A look at the Game Doctor SF7

[quoth09]

Even though this was made in 2009, you people leaving comments now need to go do some research. There are non-diskette based ones out that use both USB and SD or CF cards that have FX support that have been out for well over 2 years now...more coming from other people as well.

Also, this particular unit on the latter revisions supposedly supports a serial CD-ROM drive, but only reading obviously.

[kestill]

Thats pretty bad ass!!! why didnt i know about this when i had a SNES??

[Shulamana]

There is a flash cart coming out that will support SuperFX and a fair number of the other expansion chips using a FPGA. It's called the sd2snes but it won't be cheap, around $200.

[homer4556]

a sd card or cd rom would be good and like you said the fx support

[TerporFIN]

How did you hookup your SNES to your PC monitor

[OhNoNotMyPenis]

there is now a pretty decent flash cart called the super everdrive that takes memory cards it does support games that used the DSP1 chips but thats all.

its pretty expensive also at $145

[doremikan22]

@neogeouk Me too~! When I was small, I went to Aberdeen(HK) a shopping centre to buy the disks. I have lots too, but I don't know what''ve happened to them since my parents takes care of it.

[Estmusic323]

Nice so if the games is copied to disc how these files get into .smc format?

[MrJ0mmy]

what roms work?

[hacksquad]

thats a nice crt monitor!

[TheSwillMan]

@neogeouk I don't think a GD7 will allow you to play PAL carts on a Super Famicom. But then again I have never had to deal with PAL Super Nintendo games, so I wouldn't know.

[TheSwillMan]

@neogeouk SMC files do not work on this machine. They have to be converted to GD3 files with something like UCON64, a command line utility that I used. I have seen torrent collections of premade Game Doctor-format ROM files, though.

[mwmatthewkc51]

i am so making one that involves any kind stoage usb,sd,hdd,hdmi output component etc.

[cantaloupefandangger]

Can you download roms and play them on this?

[frenchpet]

The irony is disks are hard to come across these days. ALSO, retrousb sells a pretty cool SNES flash cart.

[SemSlideProductions]

How do you copy/run games that take multiple disks?

[Makinx]

This doesn't look better than the Super Wild Card DX I own. What features does the SF7 have that makes it the best copier?

[111random]

wait so can you put a floppy disc into your computer put a SNES rom on it put it in this and have it play?

[TheSwillMan]

@111random Pretty much. The ROM must be in Game Doctor format for it to work, however, so you need to either find ROMs in that format or convert them from SMC or BIN format yourself, using UCON64 or whatever.

[bulletproof2353]

i wish i still had mine ,i had the good 1 with the dsp chips so it could copy any game even the ones made by rare ware and i had the 32mbit version too and i paid like 400 or 450 for it back in the day,but i lent it to someone and i never got it back=(

[aOctopusRide]

I got a sf7 now and I can play all the hacked and translated games just need a super famicom cause it fits the doctor better.

[ionmyke]

I read that it was bad batches of plastic that turned the plastic piss yellow... some of my machines and games are half yellow and half gray. Wacky bastards.

[ispyaspy]

yothat 

[Reypure207]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa piss yellow it's funny cuz it's true

[kickflipjr]

I just found one of these on ebay for $28. I was wonder what it was. Thanks!

[PKR2010]

Thank you very much, those kind of machine were popular ?

i mean like modded PSX ?

[danicsson]

Ahora hay un sistema para usar una targeta de memoria de dos gigas donde van todos los juegos juntos. podeis encontrarla en retrousb.

[Tonysgames1]

so with all the games you could put on disks you got rid of??????????

[TheSanguineOne]

This is an awesome video! [=

By the way, if you copy the video games to the computer hard disk, can you create .SMC (S.N.E.S. ROM) files for game emulation on software like ZSNES and 9snesx?

[BarbieOnWeed]

@TheSanguineOne Yes!

[TheSanguineOne]

@BarbieOnWeed That's awesome! [=

Thank you.

