ToToTEK.COM

[madman]

I recently received an MGD1 + PC-E adaptor. Is there any intelligence to this thing, or do I just stick a disk in and it loads the image? The MGD2 at least has a rudimentary menu built in, but I don't see any buttons on this thing at all. Using Tomy's PC<->MGD-1 cable, will I be able to use the same send utility as the MGD2? Lastly, does anyone know of a disassembler that will properly disassemble pclink20.exe? I've tried a couple windows based disassemblers but none seemed to work properly. I'd like to write a bit of a better utility for my MGD2.

[kyuusaku]

Yup, you stick a disk in and it loads. MGD1's only UI is the uninformative 7-seg display.

Yes, it uses the same PC-Link.

I don't believe you can send game images to the MGD1 through the parallel cable, MGD1 appears to only support FDS transfer through BIOS routines.

Tried IDA?

[madman]

Haven't tried IDA, I'll look into that. I haven't used an x86 disasm in years and the few I did download seemed to be aimed at Windows apps specifically, not old DOS apps. They would either bomb out, or would assume 98% of pclink was data, not instructions.

Thanks for the info, I take it the PC link is for backup only? There is one "button" on top of the floppy interface which plugs into the famicom slot, I assume it's basically a reset button. I haven't powered it up yet. Is it true that the unit originally only loaded from FDS floppies and the 3.5" drive was introduced later?

How rare are MGD1 interfaces? I read somewhere there were backup interfaces, but have never seen pictures of them as I have the MGD2 backup board. Either way, it's pretty fun to have a unit like this.

On an unrelated note, if anyone has a Gameboy MGD2 interface they'd like to get rid of, please PM

[kyuusaku]

Yes it's true that MGD1 originally only loaded from FDS disks. The PC Link is as I said, I believe solely for read/writing FDS disks.

The button on the top of the 3.5" interface is to select files.

AFAIK, there are no backup interfaces, I have bought MGD1 "backup" interfaces which are actually normal MD interfaces with battery backed SRAM (which cannot be read/written by the MGD1 of course.) It's a misunderstanding. All the MGD1 can do is load files and emulate a 8 or 16 bit ROM on a multiplexed bus, nothing else.

AFAIK, there are only 3 MGD1 interfaces: PCE/MD/SFC. The only one that's rare is SFC. The other two are common and worth ~$10.

[madman]

Did the FDS RAM adaptor just plug into the top of the MGD1, or how did that interfacing work?

[kyuusaku]

Yup, the FDS "RAM adapter" fits into the MGD1 (it's I/O cord goes into the round groove on the MGD1.) To load a game, you simply insert the disks. Imagine having to insert a disk 16 times (8 disks) for a 8M game.

[system64]