The Ultimate SEGA Genesis Hardware Guide | C:C:\ | IRL 

Important to note that the Model 1 has reverse polarity “center negative” like a lot of older Japanese electronics. Unfortunately, the rest of the world mostly settled on center positive (the opposite polarity) with the same 5.5x2.1mm connector. There’s definitely more to it than matching the voltage with enough amps on a plug that fits… and keep it away from Atari 400/800 (AC), NES (AC), Atari 5200 (polarity), etc. Atari Jaguar, Famicom, Super Famicom, etc are all good with Model 1 Genesis and Sega CD. :)

Definitely notice a difference in sound now but back in the early to mid 90’s myself nor anyone else I knew who owned a Sega Genesis Model 1 or “2” noticed or talked about any difference or “issue” with the sound back then. We mostly played on older TVs with mono speaker using RF and if anyone hooked up to a stereo or eventually got a TV with stereo speakers it was an improvement regardless of the Genesis internal circuitry. Nobody talked and that stuff back then.

Chuck Rock is essential. 90's cheese at it's best!

More AV cable derpage: The Hyperkin HD Genesis cable includes the wrong DIN8 adapter for the Model 1 with pins 6 and 7 in the wrong place (260° vs 270°). You can force them in but the pins will want to spring back causing the whole plug to back out of the connector. Their adapter would be correct for Neo Geo but not Model 1 Genesis. That said, the thing was pointless anyway. Like so many other purveyors of such junk, they literally used a scaler that doesn’t properly support 240p on a console that was natively 240p. This caused all sorts of artifacts on Genesis and was literally worse than connecting to whatever analog inputs your digital TV was likely to have anyway.

😎😎

If you don’t mind, I’m about to throw a monkey wrench into your spreadsheet: Sega actually reverted to producing M1 VA6 AFTER they started producing M1 VA7. Of course, the boards were identical to VA5/6 with the difference being what components are populated so they never updated the markings to say VA6.5. If you are missing the EXT port then it’s VA6.5. Anyway, I’ve analyzed the dates stamped into the shells with injection mold inserts/markings and the latest date codes on chips to conclusively prove this, but the biggest smoking gun is the double-strike on the mold markings in July 1992. You see, I have a Japanese VA7 where they had just changed to the new molds with an integrated ring, so the only mark on the grid of months and years (1992, 1993, 1994) is June 1992. I have a Japanese VA6 from the same exact mold where they added marks for July, August, and September of the same year… and the one for July is marked TWICE to denote a major change that happened in July. The rest of the chip dates concur: My latest Japanese VA6 was definitely made AFTER the VA7 and has newer components across the board. July is when they reverted for Japanese units. This also tracks with the move from stickers to embossed text on the bottom. FWIW, Japan never ditched the EXT port on Model 1, not even for VA7, so I can only call them early and late VA6 though the later ones were probably still considered VA6.5 by SEGA. The injection mold markings and mold inserts are different on Taiwan vs Japan-produced American consoles but they definitely track with the Japanese changes. This explains why so many units without “High Definition Graphics” on the ring are VA6.5. Also, the only PAL VA7 I’ve ever seen was a Brazillian console with an American board and unpopulated (missing) RF modulator. That’s because VA7 had issues at 50Hz and was never released in PAL50 territories (Brazil was essentially PAL60). You might have heard of the infamous “VA6.8” for PAL territories, which is an artifact of this. The Model 2 VA0 chipset was the same as the VA7 meaning it still had issues in PAL50 territories. Until a proper PAL-compatible version of the chipset could be produced, they had to keep producing Model 1 VA6.5 for PAL50 territories. They continued doing this until they ran out of the Sony CXA-1145P video encoders which were no longer available in through-hole DIP (dual in-line packages). The revised model 2 chipset for VA1+ still wasn’t ready so they had to fit the same surface-mount encoder from the M1 VA7 and Model 2 into a stop-gap VA6 revision. Since late VA6 boards were technically VA6.5 with the same VA5/6 PCB, they never updated the board markings which still refer to VA5/6. This is why VA6.5 is often still called VA6, but they were finally forced to update the board for the surface mount encoder so it finally reads something else: “VA6.8.” They squeezed it in between VA6.5 and VA7 even though it came later. ;) So, yeah, VA7 came before the latest VA6/6.5 and 6.8. SEGA backpedaled a bit for whatever reason and backpedaled even longer in PAL50 regions for known reasons.

