If I can help out in any way with the restoration lemme know, Neil! I have had several of these pass through my hands now, and currently own a nice working Model 3. Along with lots of documentation, hard drive contents, software on disk, peripherals and so on. The main thing I don’t have is that Sega CRT, those can go for similarly insane prices as the system itself!
@@RMCRetro This video has misinformation in it. There was a United States release, but it was in a different PC case. It was a beige box PC with a sliding door for the MegaDrive/ Genesis system instead of the flap on your PC.
@@weltschmerz88 no I am thinking of the SEGA PC. Basically the same case, but thicker & included a CD-ROM drive. The computer was made by SEGA for the United States market on a 386 platform with Windows 3.0
I would've loved to hear that phone conversation. "Mega Drive, huh? Would that be a hard file, or high-capacity floppy? .... uh huh ... uh huh ... Uh, genesis of what, exactly? ... uh huh ... I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say 'hedgehog?' ... You did. .. Uh huh ... 'Tube?' ... OH, sorry, 'Tude.' ... Short for 'attitude.' ... I see. Well, to be perfectly honest, sir, I'm not sure what to suggest. We don't really do 'fun' around here. _Our_ mascot is a silent film actor. I'll see what I can do. I'm sure manufacturing could have a prototype for you in about ... three, four years...? For the chassis, do you prefer beige or cream? .... Uh huh. Well, that would be highly unusual."
Or maybe "Thank you! We've got so many we were about to throw awa--- er, we mean, sure, we want to sell these state-of-the-art pieces of hardware! Totally not obsolete tech!"
Considering that the entire PS/2 line was built to differentiate the hardware from generic PCs, i think they would have welcomed the opportunity if they didn't pitch the idea first.
The PC side using the YM2612 sound chip is so cool! The Mega Drive's FM chip is a legitimate powerhouse to the point there's a desktop synthesizer that uses two of those chips to generate sound. It's called the MEGAfm. If you look it up you'll see the huge variety of sounds it can make, it's still so relevant today.
What a good thing there are a few VSTs if you want to achieve a similar thing in your DAW and there is also the Sonicware Liven Mega Synthesis hardware groove box which I own and love and even a midi adapter for your Mega Drive!
I didn't even know the A500+ had an RTC in it, what's the battery for? I remember the first time I heard about this, I dug my A500+ out of the cupboard, opened it up, and found a pristine battery in there... and promptly snipped it off the motherboard.
I once briefly owned an A500 with an expansion board which had leaked so badly it not only ate through a connection but also reached the rear I/O connections, 'thankfully' I was able to return it.
Having owned a IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 (my 1st PC) and a SEGA Mega Drive at the same time back in the early 90s, this blows my mind! A combo of these two! Oh, you lucky devil Neil!
I remember the Mega PC well. It was in all the main department stores in the UK in the early 1990s. It was highly desirable but out of the price range of anyone I knew.
I remember seeing these back in the ‘90s when I was living in Asia. I was around 9-10 yrs old and had an Mega Drive. Owning one was the ultimate dream at the time since PCs weren’t common for home use yet. I was familiar with PCs and DOS games because I saw them in the office where my dad worked. Back then, PCs were all beige, and most didn’t even have CD drives or sound cards yet. So, seeing such a modern-looking, cool black PC with a matching monitor made by Sega that could also play Sega cartridges was unreal.
These were definitely sold here in the Netherlands. No idea about how popular they were, I've only seen a single advertisement in an Escom brochure in the early 90's.
@@Bort_86 I might be, it's been a while. I only remember seeing an ad. I do distinctly remember the advertised machine being black. Aren't the Amstrads all white/grey?
@@jinxterx but they were sold here, he is right. Maybe some company that imported them and not official Sega , but they came here. But not popular because the PC part was too old when they came here and people had moved to 386/486
@@speedysandisk78 you were right, I still have 2 magazines that cover these, with actual info where you could buy it, and not just some preview article
The SMD caps on these IBM hard drives are prone to leaking, and it looks like yours is affected too. IIRC, you can access all of them without having to remove the HDA.
Thanks for sharing this video I didn't know it existed and it is really awesome concept. I will keep an eye out for part two and hope to see it working
Absolutely stunning piece of technology, i love seeing retro motherboard layouts. Back when chips took up most of the space on the board, nowadays the chips barely take up any room and most of the board is just silk screen.
Back in the days there was this Sega-only magazine in Brazil called SuperGame, they release an article about the Tera Drive. 11 out of 10 people you show would have their minds blown, and as a kid we rightaway started thinking you'd be able to develop games for the Mega Drive and all sorts of crazy stuff. Good ole times...
