Distant Calling

gdemu 95 Comments

Not much to report, other than GDEMU orders will open in a moment are closed again – more will come though – so here’s a couple of random photos. I planned on making a simple “guess what it is” quiz, maybe with prizes, but it’s too easy and I’m too lazy to rename the files 🙂

If it seems weird that this Super System card doesn’t have a picture on it, you’re right, it got washed away in ultrasound cleaning. I bought this as dead/not working so no harm done. The original idea was to maybe create a replacement as apparently the ver 3.0 cards are expensive and hard to come by, and not already emulated by various Flash-based carts due to additional RAM chips and logic.

And this is my new toy since I’m still waiting for the latest PCE proto boards to arrive. Again if it seems a bit different it’s because I recapped this PCB (and the Marty PSU, and fixed the mainboard leaking cap, and replaced the dead 3V battery with a holder). Works much better now but still has some issues which seem to be temperature related. The drive performance degrades as it gets warmer inside the console and I found that adding a small radiator to that driver chip you can see on the bottom right helps a lot. Still, that thing is terrible and has to go – and this is where I step in 🙂

95 thoughts on “Distant Calling”

  1. Fantastic!!
    I really can’t wait to have one or more, I’ve just prepared my pce with the interface and the duo Rx just in case!

  2. Hello, when we can expect next phoebes batch?, thanks

      • Thanks ! I am also waiting for a long time for an order opening, is there any way to suscribe to a mailing list to know when exactly it opens ? I have missed this so many times 😦

  3. Will Rhea/Phoebe go on sale today? It’s super early here and I’d like to go back to bed if not lol

  4. Can you explain a bit more about how you are doing the ordering? I was in the first batch, got confirmation email but no paypal invoice.
    Is this just effectively a waiting list you are creating at this point?
    Thanks\

    • It’s always a waiting list 🙂 The only difference is how much time you have to wait – days or weeks.
      Expect payment request for your GDEMU tomorrow or early next week.

  5. You can actually emulate the Super System Card 3.0 with the Turbo Everdrive V2. There is a simple patch for the bios rom.

    • Oh, good to know it provides the extra RAM. In fact it might be enough to emulate Arcade cards as well?

      • As far as I know the pc engine everdrive can’t emulate the arcade hi card (both red and blue) and unfortunately they’re quite expensive this days

      • Yeah, the TED V2 has 4MB’s of Ram.

        Arcade and Duo System Card are not currently supported though, so consider making replacements for those two cards.

      • What might be good to know here, is that both arcade (pro/duo) cards also support system card 3.0 games. Perhaps these might be the best cards to model your version after.

        Or wait for krikzz to eventually make his turbo everdrive 3.0

      • A note to the above that the Arcade Duo cards do not support System 3.0 because the 3.0 bios is not on that card. You used the Arcade Duo cards on the PCE Duo because those machines already had bios 3.0 built in. They won’t work on CD-ROM2 systems.

        The Arcade Pro cards however do have the 3.0 bios. While targeted at CD-ROM2 machines, they work on all PCE hardware fine. The Arcade Pro cards are the cards to emulate if you want a universal solution.

      • Truth be told this was the plan all along but the RAM banking logic in Arcade cards will require PLD/FPGA…

  6. Is this what I think it is? A Fm Towns Marty? And an SD solution made by you (in the future)? That would be insanely awesome.

    • I’m hoping if an ODE for the FM Towns Marty is ever created, a version or some method to also use it in a regular FM Towns computers will be available. The drive in my FM Towns (model 2) is really awful and doesn’t even boot games half the time.

  7. Damn. Missed out again. I even have a change detection email set up for your site :/.

    Another couple weeks until next batch or?

  8. Hello, any tips on how to get in the GDEMU order queue? I woke up early this morning to check the page but even only 45m after your post orders were closed again. Thanks!

    • Use RSS? If it’s the time zone difference that’s the problem then just try again. Sometimes the orders stay open for hours, sometimes everything sells in 10 minutes. I sure wish there was a pattern to it but alas…

  11. Missed it again. I have been trying for so long this is getting disheartening.

  13. You would be better off making an Arcade card Pro/Duo replacement. they cant be run on an everdrive and are expensive.

    The system card 3.0 runs fine on it. In fact there is an upgrade for system card 3.0 it called 3.1 that fixes some memory issues with the Turboduo.

  16. SIGH. GDEMU I’ll give you an extra 20 Euro if you can “find” one more GDEMU unit to sell. 😉
    Seriously though, I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of these units for a very long time now. Congrats on such a successful/high demand product.

  17. I checked if GDEMU’s were available yesterday evening I totally missed out. You must’ve posted it sometime in the AM. Gosh I missed out. I checked your “The Lesser of Two Evils” posts didn’t see anything there, if there was something there I clearly missed it.

    Anywho my fault I missed out. Dammit.

