I can't for the life of me figure this one out. Picked it up at a thrift store yesterday in a city well known for it's Filipino population. Sorry about the quality but I'm hoping the point will be driven across: At the bottom it reads: "Only for use with NTSC Genesis systems Mega Drive Systems". Quite clearly its based off the PAL artwork, back and front but reads GENESIS on both sides. Haven't tried booting it up yet, looks and feels legit when compared to the Genesis titles I bought personally back in the day. Any ideas?:shrug:
Possibly a Canadian release? Edit: What's the bar-code number? Can't really read it. Anyway, it was never called Genesis in Asia, and the first part of the barcode is the same as the Sonic 1 Canadian box. The design is very similar too.
That is my guess so far given the large Asian population of the area, very large Filipino base with Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai and so on in the area as well. Just can't find anything on Google and its driving me nuts.
Given the MegaDrive was not marketed as the Genesis outside of North America, it surely must be a North American release - everything points to Canadian. Is the text on the rear of the box in English and French?
Look closely and you'll see the text is in a whole bunch of languages, like on a normal PAL release. That's what makes it so weird to me.
I'd say Asian version, but I've seen that one many times by now and it's based off of the JP version.
The 8 different language texts are identical to what I have. English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Finnish? NOTE: This is for reference as the above shot is mostly illegible until I can replace it. This one is from the retail PAL release of Sonic 2.
No way it's Canadian We would have had the same US box art, we are also NTSC not PAL nor was the Genesis ever referred to as a Mega Drive here.
The mystery continues to deepen. The cart itself looks identical to the American Sonic 2 cart I've had since 1992ish with the only difference being a "NOT FOR RESALE" sticker across the front. I suppose it could be some sort of odd ball bootleg but it would be one of the absolute best bootlegs I've ever seen. So good it looks like they had access to the original art used to make the box art. I'll have to boot it up later today and see how it plays then crack the cart open and have a look... Cracked it open and found some minor differences. PCBs are both slightly different shades of green, some lettering is offset slightly on the cart I've had forever but on the mystery cart its in a straight line, capacitors are different colors but otherwise are 1:1 identical including both mask roms having SEGA silkscreened on them. The cart cases have similar numbers but the mystery cart has its lettering flipped 180° to be upside down. The rear of the carts have slightly different text. The mystery cart has the patent numbers and handling info in a larger size font with a few extra commas in places that simply aren't there on the known retail cart. I'll see if I can find my good camera, this cell phone won't take stabilized shots to save my life. Alright, pictures: 56k warning for this image and this image alone: http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/131/mysterycase.jpg Obscenely high resolution but I couldn't get the commas to show up any other way. This is of the mystery cart's case. Compare that to: Which I realize is hard to read but you can clearly see how filthy it is after 19 years and how the font sizing is different. To save on bandwidth for those concerned, the third line of text on the right side of the retail cart reads: "For protection place cartridge inside protective plastic case when not in use" Mystery: "For protection, place cartridge inside protective plastic case, when not in use" Mystery Sonic 2's PCB: Personal Sonic 2 PCB: Note on this PCB the letter on the bottom right above the pins: 171-5978BAB32. Identical on both carts but on the mystery cart the B32 is in line with the rest of the lettering but offset just below the rest on the retail cart. Just noticed that on the mask rom itself the fourth (bottom) line of text reads 9244 Z27 on the mystery cart and 9243 K13 on the known American cart. Minor items: Mystery cart's C1 is light blue, known American is black. Mystery cart's C2 has bands on it that make it look more like a resistor. Known American looks like a (tantalum?) capacitor. Clear difference in the shade of green.
That box is NTSC, and it's refered to as Genesis. So I don't know what you're on about. Also Have you seen the Sonic 1 Canadian box? Basically the same thing, as you can see: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/cansonic.jpg/ The UPC also somewhat confirms that it's Canadian...
That's labeled as Mega Drive. Same as Sonic 1 (Canadian) uses the EU boxart, just replacing the MD logos with the GEN logos.
The manual is in the shape size/shape/orientation as that Sonic 1 rendition as well. The manual is missing for my American cart though. The third image is a reference as the shot of the rear I took was beyond illegible. The wording "MEGADRIVE" up top reads "GENESIS" on the rear of the box though.
Just a guess but it probably has something to do with Quebec. Sega probably used the Euro boxart there since it was already printed in French and English.
I'm telling you guys, this is exactly what every Sonic 2 cart looks like here in Canada. I could probably go to my local thrift store and get 3 just like it.