These keyboards rule! Built by Alps and uses Alps Buckling Spring. Similar to the IBM Buckling Spring but it uses a slider and buckles in a different direction
Oh wow. I actually had one of these. A friend of mine gave it to me after his dad bought two back from a business trip in early 1992. It was very weird when, in 1993, the Mega PC from Amstrad came out.
Apparently Amstrad had an upgrade for the Mega PC called the Mega PC Plus, which used an 80486 processor and had a RAM upgrade. That's probably the rarest Megadrive PC.
I had something similar as a kid, I think it was the megaPC, maybe by amstrad, is was a dos computer and a megadrive. It was my first introduction to PC gaming and it shaped my life so much! I am so happy I had that system
I've wanted one of these for decades now, I was a kid when they were relatively cheap online (couple hundred max), now they're impossible to find under thousands.
I had an IBM PS2 keyboard for years and it eventually went the way of the swan. Was built like a tank! It was also quite noisy and used to wind up my housemate. 😃
Interesting to note at 3:33 that screenshot of Sonic 1 is from a prototype because its missing the s from "rings" and I think the flower sprite is slightly different.
Isn’t Microsoft supposedly planning a similar move with the Xbox in the near future? Game consoles and Windows PCs essentially use the same hardware and run the same game software nowadays, so owning a bespoke console that cannot be used as a conventional PC is kind of pointless. Maybe a Microsoft branded line of Windows-powered gaming PCs is in the horizon?
Saw one on sale as a kid, in 1997, but seeing as I was on holiday it would have been impossible to haul back. I was 12 and here I see people not knowing about this, 30 years later, to my great surprise. I wish more people would have paid attention back then, like a few of us did, when it came to games :(
I saw a Teradrive in Akihabara over ten years ago. I don’t remember how much it was, but I remember it being affordable for me at the time (I wasn’t making much) but I didn’t have the space for it
As someone who followed this stuff closely back then, the TeraDrive name was in line with the GigaDrive, the original planned successor to the MegaDrive that rumours swirled around at the time. Things changed quickly back then. 286, though? Oof.
12 years on UA-cam and I am just now finding your channel!? I feel cheated by the algo! Where is Sega or IBM on this? They should be helping us piece together their history...
This board is weird! Your typical Mega Drives never had a discrete YM3438. Neither did I ever see a fine pitch DIP 68HC00 made by Toshiba, or an SOIC/SOP Z80! The regular consoles originally had the huge standard DIP NMOS CPUs, and then switched to PLCC for the 68k and QFP for the Z80.
Thank you for doing this deep dive. Love seeing these obscure hardwares get proper documentation. Couple questions: 1. If you rigged up a custom ribbon cable of sorts, does a Mega CD actually work on it? 2. Based on all the motherboard revisions of the Mega Drive, which VA would be most analogous to this? 3. Would a 32X work with it too?
1: Someone has already tried it and the answer is... Yes! 2: I would say a late model 1 or so. 3: No. Even if you removed all the plastic surrounding the unit, the pass-though cables needed wouldn't be able to be hooked up to a VGA CRT even with adapters all the way down.
The TeraDrive is nowadays a very desirable Sega console. As you mentioned, the capacitors are the main issue with a 30 years old computer/console. Despite that it is for sure a great rare item to get in your collection.
I heard of the TeraDrive back in the '90's. And I heard of the Amstrad Mega PC around the same time. I wanted one of either, I didn't care. It didn't matter that I had a PC that was probably powerful than either combo-computer. I was a Sega kid growing up. Just thought it was cool to be able to play MD games on a PC.
i started my pc fun with an SC 3000 an i had a tape deck that i stored data on an games that i made with BASIC it was the coolest thing id ever seen lol
@16:06 - I wonder, could you "PC-link" w/ a copy(ies) of Zero Tolerance (similarly to "console-linking" on a [sole] Genesis / Mega-Drive consoles, with the before-stated game)? 🤔 Also, looking forward to Part ✌😎!
Based on a PS/2 Model 30/286? That would suggest that you should be able to use a modern drive with an XT-CF (which I actually do), but it doesn't look to have the three ISA slots the original PS/2 had.
Aside from the hard drive, I don't see anything in common with the 30-286. But it seems some of the planar logic was reused from the Japanese PS/55 5510.
@@fnjesusfreak The 8530 286 was available with at least 3 hard drive sizes - 20, 30, and 45 MB. If I'm not mistaken the 30 MB one was the same WDL-330PS used in this unit.
Assuming the PC and MegaDrive hardware are able to interact (I haven't finished the video quite yet), this device would have made an awesome Devkit! Build the games and test them on the same device.
This type of cramming multiple hardware types into a same box never really made sense to me. Like if they can interact in some way, then it's a killer idea, but you are kinda setting yourself into a failure just having multiple walled gardens under same system. All you are doing is what the monitor is supposed to do.
