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  • Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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New SMS to Mark III converter available
Post Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 11:59 pm
About a few weeks ago, I noticed a new SMS to Mark III/JP SMS converter for sale (http://tinyurl.com/mqoatwp and I decided to give it a try and see how it stacked up to my ToToTEK adapter. I just received it today and tested it on both my Japanese SMS and Mark III along with my Master Everdrive and a few games.

For one thing, it's a lot smaller than the ToToTEK converter which is ridiculously tall and looks bizarre with a cart on top. It's also fairly simple, no extra components whatsoever. Most of the games I tested worked fine except for Wonder Boy III, which was a bit of a disappointment since I was hoping this one would be compatible. WB III still works fine on the Master Everdrive so it's not that big of a deal for me.

I've noticed that the ToToTEK converter's been out of stock for a while so this makes a fine alternative. Anyone else have one of these?
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Post Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 1:09 pm
I just ordered one as well. I'll post as soon as I get it, but it says 15-26 days for delivery, so it'll be awhile.
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 11:26 pm
I bought one myself, thanks for the tip! Since mine also will take a long time to get here, can you put a picture of it in comparison with the Totokek one? I got curious of how smaller it is. And did you make a shell/case for it?
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Post Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:46 am
Corredor X wrote
I bought one myself, thanks for the tip! Since mine also will take a long time to get here, can you put a picture of it in comparison with the Totokek one? I got curious of how smaller it is. And did you make a shell/case for it?

I sold my ToToTEK converter so I can't take a pic for you. It's about half the height of the ToToTEK one to give you some perspective though. It doesn't have screw holes and can't fit in a shell because of its shorter height.
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:12 am
I received the converter a few days ago. It works perfect, but looks funny sticking high above the system.

In all honesty, if I knew about this converter before I bought Bock's, I would have definitely preferred this one, simply because I wouldn't have to cut any plastic on my SMS. It was a tiny piece of plastic and only in the back, but it still annoyed me that I had to modify the case.

That being said, since I did modify the console, I'll stick to using Bock's simply because it looks nice not having an awkward cartridge sticking up on top.

Here's some pictures, so you can form your own opinions on the look:






With Game - Front.jpg (49.58 KB)
With Game - Front.jpg
Converter.jpg (73.76 KB)
Converter.jpg
With Game - Top.jpg (77.3 KB)
With Game - Top.jpg

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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:11 am
Mine actually doesn't look like that; it has the same shape but it doesn't have that black solder mask and fancy markings, just plain old green solder mask and plain markings. I find it funny that they have the SG-1000 and SC-3000 logos on there considering this adapter is completely useless for those systems!

The height isn't actually all that bad, at least it doesn't stick up as high as the ToToTEK converter which is ridiculously tall (which is because it was meant to be mounted in a Mark III cart shell).

I would actually take that new converter over the Gender Adapter any day because I've found that the cart port-based converters have better compatibility. Wonder Boy III doesn't work of course, but that's something that can be easily fixed. Plus you can use the cart-based converters if you have a Mark III, since the Gender Adapter doesn't work on that system.
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:04 pm
One game I am working on will only work on the gender adapter or real EU/US SMS1/2. MD and MarkIII are not compatible, and there is no way to gain compatibility (without some soldering anyway, and even then it is from random location on the mobo straight on the cartridge itself).
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:13 pm
ApolloBoy wrote

....
I would actually take that new converter over the Gender Adapter any day because I've found that the cart port-based converters have better compatibility. Wonder Boy III doesn't work of course, but that's something that can be easily fixed. Plus you can use the cart-based converters if you have a Mark III, since the Gender Adapter doesn't work on that system.


Aside from the remark on Mark III, the Gender Adapter lower compatibility is only due to the games being hardcoded to run from the cart slot rather than any slot they are started from, I "fixed" my Jap SMS by cutting exp 13 and soldering it to B11, that way the exp port IS a duplicate of the cart slot .... and I haven'y had any issue since.
I am doing all my tests thru Master ED but the point is that now every game that hardcoded cart slot simply works, like Rastan and others.
Without the "fix" I was getting 90% compat, now it is 100%, meaning all games that do not lock because of FM board, or mess up because of VDP, are running just fine.

Yes the fix does require 1 trace cut and 1 wire soldering, not too bad if you ask me.
Now considering that the price of that adapter is on the cheap I do agree that it is very enticing as it is a no mod solution.

I don't remember specifics on WB3 [if I recall correctly it needs a patch on Master ED due to SerialEPROM save], but I remember trying everything that was in goodset and run on US thru MasterED over Jap SMS with "fix" and Gender Adapter and I found 2 non working titles due to the FM lock-out [sports game if memory serves] everything else was an exact match among the 2 systems, it if worked on US it worked on Jap.
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:22 pm
What signal are you using? The Mark III and Japanese SMS have several unused pins on the cart port so one could theoretically wire up whatever signal that is onto one of those unused pins, then wire it up from the Japanese end of the converter to the export end.
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:29 pm
My game requires !BR, !BG, !WAIT, !IORQ, !MREQ, !RD and !WR signals (all straight from Z80).
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:04 pm
RD and WR are already present on both the Mark III and JP SMS, and there's enough unused pins on both systems for the other four signals.

phoenixdownita wrote
but the point is that now every game that hardcoded cart slot simply works, like Rastan and others.
Without the "fix" I was getting 90% compat, now it is 100%, meaning all games that do not lock because of FM board, or mess up because of VDP, are running just fine.

Actually I did that fix as well and I encountered a couple of games that didn't work, including Maze Hunter 3-D.
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 10:54 pm
It would involve repurposing pins that the BASIC cart is using, it uses all the signals on the slot.
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Post Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:57 am
TmEE wrote
It would involve repurposing pins that the BASIC cart is using, it uses all the signals on the slot.

Not all of those signals are present on the Mark III or JP SMS, a good deal of the pins that correspond to those signals are unused on those two.
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Post Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 2:05 am
I did not know that, good info.
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:56 am
ApolloBoy wrote

....
Actually I did that fix as well and I encountered a couple of games that didn't work, including Maze Hunter 3-D.


Just played with my Jap SMS and Master ED (Gender Adapter + exp13 fix) and had no issue with Maze Hunter 3D and Maze Runner (the Jap version), just need to wait 5-7 sec for the Sega Mark III logo to appear, then it just works as expected
Also all WB works perfectly fine [I tried 4 of them: Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy III - The Dragon's Trap, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Wonder Boy in Monster Land].

As I was at it I played a couple of SG-1000 and was sadly remembered of the "nasty" color palette issue, I wonder if now that you have an SG1000 with the converter you bought for JapSMS if you can play .sg roms from Master ED. Maybe it just works, not sure.
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 6:21 am
phoenixdownita wrote
I wonder if now that you have an SG1000 with the converter you bought for JapSMS if you can play .sg roms from Master ED. Maybe it just works, not sure.

It doesn't sadly. I tried it for shits and giggles but all I got was a green screen.
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