I’ve recently been getting into collecting for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, it’s the one console I had most contact with as a kid. As part of that I’ve been looking at building a tool for verifying cartridges (and maybe making them available like the Retrocade).
As part of that I’ve needed to understand the cartridge, and this is a living summary of my investigations.
Physical
The cartridge interface is a 32x2 card edge connector, with a 2.54mm pitch. It’s sides are designated as A and B, of which B is closer to the front of the Megadrive when plugged in.
Additionally, when looking at the front of the megadrive and the cartridge, pin 32 is to the left and pin 1 to the right.
Pin Out
This data has been gather from many different websites, which will be referenced below. All directions are from the Consoles perspective, output is to the cartridge, input is from the cartridge. Output / input pins are tristate, and direction will change for write operations.
Side A
| Pin | Direction | Designation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Output | GND | |
| A2 | Output | +5V | |
| A3 | Output | Address Bit 8 | |
| A4 | Output | Address Bit 11 | |
| A5 | Output | Address Bit 7 | |
| A6 | Output | Address Bit 12 | |
| A7 | Output | Address Bit 6 | |
| A8 | Output | Address Bit 13 | |
| A9 | Output | Address Bit 5 | |
| A10 | Output | Address Bit 14 | |
| A11 | Output | Address Bit 4 | |
| A12 | Output | Address Bit 15 | |
| A13 | Output | Address Bit 3 | |
| A14 | Output | Address Bit 16 | |
| A15 | Output | Address Bit 2 | |
| A16 | Output | Address Bit 17 | |
| A17 | Output | Address Bit 1 | This is the first address bit, bit 0 is hardwired to low. |
| A18 | Output | GND | |
| A19 | Output / Input | Data Bit 7 | |
| A20 | Output / Input | Data Bit 0 | |
| A21 | Output / Input | Data Bit 8 | |
| A22 | Output / Input | Data Bit 6 | |
| A23 | Output / Input | Data Bit 1 | |
| A24 | Output / Input | Data Bit 9 | |
| A25 | Output / Input | Data Bit 5 | |
| A26 | Output / Input | Data Bit 2 | |
| A27 | Output / Input | Data Bit 10 | |
| A28 | Output / Input | Data Bit 4 | |
| A29 | Output / Input | Data Bit 3 | |
| A30 | Output / Input | Data Bit 11 | |
| A31 | Output | +5V | |
| A32 | Output | GND |
Side B
| Pin | Direction | Designation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Input | Left Audio | Audio sourced from cartridge, left channel, mixed into output. |
| B2 | Output | /MRES | Master reset, from system start up. |
| B3 | Input | Right Audio | Audio sourced from cartridge, right channel, mixed into output. |
| B4 | Output | Address Bit 9 | |
| B5 | Output | Address Bit 10 | |
| B6 | Output | Address Bit 18 | |
| B7 | Output | Address Bit 19 | |
| B8 | Output | Address Bit 20 | |
| B9 | Output | Address Bit 21 | |
| B10 | Output | Address Bit 22 | |
| B11 | Output | Address Bit 23 | |
| B12 | Output | /YS | VDP is currently drawing the backdrop colour. |
| B13 | Output | /VSYNC | Vertical sync pulse. |
| B14 | Output | /HSYNC | Horizonal sync pulse. |
| B15 | Output | EDCLK | External Dot Clock (~13.4 or 10.7 MHz). |
| B16 | Output | /CAS0 | Read or Write on $000000-$DFFFFF region. |
| B17 | Output | /CEO | Chip Enable for the cartridge. Normally low when accessing $000000-$3FFFFF region. When expension unit is present then low when accessing $400000-$7FFFFF. |
| B18 | Output | /AS | Address strobe, address on bus is currently valid and not changing. |
| B19 | Output | VCLK | 68K Clock |
| B20 | Input | /DTACK | Data acknowledge to 68K. |
| B21 | Output | /CAS2 | Read or Write on $E00000-$FFFFFF region, maybe (Upper 2MB). |
| B22 | Output / Input | Data Bit 15 | |
| B23 | Output / Input | Data Bit 14 | |
| B24 | Output / Input | Data Bit 13 | |
| B25 | Output / Input | Data Bit 12 | |
| B26 | Output | /ASEL | Read or Write on $000000-$7FFFFF region |
| B27 | Output | /VRES | System reset, from front panel switch. |
| B28 | Output | /LWR | Lower byte WRite, the lower byte on the data lines should be written to the location in the address lines. |
| B29 | Output | /UWR | Upper byte WRite, the upper byte on the data lines should be written to the location in the address lines. |
| B30 | Input | /M3 | Pulled high in console, cartridge shorts to ground to indicate console should run in Mark 3 (Master System) mode. |
| B31 | Output | /TIME | Set for r/w at/to $A13000-$A130FF, given the name suggests it might be for a real time clock in the cartridge. This would enable usage as a chip enable on a RTC, using fewer address lines or logic to that RTC. Used in Sonic 3 for SRAM. |
| B32 | Input | /CART | Pulled high in console, cartridge shorts to ground to indicate presence. |
References
- http://www.hardwarebook.info/Mega_Drive_Cartridge
- https://wiki.megadrive.org/index.php?title=Connectors
- https://wiki.megadrive.org/index.php?title=315-5308
- http://retroshock.bplaced.net/mdg.html#cartpinout
- https://assemblergames.com/threads/figuring-out-how-the-sega-ds-16-interfaces-with-the-genesis.48505/page-2