Multi Region Megadrive

[BooBoo02]

Hi, all

I would just like to know if a Multiregion megadrive was released In Australia or the UK? I have just purchased a model 1 Megadrive that looks the same as a model 1 asian Megadrive (has a blue reset switch, cartridge slot is square like the asian model and can take US, JAP or PAL carts, has 16-BIT in big gold letters , the colour around the power led is a dark red sort of color and it says "AV Intelligent Terminal High grade Multipurpose Use" on it) but on the back of the console it says PAL-I and beside the Sega tag there is a larger tag on the bottom that has all the US, Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan Patents on it.

When i opened it up, it looks like it has had some sort of a mod done (few wires soldered to various chips that are not there on a standard Pal Megadrive, but it all looks factory) and the guy i bought it from says it plays Asian carts without an adapter.

I am yet to try the megadrive as i dont have a power supply and rf cable (will get both on the weekend) but it did come with 3 Asian carts.

Could anyone shed some light on this model megadrive?

 

[Alexvrb]

I can't shed any light on it, but have you tested newer (region-locked) games on it? Because most megadrive games dont have region lockout to begin with. For instance, all I had to do to get my Jap copies of PSII and III working on my US genesis was cut off a little plastic from the cart port.

 

[ExCyber]

If it's 50Hz, US and Japan games with region lockout won't run on it. Because of the way the games detect the region, there's no way to create a "region-free" Genesis/Megadrive, only one on which the region can be easily changed.

edit: I guess a BIOS could try to detect the region of the game and configure the version register to match...

 

[Weed_smoker]

This is interesting because I had a reasonably early UK megadrive (model 1) and at the time I had 2 games that were labeled Genesis on the cartridge and the case, and although the megadrive was called genesis in america i never knew if the games were just labeled wrong or if they were indeed american games. (If that made any sense

)

Never-the-less they worked.

 

[Curtis]

I have an Australian PAL megadrive (essentially the same as your UK model). I also have a few games labeled "genesis" (Road Rash 2 is one of them). I guess a few games were just made region free...

 

[Alexvrb]

As far as I have heard, most genesis/megadrive games did not have territorial lockouts. I can pop Jap games into my US genesis and they will play fine, the only difference is the cartridge shape (read above). Newer games actually had a chip in them to prevent this. Now, I don't know how the games handled NTSC/PAL, but I would guess if your TV is capable, it shouldnt matter. Unless the megadrive itself checked to see if the game was NTSC/PAL? In which case you'd need to install a switch, maybe?

 

[Weed_smoker]

Back in the day I recall one of my mates at school having a switch on his megadrive i think it was for multi-region but it could just as well have been a frequency switch

 

[Arakon]

there was a PAL japanese MD in asia.

the region lockout applies just like for any other MD/Genesis.

 

[BooBoo02]

Originally posted by Arakon@May 1, 2003 @ 11:05 AM

there was a PAL japanese MD in asia.

the region lockout applies just like for any other MD/Genesis.

Very interesting as i also got a Australian cart with it. I'll keep you posted if it plays both Aus and asian carts.

 

[BooBoo02]

Just tested the megadrive with an american Cart and 3 asian carts. I thought one of them was Australian, but it was US instead. The Megadrive played the asian and US carts without an adapter.

 

[ExCyber]

Right, it's up to the game to detect which system region/version it's running on and then do whatever it wants with that data. Some games use it for a lockout, others use it as a language/title/censorship switch.