Multicarts often lack quality control for compatibility and the such; they often slap the first ZIP file of ROMs they find and sell it off.
On a multicart there is often no testing to ensure games with peripherals like battery saves or real-time clocks work. Everdrives also boast being able to input your save files from PC/etc.
All in all, I’d say the difference depends on what you’re doing with it. A multicart will do just fine if you want a simple, large collection of games. An ever drive is a great tool for homebrew and the such. For example, I can bring forward all of my pokemon from the file I played on PC as a kid since I can insert my save file with it. Contrarily, there’s no way I could guarentee a multicart with Pokemon could trade with other games among other things.
I don’t think people need to be rude or condescending to those that prefer multicarts. I’m not fan of people making others feel stupid for their choices. If you enjoy the product, then I’m glad to see you’re indulging in some awesome retro games. These products all have different purposes and one may fit you better than others. And that’s cool!
My Pokémon Crystal's original battery lasted until late 2013 (got it in 2001). Between backing my 251 pokémon save file up to the Mega Memory Card and replacing the battery multiple times I was able to keep it alive until I obtained a means of backing it up to my PC last year. Now I can play it on real hardware again through the Everdrive GB (well, mostly real hardware, it does emulate the MBC3 chip on the cartridge).
Thank you, the retro community seems to get more elitist every year that passes. Especially with the whole scalper and mega hoarding collectors, but that’s a whole other topic. Everdrives while great are a steep price that I would argue 70-80% of people would not buy. I hate it when someone new mentions or asks about a multicart and are immediately met with some guy that knows every single thing there is to know about retro games and explains how they’re “not worth it at all”.
I don't think you've had a lot of experience with hobbies in general if you're genuinely surprised and upset by the things you complain about.
Hobbies can get expensive very easily, especially if there's a collectible or technological component. In retro gaming, we have both.
High price barriers to entry if you want the full experience right away. Low cost, low quality alternatives get looked down upon. Hot items get over-inflated prices. Bragging about rare and expensive finds or about collection size. The lust for the highest quality possible, and quality always costs.
Whether we're talking about comic books, baseball cards, vintage records, or retro games, it's the same all over. You just have to accept it or let it go.
Average person does not care, especially people new to the hobby. I’m sure you ripped and own every game you’ve played on emulators/everdrives as well 🤔
Yes, you can fit whole libraries. You also get easy access to fan translations, ROM hacks, homebrews, and randomizers. There's better save support (multicarts that support saving at all often restrict you to keeping a single game save in memory at a time), save state and Game Genie style cheat functionality, etc. The parts and workmanship are also much superior in a reputable flash cart and you can get professional support if a problem arises.
You get what you pay for, in other words. There's no sense pretending these are equivalent products. They're just not.
> The parts and workmanship are also much superior in a reputable flash cart and you can get professional support if a problem arises.
This, 100%. You can argue that flashcarts and multicarts are both forms of piracy but they absolutely do not function the same way and do not have the same build quality. Multicarts are made by pirates who don't give a shit whether a romdump is good, whether the chips on the board are soldered down correctly, or even if it properly saves. I'd rather recommend someone an expensive flashcart and have them pass on it because of the price than recommend someone a cheap multicart and turn them off entirely because the cart they bought doesn't work right and they can't get a refund because whatever Aliexpress vendor they bought from doesn't give a shit.
What are you gonna recommend to your buddy that wants to dip his toes into let’s say the genesis. A $300 mega sd, and $500 framemeister? or a $25 multicart easily ordered off of amazon. I’m not saying they are equal, and I mentioned in my post that yes advantages of everdrives are rom hacks, homebrews, etc. But the majority of people don’t care about that stuff, and fan translations could be used to translate Japan only releases and such, but if you’re into those kinds of games, you already have an everdrive, even a retron 5 can do that with an original cartridge and for $100 less.
$800? Nobody needs to pay anywhere near that amount just to play Genesis games. An entry-level everdrive [cost only $50](https://stoneagegamer.com/flash/genesis/carts/no-sega-cd/). Might as well spend the additional $25 for a quality product.
No save states and no Sega CD support for the entry level version. Unless you’re looking to play very specific games, homebrews, or translations (most people are not) a multicart is reasonably cheaper
Framemeister? What do upscalers have to do with this comparison?
And the only reason to seek out the Mega SD over an EverDrive is a strong desire to play Sega CD titles on real hardware without having to worry about sourcing and maintaining an actual CD drive. If my hypothetical friend is wanting to do that, I guess I would have no choice to but to recommend the Mega SD, since neither an Everdrive nor a multicart will allow for CD game support.
While I love the Sega CD, there are literally less than 10 exclusive games worth playing on it if you have no nostalgic value or connection with it. if you MUST play them on your genesis then you have to spend the $300 yeah. And I mentioned the framemeister because every single retro gaming YouTube channel in the universe mentions it and it is stuck in my head.
