EverDrives and SD2SNES - ROMs, Hacks, & More on Real Consoles / MY LIFE IN GAMING

when I was a kid I knew that buying a new game meant that I'd be stuck with it for a month till I had a chance to get another one there were so many games out there and I knew I'd never have a chance to play them all I never could have imagined that one day it would be possible to have every game ever made accessible with emulation using brown files and software on your computer but what if we could load those roms on to our home console so they play in function just like the real thing turns out that this is absolutely possible using a device called a flash cartridge the most popular of which is known as the ever drive [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] the everdrive is made by yegor gullible Sookie who is better known as cracks in his base in Ukraine never drives aren't the first flashcards ever made but these days they seem to be the most commonly used now I have to confess I don't have a ton of experience with flashcards so I'm mostly gonna sit this episode out because Koree on the other hand has been really passionate about ever drives for the past several years and has just a ton of knowledge about what to expect from every mom obviously when it comes to any flashcard the elephant in the room is that most people are probably using them to play downloaded rom either just to try them out or maybe is a way to avoid the rapidly rising costs of retro games and this has limited my interest in flashcards because to me plain and authentic cartridge is just as important is playing on the original hardware and I know all too well from experimenting with emulation to having every game available to play on a whim makes it difficult to commit tries to use a line pretty close to mine I've you the ever drive is more of an object that's convenient and they are especially helpful for the overall production of my life and gaming but if I'm sitting down the place through a game for my own enjoyment I will most likely use the actual cartridges that I own I guess I feel like I appreciate a game more if I paid for it but even I have to admit if there's a lot more to ever drive than playing your typical vanilla ROM paying translations special hacks console utilities and even original homebrew game these are all noble pursuits that are made even more impressive by being played on their native hardware not to mention the role that all this can playing game preservation with roms existing for titles that may have only been available through rewritable kiosks or satellite services so honestly there is a lot here that does interest me so Corey let's hear it [Music] using a never drive is simple they're designed on a per console basis to play roms off an SD card that's been inserted into its slot in the PCB plug in the ever drive into the cartridge slot and turning on the system takes you to a simple operating system which lists all the playable round files present on the card from there just choose a game and it will load into the ever drives memory the console reads the game as if it was the actual cartridge but that's not to say that every game will play 100% perfect you'll run into issues with compatibility and glitches from time to time since the OS can be updated on the SD card compatibility may be improved and glitches may be fixed but for all intents and purposes we have the entire game availability of emulation with the authenticity of playing unreal console hardware you can purchase ever drives directly from Crick's at Crick's comm or through Stone Age gamer a retailer based out of Salem Ohio whose online store also offers the option to customize your ever drives with different colored shelves labels and SD cards recently a number of knockoffs have begun to pop up on eBay and Amazon these have a number of issues with playing games so make sure you buy directly from Crick's or through Stone Age gamers so that you know you're getting an authentic product they'll actually work as intended in this episode we're going to be focusing on the ever drives that are available for use on home consoles there's also a number of ever drives available for portable consoles but I'll be covering those in a future episode I'm a big master system fan although some might think of the Sega Master System as one of the least essential consoles it was my first and I will love it forever sure the Genesis is capable of playing at some s games but because I still have my childhood system I wanted to keep the hooked up I purchased my own master everdrive and early 2016 from Stone Age gamer I chose the cheapest shell and label options and if you want this exact version 96 dollars as of the time of this video it uses a standard size SD card and it will only take about two gigabytes to hold everything available for the system in all regions loading games from the SD card can take a little while depending on the size of the game but it's nothing to go crazy over the master everdrive plays your standard cartridges and card games also supported our Japanese exclusive sg-1000 games but since the color pellets between the systems aren't exact similar colors are used instead I have to admit it's pretty cool to finally be able to play dragon Wang when you select the game from the menu you have three options load and start will immediately load the game in the memory and boot it up load will simply load the game into memory but keep you in the menu hex will let you look at the coding for the game the most recent game that you play will remain in the memory of the everdrive so if you find yourself going back