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Hive multi-cart - It's alive!


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Looks like the microsd card + HIVE will fit flush inside the standard Mattel cart shell

Macro shots as promised :-

 

post-21935-0-55133700-1413137257_thumb.pngpost-21935-0-90808500-1413137291_thumb.pngpost-21935-0-71507000-1413137309_thumb.png

 

The 1st photo is of the Hive PCB with a microSD card in place, alongside a microSD card to MMC/SD adapter. The 2nd photo is of the Hive PCB "upside down" in a Mattel shell and the 3rd photo is of he Hive PCB the "right side up" in a Mattel shell, with the microSD card pointing towards the viewer.

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If you're looking for testing among the 20 preproduction orders, I also have Intellivision I, II, III, Super Pro System, Sylvania GTE, Tandyvision One, Sears Super Video Arcade, ECS, Synthesizer, Intellivoice...

 

I also have a pretty full set of ROMs to fill up the HIVE....should I make the random cut.

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Hello and thank you for the update. I am definitely interested in one of your multicarts. Good luck with all your projects!

 

... And speaking of other projects, Shigeru Miyamoto once said: "A delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever."

 

Anybody putting so much effort, dedication and care on the Intellivision console will always have my support. Take your time and keep us updated.

 

Cheers!

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From the pictures it looks like you'll need to open the cart shell to access the SD card. Is that the case, or am I seeing things wrong? A lot of multicarts allow access from outside the cart shell, for convenient image loading. Maybe it just looks worse here because it's microSD? I'm imagining a hole in the shell and some pretty delicate fingerwork to get the card in and out.

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I'm imagining a hole in the shell and some pretty delicate fingerwork to get the card in and out.

Thats pretty much what you had to do for the CC3 as well. The Hive will be supplied in a Mattel shell without a side access hole. Which means that developers can make an access hole (if they want) and collectors can leave it as is (if they want).

 

Once you've topped up the Hive's microSD with the ROMs you want to play then you'll most likely only need to access the memory card sporadically (as homebrews are released - should people release a ROM). As a developer, you might want to make an access hole in a donor cart shell and use that instead. As an example, the access hole in my own CC3 isn't pretty, but it certainly does the job :lol:.

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This is a HORRIBLE idea. I've yet to see ANY mass distribution of Elektronite roms under the current system. I use INTV emulators on many devices, I should be allowed to use the rom I purchase on those.

 

I cannot fault Groovy Bee for developing a game that works on hardware he also developed. It's not quite the same thing as the SGM for CV, 7800XM for 7800, or Harmony Encore for 2600. Those carts provide more oomph without being "proprietary." This sounds more like the MSU1 chip which is part of the SD2SNES. I also think you limit your sales by not making the game more universally compatible.

 

Has there been any updates lately (I tried weeding through the muck) on this?

 

I was given some additional information about the LTO Flash today and maybe it will make more sense why LTO and Elektronite went this route.

 

Elektronite has technically NOT distributed ANY of its ROMs. There is no 'current system' of ROM distribution.

 

Carl owns the rights to his rom distribution (as agreed to when he left the company). Carl went to a LOT of effort to program the game so the name that he assigns in the ROM cannot be messed with (edited etc) without breaking the ROM. He takes the time to enter the name of each purchaser into the rom and ties the rom to that person.

 

Therefore, anyone who distributes the rom (which they could do in theory) would be 'named and shamed'. Since the ROM is custom, he compiles each ROM individually.

 

Elektronite has NO INTENTION of customizing roms. Therefore, since there is no indicator of actually WHO distributed the rom, they certainly could be widely distributed. Therefore, Elektronite will NOT be releasing roms that work on anything but LTO Flash!

 

LTO Flash! is universally compatible. It will work on all unprotected ROMS. Its firmware is field upgradeable.

 

Someone mentioned that it is trivial to dump Intellivision games and said it was similar to Atari Roms. Elektronite games are well protected with JLP and no one without a ton of skills will be able to get their hands on the code. I challenge anyone to show me a working cartridge D2K Rom. (The one with no custom screen).

 

Classic Game Publishers has the rights to ONLY do a cartridge distribution on Boulder Dash. Rom releases COULD happen because of being able to protect the ROM, of course First Star Software has to agree to this. Otherwise, there will be no ROM option for Boulder Dash.

 

ROMs distributed for the LTO Flash will fill a low cost niche. Sorry if it won't work on emulators. An LTO Flash! working rom is better than no rom.

