Sega Megadrive (Genesis) Flashback Mini HD with an USB on internal mother board

[MaxiBus]

A quick request: would you be so kind to suggest a wiki domain name in the comments?
https://flashback.steckbecken.at/

Thank you all

 

[JackMonty]

Yes you have only to extract it one time, you have to leave the bootanimation.zip zipped. just run the install.bat.

Ahh I see the zip file stays as it is but then where are the bat files? The drop box link only takes me to the bootanimation.zip - did you post the batch files in an earlier link that I missed? Sorry to be a pain I just really want to try your boot logo!

 

[fixingmytoys]

Yes you have only to extract it one time, you have to leave the bootanimation.zip zipped. just run the install.bat.

@Hekel , hey i downloaded your bootanimation.zip to pop on to my flashback , and i get the same files as well no bat file that @JackMonty ie the zip file no bat file

 

[fixingmytoys]

@Hekel , hey i downloaded your bootanimation.zip to pop on to my flashback , and i get the same files as well no bat file that @JackMonty ie the zip file no bat file

Dont worry @Hekel found it so all is good , sorry to bother you

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I absolutely agree ! This will be great !

I thought another way to test WiFi without another USB connection:

- install some useful apk such as adb shell for Android ! (if someone has one coming from an ARM device please send it to me so I can test it)
- connect an USB hub
- connect an USB mouse to the hub
- connect an USB keyboard to the hub
- connect a WiFi USB dongle to the hub
- play with the Android interface using mouse and a keyboard and try to get the WiFi working !

For what I saw exploring the file system some basic applications got removed but I think drivers are still there so... I think I will try (I am near to become father those days so if my child is born I will have to suspend my research )




You can "safely" remove the main frontend and replace it with the apk you want; if the apk is coded to behave as a launcher (or "dashboard" if you prefere) it will be the dashboard.

About the bootlogo:

1 - the main original animation is stored in /system/bin/bootanimation and it is an .elf (executable) ad you can launch it from adb sending "bootanimation" command (you can break it with CTRL+C); I made some tests on it but i think data inside are coded in some way (probably easy-compressed) so I abandoned the idea of editing that elf file but you can replace it with another .elf containing an animation (you can "browse" the whole rockchip official and unofficial ROM repository here looking for some working apk: I found a working image gallery and youtube apk there);

2 - after abandoning the ".elf way" I had a look at boot.img partition and found that it seemed to support the common Android boot animation format; so I tested the "/system/media/bootanimation.zip" road and it worked flawlessly: you need to create a common Android boot animation, calling it bootanimation.zip and store it in the folder I mentioned. The animation is composed by 2 main things: picture folders and a desc.txt file where you can specify the animation parameters (really easy to understand, try for example to read here); at the end of thre process you put all of the stuff inside a .ZIP file with compression level called STORE ! This is very important because if you use another compression type the animation WILL NOT BE SHOW and the console may hang !

Testing some pre-made animation works fine but some of them made the console in a bootloop state and I needed to reflash the system partition with a previous backup so BE AWARE WHEN PLAYING WITH FOREIGN bootanimation.zip ! More in general BE CAREFUL PLAYING WITH IT ! Problems can be animation size or animation parameters.

3 - It is also possible to add sound but the common Android way seems not to work (specify the file in the desc.txt and/or put the PowerOn.ogg file in /system/media/ or in /system/media/audio/ui seems not to work); .mp3 and .ogg should be supported but no luck in making them playing until now.
The correct path is /system/media/audio/boot.ogg

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For testing purpose here it is a working bootanimation.zip made by me. There are also some quite cool windows programs to build up boot animations such as Boot Animation Factory but I think google will find some more.

Using custom boot animations makes the USB ADB connection to fail sometime (the ADB connection suddenly disappear and you hear the USB windows disconnection sound), just reboot the console and retry.

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Here they are 2 batch scripts, one to automatically install and another to automatically remove the bootanimation. Put them in your adb.exe folder.


IMPORTANT !

If you got a bootloop and you cannot "switch" to USB-Download mode with the flashing software remember that you can enter in that mode connecting the console to the USB port while holding the small button on the PCB !

hey @JackMonty this is the post your missing re the bootanimation.zip

 

[JackMonty]

Dont worry @Hekel found it so all is good , sorry to bother you

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hey @JackMonty this is the post your missing re the bootanimation.zip

Thank you thnx1138 - can't believe I missed them!

 

[MaxiBus]

Just want to remind you to find a proper domain name / wiki name for https://flashback.steckbecken.at
Pls comment on the start page, thx

 

[asper]

Debugging errors I found the movie playback issue with KODI (movies crash the app causing a sudden exit); the problem, unfortunately, seems dued to RAM; 256MB are not enough to play big videos in fact small videos play fine... now there is a question: the RAM chip is 2GBs [Hynx H5TQ2G63GFR]... I suppose ATGames used a boot-kernel from another (RAM-smaller) device and flashed it over the MD Flashback... it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to have only 256MB of TOTAL RAM available if the chip is 2GBs and NO app is able to find more than 256MB:

I tried to find a way to "extend" the RAM but I miserably failed; if some Android-guru is listening this is the time to "appear" ; this is the real last IMPORTANT thing missing in this small-jewel-console (I am confident that WiFi will come soon with the proper adapter).

 

[Excalibur007]

I tried the boot animation (using the install.bat) and I just get a black screen during boot up now. No atgames logo and no new boot animation.
Is there something else that needs installed to be able to use it?

