Welcome to the last hour of this MEGA CD 1.
The time is 4:45PM on Monday, 21 April 2003.
The model number is 1690-18 (European) and the serial number is G30040518.
Well this is it. This is the last time this beast will display it's version 1.00 BIOS to the world. And rejoice in that. This particular MEGA CD went tits up. One day I packed it away (working) and a month or two later I unpack it to find it won't read anything - including audio CD's. Good job GENS exists. I'd recommend this emulator to anyone. It supports all three items you see in the next image. The Mega Drive, the 32X and the MEGA CD. Get it from http://gens.consolemul.com/ and enjoy. This emulator is superb.
The MEGA CD 1 is dodgy IMHO. When I bought a MEGA CD I bought the 2nd version and it was bullet-proof while I had it. A friend of mine bought a MEGA CD 1 the same Christmas as me (Christmas 1993, if my memory serves me right) and he unpacked it and it didn't work. The lasers are of a low quality.
If you want to listen to the BIOS music, recorded from the original hardware through the Headphone out (in high quality) then click here.
Three consoles you see here to form one (beautiful?) whole... Shame it required as many power supplies. Very few games supported all three consoles at once, but luckily it was one of my favourite games that did - Night Trap.
This picture doesn't have much of a purpose than to show you what the three consoles looked when connected together. Looks expensive? No? Well back in it's day it was. If you take original release prices that I paid then it was £130 for the Mega Drive, £240 for the MEGA CD and £150 for the 32X. That makes £520 and we haven't even started on games yet...
The MEGA CD tray. Not much can be said about this can it. The only thing I can think to say is that the tray version of the MEGA CD didn't allow you to mess around with games that required more than one CD. Night Trap with a MEGA CD 2 was cool as you could swap the CD's mid game and it would have really bizarre side effects. It was the only way I saw the many endings to the game.
I'm sure you could probably do the same, but would probably require a screw driver and plenty of elbow grease.
The MEGA CD lights. ACCESS has sure flashed a lot this past day. READY was kind of pointless in my view.
That Mega Drive 1 looks bloody awful close up.
A possible reason this console failed. This game you would think had something nice to offer. PAH!. It was Super Monaco Grand Prix with Go-Faster video footage. Terrible game. I had the choice of showing you this or SOL FEACE. SOL FEACE would require many pages to even begin touching on how bad it is.
Luckily the console had games such as Sonic CD to actually make it worth something. Sonic CD is potentially one of the all time greats.
Lets put the game in the tray. Why not? It's the consoles last chance to sample a CD before it undergoes the knife.
On the right hand side of the MEGA CD there was an interface to connect to the Mega Drive. We'll touch on this later. This picture simply shows you what it looked like to the outside world.
A similar random picture to 7. This time from the left hand side and hopefully you can see the "LOCK" feature.
It really looks sweet doesn't it. So high tech, so futuristic, so manly...
See 9.
Lets take a look at the ports on the back of the wonderful machine. Two PHONO sockets so that you can hook up to your favourite stereo. These JAPS really did think of everything didn't they.
What else do I see? WOW. I see a mixer. That socket is probably a virgin - and probably is on every single Mega CD.
Lastly - one of those said power supplies.
REAR VIEW.
One mass of cables and cheap black plastic. I'll talk you through the ports on the other consoles - just so you know. On the Mega Drive there is an EXT. (Virgin, let me assure you) RF video out (don't forget this console was designed in the 1980's). A/V out. A large connector which would be later used in the Mega Drive's life to connect to the 32X, and finally another said power supply.
On the 32X there is an input which accepts the A/V out from the Mega Drive, another power supply, and the RF out to the TV. Miraculous eh?
Let the demolition begin. The Mega Drive simply slides off the Mega CD. On the underside of the Mega Drive you will see a metal plate. This screwed onto the console with one screw and ensured that the Mega Drive clipped onto the MEGA CD.
On the right hand side - the now topless MEGA CD.
This is the metal plate from beneath the Mega Drive. It's kinda heavy for what it is, believe me.
This is how I got rid of the metal plate. So so simple.
The interface from the Mega Drive to the MEGA CD. Looks like it shouldn't be touched doesn't it. I didn't want to do back in the day, but truth be told it's fine.
I do not have the cover for this - so it's going to be bare for the rest of this Mega Drive's life. I don't care.
This is the last you will see of the Mega Drive through this story. I might as well finish with a picture of the underside for your own knowledge. Nothing spectacular, mind...
On to PART 2