Odd Sega Cart

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

I bought a massive bulk lot yesterday and after sorting through everything, I found this odd Sega cart.

No idea what Sega System it goes to, nor what game it is, doesn't look like it ever had a label either.

It came in that plain box.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/undeRCoveR_Pirate/CIMG5811.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/undeRCoveR_Pirate/CIMG5812.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/undeRCoveR_Pirate/CIMG5813.jpg

Any ideas?

[Gameguy]

It's for the Japanese Sega Master System, the Mark III.

http://www.rfgeneration.com/blogs/nik+the+communist/This-Week-in-VG-History-Sega-Master-System-798.php

I have no idea which game that is though.

[Dark_Sol]

Wow that's indeed MARK 3. Maybe some proto. You need to find Mark 3 to check :)

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

Thanks for the info guys.

Finding a Mark III in Australia is a pretty tall order me thinks, I might have to send it to someone and get it dumped or to at least see what it is.

[Enigmus]

Nice find! I hope it's a proto.

[SparTonberry]

Could also be for the SG-1000, the predecessor for the MS/Mark III (released only in Japan, and in computerized form in AUS/NZ/Europe as SC-3000).

But seeing as the chip label suggests it was made in 1988, it's unlikely (as the last SG1K game I think was released in 1987).

[mobiusclimber]

I'd bug Breetai (does he post on these forums?) since he's likeliest to own a Mark III at least. Are we certain this is a proto, tho, and not just a cart whose label got messed up and so the last owner just scrubbed it off?

[Ryaan1234]

I'd bug Breetai (does he post on these forums?) since he's likeliest to own a Mark III at least. Are we certain this is a proto, tho, and not just a cart whose label got messed up and so the last owner just scrubbed it off?
There's a sticker on one of the chips, chances are it's covering up the window of an EEPROM.

[Gameguy]

There's a sticker on one of the chips, chances are it's covering up the window of an EEPROM.
Plus the chip is in a socket, unlike the one next to it which is soldered directly to the board. It would be neat if it was a prototype, I don't know if any official released games were on EEPROMs like some Atari 2600 games were(I think Atari 2600, maybe I'm confusing it with some Colecovision games).

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

I ran my finger over the sticker, and it feels like a small indented circle, which as Ryaan1234 stated, is most likely covering up the EEPROM window.

[Dark_Sol]

Would be interesting to know what's the game actually..

[Ryaan1234]

Plus the chip is in a socket, unlike the one next to it which is soldered directly to the board. It would be neat if it was a prototype, I don't know if any official released games were on EEPROMs like some Atari 2600 games were(I think Atari 2600, maybe I'm confusing it with some Colecovision games).
Sometimes you'll find completed NES games on EEPROMs, as they were sometimes sent in that state to magazines as preview copies. For instance my "prototype" copy of Black Bass has a special company label and the game itself is on an EEPROM but the game on the cart is 100% complete (or at least very close to completion, just try playing through Black Bass, which is one of the most boring NES games ever made LOL). Maybe you could find completed (and officially released) SNES or Genesis games in this form?

EDIT: Also, there's a few early NES titles (like Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman) which may have EEPROMs inside, the same goes for some Colecovision games (like you said). People have speculated why that is. You can read a little further here (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124704) although I think this Mark III game is a true prototype.


I ran my finger over the sticker, and it feels like a small indented circle, which as Ryaan1234 stated, is most likely covering up the EEPROM window.
This would be an amazing find then, to have a prototype Sega Mark III game! Now the problem is finding a Mark III to test and then if it is a new game to find a way to dump it.

[APE992]

It is an EPROM, it says so right on the chip:

http://www.alldatasheet.com/view.jsp?Searchword=27C256-25JL]

One made by Texas Instruments as indicated by the logo and the letters TMS.

The chip next to it is an SRAM chip used for your save games made by Motorola. If you want more than that I'd suggest heading to ASSEMBlergames.com as, no offense to anyone here, they actually can help you with this sort of thing. The biggest giveaway that this is a prototype of some sort is the fact the PCB isn't factory made, it looks like someone did it by hand.

Or build this in an afternoon:

Mark III/SMS dumper (http://www.smspower.org/Development/SMSReader)

[BeaglePuss]

If you want more than that I'd suggest heading to ASSEMBlergames.com as, no offense to anyone here, they actually can help you with this sort of thing.

I could dump the prototype and tell you exactly what game it is in about four seconds if I had the cart in hand. I'm sure plenty of others here could too.

[APE992]

I could dump the prototype and tell you exactly what game it is in about four seconds if I had the cart in hand. I'm sure plenty of others here could too.

Seems that expertise runs thin around these parts.

[Ryaan1234]

Seems that expertise runs thin around these parts.
How so?

[Cornelius]

I know nothing about this stuff but how to google... could it be a educational language 'game' like the Linkword _____ games for the ZX spectrum? Maybe a port or something?

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

Alright, I have decided to send it off to BeaglePuss to get it dumped, then we can get to the bottom of this.

How else can I sleep at night? LOL

[megasdkirby]

It's a miracle Bock hasn't seen this thread!

[Emuaust]

I think Bock is busy on his cart dumping tour of Japan at the moment

[BeaglePuss]

We'll get to the bottom of this in no time. I'm excited to be part of the process!

[mrmark0673]

It is an EPROM, it says so right on the chip

Correct, which is VERY different than an EEPROM. Very interested to see what this proto is, the board alone is very cool.

