Sega Genesis / Mega Drive EPROM Reproduction Cartridges | How to Make + Other Unnecessary Details

[@RetroBuiltGames]

I do batch runs of this PCB (no SRAM). Get on the waitlist if you'd like one: www.tindie.com/products/20665/

[@arthurvin2937]

"We play retro game consoles because it's expensive and inconvenient" - brilliant.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

haha thank you!

[@thesillyhatday]

I wish I'd watched this before making my own Gameboy cartridges. Much of the advice is relevant and similar. I know how it feels to not know if anything will work after all the effort and money put into the project. But I did it :)

[@Colin_Ames]

Another excellent video. I don’t own a Sega, so will not be making carts, but I watched the video because it brought back memories of a time when a lot of the products my employer manufactured were EPROM based. I spent many happy hours with a programmer. I loved the explanation of little and big endian.

[@racer4200]

I've been making pcbs for a while now using the XGecu Pro. This is a very good video. I learned a few things. Thanks for making this!

[@justinmullins346]

This was one of the most detailed and well laid out tutorials I've ever seen. Great Job! Very informative.

[@danielpadim]

This video is just legendary. Thanks RetroBuiltGames for this!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

thank you for the kind words!

[@lostrocket9126]

Thank you so much, I'm planning dev a game that I wrote for mega drive and release on cartridge later and your video casted light into obscure issues!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Glad I could help! what's the name of your game?

[@jaysonl]

"I love retrogaming for the cost and inconvenience" SUBSCRIBED. Also, nice controller! I love those 8bitdo M30s. These days I use a MiSTer, but I still have my Genesis 2 that I lovingly recapped and RGB modded plugged in and ready to go.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Awesome, thank you!

[@spaceghosteny1677]

Great work showing how to make a genesis repro, i started my collection

[@BrainSlugs83]

Fyi, Voultar sells a PCB that adapts modern SMD EEPROMs to the archaic DIP packages that old cartridges used. Look for his videos on applying translation patches to cartridges.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

link if you know of the exact video

[@eniolotero8808]

Thanks for this tutorial, it was very fun to watch. I've been wanting to make my own carts since a long, long time ago. Just bought my Top3000 locally, it should arrive in 5 days or so. Now it's time to get some PCBs & Eeproms. Can't wait to burn some games!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bradleyfield3944]

I made a Penguin Land cart for my Master System last week. I had absolutely no qualms about sacrificing Super Tennis to do it.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Nice!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Anyone who has purchased repro carts: What are your thoughts? Where did you purchase: game show? online? How was the quality? What's more appealing; ROM hacks or physical versions of very rare/expensive games?

[@devjock]

Megaran's RNDM cart, Remute's snes and genesis carts, ThaDe4D's cart album, LSDJ, nanoloop, etc.. None of these music albums or music tools would have been possible without repro / flash carts, and I love them to bits.

[@imacommentator]

Imho, rare expensive game copies are more appealing, as it allows to have somewhat-of-a-physical-media. That's why I prefer repros to flashcarts, because of that possessive feeling. Some Aliexpress repros were pretty good, but you always need to be careful, because cheap repros of save-games are faulty

[@KenjiUmino]

i have purchased TMNT Hyperstone Heist in box on aliexpress a couple years ago - too bad i forgot the seller's name because the cartridge is nice quality for a repro - the originals feel a bit more solid but the repro cartridge shell has no rough edges or other signs of half-assed manufacturing. same goes for the case - the trained eye will instantly spot that it's a repro because the transparent foil that protects the box art inlay is a bit more on the glossy side than an original would be ... the price was also ok ... under 10 bucks shipped or so - and most important - the game works as it should and didn't fry my console ... i've heard horror stories now, what's more appealing? well, I just bought an everdrive and this kind of erases the NEED to buy any more physical copies ... now I might still buy physical copies when i WANT to. but i think i'd rather buy new releases or new-to-this-region releases ... you know ... proper translations of games from japan or korea that have not been released in US/EU before. ... and it would be cool to have things like the "240p test suite" on a cartridge as a tool to keep around the workbench when repairing or modding consoles and equippment. a very awesome thing would also be if someone would take SMS games that would have had FM sound on japanese consoles, stuff the game ROM and the FM sound chip into a cartridge so westerners can finally enjoy SMS games like phantasy star with FM sound instead of whatever terrible noise generator the US/EU SMS consoles were stuck with.

