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View topic - Play SMS roms on a real SMS system?

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MrVCD
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Play SMS roms on a real SMS system?
Post Posted: Sun Sep 05, 1999 12:50 pm
Is there any way to play SMS roms on a real SMS system? If anyone that has the knowledge of how to make
some sort of blank rewriteable cartridge/pc interface please email me! I am not a huge fan of emulators
 
Nyef
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 07, 1999 3:34 pm
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> Is there any way to play SMS roms on a real SMS system? If anyone that has the knowledge of how to make
> some sort of blank rewriteable cartridge/pc interface please email me! I am not a huge fan of emulators

Umm... sure, but we'll skip the email, okay?

I'm not too sure of the specifics (read: This should work, but I don't have the background to work out all the
details and actually try it), but you should be able to take a FlashROM chip (I would use AT49F010/020 for
most games, but that's simply because they are readily available to me), and some discrete logic (an address
decoder or two and some latches), and create a blank cart that can be written to with either a cart dumper
(which has to be two-way since the bank switching hardware is usually in the mask rom chip on the cart) or an
eeprom programmer.

Or you could do something with some ram and a direct cable to your computer, but that's nowhere near as
permanent (it would be faster to load games into it, but you'd have to do it every time you turn the system on,
and may well require an extra power supply).

Which route you take is probably a matter of what you want to do with it. If you are doing development then
the latter approach might be better because it would be faster to load an image to ram than to flash a rom,
but if you are a gamer then you might make several of the flashrom carts and keep a few of your favorite games
ready for whatever (if you have a MasterGear and want to play on the go, for example).

If someone wants to build some of the flash carts, I might be interested. Especially if they were over-designed
enough to accept four (or eight!) megabit parts.

--Nyef
 
uzplayer
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I aint too much of a developer but,
Post Posted: Tue Sep 07, 1999 4:44 pm
Shouldnt there be a way to perhaps make an addon drive for an SMS? I mean it does have expansion ports.

Perhaps something like a small 3 1/2 inch disk drive could be successfuly interfaced with an SMS and special driver software could be written for the both of them to talk. Wouldnt that be cheaper then either making a cart or having a direct connection between your PC and SMS?

Just a thought. (Getting ready to be lynched.)

- uzplayer -
 
Nyef
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Re: I aint too much of a developer but,
Post Posted: Tue Sep 07, 1999 4:59 pm
Quote
> Shouldnt there be a way to perhaps make an addon drive for an SMS? I mean it does have expansion ports.

> Perhaps something like a small 3 1/2 inch disk drive could be successfuly interfaced with an SMS and special driver software could be written for the both of them to talk. Wouldnt that be cheaper then either making a cart or having a direct connection between your PC and SMS?

> Just a thought. (Getting ready to be lynched.)

Actually, we had that idea earlier. The relevant messages are no longer on the board, but the basic idea involved an IDE interface (for a hard drive, probably 8.4 gigs or more by now), a keyboard, a net connection, etc. Browse the web and download roms directly into your SMS.

And making a cart only costs a few dollars, making a drive interface costs a lot more (you would need an FDC controller, and some firmware to run it, thus exceeding the cost of a cart, and that's not even considering the cost of the drive, the card-edge connector for the expansion port, the ram to load the game into, etc.).

Quote
> - uzplayer -

--Nyef
 
  • Joined: 24 Jun 1999
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Re: I aint too much of a developer but,
Post Posted: Tue Sep 07, 1999 5:33 pm
Quote
> Shouldnt there be a way to perhaps make an addon drive for an SMS? I mean it does have expansion ports.
> Perhaps something like a small 3 1/2 inch disk drive could be successfuly interfaced with an SMS and special driver software could be written for the both of them to talk. Wouldnt that be cheaper then either making a cart or having a direct connection between your PC and SMS?

Yeah but in all cases, as the BIOS start the program from the cartridge port we would need a special, homemade cartridge to access our addon.
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uzplayer
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Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Thu Sep 09, 1999 6:18 pm
I was thinking about it for a short time, and then realized that probably the most expandable CD Based system out of all is the Sega Saturn. I bet it wont be long before Majesco Sales picks it up like the Genesis and Game Gear and rereleases a more compact version with of course the CD drive, and a cartrige slot.

Perhaps an emulator can be written to a Saturn CD, and then a converter made for the cart slot of a Saturn. It should all be a matter of matching up pinouts between the Genesis cart and the Saturn cart slot and then have the emulator translate the hard data.. Now that I think of it, this could perhaps be implemented in two ways. One to play other CD based games (I aint gonna say the evil word in here dun worry ;-) ) and the other to play cartrige based games.

