Here’s your latest update about the ongoing mass production of the Retrode 2. As always, everything took a bit longer than I thought it would, but land is in sight.
Old status:
Electronics: Production finished, waiting for samples.
Cases: Expecting final tweak to injection tool, final run of samples, then mass production.
USB cables: Looking for supplier.
New status:
Electronics: Samples are here and tested. All is good, and they’re pretty darn beautiful (see picture on the right). Factory firmware installation planned next week, then wait for cases and final assembly.
Cases: Final samples (painted and printed) arrived, mass production finished, cases in transit to Germany (expected day of arrival: Dec 2) Update, Nov 14: The shipping company corrected the estimated time of arrival to Dec 19.
USB cables: Ordered. expected arrival: Nov 18.
Final assembly: 2-3 working days from arrival of cases.
Packaging and shipping: Within 5 working days of finished product. That would be around Dec 14 Dec 27. I repeat: land is in sight :)
I should add that I also have GBx/N64 and SMS plugins in the pipeline, but they will take a bit longer to finish. Will try to figure out a deal for pre-orderers.
Totally unrelated but still neat:
Meanwhile, here’s a firmware update for owners of the original Retrode. The upcoming plug-ins will be supported by your units as well. As always, feedback is highly appreciated, for I can only fix bugs that I know about. Download the file here, find the instructions here.
[...] 23. You can grab it from StoneAgeGamer in the US. Meanwhile, Retrode says it’s working on N64 and Sega Master System plug-ins for future release, though there’s no specific dates at [...]
[...] 23. You can grab it from StoneAgeGamer in the US. Meanwhile, Retrode says it’s working on N64 and Sega Master System plug-ins for future release, though there’s no specific dates at [...]
[...] 23. You can grab it from StoneAgeGamer in the US. Meanwhile, Retrode says it’s working on N64 and Sega Master System plug-ins for future release, though there’s no specific dates at [...]
I you build a N64/GBx plug-in with a shell with proper cutouts and printed label will it also have a 3.3V to 5V voltage converter build into the shell?
The Retrode 2 has the voltage converter on board.
Awesome! Got my per-order from stone age !
Do we get Plug-in adapters with the Retrode 2?
sorry “I should add that I also have GBx/N64 and SMS plugins in the pipeline, but they will take a bit longer to finish. Will try to figure out a deal for pre-orderers.”
So, it seems like the adapters will might in a proper shell with cutout’s and labels. I’m kind of curious what the design would look like.
No design yet. Would you like to contribute? I could prepare a drawing of the label outline then.
Maybe you should try having a contest on the design. It will give you a chance to see various designs and decide which one you like. Anyway, I know the American N64 games are wider than a Genesis cartridge. (11.5cm, which is slightly bigger than the American version of the top portion of Sonic & Knuckles.) As for the other regions, I’ve never really seen those versions of N64 games, so I have no clue about the size of them. As for Game Boy games, the American and Japanese ones (and I wouldn’t be surprised if the European ones were too) are just over 5.5cm wide. I measured my Game Boy Camera for that amount, and know the Japanese ones are the same size because I happened to have played the Japanese version of Pokemon TCG on an American Game Boy.
Also, I have an E-reader for Game Boy Advance if you want measurements on that, I could try to give you that so you can have a hole cut out or make it thin enough so it can fit properly. Just let me know, and I’ll try to measure it.
Hi! I was talking about the label print design only, since everything else will be dictated by the shape of available connectors and the shell. The N64 plug will awkwardly poke out to the side like it used to for the initial version of the N64/GBx adapter; otherwise I’d have to split the design into two separate boards. Obviously, you cannot plug a larger cart into a smaller one, so it will have to sit outside and hope it doesn’t fall off.
I have all sorts of GB carts here, so I can take whatever measurement I need. Thanks for your offer, though. Would you still like to do a print design? I somehow lack the nerves to do another contest atm.
I was talking about the shape of the shell. Since N64 games come in a bigger shell and will be poking out of the side, I get the feeling it will have an unique shape.
Anyway, if I get a chance, I might try it. Thing is, I’m working on something else at the moment. Just curious, what is the font used on the Retrode case?
The shell will have standard shape; you wouldn’t want to pay for anything else.
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8490/advance64.png
I was trying to go for something that’s a hybrid of an N64 cartridge and a Game Boy Advance cartridge. If you want to clean it up and use it, go ahead.
A question about the new Retrode-Firmware v0.17: With the new firmware I can dump the SRAM of my GameBoy games, but I’ve found no way to use them in any emulator. I’ve tryed PC- & Console-Emulators (GB-, GBA- & GB/GBA-compatible), none of them could read the saves properly. I’ve even renamed the “.srm” to “.sav”. But the didn’t work ether way. Does anyone have an idea what I should do??
