Mega Drive question before i buy some old games...

[Smokey21]

Hey guys. Well i want to have a go on the old school gaming side of things. I have a Mega Drive, and im gonna grab the Streets of Rage series of Ebay, as well as Sonic 3, as i always loved that, and i have Sonic 2.

Now i was wondering whats the best way to play it these days? Can i play it through my PC monitor in any way? or has it gotta be through a T.V?

[Ferral]

I believe the only way to do it is via the RF lead into a T.V, PC monitors wern't really to hot when the Megadrive was about so there was no hardware I am aware of to actually interface the 2 together.

Only other way to do it would be to have an emulator and play the games that way or a TV card with the Megadrive going into the PC and tuning the TV card into it and getting it on the monitor that way.

[DavidM]

Via the TV is the only way to do it authentically... emulators... clever things, but they can't capture the real "buzz" ... although playing in a window on a PC has it's advantages

(eg - playing games on a C64 joystick in a window was quite fun )

[Smokey21]

Though so, cheers guys.

Maybe treat myself to a decent T.V and video in one? Anyone got any ideas?

[Ferral]

Argos, you can get them for under £100 now. Mind you thats portable size, bigger the screen, chunkier the graphics will actually look.

I have found running the C64 emulator windowed makes the games look really good and sharper than what they actually looked when origionally released !

[DavidM]

I actually mean the C64-on-a-joystick I won from Hexus a while ago... although I've since passed it on to my younger, former C64 owning sister

[Smokey21]

Might just play it on my curent T.V then, it's about 12 inches.

[Kaos_Engine]

I'm fairly sure you can pick up and rgb Scart cable for the megadrive, ebay might be a good place to look or any japanese import gaming sites.

[wmsteele]

Have a look on eBay for a Scart cable for the Mega Drive, it makes a world of difference.

[Spud1]

lik-sang have them - but out of stock at the moment so might be worth an email to them

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?cat...ducts_id=1095&

Or you can get a RF-> montior converter box, but these things cost hundreds of $

[philipbain]

The Megadrive comes in a couple of different flavours that have different TV outputs. The original Megadrive (big and black with a headphone port with volume control and 16-BIT proudly displayed on it just in front of the cartridge slot) as a mono RF out, stereo output being provided by the headphone socket on the front of the console. The Megadrive 2 (a smaller version, still black but square in shape with red power and reset buttons) has AV out on the back that supports stereo with the option of using RF, SCART and I think even S-Video, you just need to get the correct lead.

I hope this has helped, long live Sega!!

[5lab]

you could put a tv card in yer pc and play it throught here, if you want.

[fat jez]

What's wrong with a Megadrive emulator? You own the ROM's, so it's not illegal (AFAIK, IANAL) to play the games using that instead.

Cheers,
Stephen

[directhex]

What's wrong with a Megadrive emulator? You own the ROM's, so it's not illegal (AFAIK, IANAL) to play the games using that instead.

Cheers,
Stephen

it's not legal in great britain

[DavidM]

And it doesn't have the same "feel" as playing on the real thing

[BlueMagician]

..The original Megadrive (big and black with a headphone port with volume control and 16-BIT proudly displayed on it just in front of the cartridge slot) as a mono RF out, stereo output being provided by the headphone socket on the front of the console...

Early Mark 1 MegaDrives had a 6-pin (IIRC) DIN plug on the back too - I believe this can at least be used with an RGB > SCART cable, and provide Stereo sound too. I'm might be wrong.

I collect MegaCD games, and as such, have always used the Stereo audio output on the MegaCD unit with a mix lead from the MD1 - only using the DIN for video output, hence my uncertainty.

Emulators are good, especially Kega which supports MD/MCD/32X simultaneously for those few games released that needed it.. lol. But yes, the legality of ROM images, both games and system BIOS, is a little hazy regardless of the fact that you may technically 'own' them already..


S.