# Evercade CFW and adding ROMS without EverSD?



## Fazley (Sep 5, 2021)

Hi All.
 Just wondered if anyone knows anything about this?
From various looking around I can see a few people have managed to add ROMS to the official Evercade carts and add launchers to run them from the stock UI.
One guy used a Rasp Pi and a butchered Gameboy connector (same connector as EC carts apparently) but someone had managed to boot the Evercade in firmware update mode and use Android ADB to query the file contents of the cart and seemed to have put Zero Wing for the Megadrive on.
So the question is, does anyone know how to do this or whether anyone is looking at it?
Please don't tell me that there are loads of other handhelds to do this as I have an RG351P with a 256gb card but I would specifically like to add games to the empty space of Evercade carts if it is possible.
Thanks in advance...


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## esmith13 (Sep 5, 2021)

Evercade carts are essentially just SD Cards in a cart shape.

With the cart slot from any model of broken Game Boy (including advance), some wire, and one of the free adapters that make microSD cards fit in a full size SD slot, you can make a "Cartridge Reader". Essentially an adapter to convert the Evercade cart back in to the SD card form-factor so you can read it on any PC with an SD slot or using a USB SD reader.

Once you have this, you can read/write the contents of any cart Which have all been no bigger than 512MB in size.

Using the same concept, you can also butcher a retail cart and de-solder the SD memory chip from it and replace it with a microSD slot to build your own "Flash Cart" - not that it's fair to really call your frankenstein a flash cart since like I said a cart is just an SD card anyway.

Just realize that a 100% stock evercade on current firmware won't read anything larger than 512MB, so if you try to build your own "Flash Cart" you need to use the EverSD software flasher to unlock your Evercade's size limits.

To use the stock UI to load games with extensions not officially supported by Evercade, you WILL need my scripts or to write your own similar ones yourself. The Evercade's UI is hardcoded to handle certain extensions in certain ways - hell, on one of the more recent carts Blaze themselves had to "fake" the file extensions for GB games as .bin files (Genesis/MegaDrive) and in their launcher script changed the handling of those specific .bin files to open with their GB emulator.


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## ruffnutts (Sep 6, 2021)

Fazley said:


> Hi All.
> Just wondered if anyone knows anything about this?
> From various looking around I can see a few people have managed to add ROMS to the official Evercade carts and add launchers to run them from the stock UI.
> One guy used a Rasp Pi and a butchered Gameboy connector (same connector as EC carts apparently) but someone had managed to boot the Evercade in firmware update mode and use Android ADB to query the file contents of the cart and seemed to have put Zero Wing for the Megadrive on.
> ...


I've been looking into this myself, they say you can replace the chip inside with a bigger one, it is just a SD on a chip or even solder a SD breakout board to the cart it's formatted in FAT16  I found a few articles on the net, there's a problem with my Evercade, this why I've not tried to do any of this yet, you can use RetroArch with it too


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## Fazley (Sep 26, 2021)

Thanks for your reply @esmith13 do you know how the pin-outs are set out for the connector? I've found a few youtube videos of people who have done it but nobody seems to be giving instructions out. I'm a soldering noob so it would be a bit of a challenge for me! Has anyone else found any other ways of adding roms to existing carts? Can anything be done by putting it into firmware update mode and connecting to a PC? I don't really want to spend £40 on an EverSD and there are no local sellers to me. And before anyone jumps in, I have bought 6 official carts already and plan to buy more, it's not about ripping off Evercade it's about getting more enjoyment from it.  The D-Pad is one of the best I've used and it would be great for so many older games.


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## esmith13 (Sep 27, 2021)

Fazley said:


> Thanks for your reply @esmith13 do you know how the pin-outs are set out for the connector? I've found a few youtube videos of people who have done it but nobody seems to be giving instructions out. I'm a soldering noob so it would be a bit of a challenge for me! Has anyone else found any other ways of adding roms to existing carts? Can anything be done by putting it into firmware update mode and connecting to a PC? I don't really want to spend £40 on an EverSD and there are no local sellers to me. And before anyone jumps in, I have bought 6 official carts already and plan to buy more, it's not about ripping off Evercade it's about getting more enjoyment from it.  The D-Pad is one of the best I've used and it would be great for so many older games.


