Super Magic Drive: The Original ROM Ripper | Nostalgia Nerd

Ever wondered how we got hold of cartridge ROMs in the 90s? How they were originally extracted? Well, usually it was through a device like the Super Magic Drive. This little unit hooked up to a floppy drive and not only allowed you to "backup" cartridge ROMs to floppy, but also load those floppy ROMs back into the console. This was useful for development purposes as well as for PIRACY. A lawsuit linked to the devices was inevitable, but rather than being aimed at it's manufacturer, someone else took the brunt...
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If you believe I have forgotten to attribute anything in this video, please let me know, so I can add the source in. It takes time to make these videos and therefore it can be easy to forget things or make a mistake.

[@RisingRevengeance]

_Don't let the pirates burn a hole in your pocket_ I thought it was the other way around lol

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

They never said who the pirates are. :p

[@TimothyGavin]

Don't let pockets burn a hole in your pirate?

[@wingedcatgirl]

@@TimothyGavin don't let the holes burn a pocket in your pirate

[@Cionaoith]

@@TimothyGavin Don't let the holes burn a pirate in your pocket.

[@agonleed3841]

@Utkarsh Amitabh Srivastava Pocket the pirate don't let your holes burn

[@MayaPosch]

"You wouldn't copy a car." Why, who wouldn't do that? :)

[@pitmatix1457]

"we would if we could, but we can't, so we don't"

[@jerricabenton842]

cause you care about the environment, and you don't want to increase carbon emissions?

[@MayaPosch]

@@jerricabenton842 D'oh, you'd copy that Tesla EV, obviously. Free Tesla S copy, anyone?

[@jerricabenton842]

@@MayaPosch oh yeah, haha, my brother has a Tesla... i can get a copy from him! And evidently, Teslas can now play video games while you are waiting to charge... so i could play pirated video games on my pirated car. yo ho ho!

[@miyakoaida2220]

Hold my beer - Chinese industry.

[@chiroquacker2580]

When we were kids , my best friend and I dreamed and talked about how freaking amazing it would be if there was a magical NES cartridge that somehow had every NES game ever made on it. That was during the late 1980s or early 1990s. It never occurred to us that such a cartridge would become reality someday. Krizz apparently had the same dream that we had. If someone predicted that in the near future you could play NES / Snes / Genesis games on a wireless touch screen full color telephone that could easily fit in a pocket we would have called bullshit!

[@renakunisaki]

I remember saying if only you could copy game cartridges like we could VHS tapes. We had no idea it was actually possible!

[@JohnnyProctor9]

Hell, the NES Mini Classic fits and plays (with RetroArch) the entire NES, Famicom, and FDS library...so how about a tiny console with all that instead of just a cart? };-)>

[@chiroquacker2580]

@@renakunisaki This is speculation on my part and I may be talking out of my rear end here but: I don't know if EPRoms were around in the 1980s. Burning to a regular rom chip I think would be possible back then but it would take equipment that was unobtainable by the average person and you would still have to defeat 10NES. Nintendo did great things in the 80s but they were also a virtual monopoly in North America. They deserved getting kicked in their complacency by the Genesis / Mega Drive when that happened.

[@chiroquacker2580]

@@JohnnyProctor9 With some hacking the 3DS and PSP can do just that and are portable too. An android device doesn't even need to back hacked and will do it out of the box.

[@JohnnyProctor9]

@@chiroquacker2580 - That's beside the point, we were talking about a console to play them on a TV with controllers...

[@originaltrilogy1]

Amusingly the music on that Anti-piracy ad, turned out to be pirated...

[@Tailss1]

LOL where can I read about this?

[@damonsalvatore3222]

@@Tailss1 I remember something about this I think

[@psrdirector]

no, it was not, it was a different one, the one that went you wouldn't steal a car and stuff that was sorta pirated. they only had a license to use it in limited capacity and used it other places they didn't have license. but it wasn't the one he showed.

[@psrdirector]

@@damonsalvatore3222 it was a different anti piracy ad, and it was a case of they had license to use it but not use it everywhere and they used it everywhere

[@jothain]

@@psrdirector Whoa, holy sh.. You mean that "rad" annoying flashing video clip that almost made you make thousands of copies of the discs because of its annoyance level. The one that had many memes made out it. "you wouldn't shit in Bobbies cap" and stuff like that. I never heard that this could've been illegally used. That's hilarious 😃

[@KinjiMuto3]

The immediate closed captioning - [Nice Piano Music to lull you into a false sense of security] ...wat...

[@charleshines6155]

Once a copy gets out there is always another one somewhere.

