Megaram, the MSX expansion, made in Brazil.
So?
Anyway, I just saw that there's someone selling brand new megarams here.
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-238370924-megaram-512...
I think it uses modern memory chips, and for some reason, makes it compatible with Turbo-R. Personally I have two megarams and they don't work well with my TurboR.
Anyway, I think it's one of the easiest methods to run konami MEGAROM games without owning the original carts.
Forgot to mention that, by today's exchange rate, it would be around 130 USD. I think it's a little bit expensive...
I don't know where are you guys from, but the MegaRAM as the name suggest is simply a Konami Mapper with DRAM chips instead of the game ROM (and without SCC sound). It can't be used to play (official)Memory Mapper games (even Konami disk-games) or run DOS2; It was designed to simply play a Konami MegaROM game like Gradius/Nemesis, Penguin Adventure and Maze of Galious, without the original cartridge. Back at those days, Brazilians could not buy any piece of hardware that wasn't built in Brazil, but that regulation didn't said anything about software copyrights, so most of the software we could buy those days was "unofficial". So, the only ways to play such games was travel to japan and come back with some cartrigdes in your luggage and NOT TELLING IT TO ANYONE, or getting one of those MegaRAM and a disk containing the binaries from the game, which you need to load on the cartridge every time you wanted to play that game.
And IMHO, since the release of the ESE-SCC and MegaFlashROM is kinda pointless having a MegaRAM... Since it is made of regular DRAM chips (you will ALWAYS need to reload the game on the MegaRAM every time you turn of your MSX) and lacks SCC support. If you want to play SCC games with SCC sound you will need an ROM-disabled SCC cartrigde AND 2 free slots AND an special loader to patch the loaded games with the real location of the SCC chip...
The only situation the MegaRAM will be more pratical than the other konami mappers I mentioned before is when you are developing a Konami Mapper game and you are in early releases, so every time you load the game it will be an different version from before... So it's more difficult to make any confusion about the game being loaded on that exact moment.
The ESE-SCC and MegaFlashROM are very different devices from a MegaRAM.
When you load a ROM image into a MegaFlash or ESE it is there when you turn off, or reset the MSX. The former has battery backed RAM, whereas the later uses flash RAM.
The MegaRAM uses volatile memory chips, a reset of power outage resets the contents.
I have had all three devices in the past, to be honest I found the megaRAM to be the most flexible, a simple romloader from my CF card worked well. My TurboR used to have an expanded slot containing the SCC, a Sunrise CF card, and a SCC cartrifge, they all worked very well together.
tvalenca wrote:
And IMHO, since the release of the ESE-SCC and MegaFlashROM is kinda pointless having a MegaRAM... Since it is made of regular DRAM chips (you will ALWAYS need to reload the game on the MegaRAM every time you turn of your MSX) and lacks SCC support. If you want to play SCC games with SCC sound you will need an ROM-disabled SCC cartrigde AND 2 free slots AND an special loader to patch the loaded games with the real location of the SCC chip...
The only situation the MegaRAM will be more pratical than the other konami mappers I mentioned before is when you are developing a Konami Mapper game and you are in early releases, so every time you load the game it will be an different version from before... So it's more difficult to make any confusion about the game being loaded on that exact moment.
Disagree. A CF-IDE + ExecROM + a Megaram is an extremely easy combo that allows you to play pretty much all MSX games. AFAIK, MegaFlashROM-like solutions requires more steps in order to change the game you want to play.
The only thing missing is the SCC chip, which, AFAIK, can be adapted to a Megaram with some effort.
A dream device would be (on a single cart): CF-IDE + Megaram + SCC.
djh1697 wrote:
The ESE-SCC and MegaFlashROM are very different devices from a MegaRAM.
When you load a ROM image into a MegaFlash or ESE it is there when you turn off, or reset the MSX. The former has battery backed RAM, whereas the later uses flash RAM.
The MegaRAM uses volatile memory chips, a reset of power outage resets the contents.
I think we said exactly the same thing... MegaRAM with DRAM chips (the same we have on main RAM on each MSX), ESE with SRAM chips battery backed-up, MegaFlashROM with Flash RAM chips. And I don't think that the ESE-SCC is too different from the MegaRAM. I mean, the major differences are the SCC on the ESE and the DRAM refresh circuitry on the MegaRAM, regardless that they work on the same concepts and principles, because both uses RAM chips!
djh1697 wrote:
I have had all three devices in the past, to be honest I found the megaRAM to be the most flexible, a simple romloader from my CF card worked well. My TurboR used to have an expanded slot containing the SCC, a Sunrise CF card, and a SCC cartrifge, they all worked very well together.