 

[WD_Gaster]

there is no way the chipset is 2gb. that alone would exceed cost of the device itself to manufacture and they would be losing money per unit.
in an actual ram chip you would see array's of these in 8 to make a 2gb ram module

 

[asper]

there is no way the chipset is 2gb. that alone would exceed cost of the device itself to manufacture and they would be losing money per unit.
in an actual ram chip you would see array's of these in 8 to make a 2gb ram module

You are correct: it is a 2 gigabit module and not 2 gigabyte, i re-checked the datasheet.

 

[WD_Gaster]

ok guys this is it:

https://flashback.steckbecken.at/generationslauncher

i will send version 3.0 to the guys that have helped me test. if no critical issues are found, release may be even moved as early as end of day today.

First Homebrew Dashboard for the system will be released shortly!!!

also a note:

for the theming to work the image files need to be in 1280x720 size

thank you!

 

[fixingmytoys]

ok guys this is it:

https://flashback.steckbecken.at/generationslauncher

i will send version 3.0 to the guys that have helped me test. if no critical issues are found, release may be even moved as early as end of day today.

First Homebrew Dashboard for the system will be released shortly!!!

also a note:

for the theming to work the image files need to be in 1280x720 size

thank you!

@WD_Gaster Just had a look really good easy to read , love the notes about not pressing buttons lol , can't wait to try this one out for you

 

[Hekel]

I was working the whole sunday and today to improve retroshield and im nearly done.. but accidently i deltet a folder which was work of 2h.. need now to recreate it.. pissed me off xD..

 

[fixingmytoys]

I was working the whole sunday and today to improve retroshield and im nearly done.. but accidently i deltet a folder which was work of 2h.. need now to recreate it.. pissed me off xD..

Ouch , you don't have software to fine lost files etc

 

[asper]

I tried the boot animation (using the install.bat) and I just get a black screen during boot up now. No atgames logo and no new boot animation.
Is there something else that needs installed to be able to use it?

Try the attached package (all included to install and uninstall bootanimation).

 

[Hekel]

Ouch , you don't have software to fine lost files etc

The main problem is the data was on the console, but i made a rework and fixed the last bugs i had. Retroshield is now fully running and it fits a fullset of mega drive/32x inside the nand flash. I will show tonight a proof video and how it looks like.

 

[Excalibur007]

Try the attached package (all included to install and uninstall bootanimation).

Thanks! That worked for me, in a round-about way.
When I run it, that adb.exe says the service is out of date and restarts it, then it couldn’t find the device. So I don’t know if that exe is newer than what I have installed or if it’s just because another copy of adb was already running. Anyway, after trying it several times in different ways, it worked. I don’t know if it was the adb in that package or the one I already had installed though... so my experience is probably of no use for troubleshooting if anyone else has trouble getting it installed.

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On another note, I’ve been adding Genesis games for several days, but yesterday I installed a bunch of SMS games and I used “genre=Arcade” so all the game gear and SMS games show up under “Bonus Games,” leaving the Sega list for only Genesis titles. The SMS Sonic games automatically appear in the Sonic list, so I’m thinking anything with “Sonic in the title must automatically be detected.

I can hardly wait to use a replacement emulator, because in addition to some Genesis games that don’t work properly or play too fast, I noticed that “Impossible Mission” for the SMS does not work right. The collision detection is comepletly broken so that no matter how you jump, you cannot get past any robot. Now I wonder how many other SMS and Game Gear games appear at first glance to work, but don’t.

 

[asper]

Thanks! That worked for me, in a round-about way.
When I run it, that adb.exe says the service is out of date and restarts it, then it couldn’t find the device. So I don’t know if that exe is newer than what I have installed or if it’s just because another copy of adb was already running. Anyway, after trying it several times in different ways, it worked. I don’t know if it was the adb in that package or the one I already had installed though... so my experience is probably of no use for troubleshooting if anyone else has trouble getting it installed.

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On another note, I’ve installed a bunch of SMS games and I’ve used “genre=Arcade” so all the game gear and SMS games show up under “Bonus Games.”
I can hardly wait to use a replacement emulator, because in addition to some Genesis games that don’t work properly or play too fast, I noticed that “Impossible Mission” for the SMS does not work right. The collision detection is comepletly broken so that no matter how you jump, you cannot get past any robot.

When it does not find the device try 2 thing: reboot the console and/or reboot pc; anyway glad it worked for you.

EDIT: you can actually use retroarch for this (already implemented in my custom rom with the most known cores).

 

[Hekel]

When it does not find the device try 2 thing: reboot the console and/or reboot pc; anyway glad it worked for you.

EDIT: you can actually use retroarch for this (already implemented in my custom rom with the most known cores).

When things goes further like this i can release retroshield next week which will finaly fix all issues when it comes to game mega drive games. Need to say im not interestet in run any emulation for me this is a mega drive which should support games from md/gen, 32x and maybe mega cd. When someone is looking to emulate other stuff hes bettee bet with a rasperry xD

 

[asper]

When things goes further like this i can release retroshield next week which will finaly fix all issues when it comes to game mega drive games. Need to say im not interestet in run any emulation for me this is a mega drive which should support games from md/gen, 32x and maybe mega cd. When someone is looking to emulate other stuff hes bettee bet with a rasperry xD

Well, once you have retroarch installed you can "pass" commands and parameters from your app to the retroarch cores and make the roms starting with it without retroarch main dashboard (this is a real dashboard ) will come up, just the game starts to play

I filled the wiki with more pages: https://flashback.steckbecken.at/

MANY thanks to @Steckbecken for setting it up !