Mega Drive & Master System NTSC questions

[Ryo Saeba]

I have a PAL Mega Drive I and I'd really like to play a few NTSC titles on it, but in 60Hz of course. I'm also planning on getting a Master System Converter which should play US and PAL Master System games, or so I've heard.

So to play both Mega Drive and Master System games in 60Hz I think my best bet would be a modification of my Mega Drive (Region & 50/60Hz).

But how does the Master System Converter act then? Can I play Master System games in 60Hz if I switch the Mega Drive to 60Hz or do I need an US Converter (Power Base)?

I've also never seen an RGB cable for the Mega Drive I, only for the Mega Drive II. Is there one, or at least an AV cable? I could run into problems (black/white picture?) if I'd have to connect my Mega Drive via RF, besides the lackluster image quality, of course.


I'd sure love to get my hands on a japanese Master System, but they're rare and expensive, aren't they (never seen one on ebay)?

[wheelaa]

Quite hard to find minty, but not too expensive (re jp sms that is).
NTSC mds (asian) are very cheap though.

(Don't know about the rest sorry)

[Fastware]

If you switch your Megadrive to 60Hz the powerbase converter will also work at 60Hz. Also if you install a language switch some US and UK Master system games will show new texts and title screens.

[Baseley09]

The Megadrive will sort out all the video, so yeah a uk power base on a uk system with 50/60hz switch should be dandy. Beaten to it ^

Megadrive RGB cables are plentiful, should be loads on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sega-Master-System-1-Megadrive-2m-RGB-Scart-Cable-RF_W0QQitemZ170124388861QQihZ007QQcategoryZ3642QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Gotta make sure sure they actually are RGB ones tho theres a lot of not fully wired leads in circulation.

[chaoticjelly]

When you run a Megadrive in 60hz you can use an RGB Scart only for colour picture, because RF & Composite (AV) both carry the NTSC colour information, RGB is the pure Red, Green and Blue signals which televisions use natively and so these signals don't carry any NTSC or PAL specific colour encoding.

There are two different kinds of cables I have made for the Megadrive I, the first is a mono (one-channel) sound, RGB scart cable, and also works on the Master System I and Sega Mark III etc:



The second is a stereo (two-channel) sound, RGB scart cable. This won't work on the Master System I or Sega Mark III etc because those systems do not have a headphone port. The audio cable coming off the circular AV-end of the cable loops from the AV port at the rear of the Megadrive I around the front to the headphone jack, this is the only way to get real stereo sound from the Megadrive I since the AV port at the rear only outputs mono (one-channel) sound.



With all the Megadrive add ons (Power Base Converter, 32x, Mega CD etc) it is the Megadrive that dictates the hertz setting, however with something like Mega CD if you tried to run a modded Megadrive in 60hz with a European Mega CD it would not boot the BIOS, you could however run a Japanese Mega CD on a modded PAL Megadrive at 60hz, but not in 50hz, etc. Of course with a multibios unit you can run any BIOS in any video setting.

PS that link is to one of my cables, they are all fully-loaded (have all pins in the SCART end) auto-AV switching, shielded, with suitable resistors to tone the brightness of the picture to the correct levels for crispness, text-readability etc and also heatshrinked and made to a very high standard

Japanese Master Systems are hard to get, im after one myself actually, keep checking on ebay.com as I think all games and hardware etc wont show up on a ebay.co.uk search.. I think theres a Japanese seller with one fully boxed at the moment.

[randombs]

btw, UK MD's NEED the rgb scart to play in 60hz in colour, even if your telly supports NTSC. i modded my MD for region and 50/60hz, and when using RF, the picture was b&w and had these weird chequered lines going down it (i tried it in RF myself, but i think it applies to composite too), and my telly supports NTSC on other consoles no problems (e.g. my jap saturn running in composite).

i dunno why it does this (maybe the RF modulator thingy inside there goes a bit nuts in 60hz?), but i had to make an RGB scart to sort it out.

if you get a us/jap MD you won't have this problem, it's just with the uk machines i believe.

also, i had one of chaotic's stereo rgb scarts and can vouch for the quality

[MattyD]

I had no idea it was possible to 60hz mod a MD. How much does this cost and how does a modded machine compare to an actual NTSC machine?

[Pilotwings]

You can do a 50/60 hz mod with a master system also. Infact anything pre playstation can have something or other done.

[chaoticjelly]

I had no idea it was possible to 60hz mod a MD. How much does this cost and how does a modded machine compare to an actual NTSC machine?

I have a few spare Megadrives, I would do one with a PSU, two pads and stereo RGB scart for ?30 plus ?10 postage. It can cost a lot more elsewhere. Not sure how much NTSC machines are, possibly more, a lot of the "Japanese" megadrives on ebay turn out to be Asian Megadrives, imported over here because they were apparently half the cost of the UK one at release, whilst still using PAL (so still PAL 50hz im afraid)

Most people just see the writing on them, burgundy bar on the console and say its Japanese, but you can tell by the serial number, some Megadrive console or accessory starting with "HAA-" on the serial is Japanese..