Genesis 3 : fake or no fake

I found a Genesis 3 from ebay US. But I was realy surprising when I opened the beast.

Normaly motherboard of Geny is well build, quality solder and original component (68k+VDP). But this gen3 seem to be an hardware copy (from china ?)

Original Genesis 3 motherboard :

Strange Genesis 3 motherboard :




Any idea of this version of Genesis 3 ?

EDIT : high resolution pic are available here :

- http://wellby.dyndns.org/dnl/img/md3_mb1_hd.jpg
- http://wellby.dyndns.org/dnl/img/md3_mb2_hd.jpg
- http://wellby.dyndns.org/dnl/img/md3_stk_hd.jpg

 

The other motherboard pic isn't coming up.

 

Undoubtedly fake.

 

Last year there was a lot of genesis 3 clones being sell here in Brazil, even white ones!

 

what do you mean ?

 

Majesco makes the Genesis 3 in the US.

madhatter means this:

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Strange Genesis 3 motherboard :


Any idea of this version of Genesis 3 ?
-----------

The three pictures 404.

 

Not necessarily.

I've not dug into a Majesco Gen 3, but it's quite possible that a Majesco unit would have different parts than a Sega produced Gen 3. Remember, those were Sega licensed but *not* Sega built and they were built in order to maximize profit on a low-cost item.

-hl718

 

fixed !

On manual, it has instruction for use in asian country... This model may be an asian clone or official model for asian market ?

 

If i recall correctly, a pirate genesis3 from russia had the same pcb layout inside. So it might be pirate...

Btw, nice shots quite compact system now ^^ Okay okay, not as compact as the goac but maybe the sound & video quality are better.

 

It is possible that after working down the Genesis to SoaC they revised the Gen3 hardware to use those chips?

 

On this model sound is strange. Sound is like a bad sample with low frequency.

 

I'm 99% sure that is the real Majesco Genesis 3. Majesco's Genesis 3 consoles did not have a Z80 in them so it could not use the Power Base Converter, Game Genie or VR games. They also did not have the regular Genesis video processor, on some games you'd get video drops. It also obviously lacked the CD-ROM connector.

 

What is the model number of the original Genesis 3? Anyone know?

 

Every Gen/MD has a Z80 in it, it's the primary sound controller!

This *IS* a Genesis on a chip, the SRAM are the 32K x 16 system RAM and the dual-port DRAM is the VRAM. It would be prohibitively expensive to put those on the die. (There is already >16KiB of SRAM in the chip)

This is also clearly made in China; there is the stereotypical 80's PCB laminate, poor copied label, hot glue, full size resistors, old non-epoxy-dipped ceramic caps, no ASIC markings, the one-sided controller PCB, the cheap old ribbon connecting it....

So either way, it's a cloned system whether or not Majesco licensed it.

 

I'd say its a HK ripoff.

 

The Genesis 3 did not have a Z80 in it as I've already mentioned. The GOAC includes some of the Z80 functionality, which is why the unit produces sound However, it does not contain a full Z80, which explains why certain things do not work with this console.

The Majesco Genesis 3 is officially licensed, therefore it's not a bootleg, or "undoubtedly fake" as you claim. Yes, it's not 100% compatible with Genesis/MD software. Is it legit and licensed by Sega? Yes. Will the majority of the consumers notice a difference? No. Is it poorly made? Of course!

 

There has to be a full Z80 core with full functionality since games transfer over Z80 code which controls the YM which produces the sound. (Similar to SNES' SPC situation.) Only the VDP and according to Wikipedia the bus controller are missing Mark-III compatibility.

I had the first official Genesis 3 (from Toys"R"Us or some big store in 1998) which was by Majesco, wouldn't that mean they are all by Majesco?

I don't remember the sound being strange either.

 

Generally SoC made in China have reversed cores to save costs; Sega on the other hand would go to Yamaha. FM synth is pretty complex stuff so it's not surprising that it's off in this model. What is surprising to me is that Sega let Majesco contract cloners.