Mega Drive Portable Video Game Player
From Sonic Retro
Contents
Overview
This small Mega Drive unit, designed by Digital Media Cartridge Ltd, is a dual-purpose unit, which uses a "Megadrive on a chip" to both run various built in games & play cartridges plugged into it's slot, be it normal carts or RedKid compilation cartridges.
Games on the Hong Kong release
- Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle
- Alien Storm
- Altered Beast
- Arrow Flash
- Columns III
- Crack Down
- Decap Attack
- Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- E-Swat: City Under Scope
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Ecco Jr.
- Flicky
- Gain Ground
- Golden Axe
- Jewel Master
- Kid Chameleon
- Ristar
- Shadow Dancer
- Sonic & Knuckles
- The Revenge of Shinobi II
Games on the UK release
- Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle
- Alien Storm
- Altered Beast
- Arrow Flash
- Columns III
- Crack Down
- Decapattack
- Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- E-Swat: City Under Scope
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Ecco Jr.
- Shinobi III
- Flicky
- Gain Ground
- Golden Axe
- Jewel Master
- Kidd Chameleon
- Sonic Spinball
- Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
- Sonic & Knuckles
The most notable difference is the lack of Ristar in the UK release.
Problems with the Unit
PSG sound
It seems that the PSG chip in the unit is tuned incorrectly, and all sound produced by the PSG is 7 semitones too low. While this isn't noticable on most music in games, it does occasionally become obvious, such as Knuckles' theme in Sonic and Knuckles.
TV Output
While TV output for the Hong Kong device works fine, on the UK device they made a fatal error. It has been adjusted to run at 50hz, but it still outputs an NTSC composite signal, causing it to be black and white on UK TVs that do not support the hybrid NTSC-50 standard.
Disassembly Guide
Qjimbo put together this short guide on how to take the device apart, to get a look at the components inside.
- Th pmd step 01.jpg
Step 1: Remove the batteries and every screw on the back. 5 screws in total, the battery panel screw and a screw on each corner.
- Th pmd step 02.jpg
Step 2: Prize open the the case. I found that around the volume control is a good place.
- Th pmd step 03.jpg
Step 3: Work your way around the edges. There are 2 clips on each side.
- Th pmd step 04.jpg
Step 4: Once you have undone all the clips, pull apart the case. The area around the battery compatment is stuck with sticky pads, but it is fairly easy to still pull it apart.
- Th pmd step 05.jpg
Step 5: Remove the 2 small screws each side of the main circuit board. There are actually 4 screw holes so some people may have 4 screws to remove.
- Th pmd step 06.jpg
Step 6: This part is fiddly, but carefully pull the circuit board out of the case. Again, around the volume control seems a good place.
- Th pmd step 07.jpg
Step 7: You're done!
Inside there are two chips. The large one with a seperate PCB is the ROM chip, and the one under the black blob is the CPU. Research into whether a custom ROM could somehow be run on this device is still taking place. Template:MegaDrive