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  • Joined: 08 Sep 2018
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MyCard and Game Gear slot alternatives
Post Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:06 pm
Are there any known alternatives for the MyCard and/or Game Gear physical cart slots? I know most of the vertical cart slots for consoles are easy to find/make from things like standard edge connectors but these are anything but standard.
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:19 pm
You can get sockets for those from a card catcher or a game genie.. but thats still destroying things to get them.

Nothing off the shelf is a straight fit as far as im aware. You could probably make something using a small circuit board and some pogo pins. I was going to do that for a mycard but decided to break open a card catcher instead.
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:32 pm
Last edited by IllusionOfMana on Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
wasup wrote
You can get sockets for those from a card catcher or a game genie.. but that's still destroying things to get them.

Nothing off the shelf is a straight fit as far as im aware. You could probably make something using a small circuit board and some pogo pins. I was going to do that for a mycard but decided to break open a card catcher instead.


Thanks, Its a thought... Game Genie or Card Catcher sourcing might be my best bet. The main reason i need these is because I'm building a Sega EEPROM burner and general cart reader that'll work with all Sega 8 and 16 bit carts (i currently have full support for home console cartridges but not GG carts or MyCards). I'm also trying to make a slim adapter for the MegaDrive/Genesis that will have both the SMS slot and MyCard slot but sourcing the MyCard slot for a decent price and a less destructive nature has not been possible for me at the moment.
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:54 pm
There is a retron 5 adapter that has master system, my card and game gear on it.. possibly that could be helpful? Its still an expensive way to do it though.

I wonder if they are making their own connectors or found a source of nos connectors?
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:19 pm
I can look into it, one of their company reps follows me on Instagram so maybe they might know. I wouldn't doubt it if they made their own but with that cheap plastic they use for the system and like aluminum pins or something for the conductors.
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:55 am
You could also try to contact the people at Analogue. They have an adaptor for Game Gear carts for their Mega SG in the works, and that one will most certainly be made of quality materials.
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:21 pm
Kagesan wrote
You could also try to contact the people at Analogue. They have an adaptor for Game Gear carts for their Mega SG in the works, and that one will most certainly be made of quality materials.


Also a good idea!
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 8:49 pm
Kagesan wrote
You could also try to contact the people at Analogue. They have an adaptor for Game Gear carts for their Mega SG in the works, and that one will most certainly be made of quality materials.


Looks like they have a mycard one too.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:23 pm
Time for me to find my sole card and start to measure it to see if I can make a 3D-printable card reader.
I made a adapter for GameCube memory cards so it should work.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 9:37 pm
MrSVCD wrote
Time for me to find my sole card and start to measure it to see if I can make a 3D-printable card reader.
I made a adapter for GameCube memory cards so it should work.


If you need any hi res photos and caliper measurements for the Sega card and GG ports on my retron5 adapter, let me know. Luckily the game gear slot is exactly the same just lengthened for the extra pins.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 1:18 am
@Enforcer and @MrSVCD
I have a removed GG slot that I can also get caliper measurements on for you as well but not MyCard.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:59 am
What about the connector used on for old agp bus hraphics cardd on the pc? Those had two rows of offset contacts.. not sure what the spacing was though, plus itd need modifying some what.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 4:28 am
wasup wrote
What about the connector used on for old agp bus hraphics cardd on the pc? Those had two rows of offset contacts.. not sure what the spacing was though, plus itd need modifying some what.


I thought of that as well but when i looked at the spacing when comparing it to one of my old cards, the AGP slots pitch is super fine compared to the GG and MyCard. I thought about maybe removing pins but the pitch still causes it not to line up well. I even looked at the pitch of an old slotted CPU and its just as fine as AGP. I cant think of any other slot that used that dual row setup.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 6:39 am
Thats a pitty.. it seemed like a promising idea. Oh well.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:00 am
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32857017109.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4f6a63eaOd2RDv&algo_pvid=0b84865a-7352-4a20-a69e-cff828a3e44d&algo_expid=0b84865a-7352-4a20-a69e-cff828a3e44d-6&btsid=7ebc81f4-d4c4-4e03-ad29-a1977098b849&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0%2Csearchweb201602_10%2Csearchweb201603_60

