Durabilty of Genesis Model 3 compared with earlier models??

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 1:16 am

I'd like to pick one of these up, as a space saver, but I'm concerned about it's durabilty, especially when compared to the Model 1 and Model 1 Genesis. Those models were made by Sega, but the Model 3 was not; hence my concern.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 1:22 am

I don't think you can destroy it unless you Bruce Lee punch it.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 4:24 am

Valgar wrote:I don't think you can destroy it unless you Bruce Lee punch it.

I don't know about that-it was manufactured by Majesco, not Sega..which is my concern in the first place; regarding the it's durability.

I'd also like to know which Genesis games don't work on it; because if it's anything like a Shinobi game, MUSHA, or Gunstar Heroes, then forget it!

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:16 am

Try to get your hands on a CDX if you're looking for a space saver. You have my personal recommendation! I have one and I love it!

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 4:39 pm

iatneH wrote:Try to get your hands on a CDX if you're looking for a space saver. You have my personal recommendation! I have one and I love it!

Thanks, but I'm looking for something cheap, so a CDX wouldn't work. If I wanna spend that much money, and wasn't concerned about space, I could just get an X'EYE-the cartridge slot is wide enough for Mega Drive games, like the Model 3, and the Power Base Converter actually does fit on it.

The CDX does look pretty sexy, but I don't know if the thing even has a Z80 (and yes I know the Model 3 doesn't) in it, or if a cartridge converter to play Mega Drive games would even work on it.

matt · Post by **matt** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:15 am

The Gen3 is plenty durable. Even though the Gen3 is cheaply made, it's a simple enough system with no moving parts; it's unlikely to break.

The downside of the Gen3 is that there's no stereo audio. This may or may not be an issue for you.

CDXs are nice machines, but they're nothing that I'd call "durable". I've known a few CDX owners whose systems have mysteriously died. This wouldn't stop me from buying one personally (if it was cheap enough) but don't get too attached to it.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:35 am

dave4shmups wrote:
iatneH wrote:Try to get your hands on a CDX if you're looking for a space saver. You have my personal recommendation! I have one and I love it!
Thanks, but I'm looking for something cheap, so a CDX wouldn't work. If I wanna spend that much money, and wasn't concerned about space, I could just get an X'EYE-the cartridge slot is wide enough for Mega Drive games, like the Model 3, and the Power Base Converter actually does fit on it.

The CDX does look pretty sexy, but I don't know if the thing even has a Z80 (and yes I know the Model 3 doesn't) in it, or if a cartridge converter to play Mega Drive games would even work on it.

The CDX will not work with the convertor carts for the CD games due to different BIOSes than the Model 1 and Model 2 units. The CDX has a Z80 but again due to the different BIOS from the regular Genesis/MD units some (all???) convertor carts for cartridges don't work. Of course you could always have it switched and save yourself some cash and headache.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:22 pm

Well, thanks for all the info guys! I think I'll probably go with an X'EYE,; there seems to be a lot of dislike towards Robo Aleste on this site, but as a HUGE Compile fan, I think it's awesome. Slipheed and Bari-Arm are wonderful as well.

And the X'EYE can play Mega Drive games without an adapter, and the PBC works on it as well.

matt · Post by **matt** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:11 am

As far as durability goes, the model 2 CD-ROM drive can't be beat. It's huge and clunky, but you could run over the thing in a truck and it'd still play disks.

The X'Eye also doesn't work with CD converter carts. Given how few worthwhile Japanese Mega CD games there are, however, this isn't much to worry about.

Anyways, you can always rip, patch, and re-burn Japanese Sega CDs so you don't really need a converter cart to play them.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:48 pm

matt wrote:As far as durability goes, the model 2 CD-ROM drive can't be beat. It's huge and clunky, but you could run over the thing in a truck and it'd still play disks.

The X'Eye also doesn't work with CD converter carts. Given how few worthwhile Japanese Mega CD games there are, however, this isn't much to worry about.

Anyways, you can always rip, patch, and re-burn Japanese Sega CDs so you don't really need a converter cart to play them.

Really? I always thought that the model 2 CD-ROM looked a LOT smaller then the original front-loading Sega CD-unit. I had someone tell me that the X'EYE is the most durable Sega CD unit, so hanks for that info Matt!

The nice thing is that you can always find a Genesis model 2 with the model 2 Sega CD unit attached-unfortunately, they tend to come with like 20 games.