While support for Mega CD titles is the headline feature here, it's worth noting that – as well as playing Mega Drive titles (including Virtua Racing, which has proven to be a no-go for previous flash carts due to the inclusion of Sega's custom SVP chip) – you can also play Sega Master System games on this device, as well as leverage the improved FM sound module that was only released in Japan. Thankfully, the Mega CD's firmware actually has a list of titles which do this, so you shouldn't notice any issues, assuming you keep the cart's firmware up to date. There are, however, some games which are programmed to factor in 'seek' times from a real disc, and removing load times would actually result in audio being out of sync with the visuals (usually during cutscenes). The Mega SD, being a solid-state device, isn't subject to these limitations and as a result, drastically speeds up the loading time on many titles. Given that CD games in the '90s were fighting against the constraints of the hardware and memory standards of that period, it's no surprise that many Mega CD games exhibit lengthy load times as the data is spooled from the single-speed drive to the console's RAM. These, in reality, were cartridges that plugged into the Mega Drive's cartridge slot and gave players additional storage space (for some titles, like Shining Force CD, owning one of these was a requirement as progress from the game's opening chapters could only be carried over by using the backup RAM cart as the internal memory wasn't large enough). The Mega SD simulates what a real-world Mega CD system would do when it comes to internal storage it has both internal memory (which was included on the Mega CD via a battery back-up save system) and the option to save to a 'virtual' RAM cartridge. Pushing up and start on your pad, you can summon an in-game menu which allows you to return to the Mega SD's main menu, enable cheat codes and save (or load) states a whopping eight different save slots are available. You'll need to supply a BIOS file to run CD titles (and the BIOS has to match the region of the game you're booting up) and it's possible to assign multiple BIOS files to cover each territory. You can tinker with a wide range of settings and load both ROMs and CD images with ease – these are stored on a Micro SD card which slots into the side of the cartridge itself. The Mega SD has a pretty slick UI, especially when compared to other flash carts on the market. In short, it was a much more robust enhancement to the base system, and the fact that Terraonion has managed to replicate it on a hardware level is remarkable (well, it certainly feels that way if you're old enough to remember how futuristic the Mega CD felt back in the early '90s). However, while the premise (and the tech) is very much the same, the Mega SD feels that little bit more impressive due to the fact that the Mega CD itself was more than a simple means of adding storage space and improved audio it boasted its own Motorola 68000 CPU (clocked 5 MHz faster than the one inside the Mega Drive itself), 6 MBit of RAM, was capable of displaying crude FMV and could scale and rotate both sprites and backgrounds – something that gave it a degree of parity with the Mode 7-packing SNES. Now, this isn't the first time that Terraonion has performed this 'optical disc emulation' party trick it's the company responsible for the Super SD System 3 expansion module, which bolts onto the back of a PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 system and plays CD-ROM titles. On the surface, it may look like any other flash cart you've seen (although it's based on the Virtua Racing cartridge shell, rather than the standard one), but in reality, the Mega SD is a lot more interesting – because it's not just giving you a means of playing ROMs on your dusty old Mega Drive / Genesis, but actually replicates the performance of a Mega CD via FPGA technology. From their early origins as a basic means of loading up ROMs on authentic hardware, we've seen these often misunderstood products grow in both scope and stature – and Terraonion's Mega SD could perhaps be considered the zenith of the concept. Love them or loathe them, flash cartridges are here to stay.
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