Hi,
I tested the saves in VisualBoyAdvance. I would have to load them manually, though (Import -> Battery File).
It could also be that your SRAM is not yet reading correctly if it’s a MBC3 or MBC5 game. I hope to find some time soon to describe the mod for the GB adapter.
Any idea why a Sega Genesis game would come up on the retrode without even a partial name and still play pretty well? MTV’s Beavis and Butt-head is like that.
I guess the most likely reason would be because the data is okay, but the developers or the publisher screwed up the header information and forgot to put a name in it. Would you care to send me the first kilobyte or so of the file, so I can check it out?
[Edit by Matthias_H: Annotated and included screenshot]
Hope the image helps. If you need more of the file, let me know the range to look for in the hex editor.
Thank you for the screenshot. I think I see the problem. Genesis games have TWO name fields, one international and one domestic. The Retrode uses the international version. Instead, I could try to fall back on domestic whenever the international is missing. (I did not know that this is actually the case for some titles.)
I’m glad I could help.
Hi. I have a question regarding retrode2 firmware: will it be updatable and more important, will you provide documentation (in a public or private way) for interested people to write their own firmware and programs to control retrode2 from usb. The reason I ask is because i want to dump some of my cartridges that have unusual hardware inside them to prevent copy and the only way to dump them is to manage cartridge signals in the exact same way the console would do or read/write unusual memory areas.
Since you probably only support the “traditional” way of reading ROM, a specific firmware and dumping program would be necessary.
I still have to find a commercial product offering such feature, though i understand programmers are generally not the aimed customer market for this kind of product…
Greetings.
Hi Tom,
Of course the firmware will be updatable, so you’re absolutely free to write your own. As a matter of fact, the Retrode 1 has been misused by some to jailbreak the PS3. In the past, I’ve provided copies of my firmware sources to people who expressed interest in implementing new features. I’d be more than happy to include their improvements and additions into the core firmware; however, more than a year later, I have yet to receive anything back from anyone of those people. If you can convince me of your technical skills, and if you’re willing to share your “unusual memory areas” and intricate cartridge signalling for everyone to enjoy, I can send you a copy.
Cheers,
Matthias
I would be interested and have no problems to share my findings with you, for sure. My goal is to dump a few cartridges of my collection that remain undumped because they embed copy-protection hardware that make usual dump technique return useless or incomplete data. I don’t plan to release those dumps as this would be illegal but I have no problem letting other owners know how to dump their rare cartridges.
Can you explain what is required to compile and flash my own firmware ? what kind of devkit ? hardware ?
Beside you providing original firmware source code, will there be some kind of documentation to know how to drive Retrode 2 hardware from software/firmware ? As I said, my main idea would be to drive signals on the cartridge ports as the original console would do and I don’t know what is possible with the current design, since you most likely disconnected some of the pins or did not make them programmable through the retrode.
What I would love to do is some kind of firmware with basic protocol that would accept connection then commands from a host program running on PC, such as SET_ADDRESS_BUS(), READ_DATA_BUS() but also READ_PIN(), ASSERT_PIN(), CLEAR_PIN(), WAIT_USEC() to mimic exact console behavior. Don’t know how much it seems feasible, maybe having the command sequence automated in firmware to return ROM data as the original firmware is easier as a first step.
I develop in AVR-GCC under AVRStudio 4.19, which are both freely available. The hardware is an AT90USB646, and for the firmware I started with one of LUFA’s example projects. So given the wiring (which I/O pin maps to which cartridge pin), you can of course start writing your own firmware without problems. Not all of the cartridge pins is connected to the controller, though; only the ones needed for basic ROM/SRAM/EEPROM access. Do you already have a rough idea which signals you are going to need?
Thank you, that helps me a lot, i will try to get this stuff and practice a little until retrode2 is purchasable.
As for the signals, i’m speaking of genesis cartridges here, based on what I have observed and read on other forums from more expert people than i am: what could be needed is /AS (for cart using their own address decoding), /VRES (for cartridge hardware that need to be reseted) and the 23 address pins (to access the whole 16MB range). Both write enable signals (upper and lower byte) could be used too, as well as /TIME (from what i’ve read, i think it can be used as a secondary chip select line). Please refer to official schematics (I got them on emudocs.org) for pin naming.
Do you have a limit regarding the number of pins that can be controlled ?
Lots of questions:
Does this device manage J-carts (micro machines)? Can we use multitaps? I didn’t understand the 32X FAQ question, do we have to use a real 32X device or can we put the cartridge directly into the megadrive slot?
Also have you considered being able to read Saturn cartridges? These are not games but memory carts and currently there is absolutely no device to dump/modify them. And for one game, King of Fighters 95, there is actually game data on it which makes it currently impossible to play via emulation.