to the same game between play sessions just hit the two button and select the start game and it will boot without having to go through the whole erase and load process due to the similarity of the hardware people have even been able to modify round so the game gear games are playable on the system this is a pretty cool idea but a lot of them tend to run not so hot hopefully this will be improved in the future the Japanese Master System the Sega Mark 3 has an FM sound expansion that offers high quality music and sound this option was not made available internationally with the first model the Sega Master System actually has the expansion slot on the motherboard thanks to Tim Worthington the creator of the fantastic NES RGB video mod you get unlock this capability with us system these FM soundtracks will play back correctly on the master ever drive and will even work if you combine it with a power based mini FM and a Sega Genesis a device made by DB electronics and sold with complete shell at Stone Age gamer sometimes the difference in audio is preferable and other times not so much I have a soft spot for the TSG style music for most games but some of the FM sound tracks are pretty great what do you think [Music] hahaha [Music] as expected the master everdrive will also run chemically that Sega's official power base converter course for reasons that will be clear much later in this episode this might be redundant if you already own one of the everdrive variants for the Sega Genesis finally if you want to play some 3d games with your Sega scope 3d glasses yes those games will work just fine but remember you only be able to see the 3d effect if you're playing on a CRT television here's a bonus tip if you're a stickler for file sorting the way that the everdrive reads is a fat32 file format and your SD card may cause your games to appear out of alphabetical order I found that running a free program called fat's order on the card will clear this right up thankfully no other ever drives I'll be talking about in this episode have this same issue but a number of the portable ones do so you've got your master ever Drive what would I recommend is a huge fantasy star fan I highly recommend giving the SMS power retranslation Mashhad it corrects a lot of the translation errors and brings all names and locations in line to the Japanese version is extremely well done [Music] when you think of the number one system you'd want to never drive for I'm guessing that most people would quickly answer the NES with several games rising in price the everdrive n8 might be exactly what you need if you're frustrated with the state of the nes collectors market the NH is available in two form factors NES and Famicom so get the version that matches your hardware I purchased my NES model from Stone Age gamer at their booth at Cleveland's classic console and arcade gaming show in 2014 it came in a deluxe edition that includes a case and a standard SD card that ran me just over 150 dollars if this seems too expensive you can put together a basic Edition for around 118 bucks you can easily load games off a standard sized SD card and it could grab the 4 gigabyte card then you'll have more than enough to hold every US European and Japanese game plus a crazy amount of translation and tax that exists unlike the master everdrive loading round so the n8 is just about instantaneous since it uses the onboard ram you'll have no problem playing most NES and Famicom roms just about perfectly if you're playing on a Famicom you can fully enjoy games that use sound enhancement chip like echo module Densetsu the average drive emulates the MMC 5 chip and you'll need a Famicom or modded NES to take advantage if you're using a top loader you'll have to do some additional modding to the everdrive itself without these the music - sounds weird the n8 will also play Famicom disk system games complete with boot up screen this is great at the other us system and we're interested in getting some of the disc games a shop though as nice as this is the playback isn't perfect you might even run into some games that aren't supported you can boot directly into the last game played by pressing the start button on the main menu pressing selects gives you a number of options and information for you to tweak and check out in this option menu you'll find what is probably my favorite enhancement savestates this is super helpful for some of the more challenging games but these states will be lost when you turn off the game so you've still got to finish these games in one sitting now this might be blasphemous to some people like try play it was definitely a welcome addition for me when I just needed the extra little push to make a passive frustrating section taking advantage of this feature is easy just bind the save and load inputs to any button combination you want in the ever drives option menu personally I like to sense a down plus select to save and up collect select to load this won't however work on every single game specifically ones with more complex mappers hold up wait a second a mapper if you've been involved in the NES emulation scene then you're probably more than familiar with this term so what the heck is it as NES games got more complex it wasn't long before developers needed more power they would soon editing additional chips to their games to extend the system's capabilities and storage the system uses mappers to map the abilities to make cartridge for the console think of it like this the NES is Mega Man and he borrows the special powers from whatever cartridge is inserted suddenly special abilities like