuff stable and easy to use. And don't hesitate to PM me if you want deal for plastic cases

And maybe we planned to use same usb chipset ;P haha! PM needed!

drx · Post by **drx** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:27 pm

Time to finish my post.

I've got a list of priorities somewhere in my mind. The first and foremost thing I want is of course the ability to run all Megadrive/32x (even the bank switching ones) with 100% compatibility.

A very high place on the list belongs to the open source and updatable firmware. The flashcart will be most likely ran by a PIC (though, depending on the outcome, I might switch to a FPGA). Now, there will be two sides of the firmware - the internal firmware that would run the PIC and the boot rom.

I want to make both freely editable and updatable but the end-user by uploading a file, say, update.bin to the cart and running it in the MD, and the bootcode would update itself and the internal firmware. self-modifying code :). Now, there are many mishappenings, your power can go out etc. so I figured it would be a good idea to implement a fail-safe mechanism. I will probably put additional pads on the cartridge so a user can send the cart and get it updated here and I'll send it back for no additional charge (apart from the shipping cost)

Like I already said, I will make it act as a MSD (massive storage device), so no drivers/linkers/any stuff like that will be needed at all. This means full support in every OS that counts (Windows XP, Vista, Linux, OS/2).

Next on my list are 'extra' ideas, like run-time Game Genie/Action Replay codes, SMS games support (which I can already see in the Neo cart).

On the other hand, I never planned to add support for Mega CD saves for two reasons: out of respect for Fonzie and his product and secondly because I never tackled the idea of Mega CD saves and would never have thought of that had he not released his Megacart. So adding support for that in my product would be stealing his idea. I do want to make *some* profit from the cart, mostly to be able to make more (and not only MD carts), but I do have ethics.

I also wanted to sort of integrate the new flashcart website to my old Hacking CulT, make it more lively, develop a dev kit so people could create games easier, release a PDF guide to MD programming in the style of my old guides, but more mature etc.

Which leads to another thing, I always wanted to evoke a hacking / development competition. But I never had anything that could be a prize in such a competition. If I ever complete the flashcart, I would make annual competitions or something like that. This is something I always wanted to make.

Now, down on my list are 'unreal' ideas which I think would be really interesting to implement. One of them was to harvest the speed of USB to transfer some 68k/VDP/Z80 data in real time to the PC while the cart is connected to the PC *and* is playing in a MD. This could lead to *some* level of debugging and I think it could evolve into something really nice.

Time will tell :)

elan · Post by **elan** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:13 pm

drx · Post by **drx** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:21 pm

I don't think I would venture a pre-order on an unfinished product. What if it doesnt work out? What if there are delays (frequent with Chinese manufacturers), etc etc. Not a good idea.

Myself, I plan to manufacture 50 PCBs at first and buy 10 flash chips (or more, if I have funds) and if they all sell, buy more until PCBs are all gone.

LocalH · Post by **LocalH** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:42 am

This is a good idea...if there is going to be a way to dump carts with this solution as well, I'd consider selling my SMD and buying this instead, as my SMD only has 2MB of RAM. As nice as oldschool copier hardware is to own, I'd much rather have a fully-featured solution (the only thing I'd guess this would miss over the SMD would be the limited ability to run SMS software, but that's not too useful without a pause button nor the capability to run a good majority of software).

elan · Post by **elan** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:33 am

I don´t understand -> MythCart can run SMS code on MD or I can use MythCart with adapter on my SMS2???Second thing is that FM SOUNDCHIP from MARK3 REAL or it is FPGA emulation???

@Fronzie ->
Be sure I will not support that 32MBLite...

But I am still thinking about SD-Card Cart /Myth+NeoSD/ on MD so it is very interesting for me... /SD-Cards are cheap and I can re-plug them.../

When Myth will be high priced - I will buy probably 32MB or 64MB from Tototek.
Or cart from You /very nice one too/ or one from DRX...

@DRX ->
10pieces with chip ,50pieces later... I think good way.And enough for hombrew sceners...

@ALL ->
Are there any *.GYM / *.VGM / *.TFM(this one probably is not...) players on SEGA MD???
Maybe something like WinAMP for MD will be CUTE... /burn songs + player on cartrige and listen to real soundchip/...MD/G Amp

I think for GYM is Flavio´s player or something... VGM???

tinctu · Post by **tinctu** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:10 pm

One more question.
What for is on ToTotek´s LINKER both USB+Serial/?/ ports???
Can I use only that USB?????