I'll take mine apart and snap some pics for you tomorrow, about 12hrs from the time of this post.

While you COULD source a bigger chip and put that in, you would also need to create a "Cart Reader" of sorts out of both a GB/GBC/GBA cart slot and a MicroSD to SD card adapter (I made one of these too) just to read and write to it. It would cost less and be easier to just replace the 128MB-512MB stock SD memory chip with a microSD socket. You don't need a "proper" sd breakout board with any resistors or logic on them since those are typically meant to convert SPI communication devices to accept SD storage. The Evercade cart you'd be sacrificing is already a purely SD storage device. If you are decent at soldering and have something broken with a SD slot you could just use that. For that matter you could technically take a free microSD to SD adapter that came with a card you bought and use just that and some bits of wire. Then you can use whatever SD cards you want and wouldn't need to build a reader unless you wanted to dump a retail cart.
All that said, a retail cart is just roms, images for the UI to display, and a linux script that is run once a rom is chosen from the UI that tells the Evercade what emulator to launch and where it is.
If you are on firmware 1.2.0 or older you can use whatever SD card you want formatted to fat32 and you're good.
If you're on a newer firmware (or even if on older fw but you want retroarch), you will at least need to use the EverPatcher to "Jailbreak" the Evercade. Basically it unlocks the software limit restricting carts mounting if they have above 512MB of storage, as well as adding exfat support and an updated "retroarch proper" to the Evercade. It will also change the bootup splash and video to an EverSD logo as well.


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## esmith13 (Sep 27, 2021)

ruffnutts said:


> I've been looking into this myself, they say you can replace the chip inside with a bigger one, it is just a SD on a chip or even solder a SD breakout board to the cart it's formatted in FAT16  I found a few articles on the net, there's a problem with my Evercade, this why I've not tried to do any of this yet, you can use RetroArch with it too


Just take note of what I replied to @Fazley . You can us a SD breakout board just make sure it doesn't have added logic or resistors like they typically would for other uses - you technically just need a way to add and remove a card and could even use a throwaway free microSD to SD adapter. Also FAT32 is natively supported, not just FAT16. Any firmware newer than 1.2.0 and you'll need EverPatcher software regardless to see anything larger than a 512MB SD memory chip, and no - partitioning a larger device won't fool the Evercade.


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## esmith13 (Sep 27, 2021)

Here are pics of my custom cart and cart reader. The cart pic is labeled so you know how to wire everything up.


Spoiler: SD Cart












Spoiler: Cart Reader









And FYI, the script I did for EverSD linked in my signature will work on ANY cart for Evercade - EverSD, Custom SD cart, Modded Retail Cart or factory fresh retail cart (if you're willing to work with only 128MB-512MB size limit of a retail cart then more power to you!)


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## Fazley (Sep 28, 2021)

That's a ton of info, thank you so much. Might try carving up a micro SD adaptor and the Atari 1 collection cartridge as it's absolute junk!


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## esmith13 (Sep 28, 2021)

Fazley said:


> That's a ton of info, thank you so much. Might try carving up a micro SD adaptor and the Atari 1 collection cartridge as it's absolute junk!


Hey now! The Atari carts contain some of my most cherished childhood memories!

EDIT: Wait a sec! I'm only 4mos older than you!!! Now I'm even MORE upset you feel that way!!!!
(LOL)


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## Fazley (Sep 28, 2021)

I really tried to like them but they have just aged too badly, any other 8-bit stuff I can cope with but not that!


