My idea..

[Segasonicfan]

Well, I know the GG had a nice screen for its time, but I would really love to play Game Gear games on the big screen or a nicer quality portable screen.  That said, I looked into converting the cart slot a little more.  I opened up my master gear converter and cart-size SMS to GEN converter and to my suprise there isnt a SINGLE chip or transistor or anything...it's merely wires connecting one output to the other.  Since the Genesis/SMS/GG cart pinouts are almost identical and just in different order, all these companies did was some rewiring.  So here's my question:  Could I rewire the cart pinout from a game gear to the proper pins on a genesis or SMS to play GG games?  It would make sense looking at how SMS games play on GG.  Somebody please let me know if I'm just insane or if this may actually work (or both)

-Segasonicfan

[benzaldehyde]

... :blink:

My God, it's crazy enough to work. Perhaps the Master System would be a good bet; less work that way. Of course, you could trace it back and design a Game Gear to Genesis adapter. That would be rather cool. If it's only direct connections, there should be nothing to stop you. The only problem is we would have to sacrifice a Game Gear...

<Volunteers his lousy, all-scratched-up one.>

Honestly, I like the sound of this. I have recently come into possession of a small multitude of Game Gear games, and I'd much like to play them to where I can see them.

[Vertigo]

Didn't the GG use more colours and faster/better/slightly different processing?
The reason the SMS works on MD without chips is because the MD already contains a SMS emulation chip on board as standard. I don't think the GG would work because GG and SMS are not completely compatible. What happens when you run a GG game on a SMS iirc is that on a lot of games you get wrong colours, broken graphics, crashing, wonky shit, etc.
You have 2 options:
a) Just do it, who cares, it's something fun to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon and if it doesn't work I've just told you why.
B) Just do it, who cares, I could have imagined all of that anyway.

[Segasonicfan]

hrmm....thanks for your opinoins/support guys!  Actaully, I have 3 broken Game Gears (and a @#^@ load of other broken systems) laying around that were casualties of my portable CDX and saturn creations.  What I'm going to do is just cut out the entire GG pin out from the motherboard PCB and solder all the wires directly to it.  Only problem is the SMS...I only have one and it's a model 1 (i have the 3d glasses for it too) so I'm not too keen on the idea of opening it up and soldering to it...I have 5 gennys though, so thats entirely possible.  I could solder to a Genny which would require more work, but less risk for sure.  Should I try a model 1 or a model 2?  The project is gonna take a good 5 hours I'm expecting so It may have to wait till this summer (still working in school).  As for the color issue...not sure what to say there.  I just hope the it works and odds are it will (I think) looking at the pinouts.  There's only 4 pinouts that the SMS doesn't have that GG does, and I don't think they are relevant (I believe they are for the TV tuner capability but I'm not sure).  Also, are you sure the Genesis has an SMS chip inside?  I've never heard of that at it seems unlikely looking at the SMS adapter...if there WAS a SMS chip inside I don't think the adapter would have to make use of nearly every pinout and such.  Just a thought.

Okau, well I'll try it out and let you know the end result.  If anyone wants to donate a SMS, Master Gear, or Genesis towards the cause it would definitely help

-Segasonicfan

[NFG]

The Game Gear has more colours than the SMS, and the games access these by using extra bits for the palette references.  The GG can handle fewer bits, so SMS games work on it.  The SMS freaks out with the extra bits the GG games use, so they do not work on the SMS.

[dum dum]

apart from lacking compatible video hardware as already mentioned, the way the controlers work between GG-MS modes are different (so you wouldn't be able to start any games).

but there are exceptions - a few GG carts use the GG in MS mode so they should work (castle of illusion comes to mind). problem here is most of those few titles are also on the MS to begin with..

[CZroe]

I saw an old GamePro article or something about Sega's connections for their video displays. Whever scanned the page also had information for DIY-ers. Wish I knew where...

[Guest_Segasonicfan]

What if I ran the wires to a genesis internally (like using an SMS adapter-the cart sized ones)?  Would that help the video problem at all?  Somebody please let me know...thanks.

[dum dum]

apart from the handfull of SMS-mode games, then no amount of wires will help you. the genesis simply does not have the internal organs necessary for GG compatability and thats all there is to it.

[Segasonicfan]

damn, looks like the project isnt worth attempting :-/

-Segasonicfan

[Martin]

The Game Gear has more colours than the SMS, and the games access these by using extra bits for the palette references.  The GG can handle fewer bits, so SMS games work on it.  The SMS freaks out with the extra bits the GG games use, so they do not work on the SMS.

Actually in brazil sega released a version of the Sms thatr could deal with the game gear carts. But you had to have the right pinout converters or buy specialy relreased game gear games (in brazil you could buy gg games on sms carts)

[NFG]

The Brazilian GG->SMS games you speak of were reprogrammed to reduce the colour palette, they're not simple conversions.  I mean, from a programming POV it's simple, but it's not something a cart adaptor could do.

[Martin]

The Brazilian GG->SMS games you speak of were reprogrammed to reduce the colour palette, they're not simple conversions.  I mean, from a programming POV it's simple, but it's not something a cart adaptor could do.

ahhh, now I see.
Okay... so why do alot of brazilian carts not work on other sms's?
Is it some kind of region lockout?

[dum dum]

as far as i can figure it out, the sms hardware got tweaked along the way- early sms1's will have different custom chips than the later models (sms2's and late sms1's have identical chips too in case you were wondering - you can open them up and have a look to make sure).

it could be that the games you are refering to are using features the old sms chip set doesnt have, apparently the euro-only codesmasters titles dont work on the old hardware either. im guessing that due to the unpopularity of the machine in the US, many of those systems are the older types?

[Martin]

as far as i can figure it out, the sms hardware got tweaked along the way- early sms1's will have different custom chips than the later models (sms2's and late sms1's have identical chips too in case you were wondering - you can open them up and have a look to make sure).

it could be that the games you are refering to are using features the old sms chip set doesnt have, apparently the euro-only codesmasters titles dont work on the old hardware either. im guessing that due to the unpopularity of the machine in the US, many of those systems are the older types?

Hmm.. It's got a strange compatibility set up, has the ol' SMS.
But I still love it. I Play After Burner at least once a day lol ^_^