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Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 4:12 am
by Acrof
Well, I was browsing the web looking to buy more 3DO stuff, and came across a Memory Unit, in pretty good shape, but without box or memory manager CD, but, for like 1/5 the price they usually go on ebay. It's also untested, as the seller doesn't have a 3DO console to test it.

I tried to read more about it online, but found NOTHING about it. The only thing I know so far is that it is a 256Kb memory card of sorts for the 3DO.

The only "problem" with this memory unit I could find, is that it is untested... It looks good, but I don't know the failure rate of this thing... (remeber the battery powered Nintendo 64 memory cards? Eww!)

My question is: Is it worth it?
It IS costing about half the price of another 3DO console, so it IS a cheaper way to have more space to save files. hahah

I just wanted to know the opinion of someone here that owns this device, and what advice would you give about it?

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it?

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:14 am
by Dr.Enceladus
Probably easier and cheaper just to buy more consoles. That's what i did. I have save games on three different machines. :|

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it?

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:38 am
by Acrof
Well, a working 3DO console goes for 400-500 bucks minimum here in Brazil. And this memory unit I found is costing 230 bucks.

As I said, it's costing half the price of one 3DO console.

I think I'll buy it anyways. xP
That way I'll be able to transfer saves between consoles, that's pretty sweet. xP

EDIT

Well, it's mine now. x3
Image
Get out of the way N64! :evil:

There it is. Love how HUGE this thing is. xD
Image


And try to guess what's the first thing I did with it?
Test it?
Clean it?
Save something to it?


Nope! ahaha

I did this:
Image

A 33megapixel picture of it's guts.
Couldn't find anything like that with decent resolution, so I did it myself. :roll:

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:03 pm
by Acrof
Got a chance to test it today. xD

Surprisingly enough, it's still working after all these years!
There were a couple of MegaRace files inside, one Gex save, and something I couldn't identify by the name.

Interestingly enough, this memory unit works with "blocks" or "pages".
I has 8 banks of 32KB memory, so it works like some memory cards of the 32/64bit era (3rd party PS1 and N64 memorycards), and 128bit era. (Dreamcast official memory card, and the licensed Katana memory cards for the PS2)
The only difference is that in the 3DO you don't need a physical button to change between banks. Still modern after all these years. xD

To test it I burned a copy of the Storage Manager 2.1 that came bundled with it, and was able to access it normally. To my surprise, because my console is a NTSC-U unit, the Storage Mananger displayed everything in English!
This confirms that this memory unit is in fact region free, and has it's menus fully displayed in English!

In a few weeks I'll replace it's battery for a battery holder, and add even bigger CR2477 cell. This should keep it running for another 20 years. xD

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it?

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:18 am
by Aer Fixus
Acrof wrote:Well, a working 3DO console goes for 400-500 bucks minimum here in Brazil. And this memory unit I found is costing 230 bucks.

As I said, it's costing half the price of one 3DO console.

I think I'll buy it anyways. xP
That way I'll be able to transfer saves between consoles, that's pretty sweet. xP

EDIT

Well, it's mine now. x3
Image
Get out of the way N64! :evil:

There it is. Love how HUGE this thing is. xD
Image


And try to guess what's the first thing I did with it?
Test it?
Clean it?
Save something to it?


Nope! ahaha

I did this:
Image

A 33megapixel picture of it's guts.
Couldn't find anything like that with decent resolution, so I did it myself. :roll:
Wonderful picture! Anything interesting on the bottom or just traces?

And of course, it has to have at least one 3DO proprietary chip in it. It would be cool, although unrealistic to make more memory units, possibly with more storage space. I've had ideas for making an adapter for PS1 memory cards (even in the best case, it would require different game saving code, so it wouldn't be useful for retail games), but of course it's all just pipe dreams, anyway.

Thanks for sharing! Enjoy that unit. I know I would. I've been trying to find one for a decent price for a while now...

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 12:12 pm
by Dr.Enceladus
Nice! and WOW...ive never seen a translucent Sega Saturn before! Where on earth did you find that one!?!

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:18 pm
by Acrof
Wonderful picture! Anything interesting on the bottom or just traces?

And of course, it has to have at least one 3DO proprietary chip in it. It would be cool, although unrealistic to make more memory units, possibly with more storage space. I've had ideas for making an adapter for PS1 memory cards (even in the best case, it would require different game saving code, so it wouldn't be useful for retail games), but of course it's all just pipe dreams, anyway.

Thanks for sharing! Enjoy that unit. I know I would. I've been trying to find one for a decent price for a while now...
Just traces in the bottom, yes.

In theory there could be a way to replicate these memory units, but that would probably cost more than buying the real thing.

