Hello World! How are you??

So here it is. The first and initial code written for the Sega Genesis by the xCart team. As you can tell, it is currently only running via emulation rather than running on the actual console. No worries everyone, I had to snag a trip to Washington DC for a week and in a rush left my Genesis at my parents place so emulation is all I have until I visit home next.

Either way, my PCB making guy that is part of the project just got back from Germany, so expect loads of hardware add ons and such as well as basic single flashcarts for development. The first step toward the hardware side of things is to etch a set of ROM programmers. He needs one and so do I.

So stay tuned and to see the new and exciting flash adventures!

Model 1 Genesis now with Composite video and Stereo out!

So I figured before I start developing on the Genny I should at least give it the pleasure of doing it over composite rather than use a shitty RF switch each time. So here is the final result. It could have been done a lot better, but I was using a composite jack from an old DVR (Thanks DirecTV!) and then a 2-line telephone cord.














Here is the initial start. Stripped the telephone wire to reveal the 4 wires (red, green, yellow, black). I used the phone cable because it is relatively flat already and it acted as a giant cable tie.









Here is the bottom side of the a/v connector on the backside of the Genesis model 1. I used the yellow wire as the line for straight composite video. Black is used for the common ground for the whole installation. I did NOT grab the audio from the proprietary a/v connector because it is solely muxed mono sound.












Here are the only points on the entire Genesis board that has split stereo. It is located directly under the headphone jack located in the front of the system. The red line (Pin 2) is audio right and the green line (Pin 3) is audio left. Unfortunately, the audio from these points are controlled via the headphone volume slider located on the front of the system.











Here is the complete installation with the Genesis still wide open to tape the excess wire down.
















Here is a close up of the composite jacks super glued to the backside of the case.

Sweet, delicious, clean video with excellent audio.

Why hello hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to thank and congratulate you for meandering over to the development site to see what all the hub bub was about. So here comes the short summary for you then the technical jargon will promptly follow suit.

As if the title of the blog wasn't a complete giveaway, this is a project to develop a system add-on to the Sega Genesis that utilizes the expansion port much like the Sega CD system. You might ask, isn't that like a flashcart I can buy off the internet or build with the right parts?

Essentially, yes. It is exactly that.

Here is the beauty of this project, simplicity.

All the schematics for a DIY flashcart can contain either 1 large backup/homebrew or 2 backups/homebrews. This is that bad for what it does, but the bad part is that you must require an eprom programmer and remove the chips from each flashcart, program, then reinstall in the flash cartridge. We are looking to simplify this by building our own code to access an SD card or a Compact Flash card with a FAT file system. So all backups/homebrews can literally drag-and-dropped to an SD/CF, placed into the xCart, then be booted to a screen that allows you to select what you like and execute it. No muss, no fuss.

Also, this system is driven to be open platform so we can construct this device to other consoles.

So, stay in the loop, leave comments, follow me on Twitter for active look on how things are going in the project. The main blog is for major updates/releases.

Thanks