[?] Fueys aka Flash Hueys

[Tatsujin]

So there are (or will be soon) some few new Flash Huey products for our beloved PCE/TG16 systems available.

My question now is which is the best to get and what are the general pros and cons of each FuCard regarding like capacity, price, handling, features etc.?

This thread should also serve as a general information base about those products and their developments.

Thanks for any replies

[SuperDeadite]

Well seeing you only play System Cards, I think any Fuey would work.

[Tatsujin]

good point there.

[MottZilla]

I'm aware of three flash cards. The first, PCE Pro 32M by Tototek.

The PCE Pro 32M is not bad, but the design is certainly old. It'll play all the existing games but you only have 32 Megs of storage which isn't much. The bad part mainly is that it is programmed via parallel port which can be troublesome for many people. Some PC's don't have the port, others may not have it configured right and have to hope they can tinker with it and get it to work. But if it works it's just a bit of a hassle going to it to load games on it so it isn't easy to switch between alot of games. The last thing that is not so nice is it sticks out of the system quite a bit since the programmer and HuCard are all one big board. Overall it's not a bad card, but now there are better ones.

Next is gameofyou's low cost usb flash card. It won't play Street Fighter II but other than that it can play all the games that the Tototek card can. It has less storage at 8M, and only one game at a time. But being programmable by USB should make up for that. It's also pretty cheap. It may be the cheapest of all. Certainly seems like a better buy than the Tototek or NeoFlash. I don't have any first hand experience with it, but it sounds solid. I think it fits nicely in the system.

Thirdly is the Turbo EverDrive. It's the most expensive one but it's not that expensive. It should play all the games just like the rest. The main feature is probably that you can just pop games onto a Micro SD card. So you could plop every HuCard game onto a MicroSD and have everything at your disposal in an instant. Very nice. It should fit in systems fine. Only thing I haven't heard about so far is if it plays nice with region modded systems that did not like the 128M NeoFlash. But overall it seems like the most feature filled. I have one ordered and on the way.

Lastly I guess since I already mentioned it, there is the NeoFlash PCE cartridge. I don't recommend it. I had some Neo products in the past. The experience was mediocre to poor. Carts with bad NOR sectors and such. It's also expensive last I checked. And there are much better cards to be had. It's main advantage was USB and more memory when it only had the PCE Pro 32M from Tototek to compete with, and even then the drivers are wonky and only like windows xp and vista did not like them so much as I recall but that may have changed.

So I'd pick either gameofyou's low cost usb Flash Card or the Turbo EverDrive if you were looking to get a cartridge.

[thesteve]

i have the neo64 (got it with the USB interface broken) waiting n parts to fix the loader to really mess with it.
the neo64 has played well with all my systems (wonky drivers confirmed)
i have the GameOfYou card (helped with the design)
the GOY card is great for a single game, fits and works like an original.
played with the tototek for a min.
its a huge card that hangs out of the system like a diving board, but seems to work as the neo did.

[Frank_fjs]

TurboEverDrive is the best option based on price and features. I'm going to order one but am holding out to hear some reports first and for the first firmware update, I can't be arsed j-tagging it myself.

[Tatsujin]

thx so far peeps

few questions coming up right here.

what was the intention of limiting the GOY to 8Mbit only? Looking at todays flash prices even a 100 time of that storage wouldn't have had much influences on its end price.
what I guess it was is the concept behind to replicate ONE HUEY at once. and to eliminate any necessary select menues.

does all the other multi game flashers (f.e.ever drive) come with an automatic select menu on the screen when turning it on?

about what price range do we talking here for each device?

[thesteve]

the reason for the 8Mb card is it matches the system addressing without a mapper

[Tatsujin]

thx

OK, I might going to order one of these any day:

http://stoneagegamer.com/turboeverdrive_boardonly.aspx

kinda conviced me to be the most partical of all the existing Fueys, and I can put 'em on all together in once (also I am technically/legally authorised to use any Japanese roms on it (except artist tool (lol), power leauge gold and pc genjin III taikenban) ).

[meka]

I hope  stoneagegamer can design a case for the turboeverdrive, like the neo team one, can't be that hard, I would not want to get it bare.

[soop]

I like Gameofyou's card the most.  But there is something attractive about a LCD modded GT with every Hucard game on one card.

[burn_654]

I can vouch for gameofyou's card. It runs everything I've thrown at it without a problem and flashes quickly

True it is only a single game at a time but I can appreciate that - lets you avoid some gaming add. Sometimes you have to sit down with a game for a bit more than 5 minutes to tell you enjoy it.

I think of it as a nice way to try homebrew, translations and games that are out of your price range.

[MottZilla]

Current prices. Turbo EverDrive is $79 from RetroGate (the creator's store). The PCE Pro 32M is $60 from Tototek. gameofyou's 8M flash card was $45. No idea what the Neo cost.

As I asid before I think the clear choices are gameofyou's 8M flash card and the Turbo EverDrive, depending on how much you want to spend.

