The history of the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis series

While Sega had fairly been beaten up in the 8-bit era, since the Master System wasn't that kind of a success, it should have been, because it was technically superior to the Nintento Entertainment System (NES), the Mega Drive would finally bring Sega new financial support. The in-house name is "MK-1601", but Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama officially named it "Mega Drive", representing superiority (= "mega") and speed (= "drive"). The word "mega" was already used in an advertisement campaign that was supporting Sega's Master System, where it was generally used to promote games that are more powerful than their predecessors. So combining these two words to "Mega Drive" would last longer in childrens, parents and other customers minds than only "MK-1601": Simple marketing, as we know it. :-)

Back at Sega Research & Development (R&D), Hideki Sato directed a team of engineers to forge the plans for Sega's new 16-bitter. The Mega Drive derives from the already well-known arcade system, called "System 16". As the matter of fact, the technical specifications of the System 16 and the Mega Drive are almost the same, so development went on rapidly. Along with some minor differences, the major ones are, that the Mega Drive uses a slightly slower variant of the CPU (running at 7,61 MHz instead of 10 MHz), that it carries a cartridge slot instead of an onboard EPROM and that it doesn't have a cabinet screen, but a tv out port, of course. Now, this means, that it would be unavoidably easy to convert arcade titles to run on the Mega Drive and therefore to bring them to the home console market, which was exactly what Sega had been planning to do.

As the first true 16-bit console, the Mega Drive was released with an initial price of ¥ 21000 in Japan, on October, 29th of 1988. It didn't cause much of a demand, in fact it sold even less than NEC's PC Engine. Bringing their console to the U.S.A., Sega had to rename it, because the brand "Mega Drive" had already been trademarked there. From then on known as the Sega "Genesis", meaning "rebirth" or "a new beginning" the initially US release date was planned to be January, 9th of 1989, but the console was actually released on August, 14th of the same year, however solely in New York and Los Angeles. All other corners of the country first saw the Genesis one month later on September, 15th. At this time, the system was priced at US$ 189.99. In Europe, usually latest, when it's coming to release dates :-), the Mega Drive was ready for purchase on November, 30th of 1990. The UK got it first, where minimum requirements regarding currency were set to £189.99 for the product had been well supported there in the past. ;-) Even Australia got a package of Mega Drives in 1990. :-)

The future of Sega and the Mega Drive would lead on to a new generation of console gaming, as Sega was already famous for their arcade titles, of which many were to be ported to the Mega Drive, as the first console, being able to bring arcade performance to the home user. Sega's new advertisement campaign "Genesis does what Nintendon't." was leading the way into a great marketing and advertisement battle.

The console came in a glossy, black, futuristic design. Well known from the Commodore Amiga 500, the Mega Drive is powered by a Motorola MC68000 CPU and a Zilog Z80a is used to act as a co-processor. There are two 9-pin joypad connectors and a headphone jack, located at the front area of the console. Most other output connectors are placed at the rear panel of the device. There are two ways of connecting the console to the TV: The most common way is to use the antenna cable that ships with the console, utilizing the RF out connector, but you can also use the commodore-style video out port. Stereo sound is only supported by the headphone jack. Both, the RF out and the A/V out only deliver mono sound. Also at the back of the console is the 9-pin EXT connector, that usually connects to peripherals like a modem (e.g. the "Mega Modem"). By removing the expansion cover on the bottom right hand side, you can connect a Sega Mega CD using the expansion slot underneath.

The American Genesis has a large "Genesis" logo printed below the cartridge slot, instead of the smaller "Mega Drive" logo on the bottom right hand side of the top casing that was used in other versions. The rectangular area around the power LED has a purple colour instead of white. This design resulted in an overall more toy-like look, although far less childish than Nintendo's SNES (or Super Famicom in Japan). :-) The American console utilizes a 60 Hz NTSC output, just like the Japanese version.