[@jacksonburns3045]

except for a torrent ive been downloading for 5 months because it has no seeder

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

@@jacksonburns3045 and russian and chinese spyware

[@intensellylit4100]

@@jacksonburns3045 damn bro, that almost makes me wanna seed

[@Alexander_l322]

Jackson Burns i could seed it but I don’t download porn sorry bro

[@Dragonborn-dc4uj]

Reminds me of freemcboot, if you are apart of the ps2 modding community.

[@P-C-Principle]

Whenever I feel blue, the nostalgia nerd brings me out of that funk. I really appreciate all the hard work you’ve done mate. I know KZbin has been giving you a hard time but I wanted to let you know you got still got big fans out here who really enjoy your content. One love brotha

[@Tularis]

Don’t let the pirates burn a hole in your pocket! That our job!

[@asmodeusasteroth7137]

I'd be sad if these rich artists can't afford the Half ounce of cocaine for the weekend....

[@Julianna.Domina]

@@asmodeusasteroth7137 Extra half ounce*

[@gazatron3380]

@@asmodeusasteroth7137 these poor artists will forced to live a life of semi luxury

[@Fattydeposit]

I had an older mate back in the day who used to sell these devices. He leant me one that actually worked on both the MD and SNES - together with a few boxes of floppy disks. Thanks to that I got to know and love a whole load of Japanese games - most of which I have since bought legit copies of as an adult.

[@ChrisHull]

That might have been the Multi Game Hunter

[@eunaoseibrother8902]

Do you still have this device or...is long gone now?

[@ChrisHull]

@@eunaoseibrother8902 I got rid of all my device about 15 years ago.

[@eunaoseibrother8902]

@@ChrisHull i was asking SG6000, but okay, why you did that?

[@ChrisHull]

@@eunaoseibrother8902 Emulation became easier to use, plus 2 kids / room for storage.

[@monsterram6617]

Watching you flip through those 3.5 floppy disks brings back so many memories...

[@AceTrainerX3]

Pretty interesting how rom dumping/loading devices like the Super Magic Drive would evolve into the Retrode, the Everdrives, and all the various ways we try to preserve and play games today (much to the ire of Nintendo).

[@TheDeviantGent]

YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD AN INTERNET ... wait.

[@ThomCherryhomes]

The Mega Drive/Genesis contained a complete Master System (SG-1000 MK III) within the system. The VDP is shared between the two systems, and the "power base" converter is nothing more than a passive board that maps the cartridges/cards onto the Mega Drive's bus, while also asserting a bus line which puts the system into Master system mode.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Correct.

[@cromulence]

Looking at that RAM expansion card, it looks like it'd be very easy to actually upgrade it to 32mbits. The traces are there.

[@CoolSteve08]

But can you a) still purchase the exact same dram chips today, b) ensure that you can solder them on properly if the answer to a is yes, and c) ensure that the logic controller is programmed to use 32Mbits of dram rather than the 24Mbit that it shipped with?

[@sonixthatsme]

Maybe the bios can't handle 32mbit.

[@AGwolf2097]

@@sonixthatsme Booooo, don't ruin other peoples' pipe dreams lol :P I've legit been considering sourcing chips for the daughter card for over a decade and a half lol

[@kurtownsj00]

@@CoolSteve08 Yup, the controller not knowing its there was my first thought after seeing the solder pads too. It'd be sweet though.

[@markgray1089]

Well the KM48C512J-7 despite being obsolete is available along with several form and function fit equivalents, with the availability of cheap hot air rework stations and solder paste adding these devices would be a simple matter. The bios, well you would have to suck it and see although there are several images of this daughter-board fully populated on the video.

[@marks.6480]

I have several of these devices for the SNES and Nintendo 64. they are still quite hard to find because most auction sites don't allow them to be listed.

[@marks.6480]

@@rastas_4221 Yep. I found all my devices at flea markets from sellers who didn't know what they had.

[@blakegriplingph]

Blame it on how Nintendo lobbies them to be deemed as irredeemably bad. I bet they had a hand at banning console modding in Japan, even if said mods aren't necessarily for the sake of piracy.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Just masquerade it, like say: Selling handbags, contact number for info

[@Clay3613]

Gimme.

[@casedistorted]

Huh.. I bought one I think back in 2001 for SNES off some random website. It offered this same thing for SNES with a floppy drive built in and I think it was $80 back then? I just trusted the website and ordered it, and a few weeks later it arrived and I used it for years! The thing was amazing back then since emulation was getting big in those days.

