Radica Compatibility testing...

[paulpsomiadis]

I'm starting a new thread for testing carts on the modded Radica GOAC units...(as I've now fixed mine!)

Format is "ROM Name", "ROM Region", "Test Result"...

Also, on carts that FAIL, the reason is given in < > type brackets.

Also post the version of the Radica unit you used (or just put it in your SIG.) - JAP/UK/USA version.

Please EDIT your posts when you test a new ROM, don't do multi-posts!

MY MODDED RADICA
==============

UK Version

ROMS TESTED
(All of these are actual carts and are plugged into a cart slot)
=========

#Streets of Rage (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Lion King (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Sonic the Hedgehog (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Eternal Champions (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#RBI '94 B Ball (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Streets of Rage 2 (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Gunstar Heroes (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Dynamite Headdy (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#SF2:SCE [24 m-bit] (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Ecco II: Tides of Time (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Toy Story [32 m-bit] (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Sonic the Hedgehog (NTSC/JAP) - Works fine
#Fatal Fury (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Crackdown (PAL/UK) - Works fine
#Fifa Soccer '96 (NTSC/USA) - Works fine
#Rocket Knight Adventures (PAL/UK) Works Fine

#Virtua Racing (PAL/UK) - Black screen <has special hardware>
#Sonic 2 (NTSC/JAP) - Black screen <unknown?>
#Pulseman (JAP/NTSC) - Shows region protection screen

Games that work with the DevSter SnK mod
============================

For the DevSter SnK MOD, go to his Radica page HERE:

http://devster.monkeeh.com/sega/radica/

#Sonic & Knuckles (PAL/UK) - works fine
#Sonic & Knuckles (NTSC/JAP) - works fine
#Sonic 3 (PAL/UK) - <may work - but I no longer own it>
#Sonic 3 (NTSC/JAP) - Black screen <wrong region>
#SSF2 [40 m-bit] (PAL/UK) - UNTESTED <but may work>

#Classics Collection (PAL/UK) [multigame cart]
|
|-#Alex Kidd & Enchanted Castle - Works fine
|-#Altered Beast - Works fine
|-#Flicky - Works fine
|-#Gunstar Heroes - Works fine

#Megagames 3 (PAL/UK) [multigame cart]
|
|-#Super Monaco GP - Works fine
|-#Super Thunder Blade - Works fine
|-#Alien Storm - Works fine

#Radica 6-in-1 ROM (PAL/?) [wired onto a dead cart board]
|
|-#Sonic the Hedgehog - Works fine
|-#Golden Axe - Works fine
|-#Kid Chameleon - Works fine
|-#Flicky - Works fine
|-#Altered Beast - Works fine
|-#Dr Robotniks Mean Bean Machine - Works fine

GAMES TESTED BY OTHER PEOPLE

@xenepp's list

#Mega Bomberman (PAL/UK) - Works
#Hook (PAL/UK) - Works
#Super Monaco GP (PAL/UK) - Works
#Lotus II (PAL/UK) - Works
#World Cup Italia '90 (PAL/UK) - Works
#Earnest Evans (NTSC/US) - Works
#Greendog (PAL/UK) - Works
#Greendog (NTSC/US) - Works
#Micro Machines (PAL/UK) - Works
#T2 : The Arcade Game (PAL/UK) - Works
#Flashback (PAL/UK) - Works
#Megagames I (PAL/UK) - Works
#Alien 3 (PAL/UK) - Works
#Mortal Kombat (PAL/UK) - Works

#Mortal Kombat 3 (PAL/UK) - Not working

@plasticrelic's list

MY MODDED RADICA
==============

USA (ntsc) Version

ROMS TESTED
=========

#Sonic Spinball (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#Championship Pro-Am (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#FIFA international soccer (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#The Revenge of Shinobi (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#Paperboy (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#Frogger (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#Hard Drivin' (NTSC/US) - Works fine
#Tenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Hyper Stone Heist (NTSC/US) - Works fine

END OF OTHER PEOPLES GAMES

Note that Eternal Champions displayed a "region check" message on my JAP Radica (before I put my JAP Radica back into it's original case - it's a collection item now...)

My guess is that there is only PAL/NTSC check being done...

Sonic 3 is an unusual case, as the Radica has enough address lines to support it, and yet it won't work?

Maybe something to do with the fact that the ROM requires SRAM support? (that and the fact that the innards of the cart are FAR more complex than a normal cart!)

