Mega Drive 2 (UMC)
From Sega Retro
After an unsuccessful fight against piracy, Sega decided in September 1996 to sign a contract with U.M.C to produce cheaper Mega Drive hardware under Sega's license, which were distributed on the Asian market that still reported a demand for cheap 16-bit consoles. As one of the elements of the strategy, UMC began to produce chips for Mega Drive consoles that could be used by other manufacturers, including pirates[1]. Each of such console released by a pirate with a UMC chip had a special label symbolizing originality. This means that some clones located on clone page could have been recognized by Sega as original for as long as they had such sticker. Although the procedure seemed beneficial in terms of fighting piracy (Sega received money for each chip), it caused a decrease in the quality of the consoles.
In the following years, UMC licensed a few systems such as Mega Drive 3 (2000) and VCD/DVD players for the Chinese market, but the first one was the Mega Drive 2 console and this page contains all known variants of it with the manufacturer's sticker.
Note: The list is incomplete.
| Box | Name | Distributor | Date & Price | Console | Label | Hardware | Software | Documentation | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
   |
Mega Drive II | (≥ 1996)
|
 MK-1631-16 |
 |
 Under license from SEGA Produced by U.M.C. 670-11005 |
||||
 |
Mega Drive II | (≥ 1996)
|
MX-1631-07 |
 |
Under license from SEGA Produced by U.M.C. 670-11005 |
References