Sega Megadrive (Genesis) Flashback Mini HD with an USB on internal mother board

[Hekel]

Allright everyone doing some research and we will never be able to play most of the unl., homebrew and other special kind of cartridges.. i could explain in detail why but lets say it easy:

the md/gen flashback hd is not able to recognize or dump it correctly. No direct support.

Sure there is a work around for this problem and you can play most of this kind of cartridges by using an retrode2 - tested and working (you would then play even the real cart not just a dump of it xD), but this would kill the idea of this console.

Conclusion: play the rom and be happy with it xD..

Cheers

 

[Hekel]

Allright i have the answer on how the dumped ROM-Files gets theyre Name. I dumped these games to get an idea how it works:

Basicly its very simpel. But lets start in the beginning. I placed the games in my MD/GEN Flashback HD and grabbed the dumps. This was the result:

So how was the name given? Every SEGA Game Has his own GAME-ID. The MD/GEN Flashback HD takes the HEX-Code of the last 2 letters in the line of this ID and save it in the filename.

As an example:
rom-6ADE = Separation Anxiety

By searching for the HEX-Code ,,6ADE‘‘ we find the following GAME-ID:

My guess is.. if the GAME-ID is missing like in some of the unlicensed Games the MD/GEN Flashback HD is not able to recognize the insert Cartridge.

Here you can check the other results:

rom-52E8

*Do not compare my PAL Smurfs with the Retail version, because this is a Prototype Cartridge which was missing the Import Region lock! So the HEX is different!

rom-C1DA

rom-FC1A

If someone wants to add this informations to the Wiki feel free to use stuff from my post. (Please quote the source)

 

[Hekel]

If anyone likes to Dump his Cartridges here is a simple Tool. Just put the game in youre MD/GEN Flashback HD Console, turn it on wait until the game appears in youre Front and hit the Start.bat File. Done. HAVE FUN.

 

[asper]

Allright i have the answer on how the dumped ROM-Files gets theyre Name. I dumped these games to get an idea how it works:

View attachment 112227

Basicly its very simpel. But lets start in the beginning. I placed the games in my MD/GEN Flashback HD and grabbed the dumps. This was the result:

View attachment 112228

So how was the name given? Every SEGA Game Has his own GAME-ID. The MD/GEN Flashback HD takes the HEX-Code of the last 2 letters in the line of this ID and save it in the filename.

As an example:
rom-6ADE = Separation Anxiety

By searching for the HEX-Code ,,6ADE‘‘ we find the following GAME-ID:

View attachment 112229

My guess is.. if the GAME-ID is missing like in some of the unlicensed Games the MD/GEN Flashback HD is not able to recognize the insert Cartridge.

Here you can check the other results:

rom-52E8
View attachment 112230

Do not compare my PAL Smurfs with the Retail version, because this is a Prototype Cartridge which was missing the Import Region lock! So the HEX is different!

rom-C1DA
View attachment 112231

rom-FC1A
View attachment 112232

If someone wants to add this informations to the Wiki feel free to use stuff from my post.

Well as I posted many pages back my theory was correct

The dump will go to /mnt/asec/ folder in .bin format (the name of the cartridge dump tested was rom-9370.bin).
The name can be related to some hex values inside the cartridge (for example 2 bytes at offset 0x18E) because the cartridge name is always the same using the same cartridge (unfortunately I only have 1 to play with)....

And that 2 bytes are not a game ID, it is a well known 2bytes-checksum that is calculated as follow:

0 - Checksum initial value is zero
1 - Skip the first 512 bytes of the ROM (start calculating from offset 0x200 and on)
2 - Read a byte from the rom and multiply its ascii value by 256, then sum it to the checksum value
3 - Read the next byte from the rom and just sum it to the checksum
4 - If you're not at the end of file, repeat step 3
5 - Get the first 16 bits from the resulting checksum and delete the higher bits

here it is a small asm code for its calculation:

movea.l #$200,a0
               movea.l #ROM_End,a1
               move.l  (a1),d0
               moveq   #0,d1
loop:
               add.w   (a0)+,d1
               cmp.l   a0,d0
               bcc.s   loop
               movea.l #$18E,a1        ; Checksum
               cmp.w   (a1),d1
               bne.w   WrongChecksum

You guess it almost correctly: this checksum was introduced by Sega to try to avoid unathorized editing of the game data and this can be the reason why those kind of cartridges are not dumped by the original software but I suppose a patch can bypass this "protection".

EDIT: I already released a similar batch script days ago

 

[Hekel]

Well as I posted many pages before my theory was correct



And that 2 bytes are not a game ID, it is a well known 2bytes-checksum that is calculated as follow:

0 - Checksum initial value is zero
1 - Skip the first 512 bytes of the ROM (start calculating from offset 0x200 and on)
2 - Read a byte from the rom and multiply its ascii value by 256, then sum it to the checksum value
3 - Read the next byte from the rom and just sum it to the checksum
4 - If you're not at the end of file, repeat step 3
5 - Get the first 16 bits from the resulting checksum and delete the higher bits

here it is a small asm code for its calculation:

movea.l #$200,a0
               movea.l #ROM_End,a1
               move.l  (a1),d0
               moveq   #0,d1
loop:
               add.w   (a0)+,d1
               cmp.l   a0,d0
               bcc.s   loop
               movea.l #$18E,a1        ; Checksum
               cmp.w   (a1),d1
               bne.w   WrongChecksum

You guess it almost correctly: this checksum was introduced by Sega to try to avoid unathorized editing of the game data and this can be the reason why those kind of cartridges are not dumped by the original software but I suppose a patch can bypass this "protection".

