Everdrives etc.

[FantasMii]

Do you use them?

I currently own:
Everdrive N8 for NES
Everdrive GB X7 for GBC
SD2SNES for SNES
Everdrive 64 v3 for N64
Everdrive GBA X5 for GBA
Mega Everdrive X7 for Genesis/Mega Drive
Everdrive GG for Game Gear
Rhea for Saturn
GDEmu for Dreamcast

I also use OPL for PS2, USB Loader GX for Wii, & Pro CFW for PSP. Finally, I have a Super SD System 3 for TurboGrafx-16 & PSIO for PlayStation 1 on the way. In the future I would like to buy R4 cards for my DSiXL & 3DSXL, but I don't know much about them.

These things are a godsend & allow me to focus my collecting to just the carts I really love & want to own without leaving a purchase up to chance.

I love having CiB Sega Genesis games. The black boxes are the best ever & look great on the shelf. I don't want to own all of them though. My Mega Everdrive showed me how cool stuff like Elemental Master & Devilish are, games I would otherwise have never bought because they were so obscure in the US.

How do you feel about flash carts & other software solutions?

 

[FrankenGraphics]

I mostly use PowerPak for NES as it's a great developer tool.

It should be known that cartridges using 3.3v flash without proper level shifters are somewhat harmful to your console.

Pirate multicarts you find on ebay, aliExpress etc are currently of a design that will damage your console gradually because of bad EE.

As far as everdrive boards go, be sure to check your boards with this article to make sure your cartridge doesn't damage your console long-term.

https://db-electronics.ca/2017/07/05/the-dangers-of-3-3v-flash-in-retro-consoles/

 

[TurtleRescueNES]

I have an Everdrive N8 for my NES. I also have an orange Japanese GameCube modded so that it can output via HDMI and play burned discs and emulators. But I currently do most of my gaming on my GPD device. Looks like a 3DS, but can be loaded full of games.

Of all those options, only my GameCube can support playing currently exported by NES Maker, though the Everdrive did support the Mapper 2 version of Troll Burner.

Also a collector of cib NES and GameCube titles.

 

[Mihoshi20]

I only have the retroUSB powerpak for NES and SNES that I use with my Famicom AV and snes respectfully. But annoyed when I found out it won't support Mapper 30 an no one has made a third party mapper pack yet that does. I'm very weary of the everdrives due to the questionable way they handle the stepping down of the +5v to +3.3v for the FPGA which I consider a ticking timebomb but I do see how they'd be very convenient and feature rich compared to the powerpak.

There is also a third party definition out there for Mapper 30 which really has made me consider getting one if I could find it cheap enough. But instead I plan to use Caitsith's UNROM-512 PCB with eproms instead as that should let me test on original NES/Famicom hardware and NOAC clones along with FPGA based clones once I get one.

For the time being I simply just test on FCEUX on PC and my raspberry pi running retropie.

 

[TurtleRescueNES]

I forget where I read this, but I was under the imperssion that the Everdrive N8 doesn't have the voltage issue, unlike the older version.

 

[Mihoshi20]

Doing a quick google search I couldn't find anything on a hardware revision and getting access to Krikzz's response about the voltage issue requires being registered on the forum. Really though I'm not rallying against the everdrive series. It has some nice features and haven't heard any reports of them failing yet, aside from an issue with the TG-16 which was fixed with a revision. Just mentioning why I've held off buying one. If the voltage step down/regulator ever did fail, it's likely the everdrive would just fail to start, or feed the +5v directly into the FPGA causing it to either continue to work for a little bit with the over-volting if it's tolerances are high enough or simply fail. I believe the talk of it damaging the console is overblown, no pun intended.