Picture Magic Manufacturer: Sega Release Date RRP Code {{}} JP 1996 ¥? ?

The Picture Magic (ピクチャーマジック) is a graphic tablet released in 1996 in Japan designed for use with the Sega Digio SJ-1 and the Sega PriFun. The Picture Magic can be used to overdraw, squeeze, reshape, and/or enhance photos taken off the SmartMedia Card.

Hardware

The Picture Magic comes with one plastic pen and one cartridge containing the software. Using the pencil and the yellow front button, you can easily interface with the software. The system seems to work with 2 layers (256*224 pixels 15bit true colors each), with one layer for the current drawing and one layer for the temporary work (resizing, stamping, layering...) For example, you can select one part of the picture and copy it, move it, resize it, or draw on it while keeping the original picture under.

The output is A/V (composite) and the tablet is 22 x 18 cm. The system is based on the Sega 32X hardware (in fact many surplus Sega 32X hardware was recycled for use in the Picture Magic. It accepts 5V SmartMedia cards.

Load/save/Browse

Cut Stamp Off Stamp ON Stamp with half transparency Erase

Effects Gradients Linear (various angles) Radial Pixelize Sepia Black and White Invert Colors

Drawing Circle/Ellipse Line Finger (magic finger) Pens Little/Medium/Big pencil Little/Medium/Big progressive transparency pencil Little/Medium paint effect Color fill Low/Medium/Hi/Full color filling Spray

Typing in Japanese/Numbers/Letters/Symbol

Full Screen Preview

Color Selector

Select

Color Finder pencil

Undo

Internals

The PMagic uses an standard 32X board without any modification. This board is plugged into a pseudo-Mega Drive motherboard, as unlike the Mega Drive console:

It lacks FM/PSG/sound hardware

Has a smaller I/O Bus Controller chip than the classic Mega Drive II

Is physically smaller

Has only one input button

Contains one SmartMedia connector directly on the PCB

Has a graphic tablet jack hooked on two ADC (one for X coordinates and the other for Y).

Has two wires (Composite Sync and SC) that goes to the 32X Video IN.

The Picture Magic cartridge contains a 512KB ROM that looks like a standard 32X ROM. However, there are a few differences. The ROM header is standard 32X, though there is another header called "JANUS INITIAL PROGRAM" (JANUS = code name of the Digio). Another odd thing is that nothing starts up the 32x; it starts by itself. There is a high probability that the 32X BIOS is different from the commercial 32X one. When opening the cart, one can see two jumpers points on the PCB, with one soldered. In the actual jumper configuration, the whole cart is 16-bit, like commercial 32X carts. Editing those jumpers puts the lower part of the cart in 16-bit mode and the upper part in 8-bit mode.

These jumpers were added in case the board was Z80-based, for cost reasons, but Sega finally chose to go with a 68000 board. This is possibly due to the commercial failure of the 32X and the extra stock Sega would have likely had on hand. This also explains why the 32X starts up by itself—an 8-bit CPU cannot start up the 32X. So, to conclude, the CPU choice was made at last minute with a rushy design.

Gallery

Physical scans

Digio, JP Cover