Is it worth region modding your PAL Sega Mega Drive? The 50/60hz difference Genesis Vs Megadrive

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you all for watching and a special thanks to Mark Fixes Stuff (kzbin.info) for his help on this one. Were you in a PAL region with NTSC envy back in the day? Did you have no idea what difference it made to your gaming? Do you find NTSC games too fast or PAL games too slow? Share your thoughts I'd love to hear them! Neil - RMC

[@Astfgl]

I grew up with PAL games but ever since I gradually learned about the differences and realised most games were made to be played in 60 Hz, I've done everything I could to play my retro games the way they were meant to be played. Fortunately the Mega Drive is one of the easiest consoles to region mod and a lot of games are region free, or only have easy to bypass region locks.

[@AcornElectron]

At the time it didn’t matter really. You played what you had.

[@bazza5699]

was the constant zoom in and out during your concluding remarks meant to be a subtle nod to the 50/60hz difference.. lol

[@mikeuk666]

maybe ask your mods to chill on discord

[@RMCRetro]

@@bazza5699 haha it was more to do with my dodgy camera settings on a new camera. Sorry about that. Normally I have two angles to cut between which makes it less jarring

[@radical_ans]

"I'm an expert" **Has hot glue hanging from his elbow in the next shot**

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I was lauging at that. Well done for noticing.

[@frankgile1996]

Was looking forever for that shot, and I finally found it!!! It's around the 9:15 mark...

[@MarkFixesStuff]

all over my arm

[@goldcd]

I did this many years ago, just cutting the traces and adding a toggle switch to the jumper. What it would also let you do is chance the language of the console - remember being blown away when my Streets of Rage cart magically became something called 'Bare Knuckle'

[@lucasn0tch]

Also, Castlevania: Bloodlines is Vampire Killer in Japan. And there are gameplay videos where the particular console it was recorded from has a Sound Modification, which basically amplifies and cleans the sound output of the console.

[@LFiers]

Wait does this actually change the title of the PAL cart to the Japanese versions name?

[@Astfgl]

That Dixons story sounds so familiar. Back when Final Fantasy VII had just come out and I was on the fence about whether to get it or not, I saw the local Dixons had the game running on a demo unit behind glass. I politely asked if I could try it out for a few minutes and they just gave me a flat "no". Well okay, thanks, guess I'll be taking my business elsewhere then. I'm glad I did buy the game in the end, but it was no thanks to Dixons.

[@captaincorleone7088]

I had also had a similar experience as a kid with Dixons and the "it's not an arcade" etc. statement from one of the dickhead sales assistants. I'm surprised that there wasn't endless stories about them being lamped by someone with a short fuse. Funnily enough I ended up working for Dixons as an adult and it was shite.

[@Syklonus]

Thank you for being English and saying "Megadrive".

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

😀😀😀😀💪💪👍

[@theengineer-dellconagher]

well i mean, it *is* a megadrive

[@dalzhok7234]

Do you mean European?? Only in America it's called... Errr... The other name :P

[@jordsfjords885]

Yeah, weird comment you have there. That us a mega drive they have. The Genesis is only in America. It's a region thing.

[@robert5235]

Genesis is a better name even Sega thought so they didn't like the name mega drive.

[@duncanward6226]

You guys went for an over-complicated mod I think. I did the basic 50/60Hz mod on my Megadrive, two wires, one switch, one track cut. As I have an early Model 1 with the EXT port there's a screw hole in the back where the Mega Modem would attach, and I got a tiny toggle switch that fit through that hole without any cutting. As others say, being able to switch at any time is useful for getting past region lockouts - Sonic Spinball is nicer at 60Hz but my PAL copy has to be started at 50.

[@BrendonGreenNZL]

Exactly this. The entire point of being able to change region without resetting the console is to defeat region locking.

[@GodKitty677]

@@BrendonGreenNZL You really need a DFO (dual frequency oscillator). That way you get a great picture in both 50/60Hz with composite. Many of the effects for the mega drive only worked in composite or RF.

[@zedeighty]

I still have my Model 1. It cost £40 from the local market in the mid 90's (I was late to the party). Wouldn't dream of modding it for fear of breaking it and if I want to play full speed, emulation is good enough for me. Besides, the slow PAL speed makes me "better" at the games!

[@gamerdude0]

This is cool, I've never attempted the switchless mod myself, always used two single pole double throw switches to control region and herz.

[@PikaStu666]

Yeah this mod looks like too much hassle, I’ll stick to using the “traditional” method.

[@DioBrando-qr6ye]

@@PikaStu666 I don't want to ruin the console's shell, so I prefer to go through a bit of a hassle.

[@PikaStu666]

@@DioBrando-qr6ye yeah that’s fair enough dude. I appreciate keeping it looking original 👍

[@The_Vanished]

I appreciate your low key ad spots, actually makes me want to get something from them

[@JamesSmith-rf8wo]

-mark come over to talk Sega stuff! -oh yes just let put my Nintendo shirt on!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Good spot. It was a bit of a cheeky wardrobe day. Next time... The Cats of Dr Who T Shirt!

