Magistr Drive

The Magistr (Магистр) Drive series is a selection of clone consoles based on the Sega Mega Drive that were manufactured and distributed in Russia and other parts of Asia. Most Magistr Drive consoles were made by New Game, a company which specialises in bringing Mega Drive content to Russia.

As is perhaps predictable in these markets, 8-bit Famicom clone consoles (or Dendy clones as they're known in Russia) known as the "Magistr Savia" and "Magistr Sniper" (among possibly others) were also produced by New Game, although these are unrelated to the Mega Drive clones on this page.

Unlike many other clone consoles, Magistr Drives were produced extremely cheaply and thus the contents displayed on the box often do not match the products contained within. The colours of buttons for example range significantly across Magistr Drives and may have been determined by what colours were in stock, not necessarily the type of console. For this reason the true number of Magistr Drives has not been determined.

History

The first clones appeared under the name Mega Drive 2 around 1998. Their publisher was Padis, although the consoles had a sticker from the Mikki store that cooperated with them. At the beginning of 1999, the New Game company was established to deal with the sale of clones. This year, they released clone of Mega Drive 2, Mega Drive 3 and Game VCD and registered trademarks for Mega Drive 3 and Game VCD. Rights to the name Mega Drive were bought by Mezhregional'naya obshchestvennaya organizatsiya sodeystviya proizvodstvu i realizatsii videoigr which began competing with New Game by releasing clones of the Simba's and 'Mega Drive' brand. Seeing that the rights to the Mega Drive name were reserved, New Game began publishing its consoles under the name Magistr Drive around 2000. Over the years, a whole range of clones from this brand has been created and the new models are still sold in Russia and the former USSR to this day.

Magazine articles

Main article: Magistr Drive/Magazine articles.

Mega Drive 2 (Mikki)

Released around 1998, before the creation of the Magistr Drive brand. Although they look like the original Mega Drive, they differ in that they have Mega Key and Mikki stickers.

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  Blue

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  Green

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  Console

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Magistr Drive 2

This console is the mother of all clones. Released around 1999/2000, under the name Mega Drive 2. On the surface this Magistr Drive 2 is largely identical to a Japanese Mega Drive 2 , but as with all Magistr Drives, the innards are much simpler, being effectively a "console on a chip".

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  Box

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Magistr Drive 2 (1 Pad)

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Magistr Drive 2 (2 Pads)

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Magistr Drive 2 (Green)

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Magistr Drive 2 (25 games)

One of the more common Magistr Drive 2s is this model - one with 25 built-in games.

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Magistr Drive 2 (25 games; alt)

There is an alternative model to the above, distributed in the same packaging. Aside from colour scheme changes the controllers have turbo switches instead of buttons.

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Magistr Drive 2 (160 games)

There is an alternative model to the above, distributed in the same packaging. Aside from colour scheme changes the controllers have turbo switches instead of buttons. In December 2016 a new version was released.

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  Old version box

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  Old version manual

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  New version

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  New version

Magistr Drive 2 (252 games)

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini)

Almost unique to the Magistr Drive series is the concept of "mini" Magistr Drives - functionally identical to the above but packaged in much smaller shells. This particular Magistr Drive is otherwise largely unremarkable - there are no built-in games and aesthetically it copies the European Mega Drive II.

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• MagistrDriveMini 1 RU Box Front.jpg
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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 9 games)

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 12 games)

This 12 game version of the mini Magistr Drive 2 is also quite common.

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  Front of console

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  Back of console

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  Front of box

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  Back of box

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  Inside of box

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 25 games)

A 25 game variant was also produced, presumably identical to the larger edition above.

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 65 games)

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 256 mbit)

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 160 games)

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Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 252 games)

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Magistr Drive 3

Released around 1999/2000, after the first console in this series. Like the original, it has the name Mega Drive on the console. Same label as Mega Drive 2 (Mikki).

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Magistr Drive 3 (alt)

The small shell was recycled with the Magistr Drive 3, though aside from a different color scheme there's not much separating this one from its predecessor.

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  Front of box

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  Back of box

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  Inside of box

Magistr Drive 4

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Magistr Drive 5

The console was redesigned with the Magistr Drive 5 in 2001, and although still features Sega branding on the box and console, swapped its controllers to PlayStation 1-esque ones. The awkward button placement that also appeared in the Mega Drive V and Mega Drive X was used here, though the colors are different. The Magistr Drive 5 goes back to using the regular size Mega Drive 2 shell, though this time it's white (although there are some variations for button colours).