[spenoza]

Someone like Tats would probably be better of with an EverDrive, but those of us with tiny pockets and limited time should probably opt for GameOfYou's card (he really needs to give the damn thing a catchy name, seriously). It's got a very good price for an entry level card with excellent compatibility.

[esadajr]

Can you provide with a link to the GameOfYou card?

[roflmao]

Here you go!
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/Flash_HuCard/

[esadajr]

Thanks. Too bad he is sold out too

[KnightWarrior]

How many games can the PCE Pro 32 hold??

[spenoza]

esadajr, have patience. I believe he's planning a second run.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

How many games can the PCE Pro 32 hold??

It depends on the size of the game - sixteen 2mb games (i.e. Bomberman), eight 4mb games (i.e. Bomberman '93), four 8mb games (i.e. Bomberman '94), etc.

[esadajr]

That is true. Patience is key.

[meka]

Has anyone tested  Fueys Flash cart for power consumption, as he states that the power consumption is less than some HuCards which would be good to use on my GT.

[thesteve]

Has anyone tested  Fueys Flash cart for power consumption, as he states that the power consumption is less than some HuCards which would be good to use on my GT.

i have
the gameofyou cart uses less power, the neo 64M uses more

[meka]

Has anyone tested  Fueys Flash cart for power consumption, as he states that the power consumption is less than some HuCards which would be good to use on my GT.

i have
the gameofyou cart uses less power, the neo 64M uses more

Cool, I get pretty good battery life with the neo 128m, should get a decent amount more with fueys.

[HercTNT]

I was only ever able to get about 6 games total on the pce pro. The pce pro has huge problems with mixing certian types of games based on thier size. Once you play around with it, it works well, but only has a parallel interface and flashes slow. I love the neo64 and it works well has not caused me any problems. I'm still on the fence about getting gameofyou's card. I will probably eventually buy one just to support his endeavor. Making a brand new flash card from scratch right here in these forums is insanely cool.

[meka]

I had quite a few problems with installing the drivers on the neo, probably was because I was using 64-bit architecture but I had no alternative. Once I got it to work only a handful of games have had problems but ChillyWilly helped me out with striping headers. I'll buy the gameofyoucart to support his work, I like the fact the people are still making things for "unsupported" consoles/devices.

[thesteve]

the neo drivers have problems on XP and 2K 32 bit as well
the NEO64 wouldnt run on the TG16+cdbase, but worked on everything else i tried.
the gameofyou works on everything

[meka]

The NEO128 does not run any games on the duo r, but runs fine on the TG16 and almost perfect on the GT. The Duo R has been region modded and plays every US/JAP Hucard, maybe it doesn't like the region mod, I not too sure.

[thesteve]

my neo64 runs fine on all my modded systems

[PunkCryborg]

cant tell if Tats "always originate never recreate" is trolling us with this thread.... plus he has like every pc engine game anyways so a flash cart would seem useless to him

[cabbage]

The NEO128 does not run any games on the duo r, but runs fine on the TG16 and almost perfect on the GT. The Duo R has been region modded and plays every US/JAP Hucard, maybe it doesn't like the region mod, I not too sure.

For what it's worth, my un-modded Duo-R works like a champ with the Neo128. I would think a good mod would not affect its compatibility... Does the neo flash menu boot up on your Duo-R, or do you just get a blank screen/some garbage/etc?

[HercTNT]

I have a botched region mod and my duo-r runs the neo64 just fine. eventually i will send it to thesteve to fix, but even with the problem i have the neo works fine.

[meka]

The NEO128 does not run any games on the duo r, but runs fine on the TG16 and almost perfect on the GT. The Duo R has been region modded and plays every US/JAP Hucard, maybe it doesn't like the region mod, I not too sure.

For what it's worth, my un-modded Duo-R works like a champ with the Neo128. I would think a good mod would not affect its compatibility... Does the neo flash menu boot up on your Duo-R, or do you just get a blank screen/some garbage/etc?

I don't think it's the region mod, probably the neo is just picky, and the neo boots on my Duo R fine but when I try to get into a game it just crashes.

[gameofyou]

what was the intention of limiting the GOY to 8Mbit only? Looking at todays flash prices even a 100 time of that storage wouldn't have had much influences on its end price.

There were a lot of reasons for making the basic 8Mbit card:  low power, low cost, no menus, low parts count (needed to keep the card size to a standard HuCard size).
 
Like thesteve said, there is no need for mapping logic.  But also, you will be very hard pressed to find a larger parallel flash memory device than what I'm using, which uses a 5v supply.  So then you would have to look into level translators or using multiple flash chips.
 
I wanted to make something that would use the minimum amount of parts, and have a low price point. 
 
By the way, I have made some more cards, & hopefully I will be able to keep up with orders now, so that I can keep the checkout basket open from here on.

[thesteve]

i believe the neoflash is a 3.3v chip with level translation.
i suspect that is why it has issues on some systems

[esadajr]

GOY, I like your philosophy, lets a gamer/dev focus on one game/demo at a time at an affordable price.

[spenoza]

Sometimes simple is just as good as messy and complex.