I am looking into dumping my collection of games, but I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations about which hardware to use (my current plan is to make my own) or any experience with this sort of stuff. Also, does anyone know which mappers are common in pirated games/multicarts?

I recently picked something up from Amazon marketplace that is very intriguing. It is the Firecore Super Arcade Interactive Sports Games, and it is yet another clone of the Wii. Unfortunately, the one I ordered was the last they had and I cannot find anywhere else selling it - I think it may be a Brazilian release. Also, the instructions talk about your "Nova Console" - nova is Portuguese for new. The box also proudly claims 110 games in 1 - but I will talk about that more later.

First of all, it has the killer feature of being able to play Genesis/Mega Drive carts, which is a great feature. The first of built-in games are 20 16-bit games, 7 of which are the pretty decent interactive sports games, the rest filler type games. The sports games have no credits, but the other 16-bit games have a TecToy logo and also credit Devworks Game Technology. Both of these appear to be based in Brazil, and in Brazil Mega Drive/Genesis-based hardware is still common, which increase the likelihood that this was a Brazilian release.

Then there are 95 more games, listed as “Bonus Games” (yes, that totals to 115 games - 4.5% extra free ). These are all hacks of Famicom games, and the background for the game selection screen is the same as on the 101-in-1 Arcade Action and the 88-in-1 joystick. The games are also a similar selection to these two other consoles. However, the sound on these games is really screwed up – I ended up muting the television.

The confusing part of this is that it plays both 8-bit Famicom games (the 95 bonus games) and 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis (the 16-bit games and the cartridge slot) games. I suspect there is some kind of emulation going on, which explains the screwed-up sound for both cases. Also, there is something available which is also referenced to in the manual called the Firecore Passport which lets you plays ROMs of an SD card.

I can provide pictures/game lists if anyone wants them.