The 7800GD (New 7800 Flash Cartridge?)

[5200Fanatic]

Any update on the for sale date? Thanks!

[SainT]

No, nothing final yet. Although the (hopefully) final sample boards for the 7800GD are being shipped right now. So hopefully I'll be giving the go-ahead for production next week. And the initial batch of Mega7800 are produced and being shipped as well.

 

So all getting closer by the day, but no specific date yet.

[KrunchyTC]

Hope I can grab one. Tired of not being able to play 60% of the roms on my SD card lol 

[Retrok7]

I’ve been looking forward to this for some time. Put my name on any sign up lists.  Woohoo

[SainT]

There will be plenty being produced, but the initial run is just 200 (as I will have mentioned before, I'm sure) just so I can be sure there are no weird hidden issues which crop up regularly for people. It's been tested thoroughly across as many types of 7800 as possible (and there's quite a few variants!) and it's been very solid. So while I'm not expecting any issues, I will always err on the side of caution.

[+DrVenkman]

So I noticed the Stoneage Gamer site now has a new rendering of the cart (fancy!) and shows a "Deluxe" version available for a modest upgrade. 

 

 

Maybe @SainT can explain what that entails?

[Defender_2600]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

So I noticed the Stoneage Gamer site now has a new rendering of the cart (fancy!) and shows a "Deluxe" version available for a modest upgrade. 

 

 

Maybe @SainT can explain what that entails?

 

I love that new label!

Although it is only for aesthetics, it still seems to give more value to the product.

 

[KrunchyTC]

I noticed the new cart image this morning.

 

What is the deluxe version?

[Trebor]

9 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Maybe @SainT can explain what that entails?

7 hours ago, KrunchyTC said:

What is the deluxe version?

It appears to be a StoneAge Gamer option with the flashcarts they sell.  If following suit with their other flashcarts:

[SainT]

There is no difference in hardware, it's just what else is included in the package as extras. SAG always brand things up in their own style and do value added extras to go with it, which is great!

 

There are bundles which offer related things at a discount as well, which include the Mega7800 and I believe a MegaDrive2 style RGB AV cable.

 

I've not seen the label proper yet, but the rendering looks very cool! It's a shiny holographic style material so I gather.

 

[128Kgames]

1 hour ago, SainT said:

There is no difference in hardware, it's just what else is included in the package as extras. SAG always brand things up in their own style and do value added extras to go with it, which is great!

 

There are bundles which offer related things at a discount as well, which include the Mega7800 and I believe a MegaDrive2 style RGB AV cable.

 

I've not seen the label proper yet, but the rendering looks very cool! It's a shiny holographic style material so I gather.

 

So will any Genesis 2 / Mega Drive 2 cable work with this? Say for example a RAD2X HDMI cable? 

[SainT]

28 minutes ago, 128Kgames said:

So will any Genesis 2 / Mega Drive 2 cable work with this? Say for example a RAD2X HDMI cable? 

Yes and no. Physically and electrically, yes. However many HDMI TV's (like my Bravia's for example) are EXTREMELY picky with sync jitter to the point they just wont display a picture. The 7800 sync is very jittery due to the crazy clock cycle stretching Maria does to handle slow access to different parts of the system.

 

The RAD2X is a scanline based upscaler, so it can do nothing to help sort out sync issues. My monitor, for example, doesn't care about this and will display a picture just fine (via OSSC in this case, same type of upscaler), but as mentioned the Bravia just wont work. I use a Tink5xp in framebuffer mode and have tested with component and RGB inputs from the 7800GD and it works perfectly, even with the Bravia's.

 

So, basically, it depends on your setup -- it may work just fine, it may not. If you already have a RAD2X, definitely test it before looking elsewhere, but you may find you need a framebuffer based upscaler. 

[Defender_2600]

retrogamingcables.co.uk is a leading manufacturer, their cables are very professionally designed and built, the best you could expect.

