Mega Drive Overclocked Side by Side

More overclocking fun! Side x Side comparison.
Stock on the left, overclocked on the right featuring:
Flash Back
Gunstar Heroes 1:03
Pebble Beach Golf 1:28
Hard Drivin 2:19
Ballz 3:23
Ranger - X 3:47

[@Suzukisenpai]

What a pleasant FM-music in the Golf game!

[@RockRedGenesis]

Ranger X. lots of fun memories, great game, wish it was available for the 3ds eshop as a 3d classic title, just so it can play it again.

[@ChalkTeacher]

Ranger X is so great. Even though I always die at stage 4 haha

[@segasonic9117]

It still amazes me to think that the same people that made Devastator on the MEGA-CD, made the masterpiece that is Ex-Ranza on the MD.

[@tomypower4898]

oh yes i think i did it in yeees!

[@DanielAyy]

So my question is: Should I get my MegaDrive overclocked so that slowdown gets eliminated or should I keep it as it is and play the games in their original speed?

[@Hwi1son]

Silky smooth

[@hopetagulos]

O Gunstar Heroes já é frenético.... imagino com "overclock".

[@oculed1101]

That's pretty fantastic. Does this screw up a games sound/music?

[@gvrocco]

Can you test a Virtua Racing Game?

[@TheTrueBro]

Hard Drivin' reminds of the Test Drive games from back in the day. Same developers?

[@ravengaming4143]

It's pretty obvious the MD can't handle that golf game. Whoever desiged it was not interested in playlability but just wanted to push graphics.

[@SketchTurnerZero]

Yeah. Even Mario Golf on NES is more interesting and exiting then this shit

[@bitset3741]

Actually the game is very playable. The gameplay mechanics don't depend on smooth framerate in the 3d segments.

[@solarflare9078]

The SNES ran at a similar framerate in the original. It's only the cinematics that have that framerate as well. They both have great OSTs though.

[@FullMetal-Tech]

hmmm curious to see how F-15 strike eagle 2 and mig-29 run on a oc'ed genesis.

[@merkreflektion]

Definitely makes a difference

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Nice video, it will help me determine if my overclock switch is working on the Megadrive X clone I have.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

I wonder if that Golf game would even run on a 68010.

[@ZroDfects]

Haha i like you comment in the video "This needs an 030" lol, that's true, it would smoother than Jessica Alba's credit card slot.....

[@elz-42perros49]

1:47 looks like gta v

[@tomypower4898]

YES fifty five!

[@BartechTV]

I'd like to see a megadrive with a 80mhz '060

[@liquidextal]

Sadly I don't think the '060 will even run 16 bit code. Someone will have to test that tho.

[@1337Shockwav3]

I'm currently reproducing the german made PAK68/3 card, which allows you to use an 030 on Amiga/Atari ST/Mac SE computers, which natively use 68k processors - all there's needed for Genesis/Megadrive support would be an adapted driver circuit (it's realized via GAL chips or a CPLD in future revisions). Get coding :D

[@liquidextal]

as far as i'm aware the amiga uses 32bit code & cycles it through the 16 bit CPU twice to get 32 bit. the MD is pure 16 bit code. like i said, someone would have to test it for real. :P

[@AmstradExin]

+robot ninja assassin You are aware that the 060 is opcode compatible to the 000? Only very little stuff does not work on the 060... And the opcodes are always 16 bit wide. Datawords are up to 32bits on both cpu's.

[@liquidextal]

AmstradExin Actually, upon further reading, the 68000 is not 100% software compatible with the 68010 & up (some instructions changed & a different exception stack frame)

[@DaveDoc1984]

Blimey the overclock does seem to make a fair bit of difference.... Do I or dont I do this to my Model 1.....?

[@deneb_tm]

So some games are sped up, others just have reduced slowdown and smoother framerates, and with some, it's... both? I don't quite understand how that works.