Also, the Radica ROM will ONLY run on the Radica - not on a REAL MegaDrive, no matter WHAT region the REAL MD is set to!
(Hence region for the ROM is marked "?")

EDIT - actually, DevSter found a way to get the Radica ROM to run on the REAL MD. This is just as well - because his SnK MOD breaks compatibility of the Radica ROM on the Radica - Ah well!

[Epicenter]

What I'd like to know most is if fancy visual effects like the Shadowing/Highlighting in Vectorman, the crazy raster effects in Ecco: Tides of Time's message screens and the level "Sky Tides", et cetera work or if they're left out of the incorporated VDP to keep costs down. Since I've heard reports of lousy audio I suspect they're not all that accurate.

[SgtBowhack]

Super Street Fighter II won't work? That's a bit interesting, since it's the only > 32MBit game I know of. Did you put the SSF2 ROM in the Radica or plug in the cartridge? It might have extra pins or some sort of weird connection for the mapper.
The Eternal Champions message does not necessarily mean that at all. The Sonic 3 I have says "For use on NTSC Megadrive Systems." even when the system is in NTSC (but set to US/Europe on the region pin).
I have a bit of difficulty believing Lion King wouldn't work if if it's connected properly, since it's a regular cartridge as far as I know... (is there something special about it I don't know? IIRC it's just a 16MBit cartridge.)

[Red5]

That all depends on which SF2 he's talking about: SF2 - Special Championship Edition (common, and under 32MBits) or SF2 - The New Challengers (relatively Rare and the only Genesis game to use 40MBits + bank switching).

If it's the New Challengers version then it's perhaps not surprising to find that it won't work. If it's Special Championship Edition then it's a bit more surprising, especially as the new Street Fighter unit announced by Radica earlier this week has this game on-board... So which version is it paulpsomiadis?

Incidentally DevSter has speculated that the problem may not be a region setting problem at all but a TIMING issue:

very cool that they finally modded the radica 10 in 1 =D

lots of people are believing that the radica doesn't have a z80, or that it doesn't have enough address lines. the pin connector provided is wrong too, there is no such thing as an address bit 0 on the 68k =P, its actually bit 1. region detection does exist too. all the region protection is a just a data bit that says if the system was made for games marketed off-seas (use), or for japan. i think the problem here is a timing problem. someone that has a modded radica needs to observe how the address line are being acessed. like if the game stays in a constant loop, most of the higher address lines would stay constant, and then we can pinpoint which portion of that rom is looping forever

Now this is something that I'm familiar with having used GBA Flashcarts... the first batch of flash carts that were produced used a type of Flash memory that was TOO SLOW, although many games worked correctly many also needed to have "speed patches" applied to them before they would work on a GBA. So what was the typical behaviour for a game that required spped patching, a Black screen, sound at all familiar!? It would also explain why some games that don't have any region checks, like AfterBurner II etc., don't work.

[SgtBowhack]

That all depends on which SF2 he's talking about: SF2 - Special Championship Edition (common, and under 32MBits) or SF2 - The New Challengers (relatively Rare and the only Genesis game to use 40MBits + bank switching).

I'm guessing SSF2 is Super Street Fighter II

Incidentally DevSter has speculated that the problem may not be a region setting problem at all but a TIMING issue: ... So what was the typical behaviour for a game that required spped patching, a Black screen, sound at all familiar!? It would also explain why some games that don't have any region checks, like AfterBurner II etc., don't work.

That is, as you say, also merely speculation. We do NOT know that region detection works, because if the data is not able to be sent to the cartridge when requested (because the bit does not exist?) it might not know what to do.
It's an interesting theory, except that his "timing" issue might just lead us to a command that is checking region too And the cartridge speed wouldn't be an issue since we're using original cartridges. But yeah... that is a good thought- tracing the address of the crash could probably be done with a multimeter.
Personally, I would hope for it to be a region issue, since the Mega Key exists and would probably be able to force the cartridge into thinking the Radica is whatever region you'd like it to be.

[Red5]

I'd also guess it's probably the 40Mbit version, but we'll have to wait for paul to get back to us on that. If it's the SCE version though this would imply that the upcoming Street Fighter Radica is an updated/improved version of Radica's GOAC which may mean better compatibility than the version we're currently hacking, that's is why I pointed it out as an added bonus it also has 6-button pads... yes that's two of them.

The timing issue is speculation, as is the "no-region" thing. You are right in saying that if it's a "no-region" problem then a Mega-Key will likely fix it as from the description it seems as if it's got some chippery on-board to get around region settings. If it's a timing issue though we're probably screwed or we'll have to look at that new Jakk's Pacific EA sports thingy, which also appears to be a GOAC, to see if it's any better.

