TECTOY MegaDrive III Review (PICS Inside)

I used to think that I had seen the most of Sega throught the years...But obviously I was wrong...Different regions and zones, open the doors to other styles of gaming life and cultures out there....Recently, I have been able to obtain a Tec-toy Mega Drive III system...As many of you know, Tectoy was the offcial distributor of Sega products in Brazil and probably other parts of South America as well since the late 80's and early 90's....One of their products was the Mega drive III, which for some of us living in USA soil, could equal to be a Sega Genesis model 2, or so I thought (Explanation below)..

It seems that there were several revisions made to the Mega Drive III....I have seen models with and without built-in games. there are models that have as many as 30 memory built-in games and still have a full cartridge connector port...

My particular official Sega Tectoy Mega Drive III model came with 10 memory built-in games: Super Hang-On, Golden Axe, Columns, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets Of Rage, The Revenge Of Shinobi, California Games, Sega Soccer, Super Monaco GP and Flicky..

The Design of the Mega Drive III shell is basically the same as the Sega Genesis 2/MegaDrive 2 System...But the weight and plastic quality of the tectoy Mega Drive III is different ...

The plastic quality of the case is a bit hard to explain, is definitely cheaper than a Sega Genesis model 2 system, but much,much better than any other now a days Sega clone system, including the GEN-X, GN-TWIN and others.

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8386.jpg

The system itself has a built-in power cord, but other revisions have a power port for a power supply just like the Sega Genesis model 2 or Mega Drive 2 do...This Mega Drive III is 110V/220V 50/60Hz Automatic switch compatible and has Type C prongs (European 2 round pin power plug connector)...

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8402.jpg

The bottom side has the system specs as well as the "Produced by and under License of Sega Enterprises Ltd Japan"label

Microprocessor: MC (68000) 16 bits
Ram: 576K Bits
Video Ram: 512K Bits
Colors: 512
Resolution: 256X224
Audio: 9 Channels

But as soon as the top cover comes off, you can see what the internal system is really made of

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8421.jpg

For once, it lacks the Sega CD system compatibility (no connector) even though it has the expansion door,most likely for previous revisions and for my amazement the system has the 315-6123 ASIC found in the last revision of the American Majesco Mini Sega Genesis 3 System....Now I truly know who to blame for this, TECTOY!!!!!!!!!....There is no Virtua Racing compatibility and just as a Sega Genesis 3, no 32X system compatibility either....But funny enough, the B19 cartridge pin is connected, so there is Game Genie compatibility at least, something the the Genesis 3 doesn't natively have ....This is probably the why they decided to called it Mega Drive III perhaps....MD 3= Genesis 3......

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8434.jpg

On this pic, you can see the outputs of the system: the built-in RF output connector, the RF output channel switch (3-4), the 9 mini pin din connector with full RGB connections.....Closer to the actual cartridge connector you can see the ROM with the built-in games (the one with the serial label) and just a little bit above there is the sound circuit as well as the CXA1645 video encoder, which by the way, this Megadrive III was totally set to PAL-M format.....I did a little bit of modding to make it full NTSC compatible...

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8436.jpg

This pic shows the 315-6123 ASIC, and the master clock oscillator....I had to replace that one to..

And finally, the board where the power current comes in and were the power switching takes place....This board has the "On/Off button", the controller port connectors and the "Reset"button as well ...

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8437.jpg.


I got a Tectoy Sega Master System III too, another Brazilian Marvel, and so different to any other Sega Master System II that I have seen so far, technically speaking, but that's another story......

http://usera.imagecave.com/capcom2000/hpim8444.jpg

....If anyone one else out there happens to have a different revision of the Brazilian TECTOY Mega Drive III, would be really nice to see it, and what better place to show it than here at sega-16.com.....

Until next time!
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You have got to be shitting me... TECTOY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MESS THAT LED UP TO THE VA2 GENESIS 3?! WTF??? On that note, what pin on the 315-6123 is supposed to be connected to cartridge slot pin B26(you did manage to find that on a VA2 Genesis 3)?

I'd love to see the internals of that Master System III Compact. How about opening it up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ace

You have got to be shitting me... TECTOY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MESS THAT LED UP TO THE VA2 GENESIS 3?! WTF???

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Dont blame Tectoy Brazil, but its Argentinian division, they are the real responsible for the megadrive 3 wich was first released in Argentina and years later in Brazil.

