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NEC TG-16/TE/TurboDuo => TG-16/TE/TurboDuo Discussion => Topic started by: snickersbar on July 15, 2012, 11:25:01 AM

Title: Turbo ever drive
Post by: snickersbar on July 15, 2012, 11:25:01 AM
Hey I was on stone age gamer site I see the turbo ever drive, has anyone got one and can they do a review of it

http://stoneagegamer.com/turboeverdrive_boardonly.aspx
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: BeaglePuss on July 15, 2012, 12:06:54 PM
I ordered mine the other day.  I can't wait until it arrives.  I've enjoyed their SNES and Genesis releases so far, but I'm even more excited for this one.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: T2KFreeker on July 15, 2012, 12:41:51 PM
This actually also caught my attention. The price is good and all SD card, so there you have it. If you are into programming, this is going to be awesome. Not sure how you would do CD games though . . .
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: BeaglePuss on July 15, 2012, 12:43:54 PM
Not sure how you would do CD games though . . .
Couldn't you just burn CDr like we have been doing for years?
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Sadler on July 15, 2012, 12:46:01 PM
Here's a LINK (http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=11928.0) to the thread in the PCE forum! :)
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Bernie on July 15, 2012, 12:46:48 PM
CDR burns are a crap shoot on the Duo.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: T2KFreeker on July 15, 2012, 01:01:25 PM
CDR burns are a crap shoot on the Duo.

Not to mention they can kill the laser which are getting harder and harder to find these days.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: storino03 on July 15, 2012, 01:32:32 PM
Are there save states with that card?
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: storino03 on July 15, 2012, 01:36:10 PM
Okay, just read the product link. It comes naked, as in no casing so the board is exposed? It didn't really say how the saves are stored, if they are. lol

How is the firmware updated? Sending the unit back to them? I thought it would have been through the microsd card, by putting a file and loading it at bootup.

Unless there's a FAQ section that I'm missing on that site.

Edit: The price is somewhat enticing. Though I'm afraid if I buy this, I won't by retail TG16 games anymore lol.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: sheath on July 15, 2012, 02:07:17 PM
The firmware is updated using a JTAG cable, which is fairly cheaply available on ebay right now.  The OS is updated over the SD card, at least if it works like the other flash based Everdrives.  Mine should arrive over the next week and I'll be able to post a video of how it works.  There should already be one or two of those up though in the forums that have been linked in this thread. 
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Mishran on July 15, 2012, 02:26:41 PM
Hmmm... Looks like Stone Age Gamer is sold out. Guess I'm waiting. :-k
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Chuplayer on July 15, 2012, 03:08:51 PM
Hmmm... Looks like Stone Age Gamer is sold out. Guess I'm waiting. :-k
Me, too. At least it gives me time to read feedback and maybe for the Everdrive people to iron out bugs.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: bartre on July 15, 2012, 03:24:13 PM
Hmmm... Looks like Stone Age Gamer is sold out. Guess I'm waiting. :-k
Me, too. At least it gives me time to read feedback and maybe for the Everdrive people to iron out bugs.
yup, it's my personal policy to never buy the first revision of something unless that's the only/best one.
I always wait til some people try it out.
that said, i'm definitely hopeful and totally psyched.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: cabbage on July 15, 2012, 03:50:33 PM
Okay, just read the product link. It comes naked, as in no casing so the board is exposed? It didn't really say how the saves are stored, if they are. lol
...how what saves are stored? There are no hucards with on-board save RAM (except the ten no koe card). Saving will work the same way it always has--using internal backup RAM (on the Duo, CD-ROM, ten no koe 2 bank, etc.) or the memory base.

Unless I missed something and the turbo everdrive can function as a tennokoe card too?
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: storino03 on July 15, 2012, 04:02:52 PM
No, I meant, I thought that you can save your game state directly to the sd card, like an emulator would work.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Duo_R on July 15, 2012, 04:41:54 PM
You can still back order it at retrogate


Hmmm... Looks like Stone Age Gamer is sold out. Guess I'm waiting. :-k
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Frank_fjs on July 15, 2012, 04:52:57 PM
No, I meant, I thought that you can save your game state directly to the sd card, like an emulator would work.

I thought this may have been a possibility too, but I've asked about it and there is no support for it.

The card also hasn't been tested on a SGX with SGX ROMS, so if someone here wants to try that out when their card arrives and let us know if it works, that would be great.

I really want to pounce on a pre-order now, but I'm going to restrain myself and wait for the first firmware update, there are bound to be several bugs in the first revision.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: MottZilla on July 15, 2012, 05:15:21 PM
The Turbo ED doesn't and will never support playing CD games/ISOs. It does not contain the RAM that the CD System cards do.

As stated before no HuCard games contain battery backed RAM and only one game even contains extra RAM. Populous.

The Turbo ED is not likely going to need any firmware updates. If it does you just need a JTAG programmer. But I don't think that will be very likely. Through an OS update or homebrew it should be possible to copy system save memory to and from the SD card.

The card should work on all systems, but he could only test it on a Core PCE and TG16.

Even if you buy this card, there is no reason not to continue collecting actual games. And one final note, the OS does have region patching for PCE systems to play US region games without grounding the CPU pin.  Oh and there is a small switch on the card you set for either a PCE console or TG16 console.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: T2KFreeker on July 15, 2012, 05:45:24 PM
Oh and there is a small switch on the card you set for either a PCE console or TG16 console.

Awesome. Now that might really be interesting . . .
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: cabbage on July 15, 2012, 05:47:49 PM
Through an OS update or homebrew it should be possible to copy system save memory to and from the SD card.
It would be really wonderful if this were the case! I don't recall krikzz ever mentioning such a feature in the OS, but then again I haven't followed the everdrive boards lately. I've always longed for a way to backup save data to my PC and avoid undue losses from capacitors or batteries running out of juice, so hopefully the everdrive can help out where the other flash carts have failed.
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: Frank_fjs on July 15, 2012, 06:21:42 PM
Oh and there is a small switch on the card you set for either a PCE console or TG16 console.

Awesome. Now that might really be interesting . . .

How so?
Title: Re: Turbo ever drive
Post by: MottZilla on July 15, 2012, 07:35:32 PM
He has not mentioned that he will do so (internal memory backup/restore), but he did mention he will provide information on the Turbo ED and accessing the SD card so if he does not implement the feature it is possible someone else might do it.

T2KFreeker, I'm not sure what you mean. The PCB has a small switch to remap the data lines to match PCE or TG16 pinout, it isn't really that interesting, it just means you can easily use it on either a US or JP console.