Gauging Interest: Naomi Compact Flash Adapter

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I'm planning on making and selling a Sega Naomi Compact Flash adapter that is similar to the Official Sega one. The cost of having PCBs made and the cost of the parts on the board are kinda pricey unless bought in bulk so Im looking to see how many people would actually buy one. I could do a prebuy and sell at a discounted price if the number of adapters is high enough if there is enough interest in this venture. Most likely I will be going at it alone and then selling them with markup on ebay, but I wanted to offer the chance here since it will help with me with the startup costs.

Basically the low down on this thing is: Its a direct replacement for the GD-ROM system. If you already have a GD-ROM in your machine, it will directly replace the GD-ROM drive with a compact flash drive.

Benefits:
Replaces failing GD-ROM drives
Cheaper to buy Compact flash games (I will also offer these at around 30 each)
Easier to get hard to find games (I can make most of the Naomi1 and Naomi2 games already on CF)
Uses only one security chip, so its easy to swap CF cards to play a different game.
Load times are slightly faster (depends on the size of the CF card, some games load much faster)

Cons:
MUST have a NET DIMM to use it (will not work with normal DIMM board)
MUST be able to update your NET DIMM to version 4.02 (I can do this easily or help you if your NET DIMM is already at 3.03 or higher)
If you dont have a GD-ROM drive and power cable in your machine you will need to figure out how to get +5v to the CF drive. (I may make an adapter cable that will easily solve this)

ISSUES to think about:
If you have a NET DIMM then its very easy to just Net boot games to your machine and not need a GD-rom drive or CF drive. Although, after a few months of net booting to my driving cab, its turned into a pain in the ass. I hate having to drag my laptop out into the garage next to my cab and plug the cable into it and the dimm and then have to load the rom up . I at one point I built a small Mini ITX PC and placed it inside the cab to stay there but that was not cost effective and still a pain. Now, if I want to change games, all I do is swap the CF card and turn the machine on and its done. My 9 year old daughter can change the game easily herself now without me having to do it for her so thats a bonus to.

Cost of one of these will be from 150-250 dollars depending on how many I can presale. I was shooting for 200 each shipped to sell on ebay, so hopefully I can sell enough to get the cost down. Costs are based on number of PCBs I have to have printed, cost of the parts that popluate the board. Not charging for my time of soldering all the parts to the board, I may offer a discount if you solder them yourself.

Here is a picture of the Official Sega Cf adapter, mine will be very similar, although I want mine to be blue.

front.jpg
 
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Also, I will not be accepting money until I have a finished product.

and if you already own an Official Sega adapter like shown above, I can make games for you , just let me know which ones you want.
 
hmmm looks like no interest here, I might have to discard this project


I might be interested, but frankly I have no idea what games are available on this set up. If you can link to the available games, as well as a good description of the equipment I will already need, then my interest will be higher.


For instance, I do have a Naomi GD-ROM system. However, it is currently on route so I don't know software revisions or exactly what version of equipment is in there. What games specificly will this allow me to swap into the cab? What is entailed in upgrading the software, since this is not something I have had to do?
 
Im interested. How hard would it be to copy my existing gdroms to cf myself?
Well to do it yourself, might be tricky. Its not a simple thing to do.. I can do though pretty easy because most likely I already have them on CF, what games are you wanting?
You could always sell your originals then buy CF ones..
 
I might be interested, but frankly I have no idea what games are available on this set up. If you can link to the available games, as well as a good description of the equipment I will already need, then my interest will be higher.


For instance, I do have a Naomi GD-ROM system. However, it is currently on route so I don't know software revisions or exactly what version of equipment is in there. What games specificly will this allow me to swap into the cab? What is entailed in upgrading the software, since this is not something I have had to do?

It depends on what kind of cab you have. If you have a driving cab then you would probably only want driving games(I have a Jambo Safari that I swap Crazy Taxi in and out of). If you have a univeral cab then are are tons of games that will swap in.
 
Ikaruga would be the main one for me. cant remember what other gdroms i have atm other than sport jam and golf, which im not too worried about. been a while since i looked at my naomi stuff.

Well to do it yourself, might be tricky. Its not a simple thing to do.. I can do though pretty easy because most likely I already have them on CF, what games are you wanting?
You could always sell your originals then buy CF ones..
 
Ikaruga would be the main one for me. cant remember what other gdroms i have atm other than sport jam and golf, which im not too worried about. been a while since i looked at my naomi stuff.

I have Ikaruga and Under Defeat working on CF
 
I'm currently playing Under Defeat on a Dreamcast hooked up to my candy cab. If I had a Naomi I'd defiantly pick it up. One other note about Under Defeat is that it's going to be released for the 360 soon as an import title.
 
I would be interested but the cost of this adapter plus the cost of the cf cards would be more than a cheap laptop that could do the same thing. Netbooting only requires a netdimm and a laptop with a ethernet cable/router.

What benefits does the CF card have over netbooting with a laptop?
 
What benefits does the CF card have over netbooting with a laptop?

The hassle of typing in the command prompt when you want to change games. For me its no big deal since im the only one using the machine but if you have kids or friends over they can change the game themselves.
Im netbooting wireless now, its a really slick setup.
 
There are some netbooting programs out there that you just click on them and select the game. Its pretty easy. I tried to netboot wireless but it was really slow to load a game. Then I bought a cheap laptop and keep it next to my cab. It is much faster to load a game now.
 
I thought netbooting was the shiznit for the first few months I was doing it, but it just because a hassle to me, even with the netloader program youstill need a separate pc and a keyboard or mouse. CF is just swap a card and go .
 
The netdimm requirement is a bit of a dealbreaker because at that point you might as well repurpose an old PC and netboot. This would be awesome otherwise.

Part out-of-curiosity and part planting-the-idea, how hard would it be to do a reproduction of the netdimm board itself?
 
the CF is a great idea if you want to swap out games like a Neo Geo, maybe make it so you can make a slot in side of cabinet, so swap them in and out like that, like an old 8 track :) netbooting is easy, I have my cabinets hooked up to home wired network, so just use my regular pc to netboot, using the windows based loader, nice and easy, but would like the CF setup for locations and that
 
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