Quirks of SEGA Backwards Compatibility 

Funfact: Tectoy, the Brazilian company which manufactured the Mega Drive on Brazil built in the powerbrick inside the console itself (as also a measure to save costs) the Japanese higher ups told Tectoy to not do this because it would overheat and make more fragile. Tectoy showed them that not only was viable not overheating the console but the also did a lot of drop test on front of them that it wouldn't break the console. That made Sega of Japan to include the powerbrick inside Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.

The reason why Game Gear games can't be play on the Sega Genesis but Sega Master System games could was because of the higher color palette the Game Gear feature. Despite being a 16-Bit console, the Sega Genesis is still 1988 tech whereas the Game Gear even though it's 8-Bit is a 1990 tech. Because of that Genesis only had a 512-color palette whereas Game Gear had a 4096-color palette. The Genesis just couldn't handle all the extra colors that the Game Gear was able to produce thus it wasn't compatible with the Game Gear's library.

The very first revision of the Dreamcast could play CD-G discs, which is actually how people were able to burn pirated games onto run of the mill CD-Rs. They'd use an exploit in the CD-G compatibility, and run the game code, which is why later revisions dropped CD-G compatibility.

very small very obscure thing you missed: there's very few Master System games that only play properly on the Master System 2 and later revisions, due to their use of the MS's sprite zoom feature, which is broken in the original Master System. main one I know of is Earthworm Jim (which iirc is a Brazil exclusive). these games have badly scaled graphics in both the original Master System as well as all Genesis models (sprite zooming was completely taken out), but should be compatible with the Game Gear (sprite zoom mode works properly in this one, and is actually used by plenty of GG games)

Man I love this series so much! Shout out to Sega for going out of the way to make so many consoles backwards compatible with games and controllers! I never knew about the Game Gear having an adapter to play Master System games, wild!

A SEGA executive actually donated a shit ton of money to make up for the Dreamcast losses.

I'm sure this was a pain in the ass to put together. You doin God's work son

Wow this must have been either really fun or an absolute nightmare to research. Just the insane depth lol the little transitions and animations and effects sprinkled throughout too. Killer work on this! Your sub count vs video quality is a crime lol if you're reading this wyd go sub

The research you did for this video that she chew made the knowledge you have is absolutely it will during an outstanding, great video and I can't believe how much I've learned

3:09 I STILL HAVE THAT! My first console. As it turns out, modern video games are extremelly expensive in Brazil, so the market for clones of old consoles is very popular in lower-income families (Like the legendary Polystation which is a NES clone with a PS1 casing); and since Tectoy was the official SEGA proxy here, they just never lost the rights to keep launching new versions of Mega Drive and Master Systems; For the record, most of those post-2000 rereleases don't run cartridges. Yes, that cartridge cover is just a blatant lie, it's solid plastic; it only runs a set of games that it has built-in memory. Brazillian consoles is a very fun little rabbit hole i always love to see it mentioned arround

Nice video. I remember when the first pictures of the Saturn were being shown in magazines back in the say and we all assumed that the cart slot on the back was a Mega Drive/32x slot. I still find it strange with all the Genesis variations that it turn out to be just a memory card slot. Sega were all over the shop back then with the Saturn days. It's a shame what happened falling down so quickly after such a rise. I mean, if I remember correctly... Sega Japan really wanted to incorporate Saturn backwards compatibility with the Dreamcast as the Saturn was their biggest smash console in Japan and was still selling well into '98 and was dropped to keep cost down. Same reason as the DVD edition Dreamcast. Just 4yrs and they were already near bankruptcy

Hi! I'm Brazilian and a Master System collector. Master System III wasn't released in 2008, it was a 90s product. It's the same as Master System 2 in the rest of the world. Our Master System 2 was the original one, but with Alex Kidd in the memory, instead of Safari Hunt and Hang On. But Tec Toy released new Master System versions until the late 2010s, although they were terrible emulator machines.

A brilliant video, and fascinating to hear it in so much detail. While I own the main consoles, the only bit of extra hardware I have is the Powerbase Converter.

