Amstrad Mega PC - PC and Megadrive in one! A short guide

[Bluerooster100]

Megadrive for games, Windows 3.1 for... more games.

And I bet Sonic had this computer in the 90s

[Adolf41er]

So nice... sadly those weren't avaiable in germany. :(

[muldey]

cool vid I have a genesis with sonic the hedgehog 2

[3styler1]

buy a cmos battery dude make so much easier for u, like the pc tho brings back memories

[LarryBundyJr]

The graphical garbage on the bottom of the Mega Drive games is normal, all games do that.

[MattTheSaiyan]

This looks like the ideal gift to give to the person who has everything.

[konataspecial]

i gotta find myself on of those....

[doooomster]

I like how when you mentioned the lines they went away.

[RkivUnderground]

Does the Megadrive really output in RGB? That's so cool! People have been hooking up their Genesis/Megadrives through RGB with rare and/or expensive cables, and most of the time it doesn't even output in pure RGB! I think those borders are there because the Genesis normally runs in 320x240 resolution and the video card might be outputting in 640x480.

[doritostheking]

@RkivUnderground Rare? Expensive? £12 gets you an RGB scart cable last I checked. The border there is part of the megadrive's normal video signal, usually on TVs it's cropped away. PC monitors show the whole image.

[pliam1]

I WANT ONE!!!

Where can I get one?

[sajmeister]

Thanks for this video, you know your stuff and also you gave us a very well detailed and well explained insight into a classic machine with full demonstration! Thumbs up if you agree!!

[Lachlant1984]

Is the hard drive in this machine an older stepper motor MFM hard drive or a voice coil based hard drive? It sounds to me like a voice coil hard drive, but I want to be sure.

[mrdogcat]

£2.50?! Jeezuz this cost me £500 when I bought it years ago... It was still a wate of money then.

[schnappy00]

Was it just a Megadrive subsystem hooked into the Mega PC's graphics system, or was there some real interconnectivity going on? eg. you can't dump an SMD cart using it can you?

[mintkendishin]

wow thats rare

[geordieboydave]

nice pc and megadrive built in I use to play sonic when I was little im now 21 wish I had that pc wonder if I could find one

[dreael]

Just use a "sys c:" command to make the HD bootable...

Nice piece of hardware where you can play a Sega MegaDrive game while the PC is computing something like a Mandelbrot fractal...

[RetroGamerVX]

Wow, I'm a collector of computers and for some reason, this thing had completely passed me buy, was completely unaware fo it's existance, strange concept, but I love it, I so want one now :o) Imagine that in an office, no work would have got done lol

[ny24dx2k]

£2?! you lucky bastard lol

[OhNoNotMyPenis]

finding this for £2.50

wow ur lucky

[Lachlant1984]

The music in Sonic 2 seems a little faster than I'm used to with the PAL/Mega Drive version, are you playing the NTSC version? Clearly the Mega PC supports the SVP chip used in Virtual Racing, but of course the system won't support the Sega 32X or Mega CD, right?

[VikutaaChyaaruzu]

@Lachlant1984

The reason why it sounds faster is because of changes in the code to make the sound run optimally on PAL machines, but not the game. That code change was not present in the first Sonic game, and therefore sounds slower on PAL machines.

[Lachlant1984]

You mentioned the original Amstrad monitor had a loose pin on its video cable, how easy would it be to replace or resolder the pin to fix the problem? I'm assuming replacing the battery on the motherboard would be quite easy if you know what you're doing. It's a bit of a shame Nintendo didn't do something like this when the SNES was popular back in the early 90's.

[R33Racer]

£2.50, you lucky sun of a gun lol.

[phreakindee]

Shite, I want one of these so badly. Hardly any chance whatsoever in the US though

[Mosquit]

this was my first Pc...nice..

[HighTreason610]

Very nice machine and video, I have the Teradrive, but I sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of these Amstrad machines.

5 Stars.

[ScrewAttackEurope]

The distortion lines you see on Mega Drive games are Sega using parts you wouldn't normally see on NTSC screens as extra information Etc.

BTW have you ever checked if the machine has any region protection Etc on it?

[Maarmouzfahl]

J'adore les Amstrad CPC et comme console la Mégadrive II ^^ !

[maiki60fps]

I think that monitor needs to be tuned up properly for the 15 kHz video mode - the borders are too big compared to standard TV... Depends if the monitor has any options like vertical stretch etc. for both TV and PC modes together

[filecore]

@maiki60fps Yep you are right, it's because it's not the exact monitor. I've seen a Mega PC with its Amstrad monitor and the borders are more like they should be!

