Magistr Drive

From Sega Retro

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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

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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.

Mega Drive 2 (New Game)

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".

Mega Drive 2 (New Game)

Magistr Drive 2 (1 Pad)

Magistr Drive 2 (2 Pads)

Magistr Drive 2 (Green)

Magistr Drive 2 (25 games)

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

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.

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.[1]

Magistr Drive 2 (252 games)

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.

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 9 games)

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 12 games)

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

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 25 games)

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

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 65 games)

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 256 mbit)

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 160 games)

Magistr Drive 2 (mini; 252 games)

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).

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.


Magistr Drive 4

Magistr Drive 5

The console was redesigned with the Magistr Drive 5 in 2001[3], 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).

Magistr Station

Released in 2001[4].

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.


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.

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.

Magistr Drive One

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

Magistr 16

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Obuchayushchiy Magistr

Obuchayushchiy Magistr + FD

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

Magistr 16 Bakalavr/Obuchayushchiy Bakalavr

Released in 2001.[6]

Magistr Aspirant/Obuchayushchiy Aspirant

System modeled on CyberShell.[8]

Magistr Litseist

System modeled on CyberSmart.[9]

Sega Magistr X

Model released in September 2017.[10]

Magistr X

Released in February 2019. Very similar to Sega Magistr X.[11]

Magistr Drive 2 (98 games)

Model released in March 2018.[12]

Magistr Mega Drive (250 games)

Magistr Smart (414 games HDMI)

Released in January 2021. Has built-in games for Mega Drive, Dendy, and M.A.M.E.[13]

Magistr Turbo Drive (222 games)

Released in April 2021.[14]

Magistr accessories

For many years, New Game has released sets of many accessories for their consoles often modeled on the original from Sega. [15][16]

Documentation

Promotional material

Print advertisements

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Print advert in 750 igr dlya Dendy (RU) #1 : "" (2000-xx-xx)
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Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #48: "xxxx xxxx" (2000-04-15)
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Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #54: "xxxx xxxx" (2001-05-01)
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Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #56: "xxxx xxxx" (2001-12-15)
also published in:
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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)
Magistr advert RU.jpg
Magistr 16 advert KG09 RU.png
Print advert in Cool Gamer (RU) #9 : "" (2002-10-23)
Magistr 16 advert KG09 RU.png
Magistr 16 advert RU.jpg
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)
Magistr 16 advert RU.jpg
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Print advert in Entsiklopediya igr Sega. 100000 sekrety, kody, paroli (RU) #1 (2003-xx-xx)
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Television advertisements

Unknown

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


References

Unlicensed Mega Drive clones
Clone consoles
Mega Drive | Mega Drive 2 | Genesis 3 | "Mini" models | "PlayStation" models | Keyboard models | Famiclone models | VCD/DVD players | Others


Mega Drive Mega Drive 2 Genesis 3 "Mini" "PlayStation" Keyboard VCD/DVD
AT-168 | FR-302 | High Quality | HK-986 | KW-500 | Mega-Ken | Pro 16 Bit | Super Drive Extreme Land Mega Drive 2 | Game Drive 2 | Liko BBG-688 | Mega Drive II (StarGame) | Mega Drive 4 | Mondial Drive II | New Star 2 | Star Drive 2 | Super Drive | Super Mega Driver | ZW-162J | ZW-165A Game Joy | Mega Drive Junior | Sponge | ZW-2000 16 Bit Compact MD HDMI | MD Compact | Minigen | Minigen HD BBG 168 | Kombat 16 | Sega Millenium | TV Pump | ZW-166A CyberShell | CyberSmart | EZcom | GS-200 | Magistr 16 Game VCD | Premier
Unique designs
1990s AX-660 | AX-990 | BBG 188 | IQ-801 | KW-501 | KW-502 | KW-503 | KW-504 | KW-505 | Megagame | Megavision | Modern Mate | New 16 Bit | Power Magicom | Super Alpha II | Super 16 Bit
2000s C-11 | Car Game | Dream X | Dual Action | e-time Game Play | GamBrothers | GN Twin | FC3 Plus | Kid Box | Neo-16 | Noritul FX-16 | Ranbo ABL AA1000 | RetroN 3 | Sega Driver | ZW-1688 | ZW-16DC | ZW-16P3 | ZW-16XB | ZW-163 | ZW-167 | ZW-169 | ZW-V21
2010s Fei Hao HD Retro Game | HD Game System | MegaRetroN HD | Mega Sg | PAP1000 | RetroN 5 | Super Retro Trio | Super Retro Trio Plus
2020s 2E Game Console 16 bit | MixHD | Nimbus Smart | Polymega | RetroN 3 HD | SG800
Portables
Cartridge-based 16 Bit Pocket MD | Advance Digitals | DVTech Discovery | ES-2016 | HG-806 | Mega Drive Portable | MDPortable | One Station | Pocket MD | PXP Slim Station | RetroGen | ZW-16M
Emulator-based !QU | Anbernic | Dinax Pixel Games | eMote | EXEQ | Favorite G18 | Game King A-330 | Game Station A-320 | JXD S7300B | Sameo | SD Portable
Clone console "families"
Data Frog | Dendy | Game-In | Game Box | Game Stick | Hamy | Magic Drive | Magistr Drive | Maniac Drive | Orbita OT-TYG | Retro Genesis | Super Drive | Super Console X | Titan | Mega Dream | SZGV | V-Com