[@TectonicImprov]

The 90s video game piracy subculture is so fascinating and yet underexplored on this website. Great video

[@NimhLabs]

It is not Internet Piracy! It is Internet Archaeology! That game belongs in a museum!

[@therant3837]

Ladies and Gentlemen we have Lady Indiana Jones. :)

[@75ur15]

@@therant3837 indiana is what we called the dog!

[@therant3837]

@@75ur15 Oh my word,,,, I forgot about that!

[@75ur15]

@@therant3837 couldn't resist a little fall back to last crusade ;)

[@nexxusty]

What "Game"? I don't see any "Game" here.

[@fromach]

One of the best analogies I've heard for software piracy being theft was "Imagine if someone stole your car, but it was still there in the morning."

[@dant876]

i mean, i would still be pretty mad someone stole my car

[@fromach]

@@dant876 But the gag is something like when your car get stolen, they drive off with a copy, leaving the original where it was.

[@TooBokoo]

I really don't care if people pirate, but that analogy is apples to oranges and makes no sense. Comparing physical theft to digital theft doesn't really work. That said, I'm certainly a firm believer in the old saying, most people who pirates your game, likely wouldn't have bought it anyway, so you're probably not losing any money.

[@MrSmith_]

@@TooBokoo Adding to your comment, piracy helps prevent things from disappearing off the face of the earth especially when companies no longer produce said games/products. One of the biggest things that really gets me is piracy surrounding films because if you go to the cinema to watch a film and it's complete and utter crap you can't get a refund.

[@TooBokoo]

@@MrSmith_ Agree on the films. I've downloaded plenty of movies for free and if I really like them, I have no problem dropping $20 on the Bluray and adding it to my shelf.

[@Charlesb88]

Just an interesting observation, but I noticed that the guy who owned these ripped games on floppy disk before you had all his 3 1/2” floppy disks all stored with the metal shutter end up. When regularly using floppy disks back in the 90’s, I always stored my floppy disks with the shutter end down. In the U.S., commercial software sold on 3 1/2” inch floppy disks always came with the label attached so that it could be read correctly with disk oriented with the metal shutter at the bottom, such that when the disk was stored in a floppy disk storage case the label was always on top as you flipped through them. I just notices that the way the brand was printed on the metal shutter and on the stick-on labels of blank 3 1/2 disks was such that having the shutter end stored up (at least with blank 3 1/2 floppies), would seem like the expected way to store them, something I that never occurred to me back in the 90’s. With the 5 1/4” floppy disks, the label was always oriented it would be up and the slot at the button for the magnetic read/write head would be at the bottom. Now 5 1/4” floppies were always stored in a paper sleeve (when not being used) that was slightly shorter in the front to expose the floppy’s label unlike the 3 1/2” floppies which didn’t require a sleeve due to the shutter door protecting the internal magnetic disks surface from dust. To me, probably due the orientation of the labels on commercial software 3 1/2” floppies and the fact I started with 5 1/4 floppies first with their labels always being up when stored, I never though to put the shutter end up when stored. I wonder If storing your 3 1/2 floppies shutter end up/label end down was the norm in other countries but not so much in the U.S. since I don’t recall seeing anyone do that over here in the States.

[@robsku1]

Shutter end down here in Finland - everyone I ever know kept them that way.

[@mrburns366]

Never seen them store with the shutter up. Maybe that's a southern hemisphere thing.. :-))

[@Snicketbar]

I always kept them in that protective plastic shell case that came with them.

[@antikz3731]

Snicket didn’t know yugioh fans were old enough for floppy

[@penfold7800]

I've always stored them shutter end up, for one good reason; when you store them shutter end down you can catch the shutter of one floppy when you put another floppy back in the case next to it. Also, you're not putting strain on the shutter itself. The shutters were notoriously flimsy and easily flipped out from the disk. The main reason you store 5.25" floppies in thier sleeves with the slot downwards is to prevent your fingers touching the exposed magnetic surface of the disk. But yeah, I can see why it makes better sense to have them stored shutter-down. I always wondered why the labels for them folded over the back of the disk. To make it easier to see what disk was what before you took them out of the box. I always used coloured disks, red for system disks (I always used a backup for regular daily use, and kept the originals in safe storage), green for backups of my work, yellow for backups of system disks, blue for recovery software, pdf files and instructions, white for work I shared, black for work and data I was working on.

