The Blog

Accolade Code Monkeys Dev Cart for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

Nix McRetro // 15th February 2013 // Devkit, Gaming, Sega

This development cartridge seems to have been used by The Code Monkeys and is Accolade made. Lots of epoxy all over the chips, which certainly makes the board harder to repair or reverse engineer. Whether that was intentional, protective, or both, I don’t know. A few of the capacitors on... Continue reading

Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD Development Unit Disassembly

Nix McRetro // 11th February 2013 // Devkit, Sega

The Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD development unit, serial MCD01/0174, is our next target for disassembly and photography. This is one beefy devkit. The SNASM Mega-CD was built around modified Mega Drive and Mega-CD hardware with additional development electronics packed inside. That explains the wonderfully dense construction. Cross Products managed to... Continue reading

Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD Development Unit Power-Up

Nix McRetro // 10th February 2013 // Devkit, Sega, YouTube

I finally found enough bench space to power up the Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD development unit. Success, at least at the most basic level. It’s not like I have a degree for programming games or the time at the moment to learn. The hardware powers up and the SNASM2 PC... Continue reading

Sophia Systems Sega Saturn Programming Box Reassembly

Nix McRetro // 8th February 2013 // Devkit, Repairs, Sega

Above is a brief video of the Sophia going back together. Well, halfway. The mainboard is back in, but the RAM board is still out because I need to photograph it properly first. And finally, after somewhere between six and eight months, I’ve finished photographing the internals of the Sophia... Continue reading

Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD Development Unit

Nix McRetro // 22nd January 2013 // Devkit, Repairs, Sega

Here’s the latest addition to the collection. It cost me a pretty penny, but it is certainly one of the highlights now. This is a Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD development unit. Cross Products built the SNASM Mega-CD around modified Mega Drive and Mega-CD hardware, with additional development electronics allowing it... Continue reading