sanni
Game Gear support w/Retron 3-in-1 adapter
Just tested dumping a game gear game using the retron 3-in-1 adapter and it appears to work! CRC check matches dat-o-matic and I was able to play the rom in an emulator that recognizes .sms as game gear games (like pico). I just used the SMS/Mark 3 raphnet mode and had the adapter plugged into the megadrive slot.
If code was added to match game gear crcs in that mode I think that's all that's needed.
Please let me know if I can assist in testing.
Can you test if it works like you wanted? Just extract SMS.ino after download and copy it to \V9.5_Portable\Arduino IDE Portable\portable\sketchbook\Cart_Reader\ and upload the sketch. SMS.zip
Can you test if it works like you wanted? Just extract SMS.ino after download and copy it to \V9.5_Portable\Arduino IDE Portable\portable\sketchbook\Cart_Reader\ and upload the sketch. SMS.zip
Lion King which is a 512K cart worked (dumped 3 times in a row and matched the CRC in the database) but I also tried a 32K cart "Columns" and got a different CRC every time. It seems really close.
I've tested the Lion King rom and it works great the columns dump doesn't work at all but does work on a retron 5 so I think the cart is fine.
Forgot to attach examples of the dumps. Lion king is great and the other 2 are the Columns dumps that kept giving me different CRCs. I tried looking at them in a Hex viewer and Lion king definitely looks more like what I would expect while the columns dump has a lot of repeating characters.
Realized it was probably a bad idea to post a usable rom on here removed the working rom and only attached the non-working ones.
I just got the game yesterday so I didn't test it when I submitted this issue. It looks like it has the same behavior in the SMS/Mark 3 raphnet mode where it dumps something with a different crc each time.
Different CRC everytime is strange. Try to clean the pins once more. Then can you test this file with Columns + the Retron adapter and let us know the results ?
Yeah I thought so too the only other time I've had that was with a bad mega drive slot. So I cleaned the cart again and uploaded that new sms.zip and it works! Columns was recognized and same crc every time so it looks like whatever changed in that fixed it!
@PsyK0p4T this may be unrelated, but I've also noticed that Sega Game Cards show the same behavior as the 32k GG carts using this 3-in-1 adapter. Different CRC every time I try to dump it and I've tried all the modes. I'll open a different issue for that but just wondering if what you found that fixed these GG games might apply to the Sega Game Cards as well.
The one I'm trying to dump is https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?page=show_record&s=26&n=0150 Ghost House US which seems like it's a 32k card.
Thank you again for fixing the game gear dump issue!
Glad it fixed your GG problem. Same thing happened with retrode adapter and 32k games, I just added a condition so retron will be handled same. If you have the opportunity to grab more GG games for testing, I would be interested by your results for the games reported here : https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/discussions/452
About Ghost House, I assume you own the SMS USA retail cart. If you do, then the hashes you must get are here : https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?page=show_record&s=26&n=0149 The one you posted was a beta build, so different results. Still, retail and beta builds are all 32k. Try to redump it, and if you don't fall on CRC32 "f1f8ff2d" we'll try to modify things for SMS too.
@PsyK0p4T yes you are right I linked the wrong rom you linked the correct one for the version I have. It is giving me a different CRC every time just like the GG games were so I think it might be related. I'd be happy to try a modified .ino to see if this fix fixes that as well.
And yes I have been looking at getting some more GG games so I'll check your list out and see if I can snag a few of those to help test.
Thanks!
Ok. Let's try with this one then. 32k GG and SMS games should be handled same now. Let me know the CRC you'll get.
I got this error trying to upload to the cart reader
Arduino: 1.8.19 (Windows 10), Board: "Arduino Mega or Mega 2560, ATmega2560 (Mega 2560)"
C:\Temp\arduino_modified_sketch_599851\SMS.ino: In function 'void readROM_SMS()':
SMS:614:132: error: expected ';' before ')' token
sdBuffer[currByte] = readByte_SMS((raphnet_mode_sg1000 || (cartSize == 32 * 1024UL)) ? 0 : 0x8000) + currBuffer + currByte);
^
exit status 1
expected ';' before ')' token
This report would have more information with "Show verbose output during compilation" option enabled in File -> Preferences.
This is what happens when I try to only use notepad from the office... lol. This one should compile better SMS.zip
The version uploaded correctly but I'm still getting different CRCs every time. To make sure I'm not messing up testing with this should I be using SMS retrode mode to dump this? And I can confirm the card works on my Retron5 so I believe it's in decent shape at least since the Retron dumps the roms before playing them.
Also I'm selecting 32k for the rom size and on the screen after that I get:
SMS/GG Header Not Found
Name: CCCCCCCC Selected Size 32KB
Press Button...
I'll attach the rom dump I'm getting. This one had a CRC of 2A9C050D but again it's different every time I try it.
Ok so, if you have to select the rom size manually, then it means that the expected "TMR SEGA" string was not found/read by the dumper. And it could mean two things :
- the string really doesn't exists in ROM (very rare, but it can happen. I already had the case on Sega Mark III games)
- or the string can't be read correctly. This happens when the cartridge pins are not clean enough OR that the dumper just don't see anything (no cartridge inserted, or bad pinout/access to the cart)
By looking at your file, there is no real data inside, it's nearly blank. So it's not a corrupted/incomplete dump. The dumper just didn't read data. If your cartridge was inserted, I would say that the mode you used (SMS retrode ?) is maybe not appropriate to use for dumping SMS with Retron adapter.
What result do you have when using SMS Raphnet mode ? Did you successfully dump another SMS game with Retron adapter ? If so, which settings did you use ?
What result do you have when using SMS Raphnet mode ? Same results. I'll put another copy of a bad ghost house dump here though just in case.
Did you successfully dump another SMS game with Retron adapter ? If so, which settings did you use ? Yes I have been able to dump Great Baseball just fine (and it matches a database CRC) using the same adapter in SMS/Mark 3 raphnet mode.
***After I was done writing this I did another dump with great baseball (SMS) using the retron adapter no issues then I immediately put in the sega game card and it found the header and dumped ghost house correctly! It matched the CRC and everything...I have no been able to repeat those results again. I've tried scrubbing the pins on both the adapter and card and adapter card slot multiple times but I can't seem to repeat the successful dump results. I have another game card Choplifter that I just got that I tried as well with no luck.
Very confusing. TMR SEGA.txt
If the original topic of this thread (dumping GG games with Retron adapter) is done, then maybe we should close it and start another discussion focused on SMS dumping with Retron.
If you sucessfully dumped ghost house (at least once, with correct crc etc) then you confirmed that the ino code is working, and also the right mode to use with your Retron adapter. Two important points.
Now, if you can't reproduce the good dump again, you can try different things :
- gently play on the cartridge or the adapter, maybe one pin is not perfectly in contact somewhere
- reformat your SD card, using exfat
- try a different SD card
- blow/clean the different connectors (the cart reader's one, the adapter one...) and try again Ghost House :-/
I agree this ticket has gone beyond the scope of fixing game gear games. I'll do some more testing then open another issue if I think we can make some progress. I'm also ordering a sega card catcher that I'm hoping will help test this.
Thank you for your help again!
@Mythris29 I also ordered a Sega card catcher to test it with Raphnet and Retrode adapters. I'll report Sega Cards dumping results with both.
If someone is able to find a Retron 3-in-1 sega adapter (for at decent price...) I would be also interested to get one :)