ToToTEK.COM

[toseye]

Can we get a list of in devolvement flash carts or of flash cart your thinking of making. Carts I would like to see.

SNES
VirtualBoy
Lynx
Jaguar

[Jagasian]

It would be nice if Tototek listed the flash carts that they had under development. I would love to see a Famicom flash cart that fit inside a Famicom cartridge case. That way it could be played in an AV Famicom... making for the ultimate NES setup!

[DjoeN]

Would be not wise to list flashkits in dev.

If the do this, it's possible that the will be shut down before the flashcart even is released.

Better keep silent and bring out when it's ready

[toseye]

[xenon]

I have the MD64 PRO... so the next flash cart I would like to see is a JAGUAR FLASH CART or a NEOGEO POCKET CART.

Yours,

[Guest]

Ok a Jaguar Flashcard i can understand (yeps, gimme one 2)
Neo-Geo Pocket, i have one with a 32mb flashcard, the only problem is, there aren't many good neo-geo pocket games and there aren't many neo-geo pockety games anyway.

You can find most neo-geo pocket games for around £á5 ($4), i bought most (boxed and compleet for that price, even metal slug 1 and metal slug 2)

Better come out with an atari 2600 flashkit , i own a Yoko atari 2600 Copier, onlmy prob is, the cartridges are write once only, so once written you can't erase it anymore and only 1 game on a cart and the cartridges to write to are nowhere to be found anymore (at least not cheap)

A Colecovision flashkit would also be nice

I will not start the Nes flashcart issue here

[xenon]

Ok, I see that some of the posts have been deleted (stupid hackers), but the cheapest Neogeo Pocket I've seen are around 12 euros loose, only a capsule box. I think actually that it can be perfect to have a Neo Geo Pocket flash-cart. Also I think the Neo Geo Pocket scene will grow with this

Yours,

[kyuusaku]

Tototek is based in HK, they have access to Japanese consoles. Colecovision, Atari VCS etc are very obscure to Asia and practically no one cares about them. Also, how many units would sell for such old systems? Same goes for the Jaguar, Lynx. If you would like a VCS and Colecovision unit, check out www.vgwiz.com they specialize in retro American consoles and have an Atari VCS and Atari 5200 flash cart out and are probably going to release a Colecovision soon enough. There is also http://www.schells.com/index.html who has made awesome flash carts for Intellivision, Atari VCS and 7800.

If you would like every Jaguar game, go here: http://www.ataritimes.com/jaguar/features/multicart.html

[DjoeN]

If you would like every Jaguar game, go here: http://www.ataritimes.com/jaguar/features/multicart.html[/quote]

April 1, 2002 starts good

Only 100 made, even better

[kyuusaku]

'Eh, thats an incentive to buy all 50 something of the real games.

[Guest]

I am so glad I found out about the multi-cart, if they are still available I will get one. In fact if there was something like this for the nes, I would get one too. I would be happy to pay 500$ for a multi cart with all the nes games from a particular region. I imagine that the rom sizes for all the commercial US roms for the nes is much less than the 55 jag roms. I have read about the mappers problem and honestly dont completely understand it, but it appears that this problem may soon be overcome by developers. I know that sounds like alot of money, but for a collector who knows how many rare games there are for the nes, the cost of the multi cart would still be cheaper than trying and buying so many rare titles.

[kyuusaku]

Mappers are not a problem soon to be overcome. I can try to explain them:

Most videogame cartridges contain a single ROM, the console looks for the game (ROM) at a certain area which is decoded to the cartridge port. The NES does not. Instead, the NES allows the cartridge to place anything inside a very wide area with extra hardware (which allows for concurrent ROM and SRAM and lots of open I/O space) or simply allots it 32K program ROMs with 8k graphics ROMs without extra hardware to control the console.

Also an important thing to mention is that NES does not store graphics in video RAM internal to the console like most other home consoles, it's video ROM (or RAM) is located on the cartridge. This means that copying hardware needs to simultaneously emulate and bankswitch (switch which group of ROM the console can "see") two ROMs at the same time unlike copiers for other consoles which emulate 1 ROM and don't have to bankswitch at all.

Bankswitching itself is a simple task but for NES it can be tricky because the hardware contained in the game cartridges which do the bankswitching can be complex. For cool animation effects in the newer NES games, the mappers must be able to switch small amounts of ROM while keeping other small amounts of ROM in their place, this behavior uses up a lot of digital logic resources so they can't be simulated with the same size programmable logic device as say the Super Flash.

For nearly the entire NES library, there are around a dozen different types of cartridge hardware ("mappers") that need to be emulated, some of these are simple, others are the more difficult kind. IMO, for a copier to be successful, it should do more than emulate 12 mappers, it should emulate ANY mapper when the user can upload a mappers to the logic device. This way in theory, Famicom games could be supported too. This method is the best but it's also the most costly, it requires far more in depth engineering and complex and expensive parts. It also requires old discontinued parts since newer electronics can't communicate with old without even more additional hardware.

On the other hand, if you simply want a NES multicart, the only difficulties in creating such a device is finding such an immense amount of ROM storage space, the entire USA NES set is between 150 and 200mb. The largest package 8-bit ROMs come in is 4mb, and you don't want to buy 45 of them at $15 a piece so you'll need another storage interface which might as well be removeable (which will make it a copier, not a multicart)

The best solution for NES gamers is definately artoh's FunkyFlash project, it's capable of emulating the entire NES mapper library bar MMC5 games, it can however play Castlevania 3 which is not a true MMC5 game ;)

[DragonBoy]

Wow! Very nice post! Thanks for the info! Is artoh's FunkyFlash project still alive? I haven't seen any updates for 1-2 months now... I really hope that this project will come out at some point! As well as Kevin's Kevtendo one (that one looks soo sweet! )

[kyuusaku]

As I've suspected all along, it doesn't seem as though Kevtris will release his console, at least in it's current incarnation.

Artoh's project is probably not dead but it's not being publicly talked about anywhere I know. If you want the latest scoop on it, contact artoh or Memblers.

[Jagasian]

artoh's flash cart project is still going, and Memblers is working on assembling carts for sale. Personally, I think that having a Chinese factory manufacture carts would be financially feasible. It would take an initial investment though, but the costs would be recouped later. The demand is there, as it would be the first such flash cart.