Right, that's what I was thinking. As I said in another comment, if they *can* interact, then devices like these would make great devkits without the need of writing to cartridges or trying to mess with emulators and stuff like that.
It seemed to make a lot more sense in Japan probably. Same with the rapidly shrinking all in one HiFi systems back in the nineties. Though I doubt even there all that many had a PC but no TV at the time.
I remembered when this first came out in Australia, It was a pathetic 286/16 then later models was a 386 which was 2 generations out of date of the current PC's for the same price. It was way cheaper to buy a 486/dx33 AND a MegaDrive separately.
Watching from Chicago, Illinois here! Do you have a USA Super Nintendo? I have one that needs attention that I would send to you for free, as long as I get a shoutout during it's repair video :) Love your channel and keep on posting! I can't wait for your notifications!
The ultimate megadrive in a way with the pc being able to enhance the processing power, will be interesting to see that. Even dos games as well as win 3.1 were using protected mode so the 286 really would have limited this system.
Surprised the electrolytic fluid wasn't cleaned from the board before applying heat. Generally a bad idea and not just because of the smell and the toxic fumes it produces. Might also want to invest in a fume extractor with a carbon filter, that'll help with odors. But really the spunk shoukd be cleaned before any rework begins.
Hey Neil, i don't suppose you've got a RAM Music Machine for the ZX Spectrum? apparently Aphex Twin used it in his music back in the day which is awesome.
You think anyone is ever going to be nostalgia about the designs of the 2010s and 2020s? Somehow, I doubt it. There is just something so timeless about these old computers. Every company added their own flare with lines, and curves, and color choice. Even the branding is beautiful on these old machines.
I'm inclined to think the 90s were the last time that tech looked beautiful. From the 2000s onwards, they seemed to have lost the ability to make things look good. Now it's all about rgb but it still doesn't hold a torch to those old machines in my opinion.
@@bryndal36I’ve already seen nostalgia for the 00s and early-10s designs from people 5-10 years younger than me, even though I tend to consider them sludge. I’ve also seen many people a bit older than me saying that computer aesthetics peaked in the 70s, turning ugly in the early 80s! 😅😊
The iMacs from 2010 are a timeless design, its why it is so copied. iPad for tablets. iPhone for smart phones. In consoles, probably not, Some of the Yoga 2in1 designs are nice, and the Surface Studio from Microsoft is a nice design. The Unibody laptop design is nice, and has been copied. The big problem is, the good designs are so copied they become mundane. The Wii and Wii U are going to be iconic, however. The Switch is already being copied, but the Nvidia Shield is kinda iconic as well. The Mac Pros are iconic and a beloved design, if we skip the Trash Can Mac. (That is iconic in itself, but not for the same reasons. :))
Back in late 80's I used to see Sugar on the first Liv St to Brentwood trains in the morning and even spoke to him a couple of times, utterly obnoxious man who used to sit near old ladies on the train and light up his toxic cigars for fun... wreathing the poor target in clouds of smoke and he played a vicious smirk when coughing the old 'un was forced to move and he would follow them around the train... Asked my BR dad why he never got nicked for smoking in a no smoking carriage and old man came back saying "he seems to have paid for the privilege..." suggesting someone on BR got a major bung in their sky rocket to allow him to light up anywhere where lesser folks like myself would have been ripped a new one finewise if I dared do likewise.
I used to wonder what it would be to have console-grade 2D videocard in PC. What it would be to program console-grade games in Turbo Pascal. SEGA did not deliver that, however, there is NEC PC-FX GA videocard that supposedly delivers same graphics as NEC PCengine FX console. This is a very rare item. If I program it in Turbo Pascal, nobody could play that
This would never had made it in the US market with 286 but also because Sega of America and Sega Japan quarreled like dogs and cats. Win 3.1 release in 1992 so this would have already been behind the curve.
Such a shame that was saddled with a soldered 286 CPU instead of a socketed 386. I'm sure Sega was trying to keep costs down as console makers are always trying to optimize the hardware for cost but it does impose a significant limit to the amount of software that could be run on the PC side. I still want to see what can be done with the TeraDrive so I'm down for the rest of the series on this machine!
It doesn't surprise me most of the time you'll find that devices over on the other country there's always something much better than what's available it looks like it has a lot of potential it'll be interesting to see what you can do with it because if I remember correctly the other version the Amstrad you can only use the Mega Drive on its own or the PC on its own not both which is a bit of a shame.🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
As a person who knows very little about coding, I have only just realised that the only code languages I know of rely on our familiar alphabet. Are there other programming languages, how does compatibility work?
Seeing a Sam Coupe in the background made me happy, while at the same time sad that my parents threw away my old one, with dev card and loads of software, when they moved years ago.. There's something about the Coupe that I really still love the look of.