[@TwistarGaming]

Being in my 50 i am so glad i found your channel. I had this thing. And it was nuts. I believe it was over priced. Everyone though i was nuts. But the truth is. I still use some of files i ripped to this day. In my arcade cabinet

[@videogameobsession]

It's really awesome to see a well produced video on this subject. I first bought my SMD800 + floppy drive in '91 and bought most of other console copiers which followed. My favorites are this and the Super Wild Card DX , also by FFE. If you ever plan on doing a video for the SNES copier scene please feel free to contact me for info, photos, etc.. I was VERY into that, I ran a major BBS at the time ('91-'96) and dumped many of the roms still floating around. I still have my entire BBS backed up with their original LZH/LHA packed scene releases for just about the entire game library + dox, intros/trainers, demos, SRAM cracks, and other patches. I also created the SNESDISC, one of the first CDRom rom set + rom sender frontend, which interesting was programmed for DOS by a good friend of mine, who went on to graduate from Digipen, and landed a job with Nintendo, but I'm guessing he left this off of his resume. Haha.

[@marcuslinkert1139]

any way to get those trainers/intros, demos (SNES, Genesis) in their original lzh/lha packed scene releases? I never saved them and gave away all my disks years ago to some kids

[@videogameobsession]

I'm not sure to be honest. I've not seen them since they were originally uploaded in the 90's. Maybe search around for torrents.

[@sansbuzzfuzz1023]

@@marcuslinkert1139 most are still available on scenelist.org

[@rionthemagnificent2971]

Though nowdays, Sega supports the modding community of old roms. Unlike their Competition, Sega allows what NintenDON'T.

[@nickarmitt4722]

But Nintendo are still going, make way more money and employ way more people. Sega have very little to lose now. Are you really gonna bring that up though when the SNES and NES mini are moddable and when Sega spent years licensing to those fucking awful cunts at ATGames? Signed, SkankHunt42

[@BlownMacTruck]

Nick Armitt Someone is butthurt.

[@Dark.Shingo]

@@nickarmitt4722 "Are you really gonna bring that up though when the SNES and NES mini are moddable " You're saying it like Nintendo were modding it themselves.

[@videogameobsession]

Sure, unless you count the Streets of Rage Remake, which Sega forced to shut down with a good old CEASE & DESIST notice. The developer was 8 years into the project so it was pretty heartbreaking for him and many of the fans.

[@Krystalmyth]

@@videogameobsession never understand why these developers don't release their games in pieces. Have the game uploaded somewhere. I mean if you keep it to yourselves till release and get c&d you're done. But if the game is online you're work doesn't go to waste just cuz you have to stop developing it.

[@justinholmes5614]

I used to download roms at school on their terrible Acorn computers and take them home on floppy disc.

[@pitmatix1457]

Retract that "terrible" comment sir! * Slaps Justin Holmes with a glove * (unless your school had Electrons for some reason... they were shit) BBC's and Archimedes were awesome!

[@justinholmes5614]

Dark Domino Out headmaster was obsessed with Acorn. He kitted the whole school out with RISC PCs when the rest of the world was using windows. The BBC was fine, at least you could play Doctor Who.

[@DennisAlexioAndyHug]

Same

[@themekon]

I spotted the amstrad in the background too... look forward to seeing it. I spent the past 4 and 1/2 years as ‘senior editor’ of the uk ‘Apprentice ‘.. . Which features Lord Sugar of Amstrad. I always come back after a long days editing and watch KZbin.., and these videos have gone through the roof in terms of quality. I watch more KZbin than anything... keep up the good work, Nick

[@retrogamer33]

My brother in law used to have one for the Super Nintendo, along with a shit-load of games. He threw it all away along with a boxed Atari Jaguar with games, I was so pissed off when he told me.

[@stonedsavage7814]

Ouch!

[@White_Recluse]

Hunter's Moon why would he just throw them away??

[@OfficialDJSoru]

A cousin of mine sold his Dreamcast, when I finally tracked one down I paid 80 for it. Mind you I got a second hand slim ps2 for 45, a 12gb ps3 for 125 and an OG xbox for 30 My mom also threw out my old pc game cardboard boxes thinking all I needed was the jewel case with disk and manual... today I can't find a way to recreate the boxes.

[@agonleed3841]

@@OfficialDJSoru I gave my dad my xj6. he sold it a year later.

[@mayamanign]

So he's a moron is what you're saying.

[@Magnumi]

Love the effort you have put into these videos and especially the closed captions!

[@AvatarOfBhaal]

"What more do you need in life? A kick in the teeth maybe?" That escalated quickly... *Shields teeth*

[@alexdhall]

That Packard Bell monitor beings back memories. They also sold them in the states. I remember using one of their 486's in the early 90's. I always liked the fact their monitors had mountable speakers.

