Turbo Everdrive PC Engine / Turbografx 16 Flash Card Nearing Release

[NightWolve]

these work good for a couple bucks... http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-SD-MMC-Card-Reader-TF-to-Micro-SD-Adapter-/130533782372?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item1e646b7364
haha it even says "video game accessories" in the url

I've had a few SD card slots die over the years

Oh nice, that's awesome, problem solved. Yeah, no need to pay $15 extra for a built-in USB port.

Now this, http://stoneagegamer.com/turboeverdrive_boardonly.aspx

1 Free Firmware update coupon (expires after 1 year of purchase)

Kinda lame. So...firmware updates are gonna be held hostage for more money after a year ?? Is that just something with this retailer or what ? Well, I sure hope the 99% compatibility claim is accurate.

Anyway, wow, he's the real deal though, I thought I would be buying it from him as an individual, but he's in a full-fledged business partnership with a bunch of online stores...

[djcouchycouch]

How is the usb port used for development? When connected to a computer, does it mount the SD card as a drive?

[Duo_R]

Any feedback from the current Everdrive carts? Also I was going to get the Everdrive MD but now thinking the Mega Everdive might be the way to go...

[djcouchycouch]

Any feedback from the current Everdrive carts? Also I was going to get the Everdrive MD but now thinking the Mega Everdive might be the way to go...

I have the regular Everdrive for Genesis and I think it's pretty great. Got the board version.

[Joe Redifer]

The regular Everdrive is awesome.  I'll probably get a Mega Everdrive eventually. No rush, though.

[NightWolve]

How is the usb port used for development? When connected to a computer, does it mount the SD card as a drive?

That's what I would think, just saves you some time, not having to move the SD card around all the time to update its contents. This was his response when I brought up the SuperGrafx issue with him:

Thanks a lot for info. I already moved SD slot to the middle of the board, USB still on old place, but usb port need only for people who want develop something, 99% of cart will be sold without usb port, since USB completely useless for gamers. So i think that USB is not a problem for most of sgx owners

[Duo_R]

We should really push for the savestate option for the Turbo Everdrive, that alone would justify the purchase of another PCE flashcard. It's currently an option for the Mega Everdrive.

Joe - if you were to purchase a Mega Drive flash cart again would the Mega Everdrive be the no brainer? Cost is pretty steep but the save state seams like it would be worth it.

The regular Everdrive is awesome.  I'll probably get a Mega Everdrive eventually. No rush, though.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah I would.  I'll probably sell my current Everdrive at some point and get the Mega.  I just like all the new features plus the huge-ass rom size (80mb) which is great for homebrew and special audio and video recordings and other such nonsense.

The Turbo Everdrive cannot have a savestate.  He'd have to make a Mega Turbo Everdrive.

Now somebody figure out a way to play HES files on real hardware please!

[MottZilla]

I own the EverDrive MD. It's excellent. No complaints. I expect the Turbo ED to be similar.

The idea of save states probably won't work on the hardware present. Since many registers aren't readable you probably need hardware spying on register writes and it also would help to have alot of extra ram which the turbo ed has no ram at all. It's just flash rom for memory to contain the OS and load games. You can still hope for cheat support if you need to cheat in games.

[Necromancer]

Now somebody figure out a way to play HES files on real hardware please!

Charles MacDonald wrote a converter to turn HES files into PCE romz (linky).  Sadly the link to the utility is dead, but maybe someone has it sitting on their hard drive or knows of another place to find it.

[esteban]

Now somebody figure out a way to play HES files on real hardware please!

Charles MacDonald wrote a converter to turn HES files into PCE romz (linky).  Sadly the link to the utility is dead, but maybe someone has it sitting on their hard drive or knows of another place to find it.

I thought there were some other folks, too, who had some ideas on how to pull this off (Bonknuts, covell...)

I know a bunch of us have fantasized about playing HES files on real hardware, with or without a feature-laden software/utility.

[Black Tiger]

I have the hes to .pce converter on some of my computers. I'll look for it and post it when I have time. Might be easier to just secretly pm the sound roms though.

[Joe Redifer]

I am now awaiting secret PMs of ALL HES ROMs.

[djcouchycouch]

Just pre-ordered mine. Got the USB version because when I do Genesis development I have to keep swapping the SD card back and forth from the Everdrive MD when testing on hardware.

[NightWolve]

Is the process of development that hardware-dependent for you that doing most of or as many of your tests on an emulator first isn't sufficient enough before occasionally swapping the SD card/updating contents to see how it looks on real hardware ?