I've been saying Sega should make gaming laptops and PCs like Origin, Lenovo, Alienware, etc. It'll be a cool way to game on a Sega brand machine in modern times without them trying to enter the console market again.
Remember reading about this back then, thought it sounded cool, but wondered how often the average PC user, who wasn't really into games at that time, would be firing up a cartridge game.
Just for the sake of preservation (and maybe a dash of curiosity), I'd like to see a detailed scan and / or photo of the motherboard and other PCBs especially since this system seems to be more rare than hen's teeth and unicorn leavings combined.
the puzzle game is a pack in title included on the factory hard drive loadout, i have one of these and have that working, but ive also found a hard drive image for it that someone made since i had some trouble with my hard drive, it needed the caps replaced but works properly again, however i think it managed to corrupt some files since a few thing i try poke at crash the system
That's a beautiful bit of kit . U would have to be well rich to have had one of them back in the day , as usual amstrad tried to do something similar but about 2 years too late Can't wait for the next part
The Dreamcast didn’t ’run on Windows CE’. Windows CE was used as a kernel on certain game disks, not the system itself. The vast majority of games had no trace of WinCE.
This was created in an era where Japan was printing money and primed to overtake the US as the world's largest economy. It simply wasn't viable for other markets.
If I can help out in any way with the restoration lemme know, Neil! I have had several of these pass through my hands now, and currently own a nice working Model 3. Along with lots of documentation, hard drive contents, software on disk, peripherals and so on. The main thing I don’t have is that Sega CRT, those can go for similarly insane prices as the system itself!
Thanks Clint! Fingers crossed that CRT works, I’ll definitely shout if I’m missing anything I need 👍
Noice!
@@RMCRetro This video has misinformation in it. There was a United States release, but it was in a different PC case. It was a beige box PC with a sliding door for the MegaDrive/ Genesis system instead of the flap on your PC.
@@andrewsadach3194you're thinking of the Amstrad Mega PC. Similar concept, different manufacturer and machine.
@@weltschmerz88 no I am thinking of the SEGA PC. Basically the same case, but thicker & included a CD-ROM drive. The computer was made by SEGA for the United States market on a 386 platform with Windows 3.0
If the TeraDrive was a 486DX2 or at least a socketed 386, this thing would have been a real amazing machine for retro gaming goodness.
Why would a motherboard using hardware from 1984 use a 386?
@@miregoji2959 I mean it in the sense that if they had used PC parts that were current standard at the time, obviously.
Perhaps he could use one of the clamp-on upgrades? I believe there were some options available.
Yep. Even 386DX could be OK, but SX? Nope, alas. DBase III+/IV were quite sluggish on that, AFAIR. Supercalc too.
@@miregoji2959 This motherboard was released in 1991, that is six years after the 386 and two years after the 486 was released.
"Mother Board provided by IBM"
I can only imagine IBM's response to SEGA when they asked. "You want us to build you a PC with a *what*?"
I would've loved to hear that phone conversation.
"Mega Drive, huh? Would that be a hard file, or high-capacity floppy? .... uh huh ... uh huh ... Uh, genesis of what, exactly? ... uh huh ... I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say 'hedgehog?' ... You did. .. Uh huh ... 'Tube?' ... OH, sorry, 'Tude.' ... Short for 'attitude.' ... I see. Well, to be perfectly honest, sir, I'm not sure what to suggest. We don't really do 'fun' around here. _Our_ mascot is a silent film actor. I'll see what I can do. I'm sure manufacturing could have a prototype for you in about ... three, four years...? For the chassis, do you prefer beige or cream? .... Uh huh. Well, that would be highly unusual."
I'm imagine it was a handful of Japanese men in pressed black suits with a leather briefcase full of cash presented on a conference table in Texas.
Or maybe "Thank you! We've got so many we were about to throw awa--- er, we mean, sure, we want to sell these state-of-the-art pieces of hardware! Totally not obsolete tech!"
Considering that the entire PS/2 line was built to differentiate the hardware from generic PCs, i think they would have welcomed the opportunity if they didn't pitch the idea first.
I think back then IBM was quite open to doing consoles. They also made the motherboards for the Atari Jaguar.
The PC side using the YM2612 sound chip is so cool! The Mega Drive's FM chip is a legitimate powerhouse to the point there's a desktop synthesizer that uses two of those chips to generate sound. It's called the MEGAfm. If you look it up you'll see the huge variety of sounds it can make, it's still so relevant today.
AIUI it was between OPL2 and OPL3 in capability, so yeah pretty freaking cool!!
What a good thing there are a few VSTs if you want to achieve a similar thing in your DAW and there is also the Sonicware Liven Mega Synthesis hardware groove box which I own and love and even a midi adapter for your Mega Drive!
