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Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis
Mega Drive Logo (Europe & Australasia)
Mega Drive Logo (Europe & Australasia)

Genesis Logo (North America)
Genesis Logo (North America)
Sega Mega Drive, European/Australasian (PAL) version.
ManufacturerSega
TypeVideo game console
GenerationFourth generation era
Discontinued1997
Units soldWorldwide: 29 million[1]
United States: 14 million[2]
Brazil: 2 million[3]
MediaROM cartridge
CPUMotorola 68000
Online servicesSega Meganet, Sega Channel, XBAND
Best-selling gameSonic the Hedgehog 2,
6 million (as of June 2006)[4]
PredecessorSega Master System
SuccessorSega Saturn

The Sega Mega Drive (メガドライブ, Mega Doraibu) is a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and the PAL region in 1990. Led by Tom Kalinske, it was sold under the name Sega Genesis in North America as Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in that region. The Mega Drive was Sega's fifth home console and the successor to the Sega Master System.

The Mega Drive is part of the fourth generation era of consoles, and the first of its generation to achieve notable market share in Europe and North America. It was a direct competitor of the TurboGrafx-16 (which was released one year earlier) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which was released two years later). The Sega Mega Drive began production in Japan in 1988 and ended with the last new game being released in 2002 in Brazil.[5]

With a lifespan of fourteen years and 29 million units sold, it became Sega's most successful console. What helped it accomplish this were clever marketing in the western world, an image and mascot totally opposite of its competitors, perhaps its unique hardware design and a vast library with many successful games. Although it had its graphical weaknesses compared to the Turbografx-16 and SNES, the powerful 16/32-bit processor was a key in seminal games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Gunstar Heroes.

Today, the console lives on with games being downloadable on newer consoles, fan translations [6] and indie game development.

History

Although the Sega Master System was a success in Europe, and later also Brazil, it failed to ignite much interest in the North American or Japanese markets, which, by the mid-to-late 1980s, were both dominated by Nintendo's large market shares.[7][8][9] Meanwhile in the arcades, the Sega System 16 had become a success. Hayao Nakayama, Sega's CEO at the time, decided to make its new home system utilize a similar 16-bit architecture.[10] The final design was eventually also used in the Mega-Tech, Mega-Play and System-C arcade machines. Any game made for the Mega Drive hardware could easily be ported to these systems.[11]

The first name Sega considered for its console was the MK-1601, but it ultimately decided to call it the "Sega Mega Drive". The name was said to represent superiority and speed, with the powerful Motorola 68000 processor in mind.[12] Sega used the name Mega Drive for the Japanese, European, Asian, Australian and Brazilian versions of the console. The North American version went by the name "Genesis" due to a trademark dispute.[13]

Launch

The Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 29 1988,[14] almost exactly a year after the NEC PC Engine.

In 1987, Sega announced a North American release date for the system (under the name of Sega Genesis) of January 9 1989.[15] Sega initially attempted to partner with Atari Corporation for distribution of the console in the US, but the two could not agree to terms and Sega decided to do it themselves.[16] Sega was not able to meet the initial release date and U.S. sales began on August 14, 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles. The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year.[17]

File:Sega Pirate.png
The Sega Pirate, a popular marketing icon for the console in Europe

The European release was on November 30, 1990. Following on from the European success of the Sega Master System, the Mega Drive became a very popular console in Europe. Unlike in other regions where the NES had been the dominant platform, the Sega Master System was the most popular console in Europe at the time. In the United Kingdom the most well known of Sega's advertising slogans was "To be this good takes AGES, to be this good takes SEGA". Some of these adverts employed adult humour and innuendo with sentences like "The more you play with it, the harder it gets" displayed with an illustration of the waggling of a joystick.[18] A prominent figure in the European marketing was the "Sega Pirate", a talking one-eyed skull that starred in many TV adverts with a generally aggressive and humorous attitude. Since the Mega Drive was already two years old at the release in Europe, the many games available at launch were naturally more in numbers compared to the launches in other regions. The ports of arcade titles like Altered Beast, Golden Axe and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, available in stores at launch, provided a strong image of the console's power to deliver an arcade-like experience .[19] The arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 was just as successful as in North America, with the new Sega mascot becoming popular throughout the continent.[19]

