Mega drive

Mega Drive, known in various American territories as the Genesis, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Mega Drive was the third console Sega and the successor to the Master System. It competed against Nintendo's Super Nintendo, as part of the fourth generation video consoles. The first version was released in Japan in 1988, followed by a North American release under the renamed Sega Genesis in 1989. In 1990, the console was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, by Ozisoft in Australasia, and by Tec Toy. in Brazil. In South Korea, the system was distributed by Samsung and known as the Super Gam*Boy (in Hangul, 슈퍼겜보), and later as Super Aladdin Boy (in hangul, 슈퍼알라딘보이).

Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, the Mega Drive hardware was adapted from the Sega System 16 arcade board, centered around a Motorola 68000 processor as the primary CPU. and a Zilog Z80 as the second processor. The system houses a library of more than 900 games created by Sega and a wide range of third parties, being published in cartridge format. It is also capable of playing Master System games when the separately sold Master System Converter is installed. Mega Drive benefited from various peripherals and online services, as well as multiple variations of the console made both by Sega itself and by third parties in order to expand its functionality.

Despite being a well-received console in America and Europe, in Japan the Mega Drive did not fare well against its two main competitors, Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine. However, it managed to achieve great success in North America, South America and Europe. Adaptations of its arcade game library, the popularity of its unique Sonic the Hedgehog saga, several popular sports game franchises, and an aggressive youth marketing campaign all contributed to its success. The release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System two years later led to a fierce battle for the largest market share in the United States and Europe, which has occasionally been referred to as the "console war" by journalists and historians. As this feud increased mainstream public attention to the video game industry, Mega Drive and several of its top rated games came under considerable scrutiny due to issues involving reverse engineering and violence in video games. The controversy surrounding certain violent titles such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council, an American video game content rating system that predates Entertainment Software. Rating Board.

Sega sold 30.75 million Mega Drive units worldwide without counting the variants of the system licensed by companies such as Tec Toy, Majesco or AtGames among others. The console and its games continue to be popular with fans of video games and their soundtracks, collectors, and emulation enthusiasts. As of 2015, re-releases of the console licensed by third parties such as AtGames continue to sell it in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations for newer consoles and released digitally on various online services such as Nintendo Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam. The Mega Drive was succeeded by the Sega Saturn in 1995.

History

Development

The American Console logo

In the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc., then a subsidiary of Gulf & Western, was one of the five most successful arcade game developers in the United States, whose earnings amounted to 214 million dollars. The recession that the arcade machine business suffered from 1982 put the company in serious trouble, causing Gulf & Western sold its North American arcade manufacturing subsidiaries and game licenses to Bally Manufacturing. The company retained Sega's North American R&D operations as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Japan. With their arcade business in decline, the managers of Gulf & Western appointed Hayao Nakayama president of Sega Japan to advise how to proceed to get out of their impasse. Nakayama argued that because of the level of professionalism its hardware developers had acquired through the experience of working for years in the arcade industry, it was the right time to focus on making home consoles in Japan, systems that, at that time, were still in their early stages in the video game industry.

Nakayama obtained his permission to proceed with that project, leading to the release of Sega's first game console, the SG-1000, in July 1983. The SG-1000 was not a successful system, and was succeeded by the Sega Mark III after two years. Meanwhile, Gulf & Western began to divest their side businesses after the death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn, so Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen managed to take over management of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial support from CSK Corporation., a prominent Japanese software company. Nakayama was, at the time, established as the CEO of the new company Sega Enterprises, Ltd.

In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for its North American release as the Sega Master System. This was followed by the European release of the console the following year. Although the Master System was a success in Europe, and later also in Brazil, it failed to arouse significant interest in either the Japanese or American markets, both of which, since the mid-1980s, had been dominated by Nintendo. As Sega continued to struggle to conquer households with its consoles, Sega's console R&D team, led by Masami Ishikawa and supervised by Hideki Sato, began work on the successor to the Master System almost immediately afterward. after the latter was released.

In 1987, Sega faced another threat in the console business when the Japanese computer company NEC released its PC Engine followed by a major advertising campaign. To remain competitive against the two most established consumer electronics companies, Ishikawa and his team decided that they needed to incorporate a 16-bit microprocessor into their new system in order to make an impact in the market and, once again, the most competent aspect of Sega, the arcade industry, was called upon to adapt the successful Sega System 16 arcade board to an architecture appropriate for a home console. The decision to use a Motorola 68000 as the main CPU for the system was made late during its development, while a Zilog Z80 was used as a secondary CPU to handle the system. sound since there was a certain fear that the main CPU would have too much load to take care of both the visual aspects and the sound.

