• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Appreciation Thread: Alien Storm > Golden Axe

Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
cross posting from the retro thread, anyone had this issue?

Jazzy Geoff said:
Not sure this is the right thread for this but whatever it's all the same people in the retro threads anyway.

So I received a PAL Mega Drive in the post today. Supposedly it's a Hong Kong model or something that plays all region carts?

The problem is I can't get a picture off it.

I tried hooking it up with power supply that came with it into my framemeister with the supplied AV-SCART cable - no picture, white noise. Tried it with my Super Famicom PSU, no picture but I could at least hear sound so the game is running, just no picture. At first the sound would cut out every 10 seconds or so but it seems to have stopped doing that.

I've tried fucking with all the normal FM settings, no change. Just a plain black screen.

Any ideas? Bad cable? Bad console? Should I just send it back?
Click to expand...

I'm normally a Nintendo head so the foibles of Sega machines are a mystery to me
 
P

Peagles

Member
Jazzy Geoff said:
cross posting from the retro thread, anyone had this issue?



I'm normally a Nintendo head so the foibles of Sega machines are a mystery to me
Click to expand...

Are you certain the SCART cable is RGB and wired the way the Framemeister wants it to be? (JP21 unless you're using a converter for RGB SCART).
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
I've got a converter for jp21. My NES and Super Famicom work fine hooked up through euroscart this way. I just found the scart adaptor cable for my TV and hooked the MD to it directly ... and it worked :S

I think I'm just going to order a new pOwer supply and a new rgb cable and hope for the best
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
the answer is, I think, that the supplied cable is actually a composite cable with a scart head on it, not an RGB cable.

You learn something every day.
 
K

Khaz

Member
You mean something like this? Yeah, that's never going to work.

tt8217.2_1_.jpg
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
It wasn't described as RGB, just came with the console and I made an ill informed assumption. Like I said, you learn something everyday :)

I didn't know composite / scart cables like that were a thing
 
Theonik

Theonik

Member
Jazzy Geoff said:
It wasn't described as RGB, just came with the console and I made an ill informed assumption. Like I said, you learn something everyday :)

I didn't know composite / scart cables like that were a thing
Click to expand...
Scart can carry both RGB, Composite, and s-video. I think I've seen this done before. You need to be careful when buying these for this reason.
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
All good picks except for Pit Fighter (terrible fighting game). Predator 2 is pretty decent. It's a fun Smash TV clone with you occasionally fighting the Predator. I heard Red Zone was good.
 
L

Lettuce

Member
ElTopo said:
All good picks except for Pit Fighter (terrible fighting game). Predator 2 is pretty decent. It's a fun Smash TV clone with you occasionally fighting the Predator. I heard Red Zone was good.
Click to expand...

I had Pit Fighter as a kid so that why i got it again...to be fair the MD version is properly one of the better conversions of the game, the SNES version was awful compared to the MD one.

Also first time i've played Zombies on the MD i have always had the SNES version....i think the SNES version is defo the better version the MD really suffers in the audio department in this game and obviously the snes game has a better colour palette but they play more or less the same otherwise

Yeah Predator 2 is a fun game, reminds me of a PSX game by Konami...was it Project Overkill or something!??
 
M

Mupod

Member
finally had time to take the soldering iron to my VA2 model 1 Genesis today. I fixed the horrible audio distortion heard here:

http://picosong.com/jcCw/

Using this mod:

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?27397-VA2-Preamp-fix

I also learned today that surface mount capacitors are a real bitch to remove.

The image in the first post doesn't include one other resistor you need to change out, because while this will fix the distortion it'll make the output incredibly quiet. I was told to swap a 33k resistor with a 20k to fix the audio levels...but because I don't care about sega cd/32x and I wanted a loud as fuck genesis, I put a 10k in. And it actually worked great. I can now properly rock out to Thunder Force 4, and loudass Konami games like Hard Corps need to be kept under 6-7 or I blow my ears out. Manowar would be proud.

