Sean, the owner of Game repair, brought to my attention a weird looking Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge. He ask me if I have ever seen this kind of a cart before? My first reaction was to say it was a UK Megadrive cart due to the label design but Sean quickly points out that the game clearly states it’s for the Sega Genesis. We both verified the cartridge’s shape and yes; it’s indeed a Sega Genesis cart. Nothing on the label states which region it is from. So now what the hell where is this cart from?
Sean let me take the cart home so I can investigate this rarity of his new find.
First allow me to point out the differences between this cartridge and the JPN & European Sonic “Megadrive†carts. All three regions have different covers while the Japanese cover is all happy and colorful, the US cover is ugly and dull. I really like the Euro cover, it’s sleek with that simplified clean look. (Side note: I never noticed that for the US cover, they photoshopped Sonics eyes to make him more “extreme†perhaps?)
Japanese Megadrive carts are a bit smaller than the US/Euro Genesis cartridge. The physical cart chip are the same size, but for the Genesis & Euro Megadrive, they added more plastic so the carts will not physically fit into a JPN Megadrive and with a converter are not always guarantied to work due to possible bios lockout.
The special cart I noticed is shaped just like a US cart but has the Euro label and the label accurately states it’s a Genesis cart. So physically speaking, the game is a Genesis game and confirmed not a JPN Megadrive. So what the hell is this thing? IS this some Euro special edition “Genny” cart? What will I find on my research? Is this a give-away cart that’s worth hundreds of dollars? A promo cart or maybe something even more rare perhaps a beta cart?
After Googling various phrases and sifting through image after image scouring the web, I had to resort to the tried and true forum question. Surprisingly my answer came to me quickly. Continue reading What’s the story with this Sonic Cart?
