evercade

[markriley83]

Hi, I have an evercade and all the games released so far. I haven't played with it yet because I wanted to dump the games and I think it saves to the cartridge and don't want to risk contaminating the data.

There is an article:

http://retrotechr.blogspot.com/2020/06/ ... e.html?m=1

This suggests that the cartridges are pretty much SD cards with a gameboy interface.

If I set up a similar reading setup and DD all the ROM data, would that make a decent dump? Would no intro be interested in such a project?

[Hiccup]

A dd dump should be fine. No-Intro would absolutely be interested
Its a very good idea to use this linux distro (as a live USB/DVD) to dump external media with much less risk of the operating system writing to it - by default, most operating systems will change the metadata on inserted media.

[markriley83]

Turns out my soldering skills are abysmal and I've made no progress in creating this device. If anyone is UK based and able to cobble something together and send it to me, I'm more than happy to pay.

[fazley]

Any news on this? I have an Evercade and all the carts but I made an SD card for my RG351V with just the games from the Evercade on (no cart swapping, better screen and better Dpad) but I am missing a few titles I can’t find.
Would love it if someone has dumped the Evercade carts somewhere, I too tried to make a reader with a Gameboy cart adapter but I can’t solder either!

[markriley83]

Any news on this? I have an Evercade and all the carts but I made an SD card for my RG351V with just the games from the Evercade on (no cart swapping, better screen and better Dpad) but I am missing a few titles I can’t find.
Would love it if someone has dumped the Evercade carts somewhere, I too tried to make a reader with a Gameboy cart adapter but I can’t solder either!

Not yet. I was going to give it another go because I've had this sat here for months and not touched it because I want completely clean dumps.

Edit: Ok, I've ordered all my bits and they should arrive for the weekend. I'm out this weekend, but I'll get set up and try to get into a position where I can start this next week.

[fazley]

Please let me know how you get on, I’m still interested in getting the cartridges dumped

[Hiccup]

Can anyone help?

I don't know of anyone in the UK, but TeamEurope in mainland Europe may be able to help. Best to contact him with the email at the bottom of his blog https://team-europe.blogspot.com/ (or I can contact him if you want).

If you'd prefer someone in the UK, tell me - if so I can see if I can find involved with MAME who can help.

[esmith13]

Just found this thread despite being an early adopter of both the Evercade and the modding scene for it.
It is true that the carts are quite literally just SD flash chips wired to a GB/GBA cart pinout. The first 8 pins of the cart are directly wired to the 8 pins of the SD flash chip. There are no electronic components on a retail cart PCB aside from a single capacitor and the flash chip itself. So far all carts have been either 128MB or 512MB in size. The original "protection" on the handheld was simply to block mounting any removable storage that exceeded 512MB in capacity.

This is an inside view of a retail cart I turned into a homemade EverSD (the Evercade specific equivalent to an EverDrive)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/148q3xC ... sp=sharing

I have dumps of every cart released to date, fresh out of the box, prior to using them in an Evercade console (save games are written to the cart). I also have all upcoming carts on preorder as well. (two due in the end of September and two more due late November or December)
That means that as of this post I have:
Console Carts 01-26
Arcade Carts 01-06

My dumps were done on a Windows PC by copying the files via File Explorer. The original carts are FAT formatted. Despite it just being a file copy it is verifiable as accurate since the latest Evercade VS firmwares hash check the games on the cart before running them. This firmware change caused some "inaccurately manufactured" retail carts to fail to run and require replacement under warranty. My copies have all been tested by writing the cart data back to a "blank" cart and verifying they mount and play games in an unmodified retail Evercade VS system.