[@duolon7530]

It's nice to see mark collab so seamlessly with Neil doing these fun mods and sharing stories of a time I wish I was born in. Just great stuffff

[@pedrofelck]

Here in Brazil we had the best of both worlds with our PAL-M MegaDrive because it has PAL superior colour reproduction with 60 Hz.

[@electrocity2000]

Yup, and here in the UK, I imported a Tectoy Megadrive 3 from your country. My Sony Trinitron TV accepts PAL-M over composite :-)

[@pedrofelck]

@@electrocity2000 ah yes, our MegaDrive 3 is the equivalent to the global MegaDrive 2, TecToy released a "MegaDrive II" here that was just a marketing name, it was the same as the first one but bundled with Sonic and 2 controllers (maybe that's why they named it "II" lol). Did your TV worked with 60Hz?

[@ohareport]

i have a no-cut 50/60hz mod for a model 1-bear with me here: a small throw switch will fit perfectly in the space on the front of the console normally occupied by the stereo output jack. with the stereo module turned inside towards the back of the case, you can also run the audio jack from a rgc cable past the rf jack on the rear, which also acts as a strain relief.

[@Astfgl]

That's a pretty clever solution. I didn't enjoy cutting into my MD's case when I installed my region mod, but I did what had to be done. I never thought of repurposing the headphone jack for a region switch and re-routing the headphone jack through the inside of the case.

[@AlfredRusselWallace]

I'm pretty excited for the cave being the nexus of a British retro gaming KZbinr multiverse

[@RMCRetro]

When the lockdowns end I hope it can be something like that. Fingers crossed. For now I can only work within my bubble with Mark

[@2j4ez]

I’ve done the same with my Sega master system and also fitted a fm board and wonder boy becomes super wonder boy . About 40 games support fm sound . Many uk releases still have fm sound option even though we didn’t get fm sound board here in the uk

[@linoxyard]

Amazing mod! With mine I went the cheap way and installed a 3 position double throw switch on the back, removing the RF modulator. I also installed a dual main oscillator solution, so I can get a 100% correct NTSC and PAL output (even composite ntsc works!)

[@electrocity2000]

I have a Tectoy Megadrive 3 which is a Sega licensed Megadrive for Brazil. It output the PAL-M standard as that's what was used in Brazil. So you basically get NTSC framerates and resolution but with PAL colour over composite. Surprisingly, my Sony Trinitron CRT handles the PAL-M standard!

[@runcmd8851]

I really need to get this for my Mega Drive which I still own today from new.. love it...

[@mspeter97]

I think I know why some games had wrong music or graphics glitches when set to 60Hz. See, some Megadrive games were actually optimized for PAL, with timings and code changed for the slower console.

[@karehaqt]

You'll find them listed here: segaretro.org/Mega_Drive_region_coding#Partially-optimised_games

[@morganlietar3682]

There's a few things we can talk about this mod. First, PAL MDs don't use the same oscialator as the NTSC ones, so if this region switch work mostly work with CRT, you will end with some ever slight frameskip issue when upscaling it, with one frame dropping every X frames. So, a good region switch mod should also try fix that, especially nowadays with device like the OSSC becoming popular. It's not a big issue but i think it's worth to point out. Also, the issue you had with the mod would be problematic for some games, as they might have region protection built in, and to bypass it, you have to trick the game by switching on to 50hz then swap to 60hz after the copy protection screen. With the specific issue you ran into, it would be a problem. Finally, i wouldn't say that cutting plastic, changing part and cutting trace is non invasive, but that's just me being picky. It's cool to see MD being able to play all the games and getting some love. Glad to see the cave back, good luck with all the work left !

[@BlockABoots]

Which region mod would you recommend that eliminates the frame skip??

[@DioBrando-qr6ye]

But if you put a NTSC oscillator inside the MD wouldn't it then be the wrong one for PAL games?

[@morganlietar3682]

@@BlockABoots Check for "Dual Frequency oscillator" (or DFO), there's a few project online about this. There's also a new mod called "Megaswitch" with on screen display, i can't vouch for it but it looks really cool, you might want to dig this too !

[@morganlietar3682]

@@DioBrando-qr6ye Exactly, that's why some mod comes with two oscillators to solve that issue

[@IDPhotoMan]

Love all of your videos. I had to drop quite a few of my Patreon's due to work, but yours is one that'll always stay - thanks again

[@RMCRetro]

I appreciate that so much. Thank you!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

I hope work Improves Conrad. I know that problem all too well unfortunately.

[@IDPhotoMan]

@@MarkFixesStuff It should get better, thank you. These streams are truly an "escape" from reality at times lol.

