Can't offer any advice on the NES, but I have a bit of knowledge on the other ones.

The Genesis had a lot of hardware variations, both with the Model 1 and Model 2. With the Model 1, systems that don't say "High Definition Graphics" are not uncommon. The "HDG" Model 1s are know for having some of the best audio quality of all of the Genesis variations. The non-"HDG" ones are interesting because some have the superior audio quality of the HDG models, and some actually use a similar sound circuit to the early Model 2 units, which are known for poor audio quality.

Instead of me babbling though, I recommend checking out this awesome guide to telling apart the various revisions; it shows how to tell if your Model 1 is a "good" one or not. http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?7 … s-from-bad-ones

As for the Zelda carts, I believe the one without the reset warning is the earliest revision. If you get the chance, see how many screws are on the backs of the two cartridges. According to this thread, there are 3 versions of the gold cart:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.ph … d3c23798cc72e96

5-screw, gold, round Nintendo seal, no "hold reset when turning off the power" warning

3-screw, gold, round Nintendo seal

3-screw, gold, oval Nintendo seal

Anyways hope that helps shed some light on your finds. Happy gaming!

Wow... if anything, this is just raising even more questions. :O

The new one I just got with the warning message on the save screen is a 3-screw cart with an oval Nintendo seal. Makes sense.

The Zelda cart I originally owned without the warning message on the save screen is ALSO a 3-screw cart with an oval Nintendo seal, which theoretically shouldn't be possible if that forum thread you linked me to is to be believed! :O

Doing more research on this, I stumbled upon this webpage:

http://estarland.blogspot.ca/2010/11/are-your … e-than-you.html

...which states that the 5-screw carts were the first kinds to be produced and that 3-screw carts came later. OK, sounds right, but it says that Gyromite production stopped before 3-screw carts went into production. Well, I do indeed have Gyromite, but NONE of my NES carts have 5-screws, they're all 3-screw carts... including Gyromite!

So I technically have two carts which shouldn't be possible. o_O

As for my Genesis models, my original Model-1 with the "HDG" text is the TMSS-equipped one, as it has the "Produced by or under license from Sega" message on startup. The new one I just got is supposedly the last of the Model-1s equipped with different, impropertly utilized sound hardware, but I didn't notice a difference in sound quality... curious.

CapnCrunch53 wrote:

Can't offer any advice on the NES, but I have a bit of knowledge on the other ones. […]
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Can't offer any advice on the NES, but I have a bit of knowledge on the other ones.

The Genesis had a lot of hardware variations, both with the Model 1 and Model 2. With the Model 1, systems that don't say "High Definition Graphics" are not uncommon. The "HDG" Model 1s are know for having some of the best audio quality of all of the Genesis variations. The non-"HDG" ones are interesting because some have the superior audio quality of the HDG models, and some actually use a similar sound circuit to the early Model 2 units, which are known for poor audio quality.

Instead of me babbling though, I recommend checking out this awesome guide to telling apart the various revisions; it shows how to tell if your Model 1 is a "good" one or not. http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?7 … s-from-bad-ones

As for the Zelda carts, I believe the one without the reset warning is the earliest revision. If you get the chance, see how many screws are on the backs of the two cartridges. According to this thread, there are 3 versions of the gold cart:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.ph … d3c23798cc72e96

5-screw, gold, round Nintendo seal, no "hold reset when turning off the power" warning

3-screw, gold, round Nintendo seal

3-screw, gold, oval Nintendo seal

Anyways hope that helps shed some light on your finds. Happy gaming!

Actually, there were 3 Sega Genesis models released in North America.

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

The Model 3 is an extremely cost reduced model that had some of the cartridge port pins disconnected so you couldn't use 32X or the Power Base Converter and there was one game that required one or more of the disabled pins that won't work. It also didn't have the expansion port that the Sega CD required so you can't use that either.

Yeah I have a Model 3 as well, honestly it's pretty nice for just carrying down to the family room to play with a friend instead of lugging my Model 1, or even worse my Model 2/SCD/32x monstrocity 🤣 People hate on it for its lack of compatibility, but I got it for $10 and it's convenient. Plus it actually has a really clean video signal compared to my Model 2.

Gemini000, I just noticed you're in Canada. Despite being in the same region, Canada sometimes got some slightly different variations of games than the US; I think this is because apparently Mattel handled distribution for the NES in Canada. I did some googling and it seems Canadian copies of Gyromite were in fact 3-screw carts. Makes me wonder if all Canadian NES carts are 3-screw, since you say you have no 5-screw carts.

As for the Genesis sound, some people make a big deal about it; I'm not an audiophile and would never even have known there was a difference if I didn't read about it. Just like I probably couldn't tell my Vibra16 with the Creative chip isn't as good as a real OPL3 if I didn't read about it on here 🤣. If we're happy with it, that's all that matters 😀

The Model 3 is an extremely cost reduced model that had some of the cartridge port pins disconnected so you couldn't use 32X or the Power Base Converter and there was one game that required one or more of the disabled pins that won't work. It also didn't have the expansion port that the Sega CD required so you can't use that either.

Yeah, but apparently, there's numerous variations of these individual models and can be difficult telling them all apart. It hurts the brain! x_x;

Also, I found out that my 3-screw Gyromite cart is not that uncommon since it has the "CAN" indicator on the label to indicate a Canadian cart. If it was lacking a country indicator, it would be a US cart, and apparently, 3-screw US Gyromite carts are extremely rare. :o

As for my Zelda cart though, no progress on figuring out what's up with my original 3-screw cart lacking the warning message screen.

...I really should be recording DOS game footage right now... ^_^;;;

Assembler Games is a great place to hang out if you're interested in such things. I'm sure someone can help you there 😁

UPDATE: The plot thickens! I took a MUCH closer look at both Zelda carts and finally spotted three differences, one of which is extremely blatant that I can't believe it took me this long to notice!

Difference 1: The cart with the warning message on the save screen has a couple things indented into the caution label on the back. A "C8" in the top left corner of the label, and an "A" to the left of the printed "REV-A" in the top right corner. The cart lacking the warning message doesn't have these.

Difference 2: Anything printed in red on the cart with the warning message on the save screen hasn't been printed perfectly and is extremely slightly blothcy, resulting in very thin things like the Nintendo logo in the top left corner of the front of the label looking thicker than on the cart lacking the warning message on the save screen.

Difference 3: The cart with the warning message on the save screen is MISSING THE MIDDLE 11 PINS! My original cart without the warning message has all 72 pins. The PCBs are clearly different!