Two fans have reportedly fixed the AtGames SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis audio issues

[Nz17]

Source http://www.seganerds.com/2017/08/15/...-audio-issues/

A decade-old problem solved with a hex editor?

Luiz Nai
August 15
When we talk about Genesis clones, everyone always remember a very known issue: the audio. Companies like AtGames have been releasing Genesis clones for a decade and nearly every release has the been hampered by poor sound quality.

Earlier this year Brazilian tech company TecToy released their new Mega Drive to celebrate 30 year of partnership with SEGA. While this version is better than previous clone consoles, it shares the same Red Kid 2500 processor that has been used in AtGames systems, which means it has audio issues, as well.

But a recent discovery has been made by two fans Neto and Rafael Müller named that could completely fix the audio issues in the AtGames and TecToy Genesis systems.

The recent TecToy Genesis contained a file called md.bin on its packaged SD card. This file sends instructions to the processor to tell it how to execute the games. After a month of digging into the bin file and system, the duo made some interesting discoveries.

Most importantly, they discovered that the clock speed was wrong, which was reportedly the reason the Red Kid 2500 processor had bad audio. Adjusting the clock speed to the correct setting got the sound at about 85-90 percent accuracy of the original Genesis.

Upon hearing this news, fans began messaging TecToy requesting that the company implement this as an official update, and surprising enough, TecToy has announced that they’ll do just that.

Neto and Rafael didn’t stop their work with the TecToy Mega Drive, though. Because it and the AtGames’ Genesis clones and handhelds share the same processor, the two were able to implement this fix on one of their handhelds.

This is pretty impressive work that the duo were able to solve a decade-old problem by using a hex decimal editor and Assembly. Neto and Rafael deserve a lot of credit for fixing a problem that big companies did not have the courage to fix.

If you want to try this fix, take the following steps:
Download the latest firmware for the new Mega Drive;
Inside the file, you will have two files the MDI.BIN (New Mega Drive) and Neto_Boot_Loader.BIN (Portable Mega Drive);
Place the Neto_Boot_Loader.BIN file in the GAME folder and through the MD Play menu load it through the SD option;
From now, all the functions will be the same as the new TecToy Mega Drive with all the benefits of applied patches.

[megasdkirby]

When people confirm it's working, I might, MIGHT end picking up a unit. Specially if it works with the HDMI version of the console.

[Az]

The only version sold in North America this would work on is the Firecore-based portable, not the classic console or the Flashback. I haven't tried this one to see if it's different, but a music fix has been available for a long time for the portable, and it is still far from perfect. That older fix makes the music instrumentation sound more correct but the levels are still way off with some components completely drowning out others.

The older fix is an improvement, but is still no better than any other GOAC sound used in a dozen other (cheaper) poducts.

[Niku-Sama]

I have never understood why the Sega clones are so much worse than the rest

[ccovell]

I have the feeling that the people that make cloned hardware just don't care (or are somehow universally inept regarding) audio and music quality, much less so for something complex like FM synthesis. As long as the CPU "works" and the graphics show up on screen, it'll get shipped.

Moreover, how many pirate / unlicensed cartridge games had great, or even decent, music?

[Tanooki]

Very few, or the ones that do usually have some other hang up. The modern 250-500 in 1 Super Games on a new board made in the last 3~ years that one works fine, nothing is busted, but you do have a couple of unnecessary PAL games in there with speedy music and the SRAM is setup awful so that if you play another game that uses it or stupidly polls it despite having no battery in the first place, it nukes your save.