[Vangar]

Hey there. I have a Sega CD 2 Unit, and a Megadrive 2. The Sega CD us a US version, and the Megadrive 2 is Pal. Although they physically fit fine, would this work?

[Sik]

Nope, the Mega CD firmware has region lock-out =/

[Bgvanbur]

Couldn't you convert a Mega CD game to Sega CD game (using ConvSCD from retrodev)? This way you have the correct region for the Sega CD and the correct PAL game code for the Mega Drive.

This post has been edited by Bgvanbur: 17 May 2011 - 01:17 PM

[ICEknight]

It's not the region lock of the game what's the problem here, but the region lock of the Mega-CD itself.

Think of the CD drive as if it was a bulky cartridge from another region.

[Billy]

Am I correct in assuming a Japanese MD and US Sega CD wouldn't work either? I don't own an Japanese MD or anything, I'm just curious.

[gold lightning]

If you apply a sega\mega cd to a genesis\MD from another region then you'll get the cyan screen of death every time unless a mod is applied.

EDIT: Said screen for those who are curious.

This post has been edited by gold lightning: 17 May 2011 - 04:54 PM

[Galvatron]

There is a method that could work, but it involves spending more money. I think there are at least two different cartridges available that let you use any region of Mega Drive with any region of Mega CD. One is called the Pro CD-X -think it was made by Datel -and I can't remember the name of the other one. It might have been part of the Action Replay cheat cartridge line.

However, I've never used the CD-X and I've heard and read horror stories about it not working with certain hardware, and also not working with certain games. They can get quite pricey also, at least from what I've seen them go for on eBay.

[SpeedStarTMQ]

I would perhaps suggest buying a correct region Mega Drive, which are so cheap nowadays it's unbelievable!

[Meat Miracle]

Just mod your Megadrive, all that is required is a single spdt switch. If you have a model 1 machine, it even has a slot for it in the back!

[Sik]

If you have a model 1 machine, it even has a slot for it in the back!

Or just slap the switches in a free area of the Mega CD port (I have a model 2 like that, later I'll take a pic).

[GerbilSoft]

Some older Japanese Mega CDs (with firmware 1.00l) will not enforce a hardware region lock. They'll still only load Japanese games, though.

There's no way to identify the minor revision of the firmware through the system menu (it will just show "1.00"); the only way to check is to dump the ROM. (That, and if it doesn't show the region error, it's probably 1.00l.)

I tested a bunch of MCD firmware images a while ago and found several that have broken region locks. I posted a table of region locks before, but I don't remember where.

[Vangar]

Hmm lots of information here, thanks guys!

What I wanted to do was to have one machine for both my PAL Mega Drive games, and my US Mega CD games. I do have a PAL and NTSC Mega Drive / Genesis, but it means more consoles sitting underneath my TV haha. Guess I will have to just deal with it.

I have another Sega CD Related question that I'll just post here instead of making another topic: Can the Sega CD read cart information? If it can be used to dump carts, could it not use some elements (say level layouts etc. from Sonic 2) with a game programmed and burned to a CD (lets say a Sonic & Knuckles CD in theory) ?

An example being making a Sega CD game that used Quackshot tiles when the proper cart was inserted for a level?

[Andlabs]

Yes the Sega CD can read data from cartridges — look at the the Sega CD Transfer Cable if you want to dump stuff. However ... it sounds like what you want to do is be able to supplant one game's data for another... that's a somewhat complicated procedure that requires rewriting (oh and you won't be able to burn S&K on CD unmodified and expect it to work — that will need to be rewritten too)...

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 18 May 2011 - 07:54 AM

[Vangar]

Oh yeah, I totally understand. I was just thinking, it could be a personal project to load some art from a cart. Thanks

[Sik]

You could always try the other way - make a hack of a cartridge game to load art from a CD. In fact it's probably much more feasible and you get much more space you could use =P