Quirky Sega Mega Drive question

[Deadman]

Hey guys,

I got a MegaDrive and about 30 games last summer and had a problem that I forgot about until this week. All of the games play just fine with the exception of about 4 that don't do anything at all. I've used the alcohol/Q-tip trick on all of them but these 4 are still stubborn.

So, to check them further, I took one of my US Genesis consoles apart and loaded them all in that one. Guess what? They all work perfect, with no glitches or problems. Thinking I had fixed them, I plugged them back in the MD and still get nothing from these 4.

Any ideas besides the obvious ("play them on your Genesis idiot")?

Thanks!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Hmmm ... those 4 Mega Drive titles could use hardware that was "disabled" by the "lock-
out" feature that Sega put on Genesis 2 / Mega Drive 2 models.

Do you have a Genesis 1 and a Mega Drive 2 that you're testing these things on?

Try inserting a working Mega Drive game into the Mega Drive, then hot swapping (ripping it out without turning off the power) the working cart with the non-working cart and hitting reset.

That's how you'd get an early EA game like Populous to work on a Genesis 2, which had the software / hardware lockout.

[Deadman]

Hmmm not sure which Genesis I used. I'm thinking I used a G1 and I think my MD is an MD1 as well. It's been a few months since I did the testing so I'm not positive. I'll try the hot-swap and let you know what happens.

Thanks for the tips!
Holt