I also separately maintain updated roms as well. for each cart that has been officially updated/patched I have the updated versions of those roms that can be used to overwrite the original version for someone who, for example, only owns the original Evercade handheld and may have a cart that is only updatable on a VS console but still playable on the handheld. I have, for example, helped individuals update their Cart #20 (Mega Cat Studios Collection #2), which shipped with a demo version of Roniu's Tale that was later patched to the full retail game, only on the VS console. Those who bought the cart and only have access to the handheld still have not been able to update their carts to add this game, tho a cart updated on the VS console plays as expected on the handheld.

Long story short - I'm happy to help if I can.

[Hiccup]

...

That's great to hear, especially that you dumped them before using them. I think ideally the dumps would be raw images, rather than copies of the filesystem contents, but just the files are still good. (Plus maybe you could still make raw images, although I suspect windows may have changed the filesystem metadata when it mounted them).

Pinging markriley83 as well.

[esmith13]

...

That's great to hear, especially that you dumped them before using them. I think ideally the dumps would be raw images, rather than copies of the filesystem contents, but just the files are still good. (Plus maybe you could still make raw images, although I suspect windows may have changed the filesystem metadata when it mounted them).

Pinging markriley83 as well.

Would that really matter in this case? If the original media is literally a FAT formatted SD card, and the files were not edited on windows in any way, then wouldn't the only kind of metadata that could have been altered be the same metadata that would be different on every single retail cartridge ever sold? I mean, Blaze had to offer free replacements on a bunch of carts to customers when they implemented hash-checking security to the system since their own method of "flashing" carts was a glorified file copy process, not imaging of the media.

I guess what I'm saying is that if a "dump" passes the console's own MD5 check of the file system as valid how it could be any more "correct" when created and modified dates of individual files can vary from retail copy to retail copy already and once you put it in a system it is likely to get erased and replaced with a newer version stored on the internal flash anyway.

Just curious what the exact logic is here - since it's not an actual cartridge and is more akin to archiving a floppy disk game than a console cartridge.

[Hiccup]

Ah I see what you mean. Yeah, if the original data is simply files that have been copied to an SD card (as opposed to a disk image being written) and the metadata is inconsistent, then I think just datting the files would be fine.

[markriley83]

Just noticed the updates. I think that sounds good. I still haven't put together a dumping tool. I'll still throw one together for the purpose of verifying but it does sound like dumping the files is for the best if they aren't created via a image. I should get myself sorted soon.

[esmith13]

Just noticed the updates. I think that sounds good. I still haven't put together a dumping tool. I'll still throw one together for the purpose of verifying but it does sound like dumping the files is for the best if they aren't created via a image. I should get myself sorted soon.

Let me know if there is anything I could do to help. Two new carts will be headed my way in the next week or so, then a few weeks after that will be the next two new carts.

As a side note, since my last conversation here with Hiccup, I have gone back thru the entire collection using an SD card cartridge and verified that an updated, retail firmware Evercade VS console will launch (and if available, apply updates to) every game on every cart I have backed up. This is relevant IMHO since the newer firmwares of the VS console hash check every game before launching it to validate if it is "genuine". Altering a rom in any way invalidates it and either the game or cart itself will be rejected by the system.

As a side effect of this testing, I now also have separate backups of the updated cart contents for each cart that has had updates made available for it. An especially interesting one is the "#20 Mega Cat Studios Collection 2" cart which was supposed to include the game "Roniu's Tale" but only shipped with a demo of the game on the cart. Blaze has updated the VS console with the ability to patch the cart to contain the full version of that game but those who only own the handheld console cannot yet play the game they paid for. I have successfully tested using the updated files I backed up for that cart to update a retail cartridge via my PC and play it successfully in both a retail firmware handheld and retail firmware VS.

[markriley83]

That is interesting. I Moved house in september and I'm gradually getting my hobby station set up to sort all this. I''m just slow due to life.

[esmith13]

Any plans to move forward with this in any way? I've maintained clean dumps of the complete collection prior to being inserted in any console via a dedicated Linux box that mounts everything plugged in as read-only. I have most of the cart ROM updates separately as well and eventually will get the ones I'm still missing. (just laziness on my part)