Mega-CD/Sega CD FPGA Optical Disc Emulator

[segasonicfan]

I am sorry, but you are 100% wrong about us not mentioning any of this.

We are being as transparent about all of this as we can be.

And where is the manual link on your sale page (it isn't showing up for me and there's no text about it)?
Why aren't you saying there are incompatibilities on the sale page? Why aren't you saying that the Nomad requires modifications before this works on your sale page?

That is not transparency. It is not even close to being "as transparent as you can be." It is dishonest and misleading to customers.

It is your responsibility to let customers know exactly what they are buying. It is not their responsibility to go digging through some manual which is not clearly linked anywhere just to find out what systems do and don't work with this product.

This is the sale page I'm referring to:
https://shop.terraonion.com/en/produ...cartridge.html

[broken]

https://terraonion.com/en/producto/megasd/

That's the product page. It's linked at the bottom along with the developer manual.


I have asked our web developer to add the manual to the shop page as well.


We aren't trying to hide anything

[Gryson]

I'm very disappointed with TerraOnion's business practices with this new product. Their sale page is some of the most misleading stuff I've ever seen for a retro adapter. Collecting $260+ pre-orders they failed to mention:

1. It doesn't work with CDX, X'eye, Wondermega, Laseractive, Aiwa Mega CD, or any Genesis that has the CD portion built in.

2. The CD emulation does not work if a Sega CD is plugged into any Genesis physically.

3. The CD emulation does not work if you are using the 32X.

4. the Sega Nomad is advertised as working with it. But Terra Onion fails to mention that you need to open it up and do modifications. (They also avoid mentioning the Genesis 3 needs internal modifications)

5. Virtua Racing doesnt work (careful wording would have you believe that every Genesis ROM works).

6. The PCM and SMS FM audio sound *way* different in this comparison video, since they are missing filters that the original hardware has. Maybe they'll make an update for that later though.

I don't mind that it's expensive, and I can tolerate that it has these problems and missing features. But misrepresenting an expensive product like this when they know that there are incompatibilities is problematic.

I'm super excited that FPGA development like this is happening. I'm super excited about the engineering work that Terra Onion is doing. But this business practice is dishonest. I almost ordered one, and boy would I be so pissed if I found out later that CD emulation wouldnt work on my Sega CDX after plugging it in.

I'm concerned that this is becoming the norm for retro gaming gaming companies. Put your product up for sale and while the hype is high collect a bunch of non-refundable pre-orders before full product information is revealed. :/

Big shout-out and thank you to RetroRGB for documenting everything in his amazing video. You have to watch it if you're going to buy this product:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iACMZfhx1Ms

As broken replied, these limitations are published on their website (and have been mentioned in this very thread), but I will give it to you that your first point should probably be listed on the product page. Perhaps also the fourth point, although what you said is not quite correct: it's only the CD audio that won't work with the Nomad out of the box.

I do find your accusation of dishonesty quite inflammatory, though. Perhaps you could have made a polite request to have the info posted, first? Maybe it was an oversight? Why are you so convinced that there's something shady going on?

[segasonicfan]

https://terraonion.com/en/producto/megasd/

That's the product page. It's linked at the bottom along with the developer manual.


I have asked our web developer to add the manual to the shop page as well.


We aren't trying to hide anything

Thank you for looking into fixing this. Are you going to add wording on the sale page about the Nomad needing modification? Will you add info about some systems not working with the CD emulation?

Perhaps also the fourth point, although what you said is not quite correct: it's only the CD audio that won't work with the Nomad out of the box.

Yeah, I mean, the CD emulation is the main selling point of the product. It doesn't work without internal modification and the shop page doesn't say that..

I do find your accusation of dishonesty quite inflammatory, though. Perhaps you could have made a polite request to have the info posted, first? Maybe it was an oversight? Why are you so convinced that there's something shady going on?

That's a fair point. Maybe this was an all an oversight. But the fact that it is so many things "overlooked" on a main shop page (which is live taking orders) is suspicious to me. My friends were just as surprised as I was, and fortunately most hesitated before hitting the "Add To Cart" button knowing Terra Onions problems with the Super SD System 3.

If Terra Onion fixes all these things (and I strongly believe the first 4 points should be on their shop pages) then that would go a long way to showing their competence as a company and their commitment to their customers towards being honest about their products.

