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Author Topic: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges  (Read 35879 times)

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pbj

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #120 on: September 06, 2022, 11:20:59 am »
Yep, and a box of worthless EA PCBs.  CHEAP!  LMK!   :lol

pbj

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #121 on: September 10, 2022, 11:09:35 pm »
Everyone, check out the box that MikeA made me:



Thanks to his enabling, I can now fit 42 SEGA carts and 21 EA carts into a single box.

 :notworthy:

dmckean

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #122 on: September 10, 2022, 11:12:32 pm »
We should all be more like MikeA

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #123 on: September 11, 2022, 04:37:47 am »
Everyone, check out the box that MikeA made me:



Thanks to his enabling, I can now fit 42 SEGA carts and 21 EA carts into a single box.

 :notworthy:

Outstanding.
Bonus points for the TMNT burn.
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #124 on: September 12, 2022, 11:13:04 pm »
So turns out my issue with Ristar was a bent pin on the console cartridge connector.  Back when I first started, I was using rig wire that was too thick and that was that.  Anyway, I used a needle to bend the pin back out and have regressed to the late 80s repair of permanently leaving a Game Genie installed.

Working on roping in another sucker, spent the afternoon popping chips.


pbj

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #125 on: September 18, 2022, 12:45:14 am »
Finished up a couple of carts for a forum member.  The juxtaposition of bootlegs of two of the most coveted games and his labels is amusing.


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #126 on: September 18, 2022, 10:28:45 am »
WOW! WHAT A DIFFERENCE.....


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #127 on: September 18, 2022, 09:40:28 pm »
If any of you want into bootleg Genesis games, speak up soon.  At this point I’m going to have to dump another $100 in boards and EPROMs to keep it going much longer.  I’m back to popping chips off old boards and damn it sucks.



I hope to never make a Phantasy Star 4 or Sonic Complete ever again.  Ever.

 :cheers:

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #128 on: September 21, 2022, 12:33:54 am »
Okay, finished these up.  Going to a guy that didn’t grow up with a Genesis, so the challenge was to get a definitive collection into 12 cartridges.  Figured I’d share the list but I’m not making any changes so keep your negative feedback to yourself.   ;D



I cheated a lot with that 10 in 1 cartridge, using a Brazilian Tec Toy rom.  It has Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic 1, Streets of Rage 1, etc.  Nice sampling of early SEGA.

Contra Hard Corps - patched back with the life bars so you have a chance.

Crusader of Centy because nobody has ever played it and it sells for $300-400 loose.

Mortal Kombat 2 Unlimited with color patch - looks good, plays good, you can be the boss, etc.

Phantasy Star IV because nobody could afford it in the 90s and it’s still ~$90

Sonic Complete - this is Sonic 3 and Sonic and Kunckles combined and tweaked.  Excellent rom hack.

Sonic Spinball

Streets of Rage 2 - probably the best fight and go right made and I’ve played through damn near all of them.

Thunder Force IV - very nice presentation and sells for ~$75.  A good choice if you’re only getting one SHMUP.  I give it a slight edge over MUSHA.

Vectorman 2

Xeno Crisis - homebrew so good you won’t believe it’s on Genesis.  I’m curious to see how he does with it because it is ---smurfing--- hard.

Road Rash 2 - have to break the aesthetic with one EA cartridge and this is an excellent choice.


Malenko

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #129 on: September 21, 2022, 07:33:48 am »
Its a great sampling of games. When he asks for more carts you can make him Shinobi 3 and or SoR3.
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Nephasth

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #130 on: September 27, 2022, 12:37:56 am »
Never owned one of these in my youth... A care package arrived today from PBJ, and boy did he hook it up! As Malenko said, a nice sampling of games was included!

Now... It's time to blow ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up.


Many thanks, Jim! This ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---'s awesome! :cheers:
%Bartop

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #131 on: September 27, 2022, 12:02:14 pm »
I helped curate the list via text messages with Jimmers, guess he left Earthworm Jim 2 off the make list and Contra must have beat out GunStar Heroes.
I made that Vectorman 2 label just for you.