PD: I have that same master system 3, i have a master system Super compact and master system girl too, i can post some pictures of their guts if you are interested..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chinitosoccer

Dont blame Tectoy Brazil, but its Argentinian division, they are the real responsible for the megadrive 3 wich was first released in Argentina and years later in Brazil.

PD: I have that same master system 3, i have a master system Super compact and master system girl too, i can post some pictures of their guts if you are interested..

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Please post internal pics of your systems....
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TecToy is using chips manufactured for Sega by Yamaha or Hitachi or JVC or someone else who have helped Sega with something.... Everything with 513 is something made for Sega by someone in Japan or around it.... TecToy is only responsible for the (poor) clone chips.

and nice work ooXxXoo, though higher quality pics would have been more awesome :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chinitosoccer

Dont blame Tectoy Brazil, but its Argentinian division, they are the real responsible for the megadrive 3 wich was first released in Argentina and years later in Brazil.

PD: I have that same master system 3, i have a master system Super compact and master system girl too, i can post some pictures of their guts if you are interested..

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Hot damn, I'd love to see the insides of those Brazilian Master Systems!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TmEE

TecToy is using chips manufactured for Sega by Yamaha or Hitachi or JVC or someone else who have helped Sega with something.... Everything with 513 is something made for Sega by someone in Japan or around it.... TecToy is only responsible for the (poor) clone chips.

and nice work ooXxXoo, though higher quality pics would have been more awesome :D

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I still blame them for this 315-6123 ASIC, since it seems that it was intentional designed for the cheaper consumer market, and later on making its way to the upper north....
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ace

Hot damn, I'd love to see the insides of those Brazilian Master Systems!

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Yes, its AWESOME, a whole different motherboard layout, mine has the later Z84 instead of the Z80 and of course with Sonic in the built-in memory as well...If that dude doesn't post pics, I'll whenever I get a chance...Again, the SMS III was fully PAL-M, but now is NTSC through the RF signal...
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did they remove the expansion board?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gamegenie

did they remove the expansion board?

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This Mega Drive III is revision 7.1, I don't really know if earlier revisions did have it at all...And in case that they did, I wonder what was the approach from tectoy to the consumers to explain them that at some point it was going to be removed....Anyone knows?...
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Has anyone had any success ordering one of these, or any other TecToy console?? It seems that every time I try, the websites go down or the seller stops responding.

I'd love to get a few different ones. Remember the white ones??

I'm surprised they put the little notches in the back of the cart slot. Doesn't look like it will take a Japanese game like the Genesis3 does.

I'm not into electronics, so here are a few pics, if anyone wants close ups from a chip in particular just need to ask.

TecToy Master System III Compact w/ Hang On, Alex Kidd and a light phaser western movie-like game, or something like that, i dont remember.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4...c03144t.th.jpghttp://img11.imageshack.us/img11/724/dsc03133d.th.jpghttp://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4887/dsc03137c.th.jpghttp://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3404/dsc03140.th.jpghttp://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3986/dsc03138.th.jpghttp://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8...c03139f.th.jpg

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3404/dsc03140.th.jpg
TecToy Master System Super Compact w. Sonic the Hedgehog built in memory.
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/3773/dsc03149z.th.jpghttp://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1200/dsc03145b.th.jpghttp://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9913/dsc03146.th.jpghttp://img245.imageshack.us/img245/6230/dsc03147.th.jpg
i forget to take pics of the 2nd controller port.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1406/dsc03150.th.jpghttp://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7926/dsc03152i.th.jpghttp://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7...c03153d.th.jpg

Pirate region modded Megadrive clone:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9...c03155l.th.jpghttp://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2373/dsc03156m.th.jpghttp://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3064/dsc03157.th.jpghttp://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5573/dsc03158.th.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6726/dsc03162h.th.jpghttp://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8...c03159b.th.jpghttp://img165.imageshack.us/img165/549/dsc03160.th.jpghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9816/dsc03167.th.jpg

the A/V port is slightly different, it has less pins so the standard RGB cable wont fit in this thing..
Soon, TecToy Dreamcasts and Saturns...

Thanks for the pics, really nice to see inside these things :D

....aaaand that pirate MD is the super clone I had which died long ago.... this is the best clone ever, I want one again !!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TmEE

Thanks for the pics, really nice to see inside these things :D

....aaaand that pirate MD is the super clone I had which died long ago.... this is the best clone ever, I want one again !!!

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yes, it's a good clone!!, it's fully compatible with Sega/Mega CD and the 32x, the only bad thing is that I don't know how to make this think to output RGB, it only has composite and RF..