Phantasy Star 2 Sega MD Japanese - does not work on sega md2 and nomad?

[Dark_Sol]

Maybe you know what's up with this game. I was always curious.

Well the problem is that it does not work on sega megadrive model 2 (both ntsc and pal consoles with any converters) and nomad (with a converter).

The amazing thing that from my whole collection of games it's the ONLY one which behave like this. It shows "Produced under license blah blah" and then just black screen.
But that's not the end of the story. When i had desparate thoughts that the cart is simply dead i took it to my friend who had a pirated chinese sega md2 (i always used originals somehow). And it booted ok! WTF? How is it possible that it does not work on original console but does on some ulgy clone?

This game is old, 1989... Maybe it was only compaitible with the first genesis models somehow?

I have a converter called Mega Key 2 wich allows to play ANY sega genesis/md games on ANY sega genesis/md systems. But this one does not work.. heh...

[SnowKitty]

Maybe you know what's up with this game. I was always curious.

Well the problem is that it does not work on sega megadrive model 2 (both ntsc and pal consoles with any converters) and nomad (with a converter).

The amazing thing that from my whole collection of games it's the ONLY one which behave like this. It shows "Produced under license blah blah" and then just black screen.
But that's not the end of the story. When i had desparate thoughts that the cart is simply dead i took it to my friend who had a pirated chinese sega md2 (i always used originals somehow). And it booted ok! WTF? How is it possible that it does not work on original console but does on some ulgy clone?

This game is old, 1989... Maybe it was only compaitible with the first genesis models somehow?

I have a converter called Mega Key 2 wich allows to play ANY sega genesis/md games on ANY sega genesis/md systems. But this one does not work.. heh...

try it without the converter? phantasy star 2 was made before they really started using region protection

[Dark_Sol]

I need jap sega md for it. I don't have any at the moment :)

[mobiusclimber]

No, plug it into the NOMAD without a converter. It likely doesn't have a region-lockout chip in place the way the older ones do.

[Blitzwing256]

my copy of it works fine on my genesis model 1 (very first version) if I have some time later i'll try and see if it works on my later models.

[Dark_Sol]

No, plug it into the NOMAD without a converter. It likely doesn't have a region-lockout chip in place the way the older ones do.
It won't fit in nomad. Different shape.

[Dark_Sol]

my copy of it works fine on my genesis model 1 (very first version) if I have some time later i'll try and see if it works on my later models.
Ok try it on later models.

[mobiusclimber]

It won't fit in nomad. Different shape.

Have you tried? You might need to wiggle the cart a little to get it in (because of the weird ridges along the sides of MD games), but I had no trouble popping in Dragon Slayer I to the Nomad I used to have, only to confirm that it was, in fact, region locked.

[Dark_Sol]

Have you tried? You might need to wiggle the cart a little to get it in (because of the weird ridges along the sides of MD games), but I had no trouble popping in Dragon Slayer I to the Nomad I used to have, only to confirm that it was, in fact, region locked.
Hmm...I need to try i guess. But it sticks really tough as far as i remember. Not made for it. :-/

[Daria]

I need jap sega md for it. I don't have any at the moment :)

Early Japanese Mega-Drive games play fine in US systems. I know for a fact Shining Force does.

[Dark_Sol]

Tried on Nomad - does not boot :)

[Dark_Sol]

I gave game to a friend who has lots of consoles and that's what he managed to figure.
First - game is multiregional (or none-protected?).
Second - for some weird reason PS2 does work on PAL Genesis model 1 and japanese model 2, but does NOT work on PAL model 2 and asian model 2...lol...
Also as i stated in first post it does not wotk on US NTSC sega cdx/nomad and i also think - us genesis model 2.

So it's weird - works either on model 1 and jap model 2? really ridiculous. Because technically i think all model 2 genny's (pal, jap, asian, ntsc) are all the same.

[aclbandit]

Sorry to bump such an ages-old thread, but I have some new information that doesn't seem to be documented anywhere on the internet; this thread is the only thing that comes close.

As it turns out, even though it's well before the region locking was implemented in any of the other Mega Drive games, it seems like this one's (in some way) region locked!


For reference, my Sega Genesis is a CD-X model (the tiny one with the Genesis at the back and the SegaCD at the front).


I had trouble with a copy of PS2, so I ordered another and it didn't work either. Thinking this odd, I looked into region mods (even though this game is clearly well-before the usual threshold for region locking). Since it seemed fairly straightforward, I added a breadboard in the loop so I could switch between JP/US modes (while powered off).

Surprise! It only works if the jumper setting is JP mode.

This means, very clearly, that the above post regarding the systems in which it works/doesn't work is not some arbitrary hardware limitation, but an actual check in the game code to see whether that particular pin is ground or +5V. This means it's a software-based region lock, like all of the other, much-later region locks!


It's possible someone else has discovered this, but this thread was the only information I could find on this particular game's phenomenon.

Hope that helps the next guy...

[goldenband]

Segaretro has a list of early games that screwed up TMSS support, and the Japanese version of Phantasy Star II is one of them:

http://segaretro.org/TradeMark_Security_System

That said, if putting the console in Japanese region mode fixes the issue, it could be more complex than just a TMSS problem.

The other TMSS-breaking carts from Sega (as opposed to unlicensed games like Onslaught) listed at Segaretro are all Japanese releases of launch or launch-ish titles, namely:

Alex Kidd
Altered Beast
Osomatsu-Kun
Space Harrier II
Super Daisenryaku
Super Thunder Blade

I wonder how many of those would work on a Model 2 or Nomad in JP mode?

[aclbandit]

Segaretro has a list of early games that screwed up TMSS support, and the Japanese version of Phantasy Star II is one of them:

http://segaretro.org/TradeMark_Security_System

That said, if putting the console in Japanese region mode fixes the issue, it could be more complex than just a TMSS problem.

The other TMSS-breaking carts from Sega (as opposed to unlicensed games like Onslaught) listed at Segaretro are all Japanese releases of launch or launch-ish titles, namely:

Alex Kidd
Altered Beast
Osomatsu-Kun
Space Harrier II
Super Daisenryaku
Super Thunder Blade

I wonder how many of those would work on a Model 2 or Nomad in JP mode?

Interesting question. I don't have any of those, unfortunately, but I'll be on the lookout for them when I'm out and about to see if they behave in the same way. It'd be neat if we could find a technical answer to this weird old mystery

[BlastProcessing402]

Interesting. I wonder what would happen if you tried to run the japanese rom on a Everdrive on an "incompatible" system. And if that wouldn't work if you could somehow patch it. Not much of a practical reason to do so, just something that struck my mind.