Mega Drive compatibility?

[grolt]

Lately I've been buying from European sellers to try and round off my European Master System set, and many of them are often offering up Mega Drive games for sale as well. I bought a few just to fill out the shipment, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to even play them.

So the question is, can PAL Mega Drive games play on the NTSC Genesis system? I've read that PAL players get lockout messages on many (all?) Genesis games, but I've read that most PAL games "should" work without lockout on the Genesis, since region lockout apparently wasn't applied until later on in the system's life. I know you're the Mega Drive maestro, ninja, can you (or anyone else) tell me what the compatibility is like between the two systems? I know that Japanese games are a completely different beast because of the different enclosure, but even then the games will work on a Genesis with proper modification to the hardware. I'm hoping PAL games will play without modding so I can snap some up.

[trashitall]

All I know is Genesis games are working fine with my french Megadrive...

[playgeneration]

Its true that earlier games don't have any region encoding. But in my experience, when I owned a Nomad (which were US only) a lot of the Euro games I own that I wanted to play wouldn't work. Some games see if the system is running at 50 or 60hz to determine wether the game should start, and will display the lockout message if its incorrect. Some games are coded speficially for PAL, making use of the extra screen height, and so have have graphics corruption or play too fast in 60hz.

I don't recall seeing a comprehensive list of PAL games that work on a US system, if theres certain PAL games you want then list them, if I have them I can test them at 60hz.

[ninjabearhug]

It's hit and miss TBH.

Most early games work fine, but once you hit the "blue box" phase of MD games it all goes a bit mad. Some work, some don't. Your best bet is to get an Asian/Jap MD and a region convertor. It's very rare I have any problems with any games on my Asian MD.

[grolt]

May 18, 2009 19:47:33 GMT ninjabearhug said:

It's hit and miss TBH.

Most early games work fine, but once you hit the "blue box" phase of MD games it all goes a bit mad. Some work, some don't. Your best bet is to get an Asian/Jap MD and a region convertor. It's very rare I have any problems with any games on my Asian MD.

Ahh, so it's like the Master System - get the Japanese version and a converter and you're set. Cool. I'm still only half collecting for the Genesis at this point, but once the Master System well dries up I'll likely turn my focus thataway.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I wasn't thinking any games in particular, but I guess since you've volunteered, playgen, does Monster Lair work at 60 Hz? How about Super Hydlide and Golden Axe II? I'd assume all those black checker games will not have any region locking on them.