Genesis Games

The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth-generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. The Genesis was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan, and in 1989 in North America.

Can I play Genesis games on a PAL Mega Drive?

Yes, some will work. but it depends. We recommend getting a USA Genesis Console to best play your Genese games, but if you do want to use a stock PAL Mega Drive then you will have some luck with very ear games pre 1992, but not perfect with games after that.

Find the game you're looking at on the SEGA Retro page and click the "Details" link to the side of the game. This will explain if it will work on your console.

Can I play PAL games on a USA Genesis?

Yes. Physically, PAL games have the same shape and size as US games, so they will fit into a Genesis console. They will also fit a Japanese Mega drive by simple removing the physical lockout switch inside the Japanese console. We remove this lockout switch in all Japanese consoles prior to sale.

Most PAL games will play fine, but not all.... read on.

Most pre-1993 PAL games are region free and most of those will work on an NTSC console without problems. However, many later games will have either region locks or PAL optimizations for 50hz, which will prevent you from playing the games.

Japanese games have a slightly different cart shape and therefore the cart slot opening on a Japanese console is larger with square edges. You can physically insert any cart into a Japanese console, noting they will play USA carts mostly without issue and most PAL carts if they are pre 1993. Early games like Sonic 1 play on any console.