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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sega, I Wish I Knew How to Quit You

I've never owned a working Sega Genesis. I've played on one quite a few times back in the day with Fallguy40 and have known some other guys who have owned one in the past, but personally I've never owned one. They are obviously easily obtained and pretty cheaply, but I have been determined to wait until I find an outstandingly good deal before I get one.

A couple of years ago while I was in Rhode Island I noticed a person on Craigslist that was selling their complete Genesis model 2 with the box, Sonic Spinball, controllers, instruction manual, etc. for $5. So I figured OK let's go grab it and I'll shove it in my suitcase. So we drove out there and did just that. When I got home to Texas I plugged it in and guess what - it didn't work. So now I own a $5 copy of Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball with no system to try it on - fair enough.

Two years and hundreds (or if I include eBay thousands) of potential Sega Genesis purchases later I see on Craigslist that a guy in my very town not even 3 miles down the road is selling his Genesis Model 1 with a controller but no AC adapter cord for $6. I figure - OK cool, I'll just use my useless power cable that I got with the Genesis 2 and I'm goood to go. But Sega would have none of it.  Turns out that even though the 3 different models of the Genesis were fully compatible with each other game-wise, for some reason Sega decided to make their power cable for the model 1 with a negative tip polarity, but for the following 2 models they went with a positive tip (the more conventional apparently). The nice fellow I bought it from did actually inform me of this and said I would most likely fry it if I tried to use the model 2 cord - which fits perfectly. Now why the hell would Sega do that?? So anyway, I thought I might be able to use a universal power supply I have so I bought it.  I got it home and my universal power supply could match the voltage but didn't have near enough amps.

So now I own 2 Sega Genesis systems (Genesi?) and still no way to play this damn copy of Sonic Spinball that I probably won't like anyway.

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6 comments:

Fallguy40 said...

SUCKER!!!

Fallguy40 said...

So,when are you going to buy your 3rd Genesis.I wish I still had mine. I'd give it to you. I have no idea what I did with it though.

MadPlanet said...

Well at least my 2 non-functioning Genesis are different models so = 1 and 2. So if nothing else I can use them as display models for my collection. Maybe I should try a model 3 next to complete the set. Or possibly a CDX - that had the Genesis and the Sega CD built in together. But they are usually pretty pricey when I happen to come across them which is fairly infrequent. Christmas is coming up so maybe I will look for a CDX on eBay. I have several Sega CD games that I have never tried.

Mik said...

Come on MP, Blaze is selling a brand-new, region free Megadrive

http://www.blazeeurope.com/sega/ega-megadrive-2-player-console-streets-of-rage/prod_135.html

I saw it at Game Stop, for a fair 30€ (about 43$), and friends who bought it say it's not bad at all :)

MadPlanet said...

Hey Mik. That looks pretty cool. I've been intrigued by some of those new retro-gadgets that play the old games. I certainly wouldn't mind having one, but I've just always been more interested in the genuine article. Hey is it my imagination or does that Blaze system look kinda like a black GX4000? Great now I'm seeing them everywhere.

Mik said...

Gosh, you're right! :D

Actually, I was selling some for a friend just a month ago, and it's smaller than it looks in the pics.

And yes, you're damn right: Genesis games are meant to be played on a Genesis :)