The Japanese release has a really large, gold "16-BIT" logo and blue reset and joypad start buttons. The Asian Mega Drive model (often mixed up with the Japanese model) is distinguishable through its larger "16-BIT" logo and internally it is identical to the European machine and therefore has a 50 Hz PAL output. The European version was also released in Australia and New Zealand, so it's not entirely European after all. ;-) People are not able to play Japanese games on a European Mega Drive, due to the different shape of the cartridge slot.

There were several bundles sold over the time. :-) The very first bundle sold for US$ 189.99, including the game Altered Beast and one controller. Altered Beast was already popular from the Sega arcade scene and ported to run on the Mega Drive. This was done with many Sega titles, since the Mega Drive was famous for bringing the arcade feeling into people's homes, due to its superiority to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Other arcade game conversions are Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Space Harrier, Super Thunder Blade and Strider for instance. I bought the "Mega Drive + Sonic The Hedgehog + 1 Controller" bundle. There was also a pack that came with World Cup Italia 90 instead of Sonic The Hedgehog.

Although the Mega Drive software development kit was reported difficult to work with, there were more than 30 third party developers, writing games for the Sega's state of the art console by the end of 1990. Also, E.A. (Electronic Arts) defected from Nintendo to Sega. When Nintendo released the SNES console in September of 1991, Sega already mastered to come up with something to oppose Nintendo's late, yet threatening progress...

Later versions of the console incorporate a modified system boot ROM, containing additional TMSS (Trademark Security System) code by Sega. Being the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) of its generation, it looks for a specific piece of code in the header of cartridge software. That prevents third party developers from producing unlicensed Mega Drive cartridges. If the TMSS doesn't find the unique combinations of code it was looking for, it would not boot up the system at all. If it does, the cartridge would be valid, legally licensed and the text "Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd." would display on the screen for a few seconds, before the game starts. The TMSS has been part of the boot ROM since 1991's console releases. Some E.A. cartridges for example do only work with early Mega Drives, because of compatibility problems concerning the TMSS. These used a non-standard way to interface with the Mega Drive. Firms like Accolade tried to hack the TMSS with fake header code, but I will get into that later... ;-)

The Sega Master System was driven by a Zilog Z80a CPU, which also happens to be present in the Mega Drive, primarily for controlling the sound output. Now, the Power Base Converter doesn't really do much, as it only turns off the Mega Drive's main MC68000 CPU and forces the Z80a to become the main CPU. The converter also provides the Master System boot ROM and has support for Sega Cards. Sega Cards are small... well... cards :-) at the size of an ordinary credit card. However, there are only 8 games, that were released on Sega Cards. Accessories like 3D glasses also plug into the Sega Cards port. Anyway, the production costs were cheaper than those of cartridges, due to mass production, but their maximum memory is limited to 32K. The converter adds a library of about 80 Master System games of the U.S.A. together with a few more releases in Europe and Japan to the Mega Drive's library.

Unfortunately the first version of the Power Base Converter is not compatible to the Mega Drive II, nor the Genesis 3. So there was a second version of the Power Base Converter, that was only sold in Europe, though. The difference between the two versions is that the second version doesn't support Sega Cards anymore, since it doesn't have the necessary port. Given the name "Power Base Converter II", it inherited the design of the Mega Drive II. It only shipped in Europe, was probably because of the earlier popularity of the Master System there.

During the first days after the release of the original Mega Drive, there already were a few games, customers could choose from: Last Battle, Space Harrier 2, Super Thunder Blade, Thunder Force and Tommy Lasorda Baseball. Sega made sure, that there were enough arcade ports available for their new system. At the beginning, the Mega Drive was bundled with Altered Beast, that was ported from the System 16.