Next order of business will be to do a full recap on this thing. The capacitors are actually in fine shape but they are 26 years old so that won't last forever.

I'm not exactly experienced with this kind of stuff but there's something about the Genesis that fires me up to do it. The electronics aren't super tiny or delicate so soldering work isn't scary and there's lots of clearance in the case to put stuff.
 
M

Mzo

Member
lazygecko said:
Funny how in Wily Wars the sprites are redrawn to be about 20% bigger, but it seems they forget to give Proto Man this treatment.
Click to expand...

Minakuchi Engineering fucking up. I can hear Mashiba from Hajime no Ippo screaming their name in anger and disgust.

I still think they did a pretty good job, overall, even if it sounded like the development was hell.
 
S

Shadow Hog

Member
Teknoman said:
Why have I never heard of this game, and it doesnt even have an Amazon entry?

The Second Samurai
Click to expand...
So you're a samurai who's slicing up cavemen and dragons and dinosaurs in a prehistoric volcano, then you're slicing up robots in the future and riding a jetpack, then you're back to samurai-era Japan where you chop off the arms of an evil demon and then dodge his vomit and then chop up his eyeballs and then bat a third eyeball into his head repeatedly.

Also Matt Furniss composed, so the music's awesome.

Yeah, not sure how this one slipped under my radar either.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
Shadow Hog said:
So you're a samurai who's slicing up cavemen and dragons and dinosaurs in a prehistoric volcano, then you're slicing up robots in the future and riding a jetpack, then you're back to samurai-era Japan where you chop off the arms of an evil demon and then dodge his vomit and then chop up his eyeballs and then bat a third eyeball into his head repeatedly.

Also Matt Furniss composed, so the music's awesome.

Yeah, not sure how this one slipped under my radar either.
Click to expand...

Matt said that he paid attention to other composers on the system at the time and that Yuzo Koshiro was a big inspiration. You can really tell in this game.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Shadow Hog said:
So you're a samurai who's slicing up cavemen and dragons and dinosaurs in a prehistoric volcano, then you're slicing up robots in the future and riding a jetpack, then you're back to samurai-era Japan where you chop off the arms of an evil demon and then dodge his vomit and then chop up his eyeballs and then bat a third eyeball into his head repeatedly.

Also Matt Furniss composed, so the music's awesome.

Yeah, not sure how this one slipped under my radar either.
Click to expand...

Thats what i'm saying! I mean I even see Euro Megadrive carts all the time on auction, but never this.
 
T

thomasos

Member
Anyone have any thoughts/advice on my broken Sega CD issue?

It's a model 1, and from doing a bit of research, it sounds like maybe the laser push switch is broken?

The system would make this horrible grinding noise every time I closed the tray (regardless of whether a CD was in the drive or not), but the discs would still boot and everything worked fine. Now all of the sudden, games won't boot and it sounds like the discs aren't even spinning.

I was thinking of sending it to this person for repairs. Has anyone dealt with him/her before?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Service-Rep...efaultDomain_0&hash=item19d9048bf1&rmvSB=true
 
TonberrysKnife

TonberrysKnife

Member
Lost a bidding war for Vapor Trail, complete in box. I'm not paying over $100 for it. Ugh. Does anyone know of places to get spare Genesis manuals?
 
S

Shining

Member
Got Steel Empire for a steel (heh). Except for the ugly ass first level i really like the game. Not the best shooter out there but a very solid one. I really liked the look/scrolling of the city level.

steelempire-gen9.png


Also got Granada. Awesome little gem!

And Midnight Resistance, lol.. Fantastic music, tho.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
Shining said:
Got Steel Empire for a steel (heh). Except for the ugly ass first level i really like the game. Not the best shooter out there but a very solid one. I really liked the look/scrolling of the city level.

steelempire-gen9.png


Also got Granada. Awesome little gem!

And Midnight Resistance, lol.. Fantastic music, tho.
Click to expand...

Nice gets all around. I think Granada is really solid for a Wolfteam game. shame it never got a sequel or anything. I am curious how the X68k version compares.
 
