Gopher/firecore handhels can be bought from the following places http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-Mega-Drive-...item414a20b4ac
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-...n-70-3ijj.html
If you live brazil they are called Tectoy Md Play they have a website www.tectoy.com.br
RAPENZIE i also dont have the feeling that its stereo, like you said, it sound like dual mono. but the sound-quality is good enough for me.
BLEEPBLOOP i dont thought that its so bad with stolen packages in brazil, thats really shit. i am lucky that in western-europe all of this, is only a small problem. like i said, only when i sended things to eastern-europe sometimes things get lost.
NEVARNA, you forgot www.yesasia.com/? . there i bought mine and 10 days later it was here.
the games i found out until now, which had problems on the gopher, are the following:
mega-turrican - (graphic problems with the sprite)
jim power - (graphic problems at all - unplayable)
virtua-racing - dont run at all
vectorman 2 - errors in game, at the beginning it works but then unplayable
the lost vikings - same problem as vectorman 2 - thats sad - i love this game :(
chaos engine (soldiers of fortune) - graphic error in scrolling (exactly the same problem that GENS PLUS also had with this game *LOL*, it runs perfect in KEGA FUSION)
and a strange thing, and i want some of you to test this please, because i cant understand.
the game ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBOURS only runs until the menu-screen when playing with the gopher normally, BUT - when you plug the gopher to a tv (we have PAL in europe) then the game could be started normally. strange!!! :eek: i think, it has something to do with the pal mode of my tv - maybe gopher runs with 50 hz when plugged to my tv. in pal this game seems to run - on the gopher in NTSC (60 hz, normal gopher mode) not. and this problem strangly is with ALL versions of this game, no matter if you use a pal or ntsc-version of this game. even when i try to make a pal-rom from my ZOMBIES-version with some PC-ROM-HEADER-TOOLS, it dont run on the gopher without tv-plugging.
next strange thing: FIFA SOCCER 99 only runs until the menu and then you can steer but buttons dont work and you can not start it. is the gopher plugged to the tv you CAN start it.
can some of you please test this 2 things, if this is also on your machines? when my theorie is correct, then - for people who had ntsc-tv`s these 2 games will not run, people with pal-tv`s they should.
i am interested for the results.
i can confirm zombies at my neighbours doesnt work unless its through the tv. also contra hardcorps doesnt work correctly
I'm having a similar problem with Sensible Soccer, the game plays on the gopher, but the screen keeps running vertically, like old tvs did. But when I use tv-out, the game plays fine, but a bit slower. I'm guessing it has something to do with the refresh rate the game plays in, on the gopher itself it seems to run on 60hz, while on tv on 50. Any suggestions?Quote:
Originally Posted by AW72
All in all I like it, I like the screen and the dpad, but I hate that i can't support save games.
NIEEKOU you can do nothing against the little bit slower gameplay, because like you said, on a pal-tv the games run with 50 fps and on ntsc with 60 fps. but when you play on a real europe-mega-drive you have the same problem, games runs with 50 fps. on older c64-monitors with video-in maybe the games runs with 60 fps, when the monitor support it. but i dont test this until now.
now it would be interesting when people try ZOMBIES on a ntsc-tv. will it run or not? NIEEKOU has PAL, and you NEVARNA? can somebody test ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGBOURS with a ntsc-tv.
i just wanted to know, if the PAL - NTSC therorie is correct or not.
The type of TV has nothing to do with anything, it's just what kind of signal the gopher sends to it. And it seems to mess up things... I'll look into it if I have any spare timeQuote:
Originally Posted by AW72
I pretty sure gopher handheld only sends a 50hz pal signal via tv out. my tv supports pal pal60 ntsc, if i set it to the pal the picture is fine anything else and the screen jumps. ive noticed when ive played games through the tv they are slower mostly likely cause of 50hz pal instead of 60hz ntsc being send to the tv.
i think, it will send such a tv-out-signal which chinese-tv had. but i dont know if they have 50 or 60 hz.
it would be cool, when it would be possible on the gopher to change some settings on the emulator which runs on it. maybe its possible to enter the emulator-menue by any (probably difficult) key-combination.
but without any help of at@games this could be difficult.
it would be cool if it could play snes games aswell, but i guess that would raise the price, its already great if you ask me. (besides the save-state problem) Also, does homebrew work with it?