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## MiCv2 (Oct 4, 2021)

Hi, I'm new here  and a big Evercade fan. 
I would like to play my purchased game "vvvvvv" on Evercade, is it possible? One did it, but how? 
(EverSD is available). Regards


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## ruffnutts (Oct 20, 2021)

esmith13 said:


> Just take note of what I replied to @Fazley . You can us a SD breakout board just make sure it doesn't have added logic or resistors like they typically would for other uses - you technically just need a way to add and remove a card and could even use a throwaway free microSD to SD adapter. Also FAT32 is natively supported, not just FAT16. Any firmware newer than 1.2.0 and you'll need EverPatcher software regardless to see anything larger than a 512MB SD memory chip, and no - partitioning a larger device won't fool the Evercade.


Thanks for the info, I've not logged in for a while.... great pictures btw, could you post the pic of the breakout board you used please, can't see properly on the cart pic thanks, goner look into modding this somehow


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## esmith13 (Oct 20, 2021)

ruffnutts said:


> Thanks for the info, I've not logged in for a while.... great pictures btw, could you post the pic of the breakout board you used please, can't see properly on the cart pic thanks, goner look into modding this somehow


Honestly, don't bother buying a breakout board. The one I used had some resistors on it which made it perform sub-par compared to the current build of my custom cart. I removed the breakout board and used a free mSD to SD adapter that comes with most micro SD cards instead. Just use the top half of this diagram for the pinout of the free adapter and solder the pins to the corresponding places labeled on my pic from earlier of the Evercade Cart PCB. It will fit exiting to the side still OR, out of laziness I went the extra mile and made it exit from the top (curved) edge of the cart so I can remove my mSD without removing the cart itself now. Night and day better IMHO and doesn't cost a penny to build if you already have solder and bits of thin gauge wire around.

SD & mSD Pinout


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## ruffnutts (Oct 20, 2021)

esmith13 said:


> Honestly, don't bother buying a breakout board. The one I used had some resistors on it which made it perform sub-par compared to the current build of my custom cart. I removed the breakout board and used a free mSD to SD adapter that comes with most micro SD cards instead. Just use the top half of this diagram for the pinout of the free adapter and solder the pins to the corresponding places labeled on my pic from earlier of the Evercade Cart PCB. It will fit exiting to the side still OR, out of laziness I went the extra mile and made it exit from the top (curved) edge of the cart so I can remove my mSD without removing the cart itself now. Night and day better IMHO and doesn't cost a penny to build if you already have solder and bits of thin gauge wire around.
> 
> SD & mSD Pinout


Sorry.... I though it was a breakout board as I could not see the top of the photo where the wires was soldered too, my bad 
Thanks again.. any chance of a sneak peak at the new version you made


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## esmith13 (Oct 20, 2021)

ruffnutts said:


> Sorry.... I though it was a breakout board as I could not see the top of the photo where the wires was soldered too, my bad
> Thanks again..


Oh, you're right - it was in that picture. The breakout had resistors and an LED on it that seemed to affect the performance of the SD card when compared to the EverSD. I gutted it out recently and replaced it with a free adapter instead as well as changing the insertion point from the side (like EverSD) to the top for easy access. If you REALLY prefer a PCB mounted mSD socket, this is the only cheap one I found with NO resistors, LEDs or level shifters on it to mess things up:   Amazon US link
You can get this and just break it off where the white line is to use it as needed for Evercade.


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## ruffnutts (Oct 20, 2021)

esmith13 said:


> Oh, you're right - it was in that picture. The breakout had resistors and an LED on it that seemed to affect the performance of the SD card when compared to the EverSD. I gutted it out recently and replaced it with a free adapter instead as well as changing the insertion point from the side (like EverSD) to the top for easy access. If you REALLY prefer a PCB mounted mSD socket, this is the only cheap one I found with NO resistors, LEDs or level shifters on it to mess things up:   Amazon US link
> You can get this and just break it off where the white line is to use it as needed for Evercade.