[@IDPhotoMan]

@@MarkFixesStuff p.s. - you put out some great stuff as well

[@jantestowy123]

Nobody does guest appearances as smooth as Niel!

[@RMCRetro]

😅

[@Zebpro]

You say non destructive mod but cuttng trace is destructive. Anyway, great video as always, thanks RMC! :-)

[@BastetFurry]

The only thing where we missed out where the releases. Sometimes i thought that for example Nintendo must have hated Europe and Germany in particular with all the cool RPGs and action adventures we did not get. At least at the end of the Super Nintendos timeline we got one middle finger towards the US, we got a localized(!) version of Terranigma whereas the US folks got nothing, even if it was a Moyse-Job, meaning done by Claude M. Moyse, one of the more controversial German localisators. I only need to remind you of the Lindenstraße joke in Secret of Mana. But Terranigma being only released over here outside of Japan was a late but sweet revenge on all the Final Fantasies and Chono Trigger and whatnot we missed out on.

[@RICHL74]

I need a ‘high definition graphics stereo sound’ model Megadrive in that condition.

[@wodmarach]

I actually have one of these I modded years ago with the old dual toggle technique... but at this point to get an OSSC i'd have to sell the MD to raise the funds :P

[@RobGMun]

Good episode as always. Just one point i'd like to mention. The sound is noticeably different in this video, I don't know if it's because you're in a much bigger space now but there is noticeable reverb and echo in the sound which makes it sound like you're using different, less studio class mics.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

You got it right first go. It's the bigger space in the new cave, and it's something that Neil is actively addressing right now. It's a work in progress as always!

[@TransCanadaPhil]

The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis was a huge hit here in Canada too. I was 13 when I got mine back in 1991. Like the US, it was called Genesis here in Canada instead of Mega Drive. It launched at the same time in Canada as the US (Autumn 1989). All our TVs here in Canada are always 60Hz only (although in recent years I've noticed some TVs, like my locally bought Sony bedroom LCD, can accept 50Hz signals from sources like AppleTV, but that's VERY uncommon in Canada). The VAST majority of TVs sold in Canada will not accept 50Hz signals at all. My impression at the time was that the SNES and Genesis were pretty neck-and-neck in Canada as far as popularity. I think the SNES perhaps appealed more to the outer suburban/middle-class area kids more while the Genesis did better in urban inner-city/working class neighbourhoods a bit better than the SNES; but all around both were pretty equally popular everywhere in Canada back in those days. You could rent games for either system at nearly every video store that existed on every city block back then. Both the Genesis and SNES were pretty much tied for the top gaming platform in Canada circa 1990-1995, with everything else a distant 3rd, 4th, or worse place (ie. Amiga, TurboGrafx-16, PC, 3DO, Jaguar, etc). Although, unlike the U.S., the Amiga was slightly more successful here and reasonably known (it had an audience).

[@Mickeyjuice]

When I moved to Canada about 7 years back, I brought my region modded Aussie (50Hz) MegaDrive MKII with me thinking the the TVs here in Canada would accept 50Hz PAL signal (most Aussie TVs accept both signals). Alas, they didn't, so I had to further mod my MD by adding a 3.57Mhz (NTSC color-burst frequency) Crystal Oscillator. Kinda got there in the end, but not all games ran smoothly. I thought of buying a Genesis locally, but the prices of original hardware was already on the increase.

[@TransCanadaPhil]

@@Mickeyjuice of the 3 TVs in my house (all bought in Canada), only one of them successfully accepts 50Hz signals, the Sony one. It's an undocumented feature though, but VERY useful when I want to watch UK and Aussie sports (like AFL) on my AppleTV, as it WILL allow me to switch to true 50Hz mode for smooth video playback streaming. So yes it's very uncommon, but at least some Sony TV's sold in Canada seem to work at 50Hz mode, but you can only figure it out by trial and error. I'm a bit of an oddity as most Canadians have no clue about the 50/60Hz issue.

[@razorsz195]

Woolworths...miss that shop so much

[@dj_paultuk7052]

The MegaDrive was my fav machine of the time and i had one as well. F22 Interceptor was THE game !.

[@RMCRetro]

Funnily enough F22 is one of the few carts I have! I need more MD games

[@WWammyy]

I have been testing some games out on the PS2 50hz / 60hz and Burnout 2 came up it seems to be properly converted the graphics look better than 60hz due to the difference in resolution 525i vs 480i It makes a big difference to the picture quality. I didn't notice much difference in the speed in that game so I am guessing it was ported correctly but the visual difference i striking it really does look better in 50hz mode. I tested on a CRT

[@paulomanuelsousa]

I did a similar mod for about 5 or 6 years ago on a Megadrive model II and not only it changes from 50 to 60hz also made a region mod too so i could enjoy my everdrive with games from diferent regions. Simply transforming my megadrive in a US, JP or EU whenever i feel like it... Also did the same on a Master System II. Really an easy mod vastly documented through the internet.

