36 replies to this topic

[Yurkie]

I thought I would start a new thread about this Multi-Cart for the Genesis. I really want to get the Everdrive-MD because I have no real desire to collect carts or CIBs for the Genesis, I just want to play the games on the real hardware.

I bought the Model 1 back in 1990 or 1991, and only owned the Sonic games. I played it for a year or so and don't even remember what happened to it. I just got another Model 1 yesterday, and a few carts.

Monopoly - real cool version, other than inability to go to a screen with your properties listed
Risk - Love it, awesome translation of a favorite board game of mine...so good I am looking forward to other board game carts
6 in 1 - I really like the game Super Hang On
Earthworm Jim - Super Cool game, I suck at it though

Anyway I really want to get the Everdrive-MD and would love to hear comments or tips or anything related to it that people care to share.

Thanks

[thegoldenband]

It's absolutely terrific!  It plays every officially released Genesis title except Virtua Racing, every officially released SMS title except F-16 Fighting Falcon, and every 32X game (except the CD games, of course).  There are a bare handful of games that have issues with EEPROM saving, but patches are available for almost all of those, and most are sports games.  The only other things that don't work are around a half-dozen oddball unlicensed Chinese/Taiwanese games, and a few Korean SMS games that use legacy video modes or weird mappers.

It's super-easy to use, and the designer is extraordinarily helpful -- when I reported a problem with SMS games, he had a fix within a couple hours.  About the only thing it doesn't do is act as a backup RAM cart for Sega CD games.  (It also doesn't have FM hardware for the SMS games that use it, but that's a very niche thing, really.)

Edited by thegoldenband, Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:24 PM.

[Yurkie]

thegoldenband, on Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:22 PM, said:

It's absolutely terrific!  It plays every officially released Genesis title except Virtua Racing, every officially released SMS title except F-16 Fighting Falcon, and every 32X game (except the CD games, of course).  There are a bare handful of games that have issues with EEPROM saving, but patches are available for almost all of those, and most are sports games.  The only other things that don't work are around a half-dozen oddball unlicensed Chinese/Taiwanese games, and a few Korean SMS games that use legacy video modes or weird mappers.

It's super-easy to use, and the designer is extraordinarily helpful -- when I reported a problem with SMS games, he had a fix within a couple hours.  About the only thing it doesn't do is act as a backup RAM cart for Sega CD games.  (It also doesn't have FM hardware for the SMS games that use it, but that's a very niche thing, really.)

You seem very knowledgeable. I assume that some of the RPG games have a save feature. Does the Everdrive-MD allow you to save just like the cart would?

[thegoldenband]

Yurkie, on Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:53 PM, said:

You seem very knowledgeable.

Thanks!

Yurkie, on Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:53 PM, said:

I assume that some of the RPG games have a save feature. Does the Everdrive-MD allow you to save just like the cart would?

It does, though I should add that I haven't really used that feature, because it used to be kind of a pain (and also because I have a lot of RPGs on actual carts).  From what I understand, recent updates to the OS of the EverDrive have made savegame management much simpler than it used to be -- I think it's pretty much plug-and-play now, though someone should correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW there's a good list hereof all the Genesis games that have a savegame feature.  The ones marked EEPROM are the ones that have problems, though as I mentioned, most have been patched.  Most RPGs do use some form of savegame, but a few use passwords instead, like Faery Tale Adventure.  Some of the strategy games use passwords too, which is a little disappointing since they tend to be either absurdly long or insufficiently detailed -- Centurion of Rome is one example -- but the Koei games use savegames.

Edited by thegoldenband, Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:10 PM.

[Tempest]

Quick question, how do you do something like Sonic 3+Sonic & Knuckles with the Everdrive MD?

[Rex Dart]

You slap a Sonic 3 & Knuckles rom on the cart & load it.   
If you don't have one, I'm pretty sure you can copy /b sonic3.bin+sonickandknuckles.bin sonic3andknuckles.bin to create it.

