Hello all.
I wrote a little tool that allows you to wipe and reflash a retail Evercade cartridge with your own "Fantasy Cart" build without the need of soldering your own cartridge reader for your PC.
With this you can use EverLoader on your PC to build your fantasy cart on a formatted sdcard, and then simply copy those files to a specific folder on your EverSD's sdcard for flashing to a donor retail cartridge.
NOTE: Fantasy Carts DO NOT work on an unpatched Evercade even though they are flashed onto retail cartridges! This means they can only be used on the OG Handheld (NOT the EXP) and the VS Console, and only if you use EverPatcher on them!
Prerequisites to use the Cart Flasher:
- Evercade VS console that has been patched with EverPatcherVS 3.0.0 or newer
- EverSD (or equivalent) to run this tool from
- Retail cartridge - (WILL BE ERASED!)
- EverLoader software on your PC
- Cart Flasher download (attached to this post)
HOW TO USE:
Adding the Cart Flasher to your EverSD (or equivalent)
Simply unzip the download to the root of an already setup and working sdcard for your EverSD.
Building your Fantasy Cartridge
Use EverLoader as you always would! It is recommended to use a different/blank sdcard of any size to sync your Fantasy Cart to since EverLoader will only write to sdcards. Stock emulation is also recommended since retroarch would almost fill the largest retail cart size on its own before you even add any games! .
Copy your fantasy build to your EverSD's sdcard
Copying 100% of the contents of your fantasy sdcard build to a folder on the root of your EverSD's sdcard called 'cart_flasher' which was created automatically when you unzipped the Cart Flasher download in the previous step. If you can't insert two sdcards in your PC at the same time, copy all the contents to your PC's hard drive, swap to the EverSD's sdcard and copy the files from your PC to the 'cart_flasher' folder on the sdcard. Put the sdcard back into your EverSD.
Run the Cart Flasher on your Evercade VS console
Boot up your VS and insert your EverSD in either slot of your system and run the Cart Flasher. The tool will walk you thru the process.
Please note that if your newly created cart appears to work at first but then doesn't after removing and reinserting it (it's one of the steps you will be prompted to do), you simply need to run the tool again for a second try. This issue has happened to some of the current beta testers but it has ALWAYS been resolved by simply repeating the flash process a second time.
Other Notes:
This tool WILL NOT erase an EverSD, accidentally or even if you try to ask it to
This tool WILL NOT erase anything outside of the cartridge slots (wiped device can only be a SLOT1 or SLOT2 device)
This tool can attempt to repair a dead/broken retail cart! It may take 2 or 3 passes in a severe case, but testers have reported successfully resurrecting damaged and unusable carts they had in their collection - be them just unable to launch their games due to a bad update or completely unmountable in the console! Keep in mind that a fixed cart will still be erased and no longer contain it's original contents.
Your Fantasy Cart data files will be checked as soon as you run the tool to make sure they can fit on a small or large retail cart before you are asked to erase your donor retail cartridge. You will also be informed if your files will fit on any retail cart or require a larger sized one.
As of July 2023, here are the retail cartridges that are of the larger 512MB size. All other carts are 128MB.
Console Carts (red label): 18, 22, 24, 27, 29
Computer Carts (blue label): 03
It appears that going forward, all carts may possibly be 512MB but time will tell...
If you have any issues or suggestions, please feel free to discuss here, or contact me at the EverSD discord (link in my signature) or via discord DM (esmith13)
Hope you enjoy!
I wrote a little tool that allows you to wipe and reflash a retail Evercade cartridge with your own "Fantasy Cart" build without the need of soldering your own cartridge reader for your PC.
With this you can use EverLoader on your PC to build your fantasy cart on a formatted sdcard, and then simply copy those files to a specific folder on your EverSD's sdcard for flashing to a donor retail cartridge.
NOTE: Fantasy Carts DO NOT work on an unpatched Evercade even though they are flashed onto retail cartridges! This means they can only be used on the OG Handheld (NOT the EXP) and the VS Console, and only if you use EverPatcher on them!
Prerequisites to use the Cart Flasher:
- Evercade VS console that has been patched with EverPatcherVS 3.0.0 or newer
- EverSD (or equivalent) to run this tool from
- Retail cartridge - (WILL BE ERASED!)
- EverLoader software on your PC
- Cart Flasher download (attached to this post)
HOW TO USE:
Adding the Cart Flasher to your EverSD (or equivalent)
Simply unzip the download to the root of an already setup and working sdcard for your EverSD.
Building your Fantasy Cartridge
Use EverLoader as you always would! It is recommended to use a different/blank sdcard of any size to sync your Fantasy Cart to since EverLoader will only write to sdcards. Stock emulation is also recommended since retroarch would almost fill the largest retail cart size on its own before you even add any games! .
Copy your fantasy build to your EverSD's sdcard
Copying 100% of the contents of your fantasy sdcard build to a folder on the root of your EverSD's sdcard called 'cart_flasher' which was created automatically when you unzipped the Cart Flasher download in the previous step. If you can't insert two sdcards in your PC at the same time, copy all the contents to your PC's hard drive, swap to the EverSD's sdcard and copy the files from your PC to the 'cart_flasher' folder on the sdcard. Put the sdcard back into your EverSD.
Run the Cart Flasher on your Evercade VS console
Boot up your VS and insert your EverSD in either slot of your system and run the Cart Flasher. The tool will walk you thru the process.
Please note that if your newly created cart appears to work at first but then doesn't after removing and reinserting it (it's one of the steps you will be prompted to do), you simply need to run the tool again for a second try. This issue has happened to some of the current beta testers but it has ALWAYS been resolved by simply repeating the flash process a second time.
Other Notes:
This tool WILL NOT erase an EverSD, accidentally or even if you try to ask it to
This tool WILL NOT erase anything outside of the cartridge slots (wiped device can only be a SLOT1 or SLOT2 device)
This tool can attempt to repair a dead/broken retail cart! It may take 2 or 3 passes in a severe case, but testers have reported successfully resurrecting damaged and unusable carts they had in their collection - be them just unable to launch their games due to a bad update or completely unmountable in the console! Keep in mind that a fixed cart will still be erased and no longer contain it's original contents.
Your Fantasy Cart data files will be checked as soon as you run the tool to make sure they can fit on a small or large retail cart before you are asked to erase your donor retail cartridge. You will also be informed if your files will fit on any retail cart or require a larger sized one.
As of July 2023, here are the retail cartridges that are of the larger 512MB size. All other carts are 128MB.
Console Carts (red label): 18, 22, 24, 27, 29
Computer Carts (blue label): 03
It appears that going forward, all carts may possibly be 512MB but time will tell...
If you have any issues or suggestions, please feel free to discuss here, or contact me at the EverSD discord (link in my signature) or via discord DM (esmith13)
Hope you enjoy!
Last edited by esmith13,