[@LFiers]

So it's 2 seperate switches then? 🤔

[@SpaceAce114]

For some pal games you do want to switch frequency whilst its switched on as some games will check for 50hz during bootup, if its on 60hz you get the “this game can only be played on pal and secam mega drive systems” so you basically boot in 50hz and then change to 60hz when you reach the title screen

[@lemagreengreen]

I didn't have a Mega Drive, I played my friends a lot though and honestly we just didn't know about the 50/60Hz thing. We had no point of comparison either, it's not like we'd seen the NTSC games running a little faster.

[@misterkite]

Your discussion at the beginning reminded me, when I was 15 I got my first job. Due to some synchronicity, the week I got my first paycheck was also the week the Sega CD came out... so the Sega CD was the first thing I ever bought with my own money.

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

Sms is even better for a region mod as every single sms game is actually NTSC without region lock and soldering a single wire converts your console into PAL60Hz (mega drive doesn't support PAL60 only NTSC). Actually SMS2 would make a great project as you can drop in RGB AMP and add RGB output making the picture crystal clear - without RGB AMP would still work fine but still with it the picture quality is much better.

[@brianh2771]

I too was impressed with the Genesis in 1989. It became a major source of motivation for my upgrade to an accelerated Amiga.

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

There is quite a bit of reverb/echo on the mics? I had to keep adjusting the volume as it gets louder and quieter.

[@namakudamono]

Yeah, I guess Neil is still adjusting to the new cave. I don’t believe they’re wearing lavier mics, so I guess the audio is picked up by a couple of mics out of shot.

[@ericmackrodt9441]

This is such great mod, coming from a PAL-M region (Brazil), I'm used to 60Hz (PAL-M is similar to NTSC). I started collecting after I moved to Australia and the games feel so sluggish in 50hz. I feel like I'd import NTSC versions for the games that don't work as well.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

NTSC would only matter over rf. What you want is RGB or Composit 60hz. NTSC has worse colour rendering. (Never Twice the Same Coulour)

[@jam6000]

"Lucky to be alive in such a time" is the definitive understanding of life in a post WWII technologically advancing Britain 👍

[@edtheluck]

I have a real bastardised version as mine is a Japanese model w/ the huge ‘16 BIT’ lettering and purple accent on the bezel but had been botched to 50hz at some point in its life apparently done to ship to places like Korea at the time. Since I’ve owned it I’ve had to un-botch the botch returning it to 60hz but it’s permanently set to Japanese region though so this mod looks like it would be a great all round solution.

[@goldcd]

I think I had similar - a "Hong Kong" model I think it was described as. Yep - this segaretro.org/File:MD1_HK_Box_Front.jpg *feels all nostalgic* Was english-Pal (and didn't look botched inside), although looking back I'm not quite sure why I thought it was better than the UK one.. cosmetics look better.. didn't have to cut the tabs to fit import carts in.. don't think there was any other difference.

[@_sabot]

"We actually took the bus into the nearest big town, which was Hounslow, which many of you may know" He totally forgot, that the cave is watched all around the globe 😀 For all international viewers, who never heard of Hounslow... I looked it up, it's a suburban town in West London.

[@andocobo]

I don’t think he forgot, he just knows that many viewers are in the UK and will know Hounslow

[@BADC0FFEE]

I have a modded megadrive and yes, it's totally worth it, only way to really fully use an everdrive too

[@LFiers]

Which exact mod did you do? I have an Mega Everdrive Pro

[@ahuman9864]

During the 90s, Computer exchange in Harrow was a church for me.

[@Larry]

I bought a modded Japanese Mega Drive back in 1990, a language mod, but the weirdest thing is it would change the resolution and go faster (albeit in black and white) if you held the reset button down. Always wondered what was going on there. :S Also got it from St. Albans, so not too far from Hounslow :P

[@martinevans1206]

I bought a Japanese Mega Drive that year too, from a mail order company advertising in Computer and Video Games magazine. It was kind of region-free as it had the plastic bit taken out so any size cartridge would fit!

[@vidsandvids247]

I acquired a JP Megadrive (Purple band without the R by the sega logo) recently from a car boot sale without a power supply does anyone know what power solution is the best to use in the UK?

[@afriend9428]

@@vidsandvids247 *10 volts 1000 amp adaptor works on Super Nintendo too* 💡

[@edy1361]

The first two things i did when i got my more recent model 1 Megadrive is a switched 50/60hrtz mod and cut the two tracers on the board to get rid of the jail bars which are on many early model 1's. Both mods are essential imo.

[@KenzGamesCollection]

Same here in Australia we were a 50hz region too, I had no idea back this back in the day till I found a grey import store in my home town. I got the mod done and never looked back

[@atomiswave1971]

I imported straight away as my friends showed me the difference. I never thought I'd be watching videos on this 30 years later.