[Tempest]

Rex Dart, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:38 AM, said:

You slap a Sonic 3 & Knuckles rom on the cart & load it.   
If you don't have one, I'm pretty sure you can copy /b sonic3.bin+sonickandknuckles.bin sonic3andknuckles.bin to create it.

I think everyone owns those games.  I was just curious as to if it works with the Everdrive.  I'm making a list of games I'm going to need to keep (like VR Racing).

[Rex Dart]

I don't know of any games besides VR Racing (extra chip in that cart) that won't work or can't be made to work easily.

[Yurkie]

Tempest, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:02 AM, said:

Rex Dart, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:38 AM, said:

You slap a Sonic 3 & Knuckles rom on the cart & load it.   
If you don't have one, I'm pretty sure you can copy /b sonic3.bin+sonickandknuckles.bin sonic3andknuckles.bin to create it.

I think everyone owns those games.  I was just curious as to if it works with the Everdrive.  I'm making a list of games I'm going to need to keep (like VR Racing).

So your dumping any game that works on the Everdrive-MD? I love the multi-carts. Heck as much as I love the ColecoVision, I almost never have anything inserted except the SD multi-cart.

[Tempest]

Yurkie, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:14 AM, said:

So your dumping any game that works on the Everdrive-MD? I love the multi-carts. Heck as much as I love the ColecoVision, I almost never have anything inserted except the SD multi-cart.

Yep, that's the plan.  I'm going to sell my Genesis, SMS, and 32X collections and use the proceeds to by some Everdrive carts.  I might also sell some of my SNES collection, but I need to see which games have special chips in them and save those.  But that's a whole separate discussion.

[Rex Dart]

Man, I don't think I could ever part with my Sega games.  They have such nice cases!

[thegoldenband]

Rex Dart, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:20 AM, said:

I don't know of any games besides VR Racing (extra chip in that cart) that won't work or can't be made to work easily.

A couple still need patching to work with EEPROM saving -- Rings of Power comes to mind.  I think a fix was recently completed for Wonder Boy in Monster World.  I believe there are a few games fail to boot if their EEPROM routine isn't patched, so it's not just a savegame issue (I could be wrong though).

And then there are the unlicensed games, of course, which often have copy protection hardware and need to be patched before they'll work on anything (except for those emulators which have ROM-specific hacks built in).

Tempest, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:19 AM, said:

I might also sell some of my SNES collection, but I need to see which games have special chips in them and save those.

OT, but here's a list of SNES games with enhancement chips for when that time comes.  25 US games, 2 PAL exclusives, 35 Japanese exclusives, and 1 game released in both Europe and Japan.  Most of the Japanese exclusives aren't too exciting -- lots of sports games, racing games, and mech games.  Of course, if you get an SNES Everdrive with the DSP-1 chip, you can reduce this list by around 25%.

There are also a few protos that used the Super FX chip, the most notable of which (by far) is Star Fox 2.  The others are Powerslide -- early alpha IIRC -- and the US version of Winter Gold (FX Skiing), which could easily be identical to the released PAL version, but hasn't been dumped yet.  AFAIK the other unreleased SFX games haven't shown up anywhere.

Edited by thegoldenband, Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:26 PM.

[Yurkie]

I ordered the EverDrive md yesterday morning, now I a just hoping there was at least one in stock.

Can I play the SMS games with the EverDrive md?

What about the 32 x

I know the cd games won't play.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Yurkie, on Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:54 PM, said:

I ordered the EverDrive md yesterday morning, now I a just hoping there was at least one in stock.

Can I play the SMS games with the EverDrive md?

What about the 32 x

I know the cd games won't play.

