Region Modded Mega Drive And 50/60hz Switch

[SovietSlayer]

i miss cartridges

[ARASHI9900]

電源のスイッチ２つあるけど、パターンは違うように見えたけど　どんな要素があったんだろう・・・。

[Gavin66627]

What's the point in doin this if u live in america? didn't u get sonic at full speed and full screen anyway?

[Maarmouzfahl]

Fucking 50Hz... it's what we have in France, I'm going to swhitch my Megadrive :D

[Dblast1234]

Obviously the guy in the video is confused and mixed up 50 and 60hz, because a 60hz signal on a old crt give black and white plus you can see that the black and white footage is faster in the sonic... which confirm he said it wrong !

[Leoooonard]

@Dblast1234 nope now ur wrong . if ur tv can take it 60hz ntsc wich most newer tvs can take it will work.

[miguelsonic432]

sonic 1 japan?

[wrestletube1]

Merks sounded like a newer game where the audio was the same on both speeds near the end of the video lol.

[peckishere]

hey, I had the same problem with my megadrive but im in the UK so when I tried to switch into 60hz from 50hz, I would get a black and white screen like that and a glitchy image. I found out that if your TV supports RGB as an input, you can get either a 50 or 60hz image to work. However you have to find a way of outputting an RGB image from the megadrive. In the UK and Europe, we can use a video connection called SCART but I don't know if TVs in japan have SCART inputs. I hope that helps

[richardmaudsley77]

Those new blaze megadrives actually have a 50/60hz switch built in. no more slow mo sonic for me!

[Leoooonard]

@peckishere or u can just get a better television that can take 60hz ntsc . alot of tvs can do this

[peckishere]

@Leoooonard

it tends to be a bit more complicated with the megadrive, each region has its own video out chip that outputs at different frequencies but bypassing them with an RGB supported cable usually eliminates the problem

[Leoooonard]

@peckishere oh ! so if i use a rgb cable on modded 60hz megadrive regular usa games or what are u sayin :P

[peckishere]

@Leoooonard

im saying that different region megadrives have different composite video out frequencies which can cause NTSC capable TVs to get confused when switching the megadrive to and from 50 to 60Hz as it is looking for either the chroma or luma signal in the wrong place. using an RGB cable usually fixes the issue as each colour is sent down the cable independently and so is the sound

on a side note, switching a PAL megadrive into 60Hz will allow it to play frequency locked USA games

[Leoooonard]

@peckishere wont the sound be disoriented? thats what everyone tells me about 50/60hz mods

[peckishere]

@Leoooonard

nope, in some occasions the sound will be sped up slightly but it depends on the coding of the game, i have some games where the sounds are sped up (for example sonic 1) and some where it doesn't make any difference. a 50/60hz mod shouldn't distort the sound or disorientate the player

[monglerrichard]

Hey could you post the link to that German tutorial video?

[MysticMerlin00]

The B/W picture has nothing to do with the TV...well not exactly...it has to do with the color carrier which is usually 4.43MHz for Pal and 3.58MHz for NTSC. Most TVs don't support NTSC 4.43MHz. You can mod the MD by soldering a crystal in serie with a cap and change the PAL/NTSC status on the SONY RGB encoder...that's how my JAP MD has been modded to a PAL 60.

[elcheapouno]

cool vid man! I'm going to try to do a 50/60hz

switch on my sms, so i can play some pal games

that I have.

[ArchedThunder]

OH CRAP, I accidently rated it poor while getting out of an msn chat, I'm sorry luke

[kennytheamazing]

That's one badass megadrive! I might do this as well when I get my mega drive.

[ivanelmasterzx]

trying to 60Hz on 50Hz console is kindda hard, but on that tipe of consoles is easier now that cd games are harder to play on diferent region

[Macster1985]

I Like the way he says "Thanks for watchin'"  at the end of every video. It makes you feel all warm inside. :)

[133MHzz]

Congrats on the mod Luke! I haven't bothered to mod mine since I don't have any import games to justify doing it.

