The device has a few quirks to it that you will soon come to enjoy; however, in order to make its hard love easier to bear I have come up with a nice list to follow if you are trying to use it:
1. Make sure the cable is IEEE 1284 compliant (the cartridge will report a size of zero, if the cable, or if any communication is disrupted between the cartridge and your computer).
2. I assigned the printer port to port 0x278 in the BIOS and in Windows; I also configured the port to use the EPP protocol v1.7.
3. I only use version 1.13 (1.3 depending on where you look) of the DreamWriter software.
4. You do not need the “pceboot.pce” file; ignore it, it’s for something else entirely.
5. When you select multiple ROMS for upload, the DreamWriter software will install a bootloader; however, it will install a Japanese version of it by default, instead of the U.S. version (assuming you are using a U.S. TurboGrafx system). Once you have chosen your ROMs (and have correctly set the U.S. region box for those Japanese games you want to play), you must select the “U.S. Region” checkbox in the lower left corner of the interface — this will ensure the right bits have been flipped on the Japanese ROM.
6. You must start the program after the USB power and printer cables have been connected; the switch labeled “SW” does not need to be “ON” for the upload to work; in fact, I have no idea what that switch does.
7. The program will never show you how much space is occupied on the cartridge (after a fresh execution), or which games have already been flashed, so don’t bother scratching your head. The DreamWriter software only knows how much space remains after writing a set of ROM files.
Categories: Hardware, TG-16, Windows
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A new device graces my doorstep yesterday: the Turbo Everdrive! For years, I have been using an old device that allowed me to load up home-brew software for the TG-16 via a parallel cable, and old version of Windows, and some obsolete software. With this new device, I can now simply copy the software onto the SD card and away I go. If you get the same device, be aware that it comes pre-set for a PCE device and not a TG-16 game console, so you will simply see a white screen until you toggle the tiny little switch on the right of the card. Also note, that you will need to create a “TGED” directory at the root of the SD card with the device’s operating system file copied into it.
