Genesis question

[Gabriel]

I love the Streets of Rage games, and I want to get Streets of Rage 3. But I've played the Japanese version, Bare Knuckle 3, and find it VASTLY superior to the version localized for the U.S.

 

So, I'm wanting to know if I can play the game on a U.S. Genesis? As I understand it, I'll definitely need some kind of pass thru cart. Are the pinouts on Jap carts different? Or will a simple use of a Game Genie do? Next, will Bare Knuckle 3 even play on a U.S. system? Or will it be territorially locked out? If it is locked out, is there any way around this?

[christianscott27]

Try a genesis 3, thats the very small version produced by majesco after sega stopped making them. Its lock out free.

[JB]

The Genny 3 still has Sega's region control setup in it.

http://www.gamesx.com/importmod/gen2import.htm

 

 

Fortunately, the Genny doesn't use a diffrent BIOS, or a lockout chip, or anything like that. Just gotta solder a pair of switches in to swap modes.

 

 

 

But the Genny 3 sucks. Quality control was totally lacking, and a lot of them have miswired AV ports(right audio goes to the mono audio pin, and the stereo audio pins aren't hooked to anything, so you're always missing some sounds and it's impossible to fix).

 

Genesis 1 is supposed to be the easiest by far to regoin mod. Bigger components, and no surface-mount parts.

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/md1switches.htm

 

 

 

If I'm right, you shouldn't need any sort of passthrough. As far as I know, Sega used the same cart shell on all regions.

A Game Genie might work as a region mod bypass, though. I'm not sure.

[spacecadet]

The Genny 3 still has Sega's region control setup in it.

http://www.gamesx.com/importmod/gen2import.htm

 

I've never found a Japanese MegaDrive cart than my Genny 3 couldn't play.

[darklord1977]

I love the Streets of Rage games, and I want to get Streets of Rage 3. But I've played the Japanese version, Bare Knuckle 3, and find it VASTLY superior to the version localized for the U.S.

 

So, I'm wanting to know if I can play the game on a U.S. Genesis? As I understand it, I'll definitely need some kind of pass thru cart. Are the pinouts on Jap carts different? Or will a simple use of a Game Genie do? Next, will Bare Knuckle 3 even play on a U.S. system? Or will it be territorially locked out? If it is locked out, is there any way around this?

yes, you need to get a converter..try e bay or just get a sega mega drivesystem it would be a lot easier i did that when i discovered heavy nova that game is great!

[SteveW]

I've got a converter, I bought it in a thrift for 65¢! I've never used it though, my only Japanese cart, Granada, works fine on my Genny 3.

[darklord1977]

65 cents! great deal

[Bruce Tomlin]

The Genny 3 still has Sega's region control setup in it.

http://www.gamesx.com/importmod/gen2import.htm

Thanks for that link... it had some interesting stuff on there, especially a rundown on the Saturn region controls. I know there's one more input (they show three, plus the PAL select), but it was nice to see more than just the US/JPN/EUR combinations listed. There's also a "switchless" mod going to the reset button. While I don't like that (and the chip he used was overkill, as a 7400, 7402, or 7404 would have worked fine for US/JPN), I might try a pushbutton mod with red/green LED using a 7474 chip someday. The only problem I see is debouncing the switch properly, which would probably need an extra chip, and/or an SPDT pushbutton.

 

Oh yeah, and that page had a dump of the Japanese LaserActive ROM and region mod info for it. Someday I want to figure out everything I can about the Sega CD boot process to see 1) if it's possible to make a region-free or soft-region patch, and 2) why some games won't boot on my LaserActive, particuarly Lunar 2.

 

I've never found a Japanese MegaDrive cart than my Genny 3 couldn't play.

Well, of course there is the slight difference in cartridge shells. The Genesis version has notches in the back corners of the cartridge, and the MegaDrive version has a notch in the side of the cartridge for the power switch locking tab. It's not too hard to nip off those corners to let a Genesis play MD games, and of course there is the Game Genie option. Unfortunately, I've seen too many mutilated MD games, some of which even broke apart from the attempts to mutilate them.

 

I switch-modded a Genesis 1 a long time ago and tried some games on it. While none of my few Japanese games refused to run, some of them changed between Japanese and English text! The only game that seemed to care about the region was the US version of Gauntlet IV, which ironically has a menu selection for Japanese text.