Genesis 3, taming of a shrew

[kamiboy]

So I am not lad who gives much quarter to nostalgia. Though I grew up around the common PAL iterations of the NES and Mega Drive I find the design of both to be absolutely hideous.

The NES was easily mediated via an AV Famicom and NESRGB.

That left me with the questionable design of my work horse "High Definition Graphics" Genesis with the most desirable motherboard revision. The sound and imagine quality that it provides me it are without equal. Alas, I do value the aesthetics of electronics when they are not used highly, so I have plans to retire that big old thing and replace it with the much smaller and sleeker Genesis 3.

Unfortunately the Genesis 3 falls short of its big brother in terms of sound and imagine quality. There is a hardware solution for the sound problem which I'll be investing in soon.

That just leaves the image quality. The image quality from a Genesis 3, while looking fine, is just not as artefact free as on the HD Genesis. Anyone know of any Genesis 3 mods that could bring the picture up to snuff?

[ApolloBoy]

Anyone know of any Genesis 3 mods that could bring the picture up to snuff?

Just use RGB, problem solved.

[Ed Oscuro]

@ Kamiboy: There's an RGB mod available for the Genesis 3. That will let the good Sony RGB encoder in these units shine.
http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/genesis3.htm

At least some Genesis 3 units also need a mod for stereo output.
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3776.0 (just some discussion, not an answer, but should suggest the right sources)

[kamiboy]

Guys, you need to do your homework, the Genesis 3 has RGB out of the box. The RGB quality just is not as good as on the HD model. Throw me a friggin bone here, I am not exactly a dilettante.

And Ed, I am going to use a custom amp for the Genesis 3 that makes it sound like the HD model, stereo is a given then.

[Glossectomy]

Guys, you need to do your homework, the Genesis 3 has RGB out of the box. The RGB quality just is not as good as on the HD model. Throw me a friggin bone here, I am not exactly a dilettante.

And Ed, I am going to use a custom amp for the Genesis 3 that makes it sound like the HD model, stereo is a given then.

The genesis 3 does not output rgb out of the box.

[kamiboy]

It does though. I have one here and it does. There are two board revisions of the Genesis 3, so maybe one of them does not have RGB, and I got the good one, but I think that there is some erroneous information anout the Genesis 3 floating around on the net.

[Glossectomy]

It does though. I have one here and it does.

I also have one, and ive also modded a handful for others. None of them output rgb without a mod.

It's more likely someone has already performed the mod on yours than it coming from the factory with rgb.

[Pasky]

No, I had a genesis 3 and it also had RGB without modifications.

[Ed Oscuro]

What board revisions you guys got?

[Glossectomy]

No, I had a genesis 3 and it also had RGB without modifications.

If that is the case then I apologize. Ive never come across one that does, and I've had to mod at least 5-6 at this point.

[mickcris]

No, I had a genesis 3 and it also had RGB without modifications.

If that is the case then I apologize. Ive never come across one that does, and I've had to mod at least 5-6 at this point.

There are a couple of pics here (http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread ... m-bad-ones) that show how to tell between a VA1 and VA2 looking at the cart slot so you dont have to take the console apart:


VA1

VA2


if you download the images, they are high rez

[kamiboy]

Looks like I got the Rev.2 board. Funny that the later revision would have RGB added, it is usually the other way around.

In any regards, it is not like the RGB quality is horrid, I just notice slightly more artefacts in solid colours on the Genesis 3. It is not unbearable, but if there is an known easy fix why not have it done while the lid is popped anyway.

I know that the HD genesis has a known fix for artefacts in the colour blue that involves lifting a pin somewhere.

[Pasky]

Could be just aged capacitors giving you that. I saw no difference with my Genny 3 and my recapped HD Graphics model 1 through RGB. Audio on the other hand...Genesis 3 sounds horrible.

[ApolloBoy]

Guys, you need to do your homework, the Genesis 3 has RGB out of the box. The RGB quality just is not as good as on the HD model. Throw me a friggin bone here, I am not exactly a dilettante.

And Ed, I am going to use a custom amp for the Genesis 3 that makes it sound like the HD model, stereo is a given then.

The genesis 3 does not output rgb out of the box.

I've never come across a Genny 3 that didn't.

[kamiboy]

The caps look fine, and the Genesis 3 was manufactured after '98, the caps should be fine, since they are Rubicons.

More likely the artefacts could be caused by crosstalk in the cable. The audio from my Gen3 is plagued by a lot more sound buzzing from crosstalk as well.

Anyone know a source for cables with a Genesis 2 compatible connector at one end? I could make a better SCART cable from it.

[kamiboy]

Just got done putting in the new sound amp. While I was at it I added Master System support and fixed the video output.

The video fix is quite simple. You just remove the composite video line from the SONY video chip, and instead route the signal from the sync signal going into the chip to the video out pin on the AV port.

I think I can safely retire the Genesis 1 monstrosity from my setup.

[brownvim]

I want to buy a Genesis 3 with all the little mods like yours, want to make me one?

[kamiboy]

I could, it is just a day's work to do all the mods. Alas, living in Denmark is going to make shipping a bit pricy. If you are still up for it then shoot me a PM.

[brownvim]

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