[@RetroSegaDev]

Reading a few confused comments :) 50/60hz is all about screen refresh and DMA bandwidth (the amount of graphics/data we can shift everytime the screen is drawn). The time the screen spends being actively drawn is the time when graphics data can be sent at high speed to the VDP (visual display processor). PAL has a higher resolution and as a result takes longer to fill the screen. On the upside this allows more graphics data to be sent to the VDP than on NTSC. On the flip side NTSC has a lower resolution making it faster to fill the screen but it can only send a small amount of graphics data to the VDP. This lower resolution is why NTSC can do a higher FPS (unless the game is PAL optimised to even things up). The end results vary between games depending on whether they were PAL optimised or simply shipped over to PAL regions with minor changes to get them working.

[@byronlaw6491]

The Saturn had a load of PAL optimised games that won’t work at 60hz. Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter 2 run at full speed and screen. It’s only a few first party titles that weren’t optimised.

[@naviamiga]

Just got this mod. Very useful.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

1:27 Very small world, I grew up in Hanwell, stones throw away from Hounslow, well just under 6 miles away (moved away to the coast in 2004).

[@TheKayliedGamerChannel-YouTube]

Definitely worthwhile to add a 50/60hz mod to the PAL MD.... Luckily I was a grey import MD owner in 1989 ...and the language /region mod is also great too. 👍 Imo the Amiga didn't hold a candle to MD for quality games...

[@Th3OmegaPoint]

Definitely a worthwhile mod for a PAL console. I never had a Mega Drive as a kid, I was a SNES owner, but I did buy a Sega Nomad recently - now that's a great system.

[@CanuckGod]

Never had the Genesis growing up in Canada, also had the SNES as a teenager. Kinda sucks to have had slowdowns for the PAL people...

[@segajcharrua]

Actually there are games that can only switch properly from 50hz to 60hz in mid game. For example streets of rage 2. You need to boot 1st in 50hz when the intro starts, you switch to 60hz. The screen will roll but if you press start to the menu, the game will play perfectly in 60hz.

[@NanoCresta1982]

In the 90s here in Argentina the mega drives were clones and in the pal-n standard, we also had the experience of 50hz, but personally I prefer to play at 60hz

[@SianaGearz]

Mhm is the megadrive cloneable at all? The jungle/VPU chip is pretty big and complex, and is Yamaha proprietary developed for SEGA, and it got more complex as revisions went on, by successively absorbing pretty much the rest of the console, and it developed some quality compromises with time. Or was it genuine MK3, via licensee like Tectoy? That's a Brazilian company though.

[@hi_tech_reptiles]

Glad we got 60hz over here, tho you guys got better picture quality lol. Motion resolution vs ... Not-motion resolution haha

[@reneefrison1254]

That case for the Saga Is the exact style of case that we used to use here in America or at least in my area when you would rent a system in the 80s and 90s you would go to your local movie rental place then you could rent the game system and they would come in cases exactly like that

[@Voyager_2]

If you switch your pal megadrive to 60Hz you get a black and white image on composite. Only RGB wil work then. There is a mod on mmmonkey's webside that wil fix this problem.

[@ButcherGrindslam]

PAL is much closer to original aspect ratio in 320px wide games. NTSC is stretched vertically. Just look at the circles in both modes. However, NTSC stretching compensates for distortion in 256x224 titles.

[@sketchy0078]

Great collaboration guys. Loved the content and would love to see you impressions of the SNES. I remember picking up a Japanese super famicom a few years back and the difference between the fluidity and screen size was pronounce on certain games. Fzero was the main one i remember but also yoshi’s island. That game became so much harder.

[@Ryuujin1024]

The Dixon's story reminded me of some of my own happy memories. So back when I was younger my mum used to work in Comet. Being a single parent on days off or sick days from school, I used to just hang around in the store, watch the big TVs. They had kiosk demo units of a SNES and a mega drive etc. I remember I must have asked my mum's friend who works there if I could play another game, 'sure' she replied. Taking me around back to the big locked drawer that held all the games in, these would then go back into the display cases when people bought them. Asking which one I wanted to play? I can't remember what game I chose, but you can imagine how incredible that was to a techy, gaming kid of the day. I still remember that sight vividly to this day. So basically I used to just play with the games in the store, demoing them to customers. I really wish I thought to pretend to be ill more often, but I was too nice.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

I missed this one 😫 the Mega Drive is looking lovely! I don't fancy modding my Mega Drive and do enjoy 50hz and 60hz but I have Mega Sg for that.