What do you think? Am I correct? Or am I off by a longshot? ;-)

- uzplayer -

Quote
> > Shouldnt there be a way to perhaps make an addon drive for an SMS? I mean it does have expansion ports.

> > Perhaps something like a small 3 1/2 inch disk drive could be successfuly interfaced with an SMS and special driver software could be written for the both of them to talk. Wouldnt that be cheaper then either making a cart or having a direct connection between your PC and SMS?

> > Just a thought. (Getting ready to be lynched.)

> Actually, we had that idea earlier. The relevant messages are no longer on the board, but the basic idea involved an IDE interface (for a hard drive, probably 8.4 gigs or more by now), a keyboard, a net connection, etc. Browse the web and download roms directly into your SMS.

> And making a cart only costs a few dollars, making a drive interface costs a lot more (you would need an FDC controller, and some firmware to run it, thus exceeding the cost of a cart, and that's not even considering the cost of the drive, the card-edge connector for the expansion port, the ram to load the game into, etc.).

> > - uzplayer -

> --Nyef
 
uzplayer
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I also meant SMS Sorry ;-) (-NT-)
Post Posted: Thu Sep 09, 1999 6:19 pm
Quote
> I was thinking about it for a short time, and then realized that probably the most expandable CD Based system out of all is the Sega Saturn. I bet it wont be long before Majesco Sales picks it up like the Genesis and Game Gear and rereleases a more compact version with of course the CD drive, and a cartrige slot.

> Perhaps an emulator can be written to a Saturn CD, and then a converter made for the cart slot of a Saturn. It should all be a matter of matching up pinouts between the Genesis cart and the Saturn cart slot and then have the emulator translate the hard data.. Now that I think of it, this could perhaps be implemented in two ways. One to play other CD based games (I aint gonna say the evil word in here dun worry ;-) ) and the other to play cartrige based games.

> What do you think? Am I correct? Or am I off by a longshot? ;-)

> - uzplayer -

> > > Shouldnt there be a way to perhaps make an addon drive for an SMS? I mean it does have expansion ports.

> > > Perhaps something like a small 3 1/2 inch disk drive could be successfuly interfaced with an SMS and special driver software could be written for the both of them to talk. Wouldnt that be cheaper then either making a cart or having a direct connection between your PC and SMS?

> > > Just a thought. (Getting ready to be lynched.)

> > Actually, we had that idea earlier. The relevant messages are no longer on the board, but the basic idea involved an IDE interface (for a hard drive, probably 8.4 gigs or more by now), a keyboard, a net connection, etc. Browse the web and download roms directly into your SMS.

> > And making a cart only costs a few dollars, making a drive interface costs a lot more (you would need an FDC controller, and some firmware to run it, thus exceeding the cost of a cart, and that's not even considering the cost of the drive, the card-edge connector for the expansion port, the ram to load the game into, etc.).

> > > - uzplayer -

> > --Nyef
 
Nyef
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Re: Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Thu Sep 09, 1999 7:12 pm
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> I was thinking about it for a short time, and then realized that probably the most expandable CD Based system out of all is the Sega Saturn. I bet it wont be long before Majesco Sales picks it up like the Genesis and Game Gear and rereleases a more compact version with of course the CD drive, and a cartrige slot.

Hrm... that could be fun.

Quote
> Perhaps an emulator can be written to a Saturn CD, and then a converter made for the cart slot of a Saturn. It should all be a matter of matching up pinouts between the Genesis cart and the Saturn cart slot and then have the emulator translate the hard data.. Now that I think of it, this could perhaps be implemented in two ways. One to play other CD based games (I aint gonna say the evil word in here dun worry ;-) ) and the other to play cartrige based games.

You wouldn't need to use a CD or a special converter. Just use a PAR with a computer link. Hrm... perhaps I should figure out said computer link and port DarcNES to the Saturn. That would be a nice counterpoint to DarcNES64. :-)

Quote
> What do you think? Am I correct? Or am I off by a longshot? ;-)

There's just one thing. How many people actually have a Saturn? (okay, I have two, but still...)

Quote
> - uzplayer -

--Nyef
 
uzplayer
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Re: Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Fri Sep 10, 1999 2:18 am
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> Hrm... that could be fun.

I figured as much ;-)

Quote
> You wouldn't need to use a CD or a special converter. Just use a PAR with a computer link. Hrm... perhaps I should figure out said computer link and port DarcNES to the Saturn. That would be a nice counterpoint to DarcNES64. :-)

Ok.. Aint familiar with what PAR is.. Enlighten me ;-)

Quote
> There's just one thing. How many people actually have a Saturn? (okay, I have two, but still...)

