Repairing and Testing the

[@VincentGroenewold]

Love to see some more old fashioned trash to treasure series again! Always was a bit the soul of the channel to me. :)

[@nomadic_shadow]

Its my favorite part of the channel. The history and the restorations are unbeatably awesome...

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

A friend and I are Tera Drive owners and are looking to set up a Discord or something to connect with the rest of y'all. We've got some pretty cool stuff in progress (MD video bypass to address the noise, 8.5MB mod, MegaCD adapter), and I've been updating CapsWiki as I've been repairing units. I'm not sure how to connect, but hopefully you see this and we can get something cooking :). Edit: The hard drive can be finnicky - if you ended up not getting it working, I would love to get in touch so we can try to get it dumped.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

25:00 lol, hey! 26:00 I currently am reverse engineering ATFM. Puzzle Construction uses it too, and it's a different version. The security unlock refers to the Sega TMSS (Trade Mark Security System). CRTG.SYS does the same thing, and it seems like ATFM and CRTG.SYS were developed by the same guy. CRTG.SYS has some REALLY interesting bits (I already RE'd a lot of it) - biggest is that a MD cartridge can expose a ROM or RAM disk to DOS (presumably, SRAM, so you can save to the cart from a DOS game).

[@RMCRetro]

Hey pop into discord.gg/rmcretro and we can chat thanks

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

@@RMCRetro will do when I'm done with my work day :)

[@voltare2amstereo]

See if you can clip a 386 overdrive chip to the 286? The 386sx 40?

[@XGreenThumb]

Discord is cool but the separation of knowledge is crazy IMO. How is a new Tera Driver user supposed to know that stuff he is looking for is located on that one Discord server? This criticism is not against you, nor any Discord user. Just want to point that it is hard to find informations these days, mostly due to everything moved to separate Discord servers.

[@stuartburrows8747]

My uncle had one of these when I was a kid. As he was an electronics whizz (he designed flight Sims for pilot training, the big ones that actually look and move like a plane) I had assumed it was something he built. He must have picked it up on his world travels. No idea where it is now but I'm reaching out to that side of the family

[@PyhisPahis]

Seeing the Sega branding on everything is such a lovely sight. A shame it never reached the rest of the world. Perhaps in an alternative universe we're all using Sega computers.. Thank you for sharing

[@lancegentle6430]

Adrian has done a full dive into the PicoMEM board. Well worth watching.

[@p_mouse8676]

This is a good example why it's always a good idea to just replace all caps while the board is out. But it's absolutely awesome the whole thing is working. Great job guys! 💪🏻👏🏻

[@plankslapper]

That wonderboy 3 tune is an absolute nostalgia banger!!

[@nazgulsenpai]

My god that's a beautiful piece of retro artwork. Black PCs of that era are almost nonexistent and when you see one, especially with that VCR player style chassis.... Gorgeous.

[@RetroJackal]

Beautiful system. Sleek and just gorgeous looking. Back of it looks like an old 80s VCR machine. Thank you for restoring it. I'm a massive fan of the SEGA Mega Drive.

[@deeiks12]

The retroswim demos are awesome. Also the idea of an rts using both sides...

[@timseguine2]

I never had anything like it, but I was always a fan of oddball hardware like this as a kid in the 90s

[@HappyCodingZX]

Well done Neil and co, a wonderful case of Terash to Terasure.

[@Txm_Dxr_Bxss]

Nobody was ever fired for buying an IBM. So if I was a CEO in the early 1990's this would be the first computer in my office.

[@amigaouk]

well you world be fire if your boss tell you to buy a apple computer

[@the_kombinator]

@@amigaouk Bro, there's nothing higher than a CEO. Judging by your spelling though, I'm not surprised at your post.

[@linuxjedivideo]

My director of engineering was fired for buying myself and a another lead engineer ThinkPads, but we worked at HP, so...

[@UltimatePerfection]

​@@the_kombinatorshareholders. Shareholders are CEO's bosses.

[@michaelallen1432]

"Why did you leave your last job" "You know jow they said no one was ever fored for buying an IBM" "Yea, ive heard that one" "I can tell you, at least one person was"

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

Nice to see my PicoMEM in a so cool PC ❤

[@Mike_Downey]

Gadgets like the PicoMEM are amazing. I don't have any retro PC devices but it's brilliant that people are producing things which help keep the old machines running.

