Mega Drive consoles in Asia

"The Asian "region" covers the middle east, the islands of south east Asia, and the likes of India, China and Russia on the mainland. It's possible it even covers what little consoles were sold in Africa. It does not cover Japan, nor does it cover South Korea, and some states such as China are basically seen as "no go" areas so don't tend to count."

Asia is technically two regions as far as Mega Drive is concerned, Japan and NTSC countries (South Korea, Taiwan, and Philippines) are 60Hz, J language. The PAL Asian countries (Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Gulf etc) are 50Hz, E language. Both regions use Japanese style cartridges and slots. This means all NTSC Asia specification consoles are the same software region as Japan, whilst all PAL Asian specification consoles are the same software region as Europe. Whilst European (and Australia etc) PAL games will fit and work with PAL Asian consoles, PAL Asian games will only work with a European console through the use of an adapter or cartridge slot mod.

When Sega released their second MD1 model in Japan it used a generic box for the whole of NTSC Asia (excluding South Korea, where Samsung held the distribution rights).

http://segaretro.org/File:Mega_Drive_HAA-2500_Asia.jpg

"For sale only in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines"

They seem to have used the same box for Hong Kong, but with a PAL Asian specification sticker covering the above quote.

I'm not sure how these two regions should be presented, should NTSC Asia remain grouped with PAL Asia, be included with Japan, or have it's own section?

Incidentally, Sega split Asia in the same way for Mark III and Master System. South Korea and Taiwan used Japanese cartridges, slots, and bios. Whilst Hong Kong used export cartridges, slots, and bios.