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Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there:

Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible?

I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with...

Quote

> Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there:

> Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible?

> I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with...

It seems unlikely, as the cartridge would need to have "dual-ported" memory (which no current GG cartridges have). The ROM would need the capability of being addressed with two addresses, and delivering two different bytes of data, each to the correct GG system.

OR, you'd need to keep the Game Gears in perfect synchronization and have the ROM deliver the same data to both GGs at the same time (of course then both GG would execute exactly the same code making them clones, and not very useful for 2-player games). Again, this is a technically challenging (if not impossible) feat.

--
Eric Quinn

Quote

> Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there:

> Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible?

> I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with...

As Eric says you can't address a single cartridge from multiple systems. The only way to implement a splitter would be to have the device copy the entire contents of one cartridge into SRAM or similar, which would then be addressed by one of the GGs while the other addressed the original ROM.

See my SMSReader page for an approach to building an SRAM-based cartridge.

Mike

Quote

> > Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there:

> > Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible?

> > I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with...

> As Eric says you can't address a single cartridge from multiple systems. The only way to implement a splitter would be to have the device copy the entire contents of one cartridge into SRAM or similar, which would then be addressed by one of the GGs while the other addressed the original ROM.

> See my SMSReader page for an approach to building an SRAM-based cartridge.

> Mike

I remember seeing an advert once from Innovation selling an adaptor that let you hook a Genesis controller up to the link port of the Game Gear. There were a few other interesting things in the advert too, like an SF2 clone called "Master Fighter" (which claimed compatibility with said adaptor?) Whether or not this actually sold, or was just more innovation vaporware is beyond me, but I recently got ahold of a pirate cart of SF2 from Korea, and I recognize some of the background graphics as being from the screenshot of Master Fighter (anyone ever even see this game?)

Author	Message
Stilton Guest	way to use Game Gear 2-player and only 1 cartridge Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2001 12:24 am
Stilton Guest	Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there: Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible? I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with...

Eric R. Quinn Joined: 18 Sep 1999 Posts: 498 Location: Portland, Oregon USA	Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2001 5:26 am
	Quote > Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there: > Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible? > I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with... It seems unlikely, as the cartridge would need to have "dual-ported" memory (which no current GG cartridges have). The ROM would need the capability of being addressed with two addresses, and delivering two different bytes of data, each to the correct GG system. OR, you'd need to keep the Game Gears in perfect synchronization and have the ROM deliver the same data to both GGs at the same time (of course then both GG would execute exactly the same code making them clones, and not very useful for 2-player games). Again, this is a technically challenging (if not impossible) feat. -- Eric Quinn

Mike G Joined: 21 Apr 2000 Posts: 598 Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England	Sort of... Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2001 7:23 am
	Quote > Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there: > Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible? > I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with... As Eric says you can't address a single cartridge from multiple systems. The only way to implement a splitter would be to have the device copy the entire contents of one cartridge into SRAM or similar, which would then be addressed by one of the GGs while the other addressed the original ROM. See my SMSReader page for an approach to building an SRAM-based cartridge. Mike

Keilin Silverfox Guest	Re: Sort of... Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2001 8:45 am
Keilin Silverfox Guest	Quote > > Here's a naive question for all the technical whizzes out there: > > Would it be possible to hook up a single GG cartridge to 2 Game Gears to get 2-player play? I had in mind building a basic cartridge "splitter" that could be plugged into the 2 GG's and into which you could plug the game cartridge. Is this feasible? > > I'm thinking some outfit like Naki would have already made one if it were, but, it's worth a shot... Plus I am getting an old-beat up GG to experiment with... > As Eric says you can't address a single cartridge from multiple systems. The only way to implement a splitter would be to have the device copy the entire contents of one cartridge into SRAM or similar, which would then be addressed by one of the GGs while the other addressed the original ROM. > See my SMSReader page for an approach to building an SRAM-based cartridge. > Mike I remember seeing an advert once from Innovation selling an adaptor that let you hook a Genesis controller up to the link port of the Game Gear. There were a few other interesting things in the advert too, like an SF2 clone called "Master Fighter" (which claimed compatibility with said adaptor?) Whether or not this actually sold, or was just more innovation vaporware is beyond me, but I recently got ahold of a pirate cart of SF2 from Korea, and I recognize some of the background graphics as being from the screenshot of Master Fighter (anyone ever even see this game?)

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