Not quite ready-made, but…

ToTotek makes a Genesis flash cart that’s twice as big as the largest released VB game for US$70.

http://www.tototek.com/pio/main1/SUBMENU/PARTS/LINKS/OS/mdpro64.htm

Acording to this document by David Tucker, such a cart could be (relatively) easily converted for use on the VB.

All you need to do is get a socket the cart would plug into, and wire it up to the connector from a VB cart according to the pinouts. The PCB for such an adapter would be quite simple, and would make it only a few minutes of work (as opposed to hours/days/months using individual wires…)

-RunnerPack

Post Edited (02-25-05 01:45)

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

7 Replies

Feb 23, 2005 • 06:41

Viertual Jim

you think this would really work?

Feb 23, 2005 • 20:40

RunnerPack

No, it was a late April-fools gag. 😛

Of course it would work! All you need is a 16-bit data storage device wired up correctly. In fact, you can use narrower ones, too, as long as they add up to 16-bits and are programmed correctly. F’rinstance, look at the dev carts that have been selling on ebay. They used two 8-bit EPROMs wired in parallel. AFAIK, every homebrew cart made thus far does the same.

Feb 24, 2005 • 00:47

lameboyadvance

Yeah, but the problem is rewiring it to work on VB, not to mention its way too big to fit in the VB. You’d have to have it hanging out, and my luck the wires would break as soon as I moved it…

Feb 24, 2005 • 04:47

RunnerPack

Actually, as I mentioned in the OP, the best way would be a PCB. It would obviate the need to hand wire, and be strong enough to hold the cart outboard, sticking up in front of the VB. I think I’ll work on a layout for that. Time to make a Genesis edge connector for Eagle…

Feb 24, 2005 • 18:17

reality_boy

It is an easy hack, but one I have never tried since I dont own a Genesis copyer, and i already have a VB dev cart.

Basicaly the genesis edge connector is the same as a ISA bus connector, so get one of thoes from jameco for $1. next get a bit of ribon cable , im guessing that any new IDE cable (the 80 pin ones with the extra ground lines) would work. And finaly you have to dismantle a VB cart (use mario tennis, they are cheap).

So basicaly as the poster said, folow the pinout in my document, wiring a1 to a1, etc. using the ribon cable to hook the ide connector tho the VB cart (solder the wires strate to the edge connector on the VB cart) and make sure you have a long enough cable so that the Genisis cart is not dangling when the contraption is pluged into the vb (that will relieve the stress on the cable).

As a final note, if you pull up the /CS line on the rom in the VB cart you can wire it to a switch that either ties it to ground or +5v and presto you can play the VB game or switch over to the Genesis cart.

Oh, and I dont know what to do with the ram, Im guessing that the genesis uses a compatible scheem for backup ram but I am not positive, use your head and follow the pinouts to figure it out.

Feb 24, 2005 • 18:20

reality_boy

Oh, the above link is busted try:

<http://www.goliathindustries.com/vb/download/gen2vb.txt>

Feb 25, 2005 • 05:56

RunnerPack

Slight flaw in your plan:

The Genesis cart has 64 pins, while an (8-bit) ISA card has 62. There’s an extra pin per row on the cart.

Digikey wants $13.12 for one! :woah:

Good thing those are pretty easy to cut and splice together…

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