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Hello.
Just got a SMS Everdrive today. I tried it with a japanese SMS console and Bocks Gender Adapter. I couldnt get any game to work. I was getting the menu screen, then the game folders screen, i would pick a game to play, but once it was finished loading it, i would get only a black screen. I updated the OS, tried tons of games, but all of them got me a black screen.
I removed the SMS Everdrive from the console and went to my job. At night i got back home, decided and really exited to keep trying more roms and asking online what could be happening. Sudenly it happened. An idiot (me) put back the Everdrive back on the SMS, but he (me) inserted it backwards. Now i turn on the console and i dont get any Everdrive screens at all, only a black screen. I tried other carts on the SMS and it works fine, its only the Everdrive that doesnt work.
Did the idiot (me), fry the Everdrive by inserting it backwards.
I am so sad i could cry, this was suposed to be a great day, but that idiot (me), ruined it.
Dont laugh guys, i am really disapointed.
Any advice?
Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the long post.

Is the ED supposed to work on a Jap SMS?

Re your now non-working ED, I would speculate that you've blown something on the card by inserting it backwards, as the console would have pushed voltage to it in the wrong spots. Probably one of the chips has blown and will need replacing.

Hello again.
I contacted Krikzz , the creator of the SMS Everdrive to ask for help. He told me to press button 1+2+right at the same time, and it worked! The Everdrive is working again!
Still cant get any game to work though. May be a compatibility issue with my japanese Master System. I am going to buy an american console to try it out.

It works on my Japanese SMS with the Gender Adapter.

Also, I have plugged Everdrive in the wrong direction so many times and haven't damaged it.

I suppose you have tried many games, not just games using obscure mappers?

Hi.
Has enyone here tried to use the Everdrive on a japanese SMS? I am using it trough the Gender Adapter. I cant get any game to work in mine. The everdrive reads and loads the games, but i only get a black screen afterwards.
Could changeing the Everdrives OS help in this situation?
Thanks in advance.

*MOD* Merged topics.

Hello Bock. Glad to know i am not the only one that has inserted the everdrive the wrong way, hehe. Its weird that yours didnt get damaged like mine. Thanks to Krikzz, mine is working again as i already mentioned.
I have tried like 30 diferent games so far, from the most common to the rarest. I have tried japanese ones, american, european... and nothing.
I use the same Sd card on the Megadrive and it works fine. I use original carts on hte SMS and it works fine.
Any ideas?

Hmm I'm not sure. It could be that either your Everdrive or your Gender Adapter are damaged in some way (if it is the adapter I'll replace it for you).

When you select a game, can you see the screen where it is writing the data to the embedded memory of the Everdrive? It takes a few seconds, maybe a few dozen seconds for the bigger games.

Does the Gender Adapter works properly with normal cartridges?

Yes Bock, i get the screen were the Everdrive is erasing and then reading the game. But as it finishes doing so, the screen goes black and stays there.
I havent tried the gender adapter with any carts, since i only have japanese ones.
I am going to have to buy a cheap american SMS console, and an american cart, to find out if its the Everdrive or the Gender Adapter that isnt working well. The problem is that Master System and games arent easy to find in my area, so it might take me some time to report whats happening.
Thanks for your sugestions.

I recently got a EverDrive too.

And i had the same problem.
The menu loaded up, the game was written into the everdrive memory and the screen went black and stuck there.

My problem was on the memory card. I had to re-format the card into FAT16 (it came factory formatted as FAT32, i think).
Suddenly, the games started working.

So, if you see the everdrive menu and the game writting screen, chances are, your gender adapter is working fine.

Try to reformat your sd card, if you use windows, be sure to select FAT (not FAT32 and not NTFS).

That did the trick to me.
Also, filenames have to 8.3 format.

So, "Alex Kidd.sms" doesn't work, but "alexkidd.sms" does.

Other than that, i had zero problems with the everdrive, and since it was my fault (not formating the card right), i have nothing bad to say about the everdrive. :)

tibone that sounds exactly like whats happening to me.
The problem is, my PC doesnt give me the option for FAT16 formatting, only FAT32. What can i do?

saturndual32 wrote

tibone that sounds exactly like whats happening to me.
The problem is, my PC doesnt give me the option for FAT16 formatting, only FAT32. What can i do?

if you're in windows xp (not sure for win vista/7)at command prompt: format <drive> /FS:FAT

Not sure how to do it for linux or other operating systems.

Yeah, i am using windows XP. I did what you said Maraakate, and it got formated. But still with every game i try, i only get a black screen.
I am going to check out some programs for formatting SD cards on the net, and see if i get a diferent result.

I formated the SD cards to FAT 16, but the console still cant play the games after it reads them, darn it.
Thanks for the sugestions so far guys.

By the way, i am using a japanese SMS model MK-2000. Could the problem be a compatibility issue with this model in parituclar?
My USA Master System should arrive in about 10 days, we will se what happens once i try the Everdrive there.
By the way, i am not trying to make bad publicity for the Everdrive, i love Krikzz products, i have a Megadrive Everdrive (works great!), already ordered a SNES one, and i am waiting for for the PCEngine ones to be in stock, to order one. And i will get a N64 one in the near future as well. And he is a great guy.

There's only one model of Japanese SMS afaik.

have you tried 8.3 naming?

Just take the known good alex kidd rom dump and name it

ALEX.SMS

leave only that file on it, and see if it works.

Hi Maraakate. Yeah i tried your sugestion about renaming the roms as you said, but still, i get the darn black screen. Do i need to rename the roms with a special tool?, because i aint doing it that way.

nope, just rename it in your OS like any other file.

Are you sure you renamed the extension? i.e. from the command prompt

ren "alex kidd.sms" alex.sms

etc.

Yeah, i renamed like 20 games the way you said, and the extension is still .sms, but still, cant get a single game to work.
I tried that very same SD card, with the same games on the Megadrive Everdrive, and they work fine.

I guess you will have to wait until the other SMS arrives to verify if it is something with the Everdrive itself.

I've got a Japanese SMS as well, although I'm using a ToToTEK adapter as opposed to the Gender Adapter. I'll be getting my Master Everdrive in the mail sometime today so I'll let everyone know how it goes.

EDIT: Works fine!

The ToToTEk adapter is the better choice since it has a wider compatibility including all those games with programming routines that don't get well with the fact of being played through the expansion port.

