**ANOTHER UPDATE** The Sega Mega Drive 35, the gang's all here!!!

[OptOut | 8,892]

You thought there were only 2, or like 3 Mega Drives maybe? You thought WRONG, sister.

Bam. Mega Drive 35. Proving once again, and without doubt, that SEGA will slap their license on basically ANYTHING at all, regardless of quality or reason. Let's flip this bitch over for closer inspection.

35 in 1 game list. 12 REAL game list. What the fuuuuuuuuu.....?

Okay, so this is the Mega Drive THREE then? Not 35? I feel utterly swindled at this point, I paid for 35, I got 3. Fuggin SEGA! Over-promise under-deliver EVERY SINGLE TIME! 

I think we've found it, folks. We've done it. We got him. The worst controller of all time. Worse than the XBOX Duke, worse than the Dreamcast pad... Look at the dopey fucking smile on the guy! It's like he knows what he did. 

You happy with yourself SEGA? Slap a fucking hologram on this shit? You really want everyone to KNOW you did this?

Jesus, even the power supply is branded! There's no hiding the responsibility for crimes that have been committed here. 

Speaking of crimes, here's the 35 in 1 game list, which are apparently distinct from REAL games... Glad to see Sonic the Hedgehog makes the list 3 times, as does Sonic 6... Officially licensed. By SEGA. With the hologram. Why. WHY?!

There's a little manual in here with English and everything... It's clear that someone had big plans for the Mega Drive 35 at some point. Dangerous plans. Evil plans.

In conclusion, WTF.

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by OptOut

[phart010 | 1,708]

Any chance this is not actually licensed and the manufacturer is just falsely using the licensed by Sega emblem? 
 

Or maybe it’s just from the period when Sega stopped caring

[OptOut | 8,892]

23 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Any chance this is not actually licensed and the manufacturer is just falsely using the licensed by Sega emblem? 
 

Or maybe it’s just from the period when Sega stopped caring

I am quite confident this this WAS indeed officially licensed by SEGA. Based on a bit of research I've been doing, this was released in multiple different countries, and in a few different variations over a number of years, including in Japan itself.

In my experience dealing with bootleg and knock-off goods, back then the bootleggers normally went out of their way to REMOVE any reference to the trademarks of the original companies whose products they are ripping off. It would be practically unheard of for an older product like this to be emblazoned so boldly and sold so widely if it wasn't in fact actually licensed.

Of course these days bootleggers out of China just make one-to-one shit and don't even care about the trademarks, but that wasn't the case in the 80s to early 00s.

Besides, as you say, would your really put it past SEGA of all people to slap their name on this shit?! 

[phart010 | 1,708]

Why even make the 35 in 1 game list of your gonna put the real game list right next to it. It’s like, hey guys we want to be honest about how many games are really on here.. But since we’re selling this in Asia, we still have to carry on the silly tradition of making a large list of duplicate titles 

[OptOut | 8,892]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Why even make the 35 in 1 game list of your gonna put the real game list right next to it. It’s like, hey guys we want to be honest about how many games are really on here.. But since we’re selling this in Asia, we still have to carry on the silly tradition of making a large list of duplicate titles 

I know it's ridiculous, especially because when you boot it up, it's literally just the 35 in 1 screen, there are no "REAL" games to be found, lol!

I am assuming the reason for that is that it's something SEGA may have requested. I have reason to believe that this system originally DID start out as an unlicensed bootleg, and for whatever reason SEGA took a shine to it and asked them to polish it up a bit for a licensed release.

Sounds far fetched, perhaps, but a CERTAIN lil' ol' Opty MIGHT have a couple items in the mail on their way to him that might bolster my theory there... Watch this space! 

[Tulpa | 3,534]

Sega had AtGames make the Firecore Genesis clone that had like half of the games genuine Genesis/MD games and half were weird simple "games" that kind of resembled the ones you found on bootleg consoles and cartridges.

So this thing is definitely in Sega's wheelhouse.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

I like it, it's strange enough to just keep investigating and well just seeing so hard each game on there sucks or not, depending on shady hacks to ghetto emulation or system on a chip foul ups.  It would be epic if it was a hacked firecore, somehow that should make it even worse than that.

[OptOut | 8,892]

We got an UNBELIEVABLE update to the SEGA Mega Drive 35 saga!

I have done a little snooping around online, and there's very little to go on, but generally some people seem to think this was a late 90's early 00's device, with a question mark hanging over the licensing status.

I think we may have got more to go on now:

Introducing the 16 Bit Power MEXX Drive 3.

I believe this to be the precursor device to the Mega Drive 35, later repurposed and officially licensed by SEGA.

As you can see, the molding is the exact same, although the board inside is significantly different, and seems earlier.