[@rosepinkink3138]

I’ve heard the specific programmer doesn’t work on anything higher than Windows 7 32 bit. Is that true or is there something extra that I’d have to do to be able to get it working on my windows 10 computer?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

It works on windows 10 64 bit. Source = me.

[@smartinformatica3360]

Good evening. I liked the video for being very explanatory. here in Brazil we don't have these explanations. If you can inform me. When recording the game on eprom, you must make some changes to the texts inside the room. Can you inform me how these changes are made, because I did not understand at the time you showed to use the endiam swap site, where can I download this program? Does this Endian swap program already make all the necessary modifications to be able to record the game on the eprom? Sorry for the doubts, because I can't speak English. Thank you.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

You need to bit swap the entire ROM. Use a Hex editor program to do a "big endian" swap. The application i found is here: forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93984.0

[@shahrukh8211]

This was very detailed loved but i wanted to make a knuckles chaotix 32x using the NFL 32x cart (both got save features) if i use m27c322 which is necessary cuz it a 4MB rom is there any rewiring involved.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

I have never looked at 32x carts, so it is hard to say. But if you are just transplanting to with a donor i dont think rewiring is involved. That is a guess. What is the NFL rom size? if youre going from 2 MB to 4MB, should be simple.

[@shahrukh8211]

@@RetroBuiltGames The rom size is 4MB for NFL and i wanna use 4mb eprom m27c322 to burn knuckle chaotix . Both genesis and 32x carts are fundamentally same. So i can just swap the original rom with the eprom ? Is that really it No rewiring ?

[@guerrillaradio9953]

I have less moral issues with burning my own reproduction cart for some title that scalpers have turned into 4 digit prices than emulating it. (Not that I haven't done that plenty over the decades, too) I usually emulate to try before I buy, and then only bootleg if the originals are insane. Now at least I am learning how to do it myself for my own use, never to sell to anyone. Finally learning how to program so I can make my own original games too.

[@Yakov_EPH-6.12]

An informative and interesting video that is very much appreciated.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Glad it was helpful!

[@beegchunguz7425]

I came across a used Repro of Musha that a local pop store was selling for 150, they opened up the cartridge and low and behold I saw an eprom with the visible microchip silicon. I've never seen that before so was curious and finally came across this. They luckily sold Musha to me for 19.99. I was actually impressed with the repro label and the fact they used a close to if not original sega cartridge, as it said Acclaim made in Mexico on back piece, and used real screws. Cool stuff, as I am not about to drop 300-500 on Musha, and didnt want a cheapie repro. Moreover, the Board the UV eprom mine has is only a handful of contacts on the board. I've not seen a board like that. Wonder what kind it is.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

very cool the store let you peek inside. I've been to a few establishments were the owners look you up and down wondering what an internal inspection would accomplish.

[@sonicmaniaremastered]

​@@RetroBuiltGamesWait sonic Mania in Sega genesis?

[@rodrigaoluzia01]

Master good morning, I have a Japanese mega drive that has two slots for cartridge 😳, one in the normal place and one right in front lying forward and hidden under the housing, I can't find any other like it, have you come across this model? On the board it is defined like this MD - 1095 G -1.5 ARG02

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Never heard of this. link a pic.

[@rodrigaoluzia01]

@@RetroBuiltGames insta

[@rodrigaoluzia01]

@@RetroBuiltGames n64.eternally fist image

[@nberedim]

Cheeseburgers as a metaphor for endianness. Now i've seen everything :-)

[@PrabhakarMishra555]

Thanks, a ton buddy for the video. I am looking for a detailed tutorial for Sega 16-bit and NES/SNES 8-bit cartridge creation tutorials

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Sure thing!

[@DHLUCKYMAN]

Thank you so much for this video. I want to put some of the protypes and unlicensed mega drive games on actual eproms and not those Chinese made black dot ones. No doing copies of games for me all my games are original.. I just want the special ones on real original hardware and you my friend have helped alot

[@RetroBuiltGames]

you are welcome. let the people play games!

[@gastongalan3556]

Is it possible to program an EEPROM in a FlashKit or can it only be done using an EEPROM programmer?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

you need an EEPROM programmer. The voltages need for EEPROM are typically higher than flash; so they are separate devices

[@franciscoraupp]

What are the alternatives to the TOP 3000?