[@lucasn0tch]

The Mega Drive launched at an interesting time in Japan's video game market. Sega was up against two other companies: NEC, and Nintendo. NEC launched the PC Engine (known in the US as the TurboGrafx-16), which has been featured in the Netflix anime Hi Score Girl multiple times. Nintendo, despite only having the 8-bit Famicom at the time, was able to stay relevant despite the 16-bit console launch period thanks to Super Mario Bros. 3, the GOAT (greatest of all time) of 8-bit games. Even though Eastern Japan's power grid is 100V 50 Hz (Tokyo, Sendai, Sapporo) and Western Japan's power grid is 100 V 60 Hz (Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Okinawa), Japan decided to use a modified version of NTSC called NTSC-J. As a result, the Japanese Mega Drive ran at 60 Hz despite the Eastern prefectures using a 50 Hz grid.

[@ianhughes5090]

Fab Mod Neil/Mark. But me being purist I like the Sega Mega Drive as is. I had one back in the day and what got my to sell my Amiga 500 was Afterburner. When I got it home plugged it into the TV I was blown away from the Hi-res graphics and sound which is almost identical to the Arcade Version I have to say the Mega Drive was the must-have Arcade Machine for the home with the Motorola 68000 CPU and the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip made this the best game machine IMO. Plus it was easy to ( well I say easy ) for developers to write code for the Mega Drive as it uses a cut-down version of the Sega's System 16 arcade board the only downside was the cost of cartridges from £40+ and most of the time you got an almost perfect conversion of the Arcade Game but hey at least the cartridges were not as much as the Neo Geo cartridges.

[@Rip-Van-Tinkle]

Love it when you two team up! Great video guys 👍 If you ever fancy having a bash at a 3DO, I have one here with a new RGB mod fitted that I can't figure out.... I think it needs an "expert" 😁

[@Jef_Vermassen]

Nice to see Mark again! It worked so no MarkBrixesstuff for now! :> Like you said though, do I feel like I missed out: not really. I do play 60hz when emulated but back then I didn't even know there was a difference.

[@TheRestartPoint]

Yes it's totally worth doing, and yes luckily it's one of the easiest simplest soldering jobs there is. You can also install a 10MHz clock crystal in there for reduced slowdown in some games! The annoying thing about the Mega Drive is the 68000 CPU is perfectly capable of running at 10MHz but Sega underclocked it.

[@Yukatoshi]

You can cut a trace and enable 60Hz lol.

[@TheRestartPoint]

@@Yukatoshi Yeah and on the Master System too. But you are stuck permanently on 60Hz then, unless you solder a physical switch on.

[@Yukatoshi]

@@TheRestartPoint Yup.

[@ulysses2162]

Recently just had a spare Mega Drive II modded with a 10MHz switch, a 50/60Hz switch, CPU halt button, and a red/blue LED (Red for NTSC 60Hz, and blue for PAL 50Hz).

[@Yukatoshi]

@@ulysses2162 Think my modded MD is 12Mhz, not sure.

[@haydengittins2836]

I'd say it's very much worth doing. The extra screen real estate is nice, but the increased speed is awesome. Word of warning though due to the crystals used in PAL machines you do not get true NTSC speed of 59.91 HZ. Modded PAL MD's run at 59.36HZ when set to NTSC. It doesn't sound like much but can cause stuttering and synch problems when using a device such as the OSSC or even some modern TV's as this is outside optimal settings. Some devices just don't recognise it. Older CRT's have no such problem though. One way round this is to get hold of an Asian PAL system with a HA serial number on the bottom. These appear to be true Japanese machines with cut traces to make them run at PAL speeds. When you mod these they get back their full true NTSC speeds...... luckily this is exactly the case with my early import before the MD was out in the UK , and this is still my main used machine :)

[@Astfgl]

Can confirm that modding a PAL console to run at 60 Hz with the original oscillator can cause some issues. It's not anything major, 99.9% of the games will run fine and depending on your setup you will probably never know, but some upscalers and TV's don't like it when the signals from a console are out of spec like that.

[@flibblesan]

Or just buy a 53.693175MHz crystal oscillator off ebay and swap it with the existing one. No problems with OSSC, modern TV etc then.

[@haydengittins2836]

@@flibblesan True, though It's more work. I prefer the PAL Asian route anyway because the Japanese Megadrive looks much nicer IMO :)

[@flibblesan]

@@haydengittins2836 Agreed. I bought an Asian Mega Drive very cheaply, swapped the oscillator and did the switch mod. Absolutely perfect :D

[@haydengittins2836]

@@flibblesan Nice, how easy is it to swap out? I've a spare Asian PAL megadrive so might think about modding that. If you can find the Asian PAL machines with a HA serial number they must have the NTSC oscillator in as they run faster than a normal PAL machine and at full NTSC speed when modded. My original MD is one of these, but I also lucked out and picked up a couple of 'spares and repairs' very cheap a couple of years back that only ended up needing a clean :)

[@michaeldemers2716]

I got the HD Retroad 2020 Version 2 Mega Drive Clone and it has 98% compatibility. It doesn't play the MD Everdrive Pro but plays the China Clone and the power base mini works with the Master System Everdrive Clone from China. I think the audio could have been a little better but it's a gem.