Sega's first friendship would be forged together with Namco. A company that had enjoyed a really beneficial contract with Nintendo, before their time with Sega. Now, that their contract ended in 1989, Nintendo wouldn't grant them as much freedom as they enjoyed before. In fact, Nintendo only offered them their standard third party contract, full of terms and restrictions, nobody really liked. Such restrictions would for example rule the allowed amount of games to be developed for Nintendo and for other competing parties, say Sega, which would limit Namco in various ways. So they saught their revenge in defecting to Nintendo's rival Sega. They started to begin writing a couple of arcade ports, such as Phelios, Klax, Burning Force, Megapanel and Dangerous Seed until they learned that their revenge came at a price. After A short time, financially dissatisfied with the situation, they found themselves groveling back to Nintendo, finally giving in to that puny contract they've been offered before. :-/

Although games for the Mega Drive had a reputation of having outstanding graphics and sound, the gameplay was often criticized by gamers. The disappointment of Sega's fans turned better with the arrival of the first Mickey Mouse games under license from Disney (Fantasia and Castle Of Illusion). They set new standards for graphics programming and animation, but still the gameplay did not show enough innovation, although it improved quite a bit. What Sega needed was good games, that would secure the Mega Drive a better, safer position in the video game market.

Help was already under way by Electronic Arts (E.A.). When E.A. president Trip Hawkins chose to participate in the 16-bit era, he started negotiations between Sega and E.A. to form a licensing contract, in 1990. However, Sega didn't aggree, because the terms, E.A. had described, weren't really what Sega had in mind, especially considering licensing fees or other restrictive terms, E.A. had layed out. Sega would not aggree, until E.A. adverted, that Sega didn't have much of a choice, since E.A. already disassembled a Mega Drive, having analyzed its technical specifications to be able to manufacture their own unlicensed cartridges. These two parties then agreed on a contract, that wasn't fully (but almost) what Trip Hawkins was looking forward to in the first place, but it surely brought Sega the utterly due third party support. Early E.A. hits are The Immortal (an isometric perspective role play game (RPG)) and Budokan: The Martial Spirit, which was a fighting game. With E.A. at Sega's side, it was already decided who would be in charge of what console gamers were to consume. ;-) Sega's target group were those people who had finished with playing cute and family-oriented Nintendo NES games. :-) It was time for something new and different...

Sega was growing and the number of sold consoles was climbing up the long ladder with Nintendo waiting at the upper end. It was now time for Nintendo to throw the "Super Famicom" onto the Japanese market on Novermber, 21st of 1990. Nintendo was still far ahead of Sega, as they marketed about 32 million NES consoles in the 8-bit years before, where Sega could only come up with 1 million Genesis' in the U.S.A. at this time, which still was a large number.

Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima created a spiky, blue and fast hedgehog named "Sonic", who's fate it was to become Sega's new mascot. He has something of an anti-Mario (Nintendo's hero). That was the time where game magazines started to print Sonic and Mario raging against each other on the title page to attract readers. :-) Sega developed a game for Sonic, based on the processing speed the SNES lacks, at least when it comes to graphics and fast scrolling. The first "Sonic The Hedgehog" game was released in the U.S.A. on June, 23rd of 1991. The Japan release followed on July, 26th and a European release would follow immediately. There were other Sonic games for other Sega consoles (e.g. the Master System and the Game Gear) that followed during the last quarter of the same year.

The Sonic series would not end until the release of Sonic & Knuckles, the last real incarnation of a Sonic game in its classical gameplay for the Mega Drive. It is a curiosity though, because the cartridge can be combined with older Sonic games. This means, it features an inbuilt cartridge slot on the top of the module, as it is known from cartridge adaptors (Click for image!), that allowed playing different game releases on a specific localized console (e.g. for playing PAL releases on NTSC machines and backwards). If you already spent money for all the other Sonic games, you can combine them with Sonic & Knuckles to play the old Sonic games with the new player character "Knuckles" and in addition Sonic & Knuckles was a game of its own, that is without having combined it with another Sonic game.