EDIT: I already released a similar batch script days ago

Can you maybe provide a patch so it would support any cartridge? As i mentioned before the Retrode2 doesnt have this kind of problem. Would be cool to apply this patch in my Dashboard Project. Thanks for the correction. Im not so much into binary/hex and such stuff.

 

[asper]

Can you maybe provide a patch so it would support any cartridge? As i mentioned before the Retrode2 doesnt have this kind of problem. Would be cool to apply this patch in my Dashboard Project. Thanks for the correction. Im not so much into binary/hex and such stuff.

To achieve what you are asking for I need to decompile and edit the original launcher .apk but I don't know if I am able to do that kind of patch, really; unfortunately I also have really few spare time with my newborn so do not expect me to "solve" that problem or solve it too soon

EDIT: wiki will be updated soon with the above info !

 

[Hekel]

To achieve what you are asking for I need to decompile and edit the original launcher .apk but I don't know if I am able to do that kind of patch, really; unfortunately I also have really few spare time with my newborn so do not expect me to "solve" that problem or solve it too soon

EDIT: wiki will be updated soon with the above info !

Haha yeah i can totaly understand that time is rare for you right now. Would be a nice addition if someone could do that. But as i sad not a must have as you can find most of the game dumps anyway. And those are working fine from my frontend.

 

[fixingmytoys]

View attachment 112224 Allright everyone doing some research and we will never be able to play most of the unl., homebrew and other special kind of cartridges.. i could explain in detail why but lets say it easy:

the md/gen flashback hd is not able to recognize or dump it correctly. No direct support.

Sure there is a work around for this problem and you can play most of this kind of cartridges by using an retrode2 - tested and working (you would then play even the real cart not just a dump of it xD), but this would kill the idea of this console.

Conclusion: play the rom and be happy with it xD..

Cheers

@Hekel just a question please dose pier solar work when you play it from cart ? When you play it from rom in the flashback it comes up ie starts gives you the this is not made by sega screen and that is far as it will go

 

[Hekel]

@Hekel just a question please dose pier solar work when you play it from cart ? When you play it from rom in the flashback it comes up ie starts gives you the this is not made by sega screen and that is far as it will go

IT will not, the reason is simple cause its an emulation problem. But it can be played in my dashboard! But it needs a special emulator to work with..

 

[fixingmytoys]

IT will not, the reason is simple cause its an emulation problem. But it can be played in my dashboard! But it needs a special emulator to work with..

will the rom work as well?

 

[Hekel]

will the rom work as well?

I meaned the rom, its not dumpable with the flashback.

 

[fixingmytoys]

I meaned the rom, its not dumpable with the flashback.

okay , i now it works on my famicom mini, it would have been nice to have all my sega in one please

 

[WD_Gaster]

New "animated" skin engine for the generations launcher has been implemented. custom skinning is now out. in exchange we get a pretty sweet UI. Buttons are still a WIP at the moment. however i think this may be more "in touch" than the previous version.

boot sound is more familiar now too

 

[fixingmytoys]

New "animated" skin engine for the generations launcher has been implemented. custom skinning is now out. in exchange we get a pretty sweet UI. Buttons are still a WIP at the moment. however i think this may be more "in touch" than the previous version.

boot sound is more familiar now too

@WD-gaster looks very cool can't wait to see it in action

 

[asper]

Can you maybe provide a patch so it would support any cartridge? As i mentioned before the Retrode2 doesnt have this kind of problem. Would be cool to apply this patch in my Dashboard Project. Thanks for the correction. Im not so much into binary/hex and such stuff.

I got where the control is done but I really never studied the android low level language before so I suppose it will take me some time to find a way to patch it (if i never find a way to patch it).

 

[Hekel]

I got where the control is done but I really never studied the android low level language before so I suppose it will take me some time to find a way to patch it (if i never find a way to patch it).

I see, what im wondering can you tell if there is a save path to the rom before its beeing dumped?

* i mean the actual cartridge not the rom xD

 

[asper]

It seems that the game is 1stly dumped as /mnt/asec/cartridge.bin then it is renamed using the checksum algo but I still cannot verify that. I think this is the "temp" file when it is dumped real time. You can check if that file is created before the rom is renamed but that process should take less than a second.

 

[Hekel]

It seems that the game is 1stly dumped as /mnt/asec/cartridge.bin then it is renamed using the checksum algo but I still cannot verify that. I think this is the "temp" file when it is dumped real time. You can check if that file is created before the rom is renamed but that process should take less than a second.

I found that string aswell and i tryed to pull this file off. It was not possible if you dont run the original dashboard. I was hoping that there is a way to hide the original dashboard without loosing the dump function..or even better launch the game from the actual cartridge. But the Cartridge.bin is before the renaming i guess.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I found that string aswell and i tryed to pull this file off. It was not possible if you dont run the original dashboard. I was hoping that there is a way to hide the original dashboard without loosing the dump function..

 

[asper]

I found that string aswell and i tryed to pull this file off. It was not possible if you dont run the original dashboard. I was hoping that there is a way to hide the original dashboard without loosing the dump function..

I don't even know if that file is created, I never saw it inside that folder, mine is just a guess, still to investigate further.

 

[fixingmytoys]

I found that string aswell and i tryed to pull this file off. It was not possible if you dont run the original dashboard. I was hoping that there is a way to hide the original dashboard without loosing the dump function..

I am not a coder by a long shot mind you I use to be in crew back in the c64 days mainly music , my question is can you “call up” the original dashboard to use the dumping Functions and then drop unload the original dashboard ie call it up in the back ground just do that task ?.
I have no idea if this is possible just an idea