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We need a USB-compatible flashcart! Sega Genesis Holy Grail!

 
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WaverBoy



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:41 am    Post subject: We need a USB-compatible flashcart! Sega Genesis Holy Grail! Reply with quote

Might one be in the works? And one that's SD-friendly as well, like the defunct-before-I-managed-to-get-one NES PowerPak? I'm sorry, but we gotta at least have USB. If the good folks at ToToTek were to release such a cart, espescially one with SD, they'd fly off the shelves like you wouldn't believe. Please, please, PLEASE bestow upon us such a magical item, that we may throw our $$ at you for it!

The current MD PRO cart sounds like it's extremely tricky to get it to work, so I'm leery of buying one; my girlfriend's tower PC from HP has a parallel port, but it's running Windows XP, which doesn't sound like it'll work from what I read on this forum. What can I do?
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DoctorBackup



Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 265

PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My MD-Pro works fine with my HP system and XP.
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WaverBoy



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 4:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't there SOME WAY IN HELL that this cart can be tweaked to work with parallel-to-USB cables? I'm sorry, but parallel ports are dead, in case nobody has heard, and you'd sell a jillion more of these if we could make them work with our effing computers without having to go out and buy an entirely separate machine with a cobwebbed parallel printer port to flash ROMs. By the way, now that I've got the money to buy one of these, my girlfriend's old computer is long dead...just like parallel ports...

Please please PLEASE find a workaround for this and you've got an instant sale. And lots more sales too, I'd imagine. I'm dying to play tasty translated ROMs on real hardware...and my $$$ is yours...if you really want it.
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RGB_Gamer



Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Posts: 879

PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 5:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

WaverBoy wrote:
Isn't there SOME WAY IN HELL that this cart can be tweaked to work with parallel-to-USB cables? I'm sorry, but parallel ports are dead, in case nobody has heard, and you'd sell a jillion more of these if we could make them work with our effing computers without having to go out and buy an entirely separate machine with a cobwebbed parallel printer port to flash ROMs. By the way, now that I've got the money to buy one of these, my girlfriend's old computer is long dead...just like parallel ports...

Please please PLEASE find a workaround for this and you've got an instant sale. And lots more sales too, I'd imagine. I'm dying to play tasty translated ROMs on real hardware...and my $$$ is yours...if you really want it.


Yea it's great that some people have success with parallel port devices like the MD-PRO and other tototek flash carts, but not everyone has such success with their system, nor does everyone have a system with a parallel port (I don't even have any systems with floppy disk drives). USB has support for way more systems and OS's and it's the smartest and easiest since it's not the mid 1990's any more.
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Sonny_Jim



Joined: 05 May 2009
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 6:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just spent 10 minutes wrestling with the forum registration thingy just to say this:

MAKE ONE WITH USB AND I'LL BUY IT
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MottZilla



Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 765

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 1:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's actually alot harder to work with USB than Parallel. That's why it is the way it is. This is not a new idea, Tototek is well aware of this. Who knows if they are working on something. However if your PC doesn't have a parallel port, I think that PCI cards with Parallel ports might work, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Also SD cards are not as easy to work with as Compact Flash. CF would be a better choice.
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Sonny_Jim



Joined: 05 May 2009
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

It's actually alot harder to work with USB than Parallel.

First off, there's no such word as alot. Second, if USB was that much harder than parallel, all the DS flash cart solutions would use parallel rather than USB, wouldn't they? I haven't seen a single DS flash cart that uses parallel.

Quote:

Also SD cards are not as easy to work with as Compact Flash.

Compact flash is extremely easy to work with due to it's similarity to IDE stuff (you can actually rig up an IDE HDD to a CF slot without too much trouble) but it's not that much harder to use SD, which is what EVERYBODY uses now.

What I think has happened is that the Tototek design team doesn't have anyone who understands USB/SD standards, as most of the tech knowledge required for these sort of devices is in a different technological era to USB, hence why they only know parallel/CF tech.

Also bear in mind that noone has released a MD/Genesis cart that uses USB, Tototek have had noone to copy their design from, which is normally rife in the flash cart industry.
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MottZilla



Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 765

PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We don't need english lessons but thanks anyway.

Parallel is easier to work with and likely cheaper. Certainly no one having experience with USB could be part of it. Who knows though, they don't really talk about it.

And your last comment, I don't believe Tototek has ever copied a Flash Cart design. NeoFlash has that job.
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tcdev



Joined: 05 Jan 2011
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MottZilla wrote:
It's actually alot harder to work with USB than Parallel.

Also SD cards are not as easy to work with as Compact Flash. CF would be a better choice.

Wrong on both counts. There are USB chips available that make communication over USB easier than bit-bashing the parallel port.

Ditto for SD cards. Much easier hardware design and in SPI mode, much simpler than IDE.

The reason they still require a parallel cable is that the design leverages off the legacy flash cart design and they're too lazy/unable to update the hardware design. No real excuse for it in this day and age. Sooner or later someone will do a USB design and they'll never sell another MD-PRO.
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Chilly Willy



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right now, your choices are the Everdrive-MD as the cheapest MD flash cart; it reads games off SD cards and programs the flash from the MD itself. It's great for the price, and using the MD to burn the game to flash from SD is actually very quick and simple. The Everdrive can also play SMS games.

Next up in price is the MD-Pro; it's showing its age as it needs a parallel port programmer, only plays MD/32X games, and only has 32 or 64Mbits of flash. It still holds the record as most compatible, even working with the crappy AtGames Firecore emulated Genesis consoles and handhelds. I use my MD-Pro 64 in a RetroGen. If you need compatibility, the MD-Pro is still the best choice.

Finally, for folks with money to burn is the king of flash carts, the NeoFlash MD Myth 3-in-1; it plays SMS/MD/32X games, and allows you to boot replacement CD BIOSes, and can act as CD Backup RAM. It has EEPROM as well as the more normal Save RAM. It uses GBA flash carts for the flash and save ram, so you can easily swap GBA carts for more games in flash. It uses USB for programming the flash. If you use a GBA flash cart with SD interface, you can also run SMS/MD/32X/CD from SD/SDHC cards. This all comes at a price, with the Myth running about $160 with a 256Mbit GBA flash cart, and the Neo2-SD GBA cart with SD interface running about $60 to use SD/SDHC cards. If you have the money, this is the flash cart to get. It even has the YM2413 FM chip so that SMS games with FM will sound their best.

So you do have choices. Each flash cart out has their pros and cons. It's up to the buyer to decide what they need and if it fits their budget.
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SonSon



Joined: 03 Apr 2009
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I could do it over again I'd probably forgo the MD Pro and go with the Everdrive.
USB has a something to do with it. I had to get an old rig out of a dumpster (figuratively) just to program it since none of my pc's have parallel ports.
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Chilly Willy



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 174

PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SonSon wrote:
If I could do it over again I'd probably forgo the MD Pro and go with the Everdrive.
USB has a something to do with it. I had to get an old rig out of a dumpster (figuratively) just to program it since none of my pc's have parallel ports.


You can buy a computer capable of burning the MD Pro at thrift stores like St Vincent DePaul for as little as $20. Those old P2/P3 systems with real parallel ports are dirt cheap in those places now. Laughing
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haynor



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 31
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Use Krikzz everdrive cart.
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