[djandyt2009]

8 bit is shit mate . My wild card took double density disk witch meant 8 bit on each side ie:16 bit console

[pferratier2]

hmmm the birth of roms

[comp1337n00b]

Wow cool device. Great video.

[i3ooey]

Ive always wanted one of this when I was a child. But I couldnt afford one. Thank you for sharing,.

[Padoca85]

can you backup sav data as well?

[BarbieOnWeed]

@Padoca85 Yes.

[BarbieOnWeed]

@Padoca85 Yes

[Kulawendin]

At first I thought there was someone in the background saying "Kirby's Avalanche".

[echo036]

I just found a game doctor SF3 at the flea market in a box full of junk for $3. Got no clue what i need for it.

[VintageJunior]

Also, can you copy games onto a disk from a PC and then load it with the GD?

[VintageJunior]

Only now I can see that the US SNES is freaking huge compared to the EUR/SFC version.

[vagoenmostoles]

amazing!

Where i can buy a "game doctor?

[johneymute]

just awesome, you can even connect the cd rom attoughment to the doctor7,and play cd video and audio cd,sand it even has updateble feature.

for what i know copy units with fx support does exist.

[TheSwillMan]

you are misunderstanding the difference between a bit and a byte. there are 8 bits to a byte so therefore 8 megabits equals 1 megabyte. the proper abbreviations are "Mb" for megabit and "MB" for megabyte. most SNES games are indeed 8 megabits/1 megabyte so they fit on a high density floppy disk, which has a capacity of ~1.38 megabytes formatted, which is about 10 or 11 megabits. there is no commercial SNES game that is larger than 48 megabits, I believe, or 6 megabytes.

[LastHour1]

Actually some of the later RPGs on the Super Nintendo, (one of the Tales games, i think, and Star Ocean for certain. The ones with voice acting) were 96Mb

[R32Studios]

Who! how can you fit a SNES game with lots of graphics onto one floppy that can't hold DOOM for the PC on one floppy.

[MrOboema]

Thats why DOOM on SNES sucks and the pc version doesn't. SNES cartridges don't hold that much data.

[metallimaniac]

lol... @ parts of this vid, u sound like Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman) from Lost Boys.

This is a pretty kewl device. I always wondered how ppl ripped the roms of the old consoles

[jackrules01]

So can i take a ROM on a floppy, pop it in this bad boy and play on my SNES?

[TheSwillMan]

yes! i demonstrated in the video

[lordgivemeasign01]

can you make a video of how to convert a rom in to a floppy disk ??

[TheSwillMan]

i show you how in the video!

[kenjuggle]

wow this is so boring

[ilikepez]

@kenjuggle: fuck your mother

[illuminatioracle]

wow sick a ps3 controller in your pooper and put a 360 on your head like a true dickhead born in the late 90's.

[mattnova18]

slight error @ 1:30 ------ i think the games fit on 1 floppy disk because they are turned into roms. the actual size of most SNES games was 4, 8, 12 or 16 Mb. ROMS are usually less than 1mb, but some are as large as 4mb (1024kilobytes = 1Megabyte). The largest rom i've seen is super street fighter II (4mb rom), but the actual version is more like 32MB (genesis version 40mb)

[paulspydar]

what device do you think is better? Im just guessing you will have an opinion. ..the "super wildcard" or the "Game Dr"?

[aldryosi252]

@paulspydar i recomend you on doctor sf 7 because i have it since it was came out in 1992 and still %100 copy all the game i cant count to you how many super famicom games i played on it

[paulspydar]

@aldryosi252 thanks for the information, If I can find one , I will buy one!

[morrismak]

Good piece of invention. Brings back great memories! I remember bringing it back to the US and all my white friends were like "what the fuck?"

And don't forget about the smart saves either...an option that allows you to do a quick save of the game like the quick saves on the emulators.

And could also add game genie codes, which is called "gold finger" in Chinese.

