Sega Graphic Board

[Virtualogik]

You guys have any ideas what this is exactly ? :

[Ed Oscuro]

Lucky for us both, The Internet has heard of it:

http://www.smspower.org/museum/terebioekaki/

I thought I'd heard of it before, nice catch. Overlay-type pen drawing systems were not too uncommon for Japanese computers in the 80s; MSX computers had at least one compatible unit I saw, and I'm sure more existed.

[Virtualogik]

Yeah well I saw this page before posting here but, it seems this thing is japanese and white ... the one here is clearly the black "sega master" type of lettering and plastic ... and it comes with an eprom of the software of "graphic board v2.0" ... it doesn't seem this thing was ever released in America? Was it? ...

[Ed Oscuro]

Alright, that's a question that will bring out some experts (not me).

I will say this: Aside from the English-lettered variants on the SMS Power website, there is the fact of there being a "Sega Master System" released in Japan, which is a step up from the US SMS - same styling, but with the Mark III's additional FM Sound module integrated, as you know. This could have possibly been a re-release to match that Tonka styling. It seems odd, though, given this was a niche product.

Other than that, there is a Rumor Mill entry for the game in the Digital Press online search. Somebody else will have to comment but I've not heard of that guide being wrong on a major console like this. If it's the real deal and US branded, it's a nice find. Got the box?

[Scrimble]

I have seen the white one before, but not the black. I would guess they planned a US/Euro release, or maybe a second release (v2.0?) in Japan and they made an updated board for the Japanese SMS console, as Ed said above? Either way I want it, I want it noooow.

[ccovell]

You're all wrong. That is the poor-selling peripheral for use with 'Art Alive'.

Just kidding, of course. Hold on to that peripheral, Virtualogik (or sell it to me!); it's one of the announced but unreleased accessories for the Mega Drive way back in 1988-89. Here's a pic from an early 1989 Beep:




Basically, Nintendo, Sega, and NEC engaged in what could only be called a "vaporware arms race" from the mid-80s, all the way up to the SegaCD and Saturn age. When one company announced something (say, a BASIC program and disk drive), the others rushed to announce the same thing to try to take the wind out of the competitor's sails. It was really rather pointless, and NEC wised up early in the 90s and pulled out of making useless peripherals, but not before releasing a scanner, graphics tablet (surprise, surprise) and printer in 1989 or so.

[Enigmus]

Wait a minute, if he has the tablet board, then isn't there a strong possibility the floppy drive and keyboard are still in existence, if they ever were?

[Arkhan]

These things are all pretty pointless on home consoles. No wonder they were about as successful as crystal pepsi.

computers on the other hand, they were awesome.

Koala Pad was used in alot of commercial games for title screens since the software allowed you to export files/data to include with game code.

[Virtualogik]

Got the box?

No it came in a white plain box with some stampings from Tonka or something :



Thanks to those who provided some lights as to what this thing is ... now if anyone can provide some information as to why this thing ended in North America ... was there a planned release over here?

Also, not sure if I'm in the right forum for this but, I'm not sure I will keep this thing so any of you experts out there can provide me an idea of the value it could have ?

[tomaitheous]

The interesting part, is that the "tonka" receive date (month) is the same time the Japanese Megadrive was released in Japan. A whole 2 years before the North American release of it. That is interesting. I take it the rom board there is for the SMS and not the Genesis, though?

[ccovell]

The month may be the same, but the year isn't. The MD was released in October 1988 in Japan.

[tomaitheous]

The month may be the same, but the year isn't. The MD was released in October 1988 in Japan.

HAha, must have got PCE on the brainer. *smacks head*

[Virtualogik]

I managed to get the cart chip working in a Sega Master System, so I suppose it wasn't originally intended as a Genesis peripheral as suggested in those catalog pictures...

The cart detects if the board is connected :





And the actual screen :



Still looking for additional info if any of you have any. Thanks !

[Enigmus]

It'd be interesting to get a dump of that and then get tablet support in Kega.

[tom]

nice.

[portnoyd]

It's likely Bock will sex your leg off shortly.

[pseudonym]

Bock posted in his other thread about this. I forgot where I saw it now.

Very cool item.

[Bock]

Hehe
Here what I posted in the other thread (which seems dead):

Looks like a western-version prototype of the Japanese Terebi Oekaki (テレビおえかき） released in 1986 for the SG-1000/SC-3000 and compatible with Mark III and Japanese Master System. Original is white.





http://www.smspower.org/museum/terebioekaki/

It is emulated by my emulator MEKA if you want to try it. Because of restriction with the video mode used and the technology used to read the pen it's actually pretty bad to use.

The cartridge board and connection on the pictures match those of the western Sega Master System format (which is different from the Japanese/Korean format).

The Japanese Graphic Board doesn't have those there "Modes" buttons so it suggest that it use a different software. Also the original has the cartridge connected to the graphic board where as this one is separate and communicate via the standard DB9 joypad port (also used by other peripherals such as Sports Pad or Paddle Control).

The original software is 8 KB and use legacy video mode 2 (SG-1000/SC-3000) to provide a simili bitmap mode editing. Although the SMS has more advanced video mode it is less suited than old mode 2 for random bitmap drawing, so I suspect that this software is based on the old software, or if its a new software it would use the legacy SG-1000/SC-3000 video mode.

The 16-bit sum on the EPROM chip doesn't match the existing Terebi Oekaki ROM that I dumped so it's at least a different version of the software (unless the 4-digit number happens not to be a 16-bit sum of the EPROM content but it is generally the case). I can't read from the picture which type of EPROM it is.

This prototype is pictured along with a Megadrive in some ads so perhaps the SMS version was scrapped in the west to make a MD one. etc. There's pictures of a similar prototype but white in German publications so it was also considered to release in Europe I guess, but eventually didn't make it out of Japan.

It's beautiful.

PM-ed (want to buy and dump and emulate! )

[Bock]

And a newer message based on your last post:

First: wow!

You don't have to confirm the EPROM checksum or anything since its evident that the software has been upgraded here. Apart from the title screen the painting uses SG-1000/SC-3000 video mode so its very possible that this could work on earlier system (and it won't show up on a Megadrive with Mega Adapter btw). The limit of that mode is that actually you can't use more than 2 colors per block of 8x8 pixels so its actually pretty shitty to do precision drawing. Essentially the tablet hardware has pixel-ish precision that the video mode cannot display.

I like how it says "Not graphic board!!", its very japanese engrish. I like to think as it reading "Hot graphic board".

Nothing else to add. I would evidently sell my family to get my hands on that.
Where do I sign?

[Bock]

Please remember to keep the cartridge away from sunlight/uv as it could leak if the sticker over the window is in bad shape.