multi-directional scrolling larger sprites and enhanced audio are now possible there are tons of different members used throughout the lifespan of the NES in the ever drives case if you hope to play every game ever for the system you need to be able to handle all these mappers the n8 handles this through emulation it works pretty well for a majority games though still find some games that aren't supported the Crick's is constantly adding more in so if your favorite game isn't supported yet it probably will be eventually for those of you that need a few extra lives or continues there is a built-in game genie if you really want to get crazy this is definitely a handy feature if a little bit unintuitive to figure out you've got to use the select only option when choosing a game this loads the game into the ever drives memory now you can input the game genie code after this is done press Start to load the game in your set what about games use a battery backup the everdrive hold saved games and it's built in RAM and then back stuff to the SD card when you reset or return to the main menu I had no issues using the n8 and a retro USB abs it simply boots up and works and hey you can even take advantage of the MMC 5 emulation I've heard that using one in an analogue NT does have some known issues these issues will hopefully be worked out in future OS updates much like they were with the hi-def nes early on functionality may also be spotty with clone hardware the everdrive n8 certainly isn't the first flash card that was created to use on the nes there's been several others that we plan to cover in a future episode but if you find yourself with a never drive here's some cool stuff that I think you might enjoy [Music] [Music] if you're fairly new to the turbografx-16 / pc engine scene then you're surely well aware of just how pricey things are at this point it's absolutely crazy with most of the highly desired titles going for well over $100 if that intimidates you about getting into the system then the turbo everdrive might just help ease your mind I bought my turbo everdrive from Stone Age gamer back in 2014 just shortly after I got my pc engine duo R it ran me about 90 dollars since I purchased this a version 2 has been released adding a number of nice if minor additions such as support for populist one of the few games at version 1 fit in play unlike to previously mentioned ever drives the turbo edition runs as games off a microSD card that said they'll need nothing more than a 2 gigabyte card to hold everything especially since the us library takes up such a small portion of a total space required no this won't work with CD games it's not going to be magically possible to play Dracula X around or blood off an SD card the turbo everdrive will however run just about any Q card game you put on it games load quickly and as far as I can tell run glitch free just as good as the real thing the ability to reset to the title screen was built into most games on the turbo & PC engine just hold start and press select because of this tricks thoughtfully included a physical reset button to get back to the main menu of the ever drive it's simple and the little red LED will notify you when it's accessing the micro sd although it's CD games had no reagent protection cue cards did the turbo ever drive will work on both us turbo graphics systems and Japanese PC engine systems so you'll first have to toggle a little switch to the region of the consoles being used on once you're all booted up and in the menu you can play both Japanese and US games so setting the switch is pretty much one and done it'll also work on the Japanese exclusive super graphics system and it's five exclusive game unfortunately I don't own one so I couldn't try out this functionality directly but we are assured that they will work find them if you need to get into the cd-rom boot screen and want to leave the ever drive in the system it's possible to easily load the cd-rom by us from the menu the ever drives can function as a substitute for the system 1 2 & 3 expansion cards that are needed to run some of the heavier cd-rom games if you're a duo owner then you have these system cards already built into your system however an issue was recently discovered where booting to the cd-rom interface using a never drive on a duo duo our duo our X or a PC engine with a super cd-rom to attach can cause some conflicts with a consoles RAM which put some unwanted wear and tear on the hardware this could potentially lead to premature console or everdrive failure and nobody wants either a developer on the pc engine FX forums named Elmer has created a patched rom that you can use to boot to the CD interface and will prevent these issues of course this patched rom will only work correctly on a turbo ever drive version 2 version 1 owners like me are out of luck I just take it out of the system when I want to boot to the CD ROM to be honest the turbo ever drive lacks the thrills of the others but it more than makes up for it being a reasonably priced alternative in a sea of super expensive titles so I could add one thing a dream feature would be the ability to backup saved games from the internal memory to the SD card a device exists for the pc engine called the Tendo co a bank you can use the backup safe having this functionality incorporated will be incredible since the internal battery backup space is just so tiny if you're new to the turbo graphics 16 scene this ever drive is a no-brainer if you decide to get one why not try out the fan hack of the original Mega Man is this an exact port [Music] [Music] when I was first investigating