Sega MegaDrive 2 European version with joypad, game cart + box

Sega Mega Drive (Japanese: メガドライブ Mega Doraibu) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega.

For information on the North American version of the console, see: Sega Genesis

History

16-Bit personal machines like the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, as well as 16-Bit arcade machines, were outpacing the 8-bit videogame consoles. Another problem was that Nintendo had 95% of the North American videogame market, and 92% of Japan's videogame market; Nintendo's 8-bit and 16-bit machines were not that successful in Europe. Sega knew the Sega Master System was not going to make it in North America and Japan, so they decided to make a new console.

Since the System 16 arcade games that Sega was making got very popular, Hayou Nakayama, then Sega's CEO, decided to make their new system a 16-Bit one. The final design worked great, and so they used three new arcade boards, being the Megatech, Megaplay, and the System C. Any of the games made for these systems could work on their new console.

The first name Sega thought of for their console was the MK-1601, but Sega decided to use 'Sega Mega Drive' as the name. 'Mega' had the connotation of superiority, and 'Drive' had the connotation of speed and power. They went with that name for the Japanese, European, Asian, Australian and Brazilian versions of the console.

When NEC released the PC Engine in Japan on October 30, 1987, it posed a threat to Nintendo. While NEC overall did not achieve total dominace of the Japanese market, its earlier success meant the Mega Drive initially had a slower adoption than NEC's system did.

The Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan in October 29, 1988 for ¥21,000. The European release was on November 30, 1990 in the United Kingdom, priced at £190.

Unlike in the United States, the Japanese Mega Drive was overshadowed by the Sega Saturn in its country. Just like its North American counterpart, however, the European Mega Drive did better than the Sega Saturn in that locale. The console was shipped with the classic Sonic the Hedgehog game at a reduced price.

The Mega Drive initially competed against the PC Engine system in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe.

The Japanese audience was split between the Famicom and PC Engine. When the Mega Drive entered the market, its lack of a CD drive and significantly better graphics than the established PC Engine held it back until the debut of the Super Famicom. The Super Famicom went on to lead the market in that country. The Mega Drive ended up doing worse than the PC Engine did, despite its technical superiority over the PC Engine and the Famicom.

The European NES market was very confusing, with different companies handling the NES in different markets. The Sega Master System, as well as the Mega Drive had no problem excelling in Europe. The European Mega Drive outsold all other consoles, including the Sega Saturn. The Mega Drive was supported in that locale until 1998.

The Mega Drive counterpart in Europe eventually competed with Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, while the Japanese Mega Drive competed with the Super Famicom, the Japanese version of the SNES.

Three add-on components had been released for the Mega Drive in Japan, and two were released for the Mega Drive in Europe and Australia. The Sega Meganet modem was only released in Japan. The Sega Mega-CD was released for all versions of the Mega Drive worldwide. The Sega Super 32X came to the Japanese while the Europeans and the Australians got the Sega Mega Drive 32X.

Sega MegaDrive 2 instruction manual cover

The Sega Mega Drive 2 was the only redesign that the Mega Drive got. The redesign reduced cost and size by consolidating chips and removing the built-in headphone jack. Like later versions of the Mega Drive 1, it included a 'copyright check' in the firmware (which broke compatibility with some older unlicensed games). A new version of the Sega Mega-CD, the Sega Mega-CD 2, was made to accommodate the shape of the redesigned console.

The Mega Drive 2 had a number of sub-revisions, the very last of which consolidated most of the chips (including the Z80 and M68000 CPUs) into one large custom chip. The original console itself went through innumerable revisions, unknown to most users save the ones who owned one of the very first consoles, which had trouble playing a few of the newer games.

One unlikely market that the Mega Drive excelled in was Brazil. Brazil was also where the Sega Master System lived its absolute final days, to 1998. The Mega Drive also held over until 1998 in that area. Tec Toy was Sega's Brazilian distributor and had success with both of those consoles. Sega had 75% of the Brazilian market.

The Mega Drive was designed from the outset to be backwards compatible with the Sega Master System/Mark III. This was achieved with a plug-in converter known as the Mega Adapter in Japan, the Power Base Converter in North America, and the Master System Converter in Europe. The device sits on top of the console and fits into the cartridge port; it takes both cartridges and cards, and includes a pause button on the front. Almost all Master System games can be played, but a few (e.g. F-16 Fighter) are incompatible due to hardware differences. Master System accessories, including the Light Phaser and 3D Glasses, can also be used with the converter.

A newer Master System Converter for the Mega Drive 2 was released in Europe, but (as with the Master System 2) the card port was removed, breaking compatibility with card-based games and the 3D Glasses. The Mega Master was a third party Master System converter distributed by Fire and Datel in the United Kingdom. It looked like the official Mega Drive 2 Converter, but the pause button was on the side as a toggle switch.

