EmOneGarand Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Was at K-Mart today and found a Sonic Blast plug-n-play for 14.99 so I got it. My main concern though is the fact it's a product by Techno Source.. who knows if it's really running on Game Gear hardware... they could have made a half assed version for a NOAC POS.. hoping my money wasn't wasted. Anybody else see these? I didn't see it posted anywhere else on the Dedicated Systems forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariman Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 well, that's the first that I've ever heard of them. I don't think I've seen them in the stores anywhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbanes Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Was at K-Mart today and found a Sonic Blast plug-n-play for 14.99 so I got it. That sounds like a very cool product! (Took 'em long enough.) Let us know how it plays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmOneGarand Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 Was at K-Mart today and found a Sonic Blast plug-n-play for 14.99 so I got it. That sounds like a very cool product! (Took 'em long enough.) Let us know how it plays! The D-Pad isn't alligned or the contact for left is cheap because moving left is a chore.. I compared it to a rom of Sonic Blast (though I could only get the Master System port) and they seem identical (albeit a few missing colors to be expected on an SMS port of a GG game) so it may be a GG-on-a-Chip (not too far fetched as Techno Source makes all of Coleco's stuff including the handheld). I'll get some pics of it and it's innards at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbanes Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 The D-Pad isn't alligned or the contact for left is cheap because moving left is a chore.. It's Sonic; who need to move left anyway? Forward, I say! I wonder if it's a design problem, or just an issue with your unit? I compared it to a rom of Sonic Blast (though I could only get the Master System port) and they seem identical (albeit a few missing colors to be expected on an SMS port of a GG game) so it may be a GG-on-a-Chip (not too far fetched as Techno Source makes all of Coleco's stuff including the handheld). I'll get some pics of it and it's innards at some point. My first thought is that it's Majesco's Genesis-on-a-Chip that they originally developed for the Genesis 3. After a bit of research, though, it sounds like you might be right. Technosource has another unit that again only plays GameGear/SMS games. And from the reviews I've seen, it sounds like the graphics are sub-par for even the Master System. Which means that they're probably the GameGear versions. When you think about it, that kind of sucks. Would it have killed Technosource to do a little extra work to update thier design to a full Master System? I mean, the GameGear is 80% of the way there, why not finish it? Maybe I should look for one of these instead: http://gameasylum.us/seplnplptvga.html Of course, I'm not sure if that's actually a legal PnP, which might make it a little hard to find. BTW, for those who are curious, this is what the unit looks like: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmOneGarand Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 The D-Pad isn't alligned or the contact for left is cheap because moving left is a chore.. It's Sonic; who need to move left anyway? Forward, I say! I wonder if it's a design problem, or just an issue with your unit? I compared it to a rom of Sonic Blast (though I could only get the Master System port) and they seem identical (albeit a few missing colors to be expected on an SMS port of a GG game) so it may be a GG-on-a-Chip (not too far fetched as Techno Source makes all of Coleco's stuff including the handheld). I'll get some pics of it and it's innards at some point. My first thought is that it's Majesco's Genesis-on-a-Chip that they originally developed for the Genesis 3. After a bit of research, though, it sounds like you might be right. Technosource has another unit that again only plays GameGear/SMS games. And from the reviews I've seen, it sounds like the graphics are sub-par for even the Master System. Which means that they're probably the GameGear versions. When you think about it, that kind of sucks. Would it have killed Technosource to do a little extra work to update thier design to a full Master System? I mean, the GameGear is 80% of the way there, why not finish it? Maybe I should look for one of these instead: http://gameasylum.us/seplnplptvga.html Of course, I'm not sure if that's actually a legal PnP, which might make it a little hard to find. BTW, for those who are curious, this is what the unit looks like: I just ordered one of those Sonic 20-in 1 PnP's through Targets website for $20 it has a far better game choice then the Handheld version. Theirs a Sonic Chaos/'Spinball version?? I would have preferred that over Blast... That guy needed to do alittle research before writing that review lol.. he thinks it's a Genesis game.. Sonic Blast was first released on the Game Gear then was ported to the Master System. As for a Master System game it wasn't designed with the SMS in mind so it doesn't look on par with other SMS games because it's a GG game. The game was titled Sonic Blast in the US because of Sonic 3D Blast, it had nothing to do with the genesis game and was somewhat the worst Sonic game ever made for the GameGear.. the pre-rendered sprites was a bad idea from the start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmOneGarand Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 (edited) Took the thing apart, two large globs... I can assume the central glob conceals the cpu but interestingly enough the second in on top of a small pcb with a glob in the middle, I do believe this is the rom chip.. (sorry about the picture quality.. only had my cell phone for pictures) heres a crude picture of the rom chip It has 44 pins, a few unused. The original Game Gear had 45 for it's cartridges, the last 3 (43,44,45) being used for the TV Tuner, I think this is quite hackable Edited January 20, 2007 by EmOneGarand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Maybe I should look for one of these instead: http://gameasylum.us/seplnplptvga.html Of course, I'm not sure if that's actually a legal PnP, which might make it a little hard to find. I picked one of these up at Frys a few weeks ago (for about $15.00), and they must be legal, just look at the title on this screen: here are some more pictures: base unit screen 1 screen 2 screen 3 screen 4 screen 5 box later, Charles www.evg2000.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 They look like cheap crap, BUT it is exciting having all this retro hardware on the store shelves. I keep one eye on the benheck.com forums to see what people are doing with them ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmOneGarand Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 They look like cheap crap, BUT it is exciting having all this retro hardware on the store shelves. I keep one eye on the benheck.com forums to see what people are doing with them ... I like what Ben Heck has been able to do but it's so bulky and ugly :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmOneGarand Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Started my project with a simple controller port hack (how do you resize images on this forum?) It works great so far, since I didn't have a genesis controller I plug in an Atari 2600 joystick hah hah let me tell you.. playing Sonic with an Atari joystick is smooth. Some minor problems though.. I wired it according to the Master System pinout which creates the problem of no start button, I wired that wire to TH on the DB-9 but since I don't have a Genesis pad with me as of now I can't test that. My next step is to incorporate a second player controller port but I have no clue how to wire this to the board since the unit was built for a single player game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese007 Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 (edited) They look like cheap crap, BUT it is exciting having all this retro hardware on the store shelves. I keep one eye on the benheck.com forums to see what people are doing with them ... I like what Ben Heck has been able to do but it's so bulky and ugly :/ A lot of it is, but some of it is really nice. Like the Playboy or L64 made by some of the members. Maybe a downsized GG could be made. It would certainly save space. Edited January 23, 2007 by Cheese007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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