@Jair has been testing the Gear Master with an Everdrive, with the hope he could play GG, SMS and SG-1000 games. Would be nice rather than buying 2 different EDs, one for GG, one for SMS (the ED being much more expensive than the GM).
Problem is the GG mode signal from the ED is 3.3V, making it incompatible with the GM (and some GG consoles, maybe Sega switched their ASICs to CMOS late in the console's life).
My "dear" friends from RetroSix even made a video of the issue and proposed a fix:
Not sure what's wrong with krizz but he answered pretty abruptly and still thinks his product is perfect.
Well, if he ever reads this message, there is a simple fix that wouldn't cost him much: update the FPGA to drive that pin as 3-state. Leaving it floating when in SMS mode (both real GGs and the GM have pull-up resistors to 5V) and driving it to 0V for GG mode. If he used an open-drain output then he will also need to tie the pull-up resistor on the ED to 5V (1 trace fix, not sure the FPGA will be happy seing 5V on the pin though, so maybe the MOSFET route is the only option after all unless there's a spare signal on the level shifters).
Not sure what's wrong with krizz but he answered pretty abruptly and still thinks his product is perfect.
I suspect it's his point of view. I don't think he had many customers (or any?) complaining they could not play SMS games on GG, which means either they didn't complain, or they didn't play SMS games, or they didn't experience issues at all.
Maybe the issue doesn't happen on the 100% original unmodded GGs?
I agree with you but that's not a reason to be rude.
He has a past history of such behaviour, remember when people pointed the fact he didn't use any level shifter to convert 5V to 3.3V signals? I wonder if it was a cheap move or a lack of knowledge.
I don't have any evidence neither it can affect OG GGs, they are people complaining it's happening to them too but they don't mention if their console is 100% OG.
I didn't mean to defend his behavior. Anyway what we've seen in the past is that he might improve his own products using valuable feedback, as for the level shifters for instance. So it's good he knows about his design flaw now.
Hey Apocalypse, great to see more info about the Gear Master in the forums.
I understand changing the hardware is not as easy as a firmware update, but I do hope Krikzz can recognize how valuable it is to get good feedback on your products.
sverx wrote
Maybe the issue doesn't happen on the 100% original unmodded GGs?
A 100% unmodded Game Gear is not realistic nowadays. If the fact that the GG Everdrive deviate from the original GG's voltage causes unexpected behaviour with screen mods or peripherals, it's reasonable to consider a fix. Obviously not throwing away all your stock, but when the time comes to manufacture a new batch, in 1-2 years time.