There are some similarities in the board, including the big processor chip and the heatsink, but the positions of many of the caps are different, and it seems like the ROM chip is actually soldered on to a daughter board, which is not the case in the later MD35.

From what I can tell, booting the two systems up, the game list is identical. However, there's more...

The included game list leaflet is identical, down to the typos, but with different branding. These were CLEARLY manufactured by the exact same company.

Another similarity is in the manual:

Again, same writing, same diagrams, everything.

There's also a stamp from the department store where this was originally sold, and a hand written date... 90/4/21. So we can more accurately put a date on this thing, the Taiwanese year 90 is 2001!

My theory is that whatever company this was went to SEGA with their clone system and sought the licensing rights to re-release this clone system as the official SEGA Mega Drive 35, and that SEGA were desperate enough to say yes.

This is some genuine, firsthand videogame history we are uncovering here, I'm turgid as we speak!

 

Also, the party isn't over as I have yet ANOTHER version of the system on the way to me, should hopefully be here by tomorrow, we can take a look see if we can learn anything more!!!

Edited October 18, 2022 by OptOut

[OptOut | 8,892]

Okay, I got ANOTHER version of the Janky Mega Drive clone!

Once again, this one is officially licensed by SEGA, and if anything this seems the MOST legit so far! Check out all the legal stuff on the back of the box here:

The actual company address and full branding information is here this time, NO WAY this is a bootleg.

As you can see, they have carried the Mega Drive 21 name through onto the actual system this time, and although there is no SEGA logo on the front, the hologram sticker is present and correct on the back:

As far as I can tell, this is the same board as the Mega Drive 35, although I am planning to take these all apart to inspect more closely when I have time. Strangely this one DOESN'T come with a SEGA branded power supply, unlike the 35:

The reason for this, I believe, is because this model was SPECIFICALLY designated for sale in Japan. As you can see, this power supply is rated for 100v, while the 35 has a 110v power supply. May seem like a small difference, but it is significant because Japan is quite unique in running on 100v as opposed to 110v like Taiwan or 120v like the US.

Here's some more evidence that this was meant specifically for Japan. The manual is fully in Japanese this time, no Engrish, no Chinese.

The game list here is different too, translated into Japanese.

 

So, what to make of all this? In my mind I am now certain that this was officially licensed by SEGA. There was obviously an unlicensed bootleg version too manufactured by the same company. I cannot say for sure that the bootleg version came first, but it would be my hunch.

When I have some time, perhaps this weekend, I am going to open up all three of these systems to inspect the board, to look for differences and date codes etc. I'll also boot all three up to compare the game lists and menus etc.

Also, I MIGHT... MIGHT just have access to another of these, with yet ANOTHER different box and branding... Keep your fingers crossed I can get hold of it, I don't want the party to end just yet!!! 

[Link | 2,727]

Is it worse than the N64 controller, though?

[Tanooki | 4,952]

You all realize he removed the Super Jeff sticker from this right?

[OptOut | 8,892]

The fourth, and for now final, addition to the SEGA Mega Drive 35 family!

A little sunfaded, but I had to pick this up once I already had the others, from a local reseller with a little help from @fcgamer!

I believe this was the "worldwide" version of the device, intended for sale in territories other than Japan. Apparently this branding was also used on a PAL version for sale in Europe, although the one I have here is NTSC.

Nice to see some familiar faces on the box here, Dreamcast era Sonic character designs fits into the early 00's release date.

All the writing on the box art is in English this time, as is the game list, which is also different:

The manual in here is the same as the Mega Drive 35, and everything else in the box is basically the same, including the hologram, although the power supply is unbranded this time:

So there we have it! I really didn't think when I bought that first one I'd end up with FOUR of these fucking things, but I mean, you just get this wild hair sometimes... You gotta just get it out of your system! 

 

Anyway, I'm still planning to do like a side-by-side and open these things up and really examine them up close and personal at some point when I get time, so watch this space!

[T-Pac | 7,587]

@OptOut - what are the games like on these?

Are they all Sega-published Mega Drive titles? Any Master System games or unique stuff?

-CasualCart

[OptOut | 8,892]

3 hours ago, CasualCart said:

@OptOut - what are the games like on these?

Are they all Sega-published Mega Drive titles? Any Master System games or unique stuff?

-CasualCart

It's basically a bunch of ROM hacked stuff from some very early MD titles, Sonic 1, Alex Kidd, Columns, Flicky, that kind of thing! If you've any experience playing on a pirate multi-cart of MD games, it's basically one of those in a plug-and-play!

When I've got a bit of time, I'll sit down and compare all the four systems and play some of the games, to see if there are any differences and what's what!

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Yeesh it's the four sega mega handhelds of the apocalypse, and that last ones art...Sonic get your finger out of there.