I have another spare Model 1 Genny, wonder who we can rope in next?
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #132 on: September 27, 2022, 07:47:38 pm »
Contra replaced a Hockey game. I despise sports. :dunno
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #133 on: September 27, 2022, 07:50:58 pm »
NHL 94 is legit tho, and the 2022 hack is ever gooderer.

He should have sent you Mutant League Hockey then , you can just play it as an overhead beatem up instead of hockey.
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pbj

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #134 on: September 27, 2022, 08:04:40 pm »
Aw, he’s actually playing games instead of turning one on after another.  I sent you an NHL 94, bro.

 :angry:

Give it a shot.  Games take 10 minutes and it’s actually very good.  At least you’ll have it in the cartridge larder if a friend visits and wants to play it.

We need to decide how many carts we want so I can buy more EPROMs.  Chop, chop.

 :cheers:

Nephasth

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #135 on: September 27, 2022, 08:31:12 pm »
At least you’ll have it in the cartridge larder if a friend visits and wants to play it.

Friend? :laugh2:

Nobody is allowed to visit my domicile. Nobody. Single player all the way baby!

I'll look through some lists for some other stuff. Homebrews definitely interest me.
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #136 on: September 27, 2022, 09:08:08 pm »
I'll look through some lists for some other stuff. Homebrews definitely interest me.

The new Final Fight homebrew looks TITS
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #137 on: September 28, 2022, 02:04:29 am »
I wish I had the free time to ask to buy into this fiasco-
 :dunno
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #138 on: September 28, 2022, 07:56:36 am »
I wish I had the free time to ask to buy into this fiasco-
 :dunno


Do it anyway, you’ll find the time.


Zebidee

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #139 on: September 28, 2022, 04:13:04 pm »
You're doing good stuff pbj.

Set yourself up as a kindof "speakeasy" for homebrew carts.
Check out my completed projects!


bobbyb13

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #140 on: September 29, 2022, 02:27:39 am »
I wish I had the free time to ask to buy into this fiasco-
 :dunno


Do it anyway, you’ll find the time.


:cheers:

Well, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---...

Last console I owned was a 2600-
Where the hell do I even start?!
Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools! I can fix it.

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #141 on: October 16, 2022, 03:28:13 pm »
Making some more carts for my slave driver...



One recent revelation has been that if a 2MB chip fails when it's around 1MB burnt... that means a 256Kb or 512Kb ROM will burn and play fine.  The chip will fail verification but the Genesis don't care.

So that's how Nephasth has MUSHA.  I will be testing this theory further on a chip failing around 400Kb with a copy of Rambo 3 (256Kb).  Rambo 3 is oddly a very good game that nobody owned except me back in the day.  Sells kinda high on the resale market from what I've seen.  My dusty brain recalls some invincibility trick I will have to refresh myself on, but it was still fun to play through.

I also had a 4MB chip with legs that crumbled into dust when I was messing with it.  I was able to scrape back the sides of the chip and get a metal nub exposed and solder some kynar wire to it.  It miraculously works, so now I've got a copy of Mortal Kombat 2 Unlimited with Kintaro Action Grip.

 :cheers:


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #142 on: October 23, 2022, 09:47:05 pm »
This one I’m kind of proud of, felt clever for the first time in a long time.  Couldn’t get Water Margin to boot no matter what I did to the No Intro rom.  So I busted out my $30 Genesis flasher that works with the cheap Chinese flash PCBs.  Well, they used to be cheap - $2-3 each.  I should have bought 500 of them and spared myself future misery.  Now they’re $10.  Anyway, the flasher can also dump cartridges, so I dumped my bootleg of Water Margin I bought from Malaysia.  Malenko made that replacement label art because it came with garbage originally.



ROM still wouldn’t boot, even though it was a clean dump.  So I put all my EPROMs in my UV easy bake oven and scratched my head for awhile.

