The video game console Sega Mega Drive, was the third video game console published by the same company after the SG-1000 and the Master System, Sega pushed the use of a 16-bit processor; so published we can say the first 16-bit entertainment system on the market. Trying to surpass the success of Nintendo's NES 1.
Sega tried to overcome this with the Mark 2 and Mark 3 models of the Sega Master System with the 8 bits, but it did not have great acceptance in Japan; not being the same case in Europe.
On October 29, 1988, Sega released the Sega Mega Drive which was known during its development as "Mark V" through beep! magazine. However, it was not very successful at first and only about 400.000 units were sold.
Later on, Sega America tried to talk to Atari to distribute Mega Drive in America; however they refused (they focused on launching Atari ST). It was then, when Sega distributed under its own subsidiary Sega of America, the Sega Mega Drive under the name Sega Genesis. The Sega Genesis was released on January 9, 1989.
In Europe, the Sega Mega Drive was launched on November 30, 1990; taking advantage of the success of the Sega Master System and that more games like Altered Beast or Golden Axe had already been published.
It was in 1992, when Sega launched great successes of its catalog; such as Sonic 2 and the first Sega CD model was put on sale. However, it was not very successful because it lacked a small catalog and had a high price.
In 1993, Sega presented the Mega Drive 2 with a redesign of the same. However, that year Nintendo overtook Sega in the middle of the 16-bit war.
In 1994, several systems appeared (3DO, Jaguar, etc...) Sega Japan was involved with the "Saturn" project while Sega America tried to commercialize the 32X peripheral. At the end of that year with the appearance of the game Donkey Kong country for the SNES2, they made that the Sega Mega Drive was declining. But not before giving great titles of this console as the Ristar or Rocket Knight Adventures 3.
Let's take a look at the specifications of the Sega Mega Drive:
- CPU1: 16 bits processor Motorola 68000 at 7,61Mhz (PAL) or 7,67Mhz (NTSC).
- CPU2: 8 bits Processor Zilog Z80.
- Memory: 64Kb of memory and 64Kb for Video Memory plus 8Kb for sound Memory.
- Video: VDP processor with 320x240 resolution (320x224 in NTSC); with capacity of up to 61 colors per screen. Although it was capable of displaying up to 512 different colors.
- Sound: 6 FM channels thanks to the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip and an additional 4-channel 8-bit SN76489 sound chip.
- Input/Output: Cartridge slot at the top, two controller connectors, expansion bus and stereo headphone input (model 1 only).
Sega Mega Drive Model 1 European version (Source: Wikipedia)
Sega Mega Drive, has had a series of peripherals not only at the level of controllers, but accessories that expanded the capacity of the same.
We have to differentiate that in Sega Mega Drive, mainly used controllers with 3 or 6 buttons.
3 Button Controller European Version
One of the main features of the Sega Mega Drive is that thanks to its Zilog Z80 processor, it is backward compatible with Sega Master System games.
However, the slot that comes with the cartridges, does not have the same format as for Master System games. Therefore, an adapter is necessary to fit the cartridges of Sega's 8-bit console.
Power Base Converter (Source: Segaretro.org)
Another of the peripherals that we can find and that we can use in some games like lemmings, where we can control the cursor and to be able to control the movement of the same one.
In this book, we will discuss how to use it in our games, since SGDK, brings support for Sega Mouse and some emulators, allow us to use our PC mouse as if it were a Mega Drive mouse.
One of the main peripherals of the Mega Drive. It was allowed to expand its capacity through the expansion bus at the bottom.
It added the ability to use optical storage (CD-ROM). In addition to expanding the capacity of the Mega Drive; being able to have a great quality of Audio and video.
The first model of Sega Mega CD, was released in 1992; although it was not very successful due to its high price and the little catalog to be found.
The Mega CD technical specifications are:
- CPU: 16 bits processor Motorola 68000 of 16 bits at 12.5Mhz. Exactly the same as the Mega Drive but with 5Mhz more of frequency, acting as co-processor.
- CPU 2: Motorola 68000 (Mega Drive CPU) at 7,67Mhz (NTSC version).
- Video: Sega 315-5548 Custom ASIC. It extended the capabilities of the VDP chip, being able to display between 128-256 colors (while Mega Drive by default could only display 61 colors). In addition to being able to add up to 5 planes. And it added the "mode 7" to be able to scale, rotate and add more functionalities to the Sprites.
- Audio: Added 10 more CD quality audio tracks (44,1Khz sampling rate).
- Memory: It added 856KB of memory Divided into:
- 4Mb main RAM.
- 2Mb for VRAM.
- 512 Kb for audio RAM.
- 128 Kb CD Cache.
- 64 Kb Backup RAM.
Sega mega CD Model 1 (Source: SegaRetro.org)
The 32X accessory (known in Europe as Mega Drive 32X, Sega 32X in America and Super 32X in Japan), was primarily marketed initially in America. It was added through the top cartridge slot, and expanded the capacity of the Motorola processor, making it a 32-bit processor.
This peripheral added its own cartridge slot and added new features to the Mega Drive. The Sega 32X was released on November 22, 1994 in America, while Europe had to wait until January 1995.