Also, DAAAAAAMN! I don't get it. You buy a nice Sony LCD TV because Sony means quality stuff, but then it sucks for not supporting PAL. Get any crappy Chinese-brand LCD TV and it will display every standard perfectly! The cheap crappy stuff is MORE functional than the expensive premium stuff! WTF?

[133MHzz]

My VGA Box suffers from the same problem. I paid a pretty penny for a ViewSonic brand one hoping to get a better built and featured product instead of the crappy Chinese ones, but it only displays NTSC! PAL displays in black & white just like Luke's TV. Meanwhile the cheapest nastiest Chinese VGA Box can display NTSC, PAL and SECAM in full color. A weird case of more money getting you less features.

[The16bitwarrior]

I know people will appreciate wanting to play games at 60Hz but I prefer games at the 50Hz standered. after playing pal Sonic and playing it 60Hz on emulator to me the sound track sounds better at the slower 50Hz speed maybe it was how I played it back then but I thought the sound track at 50Hz speed had more umph in it.

[133MHzz]

You grew up with it so you like it better. I bet you can't see the flicker on your 50 Hz TV either. I live in a NTSC country and when I went to a PAL one for vacation the local TV was so flickery to me that it made me sick... but of course the natives didn't notice a thing and thought that I was cuckoo :-P.

[matthewh16]

It looks like for PAL Tv's at 50Hz, instead of just changing the refresh, it actually slows down the entire CPU. Odd...

[133MHzz]

It slows the CPU indeed, because there is only one master frequency to run every component of the hardware in perfect sync.

[neofreak91]

hey luke

also add s-viseo out is easy to mod and real stereo out

[danthebusman]

thats a great mod, im going to do mine soon.

[R0KURU]

awesome man

[latenote]

Great work! I came across your video as I was looking up this mod. I will be attempting this mod myself when I get a soldering iron and tri-colour LED, wish me luck ey.

[ianwilson1978]

Having a PAL MD back as a kid at launch Luke I noticed the difference now with having a JAP version. Much better having the games in full screen @ 60hz! Could never open up my Jap MD though, need to keep it original and my OCD couldnt handle it! Great vid man :-)

[412caramel]

Your a beast at the modding dude crazy stuff!

[BigUnitDJ]

WOW didn't know Mega Drive games had more than one language on them.

[8BitROB]

Very interesting video as always!

[KevinLieber]

that's really cool - good work, dude!

[OneHalfOfTheSketch]

That's mad how the language changes on the title screen

[xdragonquestx]

your so tech savy.

[InfiniteGears]

flick the system to 50Hz wen u start PAL games up and while the game is playing flick it to 60Hz, it theory and videos ive seen it should work ...

[MartyPotatoes]

Luke man you seriously need to upload diagrams of your mods

[MNC122703]

Man Luke that Megadrive is your bitch man lol

[KieranD212]

i had that game on my UK mega drive, pretty fun to bad i gave it away

[Fuuraisen]

Sonic says: 50HZ??? I don't give a ****..Zooooom!!

[LCDragonrats]

That is incredible Luke! I would so love to purchase a modded 50/60 Hz PAL/NTSC Sega from ya! :)

[anon6655]

BEAUTIFUL!!! Hey dude, that package is being sent out man, hopefully you get that some time next week!

[Nionel]

Interesting mods, I haven't seen anything like this before, I am relatively new to this though. Nice video Luke, and as always I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[ubahquiet]

That was pretty cool.

Hm, I wish I had the tools and equipment needed, then I could probably do something with one of the old SNESes I have lying around...I know where to find a tutorial to make a handheld SNES, I'd try that.

[TameFan]

welcome to pal

[oldgamingfart]

They used to optimize PAL games by adding black borders around the sides of the image. Even then it was still slower than the NTSC version of the same game.

[MacReadyRJ]

Cool mod, Luke. I have a 50/60 Hz switch on my US Super Nintendo and that works fine. Gotta buy Mercs on the Mega Drive, looks cool. Never played the game before.