[@mgpmbass3616]

It brought back memories for me as well. My first Windows PC was a (blazing fast at the time) Packard Hell... Uh I mean Bell Win95 tower and monitor with the Dumbo ear speakers, microphone, a Pentium 120, 1gb hdd, 4mb ram that I upgraded to 8, a 2mb video card, 4x cd-rom drive and a 28.8 modem. I ran the audio to my Fisher component stereo surround sound with two 15" subs which made gaming so much better. Especially in a dark room while playing Quake. It's long gone now, but I found another one a few years ago at a local computer recycling center for free that I still have for when I'm feeling nostalgic.

[@lightningfarronxp8899]

NINTENDO: *"PIRACY. ITS A CRIME"* ALSO NINTENDO: *"we'll release 1% of the SNES library over the course of a couple of years for retail pric…….wait, why are you on TPB?"*

[@jerricabenton842]

@Soulifix It is said, that Nintendo was well aware of the potential to load extra games on the classic minis... When hackers first exploited the NES classic, NIntendo had left a message which was "Please treat me well." This is a common polite Japanese greeting when you meat someone for the first time.

[@john_unforsaken]

Tbp it's the tpb the pirate bay

[@jimmicrackhead12]

You millenial fucks just want free shit and expect that it is given to you now

[@menotu000]

@@jimmicrackhead12 Never heard of cassette tapes, reel to reel, or VHS i see.

[@amogusenjoyer]

jimmicrackhead12 shut up boomer

[@oleblue73]

22:29 "You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a baby..."

[@electronash]

"..Unless you are a Dingo."

[@ericbazinga]

You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send the helmet to the policeman's grieving widow. And then steal it again!

[@EnglishLaw]

@@ericbazinga lol I was just watching that eariler :D

[@GaroshiTheAwesome]

@mPky1 Wooosh

[@PikaPerfect]

i love my ROMs of cars, handbags, and babies

[@malmstring]

I had one of these in 1991 in Sweden. Eventually owned disk stations for both MD and SNES. We got games from a friend who downloaded them off of a foreign BBS. We got JAP releases one week after release which was otherwise unheard of in 1991 where games often could be released in the nordic region 2-3 years after initial release...

[@xmaniac99]

A buddy of mine picked them up in Hong Kong and sold them overhere for a good profit, paid for his flight ticket everytime.

[@MrNeeds]

Really loving the recent content NN, these videos are awesome!

[@bwgti]

I m really enjoying these longerform documentaries! I am sure they are a lot of work. But a fun weekend watch beginning to end.

[@thedungeondelver]

This is frigging *fascinating* ! I wasn't a sega owner back in the 90s (Amiga, then PC) but if I had known about this I might have made that jump!

[@KowboyUSA]

These in depth detailed dives into computer related nostalgia are numero uno.

[@xantheinmidget]

Fantastic as always. Glad to see you got round to doing one on your magic drive. Also, am I correct in remembering they didn't actually have permission to use the the music for the DVD piracy ad? Oh the irony there.

[@djmidnightwolf]

I got a Sega Genesis Mini ad with this.

[@nulious]

So did I, twice.

[@countzero1136]

You get ads on youtube????? I haven't seen one on here in over a decade!

[@nulious]

@@countzero1136 only while watching on my tablet

[@countzero1136]

@@nulious Ahh, ok fair enough

[@agonleed3841]

love those ads. Make me feel ike back in the day when Sega was all over the t.v. telling me they do what nintendon't. Almost makes me want to waste money on their mini

[@danielalexander9233]

I bought one of these in the UK in '91/92. I sold my entire games collection to fund it but it paid for itself in no time. I bought it from a fella who ran a games rental business from his home. Happy Days!

[@joefish6091]

Early mid 90s I bought a thousand disk (ten box) collection from a teenager who was moving from Amiga to Acorn PPC. great times.

[@warrendesenberg]

I love all the retro pirating ads! Definitely remember those, so ridiculous

[@SkuldChan42]

I remember these devices being advertised in magazines in the US for development proposes back in the day.

[@AcornElectron]

Sweet! Sunday night nerd! Keep up the good work fella!

[@Jimaleana]

he has just explained how i can plaay mega drive and master system roms on the same app on my phone i really do appreciate the time you guys take to do this kind of work its all from the heart man!

[@Sensorama2000]

Thank you! High quality entertainment and really good explanation with good audio. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@MegaManNeo]

This was a very interesting Video to watch, I mean it's crazy to see all these devices today that were initially used to dump ROMs off cartridges. Sure enough there are better and more compact devices these days but if I had the chance to backup my games like that in the 90's I would have most likely done it. Oddly enough, SEGA nowadays sells MegaDrive ROMs on Steam too that can be run on real consoles using a MegaSD for instance. Too bad they are the only ones with that concept.

