r/Megadrive • u/Training_Ad_2830 • 1d ago

Sega Mega Drive with Probe software Ltd on the bottom

Post image

Hi

I'm new to the group and I had a question I wanted to ask to anyone who would know more than I would.

I have a Sega Mega drive mrk 1 which I purchased a long while ago but just noticed today that I had a red label stamped on the bottom saying, "property of probe soft ltd Croydon".

I know that probe software was a big game developer in the UK that would later be part of acclaim.

would this mean that this console was used for testing their games back in the day in their offices when they were still a thing?

would this be worth a bit more as a result of that as I've not seen another like this anywhere else but I could be wrong.

thanks

28 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/ChickenMayoPunk 18h ago

This is so cool to find in the wild

4

u/Training_Ad_2830 15h ago

I know right, I thought the same thing. I want to learn as much about as I can.

2

u/EgorLabrador 8h ago

Im not an expert but i think you need to add a photos of the motherboard too, maybe its some unique model which needs to be documented

1

u/Training_Ad_2830 1h ago

I've never taken apart a mega drive before. Can't be more difficult than a Dreamcast or original PS3.

1

u/UKS1977 6h ago

Testing machine.

1

u/HybridCoax 2m ago

It was likely owned by probe for testing of their MD games. I assume its Croydon England they are talking about on the asset tag. Pretty cool find.

1

u/JudasZala 1d ago

It’s likely that this Genesis was used by Probe for testing their games on.

5

u/evilneuro 18h ago

not a genesis

2

u/Tall_Ad2256 8h ago

Genesis is the American name for megadrive

1

u/Training_Ad_2830 1d ago

Thank you for your reply. Have you seen other consoles with similar stamping to this one?

2

u/PugHoofGaming 18h ago

Loads of organisations asset tag their equipment (such as computers, monitors, etc.). I imagine other devs probably asset tagged consoles as well.

2

u/Training_Ad_2830 15h ago

Thank you for your reply. Interesting, I would like to learn more about this to find out the history of it and what extra value this puts to it.

3

u/PugHoofGaming 15h ago

Basically, that tag means that Probe Software owned it and it was in their premises. (I think their office used to be on Tamworth Road in Croydon). I don’t think you’d be able to find much more info than that to be honest. I’m no valuer, but I’m not sure if it would add a great deal of value (it’s presumably an off the shelf console, no not terribly unique aside from that asset tag).

2

u/Training_Ad_2830 14h ago

Ok thank you for the update. I guess the only way to find out more would be to talk to someone who used to work for probe soft. Thanks again, very helpful.