[@heisenvader]

"Rise from your grave" 😂 takes me back 👍

[@Tannlore]

I always heard "wise fwom youw gwave" on my genesis.

[@brianm6337]

@Tannlore Elmer Fudd lived in it?

[@JohnnyWednesday]

You're a zombie too?!

[@pb77-c2w]

was great to meet you and holly finally at the cave saturday. Thank you both for making us feel welcome, Me and my partner had a brilliant time!. We'll be back again

[@ThunderdomeDoc]

I’m so impressed by all the troubleshooting wizardry. Thanks so much for taking the time to make the video.

[@di380]

This is a real gem from PC hybrid history. Imagine what you could have done with a system like this build PC games that could take advantage of the FM Yamaha synthesizer of the Megadrive and highly advanced graphics sprites and tile system of the Megadrive and use the powerful 286 processor along with the hard drive on that system and truly develop and test some amazing video games exclusive for this system. That would have been my dream machine but software support was desperately needed for it😮

[@johnnymuen4948]

RMC is the best THANKS for your content!

[@tigheklory]

I want to see more about the TeraDrive. I used to drool over it in EGM back in the day.

[@martinh4982]

Woo-hoo! Re-capping montage with Blade Runner-esque music!

[@Jelly2003]

This system is something that I used to drool over as a kid and can't wait to see you using it.

[@BrunoDPO]

What a great machine! I am thinking here that although this is a very rare machine, someone could "merge" the two parts (MD + PC) inside a FPGA Core, so everyone could enjoy and poke around with the possibilities of this masterpiece... Hope this does not take too long.

[@thehumbleone1983]

As a kid I remember seeing it for the first time and was amazed at it look so beautiful I love the style and the black colour just love it. Love that you refurbished and brought it to live again great work 👍

[@TheGunnarRoxen]

Great video! I enjoyed learning about such a cool mashup machine. It could've been amazing if they'd gone for a 386

[@cloakedalien]

Absolutely brilliant!

[@Charlesb88]

That Tetris -like game you see at 24:20 is very much like the Sega Megadrive/Genesis game Columns which also had a sequel called Mega Super Columns.

[@domramsey]

Such a cool system. I bet it is capable than much more than people ever realised. I do want to give my vote for saving mechanical hard drives where you can though. I think they are a major part of the whole experience. There's a danger that in 50 years time, the people tasked with preserving these systems will wonder why nobody cared about preserving the storage media and just discarded a big part of all these systems. I understand it's not always possible, but I do think it's worth putting a bit of effort into.

[@jamesbessant9290]

There is such a wealth of interesting retro tech out there.

[@chrisgeorgiou]

Great Job as always, great video as always. Very well done.

[@MotownBatman]

I Caught Wind of this Beautiful system way back in the 90s, Im not positive what Magazine I saw it in... PC or Gaming, but I begged my dad to help me figure out how to Put our Genesis into our Shoddy 386 tower, He was a Toolmaker, he could have help me made the Brackets & Cuts... He didnt want me Scriewng everything Up LOL

[@willrobinson7599]

Another excellent video that I'd been looking forward too Glad u got it all fixed and saved , so we xan carry on using ,playing for years to come

[@jeffbillings]

Manhole theme beep version lowkey slaps tho 🔥

[@StrikeValkyrie]

One of the best things you could do (and I hereby challenge your Australian friend to do this) is make a program that allows the Sega controller to be used on PC games either as an actual PC joystick or as a replacement for certain key presses. That shouldn't be too hard as he already showed a PC side program using the pad. I remember seeing this long ago and thinking it could be used to somehow program Sega Genesis games and test them. Of course now they have the Sega SDK and easy programming environments like BasiEgaXorz (my personal favorite) for making homebrew. I always wanted a TeraDrive. Great to see one resurrected!

[@RMCRetro]

This functionality does seem to exist in the PC setup screen I showed, but I'm assuming a DOS driver is needed to make it work. I'm still looking into that side of it.

