Japanese MD1

[PowerPie5000]

I hate ebay! I bought what was advertised as a Jap megadrive but turned out to be the Asian version! and the seller is ignoring me! It looks identical to the jap version but runs in 50hz pal. It can play all pal games and most Jap/US games.

It is strange how it has "cartridge lock" printed below the power switch when the Asian models never had the lock in the first place!?

I decided to do the 60hz switch mod which worked perfectly, and as it has a pal board i decided to do a language switch mod and now its a disaster! The board looks the same as a UK pal megadrive and it is a PAL-1 Asian system model 1601-11. After doing the mods hardly any of my games work on it, they show the sega licence screen (tmss?) and then it all goes blank except for a few gams such as columns, decap attack and sword of vermilion which work fine no matter what switch setting i use.

I used the mmmonkey guide for a UK pal system hoping it would work on the Asian system as they are basically the same, but no! the 60hz switch works and thats about it and now most games refuse to work!

Does anyone have any ideas? im stumped on this one!

[Ace]

removed

[chammyman]

did you severe the trace fully for the language select?

If you got the right make before break switch then you can start the games in jap then switch to english after the sega screen, same with 50/60Hz.

[PowerPie5000]

Yes i cut the trace between the language and display select (a fairly wide cut) so i dont think that should be the problem, Its interesting to point out the make before break switches because im just using normal SPDT sliding switches (prefer them over toggle type).

I suppose it is a good idea to use break before make switches if you intend on using them on the fly whilst power is on, but i usually set the switches to the modes i need and then turn on the power (50/60hz can be changed whilst powered on).

Im not sure if it would make a difference changing the region after the console is already powered up? i usually do that before switching on. Unless it somehow bypasses a region lockout or some kind of security feature? (which the switch should do anyway?)

Ive tried the switch mod on a couple of UK PAL megadrives and works fine, but its just the Asian console that is causing probs with the exact same mod (and same board afaik?), but as mentioned in another post its probably a cartslot problem.

[TmEE]

All state changes take effect immediately, but games generally don't care about them in other places than their start up code... 50/60 will have immediate effect as it directly changes timings which game itself uses. Break before make switches must be used, otherwise you get a momentary short and its not very healthy.

[Ace]

Actually, Asian MegaDrives have a different jumper setup than a European MegaDrive. On an Asian unit, Jumper 1 is linked instead of Jumper 2, but Jumper 3 is linked exactly like on a European MegaDrive. Did you cut the trace for Jumper 1?

Actually, YES! That IS your problem! You say that the 50/60Hz switch is all that works, so in that case, you didn't cut the trace for Jumper 1.

[chammyman]

I also use slider switches as I don't like the toggle switches. I got a bag of them on ebay and use them for modding systems.

I have found on some PAL games if the language switch is set to JAP the message come sup this is for pal or secam only. So it does affect it.

The 60Hz obviously does as well, switching the 50/60 after start up will occasionally cause slowdown not all the time only sometimes, not sure why.

[Jesse813]

if anyone is interested the place I bought my Japanese MD1 has 2 (a MD1 & MD2) listed for 14.99 (27$ for airmail, 40$ for EMS). heres a link http://stores.ebay.com/Superb-Articles-From-Japan-SHOP

besides this I recently added Undeadline to my small import collection and I must say that the Japanese colorful Manuals look alot better than the B&W American manuals