Then I go, you know what, let’s check the header.  Sure enough, it was full of scrambled garbage.  So was the no intro rom.  I’m actually unsure how my bootleg cart even boots.  Maybe it’s fine on the chip but dumps weird.  Who knows, but my dump matched their dump.  Same scrambling.

I copied over the information from the Streets of Rage 2 header and….




They should have called this game Swamp Bandits but at least we’re in business.

 :cheers:




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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #143 on: October 23, 2022, 10:37:41 pm »
Faster, Jim! It's starting to snow! :cheers:
%Bartop

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #144 on: October 24, 2022, 11:41:30 pm »
Got 50 repro pcbs in today.  Means I can crank up the pace.  I need to print a couple of labels but got seven soldered up and assembled in an hour.

 :cheers:


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #145 on: November 21, 2022, 10:44:40 pm »
More chips, more pcbs, more sports games shells….

Lots of home brew and rom patches in this pile.







SF2 using the Z80 for audio.  Arkagis Revolution doing sprite rotation.  No idea how they pulled that off.


I also made myself a Rambo 3.  Used to actually own this.  A very odd, very early Genesis game.  I remember screenshots in the print ads not matching up to the actual game.  The enemy sprites don’t do that flicker thing so when you get a bunch of enemies on screen it slows to a crawl.  I counted ten enemies at one point.

Very unfortunate ending in hindsight.


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #146 on: November 22, 2022, 12:04:34 am »
It was an astute person who penned the "Graveyard of Empires" moniker.

Crazy how many of those games I have never heard of.

But those Blockbuster labels bring back some memories!
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #147 on: February 01, 2023, 12:50:20 am »
What a difference two months makes…

So, every morning I wake up and slam three heaping tablespoons of this now.  I like to use a brewery glass because it helps me pretend I’m fun.



The good news is I’m not dying of colon cancer.  Frankly that’s surprising news as the symptoms and family history weren’t great.  Those of you unfortunate enough to receive texts from me have heard all about this already but 2022 was a damned spooky year. 

Also, do not eat jerky labelled INFERNO from a man with a tattoo on his ass of the grim reaper eating a Carolina reaper pepper.  I thought I was going to end up in the ER.  My specialist got a good laugh out of that anecdote.

But all that aside, I’ve truly felt the best lately that I have in months.  So that’s great.

Other big change was I couldn’t take the old gig anymore, tossed my resume out there, and was scooped quickly.  It’s fully remote, which is very weird, and I’ve lost access to that sweet, sweet color laser printer I pulled out of a junk pile at the last job.

Okay, here we go.  I got some HP inkjet with “unlimited automatic ink refills” for 15 months for $75 all in.  The ink smudges if it gets damp, as can be seen on my text on this label where I licked my thumb and rubbed my sizing notes to simulate spilling beer on a game at 2am.  So I broke out some duck tape and water based acrylic clearcoat.  I haven’t yet resigned myself to sanding mailing labels, so I got a leathery texture.  I gave them four coats.



This forum chews posts so I’ll respond to myself to continue…






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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #148 on: February 01, 2023, 01:04:02 am »
So, I sorted my rather large box of old pcbs into SEGA and everything else.  I’m actually very low on non-saving Genesis games, but I do have a few of these cartridges that split roms in half onto smaller chips to save money manufacturing.



That one on the right was formerly Joe Montana Sports Talk Football, a 1MB game split onto two 512kB chips,

I thought I would get away with just removing the bottom chip and putting Last Battle (512kB chip) on there.

Thus far I cannot get it to boot.



I subsequently pried off the mapper chip and the top rom.  They came off completely clean and left clear holes.  I’m starting to wonder about all that time I spent hunched over smoldering hog lard.

Anyway, no change.  I suspect one of the ROM lines is routed weird… like chip enable or something.  Two hours (and counting!)  spent on this in order to save $2 on a repro board.  No regrets.  I’ll chunk it in my “remove this eprom some day” pile.

