Sega Megadrive/Genesis
Sega made a good attempt at the market with their Master System against Nintendo's virtual monopoly of the console industry, but they were about to introduce next generation gaming to the masses.
After two years of development the Sega Megadrive was released in Japan in October 1988, and was the first true 16-bit console to enter the console market
Japan, then the world!
The Megadrive achieved moderate success in Japan after being beat to the market by NEC's PC Engine (Turbografx) only four months earlier. Sega had a lot of hits in the arcade such as After Burner and Golden Axe, and part of the appeal of the Megadrive was that now these games were not only playable at home but were fairly close to the arcade versions.
Once again Sega set their sites on the rest of the console playing world. Sega began an aggressive marketing campaign, not only to customers, but also to developers.
They quickly gained the support of western third party developer Electronic Arts and quickly produced a line-up of quality arcade conversions and killer sports games (Games that appeal more to American gamers).
The Sega Genesis released in America in September 1989. By the end of 1990 there were over 30 third-party developers writing games for the new system, compared to four for the Turbografx 16.
A hedgehog?
The Sega Genesis reached a great level of success in Amaerica, but launched the system to all new heights of popularity when they released a secret project in the summer of 1992.
Sonic the Hedgehog pushed the Genesis to the limit with spectacular graphics, animation and sound, all with incredible speed. Sonic also became the official mascot and icon for Sega, and became part of marketing campaign to compete against Nintendo's soon to be released console which contained a slower processor (Sega dubbed the techniques used in Sonic as "Blast Processing").
Change is good.
The Genesis saw many changes over the years.
The console was remodeled in 1994, and offered a sleeker / smaller case, and a reduced price (At the expense of the head phone jack and volume control).
In 1998, Majesco reserved the rights to manufacture certain Sega systems. They decided to redesign the Genesis yet again.
The Genesis 3 was released in the US for under $50. It was made even smaller, but lacked the ability to interface with Sega CD and 32X.
Would you like CHIPs with that?
Between 1993 - 1994, 3D gaming was growing in popularity.
Sega's rival Nintendo collaberated with another company to develop a chip that could enhance games with 3D polygon abilities (the Super FX chip).
Not to be outdone Sega teamed up with Hitachi to create the 'Sega Virtual Processor'.
The SVP chip was primarily designed for Sega's 3D arcade titles, but one game was released for the Genesis with the chip installed in the cart.
In 1994 "Virtua Racing" was released and retailed for $90-$100USD.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Technical Specifications
CPU: 16-bit Motorola 68000 running at 7.61 MHz
Co-processor: Zilog Z80 running at 4 MHz (Not Present in model MK-1631) controls PSG (Programmable Sound Generator) & FM Chips
RAM: 64 Kbytes
ROM: 1 Mbytes (8-Mbit)
VRAM: 64 Kbytes (Video Ram)
Graphics: VDP (Video Display Processor) dedicated video display processor for playfield and sprite control, 3 Planes, 2 scrolling playfields, 1 sprite plane
Colours Available: 512
Max. Colours on screen: 64
CRAM: 64 x 9-kbit (Colour RAM)
Pixel Resolution: 320 x 224, 40 x 28 text display mode
Sound: Texas Instruments PSG (Programmable Sound Generator) TI 76489 chip, Yamaha YM 2612 FM chip
Signal/Noise Ratio: 14dB
Sound Channels: 6 stereo sound channels
Sound RAM: 8 Kbytes
1 sidecar expansion slot
1 cartridge port
2 joystick ports
AV port
Backwards compatible with all Sega Master System games using converter
Emulators
AGES - Also supports 32X and Sega CD
Genecyst - Currently Discontinued
Generator - Open source emulator, written in C
Gens - One of the best emulators available, also supports Sega CD
Xega - Also supports Sega CD and 32X
DGen - PC Xbox
NeoGenesis - Xbox