It was not very successful, since at the same time, Sega was working on the Sega Saturn; a new 32-bit console. In addition to its high price, and that in some cases it needed both 32X and Mega CD at the same time, which was a big outlay for the consumer.
Another reason why it was not very successful was the rather scarce catalog of games, which made people not consider this option so much.
Features of 32X:
- CPU: 2 Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors at 23,011Mhz.
- Co-processor: New VDP; in addition to being able to use the Motorola 68000 processor from Mega Drive.
- RAM: 256KB (2Mb) for the program; plus 2 framebuffers of 128KB (1Mb).
- Palette: 32768 simultaneous colors on the screen.
- Sound: Extra digital PWM channels were added for a total of 12 channels with Mega Drive (or 22 if we add Mega CD).
Mega Drive 32X European Version (Source: SegaRetro.org)
Do not forget that the Sega Mega Drive had its appearance and boom in the 90's; coinciding with the beginnings of the home Internet. So thanks to this Modem, we could connect our Mega Drive to the Internet.
This is a Modem that was only available in Japan and was connected at the back through the third DE-9 port that only the Japanese (and some early European) models of the Mega Drive Model 1 had.
In the early models of this modem, it could only connect to services provided by Sega itself.
However, the technology was not yet well developed and did not work as expected. Although, it did have some use cases for contracting some services.
Many of us will have played with motion controls such as the famous Wii4 remote controllers or Xbox Kinect5 systems.
Some time before these motion controllers, Sega America released the Sega Activator. It was an octagon with 8 infrared sensors.
The player was placed in the middle, and depending on which side of the octagon he touched, it was a button on the controller. It tried to sell some games as a "martial arts simulator"; but it was not very successful, as only a few games were released for this device.
The Sega activator was released in 1993 in America, and later in Brazil and Russia.
Obviously, the great success of the Mega Drive was its extensive catalog, which is still growing today thanks to homebrew developers.
We can't forget Sega's pet. Sonic the Hedgehog.6 a blue hedgehog that was characterized by super speed and hopping.
Sonic had 6 games for Sega Mega Drive; and some of them are considered one of the best games of the system. As is the case of Sonic 2.
The main feature of Sonic games is the speed, and they are games with scroll usually horizontal (although it also had vertical scrolling), with a very high speed. Sometimes taking the console to the limit. Along with a great colorful scenery, Sonic was one of the favorite games of all those who owned a Mega Drive.
In addition, thanks to the game Sonic & Knuckles, that includes the Lock on System. Which was a cartridge slot on the top that by adding two other titles, you could get two additional games.
- If Sonic 3 was added, it allowed you to play the Sonic 3 & Knuckles game, which added the ability to play as Knuckles in Sonic 3, as well as having additional features.
- If Sonic 2 was added, you were allowed to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2.
In addition to other titles, not only oriented to 2D, but to 3D as Sonic 3D, which was the last published Sonic title for this system (although it also had a version for Saturn).
Sonic & Knuckles (PAL) with Lock On slot
The 80's and 90's were also characterized by a game genre that today is more in disuse but not equally fun.
We are talking about the Beat'em up Genre; which were usually horizontal scrolling games, allowing players to fight hordes and hordes of enemies.
One of the most characteristic games of this genre is Streets of Rage, a game that tells the adventures of 3 ex-cop characters who try to rid the streets of corruption by killing any enemy that gets in their way.
With a very catchy soundtrack created by composer Yuzo Koshiro; considered one of the best composers for the Sega Mega Drive.
This saga had 3 games in the Sega Mega Drive, which had a great gameplay and a great variety of scenarios, enemies, weapons, etc...
The fourth game, released in 2020; but already for modern systems (PC,PlayStation7, Xbox, Switch8).
In the 1990s, the Disney company also published several titles of its animated characters for the Sega Mega Drive.
Since the famous QuackShot, another also known is the Castle of Illusion, considered in its 8 Bits version as one of the best games for Sega Master System.
However, I want to point out a title of which I am very fond. It is the World of illusion; a game starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, which will allow us to go to a fantasy world with many scenarios with many colors and animations.
Of course, one of the features of this game is the 2 Player mode; which introduced the collaboration of both players; being a great game to play in cooperative mode.
It was a game that mixed platforms, with some screens where we controlled a vehicle such as a magic carpet, or a bubble under the ocean.
World of Illusion (PAL EUR)
- Wikipedia; Sega Mega Drive: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Drive.
- Mega Drive History (Sega Retro): https://segaretro.org/History_of_the_Sega_Mega_Drive.
- Sega Retro; (Mega Drive's accessory): https://segaretro.org/Category:Mega_Drive_accessories.
- Sega Retro; (Game Information): https://segaretro.org/Category:Mega_Drive_games.
Footnotes
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NES (Nintendo Entertainment System): is a registered trademark of Nintendo Company Ltd. ↩
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SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System): is a registered trademark of Nintendo Company Ltd. ↩
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Rocket Knight Adventures is a video game for Sega Mega Drive developed by Konami. All rights reserved. ↩
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Wii is a registered trademark of Nintendo Company Ltd. Inc. ↩
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Kinect and Xbox are registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc. ↩
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Sonic the Hedgehog is a registered trademark of Sega enterprise Inc. ↩
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PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment. ↩
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Switch is a registered trademark of Nintendo Entertainment ↩