I also had one for the sega genesis...though it was not as common as the SFC disk system

[OpticalHaze]

there are loads of good games that have more than 1.3mb... only the early games has less

[FuzedBox]

I do hope that you realize that the GDSF7 splits ROMS into appropriate sizes, and this makes it possible to back up larger games to floppy; I have a decompressed Star Ocean ROM backed up on 12 of the suckers just for the hell of it.

@Velocity37, the Game Doctor SF7 has the highest compatibility by a slight margin with its upgradeable RAM, and I find it to be the most versatile copier. The blue DSP connector will let you play those DSP-1 games of yours.

[djbeema]

@FuzedBox:

If I want to backup saved games from RPG's (such as FF3, Chrono Trigger, etc), what exactly do I need to buy? Just an SF7? Or an SF7 plus...?

[velocity37]

Don't copy that floppy...

On a more serious note, is there any reason to choose this over a unit with a built-in DSP, like say, the Super UFO 8? Better compatibility with games?

[Stinger2578]

Literally a Super Famicom Disk System :)

I also wish the interface was something more modern - USB, SD, Compact Flash, even 100 MB Zip Disk. Floppy Disks are usually unreliable.

[sdutango]

i had this.

[cjayone2]

good old days.. i owned the Game Hunter. I payed 350.00 //

[fmg420]

star fox ftw

[ashthepokemonmaster]

can you play the game off the floppy disc with no cartrige?

[maxpowers999999999]

Hey, Cool Video, I got a quick question, would it be possible to play seiken densetsu 3 with this device? While applying the english patch to the rom?

Thanks!!

[FuzedBox]

It should be able to play ANY ROM provided it can meet two criteria: 1. The original game has no special chip other than a DSP1 (even those need the blue DSP passthrough, which are becoming rare and expensive) and 2. That the ROM size will fit (the GD Sf7/ Professor 2 has updateable RAM, so no issue). The exception with special chips are Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean, where they can have decompressed graphics (Very large ROMS that require extra RAM, but Star Ocean can be translated as well)

[FuzedBox]

Furthermore, coming from an owner of the Game Doctor SF7, I can safely say it has a very steep learning curve and high price tag for everything you need with it (extra 64mb RAM, optional DSP passthrough). I can further warn people not to buy it if they simply want to play ROMS, as this thing is more of an extreme naturalists hobby). If you do buy the SF7, I recommend you turn it into the english prioritized version (Professor SF2) by soldering closed the S3 circuit on its motherboard.

[modron666]

Hi, is it possible with this device to copy SRAM you saved with an emulator on the PC -ON- the original cartridge?

Thanks!

[TheSwillMan]

No.

[ThisIsEDX]

Just a question, you can back up your saves to a floppy, right?

[TheSwillMan]

Yes.

[TVperson1]

Does it work with Donkey Kong country?

[TheSwillMan]

Yes.

[TOTALANIHILATIONYEAH]

1. Use the god damn parallel port and hook it up to an old laptop or something. You can use ucon64 to convert and transfer ROMs to it. No need for floppies.

2. You can get SuperFX and DSP chip pass throughs to play star fox etc. Although it's probably cheaper just to buy the games.

[TheSwillMan]

There IS no SuperFX passthrough cart, smartass. As for the DSP passthrough cart, I think it only supports ONE good game (Mario Kart) and I've already got a real copy.

[TOTALANIHILATIONYEAH]

Heh, reading my first comment I realize I was being a bit of a smartass, sorry ;)

Anyhow, you're absolutely right. I did some research, and there is no super fx passthorugh because it's apparently impossible. But like I said in the original comment, you're probably better off just holding on to those few games that use the custom chips.

I would still recommend using the parallel port over floppies though.

[spiritro06]

this thing is a beast.. i have like 400 floppies rofl.

i think buying a flash card is the way to go nowadays though.

[sdutango]

maybe download roms online and play with emulator would be a better way nowaday.... i can play it on my phone... but it's cool to still own the system, i took the floppy drive out for my desktop when i was still in the floppy drive era...

