Sega Mega Tech Restoration Log

mattmook

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Hey,

First timer here basically looking for any advice or details on the Sega Mega Tech as I recently snagged a board and game off eBay.

When I made the decision to buy the board it seemed fitting to try and see if I could reproduce the cab as faithfully as I can, however, with the lack of information directly out there this seems an almost impossible task without the help and kindness of others.

I had been planning out how to create a 3D model of the top 10" screen front mask (MGS-1026) but by a stroke of luck I'm now in the process of acquiring one so that headache disappears although given time I would still like to create a 3D model for future preservation. This basically means the hardest part for me now is to see if I can source an original control panel.

With preservation in mind I'm starting to document what I find on GitHub at https://github.com/retromattus/sega-mega-tech-repair-notes, although currently this mostly has details about the games available, including the Sega Mega 6 games I've come across online.

Even though I've not even got a board working there are already so many side missions that come to my mind with this project:

- Creating a mega tech repro cartridge with master system mapper built in so there's no need to destroy master system games for components. This seems relatively feasible through a CPLD chip or through more off the shelf components, just need to investigate the approach more and design the PCB.
- Open source cartridge labels for both mega tech and mega 6; I've already uploaded an SVG for the mega 6 cart logo, and have the layout stored locally. More on this coming soon.
- Cartridge box cover art - seems these things existed, although no scans of any originals as best I can tell only photos at funny angles. So if anyone has any they'd happily share I'm happy to vectorise as appropriate.
- Creating a Mega Tech cartridge dumper - nothing particularly complicated here, just need to map the pins correctly; thinking of building an adapter board for https://www.tindie.com/products/xdeath/usb-megadrive-genesis-cartridge-readerwriter/ although not sure if there's a better project to use.
- Sega Mega 6 reproduction? Don't seem to be many people who own one of these, even more reason to see what can be done to preserve it along with seeing if we're able to get dumps of the game ROMs and header ROMs. The main board itself visibly is almost identical to the mega tech with a few components missing and some additional lights on the control panel.

Anyway, so many things to do that don't even impact the process of getting the board working and a cab built!

On the note of the cab, if anyone on here is willing and able to accurately measure and photograph their cab that help would be greatly appreciated. Again any dimensions of panels etc I'm trying to add and document to GitHub so anyone would be able to reproduce if they so wish.
 
While I wait for some parts before I can attempt to fire the mega tech main pcb up I have made a start on getting some cartridges ready... I'm too scared to solder any ROM chips on yet though until I know I've programmed them correctly.

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I've also done some more work on reproducing the cartridge labels, and while I'm not ready to upload the front label I have now got the back label uploaded to GitHub. Not sure if I should have made the text just that much thicker though!

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Received the parts I needed to see if I could create a mega tech cartridge dumper... and means one of my side quests has started with good progress...

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With the swapping of a couple of wires I was able to capture the header rom too. Will probably sort out a schematic later on this week so I have something a little neater.
 
PCB arrived today and I've successfully tested I can dump a mega tech cartridge game and header rom :-D

while I put a mega 6 logo on the board, the pinout as I understand it is different so won't work for that. but in other news this adapter board allowed me to play that same mega tech cartridge on my mega sg i.e. as a megadrive cartridge

IMG_7215.jpgIMG_7214.jpgIMG_7216.jpg
 
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