So what’s a budget-minded, import-hungry Genesis owner to do? If you grew up in the 16-bit era, I’m sure you remember a device know as the Game Genie. In the the 16-bit era, there were a number of solutions to help play Genesis imports such as the Pro Action Replay, Universal Adapter, or Mega Key/Super Key, but a decade later these items are getting harder to find and more expensive. So naturally, we need to find away around these limitations. The software in the games also have some region lock-out code to keep them from playing. This can be taken care of by either using a pass-through cartridge or removing the tabs in your system’s cartridge slot. Japanese cartridges are rounded on the ends, so you won’t be able to get a Japanese cartridge to fit into the slotted and narrower cart slot on a Genesis 1/2/CDX. The cartridge slot on the Genesis 1, 2, and CDX is different from that of the Japanese Megadrive. I’ve had a couple of people email me recently about how to play Genesis imports, so I thought I would compile some answers and share them with everyone. While most of us probably just boot up an emulator to try those MegaDrive games that were never released in our native countries, there are sure to be some retro gamers that insist on playing the real cartridges on the real machine. Playing Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Imports With Game Genie