ever drives in 2014 I settled on the mega ever drive for the Genesis as my first purchase I bought it directly from Crick's that have gotten an insane amount of use out of it as it offers a number of features and wide compatibility in the last year the product line has been tweaked and refined breaking it down into three different options for consumers the x3 is the most basic and cheapest model available if you just want to play some games without any kind of extra functionality then this one is for you if you're just looking to dip your toe into the pool of flashcards then this is probably a good place to start with the x5 you start to see some basic extra features like the ability to function as a backup Ram card if you're using a Sega CD finally we have the x7 which is a newer equivalent to the mega ever drive that I have this one has all the previously mentioned features along with a ton more for a complete breakdown of all the features included with each model Stone Age gamer calm and Crick's calm have a handy chart that contains all the information that you'll need for the purposes of this video Stone Age gamer has supplied me with this updated version so I can show some of the newer features although the mega everdrive version 1 used a standard sized SD card the new X Furious uses a micro SD instead and gives a much more sleek look if you wanted to fit everything available on the system along with a boatload of ROM packs and tools you'll probably want around an 8 gig card games run great on this thing I've only run into a few incompatibilities like the turbo everdrive you cannot put CD games on them but you can boot directly into the Sega CD with none of the worries of the turbo aperture on it you can even boot specific biopsis from different regions and hardware models if you have them on your SD card this is pretty helpful as Sega CD games are reaching protected at the BIOS level using an in-game menu that can be accessed by pressing down and start together you can quickly save and load States regardless is definitely not as quick and seamless as it is on the NES ever drive this function can also be kind of glitchy causing audio issues depending on the game [Music] you can also use this method to go back to the main everdrive menu so you don't have to get up and reset the system generally putting the reset button will take you back to the main listing of the everdrive but you can also toggle an option to make it so the reset button only resets the game that you're playing you'll definitely need to enable this if you hope to ever be x-men because hitting the reset button is required to access the final level of the game that specific function and a few others like game genie coats and region coding are access to the main menu at the everdrive home screen since the genesis 1 and 2 have the ability to natively play Master System games with an adapter you can also play games for that system on the mega everdrive they run absolutely perfectly they'll just need to use this little button on top of the carts to pause your game the Genesis 3 is a different story owners of that system will need to modify the console internally so they can play SMF games if you don't do this the mega everdrive will doesn't boot you back to the main menu if we try to play an SMS game with it if you've got a 32x attached you can enjoy those games just as well however you'll face the same limitations across Hardware revisions as the Master System functionality so Genesis 1 and 2 you're good to go Genesis 3 you gotta mod it speaking of the 32x if you decide you want to keep the add-on connected to your system at all times you're going to run into some pretty severe caveats first off playing Genesis games pass through the 32x remove several of the extra functions of the mega everdrive specifically the in-game menu will no longer be accessible so no more saving and loading of savestates secondly is they won't be able to play Master System games at all of course this is sorted to be expected because even using a power base converter plugged into a 32x won't work either but this was the exact reason I decided to go with a master everdrive in addition to my mega everdrive it was simply more convenient when it comes to choosing your first ever drive you could arguably say that you get the most bang for your buck out of the mega ever drive multiple console support Sega CD Ram and save states make for a pretty complete package and I'd even start to get into the plethora of different hacks that are available for the system here's some cool ones you should definitely check out I hear ya I hear ya what about the Super Nintendo well here's where things get interesting you've got several options with a sizable price difference between them which one is the right one for you first up is the Super ever Dredd created by Creek I only had access to a Super ever Drive version 1 but the most recent iteration available is version 2 the functionality is comparable although version 2 has a number of improvements such as game genie implementation it plays roms from a standard size SD card and has two versions available the first version will run about 86 bucks which isn't too shabby now is it but before you get all giddy and jump on that one think about the games you really want to play on the Super NES [Music] much like the way that NES games were handled SNES carts also made use of various special chips within the game cartridges themselves these are used in a ton of different games during the console lifetime and were a major part of the construction of the console staple game this essentially means