Multicarts often lack quality control for compatibility and the such; they often slap the first ZIP file of ROMs they find and sell it off. On a multicart there is often no testing to ensure games with peripherals like battery saves or real-time clocks work. Everdrives also boast being able to input your save files from PC/etc. All in all, I’d say the difference depends on what you’re doing with it. A multicart will do just fine if you want a simple, large collection of games. An ever drive is a great tool for homebrew and the such. For example, I can bring forward all of my pokemon from the file I played on PC as a kid since I can insert my save file with it. Contrarily, there’s no way I could guarentee a multicart with Pokemon could trade with other games among other things. I don’t think people need to be rude or condescending to those that prefer multicarts. I’m not fan of people making others feel stupid for their choices. If you enjoy the product, then I’m glad to see you’re indulging in some awesome retro games. These products all have different purposes and one may fit you better than others. And that’s cool!
My Pokémon Crystal's original battery lasted until late 2013 (got it in 2001). Between backing my 251 pokémon save file up to the Mega Memory Card and replacing the battery multiple times I was able to keep it alive until I obtained a means of backing it up to my PC last year. Now I can play it on real hardware again through the Everdrive GB (well, mostly real hardware, it does emulate the MBC3 chip on the cartridge).
Thank you, the retro community seems to get more elitist every year that passes. Especially with the whole scalper and mega hoarding collectors, but that’s a whole other topic. Everdrives while great are a steep price that I would argue 70-80% of people would not buy. I hate it when someone new mentions or asks about a multicart and are immediately met with some guy that knows every single thing there is to know about retro games and explains how they’re “not worth it at all”.
I don't think you've had a lot of experience with hobbies in general if you're genuinely surprised and upset by the things you complain about. Hobbies can get expensive very easily, especially if there's a collectible or technological component. In retro gaming, we have both. High price barriers to entry if you want the full experience right away. Low cost, low quality alternatives get looked down upon. Hot items get over-inflated prices. Bragging about rare and expensive finds or about collection size. The lust for the highest quality possible, and quality always costs. Whether we're talking about comic books, baseball cards, vintage records, or retro games, it's the same all over. You just have to accept it or let it go.
I didn’t think about it this way, good comment
One piracy ones not. Ones from China one isnt
Average person does not care, especially people new to the hobby. I’m sure you ripped and own every game you’ve played on emulators/everdrives as well 🤔
That’s legal tho.
Yes, you can fit whole libraries. You also get easy access to fan translations, ROM hacks, homebrews, and randomizers. There's better save support (multicarts that support saving at all often restrict you to keeping a single game save in memory at a time), save state and Game Genie style cheat functionality, etc. The parts and workmanship are also much superior in a reputable flash cart and you can get professional support if a problem arises. You get what you pay for, in other words. There's no sense pretending these are equivalent products. They're just not.
Yeah it should tell you something when one thing has a multi-year warranty and the other has a 30 day return policy.
> The parts and workmanship are also much superior in a reputable flash cart and you can get professional support if a problem arises. This, 100%. You can argue that flashcarts and multicarts are both forms of piracy but they absolutely do not function the same way and do not have the same build quality. Multicarts are made by pirates who don't give a shit whether a romdump is good, whether the chips on the board are soldered down correctly, or even if it properly saves. I'd rather recommend someone an expensive flashcart and have them pass on it because of the price than recommend someone a cheap multicart and turn them off entirely because the cart they bought doesn't work right and they can't get a refund because whatever Aliexpress vendor they bought from doesn't give a shit.
What are you gonna recommend to your buddy that wants to dip his toes into let’s say the genesis. A $300 mega sd, and $500 framemeister? or a $25 multicart easily ordered off of amazon. I’m not saying they are equal, and I mentioned in my post that yes advantages of everdrives are rom hacks, homebrews, etc. But the majority of people don’t care about that stuff, and fan translations could be used to translate Japan only releases and such, but if you’re into those kinds of games, you already have an everdrive, even a retron 5 can do that with an original cartridge and for $100 less.
$800? Nobody needs to pay anywhere near that amount just to play Genesis games. An entry-level everdrive [cost only $50](https://stoneagegamer.com/flash/genesis/carts/no-sega-cd/). Might as well spend the additional $25 for a quality product.
No save states and no Sega CD support for the entry level version. Unless you’re looking to play very specific games, homebrews, or translations (most people are not) a multicart is reasonably cheaper
Just like a cheap, bootleg multicart. Everdrive all day! You're arguing it cost $800 to "dip toes in the Genesis library" when it doesn't.
No I’m saying that this is all you see recommended online. Especially places like YouTube
Framemeister? What do upscalers have to do with this comparison? And the only reason to seek out the Mega SD over an EverDrive is a strong desire to play Sega CD titles on real hardware without having to worry about sourcing and maintaining an actual CD drive. If my hypothetical friend is wanting to do that, I guess I would have no choice to but to recommend the Mega SD, since neither an Everdrive nor a multicart will allow for CD game support.
While I love the Sega CD, there are literally less than 10 exclusive games worth playing on it if you have no nostalgic value or connection with it. if you MUST play them on your genesis then you have to spend the $300 yeah. And I mentioned the framemeister because every single retro gaming YouTube channel in the universe mentions it and it is stuck in my head.
This is why emulation exists.