Ask general Genesis/MD/Sega CD/32X questions here (for new members)

[PowerPie5000]

I hope someone here has experience modding Asian PAL-1 megadrives as i think ive completely screwed mine! (model 1601-11)

I fitted a 60hz switch which worked fine and then decided to fit a region/language switch for all the dual rom carts such as streets of rage/bare knuckle etc... I know the Asian model already played Jap imports but not all of them.

After fitting the region switch most of my games no longer load on this system, i get the sega licence screen and then nothing! the only games i can get to work are columns, decap attack, sword of vermilion and a couple of others. These work fine no matter what the switches are set to. Sonic gets to the sega screen and freezes before the "SEGA" voice can be heard and Mortal Kombat 3 gets a blue screen full of codes/numbers with the word emulation at the top and thats it!

I have only tried it with UK pal games as i dont have any jap games at the moment. They worked fine before but not now. I looked on google and followed the megadrive switch guide by mmmonkey in which he used a UK pal-1 megadrive which as far as i know uses the same board as the Asian model.

Can anyone please help? much appreciated, thanks

[PowerPie5000]

Out of curiosity does anyone know which UK megadrives did not have tmss?

I have an original megadrive model 1600-05 with the text "high definition graphics stereo sound" printed on the ring but every game i put in comes up with the sega licence screen... does that mean my console has tmss?

I thought tmss came about in 1992? I just ordered another original megadrive off ebay (original altered beast bundle pack) and im hoping i get lucky and it does not have tmss as this was released before 1992.

can anyone correct me if i am wrong please! and maybe its tmss that screwed my Asian megadrive mods?

[TmEE]

TMSS is that license screen. And the TMSS is NOT responsible for region stuff, only the switches are.

Your MD1 seems to have some cartslot issues... probably some higher address lines have poor contact as small games seem to work...

[PowerPie5000]

Yes i think that is possible since i had to unscrew the cartridge slot to seperate the board from the case, are the slots easy to fix or replace? I know the Snes ones were easy as the slot could be unscrewed and pulled out in one piece but im not sure if the same goes for a megadrive?
I did tug it gently to see if it would move without the screws but it did not budge.

I could probably remove the slot from a dead megadrive and solder it into the Asian console and see if that works, if not then i suppose its fit for the bin thanks for your help

[Ace]

Removing the cartridge slot from a MegaDrive is not the same thing as removing that of a Super NES. It's one piece that's soldered onto the motherboard. You have to desolder the slot, as well as remove some rivets that hold it in place. In your place, I'd first tighten the pinsets before doing anything else.

[djtwok]

If i mod a german 50hz Megadrive with an 50/60 Hz Switch will Mastersystem Games (via Adaptor) also run in 60hz ?

[omp]

Should do, my mates (Australia) does.

[raylyd]

hi i have got a sega cdx it will power up and give me blck screen no sega boot screen please help me

[TmEE]

clean the carts and/or cartslot. q-tip and alcohol plus pencil eraser do wonders.

[chammyman]

Since I can't start new threads yet I'll ask here as the opening post suggests.

I have searched and read through everything and still i don't have my answer.

I have 2 MD1's, on both I have done the language and 60/60 Hz mods and AV outs (composite, right, left stereo and composite video).

S-Video is pointless as its something thats never used in the UK, 90% of tvs here don't have it as we have the RGB scart.

What I want to do is overclock it. I have read through all the threads, the MD1's can take the clock speeds etc.

The issue is I would rather have a fit and forget overclock. The 13.4mHz from the cart slot is all nice, but I need to fit a halt switch and a selector switch for the over clock. This is another 2 switches on the console which already has 2 switches on it, basically theres no room for more where they would need to go to enable compatibility with a SCD.

So I think the best way is to fit an oscillator and leave it permanently overclocked. The problem is compatibility.

Now I reckon 9, 10 or 11 Mhz is probably the right area to look at.

9mhz seems a bit slow although it is around a 20% increase, however it would seem that it would essentially maintain 100% compatibility with games.

10mhz the middle ground, more worthwhile than the 9mhz but will it maintain the compatibility? The other issue is the "I wish I went more" conundrum.

11mhz, not to greedy I think, but will it require a halt switch, from what I have seen no, but how will the compatibility be with 11mhz?

If anyone has a good suggestion let me know.

[chammyman]

well I decided to just do the 13.4mhz overclock, so far all games work fine with it. TBH I don't really notice much difference...

Sure with 80 rings or so the slowdown is reduced from a teeny bit to none really. But i want more games that are known issues to test it with.

Any suggestions for games?

[TmEE]

Any 3D game will run smoother afterwards. Games that have no slowdown will be unaffected, or could get gliches (this can happen to any game).
I myself have 10MHz option besides stock clock in my MD2, and it works withuot problems with 99% games. I would like to use more, but my MD2 tops at 10MHz. 12MHz works fine with most games aswell. The 13.4MHz signal on board is not a good option, as according to a friend of mine its a bit unstable and can cause problems.
A halt switch is needed if you want to change clock while the system is running, in most cases, changing clock while system runs leads to a crash.
I don't recommend permanent overclock, having the possibility to switch between stock and higher clock is the most preferred method.
And from my tests, having MD overclocked, will break compatibility with MCD, at least when using 10MHz. 32X games are generally not happy with overclock either.

[chammyman]

I thought there would be issue with the 13.4, but after staying up to 5am last bnight playing through about 30 or so games not one had a problem at 13.4mhz.

Once on one of my sonic 2 cartridges (I have 3) it was a bit glitchy but turned it off blew it and it was fine. so wether or not it was due to the overclock or a bit of dirt is unknown.

But none of the games crashed or anything. I played f22 for a bit and it did seem a bit smoother but not night and day smooth.

So it's staying hardwired to the 13.4 for the moment as until theres an issue I'l leave it like that. I still hate cutting traces, cutitng pin 15's trace on the CPU still made me nervous, 2 cuts and lift the bridging piece out then make sure it didn't boot then the bit of wire from the cart slot to the pin, tryign to keep your hand steady etc. good fun.

[TmEE]

my MD2 : http://www.hot.ee/tmeeco/MYSMD2.JPG

Cutting a trace is no biggie... listing a pin is...

[chammyman]

yeah I have had bad experience lifting pins before, snapped a couple so cut traces now. But I can't find my scalpel so used a stanley knife

I have seen your MD2 picture a lot when looking for things. Do you actually have a case lid for it?