In Brazil, the Mega Drive was released by Tec Toy in 1990, only a year after the Brazilian release of the Sega Master System. Tec Toy also ran the Internet service Sega Meganet service in Brazil as well as producing games exclusively for the Brazilian market.[20] On December 5 2007, Tec Toy released a portable version of Mega Drive with 20 built-in games.[21][22]

Console wars

Main article: Console wars

The Sega Mega Drive initially competed against the aging 8-bit NES, over which it had superior graphics and sound. Despite this, the Mega Drive was all but ignored in Japan as soon as it was launched. Some positive coverage came out of magazines Famitsu and Beep!, but Sega shipped only 400,000 units in the first year.[13] In order to sell more units, Sega tried some risky moves, including creating an online banking system and answering machine called the Sega Anser[23] and several peripherals and games.[13] The Mega Drive remained a distant third in Japan behind Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC's PC-Engine throughout the 16-bit era.[24]

File:SegaGenesis-NintendontAd.jpg
One of Sega's most famous advertisements in North American media was its slogan "Genesis does what Nintendon't",[25] which showcased the graphics advantage that the Genesis held against the aging NES.

New Sega of America CEO Michael Katz instituted a two-part approach to build sales in that region. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis, summarized by the slogan "Genesis does what Nintendon't".[26] The second part, since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, involved creating a library of instantly-recognizable titles by contracting with celebrities and athletes to produce games using their names and likenesses; Pat Riley Basketball, Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf, James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing, Joe Montana Football, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Mario Lemieux Hockey, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker all stemmed from this initiative.[27][28] Nonetheless, it had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's ubiquitous presence in the consumer's home.[29]

Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama, fearing a second market failure soon after the Master System, hired Tom Kalinske to replace Katz in mid-1990. Although Kalinske initially knew little about the video game market, he learned quickly and surrounded himself with industry-savvy advisors. A believer in the "give away the razors to sell the blades" school of marketing, he developed a four-point plan: cut the price of the console; create a US-based team to develop games targeted at the American market; continue and expand the aggressive advertising campaigns; and replace the bundled game with a new title, Sonic The Hedgehog.[29] The Japanese board of directors asked "Are you out of your mind?",[30] but Nakayama approved all four points. Magazines praised Sonic as one of the greatest games yet made, and Sega's console finally took off as customers who had been waiting for the Super NES decided to purchase a Genesis instead.[29] Nintendo's console would debut against an established competitor, while NEC's TurboGrafx-16 was left out and NEC soon pulled out of the market.[31]

Sega began 1992 with a number of advantages: a 55% to 45% market share over the Super NES, a lower price, and a tenfold advantage in number of games.[32] Sega's advertising continued to position the Genesis as the "cooler" console,[32] and coined the term "Blast Processing" to suggest that the Genesis was capable of handling games with faster motion than the SNES.[33] A Sony focus group found that teenage boys would not admit to owning a Super NES rather than a Genesis.[34] Neither console could maintain a definitive lead in market share for several years.

In Europe, the Mega Drive maintained support through 1998. It outsold all other consoles, including the Sega Saturn, in later years.[14] Brazil also saw success with the Mega Drive, where it held 75% of the market share.[14]

Add-ons

In early 1991, Sega announced the Mega-CD for release in Japan in late 1991 and in North America (as the Sega CD) in 1992. While the Mega Drive add-on did contain a faster CPU and some enhanced graphics capabilities, the main focus of the device was to expand the size of games: cartridges of the day typically contained 8 to 16 megabits of data, while a CD-ROM disk would hold 640 megabytes (5120 megabits). Sega of Japan, partnering with Sony, refused to consult with Sega's American division until the project was completed—Sega of America had to assemble parts from various "dummy" units to obtain a working prototype.[35] While it became known for several games, such as Sonic CD, the expansion only sold 6 million units worldwide.[36]