Sonic became a popular merchandising object, as there were lots of stickers, albums, music CDs and I even saw a Sonic bubble bath that was of course blue. :-) The Sonic game series helped Sega to stand against Nintendo, secured the Mega Drive a good position in the U.S. video game market and served to keep it. Everything went the way, Hayao Nakayama had planned in detail. Indeed, Sonic was more than a great success for Sega, thanks to Yuji Naka and all the other contributors. The first Sonic game was bundled with the Genesis and by the end of 1991, the number of sold Genesis consoles had more than doubled in the U.S.A.. Europe and Japan followed suite and it was this bundle, that made me want such a console, after all. :-)

The following time bewtween the years of 1992 and 1993 would show the Genesis in its best time. In fact, when Sony run their market surveys in 1992, they found out that most gamers, who owned an SNES refused to admit it to their friends. Sega was hip! :-)

Another interesting topic, that still is interesting and most likely will be forever, is "violence in videogames". ;-) Acclaim, developer of the fighting game "Mortal Kombat", was paid very well by both Sega and Nintendo to port their arcade version for the home consoles. Now, the game lets the player perform so called "finishing moves". By pressing a combination of buttons on the joypad, the fighting character would inflict... a last, lethal strike to his opponents by ripping off heads, cutting bodies into pieces and so forth. Nintendo's strict quality control forced Acclaim to cut these finishing moves off the SNES version. Now, guess which port sold better... Right! Since violence, blood and gore are the whole points in playing Mortal Kombat, gamers went for Sega. It was time for Nintendo's next marketing strategy: They accused Sega of tainting the innocent, little soul of the child, whose parents would pay more attention on what games should be bought from then on. However, children didn't seem to be that innocent after all, for they certainly did not expect Mortal Kombat to be a Disney game... or did they? ;-) Wether the guilt lies with Sega or not, it didn't matter. With the help of U.S. Senator Joseph P. Lieberman, Nintendo managed to inflict a finishing move on Sega's reputation. Congressional hearings of 1993 to 1994 into videogame violence served Nintendo to bring up one thought in america's parents' minds: "Watch, what your kid is playing on his Genesis.".

Hint: To activate blood in "Mortal Kombat", you have to enter the following cheat code during the introductory "code of honor" screen: a, b, a, c, a, b, b. You should hear the words "Get over here!" and the letters should turn red. :-) How to do finishing moves can be found out using your favourite search engine.

It is a real pity that there were not enough RPGs (role play games) available for the Mega Drive and that is also the wound in which Nintendo was planning to put its salt. Nintendo publicly courted their collection of RPGs, that outnumbered the Mega Drive's RPG library. Landstalker (by Climax Entertainment, famous for its isometric perspective), Soleil (a.k.a. Crusader Of Centy), of course the Phantasy Star series (by Yuji Naka & Co.) and the Shining Force collection (by Climax Entertainment) are very good examples for a variety of Mega Drive RPGs. Nintendo's warehouse of RPGs was by far bigger and that is part of what promoted the SNES, including Zelda: A Link to the Past, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy, naming just a few examples. SquareSoft was one of the companies that produced RPG titles for Nintendo's gaming device with Bahamut Bahant Senki being the only Mega Drive title released by them. Another fortunate circumstance for the SNES was, that RPGs didn't require as much processing power as say fast-scrolling Jump'n'Run games, so Nintendo could impress with audiovisual effects, the SNES is said to master better, compared to the good old Mega Drive.

There were some game releases in Brazil that included Duke Nukem 3D, the only 16-bit console version of this game. This happened at a time, the Genesis was already declared a casualty of war in the U.S.A., late 1997. Those games were solely released in Brazil. In the beginning of 1998, a low-budget distributor of the Genesis 3, called "Majesco Sales" sold a revived Genesis console (See Other models and hybrids.) together with the newly developed game "Frogger". Frogger is a port of Konami's original 1981 arcade hit, which is the last officially licensed Genesis cartridge, ever.

The new Mega Drive II was bundled with games like Street Fighter 2, Virtua Racing, Sonic 3, The Lion King and many others. There were also packages containing multi-module cartridges (Multiple games together in one module). Mega Games I for example came with Columns, World Cup Italia 90 and Super Hang-On on one cartridge.