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  Front of box

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  Back of box

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  Inside of box

Magistr Station

Released in 2001.

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Magistr Drive X

The Magistr Drive X brings back the Sega Mega Drive six button controllers and paints them white. It also brings back the shell of the Magistr Drive 2 Mini and paints that white too. Something worth noting is that the middle buttons are vertical. There is also a version that includes Sega Saturn-like controllers.

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  Front of box

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  Back of box

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  Inside of box

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  Alt

Magistr Drive Z

A departure from previous attempts, the Magistr Drive Z features a Genesis 3 shell and sometimes ships with less awkward PlayStation 1-style controllers. The console comes in a variety of colors including white and blue.

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  Front of box

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  Back of box

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  Inside of box

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Magistr Drive (65 games)

Despite having created a smaller shell for earlier projects, more recent Magistr Drives still use the original Mega Drive 2 style shell. This one has 65 built-in games.

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Magistr Drive One

Uses a PS One style shell and comes with PlayStation style controllers.

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  Box (alt)

Magistr 16

Obuchayushchiy Magistr

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  Sistemnyy kartridzh

Obuchayushchiy Magistr + FD

This model is identical to the previous one but includes a floppy drive for writing data to a floppy disk.

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Magistr 16 Bakalavr/Obuchayushchiy Bakalavr

Released in 2001.

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  Box resembling CyberShell

Magistr Aspirant/Obuchayushchiy Aspirant

System modeled on CyberShell.

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Magistr Litseist

System modeled on CyberSmart.

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Sega Magistr X

Model released in September 2017.

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Magistr X

Released in February 2019. Very similar to Sega Magistr X.

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Magistr Drive 2 (98 games)

Model released in March 2018.

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Magistr Mega Drive (250 games)

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Magistr Smart (414 games HDMI)

Released in January 2021. Has built-in games for Mega Drive, Dendy, and M.A.M.E.

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Magistr Turbo Drive (222 games)

Released in April 2021.

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Magistr accessories

For many years, New Game has released sets of many accessories for their consoles often modeled on the original from Sega.

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  Adapter Sega

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  Adaptor Sega D2

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  Cable TV

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  Cable Sega

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  Cable Nomad

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  RF Converter Sega A4

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  Joystick Sega A-3

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  Joystick Sega 3 A3-3

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  Joystick SEGA BBG 4

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  Joystick SEGA BBG 6

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  Joystick Sega DR5

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  N16 Joystick Nintendo

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  N16 Joystick Nintendo "Dyna-1"

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  Joystick Sega GD

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  25-JS Joystick

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  25-JS Joystick

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  RF Modulator

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  Keyboard Magistr 16

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  Mouse Magistr 16 Obuchayushchiy

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  Mouse Magistr Bakalavr

Documentation

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  Manual (2000s)

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  Warranty (2000s)

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  Sticker (2000s)

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  Small card with Magistr 16 info (early 2000s)

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  Small card with information about the possibility of purchasing Mega Drive games in Russian (early 2000s)

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  Manual (2010s)

Promotional material

Print advertisements

Print advert in 750 igr dlya Dendy (RU) #1 : "" (2000-xx-xx)

Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #48: "xxxx xxxx" (2000-04-15)

Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #54: "xxxx xxxx" (2001-05-01)

Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #56: "xxxx xxxx" (2001-12-15)
also published in:

• Velikiy Drakon (RU) #57: "xxxx xxxx" (2002-02-05)
• Cool Gamer (RU) #8 (2001-xx-xx)

Print advert in Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Dendy (RU) #4 : "" (2002-09-20)

also published in:

• Cool Gamer (RU) #9 : "" (2002-10-23)
• Cool Gamer (RU) #10 (2003-01-30)

Print advert in Cool Gamer (RU) #9 : "" (2002-10-23)

Print advert in TRICKS Gold Sega dlya fantazerov (RU) : "" (2002-xx-xx)

also published in:

• TRICKS Gold Strana Dreamcast (RU) #5: "" (200x-xx-xx)
• TRICKS Gold Sega dlya strategov (RU) : "" (2003-xx-xx)

Print advert in Entsiklopediya igr Sega. 100000 sekrety, kody, paroli (RU) #1 (2003-xx-xx)

Television advertisements

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Unknown

Aside from being Magistr Drives we know nothing about the following systems.

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• MagistrDrive2Mini.jpg