Component Conundrum

So here's the deal, see. I'm seriously jonesing for some Sega Genesis action right now, since that was the system that ate up most of my free time in the early 1990s. Normally, I'd just slum with an emulator, but this time that's just not going to cut it... I want the authentic experience of slamming a cartridge into the slot, plugging in a six button controller, and jumping straight into the game with a minimum of menu wrangling.

Courtesy of Sega-16.com, here are two screenshots from
Virtua Racing, comparing composite and component video.
The difference is clear. Or not so clear, in the case of composite. 

The only part of that experience I don't want is the composite video output of the Genesis, which is lousy even by 1992's modest standards. Details are obscured by blurring, and colors bleed like the severed limbs of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. S-video would be an improvement, but the Genesis doesn't do that by default... you have to mod the system, and I haven't had the best of luck doing this in the past. Component would be better still, and you can just plug a cable into your system rather than playing Dr. Frankenstein with a soldering iron and a screwdriver. The problem here is that there's only one commercially available RGB cable for the Genesis, and that cable is murderously expensive at $53. I'm sure HD RetroVision makes a great product, but it's tough to justify shelling out that kind of money to scratch a brief nostalgic itch. Will I still be using it tomorrow, the next week, or the next month?

So I'm exploring other, cheaper options. One possibility is SCART, an old yet surprisingly advanced video standard created by the French, and used throughout most of Europe in the late 20th century. SCART is fondly remembered by Europeans... understandably so, given its extreme versatility. It's got pins for composite and component video plus stereo sound, making it well suited for everything from VHS players to the cutting edge game consoles that would come later. Here's the rub, though... SCART never caught on in the United States. Finding a television with an SCART port in America is almost as likely as spotting a leprechaun galloping past you on unicorn-back.

Okay, that's not going to work, at least not without an adapter. Fortunately, they do exist for the Genesis. You just connect an SCART cable to the A/V port of the system, then plug an SCART to component adapter into the back of the cable. Wait, both ends of the SCART connector are male? Okay... plan C then. What if you bridged the two connectors with a coupler, like this?  

At this point, things are getting a little complicated... I might as well throw in a few pulleys, levers, and a goldfish bowl to make this contraption a true Rube Goldberg device. However, these three components are still half the price of HD RetroVision's cable! I'm just wondering if it'll actually work. The schematics for other adapters typically have resistors and capacitors somewhere in the mix to strengthen the signal. I've got no idea what's inside these three doodads, and connecting them to a high definition television might only result in a blank screen and a whole lot of disappointment.