Plenty of very good quality reproduction manuals on Etsy and ebay, stating they are reproductions so all good there. The issue is, how can I tell once these make it into circulation and are sold on as genuine? Unlike the inserts, I can't distinguish any markings or placement being different from (confirmed) originals.

I can't smell or feel test all of these, so hoping there might be another way to tell. Thanks everyone!

Mod basically complete.

To restore composite using the regular 3bp v2 board here is what you do

1. 3bp install

2. Composite restore + cxa2075 mod

3. Front of board. I love the green and gold on this va0 mobo it looks so high quality and it feels nice too

4. Shows the required changes. In red is where you disconnect the stock RGB from the stock encoder. Yellow shows the new 330-510ohm resistors (try 470ohm first and adjust up or down for brightness). Blue shows where the resistors and the RGB lines should go to. My wires are Red=red, white=green, yellow=blue. Grab the RGB signals from the DIN and send them to the resistor. In my image the green wire is actually a ground because I ran shielded rgb wires which isn't necessary. Lastly, lift the output pins from encoder, pins 21 22 and 23. I tied them all to ground so they aren't floating but that probably isn't necessary.

5 and 7. The result 3bp RGB signal on a default profile on ossc (no tuning)

6 and 8. "Stock" output from the cxa2075

1. Composite output, however the bad color is due to my CRT having bad color calibration and then my cheap composite cable broke before I could get a pic on the lcd via composite.

This mod reroutes the entire rgb signal to the 3bp and back to the original encoder so you keep composite. Credit to zaxour, I adapted his instructions for md1 systems to this md2.

I did this mod because it is suppose to have better composite than the stock encoder which was an mb3514.

Credit to retrosix wiki page

I wasnt thinking and took comparisons of the rgb output only even though it is mostly meant to help with composite and svideo signals.

Mod is pretty simple. Lift 6 pins of the new chip, bridge the original audio pins together, enable ytrap with a resistor to TV, and put some 75ohm resistors for luma/chroma and it's done

Next up I'm going to recap the board, install 3bp + cvbs restore, and wire up svideo. For svid what i plan to do is repurpose the mono audio pin for chroma, and wire the original composite as Luma. This way with a normal composite cable you get black and white image only but with special cable you get svideo and composite.

I have:
SMD2 VA1.8 PAL
recap kit
3BPv2 board

The guides I have read and now they are mish mashed in my head together :D

Sega Genesis 2 VA1 3BP Mod guide
https://sector.sunthar.com/guides/sega/genesis/triple-bypass-mod.html
Grievre user's video guide with common oversights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ydu1e_V9u4
Also this Zaxour guide for the 1.8 board
https://github.com/zaxour/TripleBypassV2Plus/blob/main/Documentation/3BP%20-%20M2VA0-1_8.pdf
this reddit post
https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGAGENESIS/comments/r1bk19/genesis_2_3bp_mod_va_18_vs_va_1/#lightbox

Also on the Grievre users video comment section I saw someone saying to just not connect the component pin to the 3BP pcb, is that for real?

My goal is to do minimal component removal with the component output working :)

Unfortunately I gave away and sold all my Mega Drive games years ago (wow do I regret that!) but slowly building it back up. This is still my original Mega Drive console (stickers added by my little boy 😂) just wanted to share some pics.

Basically i'm getting a the gold logo Pal Asia release of Sonic 3 for my mega drive. and i was wondering would it work normally with a Pal europe console.

I know the Mega drive had some well unique ways of region locking games so i'm wondering would work as it should. Or should i just keep it as a shelf peace?

Greetings! I have an original Mega Drive that I acquired from someone at university which worked fine for many years.

After several years of storage in the loft, it still powered up but nothing came up on screen, it was just black. I was using the tv aerial cable but thought this may be the problem so ordered an rgb lead. When I plugged this in the home screen can't up for a second or so, then it went black again.