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

when did all these bomb captions start being a thing? [nice piano music that lulls you into a false sense of security]

[@kellyhicks2004]

Every bit of this video is great man. The pacing, the comedy... keep up the good work

[@KONEY.INDUSTRIAL]

Beautuful. I owned a Super Magicom back in the days and I know the feeling of downloading a ROM and feed it to a console via floppies :)

[@MrMegaManFan]

I want Peter to narrate the intro to an episode of Doctor Who. "The year, was 1984. The Sontaran Empire has just suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Rutan fleet. Seeking a way to reverse their declining fortunes, they headed to the Sol system to set up a cloning facility on one the many satellites orbiting Jupiter in order to return to the front line with an overwhelming counter strike."

[@jsc315]

I remember hearing about this thing in the late 90s early 2000s when NES/SNES ROMs were steering to become a bigger thing.

[@7ktTube]

I just stumbled upon this amazing channel. Lying on the couch with a huge smile on my face whilst my most fond childhood memories reappear. I would never have found those memories again if it weren't for this video. Thank you very much, it really means a lot to me! I'll Guess it's time to unpack my SEGA MEGA DRIVE from the attic and plug it in again! :) You just got a new subscriber!I

[@loughkb]

Nicely done. This stands alone as a documentary film.

[@ronnybkk1]

Prior to the SMD, FFE's first pirate hardware was the Magic Card for the Famicom, then the Magic Super Griffin for the PC Engine. You can upgrade your memory to 32M by soldering some FPM DRAM from an old PC, I did on mine. Your issue regarding the joypad is due to the way the joypad is read by the BIOS. It's a bug that can be fixed. It mostly happen with unofficial pads or 6 buttons. For SMS games try loading them from the floppy drive, you'll have more success.

[@obvioustruth]

"eclectic fellow" :D LOL I love your shows. They are excellent! :)

[@lochinvar00465]

What is really amazing is that piracy of games/movies/music etc has never been shown to reduce sales, and some studies showed it actually boosted sales. It's hard to wrap my head around that one.

[@AysahSpades]

Man, my dad's friend had this! Had ALL of the games on the megadrive and it astonished me as a child! Never knew what it was until now!

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

"There are no loading times..." well, except that first one!

[@RichardServello]

Were you using the RAM riser to scrap the excess solder???? Or just some random logic board?

[@Nostalgianerd]

Both, for added fun.

[@A_Clark]

Whoa, Nostalgia Nerd has the same cheapo solder sucker that I have. It's like we're brothers.

[@RichardServello]

@@Nostalgianerd madman

[@AGwolf2097]

@@A_Clark it's not bad as long as you pop it open and keep it pretty clean lol cheap tool maintenance ftw

[@GameInterest]

I have one of these for the SNES. I always thought the "retry" meant that it had failed. I'm happy to know this isn't the case. There's also a power supply that shipped with some of these that has two plugs and will power both the system and the floppy drive.

[@brannenthompson9662]

Great Video, I had a Super Wildcard for my SNES back in the 90s it cost me almost 3 weeks wages and I found the advert in the back of C&VG it was like those "Get a Megadrive for £99" small square adverts, anyway the seller sold lots od imported stuff and was in Milton Keynes so only a 45 min drive, when me and my friend got there it was a young guys house and it was a pure treasure trove of imported far eastern magic on his dining table was a Playstation running Ridge Racer months before release The Wildcard rates as probably one of my best purchases I loved it and getting games was easy this older guy would come round my friends house each week on a Friday night with a briefcase which was really just a huge disc case and sell us games at 50p a disk, loved the video it brought back a huge wave of fantastic nostalgia.

[@EnigPartyhaus]

Now the mention of beta ROMs is interesting, were these unique to Maphia or were they just rehosts from other scene groups? If they were unique then places like Hidden Palace would love more information on this, as there's ongoing effort to recover prototypes that made it onto BBSs in that era

[@Hebdomad7]

In what little efforts there are to preserve gaming history. It will be the pirates who'll preserve it the best. Gotta love less than legal hardware like this.

[@daisymae3717]

Isn't that terrible? I remember watching LGR's video on darkspore and that was when I first really thought about this problem. Video games are art, and should be preserved but not many see it that way.

[@Hebdomad7]

@@daisymae3717 Some can't be preserved though. Who's going to be able to preserve the Matrix Online or other failed MMOs? Games with source code long forgotten. Heck, how do you preserve a game's community culture, a games meta, in game community events? These are hard questions to answer. But not impossible to solve.

