Making SEGA Genesis cartridges

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dmckean:
That Ghouls N Ghosts hack is pretty impressive. Looks better than the CPS version in a lot of ways.

Xiaou2:

--- Quote from: pbj on February 02, 2023, 06:01:53 pm ---Very good suggestions, Xiaou2. I wasn't familiar with Ghost Hunter or 16 Tons. I think I'll have to make a copy of Ghost Hunter. May need to revisit Batman.

I'm a big fan of Target Earth. An almost cinematic game. Only copy I saw back in the day was the one I owned. The music is incredible put through some decent speakers. I just cheat and do the invincibility trick but it's still a fun ride.

I do have a homemade Revenge of Shinobi 1.0 with Sonny Chiba, Godzilla, Batman, Spider-Man, etc.

Thunderforce 3 I actually own legit. Someone was selling two loose PCBs on Ebay and I got them for $10 shipped. I was reasonably sure they were Altered Beast and Thunderforce 3 and turned out to be right. Who in the world strips a Thunderforce 3 for its shell? Probably worth $20 with my repro label. Only other "seller didn't know what he had" story is finding an Ultimate Qix in the bottom of a box of sports games.

I'm not convinced this is ever coming out, and I'm of the opinion that the original port doesn't really need updating, but there is a guy working on an enhanced Ghouls N Ghosts:

https://www.youtube.com/@amaru1818

And check out Tanzer and Xenocrisis if you haven't already.

:cheers:

--- End quote ---

Thanks PBJ.

I actually owned Mystic Warrior as well. I do recall defeating it.. but I dont remember much more than that. It wasnt all that graphically impressive,
but the mixed magic rings? thing was an interesting game mechanic.

For some reason, I remember owning the version of Revenge of Shinobi, with the Spider Man boss, and the others.

Way back then, I was foolishly dumping most all of my "Dishwasher" earnings, into SMS and Genesis games. Eventually I had amassed about 51 games
in total. I was so desperate for new games, that I found adds in magazines about Japanese imports.. and I blindly ordered some Japanese carts,
well before they would end up coming to the US (and some that never made it here).

I believe I had bought Thunderforce III, Outrun, Verytex, Gaiares, MUSHA, and Hellfire, in Japanese Import carts. I wasnt very impressed with a lot of these purchases,
so eventually stopped blind-buying these $80 import games.

Verytex was the worst of them all. It felt like a poor attempt from a high school student. It was playable, but boring and short, if memory serves right.
Eventually all of these games except Verytex were sold in the US. That said, the worst game Id ever purchased for the system, was Technocop. I have
no idea how that game approved to be sold. It single-handedly made me re-evaluate my choice in wasting money on a collection of so many Bad games,
that Id never re-play.

When I was like 17, I had read in EGM that you could make a custom RGB cable for the Genesis, if you had an RGB monitor. At that time, I had an
Amiga PC + 1024? stereo RGB monitor. I found an add in a magazine for a company that made Custom cables. I think it was called Redmond cables.
I have no idea how I remember that. Originally they messed up the first cable, with the wrong connector types. The next version worked spot on.

I was torn about it, however. Certain games like R.O.Shinobi, had areas where once-shimmering details would be rock solid and clear.
However, in many cases, it made the games look worse. More jagged, and less shaded. As such, I mostly used the composite output instead.

I remember years later deciding to try to sell my 51 Genesis carts to a re-seller, thinking Id be getting well over $1000.. so I could buy a PS1. lol
I think he offered me less than $200. I nearly cried... but foolishly, I took the money.

The sad thing was that I only bought like 5 games for the PS1. I only really bought it for Ridge Racer. The rest of the library was mostly awful, low-res,
3d trash. Rayman was the next best game... Loved that game. So darn pretty.. and so very challenging.

That GnG port looks pretty sick, thanks for the link.
Ive seen an Arcade Shinobi port being started... and it looks amazing also.

That said, Id love to see people adding more to these games, rather than just a straight port.

If my life doesnt completely down the toilet (its not looking good), Ive dreamed about making a custom controller
specifically for Target Earth.

A large counter-weighted lever, that you strapped yourself into. You could then Jump with your own legs, for the jump button...
and the counterweight would allow for some excellent floating "hang-time".

Maybe add an actual Gun that has powerful recoil effects built into it.

Someone good at hacking into these games, could make a system to activate certain effects, based on the levels / guns used.
Maybe even power the jumping mechanism, with a precision motor system (that could reduce the height requirements, now that
I think about it).

pbj:
Well, Xiaou2, you’ve either been a bad or good influence but you were an influence today.

I finally tallied up my collection. Putting aside my cardboard box of donor games, I’m up to almost 200 unique games. It’s been a fun ride. It started when malenko sent me a Genesis 2 and MK2.

:cheers:

pbj:
Wanted to give an overdue shout out to Mike_A and his incredible Genesis cartridge storage boxes.

Through the use of removable inserts, each column in each crate can hold either EA or Genesis cartridges. They also stack very nicely. I was able to get my entire collection of unique games into this with room to spare for, eh... a few more. Each comfortably holds 63 of either type. He previously made a prototype I'm using to hold my leftover donors. All the loose PCBs have been sorted into all those wooden cassette racks I don't need for at least 1-2 weeks.

In other news, I was quietly given some PCB plans for a reproduction board that will supposedly allow a 4MB rom to save to FeRAM. It uses a 74LS74A flip flop and a 74LS139 2x4 decoder. I'm pretending I know what those words mean. I went through many, many PCBs and only found those chips on EA College Football and EA NHLPA93, which are both fairly early EA sports games. So I went ahead and ordered some more from China. 74LS138N and 74HC00N were on tons of Sega / EA / Akklaim boards but I'm too dumb to look at the datasheets and figure out if they're compatible. I'll make one cartridge with sockets and see what works, I suppose. The weird FeRAM chip that literally only Sonic 3 used has also been ordered in bulk.

So, anyway, in theory this should enable me to play the 4MB homebrew that saves such as Cave Story, Sonic Hellfire Saga, Life on Mars, etc. Those all work fine on $18-25 flashcards but reason left this conversation many, many months ago.

PCB Way is going to send me a run of 10 boards and we will see what happens in a few weeks.

:cheers:

bobbyb13:
Do it for the love!

Man, those boxes are beautiful work too.
Mike hit it out of the park with those.

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