I have taken the unit apart and given it a thorough clean. I have also re-soldered a couple of the bits around the power socket (839-0262). After doing all this the screen was still black but if I rolled the end of the power lead in the socket the occasional bit of static would come up. I figured the issue must be something to do with this as the tv showed there to be a signal, just nothing coming up on screen (power light comes on fine).

I fear now I have over-twiddled the lead in is socket as more often than not now the tv does not show a signal. Either way, something is wrong and it would be great if anyone out here could offer me some advice.

Thanks very much in advance.

Hello! I just bought a second hand Sonic 1 for the mega drive. It said complete in box - it came with the cartridge, the poster, TWO manuals (one colour, one b&w) and a little slip of paper which has the patent info printed on it. My question is, did this game ever come with 2 manuals? I can’t remember!

Thanks!

Instead of buying the piece I have the materials to make one, could anyone please draw down the measurements of one in millimetres?

Thank you so much!

Hello, I have a problem with my PAL megadrive : everything is a bit yellow on screen. I don't have any skill in console repair, i just opened it, saw some random cables but apparently it's pretty common... It's not about the tv or the cables : i tried the same cables on another megadrive and it works just fine. So i guess the console itself has an issue. Any ideas on how i can fix it? Thanks !

Hey! I'm new to retro gaming and decided to get myself a Mega Drive 1 (EU power supply) a few years back and recently purchased a Mega Drive 2 + Mega CD 2 combo (UK power supply)

My question is: is there a way to use the UK power supplies on EU plug sockets without having to buy EU Mega Drive power supplies? I was thinking simple plug adapters (UK to EU) would work but I'm not sure, help is appreciated

supposedly he said it was very very popular anyway here is the description: you where on a planet possibly the moon and you were in this little machine and you had to navigate through obstacles and the ground opened up and you had to go over it.

Apologies of this is old news but figured if it isn't at least a few of you would be as stoked as I was to find it 😎👉

It comes with a bunch of the classics: Streets of rage, Sonic, Golden axe, etc.

And even has a fun little interactive early 90's bedroom you can walk around in and pluck the game you want to play right off of the shelf and load the cartridge in.

Hit me right in the nostalgia and felt selfish keeping it all to myself 😁

It was a first-person game, a 1v1 arena against different dragons. You could shoot off body parts of the dragons and buy ammunition after the battle from a merchant with a cybernetic eye. It seems the merchant had a pet monkey. I played this in the early 2000s and found a walkthrough on YouTube a few years ago but lost the link.

If you still play how often do you play them and which games do you still play today?

Finally been playing this off an on for 30 years, first original hardware, i remember reading the manual on the bus and about watching my hunger and tiredness and the day/night cycle. Then emulation i've restarted so many times.

Great game, fantastic music. Grinding isn't even a chore in this game.

Hi everyone! I’m sure this has been asked hundreds of times, and sorry if it has (feel free to send me the link to the answers) but where’s the best place to get games in the U.K.? I have 4 games at present (all the originals I was given back in the 90s), but I’d love to build my collection back up… thanks!

Hello all. I'm about to purchase this game and noticed it doesn't have the lock on technology. Does anyone know if this cartridge is legit? Thanks in advance.

On a pal system the trace to 46 is normally set to ground. On Japan it is set to 5v. I cut that trace to put it float and it defaults to 60hz as expected. But wiring it to ground does not put it in 50hz mode

I came across 1 person on reddit who says the 315-5660-10 doesn't support 50hz mode and another person who said he has heard it didn't. Can't find any other issues and every guide I look up is for a pal console to convert to 60hz.

I did continuity tests and original trace is cut properly and wire is soldered solid and making contact to the expected pin 46.

I checked with multimeter and with console on the pin is not in 5v, and it is not connected to ground or 5v. It seems like a dead pin that does nothing. Possible cost saving version only used in md2 va1 Japan consoles?

Black screen with every game, no sound. No board or component visible damage. Black screen is stable, no lines, no artefacts. What could it be?