Here comes the Terra Onion Mega SD!

[Az]

I didn't know about cheap knockoffs being available. I'm not sure if I'd want a knockoff though, quality wise I'm sure they'd be lacking.

They're surprisingly alright for a knockoff. I've used several and never ran into issues. Certain newer firmwares won't work, but at this point the original boards they're based on may not even be sold/updated anyway. For 1/3 of the price you can't beat 'em if you're looking to just play MD/SMS games.

was thinking of the old Tototek flash carts that came out around 10 years ago, I may be wrong but going by memory they didn't even use SD cards and you needed a special programmer attachment to flash them.

You're correct, I have one of those still myself.

Don't get me wrong, I think this latest one with Sega CD compatibility is a good quality product. The only thing holding me back on it is the high price.

Oh I agree 100 percent. At that price it's hard to justify IMO. If you're into SCD games enough to drop $300 on this, you've probably already got a CD drive, a way to play imports, and unrestricted access to the entire library. It's an amazing technical achievement but it's real world application is hard to justify the price tag. I absolutely love Eternal Champions and Silpheed but I don't love them enough to drop that kind of coin just to possibly shave a few seconds of load time off.

stay away from original Xbox consoles, besides the hard drive wasn't there a suicide battery or capacitor that would kill the console when they failed?

Yep, the capacitor that holds the charge for the internal clock tends to rot quickly, spilling out onto the board and destroying the surrounding traces. This happened to me on my original machine. Since then every one I get my hands on the first thing I do is rip that thing out.

[gbpxl]

The last revision of the original Xbox doesnt have said capacitor problem

[AdamAnt316]

For me that just increases the appeal of playing on an older console. It is more of an achievement to get an archaic and problematic console to work 100% with as few replacement parts as possible. Nothing beats authenticity to me. But I do understand not everyone has time for that and they just want to play the games

Some systems are easier to get working than others. With a cartridge based system, most of what you have to worry about are cartridge connector contacts. With an optical drive-based system, there's the spindle motor, the laser, the mechanism which moves the laser, the rails the laser rides on, and (when applicable) the mechanism which opens the drawer, possibly among others. All too often, at least some of said parts are made out of plastic, and if any of them get brittle, you may wind up with a 'shelf queen', which I don't care for at all. And if a hard drive is involved, you need to get acquainted with the acronym 'MTBF'..........

It's true that they can have reliability problems, usually I figure the lasers go in them and they're replaceable. I wouldn't trust a model 1 Sega CD for reliability, only a model 2. It's the same with PS1 and PS2 consoles, I tend to stay away from the unreliable versions as there's several models to choose from. I'm just hoping they'll keep working for a long time, or at least would be serviceable when they need repair. Same with the Turbo Duo. I stay away from original Xbox consoles, besides the hard drive wasn't there a suicide battery or capacitor that would kill the console when they failed? I can't remember the specifics now.

I'm the type of person who still uses CDs, cassette tapes, VCRs, and Laserdiscs so physical failures and maintenance is something I expect to eventually happen. Even electronics with non-moving parts will still need things like capacitors replaced. If I worried so much about all that I'd end up owning almost nothing.

Depends on the optical drive involved. Replacement lasers for older audio CD players are becoming very hard to find, from what I hear, and I don't look forward to replacing one in any of the CD players I have. And as I said above, you also have to worry about the rest of the parts involved with the optical drive, especially if they're made out of crappy plastic. And even if you manage to find a replacement optical drive mechanism, there's the issue of laser alignment, as I found out the hard way when trying to repair a friend's GameCube. I have an original Sega CD which I got cheap, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's broken.

I too am a collector of old media of various types. I play vinyl records just about every night, and like to exercise my LaserDisc and CED players every so often. I've tried to get a Betamax deck up and running, but was told by a repair shop that two of them were unrepairable (though I have my doubts about their assessments). And if I can ever manage to get this thing running correctly, it might well be a miracle. Compared to moving parts, I find replacing capacitors to be a fairly simple proposition, except when it comes to surface-mount parts..........

Yep, the capacitor that holds the charge for the internal clock tends to rot quickly, spilling out onto the board and destroying the surrounding traces. This happened to me on my original machine. Since then every one I get my hands on the first thing I do is rip that thing out.

Good to know, thanks. Haven't heard that, but it doesn't entirely surprise me. Guessing it's one of those lousy 'supercapacitors' which seem to be anything but. I'll have to open my replacement XBox and look for it.

The last revision of the original Xbox doesnt have said capacitor problem

No idea which version of the XBox I have. The first one I owned only lasted a month before the hard drive died. Its replacement was bought from GameStop after I traded the broken one in (telling them full well what was wrong with it). By the time I was done with the ordeal, I'd lost most of my interest in the console, and it's sat mostly idle ever since.
-Adam

[Greg2600]

Xbox Capacitor Discussion is here please: https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/s...-it-s-too-late

[gbpxl]

If Sega announced a way to download legal ROMs and ISOs so I am supporting the company, I may buy this

I dont get why you can do that with movies and music but not games

[Tron 2.0]

It released last month and now the reviews are coming in.

MyLifeinGaming review of the megasd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dagh9m8l1M

I'm really considering buying one it would cut the down wear on my model 2 sega-cd.

[Greg2600]

I saw one in action this weekend at AVGC in NJ, looks cool. People are complaining about delays in posting/shipping to them, as well as huge import duties to places like Brazil, because T.O. dudes moved to Andorra from Spain. I'm just waiting for it to be sold by Stone Age Gamer.