Everdrives and Flashcarts

[madhatter667]

I'll preface this with: I love my Ultimate Cart for 8 bit Atari. Good stuff.

 

I am pretty well sold on needing an Everdrive N8 Famicom version for my collection. I have NES, Famicom, and clones of both in my collection. Have an AV Famicom lined up for purchase. The Everdrive only cares if the ROM is system compatible, not if it had 72, or 60 pins. I could load this up with a large portion of my games, including translations of games that I own in Japanese. I'm not as worried about FDS emulation. I know there are good games on there, but if I need to extensively read Japanese, and there isn't a translation out there, I might as well not. Lol. If I had the cash, I'd be ordering one right now.

 

A Genny rig with the Everdrive that supports SMS and 32x sounds way fun. I have a Sega clone that will do Genny ROMs from SD card, but it's nowhere near the level of playable that the real hardware would be (it's the At Games portable clone. Motion controllers, sort of Wii like). Should have never ditched all my Sega stuff.

 

A Harmony cart for my 2600 titles, and whatever the 7800 version would be for those, and it would be easy to set up a system, cart in slot, on a switchbox.

 

I have a modest SNES collection, though it is a well loved console. I had way more titles once upon a time.

Anyone have the Everderive SNES? How is it for game compatibility? What about the SNES2SD? Is it worth the extra cash? I know that some of the special chips aren't supported, or well supported. Experiences?

 

I have these consoles, clones, and I also emulate on top of all of that, so I have many ways to play. I still like playing on original hardware, though I am starting to lean towards flash media for pure playing.

[goldenegg]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/127752-flashcart-and-multicart-list-all-systems/

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

A Genny rig with the Everdrive that supports SMS and 32x sounds way fun. I have a Sega clone that will do Genny ROMs from SD card, but it's nowhere near the level of playable that the real hardware would be (it's the At Games portable clone. Motion controllers, sort of Wii like). Should have never ditched all my Sega stuff.

 

 

I am sure you know this but just looking at your phrasing just remember the Everdrive for Genesis does support 32x but you will still need the 32x hardware to make use of them, it wont play them on just a Genesis or clone. I have seen people confused by this (usually the same people shocked they don't load SegaCD ISO's as well) but anyway just clarifying.

[+Black_Tiger]

Most of the SNES games which use special chips can be bought cheap. I paid $20 for an SFC lot including Super Mario Allstars with SMW, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG and Yoshi's Island. Starfox and Doom are also cheap.

 

The SD2SNES is worth it just for the ability to play sound rip roms. If you don't care about that or MSU1 hacks, then just stick to the Super Everdrive.

[madhatter667]

Starfox I own still, and Doom I rock on PC....so having those as options for SNES.... not the end of the world (same goes for Wolf3D). Mostly, I am inexperienced with the various mapper types, and wasn't aware until recently that ROM size played any roles in compatibility (new to flashcarts). But loading games like Dragon Quest 5 and 6, Hagane, Legend, Super Metroid etc. Seems like a good tool to have in the collection.

[7800fan]

 

I am sure you know this but just looking at your phrasing just remember the Everdrive for Genesis does support 32x but you will still need the 32x hardware to make use of them, it wont play them on just a Genesis or clone. I have seen people confused by this (usually the same people shocked they don't load SegaCD ISO's as well) but anyway just clarifying.

 

And with 32x installed, you can't play SMS games at all. You got to remove 32X and change video cable to play SMS games. I leave SMS games on my Game Gear with LCD mod, less hassle than having to fiddy around with a touchy tempermental system that easily stops working because of shitty cable connection and multiple connectors.

[madhatter667]

Sure...but I'm more interested in SMS and Genny than 32x, though I'd do it if I found one cheap enough again.

 

Sold on Everdrive N8, Harmony. Got a Gotek with firmware for ST that I will be setting up soon. I'll have a look at my SNES ROM majority. Lol.

Edited May 6, 2016 by madhatter667

[78001987]

I ended up getting a Master Everdrive for my SMS, even though I already had a Everdrive MD. The lack of 3D game support and interest in SG-1000 games drove me to it.

 

Plus my SMS is set up on my CRT tv whereas my Genesis is set up on an LCD so no light gun games either.

[Merendino]

Most of the SNES games which use special chips can be bought cheap. I paid $20 for an SFC lot including Super Mario Allstars with SMW, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG and Yoshi's Island. Starfox and Doom are also cheap.

 

The SD2SNES is worth it just for the ability to play sound rip roms. If you don't care about that or MSU1 hacks, then just stick to the Super Everdrive.

This isn't true.

 

The SD2SNES handles some VERY expensive games that the Super Everdrive does not. With the insane price-climbing recently I highly recommend a SD2SNES.

