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The Sega Mega Drive did something similar, normally the Z80 is just a support CPU used to run sound (although the 68000 could also talk to the sound chips, so s
by fredoralive 4y ago
The Sega Mega Drive did something similar, normally the Z80 is just a support CPU used to run sound (although the 68000 could also talk to the sound chips, so some games run sound off the main CPU to varying degrees). But with the Master System converter, it's the main CPU for backwards compatibility. The converter itself is largely passive to adjust for the cartridge connection differences and adding the pause button, all the backwards compatibility is handled by the main system.
On the PS2 side, apparently later systems replace the original IO chip with a PowerPC based chip running a MIPS emulator, which is kinda wild in itself.
- nebula8804 4y agoIf the Power Base Converter is largely plastic why do they seem so expensive on the used market? I would imagine tons of clones would be available by now. There seems to be one IC on the PCB in addition to the passives. Maybe this is some hard to clone chip? [1]:https://retrostuff.org/2016/05/07/power-base-fm/ https://retrostuff.org/2016/05/07/power-base-fm/
- NovaVeles 4y agoI am not sure why that is the case. I used to have one that was a cheap small converter cartridge. To explore how it worked, I was amazed to see that there where no chips on the board but merely contacts and traces.
- philistine 4y agoThey were never popular and sold poorly. Few people had a Master System, and even fewer wanted to play those games on a Genesis. Sega kept advertising it, as a statement more than anything. That explains how hard it is to find one.