[@pixelblut4173]

I modded my Sega Mega Drive 1 switchless with sebs code and I'm really happy I did. I started to import games from US and Japan and got a couple in my collection.

[@giuseppelavecchia775]

Video molto bello,mi piace che hai messo un panno sotto la console così non si graffia,hai molto rispetto per le console,hai tutto il mio rispetto.grande,ciao.

[@AcornElectron]

Answer is.... depends on preference 🤣🤣🤣 My little sister had one, I had Amiga at that time. It was fun though! Rocket Knight, Toejam & Earl, Castle of Illusion, Sonic, Aladdin all still playable and fun today imo.

[@solitairepilot]

Best time of the week, another RMC video

[@jason_a_smith_gb]

Another Retro Mark Cave...

[@solitairepilot]

@@jason_a_smith_gb I meant Rum Margarita Cocktail

[@Voidsworn]

From what I understand, the 50hz pal system allows the CPU to be able to process some more stuff in-between refreshes, which was cool for demo scene. Could a game be written using our NTSC resolution but PAL 50hz, giving the CPU even some more time for some other stuff?

[@TheUAoB]

I think you're confused. PAL and NTSC are colour encoding systems. 50Hz/60Hz is the vertical refresh rate resulting from the mode timing geometry from the difference in the number of lines, 525 (System-M) vs 625. Confusion stems from NTSC regions being 60Hz and PAL being nearly always 50Hz, but not in Brazil where they use(d) PAL-M which uses the System-M subcarrier frequency and screen geometry to carry the colour information. PAL-60, which is/was supported on many European TVs, but not an official standard uses the System-M screen geometry with the standard PAL subcarrier frequency and PAL colour encoding, which is what I suspect is used with this mod.

[@electrocity2000]

@@TheUAoB I think all this mod does is output the System-M screen geometry, but a TV connected via composite will not be in colour. Would need to either use RGB output, or modify the console further to output real NTSC colour via composite, which I know people have done by changing the oscillator frequency.

[@Dr.D00p]

During the Mega Drive/Snes era, I was an Amiga 500+ owner, so the vast majority of games came from the European PAL region and so were coded natively for 50Hz, which meant I had no idea of the 60Hz/Full Screen difference. Turrican on the Amiga @ 60Hz, via emulation is just wrong! It was only with the arrival of the PS1, Saturn & N64 era, by which time I had ditched the Amiga, that I really became aware of the shocking state of PAL releases on consoles but I was in a minority of one when telling my friends about what they were putting up with by playing PAL hardware and releases. None of them really cared enough to pay the extra for the 'full fat' experience.

[@NozomuYume]

Yeah PAL Megadrive was the revenge for all us NTSC C64/Amiga users who had to deal with games coded for PAL, where if they worked at all they ran too fast and the bottom of the screen got cut off.

[@cheaterman49]

Somehow took a while for me to watch but I loved this video :-) the back and forth around 9:10 with the catchy funky music is really cool!!! :-)

[@googleboughtmee]

Our local uk import store used to fit switches to Mega Drives so we could run Japanese games. Some games had a security check on bootup to see if they were running in 60hz, so you'd switch to 60 (which our tv's couldn't display properly unless you were rich and had one with a scart socket) then flick the power on, wait until the sega logo had gone then flick back to 50 so you could play it. Eventualy got a 15khz monitor so could play in 60 too.

[@VaterOrlaag]

7:44 Are the gummy bears necessary for the mod? I'm afraid I have none in my workshop.

[@grantm902]

After installing a 10MHz crystal in my Mega Drive and doing the region mod, I boxed it back up to discover there's a fix for PAL screen size at 60Hz, which involved another XTAL. Couldn't be arsed at that point. Works nicely.

[@8bitsinthebasement]

Excellent video lads, looking forward to the Saturn one ;)

[@craigdavidson5613]

Interesting case! I happened to find an original Sega Mega Drive at a local op shop, which came in a nifty Nuby carrying case. Pretty sturdy. And the good people there gave it to me for $5AU. I even had it modded for a 50-60hz mod thanks to an electronics specialist here.

[@Jimfowler82]

Always enjoy your content mr rmc, good for times like these! Keep going my man

[@abhitron]

Wait, so one region's version of a Mega Drive/Genesis game also has the data of the other regions' versions? Interesting, but wouldn't they have more space available to use if they only had the data needed for that region? Sorry if that seems like a silly question, I understand that the additional data is not that large anyway.

[@thehumbleone1983]

Great video i love the Sega mega drive 👍

[@cadams6702]

Great video but I just couldn't focus on what was going on with the Falcon 4.0 box in the background..... It was calling to me.

[@apoclaydon]

I really don't remember my MegaDrive or SNES not using the full screen but that might be because it was the norm and just didn't notice but always thought they where full screen

[@Yukatoshi]

Absolutely!!