But I did get Mystic Defender and Twinkle Tale going.  The price of a legit Twinkle Tale will curl your toes ($400ish).  I actually owned Mystic Defender back in the day.  The only person that did.  Level 4 is ---fracking--- impossible.  It’s so hard the attract mode is literally showing you how to beat it.  Still impossible.  I cannot crack this game even with Game Genie codes as they don’t work on the lava in level 4.  I spent a long time in code generator generator mode in the Fusion emulator and couldn’t come up with anything that worked.  Fun graphics glitches, tho!



Anyway, more to come….


 :cheers:


« Last Edit: February 01, 2023, 01:28:22 am by pbj »

bobbyb13

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #149 on: February 01, 2023, 04:42:22 am »
Great posts these last few.
Sounds like excellent news actually- and that is a great pint glass.
Good on you flushing the system.

The Mystic Defender blurb made me chuckle out loud, which I needed, so thank you!
 :cheers:
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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #150 on: February 01, 2023, 03:48:15 pm »
Paradoxically, the problem was the opposite of "unable to flush the system."  Anyway, I have some terrifying pictures I'll be happy to send you.  There will be blood.

 :lol

That experience with that SEGA PCB prompted me to check the box of sports games PCBs I've been holding onto for reasons unknown to me.  I found some interesting things out.

EA PCBs assembled in Puerto Rico in 1993 - ROM pops right off.  Any other PCB?  ROM or PCB cracks in half before the solder will give.  I spent 3 hours trying to desolder a chip and clean the holes on an EA PCB once.  Oh well, live and learn.  Seems to be total ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- like FIFA soccer and international tennis.  Any other era the chips may as well be welded on.  On the pic below you may notice a damaged trace.... there is literally a damn factory jumper wire going off the ROM leg to enable 2MB mode.  I had a few with a slight variation that didn't need this jumper wire.  This was clearly done by hand and the ROMs are crooked because the chip sits on top of the wire.  You can also see the bottom left leg on chip U3 has been physically bent out and soldered to that capacitor.  Fun times.  What the hell was EA doing in Puerto Rico.... I'm sure it was a tax scheme.

Anyway, NFL Quarterback Club by Acclaim?  Even easier to pop off.

Tengen boards pop off pretty easily but the solder pads are delicate and I've had to scrap off some solder mask, fold the eprom leg over, solder to the trace, etc.  No big deal.

Here's a couple of examples.





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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #151 on: February 01, 2023, 07:15:11 pm »
So the issue with that board was indeed the vE pin.  And then the 2MB connection was pulled high to 5V.  I depopulated another one of these boards to follow the traces so I wouldn’t have jumpers on the edge connector.

And now I have two copies of Last Battle….


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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #152 on: February 02, 2023, 08:06:38 am »
I just found a rare Japanese Genesis game, that I became Addicted to.
A little known title called:  16 Ton.
I believe it was released on the Japanese Sega Satellite based internet server / Service.

 It doesnt look that visually impressive, but the gameplay is fun as Hell.
Its somewhat similar to Teddy Boy Blues.. but its gameplay is much more fun and dynamic.

1) You can Run,  Jump,  and  Shoot    these 16 Ton Weights.
2) The weights can Crush the enemies
3) The weights have PHYSICS !!!   You can make them bounce off of walls,  each other,  they can slide on Ice..etc.
4) The weights can fall, bounce, or slide into you..  so you have to be quite careful about them...
5) You jump on the stopped weights, to reach higher platforms.
6) After a few jumps on a stopped weight, they will start to break apart, and eventually will vanish.
7) Weights can form a protective wall against enemies
8 ) Enemies can cut through the blocks, with some effort / time
 A) One particular enemy, tends to be able to Jump down from the platforms above you
 B) One enemy can Fly (and can destroy any stopped weights that its blades hit)

- At the top of the screen, is a long section of Bars.  This has dual functionality...

 A) It will suddenly start to scroll from left to right... like a slot machine.  When it stops, it will Drop a random
number of enemies at that horizontal screen location.