[localhbci]

@filecore I don't see anything wrong with the borders on the monitor (except for the general difference between a TV's overscan and a monitor's lack of overscan). That looks like proper PAL aspect ratio to me. Does Sonic 1's music play slow?

[VintageJunior]

Isn't there SCART in the UK? After all, the machine has RGB as well, doesn't it?

[betterwatchit]

Yeah, they do have SCART here in the UK. Most people use it for DVD and VHS players, and for consoles if they haven't got a HD TV.

[VintageJunior]

Then I would suggest connecting the PC to a TV via its RGB output.

[filecore]

@VintageJunior It has one VGA port. No RGB output unfortunately. Though the graphic display is very crisp, you are limited to whatever size suitable monitor you can find.

[BackForwardPunch]

Very good, very informative video! These Mega Drive/PC units are very interesting, I'd like to see one of those, just to see the RGB image quality in there. I wonder if it works with the 32x or the Power Base Convertor...

[zecle]

i forgot virtua racing came on megadrive first before 32X !! another proof that the megadrive was more powerful than the supernes, just badly optimized. starwing could run on it if well programmed. it would just have less colors and no transparency.

[SPEAKTRUTHALWAYS]

you should go easy on the keyboard, its only made of plastic.

[guitardo2]

Yeah!

Genesis does what nitenDON'T

[katakisLives]

2 words, Genesis does!!!!!

[stackertwo]

It was widely advertised in Italy!

[griftereck]

cool. I seen them in mums shopping catalogue, way back when. Wanted one but could get the cash every week for 20 weeks.

If i had it I would take of the sliding cover and have a switch, so didnt have to disconnect controllers all the time

[macdeath69]

Problem : you couldn't access the Megadrive parts with the PC so couldn't programm anything on it...

[narso310]

That's pretty awesome. They never try to combine stuff like that anymore... Too bad ;)

[Hal566]

how is there a sega cart reader on an amstrad? Did that originally come with it, or did you mod it??

[techcf]

It originally came with it.

[Hal566]

lol another company just casually puts a cart reader on they're system for another companies machine. Or did they have a partnering of some kind?

[techcf]

it was licensed from sega - Type in amstrad mega pc on wikipedia for more information, or check the wikipedia page for the sega megadrive

[Hal566]

Really? Wow thats kinda cool. I suppose those machines would be pretty rare.

[LiamDNicoll]

you need to get a 60hz switch installed into it.

[thetubeisgr8]

When I first sae this video title I thought it was a hack. I didn't realise the Saga Mega Drive actually came in a pc. When were they around ( what year?) I would love to try and get hold of one.

[andyst200]

i actually worked on these when i was at amstrad. the only thing that stopped you using it concrently as such was the little switch that the slider on the front. you couldnt use the 32x on it. i worked on the issue where some games would crash part way though them. things like alladin done this, but onl certain revsions of the cartridges. we did creat a resistor fix for this. we did discuss putting this card into other pc's but in the end decided not too

[Lachlant1984]

Were these machines available outside of the UK? Was there a US Genesis model of this system?

[filecore]

Mainly the UK. I think a few in Europe though also. Japan also had the Teradrive, which is kind of similar.

[TheBlueberryHill]

@filecore & Lachlant1984 - Australia, too. It plays US/JP games, so Lachlant you could get one to be useful in the US.

[Lachlant1984]

@TheBlueberryHill When you say 'Australia too" do you mean these machines were sold here in Australia? That wouldn't surprise me if they were because some Amstrad products were available here I believe, in fact my best friend's family apparently had an Amstrad 286 computer. I don't know how popular these computers were down here, but I'd imagine they'd be very rare now.

[TheBlueberryHill]

@Lachlant1984 - Yeah, to the best of my knowledge, though I'd recommend researching it properly. I recall seeing ads. on the TV, and am pretty sure I saw it in the computer shop I used to visit. Wikipedia also says it was released in Australia.

[Lachlant1984]

These would have been expensive back when they were made, especially the 486 version. What kind of sound card did it have? How easy would it be to install an internal CD-ROM drive into the unit?

[katakisLives]

They crammed the megadrive into all kinds of things, there was even one in a ghetto blaster, theres probably more versions of the megadrive than any other console in history

[Breton31]

Creo que no se debe soblar sobre los pines de los cartuchos porque ocasionan corrosión :O Y tampoco conectar nada con la consola o el ordenador encendido. Es la primera vez que veo que alguien inserta un cartucho con el equipo encendido pero supongo que este es un caso aparte :O

[VanDiemen08]

Can you upgrade to a modern motherboard.

