Mega SD

[EnragedWhale]

wrong thread

[tusecsy]

In my earlier statement I only wrote that a lack of beveling is found on bootlegs and cheap Chinese fare as a penny pinching measure, which it is. I never wrote that this was a deliberate decision on TerraOnion's part. Although if you want to get down to it, FirebrandX did go on record in a Tweet that he had forewarned there'd be fuss over this and TerraOnion proceeded anyway, which is about par for the course for their track record. Why not reject the initial receipt of goods and demand a do-over from the factory instead of passing this fault on to the consumer?

Yes, FBX did forewarn us about it...2 days AFTER Rene's article came out. FBX has even said as much. The article was published on Sept 9th and on the 11th FBX mentioned it to us.

It's not like we noticed this months ago and went ahead and shipped them anyways. Once it was brought to our attention, we contacted the factory to find out what happened. Our initial batch of brown PCBs had a bevel, where as the blue ones didn't, yet we never requested to have the bevel changed. We are still waiting on a concrete answer as we have been getting the runaround.

Future runs of the MegaSD will have the correct bevel.

The fact that someone as reputable and reliable as FBX got roped into the conman camp is disappointing. Now he's trumpeting the same ole TerraOnion excuses. Of course it's never THEIR fault, of course of course. That sunny Andorra weather must be nice eh guys?

[DJ Kevgeez]

Is anyone else having a problem with the Master system section of the Mega SD?
Specifically with pairing issues regarding Retrobit's Genesis pad.

Whenever i play a Master system game and need to go back to the main menu, the pad disconnects and refuses to be paired again...until you leave the system off for awhile.
I've tried everything.

Strangely the Mega SD works fine with wired pads.

I dont understand the problem because Retrobit pad works perfectly in the Sega CD and Genesis section.
I can enter in and exit out on a whim.
Reset, power off and on and the SD responds like a Cart.

[it290]

So my stolen Mega SD finally showed up on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Terraonion-Meg ... dfa5fefc79

If you happen to be bidding on this by any chance, please cancel your bid. The seller started the auction at $60 and if you look at their listings it’s just a bunch of random likely stolen shit. I’m working with the police and eBay to shut them down.

[BrianC]

Does the Mega SD show LEDs when it plays an SMS game? It's not likely to be the issue, but retrousb's wireless controller had connection issues when the LEDs on their Xmas 2017 game lit up.

[Flashman]

In my earlier statement I only wrote that a lack of beveling is found on bootlegs and cheap Chinese fare as a penny pinching measure, which it is. I never wrote that this was a deliberate decision on TerraOnion's part. Although if you want to get down to it, FirebrandX did go on record in a Tweet that he had forewarned there'd be fuss over this and TerraOnion proceeded anyway, which is about par for the course for their track record. Why not reject the initial receipt of goods and demand a do-over from the factory instead of passing this fault on to the consumer?

Yes, FBX did forewarn us about it...2 days AFTER Rene's article came out. FBX has even said as much. The article was published on Sept 9th and on the 11th FBX mentioned it to us.

It's not like we noticed this months ago and went ahead and shipped them anyways. Once it was brought to our attention, we contacted the factory to find out what happened. Our initial batch of brown PCBs had a bevel, where as the blue ones didn't, yet we never requested to have the bevel changed. We are still waiting on a concrete answer as we have been getting the runaround.

Future runs of the MegaSD will have the correct bevel.

The fact that someone as reputable and reliable as FBX got roped into the conman camp is disappointing. Now he's trumpeting the same ole TerraOnion excuses. Of course it's never THEIR fault, of course of course. That sunny Andorra weather must be nice eh guys?

Yup - when I tried to ask about this issue all I got was "Why are you asking such nasty questions, don't you know we had to rush to Andorra at short notice and I've not had any proper running water?!" Don't give a shit to be right honest mate, all I want is the product I paid for, the fact you've had to run from the accountant means nothing to me To be fair the mega SD has been fine so far touch wood, I've just been "careful" with it - i.e. not taken it out of the system unless unavoidable, but its not really a precaution you should have to take.

Do they have the feature that let's you add game art working yet? I would like to view the box art for Sonic & Knuckles and Final Fight CD while I'm scrolling through my library. If someone has the artwork already set-up and available for download, please point me to their site I owe them a debt of gratitude.

BTW there any chance this thing might let you play something like Sonic Mania?

Here's a video explaining the process and the download link to the software is in the description https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Bp1DNn8Rw

Personally after scanning my SD card with it I had mixed results - I think it pretty much got all the Sega CD US ROM's but none of the EU or JAPAN ones. Also it doesn't seem to have worked at all for the Genesis. Might be something to do with the ROM's I'm using (all from Emuparadise, individually downloaded, rather than packs) but I'm not going to dick around changing them out, I can live without this feature working to be honest.

