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View topic - Difficulty running 4mbyte ROMs on EverDrive X7

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  • Joined: 30 Jun 2016
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Difficulty running 4mbyte ROMs on EverDrive X7
Post Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 11:52 am
I made a post on Krikzz's forum, but I may as well inquire here too.

I know there's other people running around with these carts here. I'm curious as to if they've had issues running 4 megabyte sized ROMs here.
I somehow feel I might get more reception here than on the forums I'm suppose to be asking!

Or perhaps someone here even having a solution that I am unaware of.
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:59 am
Flygon wrote
I made a post on Krikzz's forum, but I may as well inquire here too.

I know there's other people running around with these carts here. I'm curious as to if they've had issues running 4 megabyte sized ROMs here.
I somehow feel I might get more reception here than on the forums I'm suppose to be asking!

Or perhaps someone here even having a solution that I am unaware of.


FWIW I at least got some version of both of those demos (not sure whether it's the same build) to load and "start" on a Game Gear (which is 60 Hz and more like SMS II than it is like SMS I) using a Master EverDrive X7 running OS ver 1.02 with FPGA version 01. However, the Standard version then proceeds to just show its "incompatible system" error message, and the 3D version makes sounds and shows some semblance of animation, but the picture is periodically scrambled and the sound switches between OK-ish and horrible noise, and the timing of that period makes me think it's underrun due to the 60 Hz/50 Hz mismatch.

I'm using a fairly freshly formatted 32 GB SanDisk Ultra class 10 / A1 / U1 card — I've heard some EverDrives can be picky about card speed and/or filesystem details, but I've yet to personally experience that with this combination.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 3:35 pm
It seems that bsittler and I seem to have much the same problems.

Somewhat annoyed that there's been no reach out on the krikzz forum. I hope I wasn't sold something in bad faith. :(
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 3:58 pm
Last edited by bsittler on Thu Aug 16, 2018 5:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
I understand the frustration, but I feel I should really mention a few things:

It does in fact load the game, which suggests to me that this is a distinct issue. Have you tried with in-game hooks switched off? What EverDrive settings do you use?

Whether the game actually works is dependent on a lot of factors, and these particular homebrew titles have perhaps the most demanding system requirements of the whole library. The fact that they use every last bit of storage might make them even more brittle.

In my experience Krikkz products have excellent build quality and probably the best customer support and gets-better-after-purchase update record around.

The EverDrive forums sometimes work well for peer-to-peer support, but for actual customer support use the contact information on the main website (or the support contact of your reseller if you bought from one.) Krikzz only rarely responds on the forums, but the main customer service has been consistently prompt, friendly, and helpful, in addition to being super knowledgeable.

edit: also, in my case the non-functionality is expected, given that the Game Gear is (a) 60 Hz, and (b) more SMS II rather than SMS I.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 4:35 pm
It would be easy to test if the whole ROM is written by checksumming it.

I would say that Everdrives are easily the best option for running homebrew (and original ROMs) but the quality is not that great. I know several people who have had the SD readers come adrift, the carts themselves do not have level conversion so they are somewhat harmful to the host system (and themselves), and there was at least one fundamental bug in the mapper implementation in the original Master Everdrive which meant it couldn't support paging in slot 0 using the Sega mapper, which I suspect was fixable in "firmware" but never got fixed. So let's be realistic - this is a device designed for playing commercial games, support for homebrew does not have much impact on sales. But they marketed it as (and presumably added the storage for) 4MB capacity, so there must be some intention for that to work.
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