Any American Genesis region-free?

[Opa Opa]

I want to eventually play some import games and I was wondering if there is an American Sega Genesis that is region-free. If there is what is the model or will I have to import a console? Thanks.

[Pingfa]

Games released after mid-1992 will be region locked. Any games before 1992 are guaranteed to be region free.

To bypass this, you can buy a Mega Key, Super Key, Universal Adaptor or Pro Action Replay (all passthrough cartridges). Your cheapest option would be a Game Genie, but you need codes to bypass the region lock and only so many codes are known, thus you'd miss out on a lot of awesome games.

The most convenient but most expensive option (unless you mod the system yourself) is to buy a Mega Drive/Genesis that has been modded to play all regions.

Hope that helps.

[Dylan]

Yeah, unfortunately there isn't any Genesis model that's region free based on the console.

[final fight cd]

i am pretty sure the genesis 3 can play all japanese games.

[Dylan]

i am pretty sure the genesis 3 can play all japanese games.

Not quite, the Japanese games can be played if they don't have a region lockout in them. What you might be thinking of is that Japanese games can be entered into the slot regularly, as it uses the same shape as the original Japanese units. Of course, the problem still remains that it's a model 3, by far the worst version of the Genesis out there.

[Gooseberrysoda]

Game genies aren't exactly reliable- I've had 3 or 4 break on me.

[final fight cd]

"In addition, Japanese Mega Drive cartridges (which do not contain an internal region lockout) can be played without a converter or modification, as the cartridge slot, which is the same shape as the original Japanese console, allows for these cartridges to be inserted freely."

that is from the wiki site. i am assuming that the first second means that all mega drive carts do not contain an internal region lockout. so is this right? or wrong?

[emwearz]

"In addition, Japanese Mega Drive cartridges (which do not contain an internal region lockout) can be played without a converter or modification, as the cartridge slot, which is the same shape as the original Japanese console, allows for these cartridges to be inserted freely."

that is from the wiki site. i am assuming that the first second means that all mega drive carts do not contain an internal region lockout. so is this right? or wrong?

Megadrives / Genesis's use freq detection as there form of region protection. So if you can get a JPN cart into your NTSC console, it should run with no issues.

[Dylan]

"In addition, Japanese Mega Drive cartridges (which do not contain an internal region lockout) can be played without a converter or modification, as the cartridge slot, which is the same shape as the original Japanese console, allows for these cartridges to be inserted freely."

that is from the wiki site. i am assuming that the first second means that all mega drive carts do not contain an internal region lockout. so is this right? or wrong?

That is correct. As I believe someone stated, a little after 1992 Sega started putting internal regional lockouts in the games themselves. This means that so long as the game does not have one of these lockouts, it can be played on a model 3 natively. To reiterate, that is because this model has the same shape cartridge slot as the original Japanese models, removing the need for a converter or other bypass method to plug the cartridges in.