I’m very sure this is a rare item and I’m happy that I still have it; even if it’s been made obsolete by emulators and flash carts. If it wasn’t for this disk drive I would have missed out on some very good games back in the day. When I bought this unit I got it with about 100 games on 3.25″ diskette. It’s really hard to remember but I think I paid about $100 for the Mega Disk with the 100 games. It was a very exciting day and it’s why I was able to discover games like Warsong, Lightening Force and Snow Bros. I tested it just today and it’s still working very well.
Mega Disk is an after market (and unlicensed) 3.25″ floppy drive that attaches to your Sega Genesis and will load ROMs from diskette to your Genesis. The load time is longer than a cartridge but once the game was loaded the gameplay was identical to authentic carts.
Mega Disk, memory save cartridge and games on 3.25″ diskette.
Mega Disk with memory cart and game disk inserted.
Mega Disk booting from diskette and loading ROM.
Mega Disk finished loading and running Snow Bros.
Mega Disk instructions.
Retro Megabit 
That’s a pretty darn cool item! I’m usually not too big on this type of thing, but the price was right (as in a BARGAIN) for what you ended up with.
g.
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It’s amazing how old and clunky this drive looks now. When I first got the Mega Disk it was state of the art! If I were to guess I think I bought it around 1993 or 1994 and it felt very expensive then. I might have paid more but I doubt I could have done it if it was more than $200. So to play it safe, lets say I paid between $100-$200.
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OMG that’s a bargain! I’ve never even heard of the Sega Mega Disk, when was it released??
I need to get me one of those ;D
/mE
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It’s a cool little device but I don’t think it’s worth the effort these days. Emulators can do it’s job and actual Mega Drives and games are pretty cheap (most of them). But back when I got the Mega Disk it was a real bargan. Even though at the time it almost broke the bank 🙂
I don’t know much about this sucker except that is loads ROMs from floppy and uses the cart for save slots. …and I’m sure it’s not licensed by Sega.
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I’m not much for emulators, it’s just not the same.. I prefer the real games ^_^
ok, if it’s not licensed then that’s probably why I haven’t heard of it. Is it the same games as the Genesis or Master system? or what kind of games is it?
/mE
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I didn’t realize how little detail I gave about this device until I read your comments. Every game I have on diskette/floppy is an actual Genesis/ Mega Drive game. I don’t have any blootleg or homebrew software on these disks.
I think my unit is just a reader. It can read the floppy disks and load a game on the Genesis. Most games fit on a single disk. There is an identical unit that is black in color and it can copy games from cart to floppy disk.
I don’t have any Master System games for it and I don’t know if it can load them. If I were to guess I’d say there is a good chance it could play SMS games.
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cool! ^_^ Do you have to have a cartridge in it as well for it to work? And does it attach in the Mega Drive cart-insert? Kind of like the Famicom Disk System? =D
/mE
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Yes, it’s very much like the Famicom Disk System. The whole unit plugs into the Genesis like a giant cart.
Then, if you’re copying games you can incert a cart into the cart slot of the Mega Disk and load the special copy floppy disk into the 3.5″ drive and read the cart to mememory and then write it to another 3.5″ floppy.
Or when you’re playing games you can load the floppy disk with the game into the 3.5″ drive and incert the special memory cart into the Mega Disk cart slot where the game can write it’s save files to.
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That’s awesome! I’m really psyched about floppy discs, haven’t seen them around in such a long time, and now I recently started collecting Famicom Disk, and it’s just sooo exciting =D
/mE
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I recently purchased one of these from HK, however it is yet to arrive and I had 2 questions for anyone that has one.
1.- Do these units work pretty much the same as SNES copiers like the Magicom, Wildcard or SF series?
2.- Do they require an external power supply?
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Hi Newkillergenius!
Back in the day the Mega Disk rocked my world. I was a kid and didn’t have much (any) money so this unit made me rich with Mega Drive games.
It really does work pretty much the same way SNES copiers do.
You plug the Mega Disk into the Genesis cart slot, insert a 3.5 floppy into it and then power on the Genesis. It will detect the disk and start to load automatically. The Mega Disk does not require an external power supply.
I believe that some units just read disks and others can actually copy carts and write the ROM to disk.
You also need a Memory Cart if you want to save games that support the save feature.
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How much is this woth? I know its very rare, but how much? And about this Memory cart you mentioned… are you sure about that? It should be saving the profress on the flopy itself…
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Hey Johnny,
I don’t really know what it’s worth. At a Game Swap I was at recently I saw a vendor selling one for $300. That seems really expensive to me. But really I have no idea what it’s value is.
The floppy disks contains only the ROM (the Game) if you want to save you have to a have the memory cartridge. All saves are written to the cart and not the floppy.
For a game that supports saving you just save as normal and it gets written to the cart. There are no extra steps to take. The system just does it.
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I’m very glad you posted this page and that you’ve been very diligent about answering questions regarding the device.
A friend of mine has one of these devices and we are trying to get it up and running. However, it appears that we don’t have the operating system disk. I’ve hooked the Mega Disk into my Genesis and when I turn it on it loads up fine and prompts me to insert a disk. I only have blank floppy disks, however, and upon inserting one it notifies me “Wrong OS Disk”
Is there any way you would be able to upload the contents of that “Mega DOS 4.7c Preboot Disk” or send them to me via email? Or better yet, if you have the ability to make a copy of the disk, I’d gladly pay you for shipping plus a little more for the disk and your troubles. Thanks and please let me know. I’d love to be able to properly test the unit my friend has.
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Yeah, for sure. I’d love to help. I have to find my 3.5″ disk drive so that I can make a copy of diskette that you see in the picture. I know I have a USB floppy drive kicking around somewhere. I’ve already taken a look but I will check again.
That cartridge you see with the Red Bird and the Snail is a memory cart for saving your progress for whatever games support saving. Nothing is written to the 3.5″ disks so the cartridge takes care of that job.
Hopefully that diskette still works. I know a few of those games don’t boot anymore.
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Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. I sent an email (similar in content to my first comment) to thesegadude@gmail.com. Maybe we can coordinate there regarding the diskette.
In your Sega collection, do you also have the Back Up RAM Cartridge for the Mega/Sega CD? I wonder if the Back Up RAM cartridge or one similar to it would function the same as the cart with the red bird and snail. It would be neat to test a Back Up RAM Cartridge with the Mega Disk to see if it works.
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Awesome! Any chance you’d have 2 copies?
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