Edit: Also, is the screen covered by any form of protection?
i am usually very afraid of putting devices such as these in my pockets, for fear of getting them scratched or scuffed.
so is it like the PSP where the screen gets scratched instantly?
genesis/megadrive homebrew games work for it, im not sure about anything else i played a few Pudblic domain games on it.
the screen is not protected good, so people should take care of it, otherwise scratches will be in it very soon. but i think you can buy transparent-protection-leaf and put it over the screen, but i dont did this. i bought me a good case and hope nothing will happen.
bleepbloop, because of snes emulation and other stuff, maybe the dingoo a-320 could be interesting for you.
here is a link: http://www.chinavasion.com/advanced_...ngoo&Submit=GO
it can emulate many consoles and for all the things thats possible with it, its very cheap (58 euro or cheaper when you buy more of it)
i have read reviews of the dingoo, and its a nice little machine, and for a really good price, but, even with all of its features, its a bit expensive for me.
Well but can the gopher save games then?
Have you tried creating a .sav file with the same name? or place a save file with that name on the sd card?
Does it have any updateable firmware?
Maybe USB connection can see some files?
usb-connection shows nothing and if the firmware could be updatet i asked at@games about 5 times with email, but they dont answer at all - no response to any question about their console is really unbelievable :(
well , maybe they do answer phone calls...
you can try, NEOBLAST and then report what they said :) if somebody from at@games goes to the phone *lol*
i made me a little joystick, which can be screwed on a selfmade gamepad of my gopher to have better control in some games like "streetfighter" and so on.
therefore i made me a little plastic-joystick and gamepad with an alu-thread in the middle which i glue over the normal gamepad. (this pad dont have a steering-cross on it, because i had no pad left here and must tech me one. but this really isn`t a disadvantage, you can steer as good as before, maybe even a little bit better to the diagonals, because it comes higher out of the case. maybe later i put a gamepad with a steering cross on it, when i had one left in black color, i will see).
when you screw the little stick on it, special-moves in fighting-games are much easier to make than with the gamepad alone, especially when you hold the stick like it can be seen on one of the pics.
after i knew that this works good, i did the same to my dingoo, which also can be seen on the pics :thumbup: i put the dingoo-pics also on a german dingoo-forum, that people can see.
here are some pics for you.
finally ordered one of these beauties myself, should arrive in the next week, hopefully ill be able to add extra roms without too much hassle.
its easy to use with roms WRAGGSTER. people explained here how it works. just read ;)
i like the modded dingoo and gopher btw, great for beatem ups like streetfighter ?
yes, good for beat-em-ups or other games where you need diagonals much.
steering is not as good as with an arcade-digital-joystick, but much better than with the gamepad, for some kind of games.
Theres a brasilian website that is trying to figure out how to save games and also to put a screenshot to the left where its empty on roms loaded on the SD, just like the built-in games.
can you please give a link to this side BLEEPBLOOP. i dont speak portuguese but it`s interesting to look at it. i also asked myself, that it should work to make a screenshot about any game on the card, like it is for the 20 built-in-games.
in germany the gopher is sold now by "WWW.WELTBILD.de" and "WWW.KONSOLENKOST.DE". i asked both of them about save-states yesterday, but until now no answer. i hope they know it. i even mailed to SEGA-germany itself, because i thought, when its a licensed product they will know it, but they answered me, i must ask the producers, they dont know.
BLEEPBLOOP what about your gopher? do you have it now or you still waiting for it? or the brazilian custom play with it now :) or maybe its in quarantine at the moment ;)
I emailed atgames the maker of the gopher sd about saving games and i got a response from them
My questions
"Hi,
i own a gopher portable video game player and was wondering is it possible to save on games i want to save highscores and my place on games when i get far.
do i have to create a save game folder on the sd card ?
also will any sd game cards be coming out soon."
Response from atgames
Hi Matt:
Currently Gopher do not support the saving state function. We might implement this from next generation in one year.
We have launched new SD products in Germany and Brazil, not any other countries. This can only be planned territory by territory.
