I have a Cross Products Genesis/SCD combo unit... how does it work?

Er, hi. I know this is my first post here, so this is some sort of intro...

I found this Sega Genesis / CD combo drive a few months ago at a flea market where I buy stuff for eBay. I had no idea what it was until I found this thread, and well, I was too chicken to actually register here until earlier this week.





As I said over at DigitalPress, I don't really know how much this is worth... right now my main priority is getting it to work! I bought two first party AC Adaptors for the thing (took me two months to find them) and an RF switch. The RF works, but for some reason it outputs stuff to channel 34 (I think, my capture setup detects channel 34 in use.) I booted up Phantasy Star IV but the picture and audio were really bad.

If I switch the two uh, switches in front to off and turn on the system, I get some sort of Mega CD error screen saying it's an NTSC system for asian markets. I can't seem to get the Sega CD boot screen to show up.

I have no idea what the dips in front do. I was hoping someone who owns this thing could help me with info on them, maybe the system is outputting PAL for some reason?

Thanks for any help.

 

Sure, but I'd like some higher-res pics of the front if that's possible

 

My camera truly sucks when it comes to closeups, but here's the dips as transcribed by me for future reference:

D means switch is down, U means switch is up.

Dip Switch Left Side
DDDUUDDD

Dip Switch Right Side
DUDUUDDD

Thanks.

 

I guess the Sega CD has four BIOS: PAL, JAP, USA and Asia. I guess that the DIP switches change between regions on the MD and SCD boards (among more stuffs). I'd try opening it up and watching where are the DIP switches cables soldered.

About the video and audio quality, RF is shit, being sincere. Try buying a RGB SCART cable or a composite video cable, that will give you a really sharper video quality.

Sincerely, that machine is truly amazing. Last time I saw one of those went for 1200$ on eBay. How much did it set you back?

Alright, watching more carefully, the front switch looks like a CD / Emulator or CD / Cart switch (for the /CART_IN line). Try keeping that switch into the "CD" position.

 

I'm getting an RCA cable in the mail soon, right now I only want to test the thing.

And uh. This thing cost me ten bucks. It did not include anything else - no docs, no cables, no disks. I don't think it's worth $1200... and I always keep the CD button on Drive. I really don't know anything about electronics so I'm -not- opening this up. I don't want to risk damaging it.

 

I figured as much. I saw that you own a complete debug set, so would it be too much trouble to ask for scans of the dip switch layout? That's all I really need. I'm not a programmer, but I would like to fiddle around with my Genesis games (and the few Sega CD ones I own!).

Thanks.

 

The actual machine (top section) looks identical to a European model Mega Drive, so chances are the video out is PAL, but the PAL model CD system was called the Mega-CD, so its some form of mish-mash, but probably European top, North American bottom.

 

I'm guessing the dip switches at the bottom control the system's region and the video output. Could that be possible?

 

Very possible.

 

I managed to obtain a Master System mono A/V cable, and well... this is what shows up.



The game runs, there's no audio issues, but the screen rolls around like that for some reason. I'm guessing it's trying to output PAL?

Edit:
Actually, after some research, it appears that some capture cards can't handle the signal that the Genesis spits out. Apparently, it's too weak so that shows up. I'll see if I can hook this thing to my TV and see if I can make the system boot in Sega CD mode.

Edited again:
Nope, it seems to be outputting in PAL. My capture setup can't handle it so I get all that distortion. However, after fiddling with the dips, I managed to get the thing to boot the Sega CD in Japanese mode! There MUST be a way to get this to boot in US mode somehow... The drive spits out the tray fine, at least.

Edited again:
The CD tray works! It played a CD fine, woo.

 

A mate of mine used to have one of these (in an official capacity ;-)) - he said the dev tools sucked so much he wrote his own I seem to recall he ran a stub on the MegaCD CPU to watch the second joypad port, then streamed data/debug instructions to it from a PC parallel port.

It's not totally useless, is all I'm saying :nod:

Stone

 

There should be a switch that will make the console output a 525 line @ 29.97Hz image opposed to the 625 line @ 25Hz it's outputting now.

You won't get color because the video encoder can't switch from PAL to NTSC, but you will at least get a stable black and white picture. The only way to get color from it is to use RGB or a PAL TV.

 

Its such a nice piece of kit...why can't I find one for a fiver??

 

what are the EMULATOR and SCSI ports for? could someone give a breakdown of how the kit is supposed to be set-up and what functions it supports?

 

As far I know :
- The emulator port is for link to a computer to real-time debug (just for the megacd part)
- The SCSI port is also to link to a computer but for playing isos instead of disc.

 

ElBarto, I think you have it reversed.

 

Yeah I think you're right, after look at my other dev megacd (stand alone, not with the genesis), I have also an EMULATOR port an a button to switch between drive and PC.

P.S. : All I say is just speculation as I don't have the software for it.

 

stand-alone dev mega CD? interesting! pictures please?

 

Crappy picture but still picture




There is a button on the front between CDIN/CDOUT leds, when you push it the megacd stop so I suppose it try to read an disc image via the external port.
Will do some inside picture in the weekend.