  18. Damn, I missed anther pre-order; I wish these were mass produced and not home made like the everdrive boards.

    • Damn, I missed anther pre-order; I wish these were mass produced like the everdrive boards and not home made.*

  20. A bit clueless here.. But what does your new project PCE do or work with?

  21. To make sure you don’t miss any orders just use a site like https://www.followthatpage.com to detect any page changes or comments.

    Without paying you can get one check per hour.

    When setting up the filter you need to have a line filter for to following since this was causing false changes:

    Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
    Blog at WordPress.com.

    • Thanks for this pal. Only dusted off my Dreamcast earlier this week and playing on a SD card BUT I NEED THE GDEMU!

  22. A Marty drive replacement would be amazing! I have heard of several others having issues with their drives, and I had to sell my system for the same reason. I would definitely be interested in getting another if there was a drive replacement option.

  24. Hello GDEMU, please help! I was on the last pre-order list and received my email confirmation to wait for the PayPal request. However, I never received it last week as the email stated. Very disappointed. Could you please help? I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much!

  26. My briefcase is also ready!

    I have the PCE Everdrive Ver2 running the patched..
    “EverDrive Patched Super CD-ROM System (J) v3.01 elmer.pce”
    Image (Smokemonster) and the real (J) Super System 3.0 Hucard for testing.

    Any chance I could be a part of the beta board testing?

    Unfortunately no Arcade Hucard, the version needed for the briefcase is the most expensive.
    Even the slightly less expensive “Duo” card is more then I’m willing to pay for Sapphire. 😉

  27. Hi GDemu,
    I was investigating the Bleem issue as you know, and I just found what causes GDemu to fail to boot only this disc.
    The “copy protection” of the disc is found on the subchannels P+Q.
    If this data is not found, it won’t pass the Legal Stuff screen and freezees here.
    I made my tests on CD-R. If the CD-R has the subchannels, it boots. If I do not burn this channels, it won’t boot and freezes where GDemu does.
    GDemu can’t read subchannels. Can you change that on the next firmware release, or make it an option on the .ini file? Thank you very much,

    • GDEMU can and does process subchannels, but for performance reasons it returns spoofed data for status commands. I’ll look into it.

      • Add the bleem would be amazing ^^
        Hope you can find an issue.

      • Subchannels are useless in most cases, but it can make a difference here. My tests will never be reliable if GDemu has subchannel reading disabled (spoofed). If it causes trouble on other games, you can only deploy a beta on/off switch on the .ini file. The least effort for you. Thank you very much.
        PS: Congrats on the new ODE =)

  28. I ordered a GDEMU on Saturday, just a little worried it didn’t go through properly. Will I get a confirmation e-mail soon?
    Sorry to bother you.

  30. I received my GDEMU from the first batch this month. It works like a charm and it’s worth every cent. For the first run, I use an ancient PNY 8GB SDHC card with 8GB which I bought about 8 years ago. It’s so old, it doesn’t even state what class it is.
    You made me really happy. Thanks for your hard work! 🙂

    • Do you know when the next batch approximately will open?

  33. Any ideas when this will be available? Id happily give more than the asking price if it meant I got one sooner!

  34. Dosen’t Phoebe work with Action Replay 4M Plus?

    After connecting Phoebe with my jap. Saturn (Type-04) my Action Replay don’t do a Thing.

    Is there an Issue?

    • Sure it works. It’s probably your Saturn cart slot giving you trouble, that’s very common. Try reseating the AR.

      • Hmm… Really seems like the slot is the Issue. Reseating the cartridge doesn’t help.

        I’ve tried the AR in another jap. Saturn (Type-02) and it worked…

        Now I have 3 options:
        1. Resoldering my Phoebe Type 04 into a Phoebe Type 02 (SJ1 closed, SJ2 up)
        2. Replace the bad Cart-Slot in my Type 04 with the working one in the Type 02 (Risk: Maybe it’s not only the Cart-Slot that causes trouble)
        3. Waiting for a new Order-Window and order Phoebe Type 02

      • hello gdemu,
        is option 1 an advisable method?

        it is much easier to change the SJ switches on phoebe rather than desolder the whole connector and solder it back in.

      • ok, changed the SJ’s and now phoebe is working in my type02 saturn😄

  35. Do you know when the next batch for Rhea approximately will open?
    if my SS motherboard is ENR-007D and EMW10447-006E, is it a Type-1: VA0-VA1 (20-pin cable) for sure?

  36. Hi i got rhea I installed it following the installation instructions, but I can not get it to work. I tried with several cards, sd 2gb in fat 16, sdhc 4 gb in fat 32, sdhc 32 in fat 32. install the rhea menu to prove it but neither works with any of the cards. install a game in archive 02 but dont work whit any game

    please, help me

    • Check the flat cable again, I can’t see it very well but I think you put it in upside down.