Although Sega had talks about a Game Gear Converter, tentatively named the Mega Game Gear, Sega never made one.

Versions of the Sega Mega Drive

• Sega Mega Drive 1 in Japan
  • Japanese-language settings
  • Headphone jack
  • AUX Port
  • Supports Sega Mega-CD and Sega Super 32X
  • Had a cartridge lock
  • Gloss Black Finish
  • On the circular molding is the text 'High Grade Multi Purpose Intelligent Terminal'. At the bottom of the circle is a purple square section.
  • Cooling vents are located on the left side.
  • 'Sega Mega Drive' is printed in white on the lower right of the console.
  • The reset button and start button on the joypad are blue.
• Sega Mega Drive 1 in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand
  • Converted to display Pal 50HZ Signal
  • English-language settings
  • Cannot play Japanese Mega Drive games due to shape of cartridge and console (thought adaptaders were sold to play Japanese games in the european model).
  • Cartridge lock removed
  • The text 'High Definition Graphics·Stereo Sound' located behind cartridge port.
  • The reset button and the start button are white.
• Sega Mega Drive 1 in Asia (variant to European Mega Drive and often mistaken for a Japanese Mega Drive)
  • No text printed around circle
  • Larger '16-Bit' logo used
  • 'Start' and 'Reset' button are blue
  • Identical to European Mega Drive with PAL Output
• Sega Mega Drive 2 in Japan
  • New squared shape
  • No headphone jack (hehe)
  • 1 Custom multi output for picture and sound
  • Red Coloured flaps on Cartridge Port
  • The text 'High Grade Multi Purpose Intelligent Terminal' located behind cartridge port.
  • Packaged with 6-button controller standard.
  • No power LED
• Sega Mega Drive 2 in Europe
  • New squared shape
  • No headphone jack
  • AV Port switched to 1 Custom multi output for picture and sound (Previously, only Mono sound was used, as the Stereo Sound came to the headphone jack)
  • Push Button Power Switch
  • Power port smaller, different AC Adapter used
  • RF Out port removed
  • Auto-switching RF Lead Included
• Wondermega (named Xeye for the North American Release) - A combined Mega Drive and Mega-CD by JVC - Never released in Europe
  • Improved sound capabilities
  • MIDI Connexions
  • 2 Microphone Inputs
  • SVHS Connector
  • Packaged with a CD called Game Garden that had Flicky a (quiz game) and Pyramid (a puzzle game.) The CD is compatible with CDG (CD and Graphics) enabled CD Players.
  • Later Japanese pack had a platform game called 'Wonderdog' by Core.
  • Supported the 'Wonder CD' pheripheral that allows someone to create music and connect to MIDI-enabled devices.
  • Supported a music keyboard called the 'Piano Player' that allowed you to create music and learn to use the keyboard.
  • Later given a redesign with a softer, more curved look. Some of the extra features were removed, and the joypads were remodeled infra red joypads.
• Sega Mega LD (Japan)/Multimega (Europe) (named CDX in North America) - A Mega Drive and Mega-CD console with portable CD Player abilities, aimed at the more affluent market. The British release came at a whopping £350.00.
  • No built-in screen.
  • Could double as a portable CD Player. CD Control buttons (Play, Stop, et al)are on the front of the console. A backlit LCD provided the track number. An extra outline port was provided for stereo equipment.
  • Charged by 2 AA batteries that can only run the CD Player. The unit must be plugged in to play video games.
• Megatech (Europe only) - An arcade machine that featured 10 interchangeable Mega Drive games in an arcade style cabinet.
  • First released in 1989 with some of the best titles at the time, such as Thunderforce II, Altered Beast, Tetris, Last Battle, Space Harrier II, and Golden Axe.
  • Games could be changed at any time, and more titles, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, were made available. The games were identical to their original counterparts, and the cheats also worked.
  • Games were supplied by a Japanese-shaped Mega Drive cart, although slightly heavier. The labels were silver and red and only had 'Megatech' printed on them. These carts are not compatible with a regular Mega Drive/Genesis due to the extra information on them stored to run the second monitor, a different length edge connector, number of pins, pinouts, and spacing.
  • A second, smaller 9-inch monitor is located at the top of the cabinet. It displayed instructions for each of the games. The user pays to play for a certain length of time. When time was starting to run out, the screen flashed green to notify the user that additional credits are needed should he or she want to play more of that game.
• Mega Jet - see Sega Mega Jet
• Laseractive - A laser disc player from Pioneer that can plug in modules. One of these modules allow users to play Mega Drive and Mega-CD games. It can display Mega Drive graphics over streamed video from compatible laser discs.
  • The Mega LD format only had a handful of games using that format.
  • 3D Glasses have been produced for compatible discs.
  • Other modules could play the PC Engine games and the karaoke.
• Terra Drive (Mega PC in Europe) - A personal computer that allows a user to play Mega Drive games and to use normal computer applications. The Terra Drive was released in Japan with development tools, but Sega was cooperating with a different company in that case. The (equivalent to) $3000 dollar price tag did not make the system attractive to the Japanese. The Mega PC was released by Amstrad in Europe.
  • The Terra Drive/Mega PC was an i386SX running at 25Mhz. It had 1MB of RAM and a 40MB IBM Compatible Hard Disk Drive.
  • It was released in the UK in 1993 and the casing colour was changed from dark gray to cream.
  • The Terra Drive/Mega PC can also be used with a Mega CD.
  • The Mega Plus was an updated version of the Mega CD. It used an i486 at 33Mhz and 4MB of RAM.
• MSX - A name for two machines released only in Arab countries by a company named Universal. The machines were capable of playing Mega Drive cartridges.
  • The A330 MSX had a cartridge port on the top of the machine. It has 'Painting', 'Calendar', 'Arabic Writing', and 'English Writing' as its programs.
  • The AX990 had 50 programs. They are likely to be an unofficial multicart or other MSX programs.

