Where have all of the Radica ROMs gone?

[SgtBowhack]

I'm tempted to take the ROMs from the Radica carts and replace other Genesis games with them. I think those 6 games are pretty sweet, and I really wouldn't mind playing them again. So if anyone is looking to get rid of their Radica ROMs (and they aren't damaged), give me a holler
I'm not looking for 100 of them, just a few for my own enjoyment I figure they'd fit into a standard envelope (with padding!) Hopefully someone has the Radica Volume 2 ROM too. I'd be willing to pay a few bucks probably, but not more than that. And then I'll have to find some copies of some old EA Sports crap to throw them in (and rewire completely probably) :/

[gotchocolatemilk2]

could you mount a cart slot on one of those ea sports things

[JackFrost22]

an ea sports genny cart. He wants to put the roms in a cart so he could play them on a real genny. Im in the process of doing that with mine. Ill post the pinouts when im done

[SgtBowhack]

Jack: We know the pinouts. It's a standard Genesis ROM.
gotchoco: Yes you can... but it'd just be a passthrough... I'm actually thinking about doing something really dumb and putting the ROM and a SMS cart slot in the same cart, so it works as both. (Of course, there'd be a switch to decide which is being used).
The EA Sports games are just dirt-cheap, so I figured I'd use those. You can find the older Madden games for like a dime sometimes, not to mention NHL and stuff like that that wasn't very popular even at release. Plus they're bigger carts so easier to fit stuff in them.

[JackFrost22]

i meant for a cart bpard to wire it. not the cart port

[SgtBowhack]

But... it's just a standard ROM! Find a 32MB Genny cart. Replace ROM. Done. And you can just wire a few pins to the cart slot and use a smaller ROM board too. You don't NEED pinouts! It's EASY! And there are already pinouts to do so on the web like everywhere.

[JackFrost22]

Uh yes and no. Some of the leads are moved for one reason or another i have foung out

[SgtBowhack]

Well, regardless: http://benheck.com/Data%20Downloads/Rad ... geSlot.jpg
It's not something that hasn't been done before.
The pinouts are up
This page has the original ROM pinouts and it looks as if you can find a board with the middle configuration (probably most 8MBit games), you just wire A19 and A20 directly to the edge connector, break off pin 1 and you're golden.

Small correction: I'd imagine 16Mbit ROMs would already have the A19 in the right spot. So then you'd just need to attach A20. So if you're switching around wires... you're probably doing something wrong.

[paulpsomiadis]

Heh, I already wired up my Radica ROM from my JAP Radica into an old "Streets of Rage" cart.

The cart had all the tracks on it - just no connection to A18, A19 and A20.

Some kynar wire sorted that out!

Now I'm just awaiting delivery of a second hand Genny to test it on!

I'll post my test results when I'm up and running...

[SgtBowhack]

Yep, makes sense. Streets of Rage is a 4Mbit cart I believe. Good luck with it

[HK-47]

Yeah good luck. Id like to see if something like this works.

[SgtBowhack]

It will It's a standard Genesis ROM with a very slightly different pinout. Anyone could get this thing working with like 3 wires and a good board to put it on.

[paulpsomiadis]

Actually, it was a whole TON of little wires (2cm long) - just with three 'slightly' longer (5cm long) ones for the extra 3 connections.

All you need is Ben's Radica diagram and the ROM pinout for the cart you are disassembling.

Match the two up and viola!

@SgtBowhack is correct though, it's MUCH easier than modding the Radica itself!

[SgtBowhack]

Is the ROM smaller than a cartridge ROM? I suppose if that's the case then yeah, you'd need those
Still, I want them, so if anyone is willing to give theirs up, I'd be willing to take it

[paulpsomiadis]

The Radica units are going REALLY cheap in the January sales over here (£9.99 = $18.78 ) so I'm thinking of getting one to "Keep" as I already have a U.K. one for Modding (I might end up fixing my broken JAP model some time - but I'd rather start over on a new one for now).

Since I'm already keeping my JAP ROM from my JAP radica unit (that was the ROM I wired into the SOR cart, and YUP - it's smaller than the ROM chip in the cart, hence the wires)...and I will have one "boxed & un-touched" Radica for collecting...I'll MOD my current U.K. unit and keep the ROM for sending to you @SgtBowhack!

How does that sound?

Should cost a pittence to send something THAT small to the USA!

(besides, there isn't really any difference between the JAP and US/UK ROM's. Only that instead of saying "Radica" on start-up, the JAP ROM say's "SEGA TOYS" who make the unit in Japan. All the games are identical!)

Also, with some other news, I've compared the JAP and UK mainboards and there is only ONE component that is different (something labelled F1 on the UK mainboard [might be a solid state fuse or just a zero-amp linking resistor] - I haven't located where it would be wired on the JAP mainboard just yet (some slight layout differences) , but chances are that this MIGHT be what causes the systam to switch into PAL mode...

...I'll post all about it once I get a chance to test...

I've also noticed that the build quality of the UK units is somewhat higher (the silicon around the GOAC and ROM is much more uniform than that of the JAP model. Also the solder used seems of higher quality [more shiny]).