Noob here! Have a Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Question

[Razo00]

Whats up guys, I'm new 2 the board. I'm a member @ Neogeo, Srk, and Capcom-Unity. I've been a huge Sega Genesis fan ever since I was younger. I'm 26 now and starting up a Sega Genesis/Cd Collection. I have about 25-30 Genesis games so far and Castlevania Bloodlines and Sor 3 being my biggest highlights.

I was interested in importing a couple of games in the future. This is my question. Say I wanted to import a game like Alien Soldier, Thunder Force IV, or Snow Bros. Do I have to buy a import mega drive system, both pal and ntsc? Or is there some sort of adaptor I could use on my genesis to play imports?

I've been looking up clones at play-asia, but I heard they have sound issues and not all mega drive games play on them. I would hate to have to buy another system being that I already Own 3 1st Model Genesis (1 in original box and 2 attached to 2 Sega Cd Version 1's) and 1 Sega CDX. I read some were that the game genie can play imported games some how.

Of course these games are more for collection as I probably will not be playing them that often. I could always download alien soldier on the wii, but If I do buy the original import I would like to test it out and make sure that it is working properly. Sorry for the long first post. Thanks.

[Reverend]

Yes, Game Genie does help. It can help with some of the lock out, as well as the incorrect shape of the cartridges.

[t0yrobo]

It's really easy to mod region mod a model 1 genesis. The biggest thing is widening the cartridge slot so the games fix, the vast majority of import games don't need any more than that to work. For the small handful that have region locks a region switch is literally only a 3 wire job.
There's a pretty good guide on how to do it here
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/md1switches.htm

[MrPopo]

Yeah, I ended up modding my 32x to support my NTSC-J copy of Zero Wing. It simply was trimming down two tabs on the cart slot. As mentioned, there's only a couple of games that even have a region lock, and I don't know if any of them are good.

[Razo00]

Thanks for the info guys. So pretty much the only ones I have to worry about are the NTSC-J carts since there shaped differently. I should not have a problem playing pal games on a model 1 genesis, right?

[mista057]

If you can get them to fit then you should be able to play them. I would actually recommend the action replay for games that are locked yet not many are.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Yeah Game Genies are a cheap(though ugly) way of getting around the issue of carts not fitting.
Also most of the games have a GG code you can use to get around the lockout.

[GagaMan]

Yeah Game Genies are a cheap(though ugly) way of getting around the issue of carts not fitting.
Also most of the games have a GG code you can use to get around the lockout.

Really? Do you know where I could find a list of these unlock codes? I have a American version of pac man 2 I can't run though I have a Game Genie. Also looking to import Socket, though being a later red box game that's probably got lock out too. I have a multi mega and no one will mod that for me (or at least console passion won't).