Yesterday i received an american SMS, and i have been playing nonstop since then. The Everdrive works fine, the issue seems to be with the gender adapter, but i dont have any amarican carts to really try it out. I guess i am gonna buy one of those Tototek adapters then.
Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and replies.

saturndual32 wrote

Yesterday i received an american SMS, and i have been playing nonstop since then. The Everdrive works fine, the issue seems to be with the gender adapter, but i dont have any amarican carts to really try it out. I guess i am gonna buy one of those Tototek adapters then.
Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and replies.

E-mail me and I'll send you another gender adapter to test with. Mine works fine here. Maybe yours was damaged in shipping? Do all the connections looks correct?

OK Bock, i will get in contact with you, thanks, you are very nice.

So, how did this end?
I just received a MasterEverdrive and I am on the same boat.
I was even able to flash the masterED OS from v4 to v5 which means reading from the SD card does work.

Any hint? Was the adapter "broken"? I will try to reflow and resolder all connection just in case there's a cold joint or a cracked one.

I cannot get to it until tomorrow so if someone knows what to do I will appreciate.

phoenixdownita wrote

So, how did this end?
I just received a MasterEverdrive and I am on the same boat.
I was even able to flash the masterED OS from v4 to v5 which means reading from the SD card does work.

Any hint? Was the adapter "broken"? I will try to reflow and resolder all connection just in case there's a cold joint or a cracked one.

I cannot get to it until tomorrow so if someone knows what to do I will appreciate.

I resoldered every pin and did continuity test and it all looked good. I will have an US game coming in 2 or 3 days to completely rule out the converter. I suspect it has to do with the MasterED, my theory is that it reinitialize the HW before starting the game and in doing so disables/mess up the expansion slot ... just a theory, I have posted in assemblergames.com (http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?43494-Master-ED-on-Jap-SMS-and-gender-adaptor-at-smspower-NO-GAMES-WORK) to see if Krikzz can take a look and help.

I will update both sites when I have news.

Ah, I'm using one of the early batch of Everdrive so it could be that the new OS software is failing at writing the right byte to (C000h) or messing up with the slot registers. !

Bock wrote

Ah, I'm using one of the early batch of Everdrive so it could be that the new OS software is failing at writing the right byte to (C000h) or messing up with the slot registers. !

Hi Bock,

any chance you can share what OS version of MasterED you are running.
The current Master ED shows the OS loaded on the bottom left corner (something like OS v5). Maybe that could help Krikzz pinpoint the cause.

On a side note I have a US SMS coming my way (although with the cartridge slot malfunctioning) so at least I can try my MasterED on US SMS through the adaptor and see if it works there (I doubt).

Again I'll keep both sites posted.

I think I was using v3.
v2 had bugs on a JSMS and I helped Krizz to fix them.

Bock wrote

I think I was using v3.
v2 had bugs on a JSMS and I helped Krizz to fix them.

bummer, v3 is not available to download anymore only v1,v2 and v4,v5. (not that it matters to me as my MasterED does not let me flash down anymore)

Is there any way you can verify if it was v3? (I think we can rule out v4 and v5 given my experience unless there is more than one revision of JSMS)
Once I have the US SMS I will try there and see if OS v5 works.

Got a US game ("Great Basketball") and it works through gender adapter so the adapter seems to be working just fine. I can see a MarkIII logo appear just before the game proper starts.

I am still waiting for the US SMS and try there.

2 possibilities:
1) it works
2) it doesn't

if 1) then possible issue with Jap SMS maybe init or some other incompatibility (will have to get chipset version)
if 2) then mess up with extension slot at game init

Will see, maybe KRIKzz is already working on a fix for it.

KRIKzz has a test OS v6 that seems to work for many games (I only found one for now that doesn't work but it could be the game itself, but I only tried 20 or so).

Here's the post with the link:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?43494-Master-ED-on-Jap-SMS-a...

Only JAP SMS with Gender Adapter should try it out as KRIKzz did not have the time to test it on its own and indeed it is a quick fix for now.

As KRIKzz says, "Use at your own risk".
Once I get my hands on the US SMS I will see if the games with problems (at least the one I found) work there and if I can fix the US SMS cartridge slot then I can see if the issue is from expansion slot only (we know of games that don't work from expansion slot).

Anyway I suspect that KRIKzz will release a proper official and tested fix when he has more time.

It's still very good news for JAP SMS owners that can now buy MaserED and Gender Adapter with more confidence.

Attached a copy of the updated BIOS. Good to hear it works again :)
Is there a repository somewhere will all BIOS versions for SMS/GG Everdrive?

os-jap-tst.zip (8.37 KB)

http://krikzz.com/pub/support/index.php?dir=ms-everdrive/os-bin/
contains all MasterED OSes.

For everything else:
http://krikzz.com/pub/support/

BTW http://krikzz.com has links for each released OS for each of the cards, just click the card you care for go to download tab and follow the right link.

The test version instead is linked in a temporary place, once KRIKzz feels comfortable he will release it officially (I think it needs some more works at least in testing).

Let's just remind to everyone that os-jap-tst.sms it is still in test phase, KRIKzz had no time to test it and I don't have a US SMS to make sure it still works from cartridge. Only use if you have the GenderAdapter and a JAP SMS (once flashed it will say OS v6) but as KRIKzz stated he only took port $3E and mem $C000 initialization out as a quick fix to test a theory. Some games that used to work may be broken now because of that, so use at your own risk.

It should work better in all case now if the Everdrive OS code doesn't touch (C000h) RAM neither Port 3Eh.

Had a chance to do some more testing and finally received my US SMS.
Except a couple of titles that do not work from exp slot on JAP SMS but do work from exp slot on US SMS the rest of the results are failry consistent, if it doesn't work on exp slot on JAP it does not work on US as well.

On a side note I noticed on the US SMS that the difference between cart slot and exp slot is really just 1 connection (CE, pin 13). Each has its own.
That got me into thinking if it would be possible to "swap" the 2, I think it would be as easy as a 3 way switch (center is CE to exp slot and the 2 other go from CE exp slot and from CE cart slot, of course I would need to cut the CE exp slot trace to avid shorts) : with a 3 way switch I could have the default setting (exp and cart separated) or have the exp slot share the CE with cart slot (and just insert stuff in the exp slot).