 

So I was wondering if their "Sega Mega Drive 2 / Genesis 2 RGB SCART PACKAPUNCH PRO CABLE" is compatible with The 7800GD. Thanks.

[+darryl1970]

Are the Genesis adapters good for each port, thus requiring two for the complete setup?

[SainT]

51 minutes ago, Defender_2600 said:

retrogamingcables.co.uk is a leading manufacturer, their cables are very professionally designed and built, the best you could expect.

 

So I was wondering if their "Sega Mega Drive 2 / Genesis 2 RGB SCART PACKAPUNCH PRO CABLE" is compatible with The 7800GD. Thanks.

Should work just fine -- I don't have that cable specifically, I think they were out of stock when I was looking, however I do have one of their component cables. I am using a cheaper RGB SCART cable from eBay which is giving a very good picture.

[+swlovinist]

I am looking forward to checking this out myself.  

[SainT]

1 minute ago, swlovinist said:

I am looking forward to checking this out myself.  

I'll be getting one over to you shortly, has been a bit hectic. 😆

[SainT]

17 minutes ago, darryl1970 said:

Are the Genesis adapters good for each port, thus requiring two for the complete setup?

I'd recommend a minimum of one and a 6 button megadrive controller just to make the experience that more pleasant returning to the game selection menu just by hitting START and being able to single-button save and reload your state. However you can just use a standard controller if you want, all the functionality is available, just not as nicely.

 

You'd only need the two if you wanted to play two player games both using megadrive pads, otherwise you could use whatever other controller you like in port 2. With two mega7800's though you do get the option to allow both ports to control the break and ui functionality if you want, which might be more convenient for some. Or, if you have a light phaser via the mega7800 in port 1 you can then control the ui via port 2.

 

There are many options and the choice is yours.

[128Kgames]

10 hours ago, SainT said:

Yes and no. Physically and electrically, yes. However many HDMI TV's (like my Bravia's for example) are EXTREMELY picky with sync jitter to the point they just wont display a picture. The 7800 sync is very jittery due to the crazy clock cycle stretching Maria does to handle slow access to different parts of the system.

 

The RAD2X is a scanline based upscaler, so it can do nothing to help sort out sync issues. My monitor, for example, doesn't care about this and will display a picture just fine (via OSSC in this case, same type of upscaler), but as mentioned the Bravia just wont work. I use a Tink5xp in framebuffer mode and have tested with component and RGB inputs from the 7800GD and it works perfectly, even with the Bravia's.

 

So, basically, it depends on your setup -- it may work just fine, it may not. If you already have a RAD2X, definitely test it before looking elsewhere, but you may find you need a framebuffer based upscaler. 

Thanks for the info, I have a RAD2X Gen 2 cable I use with my RGB modded Omega Entertainment Machine that has an upgraded video card and it works fine with my LG 4K TV so I'll definitely try it with the 7800GD.  I have the older RetroTINK 2x-Pro not the 5X but haven't used it much lately. 

[Trebor]

 

 

 

 

[+Muddyfunster]

20 hours ago, SainT said:

Should work just fine -- I don't have that cable specifically, I think they were out of stock when I was looking, however I do have one of their component cables. I am using a cheaper RGB SCART cable from eBay which is giving a very good picture.

I'm using the same cable as Saint for the 7800GD and I'm running it through an OSSC. I have profiles that works with my OSSC + 7800 + GD for both PAL and NTSC. 

 

I'll post that here soon and folks can then use that as a starting point for their own profiles if they want to use an OSSC.

 

My TV is an old Samsung LCD and I can only upscale to 2x for that device (it's ancient) but piping the output via my HDMI splitter to my PC, it can do 5x stable. 

 

 

[Trebor]

 

 

[Trebor]

 

 

Video Link: 

[SainT]

And sold through within a few hours! It was nice to see everyone took advantage of the Mega7800 as well, all of those sold out too.

[TrekMD]

That was fast!  Are more being made?