snega2usb: USB Reader for SNES / Sega Genesis Cartridges

[alyxx]

A very neat project. If you can somehow get funding to mass produce these things you'd maybe get some money.

[FitzRoy]

It gives end users the ability to play their real cartridges. Those carts may already have their level 99 New Game+ saves,

SRAM data can be dumped from a cart you own with a usb programmer.

or they may be paranoid about the validity of the unverified dumps on the net.

ROM data can be dumped from a cart you own with a usb programmer.

And it's also a great defense for the use of emulators, as very few people have the technical know-how and resources to acquire copiers. It's still illegal to download images, even if you own the game. Now we have a tool that lets people play games right off the original format.

The mash-mods device isn't a copier. It's a USB programmer and badinsults was questioning the purpose of this relative to that.

It's much the same argument as using a real PSX game over an ISO / BIN image.

Well, not quite. Discs are far less robust and the data has no internal checksum, greatly increasing the chance that a circulating image has corrupt or modified data. (The only reason roms have so much bad data in circulation is because cowering is a brainless fudgepacker handing crackheads a bag of candy, most of which is poisoned, and then blaming them for not manually sifting out each bad piece from the bag before dealing it out to kiddies.) Images of them can also take up like 200X more space than a ROM image, which makes reading directly from the disc a fairly useful (but noisy) feature.

Really, this is pure novelty, and as someone who considers the dumping and preservation of data important to emulation, it's somewhat of a distraction. We don't want someone with a massive cart collection using this thing instead of dumping.

[kode54]

Discs are far less robust and the data has no internal checksum, greatly increasing the chance that a circulating image has corrupt or modified data.

Actually, the CD format has checksums and recovery data with every mode 1 and most mode 2 sector, except for XA, which can only have a checksum. Of course, sometimes, there are intentionally bad sectors for security measures. Or specially formulated subchannel data.

Although I guess that means that the checksums can be useless for verifying the integrity of the image. There's always verifying against multiple hard copies.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Of course, sometimes, there are intentionally bad sectors for security measures. Or specially formulated subchannel data.

Or subchannel data at all. That's one of the features of CD that never received wide adoption until people realized they could use it as an anti-piracy mechanism because it wasn't well-supported.

[FitzRoy]

Of course, sometimes, there are intentionally bad sectors for security measures. Or specially formulated subchannel data.

Yep, I have a few correctly dumped PSX images that yield "bad sector" results in tools that scan for such things. Yet a commercial SNES game should always have a good internal checksum. The same basic rule cannot be used to create even a basic filter for unverified images of CD-based systems.

I've also downloaded all kinds of PSX images that pass the checksum tests with flying colors, but have had trainers inserted or are region switched. Conversely, I've only run into about 4 suspected spoofs on circulating SNES roms.

There is also a lot of debate on how to generate accurate CUEs. The latest guide on redump confuses the shit out of me. If somebody can't create a tool that can determine the entire disc structure without all that manual labor, I'm NEVER touching cd-based systems on my project.

[paulguy]

CDRDAO?

[Matthias_H]

The mash-mods device isn't a copier. It's a USB programmer and badinsults was questioning the purpose of this relative to that.

What is the difference between a copier and a programmer? Does a "programmer" not become a "copier" once you use it that way? Feel free to use technical terminology to clarify your point.

Really, this is pure novelty, and as someone who considers the dumping and preservation of data important to emulation, it's somewhat of a distraction. We don't want someone with a massive cart collection using this thing instead of dumping.

What is "this", and who are "we"? In case you mean "emulation experts", there are as many opinions as there are people, so if you claim to speak for all of them, you should resort to things that are widely agreed upon.

If everyone knows what everyone wants, how come they all say completely different things? :-)

[Eyedunno]

(The only reason roms have so much bad data in circulation is because cowering is a brainless fudgepacker handing crackheads a bag of candy, most of which is poisoned, and then blaming them for not manually sifting out each bad piece from the bag before dealing it out to kiddies.)

I LOLed. Seriously, is there an exhaustive, multi-region ROM pack in wide circulation that strictly excludes hacks (of any kind) and bad dumps (but preferably includes things of actual historical value like betas and 1.1/2.0 versions of games)? I really do not understand why cowering did things the way he did. Bad dumps and most hacks should be excluded, period, and most fan translations should probably be handled separately (and not included in the main rom count total). But I digress...

What is the difference between a copier and a programmer? Does a "programmer" not become a "copier" once you use it that way? Feel free to use technical terminology to clarify your point.

Well, I use my programmer strictly to copy games. but it's still a programmer because it still has that capability. A tape recorder is still a tape recorder even if you never so much as touch the record button.

[badinsults]

I split off the increasingly off topic posts out of this thread.

Continue.

[creaothceann]

*bump*

[Matthias_H]

Just a quick update:

- The snega2usb is now called Retrode
- It's better than ever
- It is available! Already more than 90 users; I am receiving the most positive feedback every day
- It has been tested to be compatible to more than 300 games (SNES/Genesis); the only titles not working so far are based on SVG or SA-1 processors
- People are starting to hack it! Just got news from a guy who managed to play a Virtual Boy game through the Sega slot At least two other folks ran SNES and Genesis games through the Retrode on their homebrew Wii
- First Atari 2600 games running through plug-in adapter. More adapters for GB/GBC/GBA and N64 carts are planned

Cheers,
Matthias

[Ichinisan]

I will buy one of these eventually (when I can afford it).

Matthias is one awesome guy. He spoke with me through email earlier in development and he incorporated / improved upon several of my suggestions (like using the CHSUM for unique filenames).

[badinsults]

My buddy got one of these, and seems to be liking it. He couldn't dump this prototype of Road Rash that he has, though.

[Matthias_H]

My buddy got one of these, and seems to be liking it. He couldn't dump this prototype of Road Rash that he has, though.

In cases like this, it's always of enormous help to have at least some information
http://www.retrode.org/wordpress/docume ... eshooting/