New budget, entry level Genesis/Mega-Drive flash cartridge, the OpenED, launches from Everdrive creator Krikzz; goes open-source

The creator of the Everdrive series of flash cartridges, the one and only Krikzz, has just debuted a new budget priced Mega Everdrive cartridge for Genesis/Mega-Drive systems called OpenED (Open Everdrive). How budget? Try $40 USD. That’s right. For less than the cost of most brand new video games (And certainly less than most original Genesis cartridges cost), you can get your very own new Mega Everdrive cartridge and run lots of Genesis roms on original hardware. (Including many an all-new indie Genesis game, or a long-lost prototype, if you’re so inclined.)

What’s more, the OpenED is also open-sourced, so anyone with the know-how is free to submit improvements on the software or produce their own OpenED cartridges. This way, quality, entry-level Genesis flash cartridges should be available to everyone without having to resort to buying cheap knockoffs from dubious sellers online.

Of course, even with the assured quality, the low cost does present some drawbacks. Head on in after the break to hear more about the OpenED and to order one if you’re interested.

Before you toss out your $40, you should know about the many limitations of the OpenED compared to the more expensive Mega Everdrive options. The cost is so low because the OpenED does not have a processor or operate off an FPGA board, like the Mega Everdrive line. Because of that, the OpenED lacks many popular features of the Mega Everdrive series, such as Sega CD and 32X game support, save states, SRAM save storage for multiple games at once, special chip support (Forget about playing Virtua Racing with this), or even instant game loading. The OpenED is as simple as it gets for a flash cartridge, but for some of you, that may be all you need.

You can order the OpenED directly from Krikzz’s online store here. If you want one of the more premium Mega Everdrives, he is still manufacturing and selling those too. You can check out the OpenED Github page here.

Will you be picking up an OpenED? Are you a fan of the Everdrive cartridges? How do you use them? Give us a shout in the comments below.