YES you can play most SMS games and 32X games but you still need a 32X (seems obvious but I have seen people not get this) and Sega CD games are more images then roms and so much bigger and it would not be just a matter of passing the CD data through to a Genesis anyway as there is actually hardware needed as well. Just a heads up well worth checking the official overdrive forums even just to look around if you do not want to join, all the info your after and more with the actual creator often posting:

http://www.assembler...isplay.php?f=89

[Yurkie]

Thank You Oldschoolretrogamer.

I will check out the link, I was unaware that there was such a forum. Much appreciated.

[Yurkie]

I was reading in the forum linked above, and it sounds like you have to screw around with settings. I want to be an "end user" and plug and play. Is it a pain in the ass to just load and go, and save games and enjoy it?

Example, I know this is the Super Everdrive, but I don't want hassles like this.

http://www.assembler...ead.php?t=35822

[skosh]

Besides the official support forums you may want to go to http://krikzz.com/ for general information about them. For each one there are links to all the sellers as well. You may prefer to just purchase the loose board as you are used to modding things I've purchase all my carts from store.kitsch-bent.com as they seem to have had what I wanted in stock at the time and I do not mind providing a case(you save a few $ as well). These carts sell out very quickly.

In case you do not see this in the support forums there is going to be an Ultimate version created for the Genesis and a cart for the TG16 coming out as well.

[Yurkie]

I have the "board only" on the way, because that was all that was available. I think it really should be "board and label", I mean who want a plain black case with a board inside. Cutting the case will be cake. I am just concerned about all this firmware and save stuff I am reading.

[Rex Dart]

Who wants a plain black case indeed... I cut up a PAL Sonic 1 cart for mine.  
The firmware & saves are really no problem at all.  Just post if you have an issue & there's probably a one-time fix you can do to get whatever working.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Yurkie, on Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:22 AM, said:

I was reading in the forum linked above, and it sounds like you have to screw around with settings. I want to be an "end user" and plug and play. Is it a pain in the ass to just load and go, and save games and enjoy it?

Example, I know this is the Super Everdrive, but I don't want hassles like this.

http://www.assembler...ead.php?t=35822

Though not necessarily in this case I will say MANY MANY hassles people have are resolved just having newer firmware (you will have since buying recently) and latest version of the OS.

[Yurkie]

So was there no real beta testing done?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Yurkie, on Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:53 PM, said:

So was there no real beta testing done?

It was very functional from the beginning but hard to check every single game, save etc, I always looked at it more that Krizz is always looking to improve, he listens to his buyers, gets and gives feedback constantly and really tries to solve any issues people have at least from a lot of what I have seen on the forums. I have run several Homebrews and unreleased roms on it too I am sure you will be pleased.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Yurkie, on Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:53 PM, said:

So was there no real beta testing done?

Of course it was tested. But there are many different game and hardware configuration out there (especially for the Genesis). This isn't a team of 20 people, its 1 guy who lives in Ukraine. It is not easy to come by classic gaming stuff in Ukraine and very expensive to ship it over.

Honestly KRIKzz (Igor) is faster to fix problems than most companies are. I suggest if you check out official forums:
http://www.assembler...isplay.php?f=89

[SlowCoder]

Yurkie, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:14 AM, said:

... I almost never have anything inserted ...

You should go see a doctor ...

(Sorry, couldn't resist )

Yurkie, on Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:22 AM, said:

I was reading in the forum linked above, and it sounds like you have to screw around with settings. I want to be an "end user" and plug and play. Is it a pain in the ass to just load and go, and save games and enjoy it?

Example, I know this is the Super Everdrive, but I don't want hassles like this.

http://www.assembler...ead.php?t=35822

It's been a while since I got mine, but as I remember, I downloaded the latest firmware and dropped the file on my SD card.  Then I loaded the cart on my Genesis and proceeded with the firmware update.  Didn't take very long.  After that I just copied my ROMs to the SD card, and off I went.  Other than the firmware, I don't think I had to tweak any settings on the cart at all.

[Rex Dart]

^ Describes my experience, too.  The thing works great on each of the four different sega models I've tried it on (1, 2, 3, CDX).