The developer Apocalypse is selling a cartridge adapter he’s calling the MarkMaster, that lets you play Japanese 8-bit Sega games on non-Japanese versions of the Sega Master System. That includes Mark III / MK-2000 cartridges on both SMS and Genesis / Mega Drive, as well as the earlier SG-1000 and SC-3000 carts on SMS only (more info below the link). This cartridge also presents itself as a valid SMS ROM during the console’s BIOS checks, so compatibility shouldn’t be an issue like with standard pin converters. The price is $50 and it comes as a complete in box package, including a standard SMS case and cartridge shell. You can place an order by contacting Mitsurugi-w; Check out the thread below for instructions:
More Info: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/collectors-ed-now-available-apocalypses-first-console-product-the-markmaster.22156/
SMS Models: https://consolemods.org/wiki/Master_System:Master_System_Model_Differences
First, a very brief history of the confusing SMS console releases (more info in the link above): It started as the SG-1000 in Japan and Sega eventually made a slightly more powerful, backward-compatible version they called the “Mark III”. They then released the MKIII in other parts of the world as the “Sega Master System”, with a different sized cartridge and different shell. Other than the BIOS, the hardware was essentially the same. Sega then re-released it in Japan as the “MK-2000” (or simply the ‘Japanese SMS’) with the same cartridge size as all the other Japanese releases.
This adapter allows you to play MK-2000 cartridges on your Sega Master System, or even Genesis/Mega Drive via an SMS to Genesis converter (affiliate links ahead): The original Power Base Converter should work, as well as the Power Base Mini and Power Base FM, for anyone looking to get FM Sound from those carts. The cart presents itself as an official SMS cart, providing the “TMR SEGA” string in the header, region check and lastly checksum, before switching to the attached cart, so compatibility should be really high (if not complete). That feature definitely sets this aside from other basic pin adapters.
One important thing to note, is the adapter will also let you play SG-1000 and SC-3000 carts as well, but only on a Master System, NOT a Genesis / Mega Drive. This is because the Genesis’ VDP doesn’t support the legacy video mode the SG-1000 uses and those games won’t even work with Genesis ROM Carts. Also, colors in SG-1000 games might be a bit off, which is due to a flaw in the hardcoded colors of Sega’s VDP design – This isn’t a result of the adapter, just how the VDP works and you’d get the exact same results plugging an SG-1000 cartridge into a MKIII or MK-2000. Some games may look better, others might look off, but overall it’s not a massive difference. Weird that Sega didn’t think of this and even the “official backward compatibility” has the color issue.
As someone who has both SMS and MK-2000 carts, I think this is a really cool piece of hardware to have. Of course, you can simply get any ROM cart for the SMS or Genesis and have the same functionality…but where’s the fun in that? ;p