that different games are also altogether different Hardware pilotwings and Super Mario Kart used the DSP series of chip Megaman X 2 & 3 uses a CX 4 chip Super Mario RPG and Kirby super star use the SI 1 starfox and stunt race FX uses super FX chip and those are just a smattering of example now what if I told you that out of everything I just listed the basic everdrive supports none of these chips kind of takes the wind out of your sails doesn't it there's a slightly more expensive version of the super everdrive that supports games that use the DSP 1 2 3 & 4 chip this version will cost you just over $100 it's absolutely worth the extra money especially if you're a mario kart fan outside of this the setup for the super everdrive falls in line with what we've seen so far the menu is super basic choose a game and go like the master everdrive game loading isn't always immediate there's also no in-game menu or anything crazy like that so if you're looking for the same kind of features as a mega everdrive then you're in for a disappointment if you're interested in a bare-bones SNES experience then the super everdrive should be right up your alley it's not scary expensive I mean compared to the most of the other ever drives I've talked about so far it actually seems a bit cheaper than you'd probably expect but what if you're looking for something more the SD to SMEs isn't branded as an ever drive but it was created in a collaboration between a kario 1 and Creek an advanced fpga that includes a plethora of onboard ships that not only increased game compatibility but also allows you to do some of the coolest stuff that any flash card is capable of Stone Age gamer sent us this promotional unit for us to cover in this episode it includes a number of additional cosmetic features that I probably wouldn't have gotten myself such as this bright green light pipe the sc2 SNES loads us games off a standard sized SD card and boots them up pretty much instantaneously everything is accessed through a much nicer looking menu than the super everdrive right away you'll notice that compatibility has been improved although maybe not as much as you might expect you have access to DSP st 0 1 0 c x4 and OBC 1 and a pretty cool twist you can also play games around the japanese exclusive set televiewers of course you'll notice that a number of notables are still left off that list most importantly the super FX and si 1 which are due to be edit in the future well hopefully because the FPGA inside is so incredibly versatile and simply needs to be configured to mimic these chips if and when these games are implemented to be able to play them no matter when you purchase your FDD SNES you can rest easy knowing that the hardware inside is finalized and will never be updated akari o1 will add these features via future firmware update of course things didn't always play perfectly and there were a decent number of instances where I had some trouble getting games to load it's possible that this could be due to the rom files I was using just as much that could have been due to some sort of incompatibility with the way that the FC 2 SNES was trying to run the game like the super everdrive there is no in-game menu so no save states are possible here either there is a pretty handy quit the menu shortcuts out for when you just want to change games just hold L our select and press X this is pretty convenient for me when I was trying to capture a wide variety of game footage you may have heard around various parts of the internet something about CD quality music and Super NES games well the SD to SNES is the key to unlocking this feature and it is amazing [Music] [Music] using an expansion chip called the MSU one that was created by a programmer named bu the unthinkable is now possible on a console that's over 20 years old this chip is capable of adding up to 4 gigs of storage that a game can access the ROM has to be modified to do so the after this is done you can now listen to CD quality sound files during the game [Music] the CD quality music flows immediately and isn't just some superficial playing over the top of the game implementation like you tend to get with custom soundtracks on modern systems instead it reacts as if it was really part of the game for instance you know how when you go to the map screen and length of the path the music becomes slightly quieter now listen to it with the MSU 1 audio [Music] pretty neat right in the SNES s heyday full motion video was considered to be only achievable using cd-rom technology but using the power of the MMC 1 this is now possible on original SNES hardware and it's pretty mind-blowing well at least for me check out Road blaster for Road Avenger if you're a Sega CD fan playing on a real SNES it looks pretty compressed but seriously how impressive is this of course msu one implementation on game hasn't been perfected but that's understandable considering how young this technology is but it's a great way to visit classics and play them with some cool new features I'm definitely replaying link to the past this way I don't think I'm needed for that I wouldn't want to carry around a heavy sword and shield all day and miss out on home-cooked meals like this well then let's see oh yeah one thing to keep in mind is that the audio and video files used for MSU 1ax are absolutely enormous so do yourself a favor and future-proof yourself with at least a 32 gig card ok so price take a deep breath the SD to SNES will run you around $200 for the most basic Edition I totally understand that this might seem too steep for a number of consumers and that's ok the super