Memory Card Plus and Gameshark versions

Don't know if this will be of interest to anyone, but I was wondering why some of my Gameshark and Memory Card Plus loaded imports but some don't even though they look the same on the outside, so I opened them up to take a look.



The earliest Memory Card Plus I have is version 1143 and it doesn't load imports. I have another one with the same case style that does load imports (version 1159) and the same board is found on a Performance brand casing, so there's an overlap of parts used. I also used to have a card that doesn't load imports but comes in the Performance brand case, so there's no way of knowing from the outside.



I also opened my Gamesharks. The two carts with the earlier version bios only loads imports if you hold X+Y+Z and press A or Start when you have "Start Game" highlighted. The later versions loads imports automatically, like Action Replay Plus. Also the later version Gamesharks use the exact same 1143 board as the earlier version Memory Card Plus, only missing a chip and the comm connector on the Memory Card Plus.


I wonder why the early Gamesharks didn't load imports by default? And what other bios versions are there?



I also opened the Pro Universal Adapters. Oddly on the later revision, there was a folded piece of paper inside to keep the smaller board from wobbling around.

 

You first picture and what you've said seem confusing. The picture seems like it's showing how to tell if it loads imports by slight differences on the outside. But then in your post you go on to say there is no way to know from the outside. Which is it?

I have one of these cards around somewhere which did allow loading imports. I'd have to find it to see what it looks like exactly.

 

I also have the first Interact memory card that does not allow imports to load... however I was told it shouldn't be used as the PCB is slightly thicker than it should be and it could damage the cart connector.

 

I'm just showing what the carts I have are like. I'm not sure if all of them are like that. I seem to recall there was a cart with the Performance case that didn't load imports, but I don't know if my memory are playing tricks, so if anyone can confirm or deny.

I don't really use these but I think these thick carts may be useful for Saturns that are already broken-in. I bought a used console that had a cart slot which wouldn't detect official carts or Action Replay carts but could read these.

Also I think these are compatible with Pseudo Saturn.

 

x

 

I have the 1.92 bios Gameshark. I wonder if it would ever be compatible with Pseudo since it is made by the same company that did the AR 4-1 carts.

I just tried to flash mine and it said HW not supported. Surely the FW could be adapted to work on these carts since they do boot imports at least right?

Also does anybody know where to find documentation on the 3rd gen GS carts?

 

I wonder if flashing the older Gameshark 1.7x firmware carts to a newer 1.9x firmware would enable imports by default?

And has anyone tried Pseudo Saturn on these carts?

 

Yup, after much trial and error I flashed my Gameshark yesterday morning. I am actually playing a game on it right now.

I also got to thinking would the Memory Card Plus be able to be flashed to the Gameshark or AR firmware? All 3 devices share the same parts.

 

Thank you for posting this! I now finally know what cartridge I have...mine arrived with no sticker on it and it's not as easy as just googling the board info to figure it out. Turns out I have a memory card plus (far most right model in your photo).

 

Nice work! This is what i call an in-depth analysis.

 

I'd like to know if Psuedo could eventually be flashed on the Memory Card Plus. I am guessing the MCP doesn't have enough space though. Not sure why you'd want the Memory Card Plus on a GameShark or AR cart.

 

Oh I certainly would not want to do that, and also there is the issue of the missing chip, but I was just wondering if a memory card plus could act also like a Gameshark or AR but have the extreme memory still. I imagine that once the exploit has matured enough we could see the AR firmware just modded to allow pseudo to use the same interface, but that is being very wishful. Not even really sure that is possible.

Another idea would be to take the Gameshark's extra chip and solder it to the MCP pcb to see if it could be used just like the cheat devices but with the added effect of having more memory than the cheat carts do. Alternatively what about taking the memory from the MCP and putting that on the GS?

 

I flashed my memory card plus with Pseudo. I have the cart on the far right in the picture above. I found I can use cafealpha2's utility to easily flash to Pseudo or the original firmware.

 

That's good to know. And so the Memory Card Plus firmware is dumped and available if you wanted to flash it back to normal?

 

Yep. I have flashed it back and forth a few times and I have had zero problems. It only cannot play 1M/4M games. One thing though, I have to raise the MCP off of the cartridge port about 2mm for it to be recognized by the Saturn.

 

When Pseudo loads but before it loads the games, have you tried removing the cartridge and inserting the RAM cartridge? I know it's not really advisable to insert and remove carts with the power on, but it could work. Even if it didn't though, most games don't need the RAM carts anyway.

 

This is actually interesting, I was just looking online for a Gameshark to add to my collection. With your post maybe I can make sure I get one that will auto load backups.

 

GameShark doesn't auto-load backups, it's imports. No GameShark loads backups, although it's possible in theory someone could try to modify the GameShark program to use the exploit. But no one has done that yet.

 

I have 2 MCP rev 1143 (top left of the MCP pics) and they both play imports. Just wait for it to go to the player menu and tap "start app".
Both of mines use 2 EEPROM SST29EE010 (for a total of 256KB, AR4n1 uses '020 for a total of 512KB, don't know about GS).

I managed to flash one of them thru an Atlas with SGM ISO image that I mucked around with, it said device unknown (Vendor = 5345 , Model = 4741) but I took the risk and proceeded anyway and it worked for me (the SGM flasher is really intended for AR and not MCP).
I added both Pseudo 0.831 and MCP_001 from cafe_alpha to a base image I found around, in case someone needs to go back and forth.

I attached the bin/cue for it to this post, ImgBurn is fine, make sure you have a way to boot it, I really just used MagicISO to drop in the 2 BIN files mentioned in the ISO at the firmware directory, whether that's the right way to do it or not I don't care it seems it works well enough (although the Atlus selection screen is black instead of blue .... oops).
If it's not allowed to attach said images have the admin remove it .... I do not claim any credit on them or their contents.

ATTENTION: the fact that it worked for my MCP (1143 with SST29EE010) even if SGM flasher stated "unknown" is no guarantee that it would work for you too.

 

My Gameshark is running pseudo.