Ive just brought a bunch of these to have a look at.. they are 2mm wide at the flange, which is perfect as its a 2.54mm pitch on the games. They are short enough to fit within a game gear cart too.. so could be a winner. The 2mm length ones should go perfectly through 1.6mm circuit board and still have enough spring in it, making it rather easy to build.
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 5:18 pm
I found this

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=217&zenid=9uoqc3lv26qa2idmjt430sgmc5

Its currently sold out but one of my friends managed to order a few before hand. They unfortunately did not have the MyCard slot, but maybe you could mod one of these to take them? either way it seems like it a pretty fair price for a custom slot.
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:12 pm
IllusionOfMana wrote
I found this

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=217&zenid=9uoqc3lv26qa2idmjt430sgmc5

Its currently sold out but one of my friends managed to order a few before hand. They unfortunately did not have the MyCard slot, but maybe you could mod one of these to take them? either way it seems like it a pretty fair price for a custom slot.


Thats an interesting find..
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:24 am
I ordered a bunch of those little spring loaded pins. I ordered 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm lengths but it seems i actually got sent two lots of 2mm and one lot of 3mm. The 2mm ones didnt match the data sheet and were far too short and the 3mm ones looked good but are a bit long and end up making it too hard to insert a card. I might order some more of the 2.5mm ones and hope they send the right ones this time and see how they go.

Here are some pictures anyway.

I designed a little board for the spring loaded pins to solder into along with some standard pin strips. Then there is a 2mm spacer board and a 1.2mm base board that goes below it. It all sandwiches together rather well to form a card socket. The intention was that the whole thing could be made from 2mm material making it a fairly easy home made socket that any one could build. I was going to design a game gear variation too, which would need to be made from 2.4mm material, but would work in much the same way.
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Post Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:01 am
wasup wrote
I ordered a bunch of those little spring loaded pins. I ordered 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm lengths but it seems i actually got sent two lots of 2mm and one lot of 3mm. The 2mm ones didnt match the data sheet and were far too short and the 3mm ones looked good but are a bit long and end up making it too hard to insert a card. I might order some more of the 2.5mm ones and hope they send the right ones this time and see how they go.

Here are some pictures anyway.

I designed a little board for the spring loaded pins to solder into along with some standard pin strips. Then there is a 2mm spacer board and a 1.2mm base board that goes below it. It all sandwiches together rather well to form a card socket. The intention was that the whole thing could be made from 2mm material making it a fairly easy home made socket that any one could build. I was going to design a game gear variation too, which would need to be made from 2.4mm material, but would work in much the same way.


Did you manage to get the 2.5 mm you were looking for?
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Post Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:25 am
They arrived in the post today funny enough. Havnt had a chance to try them yet tho
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Post Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:27 am
I put another one together with the 2.5mm pins last night and it seemed better but its still a bit tight. I think i need to increase the thickness of the 2mm spacer slightly as its a tad too close to the thickness of a card. If i get time ill see what i can find at work today and machine another spacer.
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Post Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:25 am
I tried a bit of 2.4mm material instead of 2mm as the spacer and despite it being a slightly loose it actually fits heaps better once the card is all the way in due to the spring tension of the pins.

I soldered it onto a card catcher board i had and it works fine. Gave it a bit of a giggle while the game was running and didn't get any problems.. so its not loosing contact on the pins which is good.
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Post Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:45 am
interesting solution to the problem for sure!
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Post Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:01 am
Very nice wasup !
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:41 am
These home made sockets are kinda handy..

Now i have finally been able to make a export version of a card catcher.

Was a bit of a pain getting it to fit in a cart shell.. but i got it close enough.
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:35 pm
very well done. love how discrete it is!
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 5:33 pm
How hard do you think it would be to adapt it to work with game gear carts?
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Post Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:24 pm
Enforcer wrote
How hard do you think it would be to adapt it to work with game gear carts?


That was going to be one of my next projects. I had a quick look and it should be doable with a similar design.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:44 am
I thought it may. The slots on the retron5 3 in 1 are the exact same dimensions except being longer to accept the additional 10 pins.
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