 

The only games the SD2SNES doesn't play are:

 

Dirt Trax FX

Vortex

PGA Tour 96

PGA European Tour

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Star Fox

Star Fox 2

Street Fighter Alpha 2

Power Rangers Zeo Battle Racers

Kirby Superstar

Kirby's Dreamland 3

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Stunt Race FX

Doom

 

With the SD2SNES also able to play the MSU games I know regret will eventually set in that you didn't grab one; I speak from experience.

[Punisher5.0]

I really like the SD2SNES. It's well worth the money. I really like that it's update able and could possibly get Super FX support in the future.

 

@Merendino : Also Winter Gold for the no play list

[Gabriel]

I have both a Super Everdrive with DSP-1 chip (I think that's what it's called), and a SD2SNES.

 

For me, nearly all the games I want to play are playable on both, and the few games which don't work are unsupported by both. I suggest looking up some incompatibility lists and seeing if anything you like is supported by one but not the other. But my experience is that both have effectively the same compatibility.

 

The SD2SNES is updated periodically, and I hope that someday it is updated with support for the chips for Starfox, Starfox 2, and Super Mario RPG, but it hasn't happened yet, and I'm not holding my breath.

 

From a usability standpoint, SD2SNES has a prettier menu. Also, SD2SNES loads game roms MUCH quicker. So, I tend to use my SD2SNES much more than my Super Everdrive. Was it worth the extra money? That's a personal call.

 

So, my personal experience is that both are about the same, it's just that the Super Everdrive takes about 10 seconds or so to load new games when selecting them from the menu.

 

Edit: and to be clear, Merendino is probably right. It's just that I don't really run into the rare and expensive games he mentions.

[CatPix]

The "problem" with the additionnal chips in the Super Nintendo is that they aren't merely bank switchs and RAM, but a whole CPU and GPU package that require processing power.

Unless the SD2NES have an internal CPU that is beefy enough to emulate the SuperFX chip, then no amount of update will ever make it compatible with those games.

[Punisher5.0]

I have both a Super Everdrive with DSP-1 chip (I think that's what it's called), and a SD2SNES.

 

For me, nearly all the games I want to play are playable on both, and the few games which don't work are unsupported by both. I suggest looking up some incompatibility lists and seeing if anything you like is supported by one but not the other. But my experience is that both have effectively the same compatibility.

 

The SD2SNES is updated periodically, and I hope that someday it is updated with support for the chips for Starfox, Starfox 2, and Super Mario RPG, but it hasn't happened yet, and I'm not holding my breath.

 

From a usability standpoint, SD2SNES has a prettier menu. Also, SD2SNES loads game roms MUCH quicker. So, I tend to use my SD2SNES much more than my Super Everdrive. Was it worth the extra money? That's a personal call.

 

So, my personal experience is that both are about the same, it's just that the Super Everdrive takes about 10 seconds or so to load new games when selecting them from the menu.

 

Edit: and to be clear, Merendino is probably right. It's just that I don't really run into the rare and expensive games he mentions.

Megaman X2 and 3 are big ones that only the SD2SNES can do.

 

I have almost all the real games that both can't do like Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Mario RPG so it's not a big deal to me. I much prefer actual carts and I actually use the SD2SNES as like a preview. I've bought several games that I liked enough. It's also nice to lay in bed sometimes and play with a Supaboy and just jump from game to game.

[Guspaz]

The "problem" with the additionnal chips in the Super Nintendo is that they aren't merely bank switchs and RAM, but a whole CPU and GPU package that require processing power.

Unless the SD2NES have an internal CPU that is beefy enough to emulate the SuperFX chip, then no amount of update will ever make it compatible with those games.

The SD2SNES has an onboard FPGA which is used to simulate the various chips that it supports. It certainly seems capable of supporting the SuperFX, and the developer claimed years ago to have a working prototype, but it seems that he never finished support for it. It's probably going to be done some day, but who knows how long. It uses a Spartan3 XC3S400 FPGA. It's not emulating chips like you're assuming. It could be considered hardware emulation rather than software emulation. I believe that the clockspeed that the FPGA is capable of is way higher than any of the enhancement chips (and it supports the Cx4 that has roughly double the clockspeed of the original SuperFX), but it's a question of if the FPGA has enough gates and enough RAM to implement a chip.

 

The SD2SNES also has an onboard processor, but it's not all that powerful: it's an ARM Cortex M3 running at 100MHz.

 

Anyhow, of the chips that are currently not supported, the GSU-1/2 (SuperFX), SPC7110, and S-DD1 are planned, the SA1 is uncertain (he's not sure if the FPGA can support it), and the ST-011 and ST-018 are impossible. Pretty much everything else is already working.

[CatPix]

I know how FPGA works, tho without knowing the internals of the carts I couldn't say more.

 

I know that FPGA use "hardware emulation." The Amstrad CPC computer in their later versions used an ASIC instead of their custom made "Gate Array" so I also know that this technology is mature enough to be used in all kind of products

 

Welll it's just a matter of waiting for the right upgrade then.

Edited May 9, 2016 by CatPix