@@SproutyPottedPlant there is a midi adapter for saturn that is bundled with a piano learning program, but have not seen anyone hack anything
Sega Saturn midi
Yuzo Koshiro harnessed the Power
Every time the mention of leaking batteries happens, all of us A500+ owners shed a single tear.
You know it!!! Ha!!!
I didn't even know the A500+ had an RTC in it, what's the battery for?
I remember the first time I heard about this, I dug my A500+ out of the cupboard, opened it up, and found a pristine battery in there... and promptly snipped it off the motherboard.
That's a capacitor, not a battery
@@lookitskazzy 15:15, mentions the coin cell battery.
I once briefly owned an A500 with an expansion board which had leaked so badly it not only ate through a connection but also reached the rear I/O connections, 'thankfully' I was able to return it.
Having owned a IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 (my 1st PC) and a SEGA Mega Drive at the same time back in the early 90s, this blows my mind! A combo of these two! Oh, you lucky devil Neil!
It's like deja vu. I thought to myself "didn't he already do a video about this thing?" I was obviously thinking about the Amstrad Mega PC.
You mean it's not the same thing?
Oh boi never heard of it, I had an Amstrad CPC 6128+ as a first PC, would have blew my mind if had this with a MegaDrive!
I think he did feature this Terradrive some time ago, but only in passing, so perhaps you are thinking of that!
I remember the Mega PC well. It was in all the main department stores in the UK in the early 1990s. It was highly desirable but out of the price range of anyone I knew.
It looks waaay cooler than the Amstrad PC/Megadrive abomination. (in every way, but the spec)
Thank you! In my memory it was an Apricot PC but just googled it.
You know, I'd just been thinking didn't Amstrad do something like this
@@johnd6487 I had one. The Amstrad PC was not particularly integrated with the Megadrive other than they shared the monitor and case
I was just thinking about that white / grey one . Never understood the point of it when i saw it in a shop here
I remember seeing these back in the ‘90s when I was living in Asia. I was around 9-10 yrs old and had an Mega Drive.
Owning one was the ultimate dream at the time since PCs weren’t common for home use yet.
I was familiar with PCs and DOS games because I saw them in the office where my dad worked.
Back then, PCs were all beige, and most didn’t even have CD drives or sound cards yet.
So, seeing such a modern-looking, cool black PC with a matching monitor made by Sega that could also play Sega cartridges was unreal.
some of the TOP TIER content on youtube, presented in a comfy style LOVE THIS
Absolutely incredible.
I never knew such a thing existed, thanks for making the video and sharing this oddity with us. Looking forward to part 2
Looks like it would stack well with a CDTV 😋 fully equipped black desktop setup if you could do some KVM switching.
Really cool machine, i miss the 90's innovation where companies took chances and things didnt always had to make sense^^
These were definitely sold here in the Netherlands. No idea about how popular they were, I've only seen a single advertisement in an Escom brochure in the early 90's.
Maybe you are confusing it with the Amstrad Mega PC? (I am in Germany, and a friend recently told me they had one when he grew up)
They never were released outside of Japan.
@@Bort_86 I might be, it's been a while. I only remember seeing an ad. I do distinctly remember the advertised machine being black. Aren't the Amstrads all white/grey?
@@jinxterx but they were sold here, he is right. Maybe some company that imported them and not official Sega , but they came here. But not popular because the PC part was too old when they came here and people had moved to 386/486
@@speedysandisk78 you were right, I still have 2 magazines that cover these, with actual info where you could buy it, and not just some preview article
The SMD caps on these IBM hard drives are prone to leaking, and it looks like yours is affected too. IIRC, you can access all of them without having to remove the HDA.
yes, mine wasnt booting reliably until i replaced them and now it seems functional
Thanks for sharing this video I didn't know it existed and it is really awesome concept. I will keep an eye out for part two and hope to see it working
Absolutely stunning piece of technology, i love seeing retro motherboard layouts. Back when chips took up most of the space on the board, nowadays the chips barely take up any room and most of the board is just silk screen.
Back in the days there was this Sega-only magazine in Brazil called SuperGame, they release an article about the Tera Drive.
11 out of 10 people you show would have their minds blown, and as a kid we rightaway started thinking you'd be able to develop games for the Mega Drive and all sorts of crazy stuff.
Good ole times...
These keyboards rule! Built by Alps and uses Alps Buckling Spring. Similar to the IBM Buckling Spring but it uses a slider and buckles in a different direction
Oh wow. I actually had one of these. A friend of mine gave it to me after his dad bought two back from a business trip in early 1992. It was very weird when, in 1993, the Mega PC from Amstrad came out.
I lived in Japan in the early 90s while I was in the Navy. I vaguely remember seeing these for sale at some of the stores in Akihabara.
"OK Bill, if you can beat me in 'Street's of Rage II' I'll approve your budget for the year. If not, you're entire team gets laid off."
