I’m impressed with the attention to detail and care. Great product. Amazing job.
Awesome device! Super easy to use!
I'll be honest — I had a pile of SNES, Atari 2600, and Atari 7800 cartridges that had been sitting in a closet for the better part of two decades. A mix of nostalgia and mild concern about the long-term viability of those carts finally pushed me to do something about it. So I started researching cartridge readers.
There are a few options out there. You can go the DIY route and source all the parts yourself from the sanni GitHub project. You can buy cheaper assembled alternatives of varying build quality. Or you can buy from Save the Hero Builders. I went with Save the Hero Builders and I have zero regrets.
The V3-ALTER is a modified build of the open source sanni cartridge reader project, and right out of the box it's clear that real care went into it. The PCB quality is solid, the custom acrylic case is well thought out, and the LEDs being surface-mounted rather than buried gives it a much cleaner look than earlier versions. It doesn't look like a hobby project — it looks like something you'd actually want on your desk and frankly I've just left it sitting on my as a conversation piece since I got it.
The SNES support is built in natively and worked flawlessly. For the Atari 2600 and 7800 carts I also picked up the appropriate adapters — those are sold separately on the Save the Hero Builders site, so if that's your situation make sure you add them to your order at the same time. Worth it though. Every unit is dump-tested across all cartridge slots before it ships, which tells you something about how seriously they take the product.
Communication from the seller was excellent. Responsive, knowledgeable, and clearly someone who actually cares about the product they're putting out. The included 1GB MicroSD card and USB-C cable mean you can get started right away, though you'll want a higher quality SD card for your actual backups.
If you've been sitting on a retro cart collection and telling yourself you'll get around to preserving it eventually — this is the push. Highly recommended.
Awesome device! Simple to use.
Great product, really appreciate it. Easy to use.