Now I was wondering if I can do the same on the JAP SMS. I am trying to figure out which one could be CE for cart slot, is it B2 or B3 or B9? I know that for exp slot it's 13. (easy test is cut trace to exp slot 13 and wire it with B9 and see if it works ... will see)

Anyone?

From my investigations with a continuity tester on a JAP SMS the cartridge B9 is electrically connected to /Mreq on Exp and Card slots (they are all electrically tied together), while B10 looks to be /CE for cartridge. On the board B10 comes from neighboring pins at the chip that controls Exp slot /CE and Card slot /CE (it's actually the pin in the middle of the other 2 /CE) so it is very very likely that B10 is /CE for cartridge.
Also in my JAP SMS the cartridge B1 and B2 are shorted at the PCB.

What it means is that in the pinout available at http://www.smspower.org/Development/JapaneseSMSCartridge /Refresh(B9) is really /Mreq and /Mreq(B10) is likely /CE, finally B2 is irrelevant for JAP SMS being tied to B1 at the PCB.

For my own project I think I will sever Exp slot pin 13 connection and tie Exp pin 13 to Cartridge B10, this should give me Exp and Cartridge being one and the same so JAP SMS would think that GenderAdapter from Exp slot is actually Cartridge. Will update once I've tried.

I did it. I severed /CE from pin 13 Exp and soldered it to B10 and I am pleased to announce that it works.

Rastan works, OutRun works .... beautiful.

So now with Bock GenderAdapter AND 1 trace cut (Exp pin 13) and 1 wire (to route B10 to Exp pin 13) the JAP SMS can play some more US/EUR games than from Exp GenderAdapter alone.

There's still some incompat like Walter Payton Football (I just get a purple screen and a beep) but I suspect that it has to do with JAP incompat (maybe messed up detection routine or something, I don't know).

Given that there's no real peripherals for Exp slot I don't feel bad at all having my JAP SMS with the Exp and Cart mapped to be one and the same as I plan to use one at a time anyway, with the introduction of a simple 3 way switch it is possible to have the JAP SMS in orig mode (Cart separated from Exp) or mixed (Cart and Exp are the same) but I am not interested in that at this time.

Switch notwithstanding what I did is actually quite simple as the traces for the 3 /CE (Cart/Card/Exp) travel close to each other on the top of the PCB and there are convenient vias where to solder and close to where to cut the Exp pin 13 trace and wire instead Cart B10. I only needed 2 inches of wire or less.

Anyway now I think I am happy, I can use my JAP SMS with more US/EUR games through the GenderAdapter.

Full tests for GoodSet on MasterED OSv6 on JAP SMS + GenderAdapter + Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix and I only found the following issues:
Walter Payton Football -> purple screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6
Wanted -> brown screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 [this is a light gun game]
Spacegun -> no boot, same issue on US SMS with OS v6
Prince Of Persia -> music loop, on US SMS music ends but screen stays black, need to press Reset once and it works (No Reset on JAP SMS), same issues US SMS with OS v5 and OS v6 so it is not v6 specific problem
Back to the Future III -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v6
James Bond -> messed up grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem
Asterix Great Rescue -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem
Cosmic Spacehead -> garbled grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem
Fantastic Dizzy -> garbled grafx + crash, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem
New Zealand Story -> garbled grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem

So OS v6 seems to me to be as good as v5 on US SMS, but it is necessary for JAP SMS + GenderAdapter.
Keep in mind that to obtain my success ratio you have to perform the Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix also I speculate that the originals that didn't work on GenderAdapter (Rastan and others that assumed to run from Cartridge) would work with the fix, I don't see a reason why they would only work thru MasterED.

Anyway this concludes my adventure, I don't think I have energy to try the whole set again to see what doesn't work without the Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix, give or take it is 1 every 10 or 15 so we're talking about probably 20 to 30 games, I presume.

Happy modding and enjoy your JAP SMS + GenderAdapter.

>Walter Payton Football -> purple screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6

The game code crash if the console has a FM Unit.
You can patch it by overwriting the 2 bytes from $0592 by $AF,$00
(see meka.pat)

> Wanted -> brown screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 [this is a light gun game]

Same bug as Walter Payton Football, also fixed in meka.pat : ROM[045D] = 00, 00

> Spacegun -> no boot, same issue on US SMS with OS v6

This game requires bytes $0000..$03FF to stay fixed to the beginning of ROM chip regardless of the paging of the rest of the page. I imagine that the SMS Everdrive doesn't support that feature of the Sega mapper. I don't know if a firmware update could fix it (the firmware can be updated by PLD or I-dont-know-what-tech, but it is not released I think)

>Prince Of Persia -> music loop, on US SMS music ends but screen stays black, need to press Reset once and it works (No Reset on JAP SMS), same issues US SMS with OS v5 and OS v6 so it is not v6 specific problem

Probably possible to fix via a patch if someone wanted that.

>Back to the Future III -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v6

Game doesn't run on a NTSC system. Again it should be possible to patch but I don't think anyone has tried.

phoenixdownita wrote

Anyway now I think I am happy, I can use my JAP SMS with more US/EUR games through the GenderAdapter.

For mostly curiosity's sake, I've been looking into the OPPOSITE of the GenderAdapter without much luck.

Due in large part to utter lack of interest in playing JAP games with a US/EUR SMS... On hand I have no conclusive visual proof of even one adapter construction attempt in the world to date (for now, I haven't yet asked a partner of mine for pictures what they tried to do). Let alone any successful boot.

You'd need a BIOS replacement for it to work in the majority of cases.

I had the opportunity to verify that even after the Exp pin 13 <-> Cart B10 fix so all US games (and mostly all PAL games) can run over GenderAdapter on JAP SMS, original Mark III games still do work from the cart slot.

I only tetsed one so far (the cheapest I could find) and I have a second one on the way (just because of a mishap with the first, the seller sent the wrong one and it is replacing it).

So the mod is "safe" with regard to keeping original JAP SMS/Mark III cartridge compatibility. I do not have any SG-1000/SC-3000 cartridges to test but given the nature of the change and the succesful test over Mark III games there's no reason to believe that any functionality would have been compromised.

Maxim wrote

You'd need a BIOS replacement for it to work in the majority of cases.

Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence.

lumclaw wrote

Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence.

Just buy a Mark III already

lumclaw wrote

Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence.