      • Hello, check the connection of the flat cable, even use the cable of the cd drive, everything is well connected. I have the files in my SD as I show you in the video, I’m just trying to load the menu in the folder one to discard that it is a problem of compatibility of the files. But the problem continues with different sd cards

        Please help me find a solution, I have updated the firmware of the rhea to verify that it works and everything goes as described in the instructions. I really do not know what’s happening

  37. Hi, any idea about when the next Phoebe batch will be available? Hope one day I can install one of your units in me PC Duo-R.

    • @poorcomputerman; It has been stated you will need the “briefcase” interface unit as seen here…

      Since this will not connect to an American TG16 it seems you will also need to invest in a PC Engine with proper system 1.0/2.0/3.0 hu-cards.

      It seems many are awaiting a Duo-R/RX version, however this has NEVER been officially discussed or disclosed (to my knowledge). If you want to be ready on day one, I would recommend you get the hardware that’s been announced (aka NOT the R/RX).

  40. Hello, I have seen some crazy auctions on ebay for phoebe, they hit 366 euros. I think some buyers just make money of this buying then selling triple the price.

    I bet that a lot of people will try to buy as many as possible as soon as it will release to do the same.

    It’s sad the world we live in, because of those guys it’s difficult to get an item we are waiting for since a long time. In a matter of seconds batches disappear even if you wait for the right moment.

    What can we do to get one ? This system of buying don’t favor people waiting for months, but those who use bots or tracking/buying as soon as the link appears.

    I’ve had the same thought yesterday for the LRG version of Wonderboy, it had countdown, some smart asses bought it and put it on ebay in less than 5 minutes for 4x the price….

    I told myself something is wrong with this system of selling not favoring real users but speculation.

    Best regards

    • Oh great, I lost the Wonder Boy copy…

      Yeah, I agree with @lakhdar omar. This system creates a very challenging environment to get the hands on the product. A waiting list, with a limit of copy per person, would be more fair. That would even help people to know in which batch they will get the item and avoid scalpers.

      I mean, I already have a bot to tell me when a change is made in the blog (and then I saw this comment) and I’m still trying to buy ANY board.

      • I hope GDEMU will do something to settle this issue with scalpers. I have sent a mail to LRG to complain for Wonderboy. It’s just frustrating to tease everyone and just can’t get enough to supply, they just attract scalpers who has nothing to do than watch for orders everyday and sell the same day. I know some of the Wonderboy dev team they are disgusted of what is happening, even their friends or familiy couldn’t get the game, everyone was online to get it but it was just impossible 😦

      • Well LRG has a business to make as much money as possible and as long as they dont carry stock over or dont sell out hurts their business so nothing is changing that. In fact arguably i would think they love to see the emails saying someone cant get the product meaning they know they kept the quantities at the right amount for their current business model. GDEMU seems to be a different animal he isnt out to make ton of money but to make sure we get a great high quality product and the best way for him to do that is keep limited numbers. There is no reason anyone needs to buy these on ebay for a markup unless they want it immediately until GDEMU says he will stop making them then i could see making a rush to Ebay to try to get one. But, as it is i will just keep waiting.

        I do wish since it all is a waiting list anyways I wish there was a sign up sheet for just to get a name on and as he makes them those people get marked off the list. Since i do believe people have been able to buy more then one over the months and that should be stopped. I wish it was 1 per household till demand starts to slowdown.

  41. @lakhdar omar I agree with you completely, and the Wonderboy LRG release is just an example of the entire LRG company in itself. Do not support them. If the devs of Wonderboy wanted the physical release to the hands of its fans then making an extremely limited supply is not the way to do it. I suspect when LRG is through publishing games, the owner will make another fortune off his hoard of copies on ebay.

    I know this has gone off topic to the site, and still hoping to get my hands on a phoebe or rhea to play my saturn collection.

  42. Was wondering if you knew when more gdemu would be available? I live in the US and wanted a couple to fix a mate and my dreamcast.

  43. I am interested in the saturn $200 + Shipping?

    BOUGHT FROM YOU OVER A YEAR AGO.. READY FOR ANOTHER PURCHASE.

  44. Really enjoying the GDEmu, which works flawlessly since I cleaned my pins.

    Any news on Rhea/Phoebe’s going back up?

  46. Ha! Terraonion just released an optical drive emulator for the PCE. Tough luck, faggot! That’ll teach you to work faster and more efficiently.

    • Really? That’s what you have to add… *shakes head in disgust*

      • Well, did I lie? He’s been producing tiny batches of all of his products. Luckily for us retrogamers, there are companies and people willing to work hard and produce products available to EVERYBODY, not just a select few. To hell with him.

      • To hell with you Johm. People like you make me sick that im lumped in with gamers like you.

  48. maybe just make a simple emulator for now thats cheap for people with super/cdrom2 since everdrive can emu systemcards also i can get you systems card 3.0 but also remember super cdrom has it built in

  49. maybe just copy the super cdrom2 make it simple and use sd cards many ways to implement that fpga or arm etc running emu

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