I know people that still have their Saturn.. Including myself.. Love it..

Quote
> --Nyef

uzplayer
 
  • Joined: 12 Jul 1999
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Re: Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Fri Sep 10, 1999 10:56 am
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> > Hrm... that could be fun.

> I figured as much ;-)

> > You wouldn't need to use a CD or a special converter. Just use a PAR with a computer link. Hrm... perhaps I should figure out said computer link and port DarcNES to the Saturn. That would be a nice counterpoint to DarcNES64. :-)

Then what would the point of that be?
How about releasing a SMS emulator for the Saturn over the 'net and let people burn their own CDs with ROMs included?

Quote
> Ok.. Aint familiar with what PAR is.. Enlighten me ;-)

Pro Action Replay
Cheat cartridge made by Datel, uses hex address codes to edit lives, etc.
Similar to that GameShark thingie.

Quote
> > There's just one thing. How many people actually have a Saturn? (okay, I have two, but still...)

> I know people that still have their Saturn.. Including myself.. Love it..

Myself, I have two and ~20 games

Quote
> > --Nyef

> uzplayer

~unfnknblvbl
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Nyef
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Re: Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Fri Sep 10, 1999 1:29 pm
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> > > Hrm... that could be fun.

> > I figured as much ;-)

> > > You wouldn't need to use a CD or a special converter. Just use a PAR with a computer link. Hrm... perhaps I should figure out said computer link and port DarcNES to the Saturn. That would be a nice counterpoint to DarcNES64. :-)

> Then what would the point of that be?
> How about releasing a SMS emulator for the Saturn over the 'net and let people burn their own CDs with ROMs included?

The problem with using CDs is that you would still need either a PAR or a modchip in order to copybreak the system.

On the other hand, it would be easier to transport a CD and a PAR then a PAR and a computer... :-)

Quote
> > Ok.. Aint familiar with what PAR is.. Enlighten me ;-)

> Pro Action Replay
> Cheat cartridge made by Datel, uses hex address codes to edit lives, etc.
> Similar to that GameShark thingie.

And on the subject of the PAR, how does it connect to a computer? I took mine apart (not a true PAR, AFAICT, but a tiwanese knockoff), and it looked to have a parport interface, but the software doesn't appear to look for the interface card in the parport range...

I suppose I could always try to run it in my DOS emulator to see if what it does looks parportish...

Quote
> > > There's just one thing. How many people actually have a Saturn? (okay, I have two, but still...)

> > I know people that still have their Saturn.. Including myself.. Love it..

> Myself, I have two and ~20 games

I have two and ~7 games, most of which are crap.On the other hand, I do have a couple good ones, so... And I bought the netlink keyboard adapter because it was cheap and looked interesting... Perhaps I should see about that MSX emulator? :-)

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> > > --Nyef

> > uzplayer

> ~unfnknblvbl

--Nyef
 
uzplayer
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Hmmm (-more-)
Post Posted: Fri Sep 10, 1999 2:07 pm
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> Then what would the point of that be?
> How about releasing a SMS emulator for the Saturn over the >'net and let people burn their own CDs with ROMs included?

Well, what I was thinking was something in terms of a Power Base Converter like item. Accept much less in scale. The pinouts between the cart and the slot could be matched up and the emulator could translate. Essentially, the emulator would be run from the CD.

Quote
> Pro Action Replay
> Cheat cartridge made by Datel, uses hex address codes to edit lives, etc.
> Similar to that GameShark thingie.

Oh yeah.. I been looking around for one though.. Havent been able to find it for either of the CD Consoles.

Quote
> Myself, I have two and ~20 games

I got one and 15 games.

- uzplayer -
 
Naflign
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ohhh 0_0
Post Posted: Fri Oct 01, 1999 5:14 pm




perhaps I should figure out said computer link and port DarcNES to the Saturn. That would be a nice counterpoint to DarcNES64. :-)

Wow, now that would be extreamly cool! o_0
 
Naflign
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Re: Perhaps this then (-more-)
Post Posted: Fri Oct 01, 1999 5:17 pm



Quote
> > How about releasing a SMS emulator for the Saturn over the 'net and let people burn their own CDs with ROMs included?

> The problem with using CDs is that you would still need either a PAR or a modchip in order to copybreak the system.

> On the other hand, it would be easier to transport a CD and a PAR then a PAR and a computer... :-)

I think that would be the method I'd like most, since it would allow people with no computers to fianlly play the glory that is Phantasy Star Gaiden ^^ But as you say, the mod chip....I've been looking for a saturn modchip for I don't know how long now ;{
 
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