[Sik]

I'm pretty sure it was already well known that it wouldn't work with anything in the expansion port attached (even if it's built-in). That's probably the biggest downside of taking the cartridge approach. I admit I'd have just gone for the expansion slot as usual, though that wouldn't help with those that have a built-in drive (there's no way to cope with those without modifying them, because the built-in hardware will always cause a fight).

[Gryson]

Yeah, I mean, the CD emulation is the main selling point of the product. It doesn't work without internal modification and the shop page doesn't say that..

As I understand it, that's not the case. The Nomad can still play CD-based games, it just can't play the CD audio.

I mean, the manual states "needs mod for CD audio output".

[segasonicfan]

I'm pretty sure it was already well known that it wouldn't work with anything in the expansion port attached (even if it's built-in)..

But well-known by whom? By people in this thread? Terra Onions main release video on YouTube made no mention of it IIRC.

As I understand it, that's not the case. The Nomad can still play CD-based games, it just can't play the CD audio.

This is really splitting hairs. If it can't play the CD audio for CD games then it is not fully compatible. The sale / shop page should say this, that's what asterisks are used for.

I think you make a fair point of giving them notice to make these changes and not jumping to conclusions for why this info is missing. I'm not trying to flame them or spread negativity - I admire their products and their engineering work is amazing. Hopefully they will take some of what I've said here into consideration (it sounds like they already are a bit, judging from Broken's last post).

[Gryson]

I'm pretty sure it was already well known that it wouldn't work with anything in the expansion port attached (even if it's built-in). That's probably the biggest downside of taking the cartridge approach. I admit I'd have just gone for the expansion slot as usual, though that wouldn't help with those that have a built-in drive (there's no way to cope with those without modifying them, because the built-in hardware will always cause a fight).

If you did everything through the expansion slot, could you support all of the regular ROM functions like SRAM? Just curious.

I think the cartridge approach taken here is much better for marketing purposes than having to go through the expansion slot, though.

[nihilblack]

Does de Mega SD suport EEPROM and SRAM saving like the Mega EverDrive X7?

[Sik]

If you did everything through the expansion slot, could you support all of the regular ROM functions like SRAM? Just curious.

…fair point, I forgot the cartridge functionality :​v (no, it wouldn't work) I'm just boring like that. I know some people are already complaining that it doesn't replace the 32X as well (let's be honest, people ultimately want a MD+CD+32X all-in-one).

I think the cartridge approach taken here is much better for marketing purposes than having to go through the expansion slot, though.

Yeah, they seem to be trying to market this as a replacement for a Mega Everdrive.

[Gryson]

I know some people are already complaining that it doesn't replace the 32X as well (let's be honest, people ultimately want a MD+CD+32X all-in-one).

Part of me wishes we could just kind of forget / move beyond the 32X at this point. And I say that as someone who bought and enjoyed the 32X when it came out (and still have it connected to this day).

[chilled]

Part of me wishes we could just kind of forget / move beyond the 32X at this point. And I say that as someone who bought and enjoyed the 32X when it came out (and still have it connected to this day).

Erm, one thing which is not mentioned frequently is that the 32X has one of the best X good game every Y bad game ratio of the era, just because they released very few games, but there are something like 15-20 enjoyable/good enough games, which is more than 50% of the whole library or so, something the main system it is attached to can't say for itself, whilst having a great library of course.

[Gryson]

Erm, one thing which is not mentioned frequently is that the 32X has one of the best X good game every Y bad game ratio of the era, just because they released very few games, but there are something like 15-20 enjoyable/good enough games, which is more than 50% of the whole library or so, something the main system it is attached to can't say for itself, whilst having a great library of course.

Not disagreeing. My point was in relation to the need to support the 32X in projects such as this.

I don't think the 32X should necessarily be grouped with the MD/MCD. It was a next-gen add-on with very different hardware. I enjoy some of its games. But I don't think the 32X has much part in defining the MD.

[Greg2600]

I too don't understand the complaints over perceived incomplete support. Yes it should be fully stated, but come on, just use the darn thing on a model 1 or 2 MD/GEN and be done with it. So you have to remove the 32x, big deal. I do that now with the Everdrive anyway, as to me it's pointless to leave it vampiring my power.

[Barone]

I wish Todd would have addressed mine and some other questions prior to jumping into the more inflammatory discussion.