Man. I love aliexpress. Check out this crazy thing i just bought.

I didn’t think I’d like this game as much as I do, but it’s a blast!

So I am just getting into CRTs and retro games, starting first with the Sega Genesis. I’ve got my Model 2 and am looking for the Insurrection Industries Sega Genesis Model 2: RGB SCART Cable, but it seems to be sold out everywhere I’ve looked. Is this typical? Do they usually restock quickly? I’ve looked at Stone Age Gamer and Castlemania Games but are there other online creditable shops that I could order one from? Any help or direction on how to get these cables sooner rather than later would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I myself just stick with the default C button for every game except for Sonic, where I use the B button instead.

If you're missing out on Sega Genesis make your own set up cheap with a tablet or phone. Give games like Batman Returns and Star Wars 32x Arcade some arcade controls, or grab some 6 button controllers and Duke it out in some Mortal Kombat. Don't miss out on gen 4 goodness!

It’s honestly a pretty fair challenge and on par, if not easier, than most of the games from that era. I think the main issue is most people stay put and try to take out the infinitely respawning enemies when it’s better to just keep moving, find hostages, learn the level layout and where health and power ups are located. You also want to pretty much be firing your weapon constantly aside from when you want to lock yourself in a different direction. I’ve always avoided this game because I heard mixed things, though I tried it once and died very quickly. To those of you who’ve never spent any significant time on this game, try on easy. You get 8 hits and the Predator can take 4 hostages before getting a game over, something that really doesn’t become that much of an issue the more you learn the levels. I really enjoyed this one and it’s a breezy 7 levels.

Hello,

I found a Sega Genesis model 3 v2 with an AV out port that has an extension protruding from it.

Has the connection of the AV adapter broken off in the port?

Thank you for any insight!

With Asterix & The Great Rescue being my latest addition I have also been busy finding some Rare games. Can you spot them?

It's a shame Sega never made a sequel. I would love to see the same type of game but using the power of newer consoles.

So when I was looking around on the Switch Online Genesis app for random games from 1995 the edgy thumbnail caught my eyes. I thought it was gonna be some gritty medieval strategy game. You can imagine my suprise when I was greeted with the most colorful and fun looking Genesis game.

I love so many things about this game, yet it frustrates as well. The artstyle is amazing, the attention to detail is mindblowing. But I wish I could say the same about level design. It's very linear yes, but sometimes you still get lost in some random part of a level, where it turns out there's nothing to do. It's also hard to tell what you can interact with.

The feel of combat and hit detection is also very floaty. It feels less like Link to the Past and more Secret of Mana without the rpg elements. And everything ends so abruptly. The bosses look great but you can't even tell half the time you hit them because there's no visual cue (just the hp going down, again, like in Secret of Mana) and then they die after some text and you're yeeted out of the map without much fanfare.

I wanted to rant a bit here because I really appreciate what this game was trying to do, but thinking about all the colorful maps and encounters honestly feels better than actually playing them.

So I'm curious if you had similar feelings or maybe you can make me see why I should keep going.

Just picked this up for 160 with a original box and manual for one of the consoles super excited

I played a bit of it so far, it pretty ok so far but a very cool collector item!

This was the final cartridge I wanted to add to my collection and it came in the mail last week. I'd heard both things about it: that it was impossibly hard and extremely easy.

I think it appears hard at first especially of you're not familiar with all of the controls. Press Down to block almost everything. Like, EVERYTHING. Press Start to pause and select items, unpause and use them with A. You will both get a lot of potions and use a lot of potions! Hold Up and press B to do a strong attack that kills enemies both above you and at your feet. While paused hold C and you can move the camera around, which is needed because there is fall damage. After stage three you have the option to buy armor which is a HUGE benefit. Do everything you can not to die (use potions...) because dying causes you to lose some powerups, but not much. I beat the game without dying once.

Lastly there are a TON of hidden rooms with extra items. I used an online map to guide me through the game.

