Preferred Way of Developing to Genesis Hardware

jarrodparkes · Post by **jarrodparkes** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:08 pm

Hello everyone,

[little introduction, first post]
I just found these forums, and it appears I will be here to stay for awhile. I have been doing software development for a couple of years while studying/working through college. Always been a games enthusiast, and I want to get into the low-level fun.

[my question]
Currently, I am attempting to use this method to begin working directly on the hardware of the Genesis: http://www.retrodev.com/transfer.html

However, it appears there may be better ways to do this? Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer advice on this?

Thanks,
Jarrod

slobu · Post by **slobu** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:42 pm

Since you posted in the Genesis (not SegaCD) section I'd suggest an EverDrive flash cart. I'd guess just burning a SegaCD would be an option too if it's as easy as using the BasiEgaXorz BASIC suite.

UPDATE: Should have said "Everdrive MD" and not "Mega" which is a more expensive product.

jarrodparkes · Post by **jarrodparkes** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:45 pm

slobu wrote:I'd suggest a Mega EverDrive flash cart.

The MD Pro 32/64M looks promising and cheaper. Any experience using one of those?

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:50 pm

I have the 64 Mbit cart. The MD Pro is a good solid cart, but it needs a parallel port programmer. If you have a computer with a parallel port, that's not much of a problem. If you use a modern computer where you're lucky to have USB, it's a problem. No, a USB to parallel adapter won't work. Also an issue for some people is the small size, but that's not a problem for homebrew use.

More popular is the Everdrive MD. This was the first flash cart for the MD from KRIKzz and is much cheaper than the Mega Everdrive. It's great for homebrew since you load stuff off an SD card. For the price, it's probably the best flash cart to get. I had one of these, but sold it to someone who couldn't order one himself (at the time, the only way to get one was to send a Western Union money order directly to KRIKzz). This is the cart I recommend you consider.

The Mega Everdrive is KRIKzz's new MD flash cart. This is meant more for gamers since it's main feature is machine save states allowing you to save restore games at any point. It's more expensive and doesn't have anything more for a developer than the Everdrive MD, so I don't recommend it for devs.

The NeoFlash Myth MD 3-in-1 flash cart is very nice, but more expensive. It can run software from SD card if you get it with a GBA flash cart that has an SD card interface (like the Neo2-SD), but often just comes with regular flash. You flash games/apps over USB, but the PC client is kinda hit or miss for people, particularly for Vista or W7 64-bit. The Myth has sram and eeprom (no other cart handles eeprom saves), and an FM chip for SMS games (if you are into SMS games on your MD, this is a nice feature).

So for just plain MD development, I generally recommend the original Everdrive MD. You can get them from RetroGate or StoneAgeGamer.

jarrodparkes · Post by **jarrodparkes** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:18 am

Thanks for the advice. It appears that the Everdrive is "Out of Stock" everywhere I check, so I may constricted to using the MD-Pro. I have a computer with a parallel port; however, it is running Vista 64-bit so that may be a problem. I guess I could always run the client software using some kind of 32-bit emulated mode?

Thanks again everyone.

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:50 am

jarrodparkes wrote:Thanks for the advice. It appears that the Everdrive is "Out of Stock" everywhere I check, so I may constricted to using the MD-Pro. I have a computer with a parallel port; however, it is running Vista 64-bit so that may be a problem. I guess I could always run the client software using some kind of 32-bit emulated mode?

Thanks again everyone.

Use a virtual environment to run XP. That would be your best bet. I know a number of people that do that since they don't want to quit using W7-64.

madpew · Post by **madpew** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:28 am

Hi there.
I'm new to Genesis development and recently ordered a Everdrive MD from this shop (shipping worldwide, shop located in germany)
https://www.dragonbox.de/en/everdrives/ ... use-1.html
Be sure to check the shipping, but it shouldn't be too expensive.

Not trying to advertise, but in my opinion the Everdrive is the way to go. I personally haven't done much with it until now but I don't need cables or vintage-ports on my computer for it to work. So when my computer will die someday I can just get a new one without worrying about ports and compatibility.

I'm not too deep into the technical specs of the other carts so I can't really compare them besides the usability.

Best regards,
madpew

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:45 am

I built my own, and have been using it since 2005/6

I would also suggest Everdrive MD, it is cheap and widely available

djcouchycouch · Post by **djcouchycouch** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:11 am

I also recommend the Everdrive. That's what I use for Goplanes.

jarrodparkes · Post by **jarrodparkes** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:22 pm

It looks like the German store has some in stock! Awesome! Birthday is right around the corner, maybe I can make that investment!

TmEE co.(TM) wrote:I built my own, and have been using it since 2005/6

^I am very interested about this. It sounds like a fun hardware project, which is an area I have been really wanting to learn. Would you mind sharing any more information about this? You could always send me a PM or contact me through Facebook/Twitter/etc.

Twitter: @jarrodparkes
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jarrod.parkes
Portfolio: http://jarrod.parkesnet.org

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:03 pm

It needs LPT port like ToToTek carts and all the software I use is MS-DOS based, but they can be made to work on 32bit windowses with use of UserPort. 64 is no go (unless someone writes windows based app).

jarrodparkes · Post by **jarrodparkes** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:13 pm

TmEE co.(TM) wrote:It needs LPT port like ToToTek carts and all the software I use is MS-DOS based, but they can be made to work on 32bit windowses with use of UserPort. 64 is no go (unless someone writes windows based app).

I'm going to guess the DOS-based software handles the sending of data to some flash-based memory on your own custom card?

From there, what steps are taken for the SG/MD to recognize and run the data that is stored on the flash-based memory? Both in terms of physical connections and any addition software.

^This is the part where I become fuzzy (or I guess because I am so new to hardware type projects).

Thanks

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:19 pm

The cartridge itself is nothing but a pair of 16MBit/2Mbyte 8bit flash chips to form 16bit datapath for the MD.
The programmer device is an I/O extender which is purely software controlled. Depending on the states of various I/O pins, things happen

I am working on my new website, soon I got info available in the HW section

slobu · Post by **slobu** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 2:30 pm

I kinda flubbed and said Mega Everdrive when I should have said plain old Everdrive. My bad.

Actually, now that I think of it, wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a SegaCD used instead of flash carts?

djcouchycouch · Post by **djcouchycouch** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 2:43 pm

slobu wrote:Actually, now that I think of it, wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a SegaCD used instead of flash carts?

Wouldn't it be slow to write and rewrite the disks?