Reliable as in..? Unlicensed (i.e. usually pirate) multicarts aren't likely to just up and stop working if that's what you mean. However, they do sometimes feature hacked or badly dumped versions of games, and they almost never actually have as many games as advertised on the label. For instance, a 100-in-1 cart is likely have a menu of 5 games listed 20 times. It's an interesting novelty to have in your collection, but it's not a good way to build up your library. If you just want to have a bajillion games on one cart, you're better off putting some money into an Everdrive.
Yeah, I second that. Those multicarts are basically Chinese bootlegs and depending on who actually built them, the quality can vary wildly. I would definitely go for a flashcart, which means you have a reliable (and repairable/warrantied) piece of technology that can hold literally every single NES/SNES game ever made, all while still using the original hardware. It's expensive, especially for me being Canadian and the shitty dollar conversion, plus shipping, but the payoff is amazing. I have every NES game, every Famicom/Famicom Disk game, translations, ROMhacks, prototypes, etc. And if anything goes wrong, it can be repaired. Of course, compatibility varies from clone system to clone system. But you can get a good NES system for a *decent* price. I've got the NES and SNES carts right now and it's pretty damned nice. I'm hoping to grab some more including the Gameboy and maybe the TG-16. I would go for the N64 but it's a pretty small library and I'm steadily going for a complete NTSC set anyways.
wow I did not know they had one for TG16. that looks beautiful. and at the price that likely 2 good tg16 games will run you these days, its a no brainer. is stone age gamer always back ordered on all their products? do you guys order those things from somewhere else or do you just place an order with them and play the waiting game?
If you want to pay less and not worry about stuff always being back orderd (and if you don't care about having a fancy case and manual) you can just order them straight from Krikzz in Ukraine. You can always order the extra SAG goodies later if you change your mind. The higher end Genesis/Megadrive models are amazing, BTW. Besides working as an SD loader for Genesis/Megadrive and 32X games, it also functions as a region bypass and save RAM cart for CD games, and can load Master System and Mark III games without an adaptor.
Wow. I'm learning something new every day! So fellas I'm completely new to this process. Is is there I need to do to the flashcart to load all the games into it? I'll need a full breakdown. @The Barracuda the stone age gamer's website shows these as sold out. Is there another source? @flamepanther Krikzz's site seems to have them in stock. What are the differences in the multiple versions? Is there anything I need to add or load onto these flashcarts? What is SAG? Also if I run these flashcarts on a Retron 5 can i still load game genie digital codes? Also if I attach a physical old school game genie device to these carts will thesy still work on the official original consoles?
Basically you just need to put the games in folders on an SD card. The SD card also needs to have some system files on it, which you can download from Krikzz. Between Krikzz and Stone Age Gamer, there's no difference on the inside. The packaging is different and Stone Age Gamer uses different cartridge shells and labels. They'll work exactly the same though. As for the versions available in each store, they offer a convenient comparison chart so you can see exactly what the differences are. As mentioned above, you'd need an SD card of the appropriate size and capacity, some games, and a folder of system files. Stone Age Gamer Oh, good catch. Because of the way Retron 5 works (it dumps the cart to a ROM file internally, then runs the ROM in an emulator) it is not possible to use multigame flashcarts with it at all. At best, it would try to dump a ROM file of the cart's operating system. It wouldn't be able to access the SD card. Bootleg multicarts should probably work on Retron 5, depending on whether they use any unsupported Chinese or Russian mapper chips. Flashcarts will work on most clone systems other than the Retron 5. But flash carts and Retron 5 will not work together. Retrofreak and possibly RetroBlox won't work either, for the same reason as Retron 5. Probably not (haven't tried) but most of the Everdrive cartridges have native support for codes already. Only a few of the older ones don't.
I have a Retron 5 (just arrived today) and an old school official SNES v2 (SNS-101) console. So based on what you're saying I'll need to get one of those red or green 150 in 1 or 500 in 1 mulitcarts that are made in China that I've seen on Ebay to use on the Retron 5 slot while the flashcarts like the ones from SAG and Krikzz can only be played on on the original consoles correct? If need be I can use my Retron 5 as my NES console and if I can use my SNES console for SNES games. Where specifically do I find the games to load onto my SD card? Is there a articular format and brand of SD card I need? What size/capacity card is best recommended? Where do I insert the card? Inside the NES/SNES flashcart somewhere?
Flamepanther basically answered everything above. The only other source I know of for flashcarts is retrousb.com. It seems SAG is always on backorder but I don't think there's a lot of stock due to the time and effort to make them. Plus some are built to order with different options like cart color, etc. With the popularity of these badboys, they drop out of stock fast. SAG provides the proper firmware on their site if it's not already pre-loaded. I went through Stone Age Gamer as I wanted the full package, with the clamshell cases and such but you can save a ton if you just go with the carts. Just your standard SD card, any company or one you trust/prefer and usually 4GB is enough to hold everything. My NES one has a 2GB card straight from the company and I got a 16GB one on sale for the SNES cart (though it's overkill). The carts have slots where you can slide the card right in; if you look at my pic, you can see the top of an SD card peeking out of the SNES cart. As for finding the ROMs, they're not that hard to find. I was given a link with a bunch of great collections for damn near every system and have already downloaded them.
