elusive wrote:I had both versions of the Everdrive, and if you're into playing Sega CD games (especially ones that require a RAM cart like Shining Force CD), the Mega Everdrive wins in my book.
I'm not familiar with the UMDK (just learned about it because of this thread, actually), but from the sounds of it, it seems very comparable to the standard Everdrive
UMDK is nothing like the Everdrive or Mega Everdrive.
Mega Everdrive allows a person to upload a ROM image to its internal memory and then execute that ROM and it does this over USB.
UMDK is in fact a complete development tool that allows you to trace every single action on the MD's Address Bus. You can perform the usual debug actions such as single-step, interrogate 68K Registers, peek and poke WRAM, etc.
From this and by using the Trace functionality you can see EXACTLY which part of the code is executed and you can stop the execution of your ROM or Game ROM to the granularity of a Video Sync Interrupt.
You can search the Trace-Log having executed your ROM and search for VDP and 68K actions - which is very very very useful when you are debugging VDP code - and that's pretty much a fair chunk of all the work a Game on the MD performs.
Much more in the way of Tools will be developed to support UMDK but the Trace facility alone and the Debug will literally save Developers Hours of work. I speak from experience here.
Here is an example from a Trace-Log, I will put some code up later to show you EXACTLY what is being carried out on the real MD Hardware:
Code: Select all
C RD 000000 00FF 00FF
C RD 000002 FE00 FE00
C RD 000004 0000 0000
C RD 000006 0200 0200
C RD 000200 4AB9 4AB9
C RD 000202 00A1 00A1
C RD 000204 0008 0008
C RD 000206 6606 6606
...
D RD 0001BA 2020 2020
D RD 0001BC 554D 554D
D RD 0001BE 444B 444B
D RD 0001C0 2044 2044
...
1st Column: type of action: C: CPU 68K, D: DMA
2nd Column: read or write action
3rd Column: Program Counter when action took place
4th Column: value placed on 68K Address-Bus expected
5th Column: value placed on 68K Address-Bus actual
That is INCREDIBLY useful information that can be obtained from ROMs executing directly on the real MD Hardware.
UMDK *CANNOT* be compared with the Everdrive - the Everdrives are merely Flashcarts with a Game Genie patcher added.
Of course, UMDK also has an SD-Card slot if you wish to use it 'like any other Flashcart'.
For the price I do not think that there is much of a comparison. execution speed is a BIG issue to me and I do not want to be waiting for the Mega Everdrive to flash its ROM image. UMDK is lighting fast on the other hand.
The main criteria for me is whether or not you are a MD Developer or a MD Gamer. I can see Gamers opting for the Everdrive and Developers opting for the UMDK due to what can be achieved with UMDK.
Thank you.