New "trash to treasure" on a long weekend? Yes please! Thanks Neil :)
Apparently Amstrad had an upgrade for the Mega PC called the Mega PC Plus, which used an 80486 processor and had a RAM upgrade. That's probably the rarest Megadrive PC.
I had something similar as a kid, I think it was the megaPC, maybe by amstrad, is was a dos computer and a megadrive. It was my first introduction to PC gaming and it shaped my life so much! I am so happy I had that system
oh, you mention it later, yeah it was that!
Wonder how many office executives were able to sneak this in as a company purchase for their office and were playing sonic at work
It's in great hands. Sega had one of these on display at SegaFes 2018 in Tokyo, so cool!
I've wanted one of these for decades now, I was a kid when they were relatively cheap online (couple hundred max), now they're impossible to find under thousands.
that keyboard looks gorgeous
It was built by Alps and uses Alps Buckling Spring!
@@loz9324 fascinating, I’ve only used their simplified and complex leaf-switch designs.
@@kaitlyn__L it really is! google Alps SKCP plate spring if you wanna learn about another interesting alps switch
I had an IBM PS2 keyboard for years and it eventually went the way of the swan. Was built like a tank! It was also quite noisy and used to wind up my housemate. 😃
Interesting to note at 3:33 that screenshot of Sonic 1 is from a prototype because its missing the s from "rings" and I think the flower sprite is slightly different.
Isn’t Microsoft supposedly planning a similar move with the Xbox in the near future?
Game consoles and Windows PCs essentially use the same hardware and run the same game software nowadays, so owning a bespoke console that cannot be used as a conventional PC is kind of pointless.
Maybe a Microsoft branded line of Windows-powered gaming PCs is in the horizon?
Saw one on sale as a kid, in 1997, but seeing as I was on holiday it would have been impossible to haul back. I was 12 and here I see people not knowing about this, 30 years later, to my great surprise. I wish more people would have paid attention back then, like a few of us did, when it came to games :(
I saw a Teradrive in Akihabara over ten years ago. I don’t remember how much it was, but I remember it being affordable for me at the time (I wasn’t making much) but I didn’t have the space for it
As someone who followed this stuff closely back then, the TeraDrive name was in line with the GigaDrive, the original planned successor to the MegaDrive that rumours swirled around at the time. Things changed quickly back then.
286, though? Oof.
12 years on UA-cam and I am just now finding your channel!? I feel cheated by the algo! Where is Sega or IBM on this? They should be helping us piece together their history...
This board is weird! Your typical Mega Drives never had a discrete YM3438. Neither did I ever see a fine pitch DIP 68HC00 made by Toshiba, or an SOIC/SOP Z80! The regular consoles originally had the huge standard DIP NMOS CPUs, and then switched to PLCC for the 68k and QFP for the Z80.
That SEGA branded Model M is gorgeous
Wow, I was just reading an old issue of EGM from late 90 that had mentioned this was in the works. I'm here because I wanted to learn more about it.
@13:50 - I remember these rails. IBM used those in their PS/ValuePoint PCs... Maybe my toys in the attic playing tricks again.
3:24 - 2 CPU, 1UP.
This was a PC I'd have sold my soul for as a kid!
Thank you for doing this deep dive. Love seeing these obscure hardwares get proper documentation. Couple questions:
1. If you rigged up a custom ribbon cable of sorts, does a Mega CD actually work on it?
2. Based on all the motherboard revisions of the Mega Drive, which VA would be most analogous to this?
3. Would a 32X work with it too?
1: Someone has already tried it and the answer is... Yes!
2: I would say a late model 1 or so.
3: No. Even if you removed all the plastic surrounding the unit, the pass-though cables needed wouldn't be able to be hooked up to a VGA CRT even with adapters all the way down.
🎵SEGA🎵
Ah that crunchy sample that fills ones heart with joy to this day.
The TeraDrive is nowadays a very desirable Sega console. As you mentioned, the capacitors are the main issue with a 30 years old computer/console. Despite that it is for sure a great rare item to get in your collection.
It’s not in his collection, it’s on loan.
Good one for the Measeum
One of the best channels on youtube, love it.
Great production and presenting, hope to visit one day!
I'm extremely curious if you could jerry-rig a Sega CD to work with this thing using a homemade ribbon cable and that expansion port.
When you are booked to visit tomorrow to the cave and you see this and not after the final part of the series!
I heard of the TeraDrive back in the '90's. And I heard of the Amstrad Mega PC around the same time. I wanted one of either, I didn't care. It didn't matter that I had a PC that was probably powerful than either combo-computer. I was a Sega kid growing up. Just thought it was cool to be able to play MD games on a PC.