[rutherfordinbelfast]

if i got one of these - noob q alert btw - could i switch the monitor for a flat screen?

[maaadkat]

We talked about the MegaPC a bit at school, but I wasn't very impressed even then that you couldn't run both concurrently. IMO it should have been possible to run the MegaDrive through a windowed interface, if desired.

There was a machine in Japan called the TeraDrive (made by IBM, branded by Sega) which allowed access to the MegaDrive's RAM from the PC. I can well imagine the functionality being used to rip & replay the carts had it made its way over here.

[NacrossX2]

hello, i knew already about these freaky system, but i never though about that these thigs were 32X-ready, is it true?

[ogicabp4u]

No this is the SVP Megadrive (Genesis) version of Virtua Racing..the 32X version is called Virtua Racing Deluxe. The MegaPc came out before the 32X.

[gray8092]

i have a mega pc with the original monitor, keyboard and mouse!! all for 2.50

[dewi555]

my first ever PC when I was at uni. Too much time spent on the mega drive and not enough on the PC!!!

[shorty1k]

I want that white controller!

[Lachlant1984]

Does the machine have a sound card for use with DOS/Windows programs, or is the audio output only used for Mega Drive games?

[filecore]

It has a sound card that works for both sides.

[maaadkat]

I thought it was AdLib for the PC vs standard integrated MegaDrive audio

[hardmancanada]

cool PC. The Sega genesis is my favorite console of all time.for me it's the best

[fdpoiuy]

Virtua Racing has the SVP technology - a rarity for the system.

[fdpoiuy]

I have Virtua Racing in my own Mega Drive.

[ThatGuyJinn]

This was my very first computer. Got it for Christmas when I was nine-years-old. Bit of a waste of money though, as I only ever used the mega drive feature. I used to play that racing game as well. I think I remember the cartridge being larger than every other game that I had. I recall bragging on the playground that I had a £1000 Sega:) Made my old buddies jealous as hell though when they saw it. This thing was awesome!

[sajmeister]

Thanks very much, this video is very helpful! 5* I have seen these Amstrad Mega PCs back in the day in shops like John Lewis and alos in catalogues but they were so damn expensive and also I never actually had any hands on experience with one but now thanks to you, I was able to see what it was all about.

Thanks so much filecore, appreciate your insight!

[Lachlant1984]

I didn't know that Amstrad made a computer with a MegaDrive in it, I understand that IBM made one for the Japanese market in 1990/1991.

[tallirasha]

dam i remember when these were in the department store

[bocatablanco]

eso es un emulador... no seais ineptos..

o si no es mentira..

[towys007]

el juego corre muy lento si lo comparas con la consola original

[Hindleyak]

Wow man. Didn't know this thing existed... that is "ultra cool", to use a slightly dated term

[tribalmasters]

Acorn akf50 monitor?

[filecore]

An AKF50 will work. This one though is an AKF52 :)

[ninelivecat]

Remember when it came out bit of an unusual concept There was a minature slick black Sega Megadrive/Genesis also

[Dioxaz]

Thank you very much for that video! I now have a proof that a multisync monitor actually works very well on the Mega PC (with both MD and PC parts).

And I can say this is the best solution, as the monitor can go up to 800x600 in resolution for example.

My solution consists in using a TV and a separate-to-composite sync converter and works very well for the MD part but less for the PC part (a VGA-to-SCART TSR is required, and some SVGA modes don't work). On a good TV, the result is superb.

[thegreatbobbobson]

My Amstrad came with GEM OS. Man I loved GEM!

[ThisIsGonnaBeCool]

woah. thats so cool. a genesis withing a computer! man. (this isnt sarcasm)

[banoo100]

i loved this computer! i had one and sold it for £5. wish i hadnt now lol

[corypollard]

Ah Memories...

I had the same model but with 1mb ram 40mb hd.

I remember the built in animations fascinated me, do you have those on there.

I wouldn't mind getting one from ebay...

[acidhouseitalia]

Hi man look on ebay..I am selling it now

[filecore]

Yep, all the original Amstrad software is on there as well!

[philion7777777]

YES MATE, I WANNA BUY IT!!!!!!!!!

[zoidberg2504]

Ah man I wanted one of these so bad when I was about 12!