Lol I was just looking at this on eBay 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12490079...rentrq:9da2988417c0a9fa4d737a48fff7a7a2|iid:1

Nice one


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## esmith13 (Oct 20, 2021)

ruffnutts said:


> Lol I was just looking at this on eBay
> 
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124900790803?_trkparms=amclksrc=ITM&aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160908105057&meid=ae1fce3b10f34ccd98f0df49aa1c1375&pid=100675&rk=1&rkt=15&sd=124900790803&itm=124900790803&pmt=1&noa=1&pg=2380057&brand=Unbranded&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci:b2ef96d9-319f-11ec-a6f4-3e08adac245f|parentrq:9da2988417c0a9fa4d737a48fff7a7a2|iid:1
> 
> Nice one


Perfect! Haha


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## ruffnutts (Dec 23, 2021)

I see there's a new FW version out, worth the update?


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## esmith13 (Dec 23, 2021)

2.0.0 and 2.0.1 both match the interface to what's on the VS console. neither prevents downgrading back to 1.3.1.
since there is no 2.x everpatcher yet, you can only use sd cards 512mb or smaller on 2.x, but there is fun to be had if you're ok with tinkering to figure out the new file system layout. if not, hang tight until a patcher is released by someone.


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## esmith13 (Dec 30, 2021)

update to my previous post. EverPatcher is out for 2.0.1 - as are my scripts for both stock and libretro emulator use.


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## RetroFailz (Jan 2, 2022)

Why do you need a break out board to read or write official cartridges? You can just do it via ADB using the Evercade itself as a reader/writer


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## esmith13 (Jan 2, 2022)

RetroFailz said:


> Why do you need a break out board to read or write official cartridges? You can just do it via ADB using the Evercade itself as a reader/writer


Sure I can do that, but not everyone has the understanding how to do it and instead of an elitist attitude about it I think it makes more sense to me to offer people here other solutions within their skill set.

Not to mention plug and play is always going to be easier than needing software on your pc (and adb added back to an evercade which is far more enjoyable to play with on 1.3.x or 2.x.x). But you know that and everything else already, since you're so "1337", right?


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## RetroFailz (Jan 2, 2022)

esmith13, there are some GUIs for ADB file transfer, but you're right that ADB still needs to be enabled and it's likely not straight forward for many. I didn't mean to appear elitist, just wanted to say that it's pretty straight forward technically.


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## esmith13 (Jan 2, 2022)

RetroFailz said:


> esmith13, there are some GUIs for ADB file transfer, but you're right that ADB still needs to be enabled and it's likely not straight forward for many. I didn't mean to appear elitist, just wanted to say that it's pretty straight forward technically.


Bottom line. I don't want to argue with you or anyone. I just want to help those who need help - preferably in a way that won't intimidate them or complicate the steps enough to make them give up. The more people we get involved in general the more help or at least ideas will be brought to the table to make "projects" like this bigger and better for everyone. Isn't that the point of communities like this, after all?


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## Fazley (Jan 3, 2022)

Anyone care to share anything about connecting the Evercade through ADB to read/write to the carts, are there any guides or info out there that anyone knows about? I'm still torn about trashing a cart or making a reader/writer as my soldering is far from good and I don't have any of the bits without buying them...


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## Fazley (Jan 3, 2022)

I already found this on Github BTW but I'm a bit nervous about it and nor sure if it works on newer FW

https://github.com/strager/evercade-hacking


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## esmith13 (Jan 3, 2022)

Fazley said:


> Anyone care to share anything about connecting the Evercade through ADB to read/write to the carts, are there any guides or info out there that anyone knows about? I'm still torn about trashing a cart or making a reader/writer as my soldering is far from good and I don't have any of the bits without buying them...


If you're willing to stay on FW 1.2.0 then adb is already there.
If you're planning to use any FW newer than that, you would not only have to know how to use the rockchip flasher tools to dump/modify/write the flash in the evercade, but what and how to modify the operating system to reinsert adb software and run it as a system service. Once you've done that, the evercade's DRM will prevent the GUI from displaying AT ALL on the handheld (you will only see a black screen) and you must ALWAYS operate thru adb only until you re-flash back to stock and lose adb again.