everdrive does exist as an option for those people but if you want to enjoy some cool exclusive features and Bank on the promise of future implementations so you can play some of the system's best games did I say that the FCB SNES is a definite must-have here check out some of the cool fan translations and hacks that I got into [Music] after the 16-bit era most consoles moved on the CD technology designing a never drive for a cd-rom based console is a whole different beast but since Nintendo famously stuck with carts of course it would make sense that Crick's would develop and ever drive to the platform this is the everdrive 64 the everdrive 64 plays its games off with standard sized SD cards the games load instantaneously which is actually kind of surprising because n64 games just several times larger than those of previous system this is also the reason I'd recommend getting at least a 32 gigabyte card to hold everything there's been multiple revisions of the everdrive 64 with the 2.5 and three versions readily available Crick's has provided us with version 3 so that we can take a deeper look the everdrive 64 version 3 comes in at around 175 bucks while the 2.5 lands at about 107 of course some of the features I mentioned here might not be available in version 2.5 so be sure to check out Crixus site to see what you might be missing ok so you know what to expect at this point a nice looking menu with some actual artwork in the background this time in fact you can even customize that image if you'd like you know the rest like the game and go I tried out a ton of games but had no issues with any of them game compatibility is supposedly closer to 100% here than any other ever drive the actual everdrive hardware itself is quite a bit more complex and this isn't just because of more sophisticated games Nintendo implemented a chip called the CIC which made sure that only approved cartridges and devices worked on the system the CIC in the game and the system would talk to you other which allowed the game to boot the everdrive 64 integrates a special chip called the ultra CIC which is configured to talk with every console version in every region if you've always wanted to check out games for the Japanese exclusive 64dd now it's your chance because they totally work on the everdrive 64 well as long as the roms have been converted correctly how about you okay well toadstool kill kiss Judy's still visible I'm permitted regime also included is a built-in clock why well it mainly has to do with the n64 version of Animal Crossing it was never released in the US the Japanese version animal forest is now totally playable and functions as it should this clock will also work with the fan translation has been done to the game and is playable from the upper drives in a totally unexpected move Crixus also included a NES emulator yes you can finally fulfill your lifelong dream of playing NES games for the n64 controller can you beat Super Mario 3 using the analog stick this is kind of a neat thing to play around with but it's not like a full-on replacement for the real thing games play a little bit slow and there's a limited number of mappers supported nonetheless this is a pretty cool bonus feature for those without an NES to play on games that use a battery safe will function just as they do on other ever drives but since some n64 games use a memory pack to save you'll need to have one insert it into the controller to stage the game after doing this the ever drive will take that save file and back it up to the SD card finally if you want to take advantage of some of the fan translations on the n64 and don't really have the extra room on your SD card to carry multiple versions of the same ROM there is an auto patching function that it will apply the dot IPS file to Iran when you boot it the everdrive 64 while a bit more expensive is a must-have for the Nintendo 64 fans out there the games for the system are really getting up there and price so it starts to pay for self pretty quickly now here's some cool things for you to try out if you have one [Music] so ever drives aren't just about watching wrong at the end of the day their tools containing hardware to your consoles that let you do things you may have never thought possible while still operating within system specification most ever drives even have a USB port to aid in software development which just goes to show how useful they can be to anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of how these consoles work and of course ever drives are not the only flash cards out there so we'll be covering some alternatives in a future episode I do have to say that Cory's got me pretty curious about all the possibilities here I don't think I'll ever feel completely comfortable with having every ROM ever made at my fingertips but flash cards are undeniably important for game preservation it's amazing to see what you can actually do on a real console and to play old favorites and new way [Music] [Music] you

Channel: My Life in Gaming

Views: 411,873

Keywords: RGB, video, tutorial, nintendo, sega, sony, microsoft, snes, nes, n64, gamecube, hack, genesis, saturn, xbox, playstation, EverDrive, EverDrive 64, Super EverDrive, SD2SNES, MSU-1, Master EverDrive, Mega EverDrive, Ever Drive, Turbo EverDrive, PC Engine, Master System, Turbo Grafx, Flash Cart, N8, 64 DD, SNES CD sound, SNES sound hack, sound hack, music hack, fan translation, Krikzz, Stone Age Gamer, everdrive stone age, everdrive review, everdrive rom, nes roms, sega roms

Id: fuHA3k-y6PE

Length: 37min 3sec (2223 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2016