 B) The bar will then act as a time... slowly counting down, until the next batch of Enemies to Release.
 C) The bar will stop counting down, if there once you are on your last batch.  You will have to then hunt down these remaining enemies, for you to win.. and progress to the next level.

- At the Bottom of your screen are:

1) Enemy - The number of enemies left alive... in the current Level
2) 16 Ton - I havent figured this meter out. I think its a limiter on how many Weights you can shoot
3) Slots    - This is the number of remaining "Enemy Drops"
4) Lives    - Number of Lives you have left

- I believe you have a certain number of  "Continues"  as I know Ive blown through all 5 men, and was able to keep going.  Eventually Id run out, and Id get a permanent "Game Over", and have to start from the beginning level again.  I never counted how many lives total.. as I was too busy having fun playing.  I must have sunk about 2hrs into the game, without even thinking about it.

- All levels Wrap around from left to right, and top to bottom (infinitely).
- There are certain levels that have Unique blocks:

A) Ice Blocks - very slippery. Good to be able to slide weights into the enemies.
B) Destructible blocks - Weights thrown into them, can destroy them
C) Bouncing Blocks - Jumping on these will make you bounce. Weights can also bounce on them.

- The Physics are quite amazing.  Not only can you do jumps that are short or long.. but you can also add your momentum to throw the weights shorter.. or further.   The weights bouncing and sliding, is also great.. and you often end up Crushing yourself, while trying to crush the Enemies.

 This really is a Must play.  Hilarious fun, challenging, and very addictive.


Xiaou2

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #153 on: February 02, 2023, 09:34:35 am »
I had found  16 Ton,  when thinking about a list of some of the best games for the Genesis.


These are some of my top re-playable Favorites:
(In no particular order)

16 Tons

 -New personal Favorite.  Very Addictive Arcade Action Game.

Super Hangon:

 - One of the systems fastest & more intense racing games.  If you play the "Story mode", you can unlock a much
higher top speed bike.  Faster than the "Arcade" mode bike, from what I recall.  The story
mode bike starts out slow, and pathetic.. but eventually things get faster and more intense.  Its a very intense challenge,
to be able to compete a race without crashing.. as crashes will cause you to waste your upgrade money.. on repairs.

Rocket Knight Adventures

 - This game is very Polished.  It controls and plays smooth.  The graphics are cool.  The Music and SFX are Fantastic.
And the kinds of interactions and graphical effects are varied and unique.   The game starts out seeming "Easy",  but
ohh boy.. does it ever ramp up in difficulty.  Its one of the very few games that I was unable to defeat.. (I was close)

The Revenge of Shinobi

 - My favorite Shinobi game, after the Arcade Original.  The guy moves a bit slow for my taste, but the challenge is
decent... and the tunes and overall Feel, is quite Epic.

Zany Golf

 - Im a Sucker for a good Mini Golf game..  and this one, is one of the most unique and fun versions, that Ive ever
come across.  Everything from working Pinball Flippers,  to Lasers,  Fans that push the ball, and many other
interesting and unique features and functions.   Its a very challenging game to fully beat.  Always fun for a replay.

Thunderforce II

 - Hands down, my Favorite shooter of all time.  I prefer this over all of the others in the Series.  Why?  This version has
FAR superior music (best VG music Ive ever heard), much more detailed hi-res graphics, and the powerup system is much
better than the later versions.   Its also FAR more challenging than TF3.. yet far less rage inducing than TF4.

 Some people do not care for the Top View stages.  They are a little awkward, but they give some nice variation to the game.
The main issue with them, is in getting Lost, while trying to find each base.

 The other issue I originally had.. was due to not reading the manual.  You see, every other weapon you collect.. shoots in the air...
but, in order to hit the targets on the ground, you need to use your "Bombs".   The bombs are Automatically dropped.. but they
visually look like they are just standard air based weapons.  As such, you have to realize that in order to hit these ground targets..
you have to get quite Close in range, for your bombs to be able to reach them.  You can see where they are landing, by looking
at the small circles that form.

