Isotope SoftWorks Community

I never was a big fan of Sega. Although I loved the slick look of the Genesis. Most kids I knew back in the day had a Super Nintendo and it seemed like it also had better games. Boy did I miss a lot because Sega and the later CD add-on had some very neat titles. (a lot of crap too but hey the 90's was the era gaming really exploded) I was even more shocked after I finally sat down and looked over the specs of the Saturn, it was way more capable than the sony Playstation! It's a real tragedy programmers never were able to fully take advantage of the systems arcade proven hardware. Have you ever seen DUKE3d on the Saturn?!? It was far superior compared to every other port in existence. History seemed to once again repeat itself, like my beloved 64 bit Jaguar which I will forever argue never reached its full potential. The Saturn lost out in the wake the Playstations 3d effects, lighting and simplistic particle effects. The big difference in the two systems is the PS natively a supported these features, so programmers for the Saturn had to do a lot more grunt work to pull off similar effects.

Anyways now for the real reason behind this post...

Recently I have had a desire to do some ROM hacking. I've educated myself a bit thanks to Google but its just not the same as having a dialog with someone who actually has done this. How do I go about burning a ROM I hacked onto an actual Genesis cartridge? I have access to legacy machines but if possible I'd like to avoiding using antiqued hardware. What is the least expensive way? Do I need a blank cartridge or can I use the game cartridge of the same game I hacked? For example if I hacked SONIC could I reburn the new rom onto the SONIC cart?

I want to do this mainly for the sheer novelty of it. Also I like the challenge. I doubt I could ever program a game from scratch for the Genesis but if someone could point me in the right direction who knows what could happen?

You can flash the ROM onto blank cartridges, or make your own carts.

http://consolemods.freeforums.org/sega- ... t-t98.html

I had used a flash cart. It was great plugging into the Nomad. Looked like Frankenstein's kind of cartridge

There are a number of flash carts you can use for homebrew and hacks. There are dozens of Sonic hacks, many of which are really good and fun (like the Amy in Sonic 1/2/3 series). Each flash cart has it's pros and cons, so you should probably check them out to determine which would suit you best.

MD-Pro from Tototek
Everdrive MD from KRIKzz
Mega Everdrive from KRIKzz
NeoMyth MD 3-in-1 from NeoFlash

The most cost effective for the features is probably the Everdrive MD.

Pretty much the exact info I was hoping for. Thanks all!

My dream of seeing a game I designed running on actual hardware is one step closer.

It's always good to test your stuff on real hardware when you can. Too many hacks don't work on real hardware because they were never tested on real hardware.

By the way, Stone Age Gamer is a good place to get an Everdrive... he usually has them in stock, with a case and a manual. KRIKzz just sells a bare board when you buy direct.