Great video, I definitely learned some new things, especially different versions of the infamous Towers of Power possibilities

Finding your Nintendo video in my recommendations has me hooked! These vids are super entertaining and well researched! I hope you continue to create, because I absolutely love your style!

I'll have the big donkey

We had the Powerbase in tthe UK to let us play Master System games on the Megadrive.

23:32 The reason Genesis couldn't play Game Gear games is the same reason the Master System couldn't despite having very similar hardware: the Game Gear had a massive color palette. To make it work, many colors would need to addressed to one Genesis color, which isn't easy, and would make games look weird.

It's so odd to see my subtitled retro commercials showing up all over youtube even years later.

smashing like for the ratchet and clank music and the iron man joke at the same time

That Crash Bash Warp Room music is legendary! This is also such an epic, in-depth video!!

Wow look at those nails 🩵

I really enjoyed this video!

Great video! Missing the Aiwa Mega CD though :P

you not only contextualize sega in brazil, but also used duelists of the rose songs in the sound track. you, sir, got a subscriber

Brazilian here. One quirk of the later (late 90's to mid 2000's) models of the Master System II released by TecToy here is that they had the YM2311 FM chip built-in, which was used to play the main menu music. I remember it played a rendition of the Sonic 2 2P Versus results in the game selection menu in the Master System III Collection with 72 built-in games. I'm not sure if it was actually used in any compatible games though. I think by the 120 built-in games model the FM chip was gutted and the menu music was back PSG only. There also another Brazil exclusive model released in mid 2000's by TecToy called Master System Handy, which was the Mega Jet of the SMS. One giant controller that plugs to the TV. It has 27 built-in games, and was pretty much accurate to the original SMS hardware, all games play and sound as they should, but it had no FM chip and no cartridge slot. I don't know if it can be modded to add a cartridge slot.

Props for the twinkle snow music and the dope nails

2:14 Did anybody else clock the Nonce in the background. They always used to hang round the Arcades. I caught a few back in the days when I worked for Sega. The security guards used to take them in the back ally and beat them up. 😅

Add timestamps/chapters and proper subtitles, this video will be perfect

13:40 I was actually able to cartridge swap with my model 2 Genesis back in the day. I unlocked Sonic 3's level select by inputing the level select code in Sonic 2, then cartridge swapping to Sonic 3. MUCH easier than trying Sonic 3's hard as **bleep** method.

I was just gonna watch the vid and call it a day but the fact you called the model 1 cd the power bottom earned the like and subscribe. good fucking shit

Lmao that intro

Nice collection of facts! One more thing about something you either didn't know or care to include: The Mark III, Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis I use the same AV cables. And since the 8bit consoles only have mono sound the cables aren't wired for stereo. That's why the Mega Drive I has the headphone jack in the front. When the Mega Drive II came around they switched to a different AV jack which was wired for stereo and thus they had no need to keep the headphone jack.

The problem with Sega is they didn't focus on their customers, they focused more on their rivals.

The sega saturn expansion memory cart thing was the same shape as a us master system cart. I remember they are the exact same cartridge slot shape. So physically a master system cart will slide into a sega saturn, but doesnt do anything because the pin out is different

9:37 As a casual Yu-Gi-Oh fan, this card is easily the second most cursed thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of laying eyes on.

Interesting note - the DE-9 port, usually known as the DB-9, isn't 100% compatible across all systems that use it because of a difference in which pins carry the power. For example, a Sega Genesis pad used in a Commodore 64 has the potential to fry the C64's controller port chip. Pressing the "Start" button on the Genesis pad sends power to the chip in a place it doesn't expect it. So it's best to double-check which controllers are safe to use with which systems.

I used to have the JVC X'EYE, it was a nice system, even though it was compatible with the 32X, on the games that were CD 32X, it was very challenging with the fact that the 32X was over the CD flip-up door.

00:12 You mean should be spelled BANK - RUPT haha he just left the end off. JK anyway as always i love your content.

Something I would like to note about the game gear since you mentioned the power cables in the genesis section, the japanese game gears use the old genesis 1 power cables and the us use the new genesis 2 cables if you decide to plug it into the wall

19:08 It does baffle me that both of Sega's handhelds had this option, I had a friend who had a Nomad so I am among the few who knew it existed lol.

iirc sega originally wanted the Dreamcast to play Saturn games but only in Japan because the Saturn was more successful there. Obviously it didn’t happen though.