[@HSelectronics]

Hello. Is there any software that allows you to know what type of save a rom has?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

software, i am not sure. You can always open up the game and ID the chips.

[@pixeltao]

Very helful video, thanks a lot! About removing the top of the Genesis shell for fitting in a test cart with a socket, I was thinking of using a Game Genie instead. If that works, I could even build a test cart with a ZIF socket which would make testing EPROM even easier.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Glad it helped. Game Genie would make a great cart extension.

[@adultmoshifan87]

Where can I buy blank cartridges? I plan to back the Digital Protector perk in the Stone Protectors Kickstarter, which’ll give me digital comics and a digital game ROM! Would like to write the ROM to a cart so I can play it on my console, it’ll be my own personal copy!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

ebay

[@luke9511]

im trying to burn a rom to a AM27C400 but it fails every time, i have an adapter to use it with my programmer, an TL866II plus but i cannot get it to work, anyone have any ideas?

[@jaredrush4302]

Hey! I discovered your channel recently and love your stuff. I feel like im really well equipped to make my own cabinet now (always been a dream of mine.) Except I want to own or make a ds-16 for my genesis so I can switch out games on legit carts with a push of a button. Same with my snes. I feel like youre one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject. Would you know how to to build one? And can you make a video teaching us how? Im a modelers and don't know too much about programming and hardly anything about hardware.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

thanks for reaching out! making the video would be a lot of work on top of the engineering research needed to. a place to start to comprehend the task at hand. Watch this video from Ben Heck who knows how to repair the NES version (M82 store demo unit) kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4uoq5ylhrVnjZo. If you're still convinced your rather reverse engineer this than say just use an everdrive; best way to start research= find high res photos of the ds-16 and ID what chips are being used, and figure out how each channel is multiplex/ switches to the cart. Is an advanced build for certain.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

looks like someone has already done the work! www.willsconsolemodifications.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=98

[@jaredrush4302]

@@RetroBuiltGames well that was the quickest purchase I ever made. Thank you! And thanks for the advice! I'll check out his video and see if I can get something mocked up in the next year or so for the SNES and NES too.

[@paulomorenoedson4266]

If the game is smaller than the eprom memory (a 1mb game on a 27c160) Do I need to expand the rom? Or just record?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

For genesis you need to fill the empty space with FF .(this should be an option checkbox in the programmer software). see @9:58

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Also. Tell me your favorite ROM hacks. I keep seeing TMNT/Simpsons in Streets of Rage 2 as a popular choice.

[@leon1991-oct]

u are a super hero man!

[@Lahire-s7l]

Super cool😊

[@RetroBuiltGames]

thank you!

[@adamkowalski1226]

Now ill do a reproduction of the sonic 1 pre ces "prototype"

[@smartinformatica3360]

good afternoon. can you inform a good site to download mega drive games? That has the bin format just like the games you made in this video. Thank you

[@ClbnaVGM]

Do I need to fix the checksum AFTER byteswapping ?

[@cetics]

No. Everything you do must be before inverting the bytes. Keep in mind that a few roms may stop working if you fix the checksum (but this is a few cases) so it's good to test on an everdrive before writing the eprom.

[@ClbnaVGM]

@@cetics Thanks ! :)

[@cnoto2020]

Do you know of any eprom software that works with a mac?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

i do not

[@moviemania1137]

. Mac 😂

[@swirlingabyss]

Is there no way to use eeproms?

[@RetroBuiltGames]

I don't see why you can't. I didn't go this route because cost/familiarity/availability

[@jon_raymond]

The little/big endian explanation was stupendous!

[@lucasbagatini3827]

Awesome video. I have two sonic 2 cartridges... I may try something out :D

[@anykey7126]

What’s your TV model name? Looks great)

[@RetroBuiltGames]

Its a curtis mathis that I RGB modded. video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3PKnYqlZ6poeKc

[@shanenice5380]

I have a pc.wow this well saved me money

[@RetroBuiltGames]

yeah!...?

[@nomadgameplays9028]

Thank you só much

[@RetroBuiltGames]

You're welcome

[@nomadgameplays9028]

@@RetroBuiltGames Pls, tell me how i can edit the pcb layout :) what program i have to use?

