Very weird. Mine has all the characteristics of the v1.0 model listed above, but it shows the license text on all the games, however the only game that ever produced a black screen on it so far was Onslaught. And even then, the game is still playable with a Game Genie, which shows the license text. But I haven't modded the cart port to accept import games to see if they produce a black screen too, I just use a Game Genie to play all them also. I don't think it's the earliest Genesis either, it came with Sonic as the pack-in. So did I luck out or what? You mean that some of them won't play imports even with a Game Genie? OMG, that would really piss me off! BTW, are the required cables really that hard to find for it now? I think I have some extras.