[mooseboy101]

can you still play the snes games after you make a floppy out of them?

[mooseboy101]

I meant snes carts

[TheSwillMan]

Of course; you can't erase a SNES cartridge...

[mooseboy101]

cool, thanks

[YoshiFan501]

so you copy games off the floppy disk TO the cart?

[YoshiFan501]

does it load games off the floppy

[TheSwillMan]

It has to load games into the onboard memory first; it can't run a game directly from a floppy-- way too slow.

[YoshiFan501]

will it work with snes 2

[Paycheck125]

Ah floppy. This is very surprising, you found a way to make them useful! =D

[GhostSonic]

Doesn't EarthBound have some anti-piracy measures?

[mulboy1982]

hey man great video.

Do you want to sell it? i used to have a game doctor vi.

Quick question; how did you hook up a composite signal to your vga monitor???

i have the same monitor but dont know how.

thanks

[TheSwillMan]

Can't sell it... I still need it. :D Spent too many hours making floppies for it to get rid of it!

And the way I hook regular video up to a computer monitor is with the Micomsoft XRGB-3 line doubler. The SNES is hooked up with RGB, not composite (yuck!). I use this thing every single day to hook a bunch of game consoles to this monitor, and it's something else I can't possibly sell right now! (it and the GD7 can be found online, but not very cheaply, you just have to look around)

[YoshiFan501]

were can you buy one

[TheSwillMan]

Tototek might have some

[HELLGUNGRAVE777]

lol tototek is gone just bought one these bad boys

for 100$ a little bit overpriced but considering i can play more than 600+ games on orignal hardware (no crappy emulation) :) with earthbound going for 100$ on ebay

[TylursVideo]

Thought mine was garbage til I see on intrenet that its a collector item. Found mine in a chinese recycle bin still works oddly its for super famicom and I only have 5 super famicom games.

[brickman409]

I cant find one on ebay

[lseinen]

someone definately does need to create a up to date flash cart for the snes.

I'd pay for that.

[AlthenasGuard]

I would use the real cart so I wouldnt have to split the game on 20 floppy's. I want to patch Bahamut Lagoon. I guess I could buy a flashcart to do this.

[TheSwillMan]

The English version of Bahamut Lagoon only takes three disks... :)

[AlthenasGuard]

Hey Can you load a translation patch to a SF game(to play in english onto a floppy than put it in the docter SF7. After that put the real cart of the game you want to translate in the SF7(Im using a modded snes so SF games will fit). Than can you patch the actual game cart with the patch you have on the floppy on the docter SF7?

[TheSwillMan]

No way. You can't "patch" a ROM cartridge without an EEPROM burner, which is very complicated to use and figure out. Once you have the SF7 and you have the translation up and running off a disk, why would you need the real cartridge anyway?

[Isaneguxa]

Hi, as you say in the beginning, it's a cool video! Thank you for making this! I got one of this from a flea market but it didn't came with the male-male adapter cart so I am intending to build one. Then I have a question for you, since I haven't found anything on the internet: as I don't want to fry my SF, could you *please* check your adapter and confirm to me if all terminals are one-to-one from the top to the bottom connector? Does it work inverted? Any help is of great value! Thanks a lot!

[TheSwillMan]

Yeah, all the terminals are one-to-one, and they go to every pin inside the SNES cart connector. It doesn't work inverted, because if you put it in upside down the notch for the cart lock doesn't line up with the locking tab and the system won't turn on. I recommend just buying a replacement one for $35 + shipping from Tototek (they have the ones with the DSP chip so you can play Mario Kart off a floppy, totally groovy!!)

[MrPezzzz]

Can you copy and paste Roms onto the Floppy Disk?

[TheSwillMan]

No, you must convert them to the Game Doctor SF7 format if you're trying to play ROMs you downloaded offline. I use a command-line program called UCON64. There's a bit of a learning curve but it's not that hard.