First announced in June 1988 in Beep!, a Japanese video game magazine, the console was tentatively named the "Mark V" during development, but Sega management felt the need to give it a more attractive name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the company settled on the name "Mega Drive." In North America, the name of the console was changed to "Genesis". The reasons that led to this change have not been clarified, but it is probably due to trademark issues.

Launch

The European PAL version of Mega Drive was published in 1990, and a while later it would become the fourth-generation console most sold in Europe.

Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan on October 29, 1988, though its release was overshadowed by the release of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. 3 the week before. Good coverage from magazines like Famitsu or Beep! helped establish a following for the console, but Sega only managed to ship 400,000 units in its first year. Intent on increasing sales, Sega released various peripherals and games, including an online banking system and an answering machine known as the Sega Mega Anser. However, the Mega Drive was not able to surpass the Famicom and fell into the spotlight. a distant third in Japan behind the Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine throughout the 16-bit era.

Sega dated the system's North American release on January 9, 1989. At the time, Sega did not have an organization to handle sales and promotion of the system, and was distributing its Master System through Tonka.. Dissatisfied with Tonka's management, Sega sought a new affiliate to market the Genesis in North America and offered the rights to the Atari Corporation, which did not yet have a 16-bit system. David Rosen made the pitch to Atari CEO Jack Tramiel and Atari Electronic Entertainment Chairman Michael Katz. Tramiel refused to purchase the rights to the console, considering them too expensive, opting to focus on the Atari ST instead. Thus, Sega decided to release the console through its own subsidiary, Sega of America, which held a limited release on August 14, 1989, in New York City and Los Angeles. The Sega Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that same year.

The European version was released on November 30, 1990. Building on the success of the Master System, the Mega Drive became the most popular console in Europe. Since the Mega Drive was already two years old at the time of its release in the region, there were more games available in its European release compared to other regions. Adaptations of arcade titles such as Altered Beast, Golden Axe and Ghouls'n Ghosts, available in stores since their initial release, caused a good impression about the power of the console to offer an experience akin to arcade machines. Virgin Mastertronic was responsible for the launch of the Mega Drive in Europe, a company that was acquired by Sega in 1991 and became its European subsidiary, Sega of Europe.

Other companies helped distribute the console in various countries around the world. Ozisoft handled the launch and marketing of the Mega Drive in Australia, just as it had previously done with the Master System. In Brazil, the Mega Drive was published by Tec Toy in 1990, just one year after the Brazilian release of the Mega Drive. Master System. Tec Toy produced games exclusively for the Brazilian market and launched a network service for the system called Sega Meganet in 1995. In India, Sega entered into a distribution agreement with Shaw Wallace in the spring of 1995 in order to circumvent a tariff. sales and distribution in Korea, where it was renamed the "Super Gam*Boy" and retained the Mega Drive logo alongside to the Samsung name. Later, it was renamed "Super Aladdin Boy".

Technical specifications

• CPU
  • Motorola 68000 from 16/32 bits to 7.61 MHz (PAL) or 7.67 MHz (NTSC). It's the main Mega Drive processor.
  • 8-bit Zilog Z80 to 3.55 MHz (PAL) or 3.58 MHz (NTSC). This CPU, on the Mega Drive, is used primarily for sound effects tasks, or as the main CPU in Master System compatibility mode, thus allowing the execution of native games and cartridges of this, by means of a peripheral that provides the corresponding input, called Power Base Converter, Mega Adaptor or Master System Converter according to the market.

• Memory
  • RAM principal: 64 Kb.
  • RAM Video: 64 Kb.
  • RAM de Sonido: 8 Kb.
  • ROM: The first Mega Drive models did not carry, but later models included a 2Kb boot ROM showing the text "Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd.".
  • Cartridge capacity: Normally the games were between 4 and 16 Mbits. Some cartridges reached 24 Mbits (Jurassic Park, Eternal Champions...). Sonic 3D reached 32 Mbits and Super Street Fighter II reached 40 Mbits.