Congrats on the proto find!

[Breetai]

I'd bug Breetai (does he post on these forums?) since he's likeliest to own a Mark III at least. Are we certain this is a proto, tho, and not just a cart whose label got messed up and so the last owner just scrubbed it off?
I've owned an SG-1000, a Mark III and a Japanese Master System. It could be either an SG-1000 or SMS cart, but as SparTonberry pointed out, the date on this specific cart is 1988. Therefore, it would most definitely be a Master System cartridge. The Mark III was rebranded as the Master System when it came out in Europe and America. As well, SG-1000 carts are fully compatible with Japanese Mark III and Master System consoles. So, in short, this is a Master System Game unless it is, indeed, a prototype. If that's the case, it would be a Master System prototype (going by the date).

For reference, SG-1000 (the Mark II is just a model 2 SG-1000) cartridges are black. Mark III cartridges are white. When the Master System was remodeled for western markets, it was also re-released in Japan in 1987 with the black SMS look we all love and the cartridge colour returned to black.

I'll post a photo of some old Sega stuff I sold a while back. The SG-1000 carts on the left are black. The two white carts (Alex Kidd and Space Harrier) came out for the Mark III, but before it was re-modeled as the Master System AFAIK. They say "Mark III" on the labels. After Burner and Phantasy star are the two black carts on the right. They came out after the Mark III was replaced with the Master System and say "Mark III/Master System" on the labels.

Hmmmm... that white box looks like it's the same size as the regular boxes. That is a bit more evidence that it could be an SMS prototype.

Hopefully that answers all questions other than the prototype one!

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv31/Absinthaholic/DSCN4420.jpg?t=1301455399

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

Was just sent out today, we should know what it is in a few weeks hopefully :)

[BeaglePuss]

We should have this bad boy sorted out in no time!

I'm excited to hear that it may be a SMS system game. Whatever it ends up being, it should be interesting. I notice the label on the EPROM appears to read "Link." Having done a (very) quick search, I'm not coming up with anything in the SMS library that involves that term in the title. Any guesses as to what it might be?

[Dark_Sol]

of cause it's a link to the past you moron! lol
:)

[understatement]

I notice the label on the EPROM appears to read "Link." Having done a (very) quick search, I'm not coming up with anything in the SMS library that involves that term in the title. Any guesses as to what it might be?


It looks like is says “link word” I do remember hearing about Linkword (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkword) in high school while taking Spanish.

So, if I had to guess it’s something to do with teaching language.

[BeaglePuss]

Interesting. I was just reading through the wiki link you posted, and had myself a good laugh over the cow mnemonic. It would be pretty cool if it ends up being something of that nature.

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

Okay, so it was finally dumped, and it is indeed a "Link Word" of some sort.

Couldn't get it to boot in an emulator, but someone with a little more know-how might be able to get it working :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23664397/Link%20Word.sms

[SparTonberry]

It's a SC3000 program, so rename the file with a SC extension. MEKA will detect and run it. Kega Fusion still won't.
It seems to be a typing program, so it requires the Sega Keyboard to be emulated. It works in MEKA, but quickly crashes after I start typing.

[APE992]

I'd go talk to the guys at SMS Power about it. Might be able to tell you more about it as well as how to get it to work on Meka.

[Bock]

Hello all :)
I'll have a look at it shortly !

[Bock]

Nice find :)

It works here with MEKA if you rename to .sc extension.
There was a bug in a few old versions where the SC-3000 32kB RAM mapper would crash, but I fixed that in 0.73. Use INPUTS->KEYBOARD to enable Sega Keyboard emulation.
I am not sure how to use this software yet.

http://smspower.org/forums/files/link_word_03_194.png
http://smspower.org/forums/files/link_word_05_143.png

I would hazard it could be a software that was the developed for SF-7000 (floppy software were more frequent in Australia and the SF-7000 has access to more memory) but maybe they intended it as a cartridge release. The board setup is similar to Basic cartridges which have 32kb RAM chip embedded in the cartridge.

Sega distributed "blank" cartridges with those blank boxes to some people for experiment back in the day, this seems to be a mod over those cartridges. Except the blank cartridge I found so far had different kind of board, so maybe the developer just created a new board to fit in the cartridge case, etc.

[Bock]

I think Bock is busy on his cart dumping tour of Japan at the moment

About that - I recently finished my Asian tour and got about ~100 new dumps to release. Mostly from Korea and Taiwan, but also a handful prototypes, rare educational softs, etc. :)

[Bock]

Sorry for so many replies.
Something just tilted in my head - many years ago I acquired a rare and generally undocumented system called the COMPULINK C100A which I was told was based on the SC-3000. It was a mystery until now but it looks like there is a relation. I posted pictures and some more details here:
http://smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=65553#65553

http://www.smspower.org/forums/files/compulink_118.jpg

I own this system but as I recall the cartridge format wasn't SC-3000/MarkIII compatible so I wonder how this soft would run on it. Maybe during development they just tested on regular SC-3000 system?

[BeaglePuss]

Very cool!

I was able to dump the rom with ease and identify most of the content, but I had no idea what platform it was designed for. I noticed that it called for the use of a keyboard, so I was left scratching my head.

I'm glad to see Bock come in and tie up some loose ends. It would be cool to see this (eventually) run on real hardware.