[ICEknight]

http://www.ebay.com/...=p2047675.l2557

Has anybody ever seen one of these before? I never knew SEGA made an official Genesis multi-cart plug thingy (I did know about third-party devices with the same functionality, though).


I wonder if it had a menu or something, but unless it was bought by somebody inside the emulation circles I somehow doubt we'll ever see more of it.

[Meat Miracle]

The cart changer was well known iirc, I've seen a lot of images of it.

[ICEknight]

Ah, so this seems to be the SEGA Demo System DS-16 that's already covered in Sega Retro's wiki.

They don't usually go for too much, but for some reason they seem to have been largely ignored documentation-wise.



For the curious:

Topic from somebody who got one.

Video:

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 06 March 2013 - 06:44 PM

[Orengefox]

I remember those as a kid growing up in California (US) in the early 90's. If I remember correctly, Sears would have been one of places to have this sort of kiosk because I use to go there to play either Sonic 1, Sonic 2, or Sonic Spinball. I can't remember if stores like Toys "R" Us and Target had it as well.

Basically you would see whichever game was on the screen and play it like you normally would. You can see there are several games to choose from (as shown on the eBay pictures) all slotted into this multi-cart device which is connected to this one cart that's in the Mega Drive/Genesis. If you wanted to try a different game, you had to press the blue button on the kiosk and it would switch you to a different game. If you wanted to play a specific game, you had to press the blue button so many times to get to it.

So say you were playing Altered Beast and it was 1st game on one end of the multi-cart switch device. You decide want you want to play Sonic the Hedgehog and it was the 6th and last game slotted at the other end of the multi-cart switch device. You would have to press the blue button 5 times to get to it. There's also a little red light next to each slotted game on the multi-cart switch device which turned on to indicate which game you were currently playing.

Edit: ICEknight basically summed it up above me which got posted as I was writing this =P

This post has been edited by Orengefox: 06 March 2013 - 07:11 PM

[Lobotomy]

Seen one? I've OWNED one.

[Overlord]

Lobotomy, on 06 March 2013 - 10:00 PM, said:

Seen one? I've OWNED one.

You realise this now requires expansion and ideally some pictures.

[Jarun]

Overlord, on 07 March 2013 - 04:16 PM, said:

Lobotomy, on 06 March 2013 - 10:00 PM, said:

Seen one? I've OWNED one.

You realise this now requires expansion and ideally some pictures.

Lol. I "OWN" one (minues the ED). The cart switcher at least. It was an impulse buy from childhood playing games at sears with the cart selector. I was a kid and wanted one.... so I got one (much much later )

A few facts. There was a metal frame with lock that went around the carts to prevent them from being stolen (mine sadly did not come with it or the key, so I removed the lock from the metal casing).

There are two wires leading to a jumper coming out of the the unit. Presumably to be hooked to the kiosk which hand an external button. This is to switch games. I imagine there were two set ups. One for use outside the kiosk that had a button instead of a lead and jumper and included the lockable cartridge guard box. The second without the guard box and includes the jumper lead for the kiosk (no need to lock the carts if it was inside the steal cabinet. I imagine mine was one out of the kiosks... So I modded the jumper into a button :P Also, the one I played as a kid was not in a kiosk but a store counter.

There is a turntable switch inside that allows you to select how long the game will play before resetting. Lowest setting disables the function.

The internals look very similar to Sega's arcade PCB construction style. And if I recall, uses a few Sega custom chips used on their arcade PCBs.

Also, the unit's casing is made of steel and totally mass-produced industrial feeling (it's heavy and has sharp corners.)

It does not work with the 32X :P

It plugs into the side slot the Sega CD uses, but it does not require its own power cord. It also has a modified cart connected via ribbon cable that hooks into the Gens cart port. (Not all units sold on ebay include this. It is useless without so always double check)

Not all games are compatible due to latency intolerance (?) I think Sonic 3D blast was one. Chakan may have also had issues. I don't think my flashcart liked it either. Its been so long ago and its packed away atm.

I paid 60-80$ for mine, but this was at least 6 years ago.

This post has been edited by Jarun: 08 March 2013 - 07:06 PM

[Lobotomy]

Sonic 3 and Knuckles does not appear to like it either. I don't own the kiosk anymore, but I distinctly remember lock on having some issues. Virtua Racing too.

[Ravenfreak]

Virtua Racing uses a special chip for it's graphics similar to the SNES Super FX chip so that's probably why it doesn't work on the kiosk. (It's also the reason why you can't play it on a Everdrive MD too.) Since the kiosk won't boot up Sonic 3 properly, lock on wouldn't work of course. xP Are there any other games that won't work on this kiosk? I would love to own one someday if I can find a complete one on ebay and once I have enough money, it would definitely be a cool addition to my collection.

[ICEknight]

Ravenfreak, on 11 March 2013 - 04:38 PM, said:

Virtua Racing uses a special chip for it's graphics similar to the SNES Super FX chip so that's probably why it doesn't work on the kiosk. (It's also the reason why you can't play it on a Everdrive MD too.)

Is there really a connection? An everdrive doesn't feature that chip while this device has access to a cartridge that does have it.

[Meat Miracle]

We need hardware board pictures of that cart changer.

ICEknight, on 11 March 2013 - 05:15 PM, said:

Ravenfreak, on 11 March 2013 - 04:38 PM, said:

Virtua Racing uses a special chip for it's graphics similar to the SNES Super FX chip so that's probably why it doesn't work on the kiosk. (It's also the reason why you can't play it on a Everdrive MD too.)

Is there really a connection? An everdrive doesn't feature that chip while this device has access to a cartridge that does have it.

If the kiosk does bank switching or some other hardware magic beyond simply splitting the input lines, then there is a chance it could conflict with the SVP chip. Remember, Virtua Racing doesn't work on the 32x either.

[ashthedragon]

This reminds me a lot of Sega MegaTech ( or was it a MegaPlay? the info on the internet makes me mix those two, since I remember having features from both. it could be interesting to talk about this someday). I owned ( well, sort of. My parents had a pub, there was one there, I used it like mine for years, and I got to see it's innings lots of times when " the machine man" came to change the games and get the money from them) one as a kid, and it used a similar system. The board had several cartridge slots, and you changed the games through a button who changed them sequentially, like those kiosks.


The one I had I remember it being physically exactly like this, but the games and the way it should work I remember is different at what the wiki says it had



Mine did not had modified games, it had a general timer who would increase when you put in more coins, and you could play any game and change it any time while you still had time credit. I remember playing there Out Run ( I remember it being the Mega Drive one, not the master system), Tetris, Altered Beast, Last battle, Shinobi, After burner II ( clearly remember being the Mega Drive one), Space Harrier II, super thunder blade, Ghouls and Ghosts...and can't remember more. I remember asking "the machine man" to bring Sonic over. The guy promised me to bring Sonic 2 next time he came over, but I refused saying that I wanted Sonic 3 because I already had Sonic 1 and 2 on master system he didn't bring any Sonic games.

Gosh, I wish I could get that mega tech back..or that I could make one myself, using those multi game adaptors used in demo kiosk, or even "mame-fy" a regular arcade and use Kega Fusion with Mega Drive games on it...

This post has been edited by ashthedragon: 16 March 2013 - 07:40 PM

[Meat Miracle]

The one with the timer was Mega Tech.

Mega Play worked on a traditional credit system, and had most Megadrive games modified to work for that (ex. no extra lives in Streets of Rage 2).

[ashthedragon]

thanks for the info! My mind is much clearer now