 You can skip most of these stages at the Main Title screen, by activating the hidden menu.  At title screen, press A+B+C+Start Button.
From there, you can adjust the difficulty level, and starting level.   Beware.. as if you chose to lower the difficulty.. the game wont
allow you to complete the entire game (It will stop you, a few levels before that point).  This really forces you to develop your skills.

 The best thing about it, is that its difficulty level is very Fair.  It will allow you to crash... and still keep traveling forwards.. unlike some
brutal shooters, that put you very far backwards into a level.  Furthermore, even with your Default weapon, you will have more than
enough firepower to fight the enemies.  Unlike shooters like R-Type... where if you are killed deep into the game, its almost easier to
reset the entire game... rather than trying to fight with your basic underpowered Pea-Shooter of a weapon.

 This game took me about a year of Off and On play,  but I eventually defeated it.  I was quite young at that time, so my skills were
probably nowhere near what they are these days.  That said, TF2 is one of those games that if you have not played it in years... its
probably going to kick your a**,  until get used to it again.   This is one of the few shooters that I re-play over and over again.

 When I defeated it, it was from starting on the 5th level, I believe.  That in itself was a real challenge. However, one day I want
to try to defeat it from stage 1.

 There is a somewhat superior version of TF2, on the  Japanese  x68000  PC.  It has more layers of parallax scrolling.  More details.
More levels in total.  Clearer voices.  And more.   Its interesting, that the Genesis version tweaked on the bosses to make it
MUCH harder than the x68000 version.  In fact, it was that tweaked boss, that caused me so much difficulty in reaching the final stage.
I sort of had to cheat, by rapidly toggling the start button.. acting as a Pause.. to simulate slow-motion.  Even that, was still a real
challenge and miracle, to pull off.  That said, it was worth every second of pain.  Its just a fantastic experience, in total.

Target Earth

 - This is another very EPIC game.  Maybe not as perfectly balanced as TF2.. as its a bit slower in pace..  but it has so many unique
things within its gameplay.  Many of the stage missions, have different objectives.  In one mission, you had to help defend the main
ship.. while waiting for as many of your friends to board it,  to escape the planet.  However... I found out the hard way.. that if you
do not board within the said time limit (they warned me),  then they will actually close the hatch, and leave you stranded!  Then you
get the "Game OVER" screen.. no matter how many lives / continues that you had!  I was gobsmacked!  Had to laugh at myself,
as they did warn me.

 The game has a unique system of aim control.. but its jumping has a small Delay to it, that takes some time to get used to.
This is semi-realistic, because anything that Heavy.. isnt going to be quick nor easy to "Jump" into the air.  As such, you eventually
get used to pre-planning your jumps a hair early... or at least, expect a little delay after you press jump.

 The game is BRUTALLY hard.  I think it took me several hours of play to figure out how to defeat the first level.  One of the
keys, is trying to run past enemies, rather than trying to fight them all.  If you keep from getting too many hits, eventually your
health bar will auto re-fill itself.   Sometimes you can "Rest" to recoop your energy.. but there are missions in which you do
not have any extra time to waste.

 At the end of each stage, there is the Opportunity to Earn extra weapons.  This depends on how well you performed in the mission
that you just completed.  For example.. if you rescued 98% of the crew on that one stage, you might earn 2 weapons, rather than 1
or none.  It becomes fun trying to get as much of a bonus as possible, to be able to get the best possible weapons, as early as
possible.

 The soundtrack is a little limited in the number of tracks.. but they are fantastic tracks.  One of them sounds like a crazy futuristic
Electrified Jazzy Guitar solo... and its to die for.

 There is an actual story that gets told to you, as you progress.  Its not some deep RPG thing.. and its not some long disruptive
amount of text to read.  Its just enough to be interesting.. and eventually "Shocking" when its revealed to you, what "happened",
and Why.

 One great thing about this game, is some of the depth of Realisms in it.  For example... if you launch an Explosive shell into the air,
and then charge into the resulting Explosion.. you WILL take massive damages from it.