Not worth it unless you're trying to do more than read and write a cartridge since you can't even play games with the device when setup like this. (well you can, but you have to launch everything from adb shell on your PC - every time)


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## esmith13 (Jan 3, 2022)

Fazley said:


> I already found this on Github BTW but I'm a bit nervous about it and nor sure if it works on newer FW
> 
> https://github.com/strager/evercade-hacking


Those steps would work as a basic framework of the understanding required but the byte code editing is specific to FW 1.0. Since 1.2.0 has an available everpatcher (to enable usb-host mode) and adb already as part of the OS, there is no benefit in reverting to 1.0 to follow those steps to the letter.


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## gratje (Jan 6, 2022)

I'm not sure I have to reply here. But I'm thinking about buying an EverSD, 
Just so I can keep my original cartridges in new/sealed condition.
But did anybody already dumped the original cartridges?
So I can  just put on the dumped cartridge on the EverSD and play it from there?


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## esmith13 (Jan 6, 2022)

gratje said:


> I'm not sure I have to reply here. But I'm thinking about buying an EverSD,
> Just so I can keep my original cartridges in new/sealed condition.
> But did anybody already dumped the original cartridges?
> So I can  just put on the dumped cartridge on the EverSD and play it from there?


No one is going to provide dumps of new, purchasable carts.
You can build a cart reader for under $10 even if you have none of the parts already so long as you have any ability to solder at all. Problem is you'd still have to open your carts to copy them.

And to fully answer your question, yes you can dump them 1:1 or even compile them to one mega-cart (mostly).


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## gratje (Jan 7, 2022)

@esmith13 Thanks for the answer, Luckily I'm very capable of soldering myself. So I think I will give it a try.
I thought dumping it would make it a lot easier for the EverSD. (no need to fill in all the names descriptions, pictures etc).


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## esmith13 (Jan 8, 2022)

Oh dumping it would be easier, just saying that you would have to dump your own since someone providing it to you from their carts would be a legal no-no.

I'm sure you'll do fine making a cart reader. It's just 8 wires from on end to the other and isn't even fine pitch work.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 24, 2022)

esmith13 said:


> Oh dumping it would be easier, just saying that you would have to dump your own since someone providing it to you from their carts would be a legal no-no.
> 
> I'm sure you'll do fine making a cart reader. It's just 8 wires from on end to the other and isn't even fine pitch work.


Is there a GBA reader that is pre-wired or some kind of breakout board?  I've tried soldering wires to a GBA connector, but honestly, my eyes are not up to it and my hands are too shaky for such small work.  I already have a MicroSD breakout for the other end of the cable. 

I have an EverSD, it doesn't fit into my devices without violent levels of force which I'm not going to do.  (Doesn't even fit the GBA connector well).  But moreover, I don't want to run a patched FW on the handheld or VS (and I don't have Windows, or access to Windows to do it).  Can the EverSD read a 1GB MicroSD with the newer standard FWs?  If so, what file structure do I need to put on it to load my own games?   (This was the reason I wanted to make a reader myself - to find out the structure of a cart, but my soldering isn't good enough).  Thanks.


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## esmith13 (Jan 24, 2022)

I'm confused. Did you give up on a cart reader and now want to instead put an SD slot in a retail cart?

If I got that correct it doesn't help your situation. Putting an SD slot in a retail cart is 100% identical to the EverSD. you already have.
Building a cart reader would allow you to add to or erase a retail cart.

To be clear. EverPatcher basically does three things:
1) It changes the intro video
2) It adds a second version of retroarch (without modifying the original one in any way at all)
3) It circumvents the Evercade's ability to reject an SD card above 512MB in size. (ALL carts are just FAT32 formatted SD Cards)

This means:
1) even if you build your own cart out of a retail one it can't be larger than 512MB without using EverPatcher or doing the equivalent software changes on your own
2) Even if you take a retail cart apart and just swap the IC chip in it for a bigger one it STILL won't work without Patching the size limitation like #1
3) Your EverSD with a 512MB or smaller SD card works on a factory Evercade with ZERO MODS
4) Building a Cart reader and using one of the larger carts (like Worms Collection will get you the same results as #3
5) Soldering a cart reader is easier soldering work than Making your own EverSD since the IC chip has to be desoldered and a MicroSD slot needs to be soldered in its place.