Sega Genesis 3

This version of the Genesis has been released by Majesco Sales in North America, only, 1998. It came with a port of Konami's Frogger, the first new Genesis game in 3 years. :-/ This console was aimed at low-budget market and sold for US$ 50 when it was released. Nintendo soon brought their own low-budjet SNES and Majesco dropped the price from US$ 50 over US$ 40 down to US$ 30. Of course, Nintendo matched those price drops with every step, but in the end there were about 1 to 2 million Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 consoles sold by Majesco along with about 10 million Genesis cartridges, whereas the low-budget SNES sold about 1 million times along with about 6 million titles. So it appears, Sega won the last battle, if not the entire war. ;-)

The console has the size of an older model, "portable" CD player and since it doesn't have any cartridge protection tabs, the use of overseas cartridges is possible. It is not compatible with the Sega CD, because it doesn't have an expansion port and there have been reports that it lacks the Z80a CPU, thus having problems with some Genesis cartridges, too. Designated "MK-1641", real Genesis fans avoid this breed and refer to it as "the hockey puck". :-D

Multimega

The Sega Multimega is a pseudo-handheld system. :-) It consists of a portable CD player, Mega Drive and Mega CD. Paying an initial price of US$ 399, you would still not be able to play Mega Drive or Mega CD games while sitting in the bus. Whereas it is only able to play music CDs when used on the way, it would still have to be connected to a TV and power source for playing console games, since its 2 AA batteries only power the CD player. Sega loves giving things different names in the U.S.A., so it is called "CDX" there. :-)

Nomad

As a fully portable Mega Drive, the Sega Nomad came with a 3-inch colour, backlit LCD screen. But you can even connect it to your TV by using the same sort of cable that shipped with the Mega Drive II. Using this machine and its cartridge slot, you can play almost all of the not very portable Mega Drive modules (American and Japanese). With its 6 fire buttons it was ready for 6-button games like Street Fighter 2 and for the two player mode, it even has a second joypad port on the bottom side. It is powered by 6 AA batteries that fit into a case, which is clipped onto the back of the unit. If you don't like batteries, you also could have bought the AC adapter or the rechargeable battery pack. This thing sucks out batteries at a record time of about 3 hours of gameplay. You'll have to be a fast player and make Sonic run really fast if you want to get through the game before the end of the batteries. :-) It was released for expensive US$ 180, October, 1995. Once more there was no European PAL release. The last selling price was at US$ 40 at Toys'R'Us in spring, 1999, but don't expect to get one for this price now... and I mean a used one, since Genesis fanatics all want to have those things... ;-)

MegaTech, System C and MegaPlay

The Sega MegaTech has something of an arcade juke box, based on the hardware of the Mega Drive. It is quite ironic, because the Mega Drive itself based on an arcade computer, called "System 16". The MegaTech and MegaPlay use multiple, interchangeable modules that can be placed into its several slots. The MegaTech is also able to play Master System games. Although size and form of the modules used with these arcade machines are very similar to normal Mega Drive / Master System modules, you cannot just play arcade modules on consoles or backwards. However, it is very easy to port existing Mega Drive games to run on these arcade systems. The System C was released in 1990, the MegaTech was released in 1991, while the MegaPlay shipped in 1992. Popular games are for example Altered Beast and Sonic The Hedgehog.

Wondermega

The J.V.C. Wondermega was initially released for US$ 620 in Japan, 1993. It is a multimedia device that combines a Mega Drive and a Mega CD together with improved sound capabilites, a MIDI connector, a karaoke function, 2 microphone inputs and an SVHS port. It was originally bundled with four games on one CD ("Game Garden"). Another function of the Wondermega is the in-built music visualization program that shows up on the screen when an audio CD is played. The most interesting point about the Wondermega is its enhanced sound and music support: Together with the add-on cartridge "Wonder MIDI", it can connect to MIDI compatible devices. Another add-on is the music keyboard "Piano Player", which enables you to learn playing and creating music, using the additional software. In 1994 the Wondermega was redesigned and renamed "X'Eye" for release in the U.S.A.. The american debut price of US$ 499 was cheaper, because the refit has fewer features. However, it was more popular in Japan, mostly because of the karaoke function. ;-) A European release never took place.

