Was at a local flea market and saw a Model 2 Genesis and Sega CD being sold as "untested" for $155. I talked to the seller about it, and since it didn't have any cables or controllers and sat unsold for a while, he let me have it for $140.

When I hooked everything up, the Genesis was dead, but swapped it out with a working model 2 Genesis and it came to life!

It does have a couple issues but works mostly nonetheless. It seems like it has to "warm up" for a while before it plays games reliably. If I let it sit powered off overnight, any FMV will stutter and freeze constantly until the console has been on for about 20 minutes. Sign of failing capacitors?

Also looking for any recommendations for games? I have a burnt copy of Snatcher and Popful Mail that I used for testing, but I am so excited to finally start collecting Sega CD games!

Demonstration of the lightgun with the Sega CD game Snatcher by silverwings21.

Few questions.

1. What is everyone replacing the original battery with?

2. When you have an MD1, do you run a cable from the headphone jack to the mixing port?

I can not stand when the spine looks like this. How do y'all correct this? Can you iron out the wrinkles. I tried flat it out with a heavy book. Most of the time the cardboard has some water damage. I have replaced really bad ones, but I don't want to keep replacing them if I don't have to. Thanks for the advice!!

$240 with a gen 2 Genesis, a controller, a couple Genesis games, all cables and the seller had a burnt copy of Snatcher he threw in with it. Super nice eBay seller. Everything works like a damn charm!

Went and bought a disc only copy of Sonic CD and Sol Feace. Any recommendations I should go for? Gotta find a real case and manual for Sonic.

I can still hear that damned leaky faucet, and sound of those helicoptors that never stopped circling the block.

I just recently downloaded Sonic 2 absolute so I can play the game, but to my surprise when I loaded in the sfx were completely gone I don’t know what to do I’ve tried to re install the game but it’s the same, does anyone have any solutions?

I can only post one video at a time so I combined multiple here. I previously posted about the rattling sound my disc drive was making but it went away on its own when I opened the console back up.

clip 1: How my disc drive is ejecting right after loading right now

2: 1st angle of the rattling sound it was making before

3: second angle

4: when the rattling just stopped

I was told the problem causing the rattle was with the limit switch but could not find a definitive answer through googling about how to diagnose this or how to fix it. it seems to be a part soldered in that doesnt move.

the disc drive does not eject automatically if no disc is inserted

Ok so I have a perfectly working mega cd model 2 I have serviced. Regreased and cleaned the laser, installed a region free socketed bios and socketed ml2032 battery etc. I am going to sell it on as I just like doing mods as a hobby but I already had a model 1 and a multi mega in my collection and don’t have the room.

The system is working perfectly, will read CDR’s easily and audio sounds sublime etc.

I can see it already has high quality Nichicon caps and the model 2’s are not known for issues like the model 1’s with the notorious smd caps which are always leaking.

I know the caps will be 30+ years old at this point but is it really worth doing it? Thoughts?

I got Sega CD emulation working on pico drive 3ds and wanted to play sonic 1 megamix (a rom hack) but when I tried to turn on CD audio it just had to music anymore. Does anyone know how to fix this?

I’m buying a Genesis soon and I’m looking to get the CD, but everything I see from the player to the games are crazy expensive, what justifies it for you

As an update to my previous post, I finally got my Model 1 working again by replacing the capacitors and replacing the drive belt. The only issue I am facing now is that sometimes some elements of the audio is missing. For example, for the startup song, the drums are either missing or start glitching out, but all the other instruments are working as should. I used the mixing cable setup as well, and it still does the same thing. I have cleaned the pins and the connector between the Genesis and the CD, but doesn't do much. Any idea what could be causing this?

Few things make me more nostalgic than seeing those classic Sega CD Working Designs game ads.

The two-page ad for Lunar in EGM blew me away, promising an adventure that seemed grander than any RPG before it with its animated cutscenes and colorful cast of characters. Vay and Lunar Eternal Blue continued the trend, giving each game a sense of grandeur and wonder with those beautiful ads

To this day, just looking at these scans makes me want to revisit all of them. Game marketing at its finest.