Given you already own an EverSD the easiest solution for you is to buy a 512MB or smaller SD card for your EverSD. As for the tight fit, I sanded down both skinny sides of my cart shell a bit and it glides in like butter now. It seemed as if the cart edge was out of alignment as well, but it turns out the issue was the same as the tightness. Sanding the sides prevented it from pushing away from the rear of the device and the cart edge had no issues after fixing the overall width.

The soldering for the cart reader is very manageable, I promise (and you only need to solder the first 8 pins). I have arthritis in my hands and am due for my first pair of bifocal glasses soon. I'd be happy to walk you thru whatever you need should you like the assistance. Ebay sells brand new GBA cart connectors for about $5 so no desoldering required.

ALSO NOTE: If you still decide to make your own EverSD - make sure the breakout board MicroSD Slot you have does not have an resistors or caps on it. As I stated a retail cart IS an SD card already so any extra electronic components that may be on your breakout board would potentially make the end result non-functional. (The first breakout board I tried has resistors on it - My cart failed under heavy usage intermittently).

Good Luck!


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## THX-1138 (Jan 24, 2022)

I have now managed to get the wires soldered onto a GBA cart connector, it was easier when I found my 'helping hands'.   I was able to rig a fairly reliable cartridge reader and examine several carts to determine their structure.

I've also got the 1GB MicroSD working with EverSD on a standard stock FW. I used the cartridge reader to make a disk image of a 512MB cart, I then flashed the 512MB image to the 1GB card, essentially making it a 512MB card. I am now in a position to to make a custom cart with those few extra games I've been wanting. 


On a side note, I am wanting to make my Namco Carts work with my VS.  I see you've done that.  I have been using the cart reader and EverSD to make a duplicate of the carts to experiment with.  The only way I can think of making the Namco carts work is to put a custom cartridge.json and .json files for each game manually.  Am I on the right track?   Or is there some easier magic to make them work?

Any advice is appreciated.


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

You are on the right track indeed. The cartridge.json identifies the cart in the main menu and also tells evercade that the cart is setup for FW 2.x. You can create the files by hand or copy an existing file from a different cart/game and edit the contents accordingly. Cartridge #15 was the first retail cart to have the FW2.0 files present for reference. All carts seem to still have the FW 1.x files as well (in case someone doesn't upgrade). This is not necessary unless you need your cart to work in a 1.x handheld.

Using an example of mario.nes as a rom you add, a FW 2.x cart requires the following files in the folder called 'game': 
mario.json -  "romFileName" is "mario.nes" and "romTitle" is the friendly title that is displayed in the menu
mario0.png - Box Art (Handheld) 112x157px
mario0_hd.png - Box Art (Handheld in TV mode) 260x358px
mario0_1080.png - Box Art (EvercadeVS) 474x666px
mario_gamebanner.png - Banner Image (screenshot, Handheld TV mode & EvercadeVS) 1920x551px

For Namco carts (or any other old cart that doesn't have FW 2.x files) if you know how to gain access to the files on the Evercade handheld's internal flash memory you can just copy what Blaze already provided.
Navigate to /opt/legacy/ in the Evercade handheld file system and copy the folders there which contain the additional json and art files for each older cart.

I'm sorry to say that since I don't know if it's legal or not to share those json and png files I won't be doing so.

Let me know if you need any other help.


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## gratje (Jan 25, 2022)

Nice!
just out of curiosity. 
I saw in the changelog of the evercade firmware:
- Fixed a number of typos and game descriptions across cartridges

Does this mean that these typo's and descriptions will be fixed on the cartridge itself? Or only on the system (VS or handheld).


