[GUIDE/INFO] for Flash Carts, Retrode, repros, and more!

[Nyukki]

$40.00 is not a bad price either. They were discontinued for a while, and I've seen people sell them for 100 dollars, 170 bundled with a Gameboy Advance.

Man, these flashcarts are so expensive in the west. I got my EZ Flash IV new from a retailer on Taobao for about 13 quid (about US$22). Maybe before I come home for Christmas I'll do a demand check for people in the UK and I can bring stuff over.

[Mad_Hatter]

Hello, I had a question regarding the SNES Flash Carts, specifically the Everdrive one.

In the OP it says:

"Requires DSP chip from legit SNES cart to add DSP support"

Does that mean the Everdrive cart will work with games that have non-DSP SNES Enhancement Chips? (like Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension which uses a SA1 chip)

I want to get an SNES, but I just don't have the money and space to start buying SNES games. So, if I am going to buy an SNES, I am going to have to buy a flash cart with it.

[Nyukki]

As far as I know the Super Everdrive will only play some basic special chip games like Mario Kart and F Zero, not the more advanced ones like SA1 and Super FX, so no DBZ HD, though I don't have one so can't confirm. The SD2SNES might play SA1 games.

[Ziggy587]

The Super Everdrive can optionally play games that require the DSP-1 chip, but only if you install the DSP-1 chip on the Everdrive. You need to steal the DSP-1 chip from a real SNES game in order to get one for the Super Everdrive, and that's what I meant by "Requires DSP chip from legit SNES cart to add DSP support".

Installing the DSP1 on the Super Everdrive will allow you to play games that require the DSP1, but that's it. The DSP1 is just one type of chip, the SA1 is an entirely different chip. Outside of the DSP1, you will NEVER be able to play any games with special chips on the Everdrive (SA1, S-DD1, Super FX, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Su ... ment_chips

F-Zero doesn't use any enhancement chips.

The Sd2snes does not currently support the SA1 chip. On the status page, it's under "To be determined." Hopefully one day it will, but not as of yet.

http://sd2snes.de/blog/status

[Nyukki]

F-Zero doesn't use any enhancement chips.

The Sd2snes does not currently support the SA1 chip. On the status page, it's under "To be determined." Hopefully one day it will, but not as of yet.

Thanks for the clarification, I was always under the impression that the Mode 7 effect was enabled through a special chip.

I used to have a Super UFO 8 (or whatever it's called) flash cart, which has a cartridge slot on top for expandable chip support. So if you put a Starfox cart on top, you can load roms of other games that require the Super FX chip etc.

By the by, anyone know if a Neo Geo MVS or AES flashcart is in existence / development? A little googling turned up a forum thread from 2007 where people were saying it's basically impossible and/or cost-ineffective due to Neo Geo carts requiring 5 Bus chip thingamajigs or something (technological jibba jabba). 7 years on is the human race developed enough to achieve such a feat?

[Mad_Hatter]

Thanks Zig!



Do you guys have any preference/experiences with the stores to buy from?:

http://krikzz.com/index.php?route=infor ... ation_id=7

Stoneage gamer seems like a good one, but they are always sold out. I'm trying to get the Mega EverDrive

These are the only 2 reliable ones I seem to have found.

This is seems be ok. plain and simple. decent price:

http://shop.retrogate.com/Mega-EverDrive-MEGA-ED.htm

This one just looks so lame lol:

http://www.gamersection.com/product_inf ... 018cda6b52

[Anapan]

I can personally vouch for all of these online stores. I've received orders from every one of them - most of them several times over the years with no problems (hardware, shipping, or payment):

Stone Age Gamer
GamerSection.ca (same as .com?)
kitsch-bent
RetroZone
FlashMasta
Harmony.AtariAge
ToToTEK
0ShippingZone
RealHotStuff - actually my credit card company withheld a payment to these guys thinking they were cc-frauding me or something but I cleared it up...

No real preference (the ordering above is not indicative); 0ShippingZone has free shipping and discrete labeling, and Gamersection ships from Canada so the orders arrive faster. I usually just go for the cheapest deal - read below for details, but other sites shells are also properly gapped for proper contact-reading in my experience, and reading of forums about them.

[KalessinDB]

Stone Age is my favorite. Their "Deluxe editions" are expensive, I know some people think they up the price significantly for very little extra, but personally I love their stuff.

Also had good results from Dragonbox.de before I discovered Stone Age.

[Mad_Hatter]

Thanks guys.

Anapan, does http://krikzz.com/ actually sell? All I see is information on the carts and other stores to buy them from.

I'm debating if I should go with the regular Everdrive or the Mega Everdrive. I'm leaning towards the Everdrive because it is cheaper ($100 cheaper). And with the Mega Everdrive (the 10 Mb Rom support and save states), I won't use those features at all because it will feel too much like an emulator. I want it to feel more "pure", if that makes sense. On top of that, the Mega EverDrive is sold out in most places. What do you guys think? Any personal experiences?

Stone Age is my favorite. Their "Deluxe editions" are expensive, I know some people think they up the price significantly for very little extra, but personally I love their stuff.

Also had good results from Dragonbox.de before I discovered Stone Age.

They're deluxe editions are only about 20-30 dollars more than the regular editions. Not too bad. I definitely will pay the extra dollars because their housing and cases look the coolest out of all the sites I checked. That's a big plus because that cart is going to stay in the console most of the time.

[Anapan]

My bad - That site is not a store. +1 for StoneAgeGamer. Their final product is unmatched. I don't recommend making your own shell in most cases since board width comes into account - I've done it many years ago when there was no outer cart available and the result was workable but unstable performance-wise due to wafer-shell width on contacts. StoneAgeGamers production quality is well-worth the extra as mentioned above. Earlier post edited.
Dunno what the full difference is, but since I have a 32x, the Mega Everdrive was what I purchased. I still have to pull the 32x out to play SMS roms, and I can't tell you if the other model does that even, but I'm very happy with the Mega version.