[@RetroSwim]

@@RMCRetro The 286 makes this kind of approach difficult. PC games expect the joystick interface to reside on a specific IO port, and to behave a certain way, whereas reading the MD pad is a handful of sequential memory reads. On a 386 or higher, you could put the CPU in V86 mode and write a TSR that emulates the joystick interface. On the 286 we don't have that luxury. The controller mapping screen in the BIOS seems to be related to the reverse, using the PC keyboard to control MD software.

[@worldsend69]

That altered beast sound effect

[@EpicureMammon]

Kind of wild that 2 years after the release of the 486 and 2 years before the Pentium and they were slinging this with a 286. It's definitely one of the nicest-looking 286s I've ever seen, though :)

[@colincurrie9151]

Ohh, this looks lovely. I want one😍

[@StreborKram]

Great work!

[@ElShogoso]

Words can't describe how much I'd like one of these.

[@ShishakliAus]

Holly's magic? Holy magic? Raising electronics from the dead? She's a cleric!

[@Colin_Ames]

Great video, as always.

[@jacymark661]

i absolutely love this community

[@krushingbro6620]

i would have thought the terra drive would be a nice way to develop megadrive games given the integrated nature of the system.

[@Nukle0n]

The ISA bus is electrically identical in every slot, so it should be possible to have a card with two Picos on there, one for the PicoMEM and one for PicoGUS.

[@billybollockhead5628]

Redoing 60caps??!? Rather you than me.. I wouldnt have the patience.

[@Twenty_Six_Hundred]

You would if you owned this rare specimen

[@billybollockhead5628]

@@Twenty_Six_Hundred nope. I seriously wouldn’t. I’d get someone else to do it, or sell it. I have patience to change one or two, but not 60

[@MegaMasterX]

This is so insanely cool!!!

[@danthompsett2894]

what a cool looking machine and concept.

[@ebridgewater]

Upgrades have been done on the TeraDrive to swap out the 286 CPU for a 486DX.

[@shadows9001]

I would train my Amstrad mega pc for one of these amazing things!

[@BrianPost--ni6qs7yc4w]

When I was in the game industry I saw some cool machines from Japan. The Super Famicom which was a Super NES which came with a Floppy Drive. As well as the PC engine which was the size of a cdrom drive & with a back plane you coould connect a cdrom drive. The US called it a SuperGrafx & made it so much larger. That was because the yanks wouldn't have liked the size (bigger & heavier s better). Their costs of thje games was due to the cards, like the Super NES the more space required for your game. That's why later you could also get games on a cdrom. I can't remember if it also need a card though. And the final one which is similar to yours is an X68000. Keep up the good work showingh these forgotten machines that the younger generation would never hav seen

[@burgertim7878]

Are you talking about a cartridge dumping device with that SNES floppy? I think you mean the TurboGrafx-16, the US version of the PC Engine, the SuperGrafx wasn't released in the US.

[@BrianPost--ni6qs7yc4w]

@@burgertim7878 Sorry you are correct about the turboGrafx & from memroy it included extra weight inside because bigger & heavier is better. It wasn't used as a heatsink & it was just there as ballast

[@AltCutTV]

SEGA had no problem with the "just add another CPU" concept anyway. ;)

[@devinhill1718]

Lol at 17:43 - I love how Google translated the hiragana characters for "Ta" and "Chi", then completely went off the rails and started translating the characters into words. Though, apparently "su" does mean "vinegar", "ka" is mosquito, and "to" is "and". I didn't check the rest, but it seems to at least have translated the characters into the correct words.

[@yellowblanka6058]

It would be interesting if they could have somehow combined the greater onscreen colors of the VGA card (four times the Genesis) with the Genesis’ greater color palette and ability to handle sprites.

[@visker81]

there was a MSX / mega drive combo as well

[@negirno]

I've heard that these things were great Megadrive development kits, but I'm not sure about it. Considering that these weren't really that common, I'd wager that they're weren't really used for that. I wonder if it would be possible to write DOS games which make use of the Sega hardware. I also wonder if a ZX Spectrum or Amiga emulator could be written for it... maybe not because it lacks the special chips for those systems...

