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Mystery Carts - Looking For Any Info


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Hey everybody,

 

I've been collecting for about twenty years or so, and I'm happy to say I still love the hobby as much as I did when I first discovered it. Part of the reason I still enjoy it is the way you can discover things that are completely off your radar.

 

That's where I'm looking for help.

 

A few weeks ago, I saw an ebay seller posting a cartridge for a game system they were unaware of. I picked it up because the label seemed to show Zaxxon (a personal favorite), and I was intrigued.

 

Receiving the game, I was able to confirm that it was unlike (almost) everything I had. The carts don't fit any classic consoles, and most classic computers are a no go. That being said, the pins do line up, and can fit into an MSX cartridge slot exactly. However, I don't want to damage my MSX, so I'm hesitant to test it out. According to a post on the facebook group I initially sought help in, it's for a sort of Colecovision clone from either Hong Kong or Taiwan. The only information I can find at all can be found at http://www.colecovision.dk/clones.htm, the console is about half way down this page.

 

Does anyone have any experience with these games or this clone console? I was able to buy the other ten games the seller was getting rid of, but I still have very few answers. Attached are some pictures of the carts, and one of the PCBs itself. As you'll see, it fits in an MSX, and also doesn't use EPROMs, very strange.

 

Any ideas are appreciated!

 

Also here's the link to the posting on my facebook group if you'd like to see it.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/classicgamer/permalink/10155470215722939/

 

 

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I'm not familiar with these carts, but do not power on your MSX with those. It looks like the left 2 and right 2 pins are all connected to +5V. Your MSX will not appreciate that.

 

The chips appear to be a Nand, an And, a 32KB Rom and 1KB of Sram split over two chips.

Edited by greyrogue
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I'm counting 2x25 pins? At first I was considering Sega SG-1000 or a clone of, but it only has 2x22 pins. The Master System though has 2x25 pins just like MSX, but those cartridges usually aren't as tall. Inbetween those were the Sega Mark III but those seem to be 2x22 as well.

 

One and a half years ago, ianoid posted a thread about cartridges with similar physical dimensions but different kind of artwork. We never quite figured out which system his cartridges belonged to, but being 2x25 pin as well, we were circulating around the MSX, SMS and so on even then.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/259350-exotic-carts-id-please/

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Hey all, thanks for the responses. I decided not to insert them into my MSX for the above reasons, so I back at square one it seems. I also contacted the owner of the Danish Coleco clones page, and he didn't have any further info either. I'm not going to risk putting these into my Master System even if they fit the cart slot for obvious reasons. I don't have any real experience with cartridge dumping, does anyone know if there's a way to dump these/what I'd need to do that?

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It appears to me that the two rightmost pins on the top side are GND, since they lead to a rather wide area that goes around the entire layout. I compared to known pinouts, and neither SMS nor MSX have the same pinout. The SG-1000 does though have GND on the far end, except it is 2x22 pins instead of 2x25 pins.

 

http://www.smspower.org/maxim/Documents/Pinouts

https://www.msx.org/wiki/MSX_Cartridge_slot

 

I suppose these cartridges really belong to the Chinese Colecovision clone called "Follow Me" just like the cartridge says, though it is curious that one manufacturer would design their own cartridge boards instead of cloning the existing ones right away like e.g. Dina and Bit Corp seem to have done. I wonder if ianoid's cartridges with quite different artwork but physically matching properties, would have the same or similar origin.

 

No idea how to manufacture a cartridge dumper, but following each trace to the chips probably would help a lot. The question is if its content is any different than existing Colecovision software, perhaps copyright screen.

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