The Sega Megadrive, whichever revision you look at, has a different cartridge slot’s shape depending on the model japanese or an EUR / US. This was a cheap but not so efficient way of zoning the console (some later game was zoned in software). Nevertheless, a simple modification of the slot allows to put any game fom any region as soon as the game is not zoned in software (eg. Sonic 3). I know that adapters exist, but I just don’t like using them.

This is the story of a cartridge slot widening on my Megadrive 2…

Needed material

A few things are needed here : a cutter or smal knife to remove a first layer of plastic, and a flat small file to finish the work.

Prepare the Shell

The console must be opened, but we just need the upper part of the shell. The dust cover mecanism should also be removed.

Widening operation

Ok, let’s go. Below are the area we need to modify :

I started from the bottom. the rounded part should looks like near square:

The next step if to remove the square part above the area we’ve just worked on :

At this step, japanese and eur / us cartridges can all be inserted in the console :

Did I say “all cartridges” ?… Well all but one : Virtua Racing is a little bigger. If you own the Japanese version, the upper part of he slot must be a little bit more widened:

Now the dust cover can be remounted

Running tests

Sonic Spindball JAP, Sonic EUR and Virtua Racing JAP : all in the same console with no adapter.