23:14 So take me back in time / To another world / When you can be mine / We don't have to worry / When you're by my side / There's nothin' I don't know / There's nothin' to decide / Apart from where we want to go

your nails look great

Sega My Cards remind me of HuCards, which were the primary storage medium for the NEC PC Engine/Turbografx-16.

Maybe I misheard you when you were talking about the Sega Pico. It sounded like you said that they were only available in Japan (true of the Sega Advanced Pico Beena), however the original Pico WAS sold in the U.S. I almost bought one at Toys R' Us for our daughters.

7:28 I didn't know Rita Repulsa said it lol

would love to see a video about tectoy brazil and sega console releases.

Hi. I found you. I'm happy I found you

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loved your humor

Atari (And Commodore to a lesser degree) are going to be interesting to cover

Funny you're talkin about specific proprietary AC adapters when I have always ran my version 2 Genesis on a slightly under voltaged RC car charger and I never had any issues

Seeing the PETSCII characters on the Sega SC-3000 makes me think that that computer was actually developed by Commodore.

You have a cool cat

Hey, I will hear no badmouthing of the Sega scream.

2:24 croc music... nice

God damnit. I miss them so much.

took me a sec to realize opeth in the background lol

8:50 Dragon Wang Spotted

One thing you forgot: The Sega Master System had an FM synthesis unit. Yes it is actually possible you can modify the Sega Master System to have it except FM sound; but it does not work on the Power Base converter. If only there was an FM synthesis mod that could be done for the Sega Power Base converter... ashame.

2:00 everyone takes people freely sharing the solutions to difficult problems for granted these days not knowing it has slowly drying up.

Well, technically the Drikara Add-On for the Dreamcast brought back the Karaoke functionality ;). But it was Japan only.

It is weird that some games using the Mega Drive adaptor needed a Master System controller. I was one of the few that I know of that had Master System 3 with Alex Kid in the BIOS (most people had Sonic in it already on that model, and it was an european version of the game since he was eating a hamburger and the attach and jump keys are inverted). At one point a controller was damaged and my father bought me a Mega Drive one to use instead... And it always worked perfectly.

Legit have a jvc x'eye plugged to my living room tv as well as a pioneer laseractive with an officially licensed sega module that lets it play genesis and sega cd games

Top stuff

The Mega Jet explains everything. They didn’t develop a from the ground up Genesis handheld, someone suggested putting a screen on to their handheld console!

8:28 I don't know what it is about this ad, but maybe if I spoke Japense their acting wouldn't seem so good.

Tiny nitpicky detail but 15:40 that's optional. Back in the day it'd come with an alternate adapter which gave it a cable end, putting the brick in the middle, and even today you can still buy that separately.

I used to use Genesis controllers to play Amiga games. Good ol DE9

Narrator: "SEGA CHALLANGES YOU WITH THE ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME CONSOLE! THE SEGA MASTER SYSTEM!" Random Child: "Trash"

Saturn is well known for its ram expansions in Japan and vcd upgrade card.

I like your nail polish, it's like a greener version of one I wear sometimes

I'd be very curious to see the difference between the TV commercials from Sega of America versus Sega Japan.. I'm sure they had different market teams for various regions.

It's ironic, with talks of Sega and Microsoft once again getting together, I can't help but wonder what the future holds for Sega. They'll always be my first love, and I'd love to see them have some form of input into the direction of the market, even if it's only getting the logo on the next Xbox.

Sega Saturn and Sega dreamcast isn't bad at alll, they are both great.

So let's see her I owned the model 1 gensis a 32x mushroom top, gamegear a model 3 genisis and a dreamcast I saw the Saturn in stores but never had one had to play Sonic R on PC. I do miss those days and bought a used Dreamcast to play crazy taxi and such.

Concerning the DE-9 ports, while one can safely plug Genesis controllers into an Atari 2600, you *can't* just do so plugging them into a Commodore 64; I've heard somewhere that this fries something in the system, unless you do some modding first.