At June 1994's Consumer Electronics Show, Sega presented the 32X as the "poor man's entry into 'next generation' games."[37] Although some blame Sega of America for developing this failure,[36] the 32X was originally conceived as an entirely new console by Sega of Japan.[38] Sega of America R&D head Joe Miller convinced Sega of Japan to strengthen the console and convert it into an add-on to the existing Genesis, but they would not make it a competitor to the forthcoming Sega Saturn. Although this add-on contained two 32-bit CPU chips and a 3D graphics processor, it failed to attract either developers or consumers as the superior Saturn had already been announced for release the next year. Originally released at US$159, Sega dropped the price to $99 in only a few months and ultimately cleared the remaining inventory at $19.95;[38] only 200,000 units were sold.[36]

32-bit era and beyond

By the end of 1995, Sega was supporting five different consoles and two add-ons: Saturn, Genesis, Game Gear, Pico, Sega CD, 32X and Master System in some South American markets. As the Saturn was leading Sony's PlayStation in Japan while the Mega Drive was never successful there, Sega of Japan CEO Hayao Nakayama chose to discontinue the Mega Drive. While this make perfect sense for the Japanese market, it was disastrous in North America: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for Saturn, but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand. In comparison, Nintendo concentrated on the 16-bit market and reported the most lucrative holiday season in the industry.[39] It also undercut the Sega of America executives; CEO Tom Kalinske, who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991, grew uninterested in the business and resigned in mid 1996.[40]

In 1997, Sega licensed the Mega Drive to Majesco so that they could re-release the console.[41] Majesco began re-selling millions of formerly unsold cartridges at a budget price together with the second model of the Genesis, until they later released a third version of it. The last commercially licensed release in North America was Frogger, released in 1998.[42]

The Mega Drive was supported until 1997 in Europe, when Sega announced they were dropping support for it.[14] It was discontinued along with its predecessor, the long-lived Sega Master System, to allow Sega to concentrate on their newer console, the Saturn. The Mega Drive's add-ons, the Mega CD and 32X, were also both discontinued at this point, having been the same general failures they were in the other regions.[36]

On May 22, 2006, Super Fighter Team released Beggar Prince, a game translated from a 1996 Taiwanese original. It is the first commercial Sega Mega Drive game since 1998 in the North American market. It was also released worldwide.[43]

Emulation

In 2004, there came a trend toward plug-and-play TV games, and Radica Games released licensed, self-contained versions of the Sega Mega Drive in both North America (as the Play TV Legends Sega Genesis)[44] and Europe (as the Sega Mega Drive 6-in-1 Plug 'n' Play), which contain six popular games in a small control box, with a permanently connected control pad. It does not have a cartridge slot, and thus is a dedicated console.[45]

The GameTap subscription gaming service includes a Mega Drive emulator, and has several dozen licensed Mega Drive games in its catalog.[46] The Console Classix subscription gaming service also includes an emulator, and has several hundred Mega Drive games in its catalog.[47]

During his keynote speech at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that Sega will make a number of Genesis/Mega Drive titles available to download on the Wii's Virtual Console.[48] These games are now available along with other systems' titles under the Wii's Virtual Console.[48] The 16-bit Sega selections available on the Virtual Console at launch were Altered Beast and Sonic the Hedgehog. There are also selected Mega Drive titles on the Xbox 360 such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2.

Master System compatibility

Sega Power Base Converter

One of the key design features of the console is its backwards compatibility with Sega's previous console, the Sega Master System. The 16-bit design is based upon the 8-bit design, albeit enhanced and extended in many areas. In order to achieve backwards compatibility, the Master System's central processor and sound chip (the Zilog Z80[12] and SN76489 respectively) are included in the Mega Drive, and the Mega Drive's Video Display Processor (VDP) is capable of the Master System's VDP's mode 4 (though it cannot run in modes 0, 1, 2, or 3).