Best regards,
Gopher Service team
cool, i wonder that they response now.
aaah :confused: bad to hear that save-states dont work. cant understand why they forget this.
they said "launched new SD products in Germany and Brazil, not any other countries???" YEEAAHH, hahahaha :D
by the way, i have here something interesting, maybe they mean this, when they talk about releases here in germany:
http://www.weltbild.de/3/15975575-1/...er-arcade.html
this konsole is not interesting because of the sports-games which runs on it, because they dont seem to be very good in comparison to the WII, but its very interesting for emulating mega-drive-modules and the MOST interesting on it is THIS :thumbup:
http://www.weltbild.de/3/16047660-1/...-passport.html
because with this you can use SD-cards like on the gopher AND you have the possibility to connect real mega-drive-joysticks to this konsole. if this konsole can make save-states i also dont know, but i fear not.
very very very cool would be, when the FIRECORE PASSPORT would also work on a real mega-drive. games over sd-card on the real thing. i dont think, that this would work but its worth a try.
maybe i buy one, i will see. when i do, i write the result here.
then i found the wireless-controllers which work with the newer gophers here: http://www.weltbild.de/3/16047663-1/...ontroller.html
they dont look bad and also works with the arcade-konsole, i mentioned above (and also real megadrive sticks), but really cool would be a wireless-joystick. maybe this comes one day.
Hi,
I got my gopher handheld today from play-asia, but I'm having the following weird issue: In Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 I'm unable to do any special moves :confused: This isn't related to the controller, but it rather seems like an emulation issue. Could anyone please confirm my findings?
It's quite disappointing really.. and from what I've read other handhelds like the Dingoo and PSP require frameskip on many games, so maybe the Pandora is the only handheld without cartridges right now to emulate genesis properly with full speed?
yes, the pc-mega-drive-emulator (kega-fusion or gens-plus) are better than the ones available for handhelds until now.
i haven`t tried "mortal kombat 3" until now on my gopher, but the most games i tried until now works perfect. i will have a look at mk3 in the next days.
i have also a dingoo. the pico-drive version which is available until now, is not bad, but needs improvement. some games have fullspeed when dingoo is overclocked, others not.
I got one of these yesterday!
The first day it was very annoying with the buttons.
But today I think I've got a better handle on it.
Altered Beast is a bit tricky still thanks to the lay out.
I think I'm stuck using my old Mega Drive Plug N Play for that game now.
Anyway, has been wonderful to play Puyo Puyo, Sonic, and Street Fighter II again!
Tonight I've been playing Bezerk v1.0, really good!
And I just found Battle City!
Are there other MUST HAVE homebrews/games?
OH! And one more thing.
I tried five or so different versions of the Ms PacMan bin.
However each one had a bug that made the game unplayable.
Ms PacMan always wants to run to the right.
In some of the bins I was able to eventually wrestle her away from the right most corner. In other versions it was like she was stuck on the far right corner of the maze. Trapped.
I couldn't find a playable version of the rom on the gopher.
These roms work fine on Fusion.
Oh and one more question!
Does anyone know if it's possible to take Sega Master System Roms and then bundle them into a Genesis Rom?
So essentially you'd have a Genesis rom with a bunch of Master System games within the ROM.
yes, "ms pacman" always steers to the right direction by itself. all rom-versions i tried do the same on the gopher. sadly it seems this rom is not compatible with this handheld.
and to make master-systems roms playable to mega-drive is not possible i think. i tried a tool, which should do this, but it dont worked. also not on KEGA FUSION.
but all in all, the compatibility of the gopher is very high. sadly ingame-save-states dont work.
but for this money, its a superb handheld.
and the same factory also sell a console with sd-card-support and even the possibility to plug mega-drive-sticks to it. i mentioned this bevore here on this thread.
I got one of the play-asia gophers a few days ago, since then I've been trying to find more information on the whole firecore thing... It has not been easy...
On the back of the manual, it says that firecore is a trademark of "Digital Media Cartridge Ltd", so I searched a bit and found this press release: http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20050513003.html
It sounds like this is what's inside the firecore units and I must admit it sounds kinda-sorta cool.
Has anyone here found out more about the gopher/firecore? any kind of information is very appreciated, of course, especially something leading to save-states ;)
Regards
Hi. I have just bought 1 unit in Argentina. This is a great console! I'm very happy with it.
I have noticed the following:
1) It will accept games in .BIN format. In order to have the game names displayed correctly in
the screen of the Gopher, I have converted them all to UPPERCASE. I have used the program
Rename v1.2.0.2 in order to achieve this. This handheld uses standard SD cards. Mine is 2Gb.
