Was that Ram cart thing released in the UK?

[Symos]

The Mega CD bios mentions a Ram cart thing in it's memory manager. It is to my understanding it is a sort of Mega CD like memory card for the Mega Drive's cart slot. My question is was it released in the UK?

[David J.]

Well, I am 99% sure it wasn't. If it was released, I'm VERY positive one would have shown up by now. Even in the US, they can be tricky to find.

The Mega CD bombed in europe, and the userbase was small, so I doubt they made one. US and Japanese carts work no problem. :)

[Symos]

I see. Thanks. Truth is I'm kinda new to Mega CD ownership.

[Zebbe]

Can't find it on this great page: http://www.sega-mega-cd-library.co.uk/

[David J.]

I see. Thanks. Truth is I'm kinda new to Mega CD ownership.

No problem. I remember I wanted a Sega CD oh so badly back in the day, and when I got one a few years back, I was very confused also.

[Elusive]

The Mega CD bombed in europe

Care to back that up? From what I can glean from Sonic the Comic's letters and games charts sections (more s needed), it was viewed as that extra bit of expensive kit that dedicated Mega Drive owners could afford. Its production continued into late 1996 - that's a lifespan of three years, finishing almost at the same time as the Master System and 32X was discontinued.

Seems to me that SoE only continued producing Mega Drive games in the Saturn era - hell, I know that Mega Drive IIs could be picked up at Argos in 1999. Then that all changed in the Dreamcast area, although I stopped buying game magazines thereabouts so :/


As for the RAM cart, how long was it between the release of the Sega CD and the RAM cart in the States?

I don't think it was released to Europe, either. Kind of makes Shining Force CD difficult if you don't want to import ;)

[David J.]

So tell me why they are so expensive today? If the console didn't bomb there, why do they attract higher prices over there? I can tell you a Sega CD console isn't very common here, but it doesn't go for tons of money. Late 1996? Where'd you read that tidbit?

So Megadrive 2's where still sold in 1999? So what? That could be unsold inventory. I can tell you when Majesco released the Genesis 3, they actually sold some Genesis 2 consoles, unsold inventory too I'd wager. There's tons of unsold Game Gear games lying around, if you know were to look.

Oh yeah, I read that you can have the two hidden scenarios without a ram cart. There's some massive file that can safely be deleted. I'll try and find the place where I read that. And your sig cracks me up.

[Zebbe]

I read somewhere that the Mega Drive outsold all consoles in Europe up to 1998. Games were also released up to this year.

The Mega CD cost 1000 Swedish Kronor more in Sweden (3500 SEK) than the Sega CD cost in USA. Europe is also a smaller market so fewer units were made for the market. Those are some of the reasons it's so much more expensive here even today.

[Elusive]

So tell me why they are so expensive today? If the console didn't bomb there, why do they attract higher prices over there? I can tell you a Sega CD console isn't very common here, but it doesn't go for tons of money. Late 1996? Where'd you read that tidbit?

So Megadrive 2's where still sold in 1999? So what? That could be unsold inventory. I can tell you when Majesco released the Genesis 3, they actually sold some Genesis 2 consoles, unsold inventory too I'd wager. There's tons of unsold Game Gear games lying around, if you know were to look.

Oh yeah, I read that you can have the two hidden scenarios without a ram cart. There's some massive file that can safely be deleted. I'll try and find the place where I read that. And your sig cracks me up.

Expensive? A quick search of eBay's 'Sega CD' consoles section shows a rough average of ~£15 plus postage for a console alone, up to ~£30 for a Mega-CD/Mega Drive combo with cart & CD-ROM games. That's not really prohibitive for an expansion machine that cost around £200 at launch.

I guess you're right - without knowing dates of production runs (and honestly, I'm not that hardcore) there's no concrete way of knowing.

I reckon as a general rule of thumb, Sega of Europe gets blips on a radar screen: bloop, shine, fade away. Bloop, shine, fade away. SoA and SoJ get all the high drama of nuclear explosions (and the subsequent meltdown & fallout).

You want a real collecting challenge? Go for the N64DD.

The sig? Here you go, have a generator (http://web.archive.org/web/20050607075213/http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/natetrue/gar.html). Removing the thought bubbles seems to work :D

[David J.]

Well, I was seeing all of these expensive consoles, and hearing stories. You can blame the fact that a lot of the massive Sega stuff I know is very dated, like 1999, G30.

It appears when/if the day comes that a working CD addon is next to impossable to find... I can't help but wonder what people will see in the final days? (Phantasy Star 2 refrence) Someone really needs to get cracking on repo lasers/motors and whatnot ASAP!

Those Sony KSS lasers/motors will only be around for oh so long, and we have very limited info on what will work with our consoles.