 

If people are offended by the idea of being able to protect a ROM on LTO Flash! I am sure that Joe would be happy to take that feature out for whoever doesn't want the feature. If they decide that they want to purchase protected roms like Boulder Dash, should it become available, they will be able to upgrade at no cost and gain the ability to run Elektronite games. Elektronite games won't run on 'The Hive' or LTO FLash! without the rom protection feature enabled.

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I was given some additional information about the LTO Flash today and maybe it will make more sense why LTO and Elektronite went this route.

 

Elektronite has technically NOT distributed ANY of its ROMs. There is no 'current system' of ROM distribution.

 

.

I can understand and respect their decision

 

Although, as for CollectorVision, we always share the rom files once the game is soldout

Being in the Colecovision scene, I know many people don't want to use their CIB copie to play

They prefer to use their SD multicart to play .....and there's also the people who simply don't buy the actual game and just want to play with their emulator/multicart

I'm pretty sure that's the same case in the INtv scene

 

So you can expect us to share the rom files so you can play using your favorite multicart or emulator

 

:)

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http://intellivisionrevolution.com/hive

 

 

Will update as more and better details are given.

 

 

post-19433-0-33116200-1413173432_thumb.jpg

 

 

For comparision, here is the Lto Flash info page I made:

 

http://www.intellivisionrevolution.com/ltoflash

 

 

Not really a side by side comparision chart, just highlights of each respective multicart, straight from the makers.

Edited by revolutionika
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Someone mentioned that it is trivial to dump Intellivision games and said it was similar to Atari Roms. Elektronite games are well protected with JLP and no one without a ton of skills will be able to get their hands on the code. I challenge anyone to show me a working cartridge D2K Rom. (The one with no custom screen).

 

That "someone" might have been me, from the way you phrased it - but I didn't say it was trivial to dump INTV. I said that it's trivial to dump 2600 games (took me all of 5 minutes to build a dumper) and I was curious if there was something I was missing about the INTV. I honestly have no idea what's involved. You say Elektronite games are protected with JLP - is this some sort of hardware protection against a device reading the binary code from a physical ROM chip?

 

Let me be absolutely clear on something - I am not in the slightest interested in dumping currently retailed games. Have never done it and never will. I'm not looking for technical explanations or anything, I'm more curious about what the future holds. Because I already envision the day, 15-20 years from now, where all of these paranoid people are no longer around or no longer give a shit and have zero interest in our hobby, and a cherished piece of our culture is at risk of disappearing. I was around while we all watched CPS2 boards die. We got lucky there.

 

And from a purely selfish perspective, I need to know what homebrew is not worth wasting my money on. If I wanted disposable games that I almost certainly won't be able to play in 10 years, I'd load up on Steam. ;) If a game like D2K is honest-to-good bound to a cart for all time, more power to it. It puts my interest level at exactly zero. I don't mind if developers and publishers want to stick their heads in the sand on this, because it's their right to and I won't challenge an individual's decision on that. But I've been through 35+ years of this and some of us remember why this community still exists in the first place. :)

Edited by freeweed
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You say Elektronite games are protected with JLP - is this some sort of hardware protection against a device reading the binary code from a physical ROM chip?

 

I think it is just the design of the cartridge hardware, but I could be wrong. I am not part of the design team. The information I posted was given to me, nearly verbatim, when I asked some questions.

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Nice pro LTO Flash! and DRM speech there SoulBuster :lol:. Oddly, I still don't feel the urge to go and promote Hive in any LTO Flash! threads because I'm not that desperate or insecure :P.

 

So, now you can upgrade to DRM on LTO Flash! :rolling:.

 

ROMs distributed for Hive will fill a ZERO cost niche.

Fixed that for ya! :P

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As well, you can keep my money it is dirty now.

Nope! Not interested in your money. I'll refund it to the paypal address I have on file for you, unless you tell me otherwise.

I have sent you a PM regarding your refund since you didn't bother to send me one. Once you've confirmed your refund email address you'll get the money.

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I have sent you a PM regarding your refund since you didn't bother to send me one. Once you've confirmed your refund email address you'll get the money.

I never asked for a refund, in fact I refused it.

 

I can wait forever for you to release the games. No problem and thank you for making them! ;)

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I never asked for a refund, in fact I refused it.

But you did say this :-

 

My friend and I are out a couple hundred bucks for games we pre-ordered and never received. 18 months ago?

Which would imply that you'd asked for a refund but were declined, when that wasn't actually the case.

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