 The delay in the jumping is also one of those details of Realism.  It helps to really pull you into this world / game.
There are other things... such as using the Atmosphere (burning them up as you Juke them) as means of killing the enemies.

 The graphics are very cool looking, and are quite detailed.  Things only get more and more impressive, in the final stages.

 There is also an EPIC mini-movie, that eventually plays... if you do not press anything at the title screen.
It tells a little bit of the story, with some very cool battle animations.

 Recently, some company made a modern re-make of this game... however.. IMO, its complete Trash, compared to the original.
It was clearly made up people whom are not actual Artists..  as there are many glaring visual issues, such as very bad looking
explosions and effects.

Ghouls and Ghosts

 - What can I say.  This is a game that anyone can pick up and re-play, over and over again.  Its just a very fun and addictive
game.   And while you can play the arcade game on mame..  the Genesis version holds it own, quite well enough, to satisfy.

Strider

 - While this game is a little lacking in terms of depth of gameplay... it was one of the few games that had a sort of epic mission
feel to it.  Seeing the character running down the steep snowy mountain.. its captures the spirit of emotion so perfectly... and
burns it into your very soul, forever.   The game is very Interactive.. in ways that many games are not.   Its not so much of a
re-play game... as it is a kind of special feat, of a very polished Genesis game experience.

Castle of Illusions

 - Another very polished game.  Starts out seemingly childish.. but then becomes quite deceptively challenging.  This is one
that had some very beautiful and creative visuals... and a great matching soundtrack + sfx to boot.  Just getting to see
the sparkling spider web stage, or roaming in the Candy-Land... is just an amazing experience to behold.  Few side-scollers
are anywhere near as pretty, and unique, as this one was.

Batman (Sunsoft)

 - Its been a very long time since Ive played this one, so my memory is fuzzy... but from what I recall... I really enjoyed this
one.  It played well, and really set the mood.  The only bad part about it, was it was too darn short.

Zhuo Gui Da Shi (Ghost Hunter)

 - This is a fun little Pang Clone, that has a Monster Theme to it.  Its quite challenging and addictive.
It might not be super unique, but its fun to fire up and blast through as many levels as you can.


 Personally, after playing the EPIC original  "Phantasy Star"  on the Sega Master System... I HATED Phantasy Star 3.
In comparison, it was very boring.  I was also extremely disappointed, that they removed the 3d Dungeons. If anything
I expected that there would be even greater 3d detailed dungeons.  Instead, we got these dumb, ugly, overhead puzzles.

 The original Phantasy Star  outshined PS3 in every single way.  Especially in the Creativity of the Story.  You also
connected far more emotionally, to the Characters.  While mapping those Dungeons out by hand was a pain.. it was
also such a memorable experience.  A real mystery, and psychotic + stressful level Challenge.  Especially since you
were not able to SAVE your game, when in any Dungeon.  I swear I recall being stuck in a Dungeon for like +5hrs...
and unfortunately, not being able to survive.

 They dont seem to make games like that anymore.  These days, they are way too easy, and treat you like you have
a mental handicap.. telling you exactly what buttons to press, and when to press them.  I cant Stand that BS.


 Anyways...  I looked at the list of growing Megadrive roms, and realized that there are so many that Id never seen before.
Lots of interesting Prototypes that have been popping into Mame.  Going to have to check some of them out.  Figured Id share
one of my recent findings, and favs.

pbj

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #154 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:

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #155 on: February 02, 2023, 06:41:11 pm »
That Ghouls N Ghosts hack is pretty impressive. Looks better than the CPS version in a lot of ways.

Xiaou2

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #156 on: February 03, 2023, 05:03:03 am »
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:

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

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #157 on: February 03, 2023, 11:06:49 pm »
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:

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #158 on: March 01, 2023, 04:24:31 pm »
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:

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Re: Making SEGA Genesis cartridges
« Reply #159 on: March 01, 2023, 05:42:25 pm »
Do it for the love!

Man, those boxes are beautiful work too.
Mike hit it out of the park with those.
Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools! I can fix it.