Genesis Model 2 + MED Pro, minimalistic 50/60Hz switching?

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AaronSR
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Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 1:01 am

Genesis Model 2 + MED Pro, minimalistic 50/60Hz switching?

Post by AaronSR »

I got a Mega EverDrive Pro recently and of course plays any NTSC game flawlessly, but I was wondering about PAL games. I know there's a bunch of different mods for doing this (50/60Hz switches, mostly seen on PAL consoles to get 60Hz which is more important obviously), but I'm wondering if it would be possible to try to keep the console as stock as possible and if you can boot PAL roms in 50Hz via the MED Pro with just the bare minimum wires on a 50/60Hz switcher hooked up to a dual oscillator? Without having anything wired up to the controller ports or reset button (usually you hold a button to force it to bootup in 50Hz I think), but can the console switch once its booted or is this not actually possible?

I don't intend to use any PAL cartridges on this console, it will always be via the MED Pro.
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Kez
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Re: Genesis Model 2 + MED Pro, minimalistic 50/60Hz switching?

Post by Kez »

It is the console itself that decides the refresh rate, based on certain signals being high or low and also the crystal frequency. All the mods are doing is telling the console to enable 60/50hz mode, which changes the multiplier and then the DFO makes the frequency a bit more accurate.

I don't think there is any way for the MED Pro to override this or take over or anything, you just gotta do the mod. The most "stock" ones tend to be the reset style ones as you don't need to cut into the case. Usually, you just hold reset and the LED changes color to indicate the mode, and the console will stay in that mode permanently until you change it.
AaronSR
Posts: 96
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 1:01 am

Re: Genesis Model 2 + MED Pro, minimalistic 50/60Hz switching?

Post by AaronSR »

Yeah I guess there's no way for the Everdrive to communicate with the switcher mod itself, makes sense. So with a mod I'd have to

Turn on console as usual (NTSC) > MED Pro > boot NTSC game
Turn on console holding reset (PAL) > MED Pro > boot PAL game

I assume we can just not bother with the LED portion and just keep the stock red LED too?

Would this also work with CD games (launched through MED Pro as well)?
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Kez
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Re: Genesis Model 2 + MED Pro, minimalistic 50/60Hz switching?

Post by Kez »

Sorry for delay responding.

So the mods I'm familiar with you don't "turn on the console holding reset", you just hold reset at any time and it will start cycling through modes and it will stay on that mode forever until you change it. The colour changing LED is kinda necessary since it shows what mode your console is currently in, there are 3 modes as it also has a language option - so it's PAL/ENG, NTSC/ENG, NTSC/JP. Some games have the exact same ROM worldwide and change language based on your console settings, and some later games will only boot on the correct region/language combo (even from flash cart).

Yeah CD games will work fine, even on real HW you just need to load the correct BIOS which you can do via flashcart. So you just need to make sure you have the EU, JP and US BIOS files on the cart.
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