WonderMidi, A Rare Piece Of Sega Mega Drive Software, Has Just Been Preserved Online

Update [Mon 4th Dec, 2023 11:45 GMT]: The Mega Drive music software WonderMidi has now been dumped online, thanks to a developer and musician named andlabs (cheers SuddenDesu for the spot!)

We're unsure of how exactly andlabs managed to get their hands on a copy of the rare software and if it had anything to do with the auction below. But what we do know is that the developer has recently published a new blog about the software, where they shared a download link for the ROM, as well as scans of the manual and cover insert.

In this blog, andlabs gave a brief overview of the history of the device and also detailed their attempts to get it running in emulators like Blast-Em, Ares, and MAME. Only one of the three emulators (Blast-Em) was able to get the software to boot, showing an opening animation of Wonder Dog (the mascot for Wonder Mega) as a conductor before opening the disc tray and demanding they enter a CD. At present, none of these emulators seem able to get the software to run as intended. But hopefully, this will change in the future now the ROM is more widely available.

You can read the full blog here to find out more.

Original Story [Wed 20th Sep, 2023 15:30 BST]: As spotted by SuddenDesu on Twitter earlier this week, an extremely rare and undumped piece of Mega Drive software called WonderMidi has just gone on sale in Japan on Yahoo Auctions for an eye-watering price of ¥999,900 (roughly £5,462/$6,765).

Wonder Midi was a Victor-published program created for the special Mega Drive/Mega CD unit The Wondermega (initially released in Japan in 1992). The software was essentially a music program that allowed players to control various MIDI instruments via a controller plugged into The Wondermega's MIDI port.

It originally retailed for ¥9,900, according to an article in Beep (accessed via Sega Retro), and was only ever made available in Japan. As such, it's incredibly rare to see one up for sale.

The listing on Yahoo Auctions includes the cart, manual, and original box, but is missing the supplementary CD Wonder MIDI Collection, which featured additional 12 MIDI tracks to play on the machine.

Here's a link to the auction page. If you're based in Europe (or anywhere subject to GDPR for that matter), you will need a VPN to view the full listing.