A few interesting things are making their way into the collection.

Sega Mega-CD VHS

First up is a sealed Sega Mega-CD promotional videotape.

Brand new and sealed.

I’m looking forward to opening it, smelling that ’90s air and getting the video uploaded to YouTube. I still need to upload the Saturn demo VHS tape as well.

PAL VA0 Dreamcast

I also came across a PAL VA0 Dreamcast.

PAL VA0, you say?

Yes, that’s correct.

VA0 hardware is much harder to find in PAL regions than the later VA1 machines. It uses the early metal cooling and heatpipe arrangement also seen in Japanese VA0 Dreamcasts.

This particular unit is even stranger because it carries a sticker saying:

“MODIFIED CONSOLE, FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY, NOT SUITABLE FOR HOME USE”

The modem is just an empty shell as well.

That certainly suggests some kind of display or demonstration use, although I don’t yet have enough evidence to say exactly where or how Sega used this particular machine.

I’m looking forward to pulling it apart and comparing it with both my Japanese VA0 and ordinary PAL Dreamcasts.

Accolade development cartridge

I also received the Accolade development cartridge from Germany.

It isn’t especially functional without the original PC-side software or something useful loaded into it, but it looks incredibly cool.

I haven’t had a chance to photograph it properly yet. That deserves its own post later.

Apple Macintosh LC 475

I also fetched an Apple Macintosh LC 475, or Performa 475, to play around with.

One of the clips on the pizza-box case is damaged, but I’m not particularly interested in cosmetic perfection. I want the hardware.

I actually gave an LC 475 away to a collector years ago.

How we always come to regret these things.

It is probably locked away in a garage growing fungus on it.

Mega Drives and 32X plans

I’ve been selling off some of my Mega Drives over the past few weeks and managed to restore one back to full health, which was most satisfying.

One Model 1 still has the strange cold-start video flicker where red shifts towards yellow before settling down once the machine warms up. I’ve ordered some Sony CXA1145P video encoder chips to test. It could still be something else, but replacement will tell me considerably more.

I’m also still waiting on the sockets for my Mega Drive overclocking experiments and the BA6798S motor-driver IC for the faulty Japanese Saturn.

Finally, I’ve decided I’m going to attempt a homemade Neptune-style console using a Mega Drive 2 and a 32X.

I have two partially modified Mega Drive 2 consoles, so one can remain a normal region and video-frequency modded machine while the other becomes the experiment.

Regional 32X hardware also has to be considered because PAL units are configured around 50 Hz video while Japanese and US units are already configured for 60 Hz.

The US 32X therefore looks like the most sensible donor.

That, and they’re uglier than the PAL and Japanese ones.

Sorry about the lack of photos in this post. Most of this stuff hasn’t arrived yet!

Real life commitments, otherwise known as work, keep getting in the way.

Such is life!

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