I’m aware of the Amstrad MegaPC, which is basically the same thing but the Teradrive is new to me? Thanks @RMCRetro
Crazy partnership between ibm & sega
i started my pc fun with an SC 3000 an i had a tape deck that i stored data on an games that i made with BASIC it was the coolest thing id ever seen lol
I wish they hadn't restriced this to Japan. I would have been interested at the time. It's perfect for me yet I hever heard of it.
@16:06 - I wonder, could you "PC-link" w/ a copy(ies) of Zero Tolerance (similarly to "console-linking" on a [sole] Genesis / Mega-Drive consoles, with the before-stated game)? 🤔 Also, looking forward to Part ✌😎!
30mb hdd? Wow. When I added a 10mb to my 286 it was life changing. Triple that sounds like so much!
Based on a PS/2 Model 30/286? That would suggest that you should be able to use a modern drive with an XT-CF (which I actually do), but it doesn't look to have the three ISA slots the original PS/2 had.
Aside from the hard drive, I don't see anything in common with the 30-286. But it seems some of the planar logic was reused from the Japanese PS/55 5510.
@@GeckonCZ Not even the hard drive, that was a 20 MB unit in the 30/286.
@@fnjesusfreak The 8530 286 was available with at least 3 hard drive sizes - 20, 30, and 45 MB. If I'm not mistaken the 30 MB one was the same WDL-330PS used in this unit.
Overcharging for crap hardware is what IBM excelled at in those days.
Assuming the PC and MegaDrive hardware are able to interact (I haven't finished the video quite yet), this device would have made an awesome Devkit! Build the games and test them on the same device.
This type of cramming multiple hardware types into a same box never really made sense to me. Like if they can interact in some way, then it's a killer idea, but you are kinda setting yourself into a failure just having multiple walled gardens under same system. All you are doing is what the monitor is supposed to do.
Right, that's what I was thinking. As I said in another comment, if they *can* interact, then devices like these would make great devkits without the need of writing to cartridges or trying to mess with emulators and stuff like that.
It seemed to make a lot more sense in Japan probably. Same with the rapidly shrinking all in one HiFi systems back in the nineties.
Though I doubt even there all that many had a PC but no TV at the time.
Iv just discovered you top channel
I remembered when this first came out in Australia, It was a pathetic 286/16 then later models was a 386 which was 2 generations out of date of the current PC's for the same price. It was way cheaper to buy a 486/dx33 AND a MegaDrive separately.
Wow amazing
Watching from Chicago, Illinois here!
Do you have a USA Super Nintendo?
I have one that needs attention that I would send to you for free, as long as I get a shoutout during it's repair video :)
Love your channel and keep on posting!
I can't wait for your notifications!
Oof, a 286 sold in 1992/1993? You could barely run Windows on that. 486DX was the top of the line at the time.
We had a sega sc-3000 when we were kids and it was really good .. we pronounce the word sega as seega .. must be the Australian way
Great video love it ❤
The ultimate megadrive in a way with the pc being able to enhance the processing power, will be interesting to see that. Even dos games as well as win 3.1 were using protected mode so the 286 really would have limited this system.
Surprised the electrolytic fluid wasn't cleaned from the board before applying heat. Generally a bad idea and not just because of the smell and the toxic fumes it produces.
Might also want to invest in a fume extractor with a carbon filter, that'll help with odors. But really the spunk shoukd be cleaned before any rework begins.
Getting distracted by the SAM Coupe lurking in the cabinet ...
Hey Neil, i don't suppose you've got a RAM Music Machine for the ZX Spectrum? apparently Aphex Twin used it in his music back in the day which is awesome.
I don’t have one of these no, sounds fun
The only Sega PC I knew of growing up was amstrad with a mega drive in it
Lets repro this morherboards 😉 wonder if theres any suoer custom that cant be fpga'd
Now you are missing the SEGA A.I. Computer.
I would totally build a modern gaming PC in one of those cases.
You think anyone is ever going to be nostalgia about the designs of the 2010s and 2020s? Somehow, I doubt it.
There is just something so timeless about these old computers. Every company added their own flare with lines, and curves, and color choice. Even the branding is beautiful on these old machines.
I'm inclined to think the 90s were the last time that tech looked beautiful. From the 2000s onwards, they seemed to have lost the ability to make things look good. Now it's all about rgb but it still doesn't hold a torch to those old machines in my opinion.
I mean... we have black boxes and glass boxes that shine in RGB lights.
Yes because that's how nostalgia works. Things will change and the adults will of tomorrow will pine for the things available to the kids of today
@@bryndal36I’ve already seen nostalgia for the 00s and early-10s designs from people 5-10 years younger than me, even though I tend to consider them sludge. I’ve also seen many people a bit older than me saying that computer aesthetics peaked in the 70s, turning ugly in the early 80s! 😅😊
The iMacs from 2010 are a timeless design, its why it is so copied. iPad for tablets. iPhone for smart phones.
