I got a Radica Genesis today

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:38 am

It is indeed quite likely that the system cannot run Genesis or Master System cartridges though, for many reasons:

1) The ROMs may only be set up for one region. Some Genesis carts still contained the Japanese text in it, accessible if you set your Genesis to Japanese (or use a Megadrive). If you put in Streets of Rage, you may end up with Bare Knuckle, or you may end up with "I don't know wtf to do with this so I do nothing." If there's no region lock on this machine (highly unlikely, I'd say), setting it for a specific region may be impossible.

2) As was said before, it's also possible that the GOAC can only read 512Kbyte ROMs. The chip on the board only needs to do what it's meant to do, nothing more. The reason the NOAC works out of those 10854929043 in 1 carts is that they also use NOACs for cart-accepting Famicom clones too, and it's just cheaper to keep making one type than various implementations for various uses. In short, assuming Sega isn't going to make a new Genesis using the same GOAC, they probably didn't go the whole hog.

And you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that it won't read SMS carts. The Genesis 3 won't, and it has (as far as I've heard) a full Genesis cart slot. In fact, has anyone tried comparing this thing to the Genesis 3? That used a single-chip for most everything, right? There might be some similarities in implementation. (I know the Genesis 3's main chip was encased in more than a blob.)

For people who want to use it for non-portable reasons, keep in mind controller 2 probably will not be able to be used too

As far as the 68k and Z80 and everything else not being able to be put into that size of a blob, that is ridiculous. Look at an AMD AthlonXP. That thing has over 20 million transistors in that tiny rectangle on top. Which is like... 20 million more than a 68k and Z80 combined

I'm hoping that this is indeed functional as intended, but my hopes are a little lower than some. Still, may buy one anyway, because it is a neat product. Good luck to you all!

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:53 am

SgtBowhack wrote:And you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that it won't read SMS carts. The Genesis 3 won't, and it has (as far as I've heard) a full Genesis cart slot. In fact, has anyone tried comparing this thing to the Genesis 3? That used a single-chip for most everything, right? There might be some similarities in implementation. (I know the Genesis 3's main chip was encased in more than a blob.)

The problem with the Genesis 3 is that is had an almost completely different chipset, resulting in its inablility to play certain games and use the Game Genie. If the GOAC is based off of the older two then it will support more (most likely). And FYI the little blob you see is epoxy covering a rom chip (rather fagile) so to lower cost of having to have a chip made they burn the rom, connect the leads and then put epoxy on it to protect it.
As for the SMS, if the Radica is a actual Genesis then I dont see why it wouldnt run SMS games. Hey if anyone wants to use the schematics that were left in the 8bit or 16bit forum and make the adapter or have a power base and willing to see if the GOAC will read the games please do so.

segasonicfan · Post by **segasonicfan** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:37 pm

yes. but you don't need a power base converter. SMS games work on Genesis simply by rewiring the cart connections. Devster has a schematic for it.

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:02 pm

I don't believe I said anything to the contrary there, I just merely stated that the Genesis 3's chip was encased in a chip casing, rather than just being covered with a bit of epoxy. And is the ROM actually covered in epoxy? I can't tell from the pics (it doesn't look like a ROM in chip form, more like a circuit board, so that's fairly reasonable to assume, I suppose). I was talking about the processor, though, not the ROM.

Even certain SMS games don't work on the original Genesis/MD. And the reason the SMS doesn't work on the Genesis 3 is because the support wasn't added for it, as far as I know (Sega probably built the Genesis with thd Power Base Convertor in mind). Which is likely to happen with any GOAC design. In fact, this GOAC is even less likely to have it, since as far as we all know, it was designed specifically with this 6-in-1 ROM in mind.

The Radica is NOT a Genesis! It's no more of a Genesis than the Genesis 3 was, so expecting it to do anything that the Genesis 3 can't isn't too reasonable. I'm not saying it's not possible, just not likely. The Genesis 3 was designed to play Genesis games, and it did so for the most part. This thing is everything needed to play the Genesis games on the ROM, but that does not a Genesis make. And I'm really interested to find out what happens with multiregion carts, since I'm fairly convinced that they wouldn't add something like a region jumper into this thing.

I'm not trying to bring anyone down by saying these things- just trying to make people see reality for what it is. More than anything I want to see this thing work. Making a successor to the Nomad with 21st century technology would be amazingly cool. But at this stage, speculating is dangerous.

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:30 pm

thats the Jap one not the Ame ojne

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:54 am

What're you even referring to?

NiN^_^NiN · Post by **NiN^_^NiN** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:16 am

Could you take a pic of the GOAC for me please?

i'v got something I wanna check out.

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:26 am

The one on ls is a Japan one not an American one

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 4:23 pm

Is there any physical difference, other than the one chip saying Japan (in Japanese) instead of other nations? It seems that they were so lazy that they used the American version games in the Japanese release anyway (as seen by Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was called Puyopuyo here, among others). The only difference even with the software is probably changing the Genesis logo to the Megadrive logo.

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:58 pm

The americans romn is not a glob top

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:00 am

Neither is the Japanese one. But it's not a standard encased IC, either, so I thought it could be a glob top hidden by PCB.

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 7:50 am

Oh my bad. im still trying to hack a jaks pacific atari to use the noac

Post by **benheck** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 9:46 am

Has anyone actually tried wiring a 64 pin cartridge slot to the Radica yet and plug in a cartridge? That's the true test.

I'm going to Digi-Key NOW!

Post by **benheck** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 10:04 am

Look, I've got a smashed-up Vectorman cartridge here and the ROM has 42 pins. (what a great # of pins). You can't tell me Vectorman is only 512k! It's probably at least 2 meg if not 4 (like a lot of late-entry 16 bit games)

My cartridge connector is on the way!

Post by **benheck** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 10:15 am

Ok, according to that Genesis cart pin-out the original Genesis can access 4096k of game since it has 23 address pins. Vectorman's cart stops at addy pin 20 so it only has 1024k of ROM.

So a game made that late using 1024k of ROM, I'd say that increases the chances for overall compatibilty.

Perhaps I should open one of those "high-animation" games like Aladin or Earthworm Jim...

Or use an emulator to find out how big these games are for reference.