[@pastuh]

today noticed one my cartridge died.. and i even forgot which game was inside.. maybe mortal kombat...

[@kurniawanwidisusanto3619]

I wonder if there are some developers who develop cartridges using microcontroller, such as rp2040. Using this chip to increase the data memory capacity, save data and reduce the production cost. I hope the chip with 16mb serial flash memory could help the developers create and produce games easier and cheaper

[@RetroBuiltGames]

hoping this is the case now. The Gamecube modchip with the rp2040 might be the kickoff for this movement.

[@itConsoler]

Круто) я тоже делаю картриджи на различные платформы и буквально три дня назад выложил ролик на своем канале, если хочешь посмотри, я бы мог это сделать еще в ноябре, но ждал эпизодические роли

[@juliusheide3643]

i don't have an uv eraser, i make one myself, easy, broke the outer glass bulb of an mercury lamp, and you good to go, the inner tube is what makes the uv rays, but the ballast is needed, and the exposed live wires are dangerous,and the light also, use a carboard box or something, place the ic under at 2cm distance and 15 -20 min is ok. Still dangerous af..

[@RetroBuiltGames]

exposed mercury bulb +cardboard box combo you recommended = fire

[@Megalocade]

Only time I use eproms for megadrive is when i want to change a games region from pal to ntsc or have damaged original carts, I've got 2 carts here that were damaged by a dodgy game genie the orignal mask roms in those 2 games went bad when i try to to read them they came back with bad pins, games were streets of rage 2 and sonic 1 jp coding new eproms solved the problem, can't say i can be bothered making heaps of fake games to much hassle and expense id rather use my everdrive

[@epicon6]

In a perfect world SEGA would still manufacture and sell Mega Drive consoles, games, controllers etc. As well as the Master System, Saturn and Dreamcast. There wouldn't be any downsides to it because they would be so cheap to produce now and they could sell them with the original/reasonable prices. All they would have to do is manufacture what's selling. Unfortunately we live in a shitty world of licensing issues and CEOs who don't get retro gaming and game preservation.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

What are you thoughts on the new Sega Genesis Mini model 2?

[@epicon6]

@@RetroBuiltGames It's great that they are making it because it's a little bit more powerful and many wanted a 6 button controller with the first mini. And they must have solved some production issues because it's now announced for Japan, NA and Europe. And it's got the most games out of any mini console. Still it's nothing compared to if they re-released a full size Mega Drive/Genesis with authentic hardware that had 60 games built in and would play original cardridges.

[@VOAN]

In that perfect world they wouldn't last a gen if that's what they are doing.

[@thomasciciyan6708]

thanks for video. it was nice. but, they dont ship anything to Iran, including shells and PCBs. so, it would be better you let us have cad design or altium designer file of that battery cartridge to make us able to make it here. thanks.

[@imacommentator]

Here is some of the questions I have about repro: where can I buy Genesis/Megadrive Japan shells with logo? I swear to God I'm npt going to scalp anyone! Just want my own copy to look aesthetic for me!

[@RetroBuiltGames]

not sure if any seller would find this worth the risk. reproduction skirts the line by mimicking all the form and function except international corporate logos and registered trademarks.

[@imacommentator]

@@RetroBuiltGames That's pretty sad, I think. Gonna buy useless original sports games then.)

[@hollowneedles]

There's no justification for the high price of "traditional" eprom programmers. They should be 20-30 bucks tops.

[@RetroBuiltGames]

I agree with this. now it's niche and high prices are a consequence

[@bioman1hazard607]

Heck why stop at repos, learn the assembly code and make a game you can market and sell. Edit, lol I loved how you manually swapped the bytes that was a perfect joke lol

[@RetroBuiltGames]

thanks! i tried assembly in school; not for me.

[@mr__lightning]

Make sega ever drive video

[@RetroBuiltGames]

ok

[@damin9913]

Just put every game on the Sega genesis

[@RetroBuiltGames]

the ones with save ability are 'difficult' as not one type is the same (FeRAM, SRAM).

[@tariqsaeed9673]

Essa

[@Hazk1ant]

I just watched a hypocrite and a liar! :D Nice video.

[@davidaamez1363]

Everything taught here is blasphemous. Downvoted

[@RetroBuiltGames]

but you learned something