[@deneb_tm]

***** It seems like with some games here though, game and display logic seem to be linked together, but not entirely, because they run slightly faster than normal, but not nearly as fast as they should at their overclocked speed.

[@jacobleb420]

What I don't get is if it's so easy and inexpensive to do then why wasn't it just made this way from the factory? Is there a downside to it? Like a risk of overheating or frying some of the components?

[@jacobleb420]

***** You would think that the guy who made this video would have warned people that it might make your console unstable or cause it to malfunction.

[@raccoon681]

+Bruce777999 so basically the xbox red ring of death

[@TheTurnipKing]

+Docter Zaius The CPUs likely werent rated to operate at that frequency by the manufacturer when they were supplied to SEGA. In addition, SEGA would want to keep the CPU specced relatively low so that it could be cost reduced later from other suppliers on later production runs. And of course, once you have the console in homes, you dont want to be producing new versions of the console which are incompatible with existing software. In effect early runs of the hardware set the clockspeed for later models. Bear in mind, SEGA used a tonne of these chips in their arcade machines, often clocked faster, so they didn't just bodge the design. They certainly had a good reason for most design choices.

[@ECMIM]

+Docter Zaius Motorola would have sold them those chips clocked at higher speeds at a premium compared to the lower clocked chips which, in many cases, were probably 'throw aways' from runs of higher-clocked chips (for things like, say, SEGA arcade games that, as others have noted, used zippier 68Ks)--when you're trying to keep a machine as cheap as possible, you cut as many corners as is possible to get under a certain MSRP/R&D budget.

[@jessragan6714]

+TheTurnipKing Yes, you *don't* want to make people upgrade their hardware constantly. Yet Sega did just that with the Sega CD and 32X. (Yes, I'm still bitter.)

[@elshrapnel]

is it stable enough to solder a 13 mhz oscillator into your system rather than 10 mhz?

[@xXRenaxChanXx]

+El Thunder Or you could just do a quick google and find you don't need to change oscillators. Genesis already can run at 12mhz, you just need to find the right diagram and solder a few wires around to force it to boot in 12mhz mode.

[@elshrapnel]

I know the overclocking scheme. I just heard that if the additional oscillator is 13mhz then some games will not start at all or will start with glitches/bugs/crashes because of desynchronisation. Also many web resources say that 10mhz oscillator is slower, but more suitable. Is it?

[@renatao6330]

Anyone have a tutorial on how to do this?

[@waltersobchak7275]

Why leave comment section open if you are going to ignore every single question??

[@VintageTechRepairs]

Do It what's the worse that can happen ;)

[@ssestakhch]

Do be careful not to accidentally your hardware.

[@asdf_]

Do be careful not to accidentally your hardware. WHAT?

[@inputfunny]

We may never know what they were talking about...

[@CaptainUnreal]

Someone a verb

[@inputfunny]

CaptainUnreal I'll take "Eat" for $500 Alex!

[@KrysztoffDorion]

and, all your base are belong to us!

[@daniel070487]

whats the last shown game?

[@washaa]

Check the description - Ranger X

[@tenshiabse]

Comix zone please

[@ClevertonHeusner]

Looks like other machine.

[@joeygreathouse3029]

Wow. Sega really pushed the Mega Drive WAY too hard. Half of these games are literally unplayable and I would have taken them back to the store for a refund claiming bugs.

[@joeygreathouse3029]

***** I'm just saying there's 24 FPS and then there's 9 FPS lmao just tone a few things down and get it closer to that 24 mark or even just a steady 22

[@GGigabiteM]

The problem with the golf game is the level of detail was too high. Most "3D" games on the Genesis used ray tracing to generate the scene and DMA'd it into the VDP. The console had no frame buffer or any concept of 3D, everything was done in software. If they halved the vertical resolution and used pixel doubling to fill in the odd lines, it would have run much smoother. There were some amazing pseudo 3D games on the Genesis like Toy Story which used several creative tricks to maintain a respectable frame rate.

[@obvioustruth]

for me this is pointless.