As envious as I could be that Mega Drive had an adapter to play Master System games and SNES didn't, it must be said that I wonder if the onslaught of add-ons and peripherals helped build fatigue against them in the SEGA audience, no matter if they were bad or good ideas. I'd also very much have liked it if the Xbox managed to include Dreamcast compatability, as that way my used Xbox could also be used to play D remcasts and I wouldn't have to hunt down and buy one of those to play Tech Romancer...

Minor detail but the Genesis version of Virtua Racing doesn't work on a 32X

aw yea this is happnn

20:05 i took the gamestar images there and its board, but not the alt box

Came with one of two games Dragon Star or Wang Jacker...

Sega should've made the Dreamcast backwards compatible with the Sega CD, Saturn, & NEO-GEO CD

You skipped one little thing, literally. The overseas Master System has the exact same card slot as the Card Catcher for My Cards, but they will always show a software error. The reason is that, for some reason, Sega feared imports like the plague (maybe because of SG-1000 piracy in Taiwan), so they added a routine in the BIOS to check a header in the card, which would be absent in all My Cards. If the check fails, the game won’t run.

I wonder what would happen if Nintendo only focused on making games.

The true tower of power is: a sega saturn,(which is backwards compatible with the mega drive/genesis) the 32X, the genesis/Megadrive game genie, virtua racing (which has a second port for a second game) and then the Power base converter or sonic and knuckles and then the power converter (which can and will try to boot up blue sphere but it doesent detect the master system games and it confuses itself and crashes)

Yeah back in like 2000 i was gifted a dream-cast and a big ol cd case with every dream cast game burnt. I couldn't beat half of them due to some still being Japanese. Never knew people said jet "grind" radio till recently cause i never had an American one.

omg didnt nintendo do the card writer thing with stores too

23:04 Crash Bash warp room music

3:10 So i had this console as a kid, and i was very sure i didn't get this one after 2008, ain't no damn way. There's not a lot of information that i could find about the million different console variations that tec toy released, but it seems that this particular version was released around 1992. There's another master system 3 (no "compact" in the name), that doesn't have a cartridge slot and it's probably the one that released in 2008, which would explain the modern sonic art on the console, so this is probably where the confusion came from.

00:29 I mean, Cosby is not in jail now, so maybe you can go ask him if he still has that license to print money. If he does, it may not have aged poorly after all. Maybe he could even pass it on to you. Though whether you would want his license to print money is another matter.

I love the PS3 on DC hack with the elastic band… amazing home brew teams!!! What’s more amazing though is playing Xbox 360 games on my Commodore 64 using a plastic bottle and some string!! #c64

Sega’s commitment to back compat is astonishing. Looking back they should have done what Nintendo continue to do. New console? Better buy the same game again!

I've heard the Master System and Genesis controllers are also compatible with some of the Atari consoles

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The claim that the Dreamcast had NO copy protection is half true. Dreamcast games were on GD-Rom discs which had copy protection. The reason the Dreamcast could play games off a CD with no mods was because of the Dreamcast's ability to play Mil CDs which were interactive CDs. Where they messed up here was that while there was checks to make sure the Dreamcast games which were on GD-Rom discs were legit and the right region, Mil CDs had none of that meaning you could burn Dreamcast ISOs onto CD-RS and pass them off as Mil CDs. The only caviot is that GD-Rom discs stored more data than a CD so pirated games on burned CD had to be compressed or modified to be able to fit onto a CD such as removing some FMV or stuff like that. If the original X-Box was backwards compatible with Dreamcast games like suggested by SEGA in a move to migrate Dreamcast owners to the Xbox since Microsoft helped with the Dreamcast, there would be no piracy problems assuming the Xbox couldn't play Mil CDs. Besides, An Xbox game wouldn't fit onto a burned CD-r.

Interested to know is there a European Version of the American "Genisis Does what Nintendon't commercial" or was it NA only?

0:26 lmao

I love the many possibilities SEGA gave us in the 80th and 90th. But sadly they lost customers trust while releasing too many expensive systems in a short time. I also straight moved on from the Mega Drive to the Playstation and then Dreamcast, my favorite console of all time.