What paradox? There's no paradox. The BIOS is needed because the US SMS bios checks for some particular headers that JAP games do not have as the JAP SMS couldn't enforce them due to back compat with SG-1000.

Thru Bock GenderAdapter, my one signal change over the Exp port and Krikzz Master ED we can prove that basically all games work from Exp connector. All JAP games works from it for sure as resulted from my tests. Then again the Exp connector is identical between JAP and US SMS, and even more the Exp connector is the mirror image of the US cart (minus that one signal).
All this means that all JAP games running from Master ED over Bock adapter don't need any extra signals present in the JAP SMS cart connector .... no exclusion, also as they couldn't possibly have used signals not present on the JAP cart connector then the extra US cart connector signals also are not needed.

The conclusion to all of this is that all JAP SMS games (SMS or Mark III) run on US hardware as they don't use any extra signal. (they already do today thru MasterED anyway, if you add viletim FM board ver 2.0 you can even trick them into run in JAP language). Hence the adapter is possible.

You don't need a physical adapter to prove that it can be done, although we can call the MasterED the mother of all adapters in this case.
This leaves us on the question as to why one has not been attempted, but that was already answered by Maxim.... because you also need to swap the BIOS for example with smspower SMS Loader [no region checks] and that would make the whole intervention much more intrusive than it should be and most likely economically not so viable.

Already the 1 signal fix (Exp pin 13 <-> cart B10) for JAP SMS makes the usage of the GenderAdapter from Exp port less than ideal as it requires modifying one trace on the PCB of our beloved SMS. For the JAP to US adaptor that part won't be necessary unless it takes the same route Bock did and use the Exp connector, but the BIOS swap is a must

So as you see there's no paradox, no issue and no incentive either to make one for real. Either buy the Mark III/JAP SMS or buy a MasterED + optionally viletim FM board ver 2.0 and play your JAP games there in japanese if you so like.

BTW the reasoning behind proving that something is possible by actually making it real is a little misleading. For example I posit that if a human traveling at the speed of light hits a wall it will be killed. I don't need to prove it by actually killing someone by forcing him to travel at the speed of light and hit a wall. We can use induction reasoning by which given the fact that already collisions at 40km/h can be lethal then traveling at c (the speed of light) would not change that fact.
In our case we know that JAP games as run from MasterED work on US SMS and that is proof that you can make JAP adapter to run on US SMS or those games would not run to start with unless heavy patching was involved (and that is not the case, MasterED simulates the mappers and tricks the BIOS so that all software looks legit to a US SMS).

No. I am sincere about wanting this done. User Bad_Ad84 over at assemblergames can vouch for me.

I'd actually purchased parts I believed suitable for such an adapter, and shipped them US to UK for him to try working with. Except we haven't had results yet.

Here's such an adaptor being used with an SMSReader.

lumclaw wrote

No. I am sincere about wanting this done. User Bad_Ad84 over at assemblergames can vouch for me.

I'd actually purchased parts I believed suitable for such an adapter, and shipped them US to UK for him to try working with. Except we haven't had results yet.

What are you trying to do with it?
If it is to play original JAP games on US SMS then you need the adapter done AND the BIOS replaced on the US SMS.

So ultimately you need a US SMS, a new BIOS, probably install the FM board (which runs 70$) to get FM audio so that you can actually enjoy the better sound those games have to offer.

At that point wouldn't it be better to pay the 100/150$ for a JAP SMS and use that instead?

In any case your money, your SMS, your time, do as you please, but I am now convinced that the adapter itself can be made as a wire only exercise as long as the BIOS is replaced on the US SMS, if instead you want a totally externally based solution is going to be much harder (need to intercept the BIOS call that check for header, fake the responses then switch back to normal mode to read the ROMs).

I went the route to buy myself a JAP SMS and mod it to be able to use MasterED .... and all of that just to be able to try FM + 3D glasses (I already have a Genesis/Megadrive so I could already play SMS games). If I had to buy them separately the FM board + the 3D connector + US SMS would have set me back not much less than the JAP SMS I got.
I latet got also a US SMS to test a theory on why MasterED wouldn't work from Bock adapter and I got it cheap (28$) because the cart connector needed to be completely resoldered and in the deal it came with a 3D glasses connector, what do you know ... sometimes I do get an inch of good luck.
I then purchased viletim FM board v2.0 because I wanted to see if I can just use 1 SMS and I am pretty satisfied with the results. I prefer the US over the JAP because the JAP SMS does force language to be JAP on a few dual titles.
With viletim FM board only 1 game has some audio challenge, namely Outrun. It works with the exception of a whiff of white noise under the Start and Continue banners but that does not happen on JAP SMS (viletim is already looking at it and it seems also emulators behave the same "incorrect" way).

I modded both SMSs to output SVideo as my TV really does not like composite from any Sega products ... now I do have jailbars to deal with but it's the lesser evil.

After all this I am seriously considering selling all of the SMSs and go back to the Genesis/Megadrive (it's a model 2 VA4 board and the SVideo mod does not carry much jailbar effect at all).
I'm now going thru the SMS games and see which one do not work on a Genesis/Megadrive (I do have a MegaED as well). So far I think I only found a couple that behave bizarre but nothing I care for.
I came to realize that although the FM sound is better than PSG it is still a far cry for me from being worth the trouble I went through. It kept me busy for a little over 2 months though and I had my fun during the investigation and soldering ;-) ... to each his own I guess.

Author	Message
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	SMS Everdrive on a Japanese SMS console Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:06 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Hello. Just got a SMS Everdrive today. I tried it with a japanese SMS console and Bocks Gender Adapter. I couldnt get any game to work. I was getting the menu screen, then the game folders screen, i would pick a game to play, but once it was finished loading it, i would get only a black screen. I updated the OS, tried tons of games, but all of them got me a black screen. I removed the SMS Everdrive from the console and went to my job. At night i got back home, decided and really exited to keep trying more roms and asking online what could be happening. Sudenly it happened. An idiot (me) put back the Everdrive back on the SMS, but he (me) inserted it backwards. Now i turn on the console and i dont get any Everdrive screens at all, only a black screen. I tried other carts on the SMS and it works fine, its only the Everdrive that doesnt work. Did the idiot (me), fry the Everdrive by inserting it backwards. I am so sad i could cry, this was suposed to be a great day, but that idiot (me), ruined it. Dont laugh guys, i am really disapointed. Any advice? Thanks in advance. Sorry for the long post.