[@tixastronauta]

Amazing video. Congrats mate! Your content is getting better and better

[@fusionspace175]

I first saw NES roms about 1996 in high school. In computer class I looked over and someone was playing Mega Man. We were all amazed that you could do that, and computer class got a lot more fun. The emulator was called Nesticle 95 and the icon was a pair of balls. The 90s were a simpler time. Anyway it was about the time all our NESes were finally breaking down, and it wasn't many people who bothered to get a new or refurbished one. It was the N64/PS1 era, and our super Nintendo and Genesis still mostly worked. There was enough time passed that it was great being able to play older games again, even if it was weird playing with a keyboard. I always wondered how they got the roms off the carts, so this is really cool learning about it. It's great that you can reset the game and stay loaded, most emulators don't do that so you can't finish games like X-Men, which makes you reset the console to get to the final level.

[@mariannmariann2052]

I think most emulators do that, with a soft reset function. One being Fusion.

[@etansivad]

But does it work if you plug the game genie into the mega drive, then magic drive into the game genie?

[@MoteofLobross]

I would of freaking loved one of these as a teenager in the 90's. I woulda rent-ripped so many games.

[@nexxusty]

Right?

[@rufiorufioo]

This thing is absolutely incredible. Had no idea it ever existed. Thanks for the great video!

[@poderr]

Much love for the excellent subtitles, in addition to the content.

[@gregdrew874]

IIRC: Packard-Bell parallel ports were non-standard? Something were they didn't use IRQ's, but Windows emulated them in the driver? Could explain your comm issues. YMMV.

[@renakunisaki]

Could also just be the cable length. Some of those things were so finicky about timings that a 4 foot cable would work but 6 foot wouldn't.

[@batt3ryac1d]

@@renakunisaki jesus and back then you couldn't even google it to figure out what was wrong.

[@joefish6091]

@@renakunisaki signal reflections,

[@blacksunshine7485]

If I knew about this as a kid I wouldve moved heaven and earth to get one

[@trip2themoon]

They were pretty expensive though. First time I ever saw one for sale was the Super Wild Card for the SNES and that was at the Barras Market in Glasgow back in 1992. It was £250. They also sold the games as well £3 each or a fiver for a double disker.

[@ganirintiniano]

I listen this when i m cycling to my job at 3.00 in the night...makes me feel good.thank you

[@luisvilla799]

Damn where do u live and what do you work in seems like a shit shift best of luck from texas!!!!

[@RDJ134]

I owned differtent 'copy boxes' back in the day for my SNES and i had this one too :) You could buy them from home sellers and even some game shops that were openly advertising here in the netherlands.

[@meadowsirl]

why did you not leave the magic drive without the plastics on to test the extra addons? It appears the plastic was the issue.

[@penfold7800]

Because he's a purist and he was showing how some later games and consoles were designed not to work with it (but console developers being lazy, they just made it a physical incompatibility).

[@lasi_eisbaer]

Nobody: Subtitles: [Nice piano music to lull you into a false sense of security]

[@maddire2585]

Great video. Would be great if you could do more on the retro underground scene back in the day

[@Drinkabeerandplayagameofficial]

I’m guessing this wouldn’t work with expanded memory games like Pier Solar either since that is bigger than 24 MEGS. Really cool device I had never heard of until now. Great video!

[@Admiral_Jezza]

"What more do you need in life? Apart from a kick in the teeth maybe." What?

[@WR3ND]

He's an angry nostalgia nerd.

[@chrismofer]

I guess he is either saying it's not really that easy to use, more like a kick in the teeth, or he's saying that's what you deserve for pirating. idk.

[@mozzjones6943]

Nothing else, And nobody wants that either... I believe it was a figure of satire.

[@veggieh8r]

The game he backed up was Rise of the Robots, a game infamously known for being awful after a marketing blitz of miraculous promises.

[@markwhatever256]

Ummm, @16:05, did you just replace a leaky battery with another one which will leak? would have thought the newer regular circular battery would have been a better idea :)

[@asselpunk1]

Wow again a lovely made clip. What I especially like is that ya are somehow the first I see here one yt who also take care for some correct and 'speaking' *subtitles* .

[@interstellarsurfer]

Ermahgawd, I haven't seen that many floppies in decades! beautiful collection. 👌

[@hene193]

I spot a box for Amstrad Notebook. Video in the future?

[@wisteela]

I'm hoping for that too. I've got one. They are great for portable programming in BBC BASIC.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Fo'sho.