[SgtBowhack]

Considering how close the two came out, it's probably the same thing. The design is Sega's, so it's likely Sega just sold it to Jakks to use like they did with Radica.
It is likely that the different releases may have slight differences/improvements, which means it will be interesting to see what comes out of all these different versions
I'm hoping the Jakks one reveals how to get save-game support on the other models, but I don't find it extremely likely... apparently KB Toys is selling the Jakks for $20 already (says so on their website)

[Unidentified Assilant]

So basically... Ecco Tides Of Time Don't work... Yay!

[paulpsomiadis]

Indeed, it'll be interesting to see the new SF2:SCE Radica unit. The best part will be the DUAL 6-button controllers!

The Jakks is also somewhat interesting as (like @Red5 said) it has save support...my guess it's a Radica 'type' mainboard in the top of the pad 'case' just like in the Radica units.

@SgtBowhack - I'm also skeptical about certain carts not working on my modded Radica, but until I get the PSU for my REAL Megadrive (currently in the post from eBay) - I can't test to see whether any of the second hand carts I bought are dead!

Either that or one of the pins on the edge connector isn't making contact (although if that were the case, then I wouldn't have even got the "Region error" messsage...)

I'm going to have a quick continuity check with a multimeter later to see if anything is looking "dodgey"...

==EDIT==

Nope, all of the connections between the Radica ROM spot and the Cart Edge connector are fine!

I also checked out the circuitry of the "Eternal Champions" and "Lion King" cartriges...

...both have exactly the same circuitry!

Why then does Lion King not work...dunno?

@Red5 - I agree that the Radica probably doesn't use a 68000 processor - rather an 'equivalent' CPU with slightly different timing.
If you watch the demo's from "Golden Axe" on the Radica - then compare this to a REAL MD (or a good emulator with accurate timing - like the not entirely legal "SEGAGEN" on the DC) you'll notice that the timing is 'off' on the demo with Gillius Thunderhead when it plays on the Radica.
Although timing probably isn't that much of a problem...

Oh, and I know that "SEGAGEN" is one of the only emu's with accurate timing because if you play the ROM "Beyond Oasis" (Story of Thor in the UK) the demo's get all messed up on most emu's. But NOT on SEGAGEN!
Also it was coded by SEGA, so it ought to be accurate!

[Red5]

I'm also skeptical about certain carts not working on my modded Radica, but until I get the PSU for my REAL Megadrive (currently in the post from eBay) - I can't test to see whether any of the second hand carts I bought are dead!

A good point! Although carts are pretty resilient they do eventually die Most "non-working" carts usually just need their edge connectors cleaning, in fact this is generally the first thing I do whenever I buy a "new" cart... I have had about a half dozen or so truly dead carts in the past though.

[paulpsomiadis]

Heh, I cleaned the edge connectors on the carts before I tested!

Oh, and I've scored myself a JAP Sonic 2 on eBay : -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... RK:MEWN:IT

I'll test it when it arrives and update my list...

[SgtBowhack]

I could've sent you a Sonic 2 for about 3 quid, I'd imagine
It's only 200 yen here (about 1 GBP), and shipping for one cartridge would probably be about the same via SAL (Surface Air-Lifted). Would've taken about 2 weeks to arrive. If you need any Japanese games in the future, let me know via PM (This is not going to turn into some game sending service though, I'm only gonna do it for Paul and a few others because they're testing games out). Just let me know what game you need and I'll give you a rough estimate as to the cost. Though a lot of the games are in Osaka and I don't have a lot of time to go get them (might be lucky though and I might have it on hand)

[paulpsomiadis]

Heh, thanks! I'll remember that if I'm looking for something I need...

Although in retrospect, I'm collecting boxed titles - not just for test purposes! That would mean shipping everything inc. box, cover sleeve, cart and manual.

I'll test out my Sonic 2 first though!

Once I know that a JAP game works - then we'll see about sending carts!

[SgtBowhack]

Sonic 2 USA and Sonic 2 Japan are nearly the exact same cartridge, sadly. The one difference (and that's all there is!) is that Tails is called Miles more in the Japanese one.
My Sonic 2 has a box and cost me 170 yen (less than 1 GBP)
Just remember that I'll not be in Japan for too much longer (about 4 months).

[SpongeBuell]

I think that the US version calls him/her Miles "Tails" Powers