Frank_fjs Joined: 19 Aug 2011 Posts: 68 Location: Australia	Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 5:04 am
	Is the ED supposed to work on a Jap SMS? Re your now non-working ED, I would speculate that you've blown something on the card by inserting it backwards, as the console would have pushed voltage to it in the wrong spots. Probably one of the chips has blown and will need replacing.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:50 pm
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Hello again. I contacted Krikzz , the creator of the SMS Everdrive to ask for help. He told me to press button 1+2+right at the same time, and it worked! The Everdrive is working again! Still cant get any game to work though. May be a compatibility issue with my japanese Master System. I am going to buy an american console to try it out.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:53 pm
	It works on my Japanese SMS with the Gender Adapter. Also, I have plugged Everdrive in the wrong direction so many times and haven't damaged it. I suppose you have tried many games, not just games using obscure mappers?

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	SMS Everdrive on a Japanese SMS console Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:54 pm
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Hi. Has enyone here tried to use the Everdrive on a japanese SMS? I am using it trough the Gender Adapter. I cant get any game to work in mine. The everdrive reads and loads the games, but i only get a black screen afterwards. Could changeing the Everdrives OS help in this situation? Thanks in advance. MOD Merged topics.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:39 pm
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Hello Bock. Glad to know i am not the only one that has inserted the everdrive the wrong way, hehe. Its weird that yours didnt get damaged like mine. Thanks to Krikzz, mine is working again as i already mentioned. I have tried like 30 diferent games so far, from the most common to the rarest. I have tried japanese ones, american, european... and nothing. I use the same Sd card on the Megadrive and it works fine. I use original carts on hte SMS and it works fine. Any ideas?

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:33 pm
	Hmm I'm not sure. It could be that either your Everdrive or your Gender Adapter are damaged in some way (if it is the adapter I'll replace it for you). When you select a game, can you see the screen where it is writing the data to the embedded memory of the Everdrive? It takes a few seconds, maybe a few dozen seconds for the bigger games. Does the Gender Adapter works properly with normal cartridges?

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:49 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Yes Bock, i get the screen were the Everdrive is erasing and then reading the game. But as it finishes doing so, the screen goes black and stays there. I havent tried the gender adapter with any carts, since i only have japanese ones. I am going to have to buy a cheap american SMS console, and an american cart, to find out if its the Everdrive or the Gender Adapter that isnt working well. The problem is that Master System and games arent easy to find in my area, so it might take me some time to report whats happening. Thanks for your sugestions.

tibone Joined: 30 Mar 2009 Posts: 163	Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:44 pm
tibone Joined: 30 Mar 2009 Posts: 163	I recently got a EverDrive too. And i had the same problem. The menu loaded up, the game was written into the everdrive memory and the screen went black and stuck there. My problem was on the memory card. I had to re-format the card into FAT16 (it came factory formatted as FAT32, i think). Suddenly, the games started working. So, if you see the everdrive menu and the game writting screen, chances are, your gender adapter is working fine. Try to reformat your sd card, if you use windows, be sure to select FAT (not FAT32 and not NTFS). That did the trick to me. Also, filenames have to 8.3 format. So, "Alex Kidd.sms" doesn't work, but "alexkidd.sms" does. Other than that, i had zero problems with the everdrive, and since it was my fault (not formating the card right), i have nothing bad to say about the everdrive. :)

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:13 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	tibone that sounds exactly like whats happening to me. The problem is, my PC doesnt give me the option for FAT16 formatting, only FAT32. What can i do?

Maraakate Joined: 05 Jun 2010 Posts: 672 Location: Pennsylvania, USA	Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:29 am
	saturndual32 wrote tibone that sounds exactly like whats happening to me. The problem is, my PC doesnt give me the option for FAT16 formatting, only FAT32. What can i do? if you're in windows xp (not sure for win vista/7)at command prompt: format <drive> /FS:FAT Not sure how to do it for linux or other operating systems.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:39 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Yeah, i am using windows XP. I did what you said Maraakate, and it got formated. But still with every game i try, i only get a black screen. I am going to check out some programs for formatting SD cards on the net, and see if i get a diferent result.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 5:51 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	I formated the SD cards to FAT 16, but the console still cant play the games after it reads them, darn it. Thanks for the sugestions so far guys.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:19 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	By the way, i am using a japanese SMS model MK-2000. Could the problem be a compatibility issue with this model in parituclar? My USA Master System should arrive in about 10 days, we will se what happens once i try the Everdrive there. By the way, i am not trying to make bad publicity for the Everdrive, i love Krikzz products, i have a Megadrive Everdrive (works great!), already ordered a SNES one, and i am waiting for for the PCEngine ones to be in stock, to order one. And i will get a N64 one in the near future as well. And he is a great guy.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:18 pm
	There's only one model of Japanese SMS afaik.

Maraakate Joined: 05 Jun 2010 Posts: 672 Location: Pennsylvania, USA	Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:04 pm
	have you tried 8.3 naming? Just take the known good alex kidd rom dump and name it ALEX.SMS leave only that file on it, and see if it works.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:54 pm
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Hi Maraakate. Yeah i tried your sugestion about renaming the roms as you said, but still, i get the darn black screen. Do i need to rename the roms with a special tool?, because i aint doing it that way.

Maraakate Joined: 05 Jun 2010 Posts: 672 Location: Pennsylvania, USA	Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:29 am
	nope, just rename it in your OS like any other file. Are you sure you renamed the extension? i.e. from the command prompt ren "alex kidd.sms" alex.sms etc.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:19 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Yeah, i renamed like 20 games the way you said, and the extension is still .sms, but still, cant get a single game to work. I tried that very same SD card, with the same games on the Megadrive Everdrive, and they work fine.

Maraakate Joined: 05 Jun 2010 Posts: 672 Location: Pennsylvania, USA	Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:24 am
	I guess you will have to wait until the other SMS arrives to verify if it is something with the Everdrive itself.

ApolloBoy Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 230 Location: San Jose, CA	Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:13 pm
	I've got a Japanese SMS as well, although I'm using a ToToTEK adapter as opposed to the Gender Adapter. I'll be getting my Master Everdrive in the mail sometime today so I'll let everyone know how it goes. EDIT: Works fine!

Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 123	Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:52 pm
Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 123	The ToToTEk adapter is the better choice since it has a wider compatibility including all those games with programming routines that don't get well with the fact of being played through the expansion port.

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 2:36 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Yesterday i received an american SMS, and i have been playing nonstop since then. The Everdrive works fine, the issue seems to be with the gender adapter, but i dont have any amarican carts to really try it out. I guess i am gonna buy one of those Tototek adapters then. Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and replies.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 9:45 am
	saturndual32 wrote Yesterday i received an american SMS, and i have been playing nonstop since then. The Everdrive works fine, the issue seems to be with the gender adapter, but i dont have any amarican carts to really try it out. I guess i am gonna buy one of those Tototek adapters then. Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and replies. E-mail me and I'll send you another gender adapter to test with. Mine works fine here. Maybe yours was damaged in shipping? Do all the connections looks correct?

saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:36 am
saturndual32 Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 26	OK Bock, i will get in contact with you, thanks, you are very nice.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:16 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	So, how did this end? I just received a MasterEverdrive and I am on the same boat. I was even able to flash the masterED OS from v4 to v5 which means reading from the SD card does work. Any hint? Was the adapter "broken"? I will try to reflow and resolder all connection just in case there's a cold joint or a cracked one. I cannot get to it until tomorrow so if someone knows what to do I will appreciate.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:46 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	phoenixdownita wrote So, how did this end? I just received a MasterEverdrive and I am on the same boat. I was even able to flash the masterED OS from v4 to v5 which means reading from the SD card does work. Any hint? Was the adapter "broken"? I will try to reflow and resolder all connection just in case there's a cold joint or a cracked one. I cannot get to it until tomorrow so if someone knows what to do I will appreciate. I resoldered every pin and did continuity test and it all looked good. I will have an US game coming in 2 or 3 days to completely rule out the converter. I suspect it has to do with the MasterED, my theory is that it reinitialize the HW before starting the game and in doing so disables/mess up the expansion slot ... just a theory, I have posted in assemblergames.com (http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?43494-Master-ED-on-Jap-SMS-and-gender-adaptor-at-smspower-NO-GAMES-WORK) to see if Krikzz can take a look and help. I will update both sites when I have news.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:50 am
	Ah, I'm using one of the early batch of Everdrive so it could be that the new OS software is failing at writing the right byte to (C000h) or messing up with the slot registers. !

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:28 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Bock wrote Ah, I'm using one of the early batch of Everdrive so it could be that the new OS software is failing at writing the right byte to (C000h) or messing up with the slot registers. ! Hi Bock, any chance you can share what OS version of MasterED you are running. The current Master ED shows the OS loaded on the bottom left corner (something like OS v5). Maybe that could help Krikzz pinpoint the cause. On a side note I have a US SMS coming my way (although with the cartridge slot malfunctioning) so at least I can try my MasterED on US SMS through the adaptor and see if it works there (I doubt). Again I'll keep both sites posted.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 2:24 pm
	I think I was using v3. v2 had bugs on a JSMS and I helped Krizz to fix them.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 5:24 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Bock wrote I think I was using v3. v2 had bugs on a JSMS and I helped Krizz to fix them. bummer, v3 is not available to download anymore only v1,v2 and v4,v5. (not that it matters to me as my MasterED does not let me flash down anymore) Is there any way you can verify if it was v3? (I think we can rule out v4 and v5 given my experience unless there is more than one revision of JSMS) Once I have the US SMS I will try there and see if OS v5 works.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:09 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Got a US game ("Great Basketball") and it works through gender adapter so the adapter seems to be working just fine. I can see a MarkIII logo appear just before the game proper starts. I am still waiting for the US SMS and try there. 2 possibilities: 1) it works 2) it doesn't if 1) then possible issue with Jap SMS maybe init or some other incompatibility (will have to get chipset version) if 2) then mess up with extension slot at game init Will see, maybe KRIKzz is already working on a fix for it.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:56 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	KRIKzz has a test OS v6 that seems to work for many games (I only found one for now that doesn't work but it could be the game itself, but I only tried 20 or so). Here's the post with the link: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?43494-Master-ED-on-Jap-SMS-a... Only JAP SMS with Gender Adapter should try it out as KRIKzz did not have the time to test it on its own and indeed it is a quick fix for now. As KRIKzz says, "Use at your own risk". Once I get my hands on the US SMS I will see if the games with problems (at least the one I found) work there and if I can fix the US SMS cartridge slot then I can see if the issue is from expansion slot only (we know of games that don't work from expansion slot). Anyway I suspect that KRIKzz will release a proper official and tested fix when he has more time. It's still very good news for JAP SMS owners that can now buy MaserED and Gender Adapter with more confidence.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:35 am
	Attached a copy of the updated BIOS. Good to hear it works again :) Is there a repository somewhere will all BIOS versions for SMS/GG Everdrive? os-jap-tst.zip (8.37 KB)

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 5:45 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	http://krikzz.com/pub/support/index.php?dir=ms-everdrive/os-bin/ contains all MasterED OSes. For everything else: http://krikzz.com/pub/support/ BTW http://krikzz.com has links for each released OS for each of the cards, just click the card you care for go to download tab and follow the right link. The test version instead is linked in a temporary place, once KRIKzz feels comfortable he will release it officially (I think it needs some more works at least in testing). Let's just remind to everyone that os-jap-tst.sms it is still in test phase, KRIKzz had no time to test it and I don't have a US SMS to make sure it still works from cartridge. Only use if you have the GenderAdapter and a JAP SMS (once flashed it will say OS v6) but as KRIKzz stated he only took port $3E and mem $C000 initialization out as a quick fix to test a theory. Some games that used to work may be broken now because of that, so use at your own risk.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 5:58 pm
	It should work better in all case now if the Everdrive OS code doesn't touch (C000h) RAM neither Port 3Eh.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:27 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Had a chance to do some more testing and finally received my US SMS. Except a couple of titles that do not work from exp slot on JAP SMS but do work from exp slot on US SMS the rest of the results are failry consistent, if it doesn't work on exp slot on JAP it does not work on US as well. On a side note I noticed on the US SMS that the difference between cart slot and exp slot is really just 1 connection (CE, pin 13). Each has its own. That got me into thinking if it would be possible to "swap" the 2, I think it would be as easy as a 3 way switch (center is CE to exp slot and the 2 other go from CE exp slot and from CE cart slot, of course I would need to cut the CE exp slot trace to avid shorts) : with a 3 way switch I could have the default setting (exp and cart separated) or have the exp slot share the CE with cart slot (and just insert stuff in the exp slot). Now I was wondering if I can do the same on the JAP SMS. I am trying to figure out which one could be CE for cart slot, is it B2 or B3 or B9? I know that for exp slot it's 13. (easy test is cut trace to exp slot 13 and wire it with B9 and see if it works ... will see) Anyone?