Laseractive

Released for US$ 699 in the U.S.A., 20th December of 1993, the Laseractive ("CLD-A100") by Pioneer is another hybrid solution, a laser disc player that features so called LD-ROM packs. Not really cheap, each pack was priced between US$ 400 and US$ 600. Now, the first LD-ROM pack that was released, was done in conjunction with Sega and named the "Mega-LD" pack (followed by other packs, e.g. in cooperation with NEC). The Mega-LD pack enables you to play 8 inch/12 inch Mega-LD disks, Mega CD CD's, Mega Drive cartridges and CD+G discs. It was packed with the game "Pyramid Patrol" and a four-in-one game CD (Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and Columns). Adding to this confusion, there was an NEC clone of the machine, named "PCE-LD1". :-)

Sega Terra Drive

The Sega Terra Drive designed in conjunction with Amstrad and first marketed in Japan, 1991. It didn't launch very well in Japan, however it seemed to attract the consumers from overseas. There were three different models of the Terra Drive. The first one integrates a 10 MHz i80206 CPU (whatever this might be...), 2.5 MB of RAM and a 20 MB harddisk drive. It is able to display 800x600 pixels.

The second model is named "MegaPlus" and the third model is known as the "Mega PC" and distributed by Amstrad in Europe. This X86 computer integrates a Mega Drive as a 16-bit ISA card. Therefore, it is able to play Mega Drive games and normal PC games. This can be achieved by using a switch on the front panel, that shifts between Sega Mega Drive and PC mode, while the PC mode stays active in the backround when playing Mega Drive games. Another interesting thing is, that this Mega Drive expansion card is also used for adlib compatible sound output.

The Mega PC has an AMD 386SX CPU, running at 25 MHz, together with 4 MB of RAM, a floppy drive, a 40 MB harddisk and it is compatible to the Mega CD. It came with development tools to create your own Mega Drive software, but it wasn't very successful, possibly due to its high price. The Japanese version differs from the European version in design and equipment. Japanese versions seem to prefer black colours, European or American versions tend to be white. :-)

Megajet

The Sega Megajet is another handheld Mega Drive that could be rented for entertainment on Japanese airline flights. ;-) I think, it would be difficult to use this thing at home, since it had to be plugged into the corresponding LCD screen, that was attached to the armrest. Featuring 6 fire buttons for compatibility to 6-button Mega Drive games, you plugged the cartridge on top of the handheld and like the Nomad, it has a second joypad port for the use with two player games. This actually is the mother of the Sega Nomad.

There was a games collection available for rent, consisting of four games, including for example Sonic The Hedgehog or Super Monaco GP 2. Whatsoever, you could of course also bring your own games. A limited number of Megajets were also available for purchase at Japanese retail outlets and sold as a portable Mega Drive.

Aiwa CSD-GM1

Still widening the field of strange Mega Drive hybrids is the "Aiwa CSD-GM1". It takes CD+G, Audio CDs, Mega Drive cartridges and even Sega CD CDs. It shipped in Japan and Europe during the year of 1994.

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"Gens" is French for "people" and is also the name of a very mature Mega Drive emulator. Yet, this is not the only system that can be emulated using this emulator. In fact, it has support for the Sega 32X and Mega CD, too. However, you might need the boot ROM images when emulating these. Gens is available for many languages. You can download the language packs on the Gens homepage. The emulator program runs on Windows, but there have also been older DOS releases and I heard of a Linux release, too. You can choose from different graphics modes, including interpolation and scanline techniques. The sound output can be sampled at 44,100 KHz and is highly accurate.

Another interesting feature is the compatibility to Kaillera. Kaillera is a network server and protocol. Using it together with Gens makes it possible to play two player games over network and even the internet. Get if from the Kaillera homepage.

Thanks to the developer of this emulator and all the other contributors for such a great work!

Get it from the Gens homepage.