In consoles, probably not,
Some of the Yoga 2in1 designs are nice, and the Surface Studio from Microsoft is a nice design.
The Unibody laptop design is nice, and has been copied.
The big problem is, the good designs are so copied they become mundane.
The Wii and Wii U are going to be iconic, however. The Switch is already being copied, but the Nvidia Shield is kinda iconic as well.
The Mac Pros are iconic and a beloved design, if we skip the Trash Can Mac. (That is iconic in itself, but not for the same reasons. :))
Such a cool piece of hardware. Looking forward to part 2!
Back in late 80's I used to see Sugar on the first Liv St to Brentwood trains in the morning and even spoke to him a couple of times, utterly obnoxious man who used to sit near old ladies on the train and light up his toxic cigars for fun... wreathing the poor target in clouds of smoke and he played a vicious smirk when coughing the old 'un was forced to move and he would follow them around the train... Asked my BR dad why he never got nicked for smoking in a no smoking carriage and old man came back saying "he seems to have paid for the privilege..." suggesting someone on BR got a major bung in their sky rocket to allow him to light up anywhere where lesser folks like myself would have been ripped a new one finewise if I dared do likewise.
I used to wonder what it would be to have console-grade 2D videocard in PC. What it would be to program console-grade games in Turbo Pascal. SEGA did not deliver that, however, there is NEC PC-FX GA videocard that supposedly delivers same graphics as NEC PCengine FX console. This is a very rare item. If I program it in Turbo Pascal, nobody could play that
This would never had made it in the US market with 286 but also because Sega of America and Sega Japan quarreled like dogs and cats. Win 3.1 release in 1992 so this would have already been behind the curve.
Such a shame that was saddled with a soldered 286 CPU instead of a socketed 386. I'm sure Sega was trying to keep costs down as console makers are always trying to optimize the hardware for cost but it does impose a significant limit to the amount of software that could be run on the PC side. I still want to see what can be done with the TeraDrive so I'm down for the rest of the series on this machine!
Maybe one of those "overdrive" CPUs could fit. I think that was still a thing at the time anyway.
@@AltCutTV 286->386sx snap ins are rare as a hens teeth and if you have space in the motherboard/case is up to luck(it's a bit on the chunky side)
An utterly, utterly fascinating machine.
Didn't know that Sega made its own PC.
Always wanted the Mega PC, thought that was this. Turns out, I think from your channel, I discovered it wasn't very good.
It doesn't surprise me most of the time you'll find that devices over on the other country there's always something much better than what's available it looks like it has a lot of potential it'll be interesting to see what you can do with it because if I remember correctly the other version the Amstrad you can only use the Mega Drive on its own or the PC on its own not both which is a bit of a shame.🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
As a person who knows very little about coding, I have only just realised that the only code languages I know of rely on our familiar alphabet. Are there other programming languages, how does compatibility work?
Seeing a Sam Coupe in the background made me happy, while at the same time sad that my parents threw away my old one, with dev card and loads of software, when they moved years ago..
There's something about the Coupe that I really still love the look of.
I've been saying Sega should make gaming laptops and PCs like Origin, Lenovo, Alienware, etc. It'll be a cool way to game on a Sega brand machine in modern times without them trying to enter the console market again.
Remember reading about this back then, thought it sounded cool, but wondered how often the average PC user, who wasn't really into games at that time, would be firing up a cartridge game.
Just for the sake of preservation (and maybe a dash of curiosity), I'd like to see a detailed scan and / or photo of the motherboard and other PCBs especially since this system seems to be more rare than hen's teeth and unicorn leavings combined.
I like your videos
Algorithm engagement comment
An IBM, PS2 and Mega Drive? I'm in!
the puzzle game is a pack in title included on the factory hard drive loadout, i have one of these and have that working, but ive also found a hard drive image for it that someone made since i had some trouble with my hard drive, it needed the caps replaced but works properly again, however i think it managed to corrupt some files since a few thing i try poke at crash the system
That's a beautiful bit of kit . U would have to be well rich to have had one of them back in the day , as usual amstrad tried to do something similar but about 2 years too late
Can't wait for the next part
Technically the Dreamcast ran on Windows CE, had internet, and a keyboard.
The Dreamcast didn’t ’run on Windows CE’. Windows CE was used as a kernel on certain game disks, not the system itself. The vast majority of games had no trace of WinCE.
Huh, a CR-2025. My PS/2 Model 30/286 had a Dallas chip.
I want one.. :)
and the Amstrad one
great stuff ,thanks love the video / never seen it before look cool , dam now I want one 🥺🤩😍🤣🤣
Japan always keeps her best toys to herself.
This was created in an era where Japan was printing money and primed to overtake the US as the world's largest economy. It simply wasn't viable for other markets.
A mister fpga core would be awesome