[vermillion138]

phatness

[Atarix777]

hmmm, maybe I should mod my baby, too...

[TurboTelevision]

Great stuff as always!

[ScrewAttackEurope]

Lol 50hz, welcome to my childhood.

Only saving grace old PAL machines had are they're the ideal resolution for widescreen TV's.

Also your mod, would it also change the language/title for some games? I mean can you try playing it with Bare Knuckle?

[evilslothman]

yes that would work. i have a uk copy of streets of rage 2 and using the switch it changes it to bare knuckle 2. so yes it works.

[sinistermoon]

Nice man. That would work nice with my multi-sync monitor. Alecjahn has an awesome video showing people how to do the region mod.

[evilslothman]

hmmm that's strange usually when in pal mode it would have borders on top and bottom. wait ntsc is 480 horizontal lines while pal is 576 that's why the bottom line isn't showing.

[133MHzz]

Yup, Luke's TV is having quite a time trying to keep the picture centered.

[marvelmania]

The Megadrive is really easy to mod.

When I modded mine it was the first time i ever soldered something, easy peasy ^^

[captainnintendo]

I feel so empty inside. To know that as a kid i played the slow ass version of Sonic:( Why does Us Europeans always get the crap.

Importing here is a bitch. If i import a console i often wont run on our power outlet.

1. Because it dosn't fit here

2. Because i would end up with a fried console

Maybe i should make a rant about regions for game one da:D

Great vid.

[Vkmies]

Agreed. Im from finland. And now that i know that i played the slow version... I feel betrayed. Europeans gets always betrayed. Contra is Probotector, Contra 4 didnt come out here, etc... And yes. Why in the hell do we have different power outlet than everybody else?

[captainnintendo]

Yeah it's a pain. And sometimes we never get the games... Like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Hey you Pikachu... And have you heard they have removed the casino from the European version of the new pokemon?. Europe sucks:/ especially us here in Scandinavia. im from Denmark myself.

[Vkmies]

yeah... I still dont get why the fuckin' hell didnt we get super mario RPG!?!

[Leoooonard]

@captainnintendo lol why is scandinavia worse then living in the rest of europe free healthcare ! and we got mr gimmick,taranigma and secret of mana! wich is all very popular games that werent big in usa or didnt released there

[ZeldaMaster408]

good mod

[Lachlant1984]

How new is that TV set? All new TV sets that I've seen have both PAL and NTSC support, I'm surprised the one you're using doesn't.

[BettyBlowtorchRocks]

thats kinda wierd pretty much all pal tvs nowerdays do both 50/60hz you would think ntsc would be the same specially if its a hdtv you would think that that kinda compatibility would be standed.

[jugghead82]

Luke that is fucking Amazing

[RomeoGoesRetro]

luke can you give me a link to the tutorial?

[lukemorse1]

Thanks man. I can't seem to find it. It was a related video at the end of my av mod video but I can't see it there. maybe it's just my pc acting up. Try to look at the end of my av mod vid in the related vids that pop up

[codenamegamma]

see, runs about 15 percent slower, oddly enough if you put in sonic 2 the music should be optimized and not change with the 50/60 switch, but the gameplay will still be slower.

[VideoGamer945]

whoa, how does it knowto change the title screen, isn't that like, a picture?

[tomatzu]

I can see why it's a problem on NTSC TV's. To be fair, PIC Micro does a much better job, and the language chip is only used in a couple of games (ie Mercs as you've demonstrated) and isn't actually a lockout chip at all. The Megadrive then is a much easier system to mod because of that.

The SNES is a much harder beast to mod because it has two sets of lockouts. Not only 50/60, but also system specific. A US chip from any US game will allow you to play certain titles (ie SMRPG, CT).

[mafiosotucanazo]

bam! that's how you do it.

[tchdotshow]

nice video cool you know how to do all of this stuff

[alecjahn]

SHWING! Delicious success. Now I just need to find me a copy of Mercs. :P

[gospodinmoskri]

1st comment :) nice video luke