• Figures
  • A VDP processor (Video Display Processor) is responsible for generating and managing the graphics (sprites, scroll plans, etc.).
  • Resolution: 320 x 224, 256 x 224, 320 x 240 (only for some games adapted to PAL systems, such as Knuckles' Chaotix).
  • Palette: 512, of which 61 can be chosen to display simultaneously with a usual configuration, unless special modes are applied; there is the RAM (or CRAM), which supports a maximum of 4 pallets of 16 colors each, being the first transparent color; you can choose any color as "colour color", but most of the games choose one of the transparent colors (hence the common maximum is 61, and not 64 or 60). Several games, including Ranger X, Street of Rage III,Sonic 3d Blast, Dynamite Heady, Alien Soldier, Vectorman 1 and 2, Toy Story, Eternal Champions... use 7 bits for color information, showing 128 simultaneous colors or more (the usual in SNES).
  • Simultaneous colors on screen: 61 (or more, changing the palette during the sweep and/or activating the shadow-highlight mode).
  • Simultaneous Sprites on screen: 80/64, 20 maximum by scanline.

• Sound
  • Main sound chip of 6 channels FM Yamaha YM2612.
  • Additional 4-channel PSG (Programmable Sound Generator) Texas SN76489 Instruments.
  • Audio 8 bits (exchangeable with an FM channel).

• Input/output
  • Connector DIN 8 RGB/Audio Mono/Video (only on Mega Drive I / Genesis I).
  • Connector Mini-DIN 9 RGB/Stereo/Video (Mega Drive II / Genesis II).
  • Modulator RF (Mega Drive / Genesis I and II).
  • Stereal headsets with regulator (only Mega Drive I / Genesis I).
  • AUX (conector DE-9 female), present in the first Mega Drive / Genesis.
  • 2 take joystick type Atari variant Sega Mega Drive (DB-9 male connector).
  • Slot of cartridges at the top.
  • Expansion Bus (only Mega Drive / Genesis I and II), used for Sega Mega-CD connection.

Peripherals

The Master System Converter was a peripheral for the Mega Drive that allowed almost complete compatibility with games designed for the Master System. However, it stands out the hidden fact at that time that Mega Drive already had all the circuitry that made it compatible with Master System internally as standard. The peripheral, in addition to offering a slot for Master System cartridges and another for memory cards from the same console, the only thing it did was activate an electrical sensor inside the Mega Drive that activated the Master System CPU inside the Mega Drive itself. In order to play a Master System cartridge on the Mega Drive with this peripheral, it was required to connect a Master System control to the Mega Drive, since they have the same control connection input.

The Menacer was the pistol that Sega created for the Mega Drive. It consisted of a detachable sight and stock that allowed it to be used as a pistol or a shotgun, it worked wirelessly via infrared rays and was sold together with a cartridge of 6 target shooting games.

Sega's Arcade Power Stick was a large joystick that simulated joysticks on arcade machines. There were 3 and 6 button versions with individual autofire selectors.

The Sega Multi Tap was a device that allowed up to 4 controllers to be connected to one of the Mega Drive ports and used simultaneously in games with up to 4 players, or individually, activating the controller we wanted in each case.

Other peripherals were the Mega Mouse, the Mega Net Modem, which allowed online play, and a curious motion capture system called the Sega Activator Ring that reproduced the player's movements in the game.

In addition, Mega Drive had two important extensions that were Sega Mega-CD and Sega 32X, the first being support for games in CD-ROM format and the second a 32-bit extension that allowed Mega Drive to make the leap to 3D games. Both worked in conjunction with the Mega Drive, and there were even a few MegaCD games that required the 32X. Neither of these two peripherals was successful enough due to its high price, scant catalog of games, and lack of support from Sega itself, which was focused on the development of its new console, the Sega Saturn.

Variants

The Mega Drive is redesigned with a second version called Mega Drive II was more square and smaller. (European Vision)

(American Vision)

• Mega Drive II / Genesis II
• Multi-Mega/Genesis CDX
• Sega Nomad/Genesis Nomad
• Sega TeraDrive (The First Hybrid PC/Console)
• Mega Jet
• Wondermega (JVC)
• Wondermega 2 (JVC)
• Amstrad Mega PC (the second and last PC/hybrid console)
• Genesis 3
• Firecore
• LaserActive
• Sega Neptune (cancelled)