As the cartridge slot is of a different shape, Sega released the Power Base Converter, a separate device that sits between a Master System cartridge and the Mega Drive's cartridge slot. The Power Base Converter does not contain any SMS components, instead functioning as a pass-through device. The converter contains a top slot for cartridge-based games along with a front slot for card-based games, as well as the 3-D glasses adapter. When a Master System game is inserted, the system puts the Z80 in control, leaving the Mega Drive's main 68000 processor idle.[12]

In Japan the device is known as the "Mega Adapter". The PAL variant is called the "Master System Converter" in mainland Europe.[49]

The Power Base Converter is not fully compatible with the redesigned Mega Drive 2. A second version, the "Master System Converter II", was released to address this problem. This second version adapter was produced in far fewer quantities and only released in Europe.[12]

The only game which does not work with this device is F-16 Fighting Falcon.[50]

Peripherals

Original three button joypad with later six button version

The standard Mega Drive controller features three main buttons and a "start" button usually used for pausing mid-game. The controller itself has a distinctive rounded shape.[51] Sega later released a six-button version which is slightly smaller and features three more face buttons, similar to the design of buttons on arcade fighting games.[51]

The Sega Mega-CD became available in 1991, 1992 and 1993 in Japan, North America, and Europe respectively.[52][53] It plugs into the side of the Mega Drive and sits underneath the console (later models of the Mega CD sit alongside the console) and provides access to CD games as well as allowing the user to play music CDs.[12]

The Sega 32X allows the user to play technically superior 32-bit games on the Mega Drive. It was released in 1994 in Japan and North America and 1995 in Europe. The 32X plugs into the Mega Drive's cartridge slot and the game cartridges are then plugged into the 32X.[12]

Sega Mouse and Sega Mega Mouse

A number of other peripherals for the Mega Drive were released that add extra functionality. The Menacer Light Gun was developed in response to the Super Scope for the SNES and is only compatible with the Menacer 6-game cartridge and a few other games.[54] The Sega Mouse and Sega Mega Mouse were also released for the Mega Drive,[55] the latter being available in North America while the other served the Japanese and European markets. A foam-covered bat called the BatterUP and the TeeVGolf golf club were both released for the Mega Drive and SNES and provide support for similar games.[55][56] One of the most unsuccessful peripherals released was the Sega Activator; an octagonal device that lays flat on the floor and reads a gamer's physical movements as he/she would trigger infrared laser beams that translate the movement to react on screen.[57] As well the official Mega Drive peripherals, the console is also compatible with Sega Master System accessories through use of the Power Base Converter.[58][14]

Both Electronic Arts (EA) and Sega released multitaps for the system to allow more than the standard two players to play at once.[59] Initially, EA's version, the 4-Play, and Sega's adapter, the Team Player, only supported each publisher's own titles. Later games were created to work on both adapters. Codemasters also developed the J-Cart system, providing two extra ports with no extra hardware, although the technology came late in the consoles life and only featured on a few games.[60]

Technical specifications

Mega Drive 1 mainboard (PAL)

CPU

Main article: Motorola 68000

The Sega Mega Drive's CPU is a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000[61] which is a 32 bit microprocessor sitting on a 16-bit-wide data bus. The maximum addressable memory is 16 megabytes (the M68000 is located to the left of the picture). The 68000 Runs at 7.61 MHz in PAL consoles, 7.67 MHz in NTSC consoles.[51] The Mega Drive also includes a Zilog Z80 as the sound CPU.[12]

Video

The Mega Drive has a dedicated VDP (Video Display Processor) for background graphic and sprite control. This is an improved version of the Sega Master System VDP, which in turn is derived from the Texas Instruments TMS9918. Images can be output at 256 pixels (32 tiles) or 320 pixels (40 tiles) across and 224 scanlines (28 tiles) or 240 scanlines (30 tiles) down. The 240-line resolutions are only used on 50 Hz (i.e. PAL) displays, as the extra lines end up in the overscan of a 60 Hz (NTSC) signal. Instead, NTSC games use the 224-line resolution to free up more vertical blanking time to send more updates to the VDP. Colors are chosen from a total of 512 possible colors; some games used a small amount of flicker to simulate more colors. Graphics consist of up to 80 sprites on screen and 2 background planes. Palettes are stored in color RAM (CRAM) and consist of 16 colors each for a total of 64 colors.[62][59]