[DJ Kevgeez]

Does the Mega SD show LEDs when it plays an SMS game? It's not likely to be the issue, but retrousb's wireless controller had connection issues when the LEDs on their Xmas 2017 game lit up.

Yes the LEDs are on during play.

[XtraSmiley]

So my stolen Mega SD finally showed up on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Terraonion-Meg ... dfa5fefc79

If you happen to be bidding on this by any chance, please cancel your bid. The seller started the auction at $60 and if you look at their listings it’s just a bunch of random likely stolen shit. I’m working with the police and eBay to shut them down.

How do you know it's yours? If you're sure, I'd be happy to bid like $10k and not pay to make them hang on until you can get the cops to show up.

[it290]

Ah, please don't worry about it man. Unfortunately it's not so simple as 'get the cops to show up'—I have to establish beyond a doubt that there's a crime going on before they'll get involved at that level.

I have ample reasons to believe it's the same one:

• This is the first MegaSD to be listed on eBay (at least as far as my saved search tells me)
• It's being sold from Chicago which is where I live
• TO has no record of the serial number being registered
• It was initially listed for a price far below market value ($61)
• The product description is for Adidas sneakers, of all things, showing the seller has no idea what they're selling.
• The product listing is for a 'Mega drive/mega cd fpga cart' — as a US seller, if they were knowledgable they'd at least put 'Genesis' in the listing somewhere
• It's listed as 'New-open box return,' which, obviously, no one is buying these at retail and returning them
• The seller has a ton of listings for random-ass 'New' merchandise, including but not limited to a bunch of cameras and things like that

I'm not sure how many individuals are involved here but I honestly think this may be multiple porch pirates+ebay fence.

[BuckoA51]

Tried my MegaSD out today and I'm getting a constant audio buzz when using the cart, a hum like a ground loop interference. Quiet enough that you could miss it if you were only using TV speakers but I have a nice pair of floorstanders in the new game room.

The sound goes away if I switch to my Mega Everdrive or an original cart. Changing SD cards has no effect. Removing or adding 32x has no effect, disconnecting the MegaCD has no effect.

I saw on Terraonions forum another user had a similar problem and they blamed the mod work on the console so I guess I'm screwed. It's a Japanese MD1, switchless region free, RGB mypass and M1 Mini Mega.

Disappointing

EDIT - Turns out the issue was the PSU, the Mega SD must draw a lot more power than a regular flashcart and this was stressing things. Switching to a different PSU with more amps solved it.

[TheShadowRunner]

In the market for a MD flashcard, I wonder if MegaSD users could shed some light.

Exclusive features available on the MegaSD side (compared to MegaED Pro),:
- MD+ support
- CD+G and mode2 support
- In-game menu for CD games, allows cheats
- 32X CD support through MSDEXP

On MegaED Pro's side:
- Better SMS FM sound emulation (?)
- SMS in-game menu, allows savestates

Is this still accurate as of today's firmwares ?
Are there other notable differences or merits to MegaED Pro ?

Regarding compatibility, it seems (Krikzz forum) some games are problematic on MegaED Pro (crashes in Sonic CD, Final Fight), some games totally unplayable (Silpheed)... How fares the MegaSD with those games specifically ?

Are there any known problematic games for MegaSD ? Experienced crashes ?
Finally is there a MegaSD firmware changelog anywhere ?
I'm late to the party, thanks for any details!

[Overkill]

I have a Mega SD since day 01 and I was able to return my Mega CD II to the box and store it in shelf since.

But currently I don't use very often, because I have a MiSTer FPGA and Mega CD core have other features like OC and increase sprite limit.

I remember Sonic CD, Final Fight CD run perfect, can't remember about Silphead...

You can try to have all those questions answered in the Terraonion Discord, in Mega SD section.