[@DigiTheInformer]

those sweet, sweet yellow hack wires on the motherboard @ 6:12 :)

[@alisharifian535]

I think developers in Sega had ISA boards of Sega Mega Drive prototypes around that they where using them in their 286 dos coputers to develope games and someone realized that it is a good idea to combine both in a computer and develope some games that utilize the three processors but the idea didn't really work.

[@TK199999]

Yeah the Cave is one accidental date setting away from crashing the internet, all the worlds computers and launching all the worlds nuclear weapons, how? Because he gave all that old tech Wi-Fi connectivity through add in cards. Hubris pure hubris!

[@RMCRetro]

Shall we play a game?

[@David-st1yt]

Such a cool system. Sony should make a PC with a PS5 built in

[@RetroTechRestoration]

MCA bus HDD? Ya, most of them are now dead. IBM just had to do their own thing with the PS line. :p

[@firstsurname9893]

Presumably the gamepad to keyboard option in the firmware is so you can play PC games on the MD pad.

[@Zombies8MDingo]

The power of a cup of tea. 😅

[@VaterOrlaag]

TeraDrive: 286 in 1991 MegaPC: 386 in 1993 What were those people thinking.

[@JeffBilkins]

It'd fun if consoles would've been available as expansion cards with common use as multimedia accelerator.

[@fendi-bull8167]

Imagine Picomem have NVMe slot. LOL

[@sonidojamon]

That SEGA branded IBM keyboard IS A FRIKIN' BEAUTY!!! What IBM keyboard model is it based on?

[@juanignacioaschura9437]

It's the *Sega HTR-2106* , a version of the Alps SM-101, it has Alps' implementation of Buckling Springs, and is encased in a Model M-like design. Deskthority Wiki has a page dedicated to this keyboard and the Buckling Spring patent granted to Alps.

[@sonidojamon]

@@juanignacioaschura9437 Thank you!!

[@arcademaster1]

It should be a necessary practice to replace EVERY electrolytic capacitor on old hardware, regardless if it looks good or not

[@CC-gq3kw]

Great video! Do you happen to have a list of all the mobo caps? I just had one Teradrive’s PSU rebuilt, it’s working fine, but it’s also showing the signs of failing mobo caps. So I’m thinking doing the same thing as you did, changing out the caps. Greatly appreciated if you can share the caps list!

[@Henderson101]

Amstrad also had a PC and Megadrive in one computer. The PC part ran dos and a windowing system that might have been GEM (I can’t remember) and the megadrive part ran regular UK megadrive games on the VGA monitor.

[@RMCRetro]

This makes an appearance in part 1 of the series 👍

[@0bikkuri0]

@17:35 Japanese keyboards have Hiragana printed on them, it is only phonetic sounds, definitely not what was translated.

[@now_its_dark]

Pretty interesting to see the handshake for opening the interface to the sound chip, I wonder how this works. Presumably there is some routine running on the MD side, to relay the instructions from the PC side to the YM chip?

[@jameslewis2635]

It might be worth while swapping out the leaky caps on the HDD and trying it again. In that way you could possibly backup any software and O/S image it might contain as I presume that such software is pretty rare these days.

[@garyhart6421]

I imagine CD ISOs are/will be supported --- Seems very similar to a Blue Scsi.

[@skwashua]

Love it! The hdd emulator that has more CPU power than the rest of the system. 😂

[@splatmanhooha4264]

2:21 what didn't feel better than any Amstrad item????? 🤪

[@RMCRetro]

A Sinclair item?

[@sanityormadness]

@@RMCRetro Well, Amstrad DID buy Sinclair...

[@splatmanhooha4264]

@@RMCRetro nope, Sinclair may have had faults but he was a true innovator, Amstrad was a company that tried to cash in on trends. The ZX and Spectrum series of 8-bits were genuine standout designs (not forgetting the "fun" of the wobbly ram pack for the ZX81). Most of Amstrad's consumer electronics were very cheaply built, the exception being the CPC series, which were not bad, but it will always be a byword for plasticy junk.

[@nitt3rz]

I love all the trash to treasure series. Is there any possibility to upgrade to a 386?