Audio

There are two primary sound chips which are both controlled by the Z80; the Yamaha YM2612 Frequency Modulation (FM) chip and the Texas Instruments SN76489 Programmable Sound Generator (PSG) chip.[14] The FM sound synthesis IC resembles the Yamaha YM2151 (used in Sega's coin-op machines) and the chips used in Yamaha's synthesizers. There is 8 kilobytes of dedicated sound RAM available to the Z80.[62] The Yamaha uses six FM channels, four operators each and runs at 7.67 MHz (7.61 MHz in PAL machines). The use of the digitized audio allows for stereo sound and is output only through the headphone jack on model 1 systems and through AV out on model 2 systems along with mono signal.[12]

Memory

There are 2 KB (KiB) of Boot ROM, which is also known as the "Trademark Security System" (TMSS). When the console is started, it checks the game for certain code given to licensed developers. Unlicensed games without the code are thus locked out, but if a game is properly licensed, the ROM will display "Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd."[63]

There are also 64 KB of Main RAM. The Main RAM is part of the M68000 address space (short-word addressing was frequently used.) 64 KB of Video RAM are also present,[14] which cannot be accessed directly by CPU and must be read and written via the VDP (Video Display Processor). The Secondary RAM, which consists of 8 KB, is part of Z80 address space and is used as Main RAM in Master System compatibility mode. There are also 8 KB of audio RAM.[14]

Inputs and outputs

Two DE-9M (9-pin male D-connectors) on the front of the console are the controller input ports.[59] The EXT input port is a DE-9F (9-pin female D-connector) that was used with the Meganet modem peripheral, released only in Japan.[59] It exists on all first-model Japanese Mega Drive units, and on early American Genesis and PAL (European, Australasian and Asian) Mega Drive units. The power input is a positive tip barrel connector that requires 9-10 volts DC, or about 0.85-1.2 A, depending on the model. There is also an Expansion input port which is an Edge connector on the bottom right hand side of the console. It is used almost exclusively for connection for the Sega Mega-CD, though it was also used for the Sega Genesis 6 Cart Demo Unit (DS-16) in stores. This port is not present on the Genesis 3 model.[12]

An A/V output, which consists of a DIN connector with composite video, RGB video, and audio outputs, is present on the system.[12] The Mega Drive and the first model Genesis have an 8-pin DIN socket (same as Sega Master System) which supports mono audio only, but the Mega Drive 2, Multimega, and other models have a 9-pin mini DIN socket with both mono and stereo audio.[12] Stereo audio for the Mega Drive and the first model Genesis were supplied by the headphone jack, which is not present on later models.[12] The RF output is an RCA jack that connects to TV antenna input. It exists on original model European and Asian Mega Drive and North American Genesis only; other models must use an external RF modulator which plugs into the A/V output.[12]

Variations

Main article: Variations of the Sega Mega Drive
Sega Wondermega incorporates the Mega Drive and Mega CD in one unit

The Mega Drive quite possibly received more officially licensed variations than any other console. While only one major design revision of the console was created during its lifespan, each region has its own peculiarities and unique items, while other variations were exercises in reducing costs (such as the removal of the little-used 9-pin EXT. port) or expanding the capabilities of the Mega Drive.[12]

The Model MK-1631 (Mega Drive/Genesis 2) does have a Z80 CPU.[64] Depending on the board revision, the system has either a Zilog Z84C00 or a Custom Sega 315-5676 or similar. Because the Z80 is used for sound production by many games, it is a necessary component.[12]

Majesco's Genesis 3 (single-chip and dual-chip versions) retains the Mode 4 support but has the Master System compatibility removed from the bus controller logic.[14] This renders the Power Base Converter or any other adapter useless. 68000 software can still enable and use Mode 4, however.[12]

The most common third-party version of the Mega Drive hardware was the Victor Wondermega, sold in North America as the JVC X'eye. In addition to having all the functionality of Mega Drive and Mega CD, it could also connect to MIDI devices to synthesize music.

See also

References

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