2) Outrunners: You can do the trick for the VirtuaFormula, you hear the noise when you press
the keys to get the car, but the car is not there. Maybe the Outrunners cartidge has a special
chip inside it to make the VirtuaFormula appears?. For example the Virtua Racing cartridge has
the Sega Virtual Processor chip (SVP) inside it.
3) Ms. PacMan: This is a known issue. The game always steers Ms. PacMan character always to
the left even playing it in the original Sega Nomad handheld. To fix that, that handheld has
the Mode button, when powering on the unit, if you hold down that button to deactivate the
3 extra buttons, so the game will function just fine. That is the function of the Mode button,
plus change the handheld between 50hz/60hz mode to make compatible with more cartridges. There
are other games that function incorrectly with a 6 button pad, and they need a 3 button pad in
order to function properly, that's why the Mode button do that. Since the Ghopher has no Mode
button, it is not possible to deactivate the extra buttons (X, Y, Z) so MS. PacMan will steer
to the left due to the incompatibility of the game to function with 6 button controllers.
4) It is not possible to save games and about the Screenshots I have not found any info on how
to make them work. I have copied some screenshots in several formats matching tha names of the
game files but they won't appear at all. Still need more testing. Atgames website sucks. Want
to visit an useless web site? Then visit atgames.net
5) Games that I can not make them to work, maybe due to the 6 button issue:
Aladdin II won't work (maybe because it is a game hack?).
Another World loads but it won't Start the game (maybe not managing the polygons properly?)
Bomberman
Clay Fighter gets to the menu, then, no action is possible to start playing
Frogger leads to a red screen
Galaga, alien spaceships movement is not so soft but acceptable, game lacks music as when
played in emulators
Lion King II (hack?)
Lion King III (hack?)
Super Bubble Bobble (hack?)
Still need to test many others. But until now more than 95% of the games works fine!
* UPDATE 05/30/2010: Centurion Defender of Rome won't load
Nice review but please don't link to commercial roms though.
Ok sorry. Thanks.
Hi guys! I'm here! I didn't buy the Gopher yet and I'm not thinking about buy it anymore. (i broke whit my girlfriend hahaha) As a Nintendo fan, I'm interested in the DS (for a long time and for my colection) :P
@nevarna:
I know that the atgame answered you, but i don't think they said the truth. They can't tell everyone how their product works. You asked about saves and as they know that the people know how to put roms in, they'll try to hide how save the games.
I don't really know if the bilt-in games can save (if someone can say right...), but if they can, is clear tha have a way to save. I don't find yet someone that have bought a MD Card Game. If someone could see inside it, this could help.
Anyway, good luck guys, and if I find something interesting, i'll post here.
RAPENZIE, also the built-in games cant save.
this is the only real bad thing about this handheld - the missing ingame-saving-option.
when you a big nintendo-fan you really should have a look on the DINGOO-handheld, because there runs a snes9x-emulator which emulates the super-nes very good.
WINSLP - how you mean this: "That is the function of the Mode button, plus change the handheld between 50hz/60hz mode" ??? with the mode-button i can switch a sega-nomad from ntsc to pal, or what? but with a real megadrive this dont work, or?
an incompatibility to the 6button-stick could be the reason for games like MS PACMAN that they dont work correct. but for example, when i try this game with GENS-PLUS or KEGA-FUSION it also works normal with 6-button mode. but maybe it has different behaviour on real consoles.
can i play nfs shift on it ?
AW72: The Mode button in the Megadrive/Genesis joypads, is used to turn off the 3 extra buttons X,Y,Z but it won't change the Hz of the console. The behaviour of the emulators could be different.Quote:
Originally Posted by AW72
i just bought one of these (the one with 6 buttons and an infra red thingie for second player) firecore gopher, in taiwan
pretty good stuff! The emulation is near-perfect, except for the sound
im still wondering if somehow the firmware is upgradeable? coz im really keen for a savegame or save-state fix
i hope more and more people buy this and start working on the savegame fix coz im pretty damn keen for it
anyone here a good programmer? hahaha
hey can an1 tell me whether i can put any region .bin files on the sd card to play on the gopher or is it region restricted
Thanks