Best Mega Drive Harware/set-up

I don't think TmEE has made a CCAM mod for HDG Genesis as it's really not needed. You can always send him a PM though.


Also, for a more detailed comparison of all three Genesis Models and motherboard revisions check out this thread from Sega-16, another forum I frequent: http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?7796-GUIDE-Telling-apart-good-Genesis-1s-and-Genesis-2s-from-bad-ones

 

Just found a site with a few more comparisons. Oh god, the Twin Pad.

EDIT: More relevant topics:
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3141.0
http://www.soundshock.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=149
http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=320
http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365
http://www.protoman.com/genesisaudio/

 

If you thought that was bad, you should check out the AtGames Genesis clones. They are horrible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QAue7Pq1So

 

You guys, I love the video's you've posted. This is making me nostalgia hard.

At that emulated video; Wow, that is really, really terrible. I would send that back if I got it as a present, and also write a very angry letter to the manufacturer. It's sad to see that these current SEGA MegaDrive iterations can't even live up to the old standards back from 1989. You'd think they'd improve, if anything.

I also never knew before now why the Sonic Jam versions rings sounded so wierd.

Checking that video also linked me to this. We're talking about MegaDrive sound and quality capabilities here, so I'd like to see what you guys think to this. Watch the whole video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG1H_88Vmh0&feature=related

Makes sense, but is amazing.

 

I remember when Joe Redifer posted his video of that demonstration. This is his video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsUAywSyEg

 

IIRC it took an 1/8th worth of space on the Sonic 1 cart.

 

Right you are!

Do we know if that was only for Sonic 1, or did that extend onwards to the sequels?

 

Here are two tracks from Chaotix that I recorded with my Model 1 HDG Genesis. Files are Stereo 320 Kbps MP3. I purposely recorded Door Into Summer so that if you hit "Repeat Track", it will loop properly. Download, listen and see if you prefer the early Model 1 sound. Enjoy!!!

Door Into Summer 4MB

Just Another Day 8MB

If need be I can post an example from Virtua Racing Deluxe if anyone would be interested.

 

Wow, hang on this is full of wrong information, back it up a little bit.

Firstly, in original configuration, the filter in the MD II combined with its background noise result in most MDII hardware to sound horribly terrible. The MD1 except for a very few hardware revisions have the superior sound, and the characteristic lowpass filter that doesn't actually ruin the music, and not too much bg noise. Of course, compared with hifi equipment it's still pretty bad, but hey, at least you get to have 3.5mm output jacks.

Furthermore, the MD2 fails to be easily handable. Mods are much harder to do, and the standard DIP packages with lots of room in the MD1 actually make it much more easy to modify or just to diagnose and fix, in case stuff breaks. I have a CCAM, and I'm impressed but I have a feeling that this was not what the MD was intended for, I think the characteristical filtered MD1 sound outweighs the clarity a CCAM'd MD2 can give you.

Also, the MD2 has a really oddball AV jack. Sour 'bout that.

ALSO: technically PAL systems are better than NTSC. (You can see that in a lot of ways too. If games were released for PAL or there were actually good PAL versions, you could really see the difference)

Cheers,
Oerg866

 

We were talking about MegaDrive set-ups, so here's mine.

Can only see two of 5 speakers there, but it's a good surround set up, nice '19 inch TV, a new-style Classic Sonic doll, and a shed load of Gamecube and Wii games there. You can see the MegaDrive games there because I couldn't put them in to the view, but there's a load of Gamecube and Wii Sonic games right there :v:

It's a shame that I can't get the best out of my picture quality for my MegaDrive currently. Other TV's in the house have two Scart/RGB slots, mine only has one. The other TV's have a slot which fares better than the other one, so I can have a clean, crisp and sharp picture. My TV's RGB is the worst sort of one, and there's only one of the, so I have to stick to having some odd issues with my quality unless I change the SCART format manually every single time I boot the MegaDrive up. To give you an idea of what it looks like, I made a topic a while ago;

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=25125&st=0&p=582487&#entry582487

I'm having to switch to CVBS from RGB/MIX/AUTO, which gives me a less crisp looking image, but doesn't have any odd flickering or issues. Not that I mind though, it feels quite retro, and I always have my Wii with component cable or Gamecube with it's own RGB if I want to play Sonic Mega Collection in hot quality. As well as that, I've got a GameBoy Player, for Sonic Advance 1, 2 and 3. There's a whole lot of Sonic in my room.

 

I disable/adjust any kind of filters that cut into aduible hearing range...

 

We can just do the math. S1 spanned 512 kB. S2 was 1 MB. Each of S3 and S&K were 2 MB. (Figures from the wiki.) Given that the sound is the same in all cases, the proportion of the cartridge's ROM it occupies is halved in each new generation.

 

What I meant was, did they do anything to condense or change the SEGA shout? It's not exactly the same in Sonic 2 or 3, being slightly different in one way or another. I'd have thought that with 3 extra years experience, they might have been able to run that SEGA screen using lower amounts of space etc.

 

Oh, was it different? My bad if that's the case. I thought I remembered reading it was the same. Maybe they just upped the compression then, yeah.

 

The Sega PCM is uncompressed in these Sonic games. The claim that it is 1/8th of the ROM size is exaggerated -- it is 27KB in S1, 24.9 KB in S2 and 24.1 KB in S&K, meaning it is more like 1/19th of the ROM size in S1, and correspondingly smaller subsequently. It is a substantial portion of a z80 bank, though (which is only 32 KB).

 

I did a year ago. Knuckles' Chaotix OST 88MB

Again, Stereo MP3 320Kbps. Also, like with Door Into Summer, all tracks that loop in-game were recorded so they loop properly when you repeat the track. Each track is tagged and complete with the box art as the album cover. Enjoy and thanks for mirroring those!

EDIT: I messaged Tweaker about a year ago with that rip and told him he could use those tracks for the Wiki because I know that Retro was wanting original hardware recordings. (And recorded from a Model 1 HDG Genesis to boot!) I don't know if he replied or not. But if any of the Admins/Site Staff see this, you are more than welcome to use them.