EverDrive - MD/Genny flash cart

[Icarus Moonsight]

http://www.krikzz.com/

Did a search to see if a thread was already here for this... Found nothing.

Why this is interesting over Neo/Tototek carts:
Uses SD/MMC media. (FAT16 - currently 2GB max - can be updated in the future via SC/MMC slot for FAT32 and HC media)
Writes and loads saves direct to the removable flash media.
Price!

Negs
Don't know about vendor reliability/honesty, or longevity of support.
I know this won't run Virtua Racing or Super Street Fighter 2 (pretty much a given). But I can't find a compatibility list at all on the site, or off.
Only .bin roms will work right on the cart (off-site source, assembler boards) .smd cause problems because of how those roms are extracted and built.

Does anyone here have one of these? I'm seeking information, references and opinions before I even think about sending someone a money wire transfer... Can you get this thing from someone that takes a service with buyer protection like paypal (which he says that he can't accept, living in the Ukraine)? Any insight is much appreciated!

Quick edit in here: I'm interested in using this to play sound/music files that I would be composing and building myself along with it's other uses. I've seen the demo vid where it is running extracted audio files from carts/roms through it's module function. If anyone has any experience with that aspect, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

[goldenegg]

It also doesn't support 32X games, while the Neo Myth cart does. Btw, the Neo cart can use SD cards with an add-on.

Other than that, it looks pretty solid. I just wish he'd sell them in shells rather than the bare board.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Since I was mostly interested in it to go with my Nomad and the whole "make my own Genny tunes" thing, 32x support is not an issue either way for me. I can understand how that could be desired by others though. Supposedly, it has some issues with some of the SMS titles as well... I haven't found anything specific on that though.

If I do take the plunge on this one, I'm just going to go up to the pawn shop and pick up a Genny sports game with a nice case for a buck or so. Cut the slot for the media and drill a hole for the SMS pause button and pop the PCB in there.

[ccovell]

Here's my review:

I got an Everdrive cart about a week ago, and have been trying it out. At first it didn't read a couple of my SD cards correctly, showing garbage in the file menu. And for some games (Sonic, Moonwalker), it loaded them, but they had graphical glitches and ran too slowly.

So I thought the Everdrive was shit. HOWEVER, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and now have it working perfectly with MD ROMs. I suppose I could have skipped a few hours of frustration if the seller (Igor) had sent me an instruction manual of any kind.

So here's what must be done in order to get ROMs working well:

- Format your SD card fully on a PC/Mac (using FAT). Don't just do a "Quick Format" and don't use the "Format" option in the Everdrive; it just clears the directory table of the card.
- Only use clean ".bin" MD ROMs. Super Magic Drive ".SMD" interleaved ROMs will not work and the Everdrive will think they are SMS ROMs. If one of your .bin ROMs gets loaded mistakenly as an SMS ROM, chances are it's just a renamed .smd file.
- Turn off the MegaKey option on the Everdrive. This was the cause of the graphical glitching and slowdown that I originally had. Even though I was using a US/JP ROM like Sonic, on a Japanese Megadrive, the Everdrive thought I should be playing it in PAL and was glitching up (regulating?) the speed.

I tried the cartridge with the 32X and Mega-CD as well. 99% of the time, the Everdrive doesn't even boot up with the 32X attached, so playing 32X ROMs is almost completely impossible. The Everdrive will load a MCD BIOS and run it, but it (presumably) can't access the CD hardware and thus freezes right upon boot-up.

The Everdrive page says it works with almost all MD games, and I'd say that's true. It has much higher compatibility than the Tototek MD cart. It also says it works with most SMS games, but on sampling about a dozen SMS games, I'd say only 50% of them booted up. So don't count on this playing SMS games as a feature; it's more of a small bonus.

Anyway, compared to the slightly cumbersome Tototek MD cart, the Everdrive is really fast, compatible, and convenient for MD games. For 32X and SMS, stick with the respective Tototek stuff (I don't know about Neo Myth.)

Oh, look! The Everdrive page is updated with a new 2.0 hardware revision. And right after I received the old 1.0 ver of the hardware... X-(

[Icarus Moonsight]

... Right after I posted this, I read your review on the assembler boards. Well, I've read it twice now.

Might have to just take my chances on this, and test out the 2.0 revision. I can't test for 32X (no hardware), but I can check for MegaCD bios loading. See if I can load up Sengoku. Maybe the revision addresses those issues?

[AB Positive]

Wow... can't beat that price either. Sure, bare board but for only $65? Hmmm...

[raylydiard]

best thing i ever bourght make sure if any of you get one is to make sure you get the v2.5 as you can do sega cd stuff i am still working it out

http://www.krikzz.com/

Did a search to see if a thread was already here for this... Found nothing.

Why this is interesting over Neo/Tototek carts:
Uses SD/MMC media. (FAT16 - currently 2GB max - can be updated in the future via SC/MMC slot for FAT32 and HC media)
Writes and loads saves direct to the removable flash media.
Price!

Negs
Don't know about vendor reliability/honesty, or longevity of support.
I know this won't run Virtua Racing or Super Street Fighter 2 (pretty much a given). But I can't find a compatibility list at all on the site, or off.
Only .bin roms will work right on the cart (off-site source, assembler boards) .smd cause problems because of how those roms are extracted and built.

Does anyone here have one of these? I'm seeking information, references and opinions before I even think about sending someone a money wire transfer... Can you get this thing from someone that takes a service with buyer protection like paypal (which he says that he can't accept, living in the Ukraine)? Any insight is much appreciated!

Quick edit in here: I'm interested in using this to play sound/music files that I would be composing and building myself along with it's other uses. I've seen the demo vid where it is running extracted audio files from carts/roms through it's module function. If anyone has any experience with that aspect, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I have a rev2 blue board with v5 firmware, and I recently upgraded the "OS" to v9 which is supposed to allow many of the neat new things, the sega cd stuff too. My menu screen says, v5 - v9. It was an interesting choice to go that route. Maybe it was necessary?

The system is a little different. The firmware, AFAIK, can not be updated without some crazy expensive rig. The "OS" is upgradable from the SD slot with an upgrade module (software, installable through the SD slot, not a hardware module) installed. Or, if your "OS" is already up to date, you can even load new updates through the menu system without the module installed.

I am alright with not being able to upgrade the firmware for SD cards over 2GB. I can fit nearly everything I would want on a 2GB card. If firmware ever allows for something else, I could be persuaded to pick up another board. Depends on what and how useful the new features are.

[Greg2600]

The Byte Blaster cable is not expensive $17 on ebay from Hong Kong. You also need the connector that goes into the card, identified as BH-10R. It doesn't have to be soldered in, just held in place temporarily by your hand.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Ah, good to know. I also noticed that is a rev2.1 board. I'm not sure if the rev1s and rev2 use the byte blaster. From the posts I've read online from users of some of the early rev1.x boards, updating firmware, at least was, an expensive proposition.

Really though, when the cart is $65, $23 for a shipped cable and (I'm guesstimating here) $7-15 for a single connector shipped might not be crazy expensive, but it is a bit much for just updating firmware. To be honest, I'd rather put in a little bit more money and get another, updated Everdrive board. That's just me and my estimation of it though. YMMV

[Greg2600]

Yeah I think the version 1 boards are just about DOA in terms of updating. He did a significant redesign for version 2.X and no longer supports updates on 1.X.