I had a lot of fun playing through it! I haven't even tried the other two player characters or two player mode yet. I'm not sure how soon I'll play it again though. The biggest drawback is this game is ENORMOUS and has no battery save, passwords, or cheats. But at least there is a stage skip near the beginning of the game to get you back to the stage you were last at if needed.

The music and graphics are really good, but most of all they're soooo atmospheric. This game definitely has a vibe.

Here's a review I like that explains more about the game. (I'm unaffiliated)

https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2026/03/2026-special-blades-of-vengeance.html

I have trouble even thinking about downsides. I guess the music gets a little repetitive (there's like 4-5 songs and every town has the same music). And I guess the story is a bit simplistic.

But the gameplay, artwork, and design are all immaculate. I love how it respects the player's time and lets you keep all your levels ups even after a loss. I love how the enemies all seem to know the game rules and dog pile the main character whenever he gets close (lol). I love how snappy and smooth everything is.

This is now up there with my favorites on Genesis. Really happy with this purchase.

Had the genesis since I was a kid but started getting into it heavy the last year or two. I have Castlevania bloodlines and streets of rage 2 on my radar. Any other recommendations?

Hi there! Recently I picked up a Sega CDX off of an eBay seller that had already been recapped, but they couldn’t get to read discs. I wanted to document what the issue was and how I fixed it. Just to make it easier to find info that might help someone out there, or so people who know better can correct my methods or tell people not to use them and tell me not to tell people to do them.

Please note however that if your CDX has not been recapped, you really, really should. Or have someone else do it for you. The capacitors in the CDX are apparently very prone to failure/leakage which can harm the system functionally and physically.

Also please note that the CDX requires more power than a base Genesis power brick can provide. The original power supply provided 9.5V @ 1.5A, and supposedly you do need something pretty comparable to that otherwise it might cause issues. Personally I use a 9V 2.5A Triad Magnetics PSU I bought off of Console5 that seems to work pretty well. I’ve also heard the PS2 Slim power supply works but I haven’t verified that so I don’t know.

Ok so basically, the CDX had already been recapped by the previous owner. The work done was pretty acceptable and I’ve had to do little additional touch-up work (mostly just to get stuff to fit more easily. It did not impact the issue).

The system ran cartridge games with no issues. And the core Sega CD hardware seemed to work (it would boot the Sega CD BIOS menu.) But indeed, discs would not even spin up, even after gently cleaning the lens with IPA and a Q-Tip. It would briefly seemingly attempt to load then quickly gave up.

One major symptom I noticed was that the laser seemingly was not moving to any sort of natural position. It just hung out somewhere near the 3/4 mark of the track. To further test this, I used a small plastic tool to press the lid-closed switch and I observed. The laser did not move hardly at all on the track, though the lens did bob up and down and I could see it shining. I tried moving the laser manually with my finger or a plastic tool several times, hoping to loosen it up. Alas, it did not help. What I did notice however was that it was incapable of moving towards the spindle at the center, and only kinda ticked towards the outside occasionally. I figure that I moved it around enough that if it were an issue of it being bound up, it likely would have fixed it.

So I disassembled the system (which was stressful to do and not very easy and I hope to never have to do again), and tore it down to the drive mechanism to investigate. Visually, I noticed no issues with the mechanism. Everything seemed to be in place as it should have been, turning the gears moved the laser, visually everything seemed fine. So I started reading into the subject.

Apparently the motors are a common point of failure. Supposedly even more so than the lasers. I discovered one way to test them is by measuring the resistance at the motor's connection to the board with a multimeter, and turning the motor a bit between measurements. Measure, turn a little, measure, etc.

Basically, at any given position, the motors should read around a resistance no more than 15ohm or so. Any more than that can potentially be a cause for issues. And on both the laser and spindle motors, it varied wildly. The spindle wasn't great but the laser stepper motor varied wildly, between around 15ohm and 250ohm depending on the position. Which is pretty bad and potentially could be the cause of issues.