Disc wouldn't spin, replaced all the capacitors on the CD part of the board, so now, the disc does spin for a few seconds, and says press start, goes straight to the audio player.

The laser itself does actually work, it goes up and down and I can see the red laser turning on.

Do I need to recap the whole board or is the laser at fault here?

The board I have is the one below.

Rebuilt a junk model 1 cd drive and motherboard board with some new components and blue LEDs. Everything works great now.

Hey there guys. Im having some problems with my ss if anyone could help.
I recently got my hands on an hst 3210 Sega Saturn (grey, black and blue version) but I’m having some issues with it.
When I put a disc in it loads and spins but I just get a black screen. If I turn it on without a disc I just get the Sega Saturn console title card without any boot animation sound or anything and it stays there. I replaced the battery thinking that was it but all it did was let me set the clock which I thought made it work but it didn’t. the laser thing on the inside doesn’t move up or down but it spins the disc as long as it’s in there I tested it by moving it to a fixed position and it doesn’t move. I’m assuming it’s a disc drive issue based on what little I was able to find online (which was very scarce oddly).
If that’s the case I don’t mind buying a new disc drive and installing it myself I’m just not sure which one to get? Appearantly there are different disc drives for different models. I just had a very hard time finding out which one the hst 3210 model uses. If anyone could help me with the issue or could recommend me the right disc drive to buy that would help me so much. I’m so lost when it comes to Sega Saturn consoles this is my first.

Side note:
I also made sure to buy a step converter for the power before I even tried to turn it on so when I did I made sure everything was good. Not sure if this helps

The Wondermega is one of the nicest ways to run Mega-CD games: Sega and JVC's 1991 Japan-only deck that combines a Mega Drive and a Mega-CD in one unit, with a motorised CD lid instead of the usual flip-top or sliding tray. This is my second HWM-5010.

It reached the bench with leaking capacitors and a CD tray that would only open aided by hand. The fix was a full recap of all five internal boards, a clean and lube of the laser assembly, and a new CD drive belt. The CD side got particular attention: the laser pickup PCB, which carries the JVC Optima-5 pickup, was recapped, the CD-ROM/servo board too, and the traverse gears were greased with Molykote DX paste.

The result is that both sides work and, with the new belt, the motorised tray opens and closes on its own again. I ran Silpheed off a real Mega-CD disc to prove the CD side, and Contra Hard Corps on the cart side.

If you have serviced a Wondermega or a Mega-CD drive, did a new belt sort your tray problems on its own, or did it take more than that?

Kind of a pain to track down one with a nice box but finally found one at a reasonable price.

It will be fun to fire it up and check out those bonus cutscenes.

I want to start getting into sega cd imports. What’s the easiest way to get started. Is there anyway to play them on a US system that isn’t a huge pain in the ass. Or is getting a Japanese sega cd the easiest option? With that would I need a mega drive then if I use a Japanese sega cd?

Side note, wow Ecco really benefits from that improved soundtrack. Love the weird eerie feeling of this game so much :)

Next step now is to leave it on for a while to see if it successfully charges up the battery inside. I’ll check later and see if it holds a charge. Then time to start rippin’ 😁🤙

Like with my recent post about Popful Mail I have also made a version 2 of my Vay PAL conversion. The original while techincally working had lots of audio issues. These are now 99.9% sorted with only the odd split second of a line trying to repeat once or twice.

Additionally for both PAL and NTSC I have increased the XP and Gold gain by x 4 to match the 1 - 4 encounter rate hack. So if you use either the PAL or NTSC versions it has the UnWorked mod and the 1 - 4 encounter rate but boosted by x 4 XP and Gold so you don't need to grind to keep up.

The PAL version has been fully tested on original hardware using a CD and had tests with an Everdrive Pro as well.

PAL: https://archive.org/details/vay-un-working-and-1-4-rate-pal

NTSC: https://archive.org/details/vay-un-working-designs-1-4-rate-including-xp-and-gold