C

Coda

Member
It wasn't cheap but I finally picked up a game I've been dying to play on original hardware for a long time. Gotta say it's a game changer, the game looks and feels amazing through SCART RGB. Easily one of the best and most fun (once you get used to the controls) 2D action games ever made.

AlienSoldierPickup_zpsrxq5fj3r.jpg
 
P

Peltz

Member
LUCKY n WILD said:
It wasn't cheap but I finally picked up a game I've been dying to play on original hardware for a long time. Gotta say it's a game changer, the game looks and feels amazing through SCART RGB. Easily one of the best and most fun (once you get used to the controls) 2D action games ever made.

AlienSoldierPickup_zpsrxq5fj3r.jpg
Click to expand...

To me, Treasure never really topped that game.
 
C

Coda

Member
Peltz said:
To me, Treasure never really topped that game.
Click to expand...

I'd probably agree with you. I think Alien Soldier is one of those games when you first start playing the whole game feels very foreign and overly difficult. I think it's hard to say if it's the best Treasure game or not because I practically like every game they put out. But I think once you get the hang of Alien Soldier the rewarding factor is so high that it makes taking out bosses feel so epic. They never quite replicated that feeling with their other games.

The Sin & Punishment games were basically a continuation of this type of game for them. I think what makes Alien Soldier special was that it was one of their last truly 2D games. Even seeing some of the pseudo 3D stuff on the Mega Drive like the moth's wings still boggles my mind. They really pushed the Mega Drive to the limits.

Quick question though for someone who may know: When I get to the Xi-Tiger boss in Stage 6, I've seen in long play videos that there's a kind of anime like cinematic that plays out as he transforms to beast form. I'm playing on the Japanese copy and I noticed that I don't get that cinematic, the screen just flashes for a second and he's transformed. Is that normal for this version to do this? I don't think I'm hitting a button or anything.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
LUCKY n WILD said:
It wasn't cheap but I finally picked up a game I've been dying to play on original hardware for a long time. Gotta say it's a game changer, the game looks and feels amazing through SCART RGB. Easily one of the best and most fun (once you get used to the controls) 2D action games ever made.

AlienSoldierPickup_zpsrxq5fj3r.jpg
Click to expand...
Great pic. Is that a Versus City panel?
 
G

georgetheplushie

Member
LUCKY n WILD said:
Quick question though for someone who may know: When I get to the Xi-Tiger boss in Stage 6, I've seen in long play videos that there's a kind of anime like cinematic that plays out as he transforms to beast form. I'm playing on the Japanese copy and I noticed that I don't get that cinematic, the screen just flashes for a second and he's transformed. Is that normal for this version to do this? I don't think I'm hitting a button or anything.
Click to expand...
Xi-Tiger is Stage 9. I just played through the first bit of the game on my Japanese cart and tried every button combination imaginable, but there doesn't seem to be any skipping the transformation cutscene. I'm not exactly sure what to tell you.
 
C

Coda

Member
georgetheplushie said:
Xi-Tiger is Stage 9. I just played through the first bit of the game on my Japanese cart and tried every button combination imaginable, but there doesn't seem to be any skipping the transformation cutscene. I'm not exactly sure what to tell you.
Click to expand...

Okay I guess I had the stage number wrong. But that's still super weird though, I'm gonna try it again I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The 50 worst Sega Genesis/Megadrive Games- Kim Justice
Opinion Analysis Platform
8
2K
nush replied
GTA 3 (Dreamcast "Super Early Version" vs PlayStation 2) - Gameplay Comparison
Retro Trailer Indie 2 3
117
13K
polybius80 replied
First time you realized Japanese devs were GOAT?
Drama Retro Game Dev 2 3
118
4K
Spukc replied
Dreams that came true: Remember the timeline of the main rumors about the ''Dreamcast 2''
37
3K
Havoc2049 replied
Believe me, a new Sega console would repeat all the same mistakes Saturn and Dreamcast.
2 3 4
155
11K
Team Andromeda replied
Top Bottom