J-carts: work, but not the gamepad ports. Is there any documentation/schematic/etc. on that?
Multitaps: no way. You can connect any number of Retrodes, though :)
32X carts: much too fat for the slot, but otherwise they work fine. I wouldn’t want to make the slot any wider than it is, because it would lose its fit for standard carts.
Reading Saturn cartridges: can you give me specs/documentation on pinout, connector geometry and protocol?
Couldn’t one just make a pass through for the 32x that would allow for the cart to clear the case?
Of course, one could! I won’t :)
The simplest and cheapest solution is to either use a real 32X as pass-through, or a screwdriver :)
On j-carts: the only thing I could find was this old forum thread http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2259&sid=cf7d8dfc5d73a442ebdfc05146bdcf5d
On 32X: a plugin-in would be easy to design then?
On Saturn cartridge: I found this http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/saturn.php and this http://www.rockin-b.de/saturn/cartridgeport/SATURN-CartridgePort.htm
I have no idea what all this means and if it’s relevant.
In case it helps, I found this relevant-looking line from an emulator:
/* extra connectors mapped at $38xxxx or $3Fxxxx */
m68k_memory_map[0x38].read16 = jcart_read;
m68k_memory_map[0x38].write16 = jcart_write;
m68k_memory_map[0x3f].read16 = jcart_read;
m68k_memory_map[0x3f].write16 = jcart_write;
Sounds to me like you get the J-Cart data by accessing some memory address that presumably refers to a location on the cart… does that make any sense to you? Or am I talking rubbish? Perhaps disassembling a J-cart-using ROM would help…
Oh, and the jcart_read/write functions if you need them (from the same emulator):
unsigned int jcart_read(unsigned int address)
{
/* TH2 (output) fixed to 0 on read (fixes Micro Machines 2) */
return ((gamepad[5].State & 0×40) | (gamepad_read(5) & 0×3f) | ((gamepad_read(6) & 0×3f) << 8));
}
void jcart_write(unsigned int address, unsigned int data)
{
gamepad_write(5, (data & 1) << 6);
gamepad_write(6, (data & 1) << 6);
return;
}
Hope this is useful.
Good job finding the j-cart docs! I just bought a copy of Micro Machines 96 on eBay, going to have to see what I can get out of it.
On 32X: If you remove the case of the Retrode you can easy dump your 32X games like you did it with your Genesis games. There’s no copy protection or anything like that. For an example, look here: http://gamesxtremes-gaming-and-modding.blogspot.com/2011/06/retrode-kompatibilitatsliste-sega.html
Beautiful stuff! This will make an awesome late christmas present. :)
I just stumbled onto this. What an amazing little device! Is this for real? How much?
Haha, “Is this for real?” Yes it is :) I should put this into the FAQ. For the price, I refer you to the homepage.
LOL @ FAQ! I’ll be spreading the word. Great idea Matt!
are the atari and snes ports independent or do they share i/o lines?
They share some O lines but use different I lines :)
Those definitely look pretty. Kind of makes me wish the case were clear.
They couldn’t make the cases perfectly clear due to the material used. There is an earlier post about it..
If more time were invested, it might actually be possible to tweak the mold such that it allows for PP (exists in transparent) as well. Mind you, though, that it would be rather likely to look like crap. A lot of internal structures would become visible, and those are laid out for the mechanics, not for the looks.
Personally, I’ve grown to like the opaque case a lot. A nice and “green” alternative to the current material would be to use recycled ABS for future runs (also opaque).
This is so nice.
I hope to have this one as a gift for myself.
Also it’s really touching for me as a brazilian to see that our music can cross boundaries and be apreciated by people so far from here. Specially Bossa Nova deserves this. Thank you so much
Thank you for your kind words! Brazil with its insane import taxes and customs is an incredibly difficult market for me to understand, so I hope we can somehow get you a Retrode with minimum hassle. The music is indeed rather likeable, though :) A while ago, I spent hours watching a YouTube broadcast of Ivete Sangalo live at Rock in Rio. Plain wow. Though I have to confess, the recording used in the video I originally made to sell my Rhodes piano on eBay :)
Yeah, that PCB is beautiful!
When can I order one of these and the plug in adapators?
I cant wait to try this out, the money is burning a hole in my pocket.
That first sample is beautiful.
Don’t expect the plug-ins any sooner than 2-4 months. You will be able to order the Retrode in December.
Can’t wait!!! I’m gonna take a look-see at it at least.
BJ
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Can’t wait for my opportunity to pre-order one. I’m really excited now.
That’s going to have to be an order without a “pre”, I’m afraid :)
Oops, my mistake – can’t wait to order it, then ;)
BTW, totally with you on Google + operator frustration.