Screenshots

More screenshots can be found in the Screenshot Gallery.

Technical specifications

CPU

• Main processor: 16-bit Motorola M68000 (or equivalent)
  • runs at 7.61MHz in PAL consoles, 7.67MHz in NTSC consoles
• Sound processor: 8-bit Zilog Z80a (or equivalent)
  • runs at 3.55MHz in PAL consoles, 3.58MHz in NTSC consoles
  • used as main CPU in Master System compatibility mode.

Memory

• Boot ROM: 2 KBytes
  • runs when console is first switched on.........
  • contains 'copyright check' code for locking out unlicensed games
  • displays message 'Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd.' when a licensed game is detected
  • Boot ROM is not present on earlier versions of the Mega Drive 1
  • The name Sega gave this boot ROM was the TMSS (TradeMark Security System)
• Main RAM: 64 KBytes
  • part of M68000 address space
• Video RAM: 64 KBytes
  • cannot be accessed directly by CPU, must be read and written via VDP (Video Display Processor - see below)
• Sound RAM: 8 KBytes
  • part of Z80 address space
  • used as main RAM in Master System compatibility mode
• Cartridge memory area: up to 4 MBytes (32 Megabits)
  • part of M68000 address space
  • Game cartridges larger than 4 MBytes must use bank switching

Graphics

The Mega Drive has a dedicated VDP (Video Display Processor) for playfield and sprite control. This is an improved version of the Sega Master System VDP, which in turn is derived from the Texas Instruments TMS9918.

• Planes: 4 (2 scrolling playfields, 1 sprite plane, 1 'window' plane)
• Sprites: up to 80 onscreen, depending on display mode
• Palette: 512 colours
• Onscreen colours: 64 x 9-bit words of colour RAM, allowing 61 onscreen colours (up to 1536 using raster effects and Shadow/Hilight mode)
• Pixel resolution: depends on display mode
  • up to 320x240 (40x30 cells) for PAL
  • up to 320x224 (40x28 cells) for NTSC
  • interlaced modes can provide double the vertical resolution (i.e. 320x448 for NTSC). Used in Sonic 2 for 2-player split screen

Sound

• Main sound chip: Yamaha YM2612 6 channel FM
• Additional sound chip: Texas Instruments SN76489 4 channel PSG (Programmable Sound Generator)
  • 3 sound generators, 4 octaves each, 1 white noise generator

Inputs and outputs

• RF output: connects to TV aerial input
  • exists on European and Asian Mega Drive 1 only
  • other models must use external RF modulator which plugs into A/V output
• A/V output: DIN connector with composite video, RGB, and audio outputs
  • Mega Drive 1 has 8-pin socket (same as Master System), supports mono audio only
  • Mega Drive 2, Multimega, and other models have 9-pin mini DIN socket with both mono and stereo audio
• Power input: requires 9-10 volts DC, 0.85-1.2 A depending on model
• Headphone output: 3.5 mm stereo jack on front of console (Mega Drive 1 only)
• "EXT" port: 9-pin D socket for Meganet modem connection
  • exists on all Japanese and Asian Mega Drive 1 units, and on early European Mega Drive 1 units
• Control pad inputs: 2 x 9-pin D connectors on front of console
• Expansion port: Edge connector on bottom right hand side of console for Sega Mega-CD connection

Miscellaneous

• Signal/Noise Ratio: 14 db

See also

• List of Sega Mega Drive games

External link

• Sega Mega Drive Console Database (http://www.consoledatabase.com/faq/segamegadrive/)