[@Anaerin]

You missed the big one: Sonic 1! Also, the games are operating at the same vertical resolution, but NTSC/PAL60 is 525 likes, whereas regular PAL is 625 lines, so NTSC is "stretched" compared to PAL (or lower res, depending on how you look at it).

[@TSAlpha2933]

The one kid in my neighborhood with the Sega Genesis was Jeph Howard 😂

[@Retro_Royal]

I imported one before it launched in the EU, from japan, those Magazine reviews were to good. When the PAL Version arrived 90% of my friends cuttet the trace on the pcb and where done with it, no soldering required.

[@apemoon1731]

I had a Japanese import too. The TV out cable was hardwired internally

[@meetoo594]

I had an imported one just after it launched in Japan. Cost about £500 iirc. When it was officially launched in the uk I had to remove the cartridge lock mechanism to get the (far worse looking and feeling) uk carts to fit. Also fitted 2 switches, 1 for 50/60hz and one for region. I used it with a Commodore 1084s monitor so could just vertically stretch PAL games that acted strange in 60hz mode. I recall the Amiga 500 could also be flicked into 60hz mode by using a utility called `relokick` and loading an NTSC kickstart image on boot. Later Amigas had the function built into the bios.

[@Retro_Royal]

@@meetoo594 My secondary MD 1 PAL also has the 2 classic switches, so simple but effective mod.

[@noodles4773]

so mark does all the work and neil reaps the rewards by playing the games, lol i love it.

[@Yolo_Swaggins]

i 50/60 modded my Saturn and got a modified action replay that can be used to play backups and any region.

[@MikeHallNZ86]

I have a region modded PAL Mega Drive 2 and while it's great to have games display fullscreen at 60Hz, the cpu is still clocked lower so the timing is still around 1% slower than a NTSC console, which isn't noticeable in the vast majority of games, but caused audio issues in games with FMVs

[@apollosungod2819]

RMC The Cave I feel you guys completely missed using a pair of PC Speakers to use the STEREO sound capability of the Sega MegaDrive... I can't tell if it's in stereo given the television you guys seem to be using and the way it looks like you have the television connected... yet remember that the stereo sound is a key factor...

[@16-bitmegapowered2]

When I realised how bad 50hz was I went and brought either Japanese or American versions of all my systems.

[@Mageman17]

Any difficulties with power? Won't you need transformers for them?

[@ulysses2162]

@@Mageman17 You need a step down converter to convert 220/240v to 110v.

[@16-bitmegapowered2]

The nice thing about older sega system (master system, megadrive/genesis model 1 only, game gear, mkiii) is that they are all powered by the same power brick and connecter. I use my official pal model 1 psu to power my North American model 1 genesis. A pal model 2 power will work with a north amaerican model 2 genesis. I should also point out using a pal psu does not affect the speed of the a North American system cause in the case of the mega drive the 50/60hz is affected by the crystal and not the psu.

[@afriend9428]

@@Mageman17 *TRANSFORMERS are the best toys in the world*

[@LFiers]

Yeah seems this is a much better solution. Just easier. That's what I've been doing.

[@JLMtime]

you guys had 50hz instead 60hz BUT you also had SCART RGB which I would have must rather had than composite

[@lucasn0tch]

13:49 The reason behind this is because the Japanese and European versions of Bare Knuckle II/Streets of Rage II share the same ROM (even the music is optimized at 50 Hz), but the North American version uses a different ROM entirely.

[@davieslm]

Same here. I had the A500 and a mate had a Japanese imported Mega Drive Model 1. I remember him being proud that his version played much quicker without those big borders. Altered Beast way better than the Amiga version and at the time Golden Axe just released on the Amiga which I thought was a great conversion until I saw the Mega Drive version :) I was always secretly loved and wanted a Mega Drive and was impressed with those games including Contra - Hard Corps and Streets of Rage II. If one did not want to play any PAL games at 50hz, could you just cut one of the traces to enable 60hz for all European non-region locked cartridges? I.e. no need for any mod chips or switches. I think this method like make sense with an EverDrive.

[@DanLoudShirts]

Proper console! I loved my Megadrive. The games I loved playing were Sonic, Desert Strike, EA Hockey, PGA Tour Golf, and FIFA Soccer - the very first one!

[@Monkey_SK]

Was this shot at the old cave?

[@Monkey_SK]

The setup looks identical, which made me think perhaps it was filmed before the move. Great vid.

[@nikeymikey1008]

The UK/Europe definitely missed out back in the day... I got very involved in the whole NTSC/Pal & 50/60Hz back in the early 90's. I still have the NTSC Snes i bought back then (Sold my entire Megedrive collection to fund it) and always had mates that couldn't understand why the games were faster and full screen on my machine :) Nowadays i have switchless region mods onlots of my pal consoles just cant go back to that 50hz slowness :P

[@HollowRick]

This ^

[@LFiers]

Why switchless? Didn't want to cut a hole in it?