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Sega System 24 converts / preservation (floppies)

The System 24 is the urgent Sega preservation case: most games are on 3.5″ floppy, a magnetic medium that fades with a drive that wears out. Conversion/preservation = image the living floppies and run the images via a floppy emulator (HxC / Gotek). Some games also add an FD1094.

Field Value
Platform Sega System 24 (1988)
Type floppy imaging + drive emulator; sometimes FD1094
Difficulty 🟡 (emulator) → 🟠 (floppy dump / FD1094)
Suicide? usually no game battery, but FD1094 on some titles

Architecture (recap)

Block Detail
CPU 2× 68000 @ 10 MHz (master/slave)
Sound YM2151 + DAC (samples)
Video Sega customs, high resolution (~496×384, 24 kHz monitor)
Media 3.5″ floppy (original games); a few ROM titles

⚠️ The problem: the floppy

Original games are on magnetic floppy: the magnetisation fades over time, the drive drifts/wears. Imaging still-living floppies is a race against time.

1. Imaging (dumping) a System 24 floppy

The community method:

  1. DOS PC with a 1.44 MB drive.
  2. Use Anadisk: "Dump" menu.
  3. Set: both sides, no sector ID info, start cylinder = 0, end cylinder = 79.
  4. You get a .s24 image.

Per-game sector layout

Games don't all share the same sector layout. E.g. Hot Rod = 6 sectors (8 KB, 1 KB, 1 KB, 1 KB, 512 B, 256 B); Scramble Spirits = 7 sectors of various sizes. This affects compatibility and load speed with emulators — check per game.

2. Emulating the drive (HxC / Gotek)

Replace the floppy drive with an emulator that reads images from an SD card / USB stick:

  • HxC Floppy Emulator: the original solution (SD), the most reliable.
  • Gotek flashed with HxC firmware: cheaper alternative (Gotek is a "clone" of the principle; many prefer the real HxC).
  • Image conversion: .s24 converts to .hfe (the HxC format) via the HxC software.

→ Result: no fragile floppy, no drive to maintain, reliable loading.

3. The FD1094 case

Some System 24 games also use an encrypted FD1094 CPU (like System 16). Then you must also handle the key/de-suicide:

→ see System 16/18/24: FD1094/FD1089 (hot battery swap, Arduino re-key, or decrypted ROMs + bare 68000).

Converting to another game

On floppy titles, "changing game" = swapping the disk image (HxC/Gotek) — trivial, provided you have the target game's image (your own dumps) and the right sector layout. If the target is FD1094, you need the matching key.

Before / after

  • HxC/Gotek emulator: the cabinet loads the game from SD/USB, no floppy or original drive.
  • Imaging: a living floppy is saved before it fades.

Where to read more

Sources & attribution

Review & corrections

How this space is used

Spotted a wrong value, an outdated procedure, a chip reference that does not match your board? Say so here, with what you observed (model, board revision, serial number, measurement). Every report is cross-checked against a source before anything changes — an unverifiable correction is published as “reported by …, not cross-checked” rather than silently applied.

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