Cannot dump Game Gear

[OpenAMOC]

Asking for help with dumping Game Gear carts. I have built the adapter using the save the hero pcb and gameslot GG, tried to use it in the mega drive slot of my v5 OSCR using putty as a serial monitor. I select SMS/GG then GG retrode then read rom but the CRC32 identified is not correct and not found, as pictured below, and the resulting .gg dump will not play in the emulator fusion. I am a bit lost as to why the dumps are failing, I've tried 5 different carts to no avail. Any advice much appreciated!

[Ancyker]

STH uses the other one, Retron I think.

[Ancyker]

Yes, when using the retrode option, the CRC32 is the same for a given game each time. For example, NFL 95 is 081EB154 and World Series Baseball 95 is 90AC22F2. As you might imagine, when searching gg.txt for these values, nothing is found.

I checked and it is supposed to use Retrode. What other games do you have? Do you Sonic, G-Loc, or Outrun Europa? Are you in the Discord?

[SAVE-THE-HERO]

Good morning sir.
Retrosix GG slots are not of good quality.
When we assemble them at our factory and inspect them, we find defective products at a rate of about 30 to 40%.
The main reason is that the slot itself is distorted and the terminal parts are separated.
We only send out all of our products that have been successfully Dump tested.
If you bought from my store we can resend new one to you.
Please contact us at the following e-mail address
[email protected]

[OpenAMOC]

Good morning sir. Retrosix GG slots are not of good quality. When we assemble them at our factory and inspect them, we find defective products at a rate of about 30 to 40%. The main reason is that the slot itself is distorted and the terminal parts are separated. We only send out all of our products that have been successfully Dump tested. If you bought from my store we can resend new one to you. Please contact us at the following e-mail address [email protected]

Good morning, that is a real shame but I'm very thankful for your explanation. Unfortunately I built it myself instead of buying from your store, which may well be my next step! Thanks for all you've done for this community 👍

[OpenAMOC]

Yes, when using the retrode option, the CRC32 is the same for a given game each time. For example, NFL 95 is 081EB154 and World Series Baseball 95 is 90AC22F2. As you might imagine, when searching gg.txt for these values, nothing is found.

I checked and it is supposed to use Retrode. What other games do you have? Do you Sonic, G-Loc, or Outrun Europa? Are you in the Discord?

I do have G-Loc and plan to join the discord, but at this rate I'm likely to buy a new adapter from STH instead. Many many thanks for your time! 😄

[SAVE-THE-HERO]

I think you can Dump it if you correct it so that all the contacts in the slots are connected.
Might be possible if the board can be fixed flat.
https://x.com/peca_port0/status/1708412011431002389

Or Joey GG cart flasher seems reliable.
https://bennvenn.myshopify.com/products/joeygg-cart-flasher
Good luck.

[PsyK0p4T]

If it reads the TMR SEGA header, then I assume the mode you selected is menus is the correct one. What you can check :

• confirm you're using 5V mode
• clean the cart pins very well (you can open the cartridge to do it better)
• compare your dump with an internet one to see where the differences are with an hex editor

A few games can be tricky to dump, but G-Loc should be fine, it was tested already.

[Ancyker]

Yeah, I asked about G-Loc because I have that one.

[OpenAMOC]

Thank you both for your advice, I have just tried G-Loc, ensuring I'm using 5v and the cart is clean (even tried again after using contact cleaner), but no luck.

[Ancyker]

Thank you both for your advice, I have just tried G-Loc, ensuring I'm using 5v and the cart is clean (even tried again after using contact cleaner), but no luck.

Can you join Discord?

[OpenAMOC]

Sure, just joined

[Ancyker]

We resolved this in Discord. OP's adapter is now working :)

It was determined that pin GG:D7/OSCR:D29 was shorted to ground on the adapter due to a damaged solder mask on the back which caused a stuck bit. Clearing the short fixed the issue. Images below for reference in case anyone finds this post in the future.

Stuck bit:

Picture of the short to ground:

[PsyK0p4T]

Nice find ! Glad this was solved :)