[@nickiebanchou]

jappanese keyboards have a phonetic alphabet on them, nothing to translate in the alphanumeric zone :P

[@keiiko]

On Japanese keyboard you can find mostly hiragana syllables, for example that shi し character. Translator translated the shi as a de ath correctly, but in Japanese they write it with one kanji character as some words are written with kanji and some with hiragana or katakana syllabic alphabet. Since you can write japanese with hiragana just fine, they used it as input method or use latin alphabet input. Windows for example has a input helper that suggest the right kanji or other glyph you want to write. If you want to write the de ath you can press the し button with hitagana input option or write S H I on latin alphabet input option and the helper suggest the right kanji glyph for it. 🙂👍

[@gamepad3173]

I've had this idea, years ago, for combining an NES (North America not Japan) in a PC case, I didn't get far though and ran into problems, for one the 72 pin Connector, the 12 volt power, RCA Video and audio or RF. I think now if I were to combine the 12 volt power of the NES into a relay switch or into the PC's ATX PSU, then pass through the RCA video and audio into VGA Via a PCI card that would work, though that means doing some work on the controller ports and the Power and reset buttons for the NES and where to position the Cartridge Slot.

[@OfficialSDFG]

Return to Zork is a game that runs on MADE. I wonder if that batch file could be used to unlock FM sound in RTZ on the unit?

[@GuigEspritDuSage]

I was surprised to see that there is some integration between the PC and the megadrive sides. Graphics acceleration was something lacking on PCs, so is it possible to use some of the VDP capabilities with the VGA chip, like drawing sprite, It would be awasome!

[@seanburke1064]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember ads on tv for the amstrad mega pc in the UK.

[@liamcinq]

Nod to Altered Beast 👏

[@SianaGearz]

You promise desoldering iron in the description but it's not there? By the look of it, it's the Yihua 929d? I have been thinking of getting ZD-211, a similar tool. It's not known to be durable but it's safe and extremely cheap.

[@RMCRetro]

Yes, sorry I forgot the link, here it is www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B099JWZYGM

[@SianaGearz]

@@RMCRetro Yeah the 929d is very overpriced in Europe for what it is.

[@bengineer_the]

I wonder if there is there an FPGA 286 implementation anywhere that could be overclocked? :)

[@Tim_3100]

A really cool odd system

[@gc4408]

I noticed it had the sega cd connection as well….. it should work …… there just wasn’t a cut out for it…..but it is there

[@LukeAkAscooterkid]

So cool!

[@klaushergesheimer8602]

If the two systems are integrated and the Mega Drive can read data from the PC, could it be possible that it was used internally as a development system for Mega Drive games?

[@the_kombinator]

I think if they put a 20 Mhz or even a Harris 25 Mhz Harris 286 CPU, it would have been a lot better.

[@purrator]

Looking at this now, also with the built-in graphical menu, that awful HDD... it kind of looks like they stuffed a megadrive into a PS/1 2011

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

PS/55 model 5510, which most closely looks like a PS/2 model 30-286

[@Sheriffhyperofficial]

I wonder if its possible to plug the teradrive to the pc engine monitor

[@omgitsbees]

what is the biggest size hard drive that this PC can support? :O are there any other hardware upgrades you can make to it to make it faster?

[@iainlee]

Well @retroswim seems like a nice guy and just got a follow.

[@rigues]

It would be nice to try a 386 upgrade card, the kind that slots over the 286 CPU (if it is soldered down).

[@cubeflinger]

Can you upgrade this? A 486 would make this perfect for me.

[@voltare2amstereo]

See if you can clip a 386 overdrive cpu to the existing cpu?

[@eddiehimself]

Those Japanese characters are (mostly) hiragana, which is a system of text that represents different syllables and so each character doesn't really have any meaning on its own.

[@ianstorey1521]

“Hours” - Days, weeks 😢

[@DrYak]

Noting that the PC side has an Intel 286 which *runs on a 16bits bus at 10Mhz*. Compare with what is inside a typical SEGA CD: a Motoroal 68k on *a 16bits bus, clocked also at 10Mhz* (a bit faster than the main 68k of the MegaDrive). I wonder if the choice of a 286/10 in the TeraDrive is also a practical choice, enabling SEGA to recycle some of the glue circuitry that normally allow the MD's and CD's 68k CPU to talk to each other? (As opposed to using a 386SX like lots of home AT clones of the era which ran much faster, e.g., at 20Mhz).