Cheapest i.e. VERY cheap 7800 SD cart for UK users?

[oky2000]

As someone who owns pretty much 1 or more of every PAL display capable console computer from Atari 2600 to Wii it is not economical to spend 100 bucks for a device for every system but the Chinese haven't bootlegged anything and there is nothing as cheap and cheerful as C64 SD2IEC or TAPuino 20-25 bucks devices because it is a cart based solution required.

 

So....just to play original 7800 (and 2600?) ROMs on real hardware on my CRT TV AS GOD INTENDED are there any cheaper options? Seen something for the VCS and for 40 bucks from the UK (so no import taxes) if it did 7800 ROMs too I could go for it, but after doing a few videos for the 7800 I kind of got seduced by the nostalgia of using my 7800 so I won't spend 50 quid just to play VCS games as I own pretty much any VCS game I might ever want to play. 

 

Like I said when you own 100+ different 8bit/16bit systems you can't go nuts on prices for each of these sort of devices.....I am retired!

 

To be clear, the more expensive options are NOT overpriced before any flamers come in, I just can't justify those prices for each system and I don't really need POKEY sound or high score save functions anyway just don't want to spend 150 bucks on Dark Chambers on scumbay etc due to being burgled in the past!

 

If there's nothing then that's OK, maybe a reasonably priced bundle of loose games to replace things stolen from me will pop up so I can play more 7800 games. Such an underrated system I think.

[CPUWIZ]

Maybe someone will sell you their Mateos cart for cheap, now that proper SD carts are out?  Maybe worth a shot in the wanted forum.

 

I bought one from a forum member to keep it in the "family" and out of hands of scalpers, plus I was curious why it is so involved for so few ROM's selectable.  Never really used it, but not sure I want to sell it either.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I plan to hold onto my Mateos as well as I currently use it for testing consoles since I have most of the Diag roms loaded up on it and a few games that are good for burn in testing. Honestly, I don't know that a Mateos would sell for much cheaper. I recall my Mateos still costing me over a $100 USD for everything when you include the burner module you have to attach to it to copy over the data.

 

9 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

I bought one from a forum member to keep it in the "family" and out of hands of scalpers, plus I was curious why it is so involved for so few ROM's selectable.  Never really used it, but not sure I want to sell it either.

Not sure what you mean by it being so involved? It is just a bank selectable flash storage where depending on how you want the banks to be setup, you can either store 16 games of 128k or less onto it, or set it to 144k mode and store up to 8 games. Aside from the rom sizes and some of the newer pokey homebrews that use alternate addresses for the pokey, the cart worked with everything at that time and still works with some stuff now. You just have to strip off the a78 header information from the bin file and rename it to the proper extension for the game type it is.

 

It actually was very easy to use and works quite well. Just very limited in storage and in what it can do in regards to newer 7800 stuff today. The daughter board on it was programmable and Juan had an option where you could send in the daughter board and he would update it so it could support more rom types. I'm not sure if anyone ever did that or not and Juan has been missing for sometime now. Mine is no longer easily upgradable as I removed the sockets etc. and soldered my daughterboard directly to the main cart PCB so I could fit it into a standard cartridge shell more easily.

 

So to answer the OPs original question. If you want both 2600 and 7800 on a single cart, then the Concerto is the only option at this time to offer that. The Dragon Fly is the other option but it only plays 7800 games and there isn't any plans to change that in the future that I'm aware of. Concerto and DF are around the same price if you stick with the basic version of the DF cart.

 

[CPUWIZ]

I am talking about the whole process, amount of circuitry etc., my MCP cart is much easier to build and can run 90 ROM's over USB in seconds just fine.  My newer unreleased one can work with WiFi and SD as well, but cheaper but never routed.

 

Before anyone asks, I really don't have the time to make these for sale, especially lately.  Working 100+ hour weeks on very specific Scarlett and Prospero networking code at the moment.

 

EDIT: I may just do exactly what you did with yours, that is a good idea. ?

[juansolo]

Up until recently your only choice for a 7800 ROM cart was the Cuttle Cart II. There aren't many out there and when they used to come up on eBay they'd command a bit of a premium. The spiritual successor to that is the Concerto which also plays 7800 and 2600 ROMs, but you'll be getting that from the States and it'll cost you.

 

For stand-alone carts there are a couple of options for the 2600 side. The Harmony cart is a traditional ROM cart, and the PlusCart which is a wireless cart with some neat features (there's now also an SD version). The latter you can DIY if you're handy with a soldering iron and will turn out very reasonable if you do. There are a couple of things it can't play that the Harmony can, but it'll certainly be the cheaper option.

 

For the 7800 side you have the Dragonfly from RJ in Poland. There will now be duty and wotnot because of brexit though. It is probably the best value of the carts though to get your hands on in the UK.

 

Other than Saint though, most things come from outside the UK and with postage/duty the way it is now, there isn't really a way around it.