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:05 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	From my investigations with a continuity tester on a JAP SMS the cartridge B9 is electrically connected to /Mreq on Exp and Card slots (they are all electrically tied together), while B10 looks to be /CE for cartridge. On the board B10 comes from neighboring pins at the chip that controls Exp slot /CE and Card slot /CE (it's actually the pin in the middle of the other 2 /CE) so it is very very likely that B10 is /CE for cartridge. Also in my JAP SMS the cartridge B1 and B2 are shorted at the PCB. What it means is that in the pinout available at http://www.smspower.org/Development/JapaneseSMSCartridge /Refresh(B9) is really /Mreq and /Mreq(B10) is likely /CE, finally B2 is irrelevant for JAP SMS being tied to B1 at the PCB. For my own project I think I will sever Exp slot pin 13 connection and tie Exp pin 13 to Cartridge B10, this should give me Exp and Cartridge being one and the same so JAP SMS would think that GenderAdapter from Exp slot is actually Cartridge. Will update once I've tried.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:58 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	I did it. I severed /CE from pin 13 Exp and soldered it to B10 and I am pleased to announce that it works. Rastan works, OutRun works .... beautiful. So now with Bock GenderAdapter AND 1 trace cut (Exp pin 13) and 1 wire (to route B10 to Exp pin 13) the JAP SMS can play some more US/EUR games than from Exp GenderAdapter alone. There's still some incompat like Walter Payton Football (I just get a purple screen and a beep) but I suspect that it has to do with JAP incompat (maybe messed up detection routine or something, I don't know). Given that there's no real peripherals for Exp slot I don't feel bad at all having my JAP SMS with the Exp and Cart mapped to be one and the same as I plan to use one at a time anyway, with the introduction of a simple 3 way switch it is possible to have the JAP SMS in orig mode (Cart separated from Exp) or mixed (Cart and Exp are the same) but I am not interested in that at this time. Switch notwithstanding what I did is actually quite simple as the traces for the 3 /CE (Cart/Card/Exp) travel close to each other on the top of the PCB and there are convenient vias where to solder and close to where to cut the Exp pin 13 trace and wire instead Cart B10. I only needed 2 inches of wire or less. Anyway now I think I am happy, I can use my JAP SMS with more US/EUR games through the GenderAdapter.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:23 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Full tests for GoodSet on MasterED OSv6 on JAP SMS + GenderAdapter + Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix and I only found the following issues: Walter Payton Football -> purple screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 Wanted -> brown screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 [this is a light gun game] Spacegun -> no boot, same issue on US SMS with OS v6 Prince Of Persia -> music loop, on US SMS music ends but screen stays black, need to press Reset once and it works (No Reset on JAP SMS), same issues US SMS with OS v5 and OS v6 so it is not v6 specific problem Back to the Future III -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v6 James Bond -> messed up grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem Asterix Great Rescue -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem Cosmic Spacehead -> garbled grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem Fantastic Dizzy -> garbled grafx + crash, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem New Zealand Story -> garbled grafx, same on US SMS with OS v5 and v6 so it is not a v6 only problem So OS v6 seems to me to be as good as v5 on US SMS, but it is necessary for JAP SMS + GenderAdapter. Keep in mind that to obtain my success ratio you have to perform the Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix also I speculate that the originals that didn't work on GenderAdapter (Rastan and others that assumed to run from Cartridge) would work with the fix, I don't see a reason why they would only work thru MasterED. Anyway this concludes my adventure, I don't think I have energy to try the whole set again to see what doesn't work without the Exp pin 13 -> B10 Cart fix, give or take it is 1 every 10 or 15 so we're talking about probably 20 to 30 games, I presume. Happy modding and enjoy your JAP SMS + GenderAdapter.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 7445 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:38 am
	>Walter Payton Football -> purple screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 The game code crash if the console has a FM Unit. You can patch it by overwriting the 2 bytes from $0592 by $AF,$00 (see meka.pat) > Wanted -> brown screen, it works on US SMS with OS v6 [this is a light gun game] Same bug as Walter Payton Football, also fixed in meka.pat : ROM[045D] = 00, 00 > Spacegun -> no boot, same issue on US SMS with OS v6 This game requires bytes $0000..$03FF to stay fixed to the beginning of ROM chip regardless of the paging of the rest of the page. I imagine that the SMS Everdrive doesn't support that feature of the Sega mapper. I don't know if a firmware update could fix it (the firmware can be updated by PLD or I-dont-know-what-tech, but it is not released I think) >Prince Of Persia -> music loop, on US SMS music ends but screen stays black, need to press Reset once and it works (No Reset on JAP SMS), same issues US SMS with OS v5 and OS v6 so it is not v6 specific problem Probably possible to fix via a patch if someone wanted that. >Back to the Future III -> no boot, same on US SMS with OS v6 Game doesn't run on a NTSC system. Again it should be possible to patch but I don't think anyone has tried.

lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:08 pm
lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	phoenixdownita wrote Anyway now I think I am happy, I can use my JAP SMS with more US/EUR games through the GenderAdapter. For mostly curiosity's sake, I've been looking into the OPPOSITE of the GenderAdapter without much luck. Due in large part to utter lack of interest in playing JAP games with a US/EUR SMS... On hand I have no conclusive visual proof of even one adapter construction attempt in the world to date (for now, I haven't yet asked a partner of mine for pictures what they tried to do). Let alone any successful boot.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 11272 Location: London	Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:29 pm
	You'd need a BIOS replacement for it to work in the majority of cases.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Mark III cart still works after hardware fix Exp pin13 <-> Cart B10 Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:47 pm
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	I had the opportunity to verify that even after the Exp pin 13 <-> Cart B10 fix so all US games (and mostly all PAL games) can run over GenderAdapter on JAP SMS, original Mark III games still do work from the cart slot. I only tetsed one so far (the cheapest I could find) and I have a second one on the way (just because of a mishap with the first, the seller sent the wrong one and it is replacing it). So the mod is "safe" with regard to keeping original JAP SMS/Mark III cartridge compatibility. I do not have any SG-1000/SC-3000 cartridges to test but given the nature of the change and the succesful test over Mark III games there's no reason to believe that any functionality would have been compromised.

lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:35 am
lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	Maxim wrote You'd need a BIOS replacement for it to work in the majority of cases. Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence.

