MAMEWorld Forums - Hardware - Re: Faulty Mega Drive games (original hardware)

> Recently I've had a problem with two Mega Drive games - they will not work at all on
> any of my Mega Drive consoles, unless used with my Mega Key region converter. All
> they do is give a very brief flash for a split second when you hit the power button,
> then a black screen, just like when you power the console without a cartridge
> inserted - no licensing text or anything.
>
> I have four Mega Drive IIs, all Australian PAL models, as well as a crappy AtGames
> Mega Drive clone where both the FM and PSG (square wave/"Master System") sound is
> lower pitched than normal and both are at different pitches, making everything sound
> horribly out of tune. The Mega Key does not work at all with the AtGames console. I
> don't have a Mega Drive 1 unfortunately.
>
> The games which refuse to work are Columns and Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf; the
> contacts on the games are spotless (as with all of my games), as with the console
> pins, and every other game works without any issues. Both games used to work until
> Columns started going flaky and required me to insert the game at a slight angle
> before it gave up working entirely; Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf on the other hand
> simply decided not to work after being stored for a number of years, despite being in
> very good condition (Columns is well used). If I use the Mega Key, both games work
> perfectly without any issues whatsoever, so it's not like the ICs are fried or
> anything like that. There are no bad solder joints or traces either.
>
> If I run these two games in the AtGames console, all I get is either a black screen,
> a garbled mess of pixels, or simply the game menu itself.
>
> I also swapped out the original 47µF 16V cap (which read 1.2Ω on the ESR meter)
> in Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf, didn't make any difference (replacement cap was
> 0.5Ω, but it still didn't boot without the Mega Key.
>
> My main question is, has anyone else had any similar trouble with Mega Drive or
> Genesis games?

Could these two games be games which don't do the TMSS 'Unlock', so they will only work on pre-VA5 (or pre-VA6 for some regions) Megadrive/genesis mainboards? I don't know the list of 'official' games which don't do the TMSS unlock (and hence won't work on newer consoles).

LN

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