So, I opened up a Blue Elf 2 cartridge today...

modessitt

Volunteer: Encyclopedia Submission Moderator
Joined
Mar 22, 2007
Messages
33,414
Reaction score
325
Location
Austin, Texas
... and found the waterproof SD card inside (held in place by some hot glue).

Anyone know what emulator is running these games? It would be nice if you could remove some games and add others yourself....
 
Don't open that! You might unleash this:

papa_smurf_costume.jpg
 
... and found the waterproof SD card inside (held in place by some hot glue).

Anyone know what emulator is running these games? It would be nice if you could remove some games and add others yourself....

I wondered what inside, too. Was this a 'dead one'? I didn't want to open up mine. :)
 
I wondered what inside, too. Was this a 'dead one'? I didn't want to open up mine. :)

I had a problem where the thing kept booting to the Test Menu, even with the Test button disconnected. After taking it apart to make sure there wasn't a battery on it that might be dead, it started working again.

Have you looked at what actually on the card yet? I'm curious myself.

This was a customers game, so I don't have it here to do that.

Pics or it didnt happen!

I was thinking I should have taken pics, but didn't have a camera handy....
 
Nixs if you are reading this, tear one apart for us and see what is on the card.

I have a feeling if you are able to add and delete games, you will not be able to keep them in stock.

I would be in for three if that is the case.
 
Nixs if you are reading this, tear one apart for us and see what is on the card.

I have a feeling if you are able to add and delete games, you will not be able to keep them in stock.

I would be in for three if that is the case.

No kidding, I would get a couple as well.
 
The only major problem with opening these up would be if you ever wanted to return it, as there is a manufacturers security sticker over one of the screw holes.

It would even be better if you could just populate several different SD cards with different game sets, and just swap the card to change the games you have available....
 
If its just a standard rom format, i dont see why you couldnt just slap on whatever you wanted. Or, could just ad another bigger SD card and load er up like Mame.

Someone should test that out, would be a super easy way to get a half assed mame setup running for alot cheaper than F'n around with computer and coverters and whatever.
 
I don't actually own one of these but I'll guess it's based on something like an ARM processor and customized MAME. Most of the multi games are like that.

If that's true then your options to add games will be somewhat limited. You could add games based on the same hardware as the games that are already on the cartridge. Assuming the new game is just a ROM swap for the old game.

I doubt you could just add any game you want. It would be like trying to run Mortal Kombat on a pacman board.
 
One of these was opened up a while back by someone at the Jamma forums. The operating system is some sort of proprieatary system and the card as well as bios on the board that runs it is security encoded. If you plug the SD card into a reader that's plugged into your computer nothing comes up.
 
I don't actually own one of these but I'll guess it's based on something like an ARM processor and customized MAME. Most of the multi games are like that.

I thought I had read that an ARM processor was used in it. Don't recall where. I was doing some research on the BE cart before I got one. It would make sense that an ARM processor was used.
 
What chip does it use for the bios?

Kevin
Sorry just read the thread and the issue is with the SDHC. trmatthe over at the Jamma forums was working on it. Here's his last update on his progress.

trmatthe said:
No real information to report back yet; work has been eating all of my time. I have pretty much decided on the theory that the SDHC has an onboard EEPROM of some kind and they've written crap over it causing the hang whenever I insert. They'll be using a hacked driver which has hardcoded values for the cart config. I just need to prove it now :)

He hasn't been able to get anything off of the SDHC after trying different ways of reading the card. Thread was started in July and his last post was in October.
 
He hasn't been able to get anything off of the SDHC after trying different ways of reading the card. Thread was started in July and his last post was in October.
I kind of figured that would be the case. It will probably have to be sucked off as raw data (dd or something in *nix). I'm curious if it's similar to the xx-in-1 data format.

Does anyone have (high res) pics of the insides?
 
You might be able to read the data through the CPU pins on the board but that would be painful and require knowledge of the hardware. Writing new data to the card is another story all together.
 
I haven't been ISO-Man for many years. This is why I am into learning security chips :)

Good pics of cart would be good start to see what chips it is using. Try and CHD image and place it on a blank. If it works, then you have yourself a good backup :)

Kevin
 
I haven't been ISO-Man for many years. This is why I am into learning security chips :)

Good pics of cart would be good start to see what chips it is using. Try and CHD image and place it on a blank. If it works, then you have yourself a good backup :)

Kevin
There's some pretty good pics of the cart and more details about the step taken to try and read the SDHC card in the thread over at the Jamma Forums.
 
Back
Top Bottom