[@005AGIMA]

@@Nostalgianerd awesome! O had the notepad but always lusted after the notebook because..... Bigger. A comparison would be mint ;)

[@joeblow5214]

I very curious about the history of anti-piracy ad campaigns and these tiplines.

[@PaulHofreiter]

Joe Blow don’t copy that floppy

[@19822andy]

Watch the Ashens talk about it. It is on the Norwich game festival KZbin channel. An excellent lecture.

[@Neoyoshgamer]

I love the caption descriptions for the music it's always funny to me.

[@gtf9733]

That battery repair montage was slick

[@darkhall8227]

super wild card for the snes, you could rent games and copy them to disk

[@Mynipplesmychoice]

dark Hall I had it and loved it. I went out of my mind when I first got it.

[@darkhall8227]

@@Mynipplesmychoice some games had to be on 2 disks spawn being one of them. only down side you couldnt use the the datel action reply or game genie on it.

[@antonnym214]

For our American friends, "Bespoke" means "Custom" or "Proprietary".

[@ace942]

Thanks for posting this. I remember one of the local computer shows back in the 1990s had someone with a system just like this where I saw Genesis games being played from disk. I did not want to bother the person who had the booth and was playing but I was always curious about the system. I am not sure if it was this exact system but I guess it was since I have to assume that this might be the only such system or if there were others, it must have been limited in the number of models.

[@nimrodlevy]

I adore these docos. Mate, you rock! Many many thanks!

[@BentaclesK]

Tbh the old 90s commercials where they were like “YOU WOULDNT STEAL A CAR” if stealing a car was that easy to get away with, yes yes I would

[@MrDebauch]

if you could rent a car and clone it in 5 or 10 minutes... and no actual theft actually happened because you returned the rental... then hell yeah.

[@petermitchell2729]

Yeah if you could hide the car on a floppy disc how would you be caught?

[@LuisMercadoorg]

In an age of streaming, cloud storage and software only meant for online stores, piracy is preservation.

[@TheRestartPoint]

I was aware of these things at the time, various mail-order gray importers listed them for hundreds of pounds in the backs of magazines. Of course, for a school kid, they were in the same realms of own-ability as the Neo Geo. It's amazing to see that they basically did the same thing (and more, if you count the dumping function) as an Everdrive, just using 90s tech. I'd imagine that Krikkz and others studied these things very closely when designing modern flash carts, transferring the game into flash memory to be played, and the ability to save the SRAM saves to the same storage medium as the related rom file for example

[@robertdavis4192]

I love that you added psych to the CC

[@theambivalentps2bloke60]

👀 *Looks better than the 32X*

[@Nukle0n]

>reinstalls NiCAD battery Bro what are you doing.

[@TheBrokenLife]

My first thought as well... I clip those batteries out and move on. If, for some completely unknown reason, I actually want a battery in there again, I'll put one in again at that time.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Takes 2 seconds and restores full functionality. Someone else can deal with it in 2040

[@Nukle0n]

@@Nostalgianerd But are you really gonna use this thing to a full functionality? I mean this is your device and all but you don't even show savegame stuff in the video after replacing the battery, so why even put a new one in there for a display/history piece where it's just going to leak again? Appreciate the video, just curious as to why you'd wanna put one of those back in there. Maybe it's a bit more work but you could also look into installing a coin cell holder in there, you'd have to find a way to disable the charging circuit but that way you're never getting another leak, and you can put a battery in there as necessary.

[@jensharbers6702]

@@TheBrokenLife Well, if the NiCd lasts as long as the old one, go for it :D

[@TheBrokenLife]

@@Nukle0n On a similar topic, I've actually had the thought of 3D printing NES/SNES/etc case halves that have CR2032 slots and access doors in them expressly so you can pop batteries in and out of them at will. It's pretty rare for a coin cell to leak anyhow, but...

[@jothain]

Interesting video. Oh and thanks for the quality subtitles 👌👍👍

[@wisteela]

Fantastic. And I see you too have an Amstrad NC200.

[@Zicconnuts]

>You wouldn't download a car. Are you kidding? Bloody hell yeah I'd download a car if I could!

[@cloudstrife1983]

Shame it doesn't work with Sonic 3+ Knuckles. Would have liked to see it with Sonic 3+ Knuckles+ Knuckles+ Knuckles...

[@alexgrant1415]

Awesome video would love to see more videos on the other magic drives for other systems. Crazy how much effort there was back in the day when now a day's you can grab a good retro pie for under 100$ American. Still the story of how these devices came about and eventually died out is really interesting stuff for sure .

[@mrt.7146]

What - a Nostalgia Nerd video I somehow missed? .... What a pleasant surprise :-)