Talk:6-Pak

Are we sure that the cardboard box version is Asian? It says Genesis, whilst it was known as Mega Drive in Asia. Googling "6-PAK Genesis" in Google images brings up pictures of carts some of which have a "not for resale" variant (they both have ESRB ratings). So maybe this was just a late bundle in the US (or possibly some other NTSC-U country in the Americas).

That brings me onto to Mega Games 10, it uses a Euro cart without a cartridge lock slot, so wouldn't be compatible with Asian MD1s. This must have been only bundled with later compatible hardware (which would also explain the lack of PAL/NTSC sticker on it).--Pirate Dragon (talk) 15:56, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

Any cartridge (or box) which says "not for resale" was bundled with something, the idea presumably being to stop retailers from opening packs and selling bundled carts for maximum profit.

That "Asian" 6-Pak turns up from time to time and I honestly have no idea where it's from. It may not even be an officially licensed variant - there's no Sega logos on any of the shots we have. That version of Mega Games 10 (and this Game Gear thing) probably originates from the same source or around the same period.

These are all from the early 2000s - almost a decade after Sega stopped manufacturing consoles with cartridge locks. -Black Squirrel (talk) 16:14, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

I have 6-Pak and Mega Games 10, both of which I got from a seller in Japan. Neither has a cartridge lock slot, the boxes are smaller than regular MD boxes, the overall build quality is quite poor, and they don't seem more than 10-15 years old. My guess is they were intended for use with AtGames consoles or similar. - Hivebrain (talk) 16:16, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

Mega Games 10 has the same style as Asian Sega boxes (GG/MD/32X) from late 1994/early 1995, but they actually went back to normal plastic casing with designs based on the PAL/JP releases after that. It also matches the style used on late Asian MD console boxes. The cart does have part numbers on the front sticker and hologram seal which fits it in around 1998 going by MD/Saturn/Pico codes from that period. US 6-PAK has no part numbers (which is normal for stuff not manufactured through SoJ, a lot of SoA stuff doesn't have them). It's always possible that SoA had a lot of left over loose cartridge stock (looking on ebay it seems that this was bundled loose) and dumped them in Asia, where they just made boxes to match the cartridge and left it as Genesis. Is your 6-PAK cart from Japan identical to the US cart?--Pirate Dragon (talk) 17:36, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

Thanks for the link to the "Game Gear thing", I'm starting to lean quite heavily towards both of these being bootlegs. Game Gear was quite heavily bootlegged (including with this type of box), so it would be easy for one of those bootleggers to put out MD bootlegs in a GG style box (and cheaper than using plastic). I've come across MD2 consoles in that style box with "official" holograms, but the model numbers were wrong "MX" instead of "MK", I guess they look similar to a non-Latin alphabet speaker. As you say, the boxes have no Sega logo, or other standard details, just a plain barcode in the corner. I'm intrigued enough to buy one and open it up, but maybe I don't have to, would you be willing to do that Hivebrain? MD is such a pain when it comes to bootlegs/clones.--Pirate Dragon (talk) 17:58, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

Also, Mega Games 10 has two part numbers, one of which is a "610-" number, those numbers are generally reserved for hardware assemblies/casing etc ... I've never seen that on software before, there's so much wrong that these can't be genuine Sega software.--Pirate Dragon (talk) 18:17, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

OK, so Mega Games 10 is clearly bootleg. Compare the "Mega Drive" font to Sonic & Knuckles, Mega Bomberman, Ecco II GG, or any of the Asian 32X games, it's an amateurish attempt to replicate the same style, but with blatant mistakes. Still, the biggest of all is the "™" sign appearing at the bottom instead of the top of "Mega Drive". Incidentally, someone in China is currently selling multiple new copies of this on Ebay. "Asian" 6-PAK isn't quite as obvious, but it's style completely matches "Mega Games 10", has the wrong cartridge shell for Asia (why even change to Euro shell when every Asian MD is compatible with JP shell?), and says "Genesis". Unless someone disagrees then I'll move these to the bootleg section tomorrow.--Pirate Dragon (talk) 18:48, 29 July 2016 (CDT)

Oh, the obvious mistake on 6-PAK is using "™" after "Genesis" instead of "®". "™"(unregistered trade mark) always predates "®" (registered trade mark). --Pirate Dragon (talk) 19:07, 29 July 2016 (CDT)