I've seen, however, people soldering one extra memory chip to the 3DO's motherboard, and switching between them using a simple switch. By powering one chip on and the other off, you can have both soldered togheter in every other pin, and the console will only be able to "see" the chip that is currently being powered.
Nice! and WOW...ive never seen a translucent Sega Saturn before! Where on earth did you find that one!?!
Like the white sega saturn, this one was a special edition of the saturn, released in the later years of the console in japan.

Here in Brazil, a company called TecToy was the official reseller of Sega products since the Master System, and when these special Saturns were released in Japan, TecToy imported them to Brazil.
The most awesome feature of these White and Translucent brazilian saturns, is that they run NTSC-U games, BUT kept the japanese bios, wich means they have the japanese boot animation! (wich is awesome! xP)

On Ebay you can find these saturns by searching "skeleton gray sega saturn" or "skeleton saturn" or even "it's cool" saturn.

You can see it's a brazilian saturn because it lacks the "it's cool" logo on the CD door. On the botton, intead of a "Sega" logo there's a giant "Tec Toy" logo. hahaha xD

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:38 am
by Aer Fixus
Acrof wrote: Just traces in the bottom, yes.

In theory there could be a way to replicate these memory units, but that would probably cost more than buying the real thing.

I've seen, however, people soldering one extra memory chip to the 3DO's motherboard, and switching between them using a simple switch. By powering one chip on and the other off, you can have both soldered togheter in every other pin, and the console will only be able to "see" the chip that is currently being powered.
It might not. Depending on how complicated that proprietary chip is, we could probably make some low-ish cost memory unit, but that would involve some reverse engineering which I'm not exactly that knowledgeable about.

I really like having external addons that can work on anyone's console (e.g. a custom ROM cart that can run on a stock system, a memory card that allows for loading burned ISO or romhacks, etc). And Especially because I have multiple 3DOs now, I'd really like to have an external memory unit. I like keeping systems as stock as I can. I don't like switches, knobs or lights (okay sometimes lights. And the switches for Zelda AST...). Improvements to video, gameplay or similar are what I love doing. A mod that most people don't even notice until I point it out can sometimes be even better. Larger RAM that doesn't need a switch? Sure. NVRAM that doesn't need a battery? Definitely. That's just me being picky, though. And sometimes it makes my life harder than it needs to be (like swapping a super gameboy CPU into a gameboy to remove the boot time).

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:13 am
by Kyosho
Aer Fixus wrote:And sometimes it makes my life harder than it needs to be (like swapping a super gameboy CPU into a gameboy to remove the boot time).
Holy jebus, that's something I've never even considered. I had no idea you could do that. That is amazing.

Sorry, off-topic, but that blows my mind. I've already backlit, biverted, and pro-sound modded my DMG. Replacing the CPU... I might have to do that.

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:04 pm
by Aer Fixus
Kyosho wrote:
Aer Fixus wrote:And sometimes it makes my life harder than it needs to be (like swapping a super gameboy CPU into a gameboy to remove the boot time).
Holy jebus, that's something I've never even considered. I had no idea you could do that. That is amazing.

Sorry, off-topic, but that blows my mind. I've already backlit, biverted, and pro-sound modded my DMG. Replacing the CPU... I might have to do that.
Mine was backlit and biverted too, until my roommate stepped on it. Now I've been looking for a good screen board... I decided against the pro sound mod because I didn't wan any extra
Depending on your soldering skills that might be harder than all of the other mods combined. Desoldering an 80 pin SMD chip, keeping it intact and resoldering it isn't an easy task. If you ever get around to doing it, good luck! I'd love to see pictures (although maybe not here considering Gameboy =/= 3DO)

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 12:36 am
by Kyosho
Yeah... I've been messing around with surface mount ICs a bit lately. Man are they a pain. There are some quick ways to do it, that some people swear by, but I'm incredibly paranoid about accidentally shorting things.

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 11:46 pm
by Martin III
Acrof wrote:Surprisingly enough, it's still working after all these years!
There were a couple of MegaRace files inside, one Gex save, and something I couldn't identify by the name.
Try taking a look in this thread; we might have it listed there.

Also, cool beans on getting the memory cartridge. Though I've ultimately decided I can make do just fine with the 3DO's internal memory and the Game Guru's compression feature, I find the idea of a 3DO memory cartridge strangely tantalizing.

Re: Memory Unit - Worth it? (nevermind, it's mine now xP)

Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:10 pm
by Retrofanatic83
Worthwhile thing to have. Prices seem pretty stable. Got mine unboxed and somehow using it resolved an issue I had whereby the internal memory would not save gex. Now it does and having things backed up is always good. One question, the connector on mine that goes I to the 3do, the metal part is how should I put it, squint....like if you look directly at the connector part it is angled and looks like it has been bent out of shape at some point or it always was like that.

Seeing you have obtained one can you say if it should be dead straight and flush or if the kink is meant to be there? Thanks if you can answer