Each individual may have different thoughts about each pro's & con's. The flexibility you claim that the MegaRAM have actually leads you to take more steps to do the same thing is not a pro at all for me. but, as I said, it's my humble opinion. Also, some people are had strange problems trying to combine a MegaRAM, a ROM-disabled SCC cart and using ExecROM as a loader, some because there was something wrong with the slot expander, and because of an older version of ExecROM, which had some bugfixies some time ago and is working fine right now. But having TWO cartriges and an Slot Expander doing something that one single cartridge do all alone don't appear to be right for me! I am serious!
hbarcellos wrote:
Disagree. A CF-IDE + ExecROM + a Megaram is an extremely easy combo that allows you to play pretty much all MSX games. AFAIK, MegaFlashROM-like solutions requires more steps in order to change the game you want to play.
That's not correct. I have an SD/MMC interface with an SCC (that one created by sharksym and sold by sinfox and others), which works very similar to a MegaFlashROM SCC and I can tell you that the only thing I have to do is one command line to flash the ROM in the cartridge. There's no need to scrap its previous contents first, the loader does everything with one single command-line, like "A>*FLASH* GAME.ROM[return]", period. Since mine has modified versions of DOS2 Kernel and Disk BASIC/ROM to work with SD/MMC cards like they were floppies, (yes, floppy emulation with disk change support) my cartridge needs to be a multi-boot device because of those BIOS routines and DOS2 Kernel, I have to press a key during the boot depending if I want to play the game I've flashed or boot MSX-DOS, BUT this do not occurs with a regular MegaFlashROM since it doesn't need to hold those routines. That's why I'm planning to build one MegaFlashROM SCC from a loose Pennant Race 2 I've just bought...
hbarcellos wrote:
The only thing missing is the SCC chip, which, AFAIK, can be adapted to a Megaram with some effort.
indeed! Actually this would be very similar to the ESE-SCC, but without the ability to hold its contents when you turn off the computer and using WAY MORE chips. Again, the difference here is only the type of RAM used, DRAM or SRAM. DRAM needs a bigger circuitry to take care of the DRAM refresh, which is not needed on SRAM chips. But the simpliest device you can build is still the MegaFlashROM, you only need an SCC cartridge an specific 512k Flash Memory chip that fits almost flawlessly in the place the ROM used to be (you'll have to bend up a very few terminals), SEVEN wireups, ONE switch and ONE resistor. No traces cutting required! Couldn't be more simple!
hbarcellos wrote:
A dream device would be (on a single cart): CF-IDE + Megaram + SCC.
Actually I think that my SD/MMC + SCC designed by sharksym does this work like a dream. The ONLY thing I have failed to do with this one is running Unknown Reality with 3 separated disk images: Since UR tries to read from ALL mass storages "at the same time" something weird happens with the interface and the system hungs up. BUT if I use a bigger disk image (like it was a 23MB hard drive) and copy all 3 disks onto this image UR works like a charm! The major drawback is since the SCC could handle only 512kB and you need 128k to load the customized BIOS routines and DOS Kernel, you only can have 1 256k game along with some 32k games, OR you can flash a 512k game and lose access to the SD cards until you re-flash the cartridge with the BIOS routines.
Oh, and there's one final reason to stop messing with MegaRAM and consider getting one MegaFlashROM: If the game has some kind of copy protection like Thexder that tries to write scrap onto itself to test if is running from RAM or ROM, it won't work on MegaRAM unless you get an patched version, period. And AFAIK, The MegaFlashROM SCC is THE ONLY DEVICE that can run Space Manbow 2. So, if you're a shooter freak you'll need one. Or buy Space Manbow 2. I have some friends dropping their MegaRAM cartridges because all I've said on this thread.
Sorry for the long post.
You have my word that I'll read everything later. Meanwhile I'll recheck my hardware collection. I think I might have one of those sharksym SD/MMC somewhere...
Quote:
If the game has some kind of copy protection like Thexder that tries to write scrap onto itself to test if is running from RAM or ROM, it won't work on MegaRAM unless you get an patched version, period. And AFAIK, The MegaFlashROM SCC is THE ONLY DEVICE that can run Space Manbow 2.
I *really* like to patch stuff!
Patching Manbow2 to run on a megaram would also be fun! 
hbarcellos wrote:
A dream device would be (on a single cart): CF-IDE + Megaram + SCC.
We have this with the Carnivore2, with an FMPAC too?
@djh1697: you are waking deaths. We had'nt a Carnivore2 in 2012. 
djh1697 wrote:
hbarcellos wrote:
A dream device would be (on a single cart): CF-IDE + Megaram + SCC.
We have this with the Carnivore2, with an FMPAC too?
Correction: Carnivore2 doesn't have a MegaRAM. At least this feature was not implemented according to the specs. We just have a 720kb memory area that a ROM image can be loaded into. Then we can make this area read-only or leave it writeable.