Do you have a link to the ROMS you used for NES and SNES? Are flashcarts compatible with NES to SNES converters like RetroPort?
I don't think linking to ROMs is allowed here. But you can just use regular ROM files like you'd use in an emulator. Very easy to find. I don't know if you need a bootleg multicart for your Retron 5, nor can I guarantee that you'd be happy with one or that it would even work. I only know that it might work in the Retron 5 while an Everdrive definitely won't. An NES Everdrive should work on the SNES through a Retroport, but I can't guarantee it. You'd need to use the NES model Everdrive (N8) for NES games and an SNES model (Super Everdrive or SD2SNES) for SNES games. I don't need the manuals, so I got the boards and shells from Krikzz and the clamshells from customgamecases.com. I got the Master Everdrive as a bare board from Krikzz and got a shell and a label from SAG separately, since Krikzz doesn't have SMS shells and SAG was out of Master Everdrive boards (but had the shells and labels in stock). The cases aren't the same as what SAG offers, and I don't get to pick a custom colored shell... but thecases are a type that I like better and they match the other games cases I've been using, and the random assortment shells don't bug me, so I really don't mind.
I have no clue how to use ROMS or an emulator. This is all brand new territory for me but I want to learn. If you could kindly point me to a good resource or explain it to me via email. I've sent you a PM with my personal email address listed. Thanks in advance.
They don't have any ROMs there, but I would highly recommend checking out www.racketboy.com and its forums. It's a gaming community with an emphasis specifically on providing guides and recommendations, mainly for retro gaming. Their forum has a section specifically for emulation. Next, you should check out www.gbatemp.net, which is devoted to console homebrew, hacking, and flashcarts. There are no ROMs there either (except for legally free homebrew ROMs) but they'll always have the latest news and info about flashcarts etc. Between those sites, you should have all the info you need to get you started at your fingertips. Providing help finding ROMs is frowned upon pretty much anywhere, as is asking, so I'm afraid you're largely on your own there. Emulation itself is legal, but sharing or downloading ROMs of old commercial games is more questionable, at best. Google search is usually ready and able to help out with it though. You might also find some hints if you lurk around enough threads on Krikzz's forum. Just be sure you have an ad blocker and a good anti-virus before you go poking around in forbidden places.
Fortunately, finding the ROMs is the hard part. Most emulators are pretty straightforward, you just open a menu and select the ROM you want to run. (Unless you want to try the arcade emulator MAME, which is strictly a command line interface if you don't download a separate GUI for it.) On a different note... In addition to the games I'm currently playing through (Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Rondo of Blood, and DQVIII; so many games, so little time) I've been on an old-school beat 'em up kick lately. I'm trying to learn about more obscure ones I hadn't tried yet. Played Sengoku 3 a couple days ago; that's a really cool game with large, well animated sprites (like playing a brawler version of a KOF game) and a few special attacks thrown in to keep things interesting. I love the "create your own combo" aspect between the weapon and punch buttons, letting you chain attacks together in a multitude of different ways and making you learn which combination works best for different situations. And it's tough, but not unfairly so. My only criticism so far is the lack of enemy variety. And I know this is probably old news to most game collectors, but I recently learned about the Rushing Beat series and its US counterparts. I actually bought Rival Turf for SNES back when it was out in stores, but I returned it because it was a crappy game. However, I had no idea that Brawl Brothers and Peace Keepers were supposed to be sequels, and that Peace Keepers is pretty good (with its Japanese original, Rushing Beat Shura, being even better). Among obscure beat 'em ups I have played, my favorite is probably Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. I first played it at a bowling alley in Norway (of all places) and I though it was a lot of fun. What a shame it was never ported.
Good stuff! I got my Duo R in the mail over the weekend. The bundle of extra games just cleared customs today, so I'll probably get those by Saturday. Luckily, Macross 2036 was packed together with the console, so I was able to confirm it's working properly. While I wait for the other games (and an Everdrive), I've been spending time researching the huge library of PC Engine games that are out there. I'm also just about done gathering everything I need for getting RGB output to both of my CRTs from my consoles that support it. I've got shielded SCART cables (with isolated c-sync where possible) for the Master System, Genesis, Super NES, and Saturn, plus ones for the AV Famicom and PC Engine Duo R once I get them modded. To connect those to the PVM, I've got a breakout cable that splits it into 4xBNC and 2xRCA. I just need to grab couplers to connect the 2xRCA audio out to my RCA-to-3.5mm adaptor so I can use stereo desktop speakers instead of the monitor's internal mono. For the WEGA TV, I've got an audio breakout box and a SCART-to-RCA RGB-to-YUV/YPbPr component encoder. It looks almost as good as the PVM!
Usually much less, like 6 in 1. I have seen 50 in 1 carts though. They're all unlicensed and thus all outside the boundaries of site rules so you'll have to Google for them if you want one.
I didn't know there are site rules about unlicensed game products? The only thing mcbradders has listed was direct rom posting/linking. Discussion of all else seems fine.
Now that I think about it, listing them here wouldn't be a problem. It's no different than listing a KO figure which is done across these threads everyday.
Just got the Revo K101. So far its pretty nice. Small screen but plays great and perfect pocket size to take anywhere.
Does anyone know if NES multicarts like 150 in 1 or 500 in 1 will work on an SNES if a RetroPort adapter is used?