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

Blaze stores those changes (and the FW 2.x files for cartridges #1-#14 which didn't have them) on the internal file system of each device in /opt/legacy/
I had thought about sharing them but I'm concerned that there could be legal issues with that and have decided not to.
The contents are just text files (*.json) and artwork (*.png) but I honestly have no clue if they can have a trademark or other ownership of art and descriptions or if the .jsons constitute code or just raw data. Just not worth the risk, sorry.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 25, 2022)

esmith13 said:


> Blaze stores those changes (and the FW 2.x files for cartridges #1-#14 which didn't have them) on the internal file system of each device in /opt/legacy/
> I had thought about sharing them but I'm concerned that there could be legal issues with that and have decided not to.
> The contents are just text files (*.json) and artwork (*.png) but I honestly have no clue if they can have a trademark or other ownership of art and descriptions or if the .jsons constitute code or just raw data. Just not worth the risk, sorry.


How are you accessing the internal filesystem?


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

It's a RockChip SoC powering the device. you can use their developer tools to read and write software images to/from the device. There are other more advanced ways as well such as adb or dd tools.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 25, 2022)

I've got various rk tools installed for other devices and past projects, there are also tons of 'devtools' out there for RK devices.  Of all I've tried, they either do not detect the chipset, are from source and fail to compile or are documented in Chinese.

Can you link or recommend something specific I can use in Linux that is known to work?


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

For linux? no idea honestly. For windows it's rkdeveloptool and unsquashfs.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 25, 2022)

I have rkdeveloptool and I've had zero success with it up to now.  I can't link to the one I have because this site wont let me post links, but it's for Linux and has to be compiled from source, which I did, but it cannot read from the Evercade successfully.

Can you give me the links to the Windows ones please, I can't find them and I just want this done.  I will install a VM and freakin Windows if I really have to just to get these json files.


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

I have no idea where I got the windows exe from but this is the github for the source:  https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
Here is the squashFS stuff (windows release link in the "about" section):  https://github.com/AgentD/squashfs-tools-ng

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but do you have evercade drivers installed on your machine AND you hooked up the handheld to your machine via USB while off, then held MENU while powering on (screen stays black)?

The same drivers and procedure used to update the FW are required to use the tools I mentioned.

Hope you find this helpful.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 25, 2022)

You don't need drivers in Linux for the Evercade.  Yeah, was powered on with the Menu button held down.    Yes, that's the rkdeveloptool I tried to post a link to (won't let me as this is a new account), and squashfs is installed on my system.

I've just tried a new cable and reset my computer and I'm now (as root) able to read some basic info via rkdeveloptool (it's a command line app) like device ID and a partition list etc.   OK, I think I can dump the filesystem.


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## THX-1138 (Jan 25, 2022)

Success.  I dumped the partition and then mounted the disk image to get the files from opt.  Thanks for the help, I can now fix the Namco carts.


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## esmith13 (Jan 25, 2022)

THX-1138 said:


> Success.  I dumped the partition and then mounted the disk image to get the files from opt.  Thanks for the help, I can now fix the Namco carts.


w00t! Strong work!


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## THX-1138 (Jan 26, 2022)

I owe you a beer.


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## ruffnutts (Jul 25, 2022)

Could make a card Reader/Writer using a Pico or Pico w and old cart port from GBA and breadboard and jumper cables no soldering like this video 



Might give it a go


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## derkiederk (Friday at 11:54 AM)

Anyone tried custom flash carts on the EXP? Apparently the everSD isn't working but what about a DIY cart?


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## esmith13 (Friday at 12:06 PM)

derkiederk said:


> Anyone tried custom flash carts on the EXP? Apparently the everSD isn't working but what about a DIY cart?


DIY Carts don't work either. It's not the flash cart that's the issue, it's the security on the EXP.
If you have a 512MB or smaller micro SD card and you dump one of your own retail cartridges to it and pop it in your EverSD it WILL work on the EXP because you are satisfying the security requirements of the EXP operating system.

TL;DR - the EverSD hardware isn't the problem, it's needing an EverPatcher version for the EXP to override the security lockouts in the OS.


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