My solution was to remove both motors, which are just screwed in, spray in large amounts of electronic contact cleaner, and spin the motor. I repeated the cycle multiple times (maybe 3-5 times) on each motor, to try to break through whatever was causing the problems and potentially flush it out.

After doing that with both and allowing them to dry, I reinstalled the motors and plugged them back in to measure. Sure enough, at most positions, both were measuring 3-17ohm or so. Not perfect but good enough. After plugging the laser back in and connecting the disc drive board back to the motherboard, I chucked a disc on and tested it by pressing the lid switch. Sure enough, it kicked into life and worked, and still continues to.

I've heard however that if you need to do a more thorough cleaning, or if you want to try to get more grime actually out of the motor, you can actually open them up and clean them very carefully. I have not tried this however, so I can't personally verify.

If you do need replacement motors however, honestly they're pretty hard to find individually. I tried before I gave the contact cleaner waterboarding a go. However, Sanyo seemingly reused a lot of the same hardware for the CDX that they used for their portable CD players.

Supposedly the Sanyo CDP-55 for an example uses a lot of the same parts, including the motors. I cannot verify this, however looking at pictures on eBay, it seems like that player among many others visually use the same laser assembly and cover so I don't doubt it too much. As much as I hate the idea of cannibalizing good CD players, for replacement parts this might actually be your best bet to investigate, and a lot of those can be found sub-$50. I took pictures of the motor's labels in mine which I will share.

I also am not sure if this is a permanent fix or even a longer lasting one. I did this a month ago however and it's still working so it's at least not extremely short term.

Basically the cause of my CDX not reading discs: failure of both motors requiring repeated use of contact cleaner and working the motors.

TLDR:

• Make sure power supply is adequate and capacitors have been serviced
• The system could only marginally move the laser, but the laser itself visibly functioned. To test, I pressed down the lid closed switch with a plastic tool. Moving it around carefully is worth trying in case it's just bound up, but it didn't fix it in my case.
• The motors are failure prone. One method of testing them is by measuring the motors connected at their connection points on the CD drive board, and turning each motor a little between each measurement to measure at different points of the motor. You want under 15ohm or so at all points.
• If the motor is measuring with high resistance, you can try spraying a generous amount electronic contact cleaner into each motor and turning it a bunch. Spraying and turning repeatedly. (This is what fixed the system for me). Let them dry.
• If that isn't enough or you want to try to be more thorough, you can open the motors and try cleaning more manually. I haven't tried this and am not sure how to. Do your own research and do at your own risk
• If the motors can't be saved, some Sanyo CD players from that era might use the same or compatible parts. I am not 100% sure which ones but supposedly the CDP-55 is an example of one that uses a lot of them, but I haven't personally verified.
• No idea how long-lasting of a fix this is, but it has lasted me at least a month. Your results may vary.

Every piece of info I could get off of the label of the motors: printed version

- Spindle
4A04600
31210C (this might be a serial number but I do not know)
Sanko Electric Co. LTD

- Laser Stepper Motor
Some brand with a big M logo, I believe Matsushita
HXN3A3RDYT
09 Nov 93 S1

If any of this info or advice is ill-advised or incorrect, please correct me. Also if anyone has any more info, please do share. I mostly just wanted to document my experiences in any hope that it might eventually help someone. Let me know any thoughts you might have or anything. Thanks!

Edit: Since it feels like how I wrote some stuff might come across as me saying the lasers are rarely the issue, I wanted to clarify that they can be the issue and the system can simply have a bad laser or have a bad laser in addition to other issues. Just in my case, all symptoms were related to the motors and the laser was fine

As of today of this earth, August 20 something-ith, 2026, do we know if we can play Sega-CD ISOs using a Mega EverDrive Pro and a CDX. Enlighten me!