Multi Region Megadrive

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?
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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.
 
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...
 
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
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Never-the-less they worked.
 
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...
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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?
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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