Can a US Master System be modded??...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:01 pm

I know that there were some games released for the SMS (like Fire & Ice) in Brazil that never came out here-would it be possible for me to have my SMS modded so that it could play some of these games?

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:22 pm

For the small fee of $299 + shipping I'd be willing to modify your US system so you can play Brazilian carts. I think that's a fair price considering how difficult it is. There is only a very small number of experts around the world who can do it.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:07 pm

Ceph wrote:For the small fee of $299 + shipping I'd be willing to modify your US system so you can play Brazilian carts. I think that's a fair price considering how difficult it is. There is only a very small number of experts around the world who can do it.

Forget it if it costs that much. I wonder what it is about the system's architecture that makes it so hard to modd??

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:21 pm

Dave, I was pulling your leg. All non-Japanese Master System cartridges have the same shape, and there is no region protection. You can play Brazilian (and European) games on your US-system as it is.

PAL optimized games may run a little too fast on a US-Master System but I don't think there are many; besides, it's not a big problem. I know that Power Strike II is one of those few optimized games, but it's not unplayable.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:27 pm

Ceph wrote:Dave, I was pulling your leg. All non-Japanese Master System cartridges have the same shape, and there is no region protection. You can play Brazilian (and European) games on your US-system as it is.

PAL optimized games may run a little too fast on a US-Master System but I don't think there are many; besides, it's not a big problem. I know that Power Strike II is one of those few optimized games, but it's not unplayable.

OK

Are you certain that Brazilian carts can be played on a US Master System? I thought Brazil used SECAM, not PAL.

I know about the PAL games; the only one I've ever had a problem with was The New Zealand Story, but you can get that on plenty of other platforms.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:28 pm

No, in Brazil they have PAL-M, which features 525 lines at 29.97 frame/s. That means the speed of PAL-M is identical to NTSC, and therefore all Brazilian games will run on American Master Systems with perfect speed.

Endymion · Post by **Endymion** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:49 pm

He's right, there is no lock-out for Master System games. However, there is a jumper set somewhere on that board that changes language regions. It's been a long time since I opened my Master System up and looked so I can't give specifics, but if you switch the jumper you'll get a "MARK III" logo at the front of many Japanese games, or a "SEGA" logo very similar to the one before many Genesis games boot. An easier and better documented way to do this would be to mod your Genesis or MegaDrive for region language and broadcast, and just use a PowerBase Converter. Your Master System games will pick up the regions that you set your MD/Gen switch to.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:55 am

Ok, thanks for that info!

What about hacking your Game Gear "into" your TV? I saw this in Hardcore Gamer, or perhaps it was a website, but this guy was using the controls on the Game Gear, with wires going from the GG into his TV-and the picture was full-screen and looked great!

EDIT: Whoa!!:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-Game-Gear-Game ... dZViewItem

Except that the picture is in B+W.