Meanwhile, take a look on Firmwares change logs:

Spoiler

Firmware 1.05 R07
- Fix save states not working in some consoles
- Fix several mappers broken in last firmware (SSF2, Fantasy Star IV, S&K,...)
- Add support for Sega Channel Revival V3 ROM

Firmware 1.05 R06
- 32X+ games support (games using digital CDDA tracks from CUE files). Commands are allowed from normal area and from 32x banked area (not from SH2 areas). Several restrictions apply, mainly regarding RV bit handling, so check Doom 32X resurrection (https://github.com/viciious/d32xr) source as an example
- Fix several issues when using SSF2 mapper on a 32X game
- Add a command to query the amount of tracks in a cue in MD+
- Fix College Football 96 not working properly due to lack of save header

Firmware 1.05 R04
- Fix forced region options not working
- Update Demons of Asteborg header check so it works even with SSF header
- Fix long standing bug where Pier Solar + CD soundtrack didn't use the enhanced soundtrack when loading from game list, but worked when using Load Last Game
- Fix Demons of Asteborg stability in some 32x combinations
- Fix World Series Baseball and Triple Play not using the proper SRAM mapper

Firmware 1.05 R02
- Add support for Demons of Asteborg
- Add 100 more extra save slots
- Faster ROM loading (around 3x faster)
- Save preview pressing button C when over a save slot. Press B to return
- Add forced region patching mode (recheck your settings, they might have been reset to Off). Previous firmware method applies when set to Auto
- Update Master System YM2413 instruments with the dumped instrument ROM
- Add support for Sonic Delta
- Improve SMS game detection by game ID, it will help supporting save ram for translations
- Fix some games having incorrect sound when RAM cheats are used
- Fix S&K not booting as standalone
- Fix Robo Aleste not booting
- Fix Might and Magic 3 not saving
- Fix Star Trek crashing if trying to load a game without any saved game
- Fix Phantasy Star 1 translation not saving
- Fix NHL '96 not saving


Firmware 1.04 R09

- Fix incorrect seek time applied to some games
- Fix incorrect save RAM size when using bios replacement mode and no previous srm file was stored
- Fix incorrect conversion from Cart RAM to Cart + Internal RAM
- Fix .SMD ROM format loader that was broken since 1.00
- Add forced seek time to Robo Aleste/Denin aleste

Firmware 1.04 R07

- Directory cache. The first time you enter a folder, MegaSD will build a cache of files, directories and types, so the next accesses to that folder are instant load. The folder contents will be rescanned when a new file or directory is added. To force a rescan, enter the folder by pressing START instead of A.
- Create save ram backups, so if a write fails or the data is corrupted, the backup will be loaded next boot.
- Add Wondermega/X'Eye audio effects (Left only, Right only, Voice cancel). Only available when using the wondermega/x'eye bios cd player.
- Add a mapper to support Game no kandume.
- Support 4MB SMS Roms.
- Double the size of available space for the CD RAM Cartridge. Note that if you already have files stored in your CD RAM, the space won't be increased. You must either delete your SRM file entirely from the BUP folder, or just delete all files from your CD RAM Cart in the bios memory manager. When there are no files, the space will be automatically doubled.
- Wraparound in the game list. Only wraps if buttons are released and pressed again when reaching the first or last page. It won't wrap if reaching the pages by holding a button.
- Add an option to remember the last selected game and directory when returning to game list.
- Add a MD+ command to support arbitrary specificacion of sector start, end and loop points to play CD Audio, instead of specifying a track.
- Add MD+ CD audio fade commands.
- Add MD+ command to play .WAV files.
- Add MD+ command to load files from the SD card directly to ROM area.
- Add MD+ command to read SD card directories.
- Allow specification of MD+ loop points in cue files. They override the loop data specified in commands.
- Improve SMS FM to fix sound problems in Phantasy Star
- Fix Megarace CD game missing sounds.
- Fix Megaman (US) showing in-game menu after sega logo.
- Fix Sonic & Knuckles (without locked on cart) booting to the "No Way" screen.
- Fix NHL98 and other EA '98 megadrive games SRAM not working due to missing backup RAM header.
- Fix Compton's encyclopedia hanging at the end of some videos.
- Fix Kriss Kross (US) audio stuttering.
- Fix some japanese Wolfteam games that didn't boot with graphics speedup off.
- Fix Snatcher incorrect graphics showing in a specific scene due to the reported CD read position being off by 1 sector.


HOW TO UPDATE

Place the firmware file in the SDCard and boot MegaSD. After the MegaSD splash, a message will pop up notifying a new software update is available. Press A button to update or B button to continue to the menu.
While updating DON'T TURN YOUR CONSOLE OFF. It will take some time depending on the systems needing update (up to 1 minute), you'll see progress bars to ensure it's working properly.

[Gara]

From what I've heard MD+ games are now working on the Mega Everdrive Pro.

https://krikzz.com/pub/support/mega-eve ... ngelog.txt

It's hard to recommend the Mega SD. Terraonion just isn't supporting it. It hasn't had an update since 2022 on the good version of the hardware. They released a hardware variant with an Intel FPGA and it caused big problems. For this variant there has been several months since the last update and they still haven't been able to completely fix the issues. Terraonion has a really bad history of supporting their releases.