Dat Booba in Dragon's Revenge. WHOOAA

SO much great info here, we all owe you a beer.

In this video you thanked your mother and father, but I do not want to thank my parents because they did not buy me SEGA Genesis, just to avoid paying the money. My father used to work two jobs one during the day and one at night. For this reason he would not pay the money he was almost sick to earn to buy a console for me just so I could play and be happy.

One revision you left out was the JVC X'eye. It sounds slightly different than any other revision of Genesis hardware.

This video was amazing. I'm very grateful that you went out of your way to do this research on different genesis models and their specific motherboard revisions. This helped me figure out that my genesis model 2 was a VA4 so now I know that it isn't the cables at fault for weird audio issues that I had. Also I'm glad that they story of how you got your genesis stolen somewhat had a happy ending. You were able to get another model 2 and it was one of if not the best motherboard revisions. I wish I saw this guide last year when I bought my genesis, but since I'm able to mod mine, it's not too big of a deal. Thanks again for making this video.

16:00 - That’s the Sony CXA-1145/P video encoder. The VDP is the big square chip to the lower right of it.

Aladdin used to kick my ass when I was a little kid. I just tried Pocohontas recently and I really dig yhe graphics on that one

Love how this goes into so much detail for each model and how each part works! I'm trying to learn things from the assembly side, this is something I think I'll reference along the way. I do have to say though, for quintessential Genesis gaming, there's a few games on here towards the end I didn't mention but some of them can be quite pricey. Toejam and Earl is a MUST play for the Genesis! Otherwise, I'm a huge fan of RPGs and the Genesis has a couple great ones that I know of in the form of Phantasy Star and Shining Force. Additionally, I can't not mention Comix Zone. The game is a technological marvel for its time and really highlights the best of what the Genesis has to offer! I also highly recommend Ristar as well, it's a fun little platformer where you play as a shooting star! You can grab things and jettison yourself with carefully placed poles you can swing from to gain momentum, and the levels and themes are memorable! However I'm glad you mentioned the 6 Pack, I had that back in the day. Soooo many good memories.

Good video man!

Great video!

Dude the Startup Screen in ASCII is Killer New Sub if you're still active on here! Dryden, Michigan

ONLY 700 VIEWS WTF. Bro this is great!

this deserves more attention

14:13 please make sure it has the same polarity. For example the sega genesis model 2, 32x, Sega genesis nomad, game gear all use the same power brick and has a center positive type plug whereas the sega genesis model 1, sega cd 1 and 2 use a center negative plug

Model 3 VA1 is compatible with Gargoyles, the VA2 is not, not even with the Triple Bypass. IMO it’s important to know the Model 3 video encoder & sound circuitry is similar to and in some instances superior to the quality of many Model 1 revisions as the Model 3 is not susceptible to “rainbow banding” or “jail bars” that many Model 1 & Model 2 consoles are thus providing the Model 3 with fantastic video & audio (albeit mono). My favorite Genesis is my Model 3 with Triple Bypass mod with my Mega Everdrive Pro. Sega CD looks & sounds fantastic on it too

FIRST!

Sony was sneaky by not only providing the soundchip for the snes but also those headphone amps and vdp chip for the genesis,as if sony worked behind the back of nintendo in wich they had a deal with,it can’t be any more stranger then this,maybe that’s also why nintendo betrayed sony once signing a deal with philips for the snes CDaddon wich never came to fruition, But aside from that,i liked both the genesis and snes as a kid,i just wanted to have a 16bit system over my 8bit nes,i found the amiga cool as well with it’s 16bits graphics.

Wow.. I made it through the whole video. Cookie. Lol. I have two model 1 Genesis and a model 2. The model 1's one is the high definition model and the other isnt. The hi definition model has some cracks in the case and I was going to try to sell it since I dont need two of the same but recently found out about the different revisions models so curious what all I have. Will have to look through this video again. Thanks for the info!

How about the JVC X'Eye console?

But did you fix the reset button on the Genesis you got as a teenager?

Sad that your House got burgled , this it reminds me of some Muslim countries that have no crimes like that .