ApolloBoy Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 230 Location: San Jose, CA	Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:52 am
	lumclaw wrote Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence. Just buy a Mark III already

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:50 am
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	lumclaw wrote Hence the real hardware paradox. As long as an adapter doesn't exist, we can't prove it's possible. Yet the only way to confirm it's possible is via causing its own existence. What paradox? There's no paradox. The BIOS is needed because the US SMS bios checks for some particular headers that JAP games do not have as the JAP SMS couldn't enforce them due to back compat with SG-1000. Thru Bock GenderAdapter, my one signal change over the Exp port and Krikzz Master ED we can prove that basically all games work from Exp connector. All JAP games works from it for sure as resulted from my tests. Then again the Exp connector is identical between JAP and US SMS, and even more the Exp connector is the mirror image of the US cart (minus that one signal). All this means that all JAP games running from Master ED over Bock adapter don't need any extra signals present in the JAP SMS cart connector .... no exclusion, also as they couldn't possibly have used signals not present on the JAP cart connector then the extra US cart connector signals also are not needed. The conclusion to all of this is that all JAP SMS games (SMS or Mark III) run on US hardware as they don't use any extra signal. (they already do today thru MasterED anyway, if you add viletim FM board ver 2.0 you can even trick them into run in JAP language). Hence the adapter is possible. You don't need a physical adapter to prove that it can be done, although we can call the MasterED the mother of all adapters in this case. This leaves us on the question as to why one has not been attempted, but that was already answered by Maxim.... because you also need to swap the BIOS for example with smspower SMS Loader [no region checks] and that would make the whole intervention much more intrusive than it should be and most likely economically not so viable. Already the 1 signal fix (Exp pin 13 <-> cart B10) for JAP SMS makes the usage of the GenderAdapter from Exp port less than ideal as it requires modifying one trace on the PCB of our beloved SMS. For the JAP to US adaptor that part won't be necessary unless it takes the same route Bock did and use the Exp connector, but the BIOS swap is a must So as you see there's no paradox, no issue and no incentive either to make one for real. Either buy the Mark III/JAP SMS or buy a MasterED + optionally viletim FM board ver 2.0 and play your JAP games there in japanese if you so like. BTW the reasoning behind proving that something is possible by actually making it real is a little misleading. For example I posit that if a human traveling at the speed of light hits a wall it will be killed. I don't need to prove it by actually killing someone by forcing him to travel at the speed of light and hit a wall. We can use induction reasoning by which given the fact that already collisions at 40km/h can be lethal then traveling at c (the speed of light) would not change that fact. In our case we know that JAP games as run from MasterED work on US SMS and that is proof that you can make JAP adapter to run on US SMS or those games would not run to start with unless heavy patching was involved (and that is not the case, MasterED simulates the mappers and tricks the BIOS so that all software looks legit to a US SMS).

lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:31 am
lumclaw Joined: 13 Aug 2010 Posts: 103	No. I am sincere about wanting this done. User Bad_Ad84 over at assemblergames can vouch for me. I'd actually purchased parts I believed suitable for such an adapter, and shipped them US to UK for him to try working with. Except we haven't had results yet.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 11272 Location: London	Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:22 pm
	Here's such an adaptor being used with an SMSReader.

phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:56 pm Last edited by phoenixdownita on Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
phoenixdownita Joined: 04 Dec 2012 Posts: 62	lumclaw wrote No. I am sincere about wanting this done. User Bad_Ad84 over at assemblergames can vouch for me. I'd actually purchased parts I believed suitable for such an adapter, and shipped them US to UK for him to try working with. Except we haven't had results yet. What are you trying to do with it? If it is to play original JAP games on US SMS then you need the adapter done AND the BIOS replaced on the US SMS. So ultimately you need a US SMS, a new BIOS, probably install the FM board (which runs 70$) to get FM audio so that you can actually enjoy the better sound those games have to offer. At that point wouldn't it be better to pay the 100/150$ for a JAP SMS and use that instead? In any case your money, your SMS, your time, do as you please, but I am now convinced that the adapter itself can be made as a wire only exercise as long as the BIOS is replaced on the US SMS, if instead you want a totally externally based solution is going to be much harder (need to intercept the BIOS call that check for header, fake the responses then switch back to normal mode to read the ROMs). I went the route to buy myself a JAP SMS and mod it to be able to use MasterED .... and all of that just to be able to try FM + 3D glasses (I already have a Genesis/Megadrive so I could already play SMS games). If I had to buy them separately the FM board + the 3D connector + US SMS would have set me back not much less than the JAP SMS I got. I latet got also a US SMS to test a theory on why MasterED wouldn't work from Bock adapter and I got it cheap (28$) because the cart connector needed to be completely resoldered and in the deal it came with a 3D glasses connector, what do you know ... sometimes I do get an inch of good luck. I then purchased viletim FM board v2.0 because I wanted to see if I can just use 1 SMS and I am pretty satisfied with the results. I prefer the US over the JAP because the JAP SMS does force language to be JAP on a few dual titles. With viletim FM board only 1 game has some audio challenge, namely Outrun. It works with the exception of a whiff of white noise under the Start and Continue banners but that does not happen on JAP SMS (viletim is already looking at it and it seems also emulators behave the same "incorrect" way). I modded both SMSs to output SVideo as my TV really does not like composite from any Sega products ... now I do have jailbars to deal with but it's the lesser evil. After all this I am seriously considering selling all of the SMSs and go back to the Genesis/Megadrive (it's a model 2 VA4 board and the SVideo mod does not carry much jailbar effect at all). I'm now going thru the SMS games and see which one do not work on a Genesis/Megadrive (I do have a MegaED as well). So far I think I only found a couple that behave bizarre but nothing I care for. I came to realize that although the FM sound is better than PSG it is still a far cry for me from being worth the trouble I went through. It kept me busy for a little over 2 months though and I had my fun during the investigation and soldering ;-) ... to each his own I guess.

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