The Sega Mega-CD (Japanese: メガCD) is an add-on device for the Sega Mega Drive released in Europe, Australia, and Japan. The North American version is called the Sega CD. The device allows the user to both play CD audio discs and specially designed game CDs. It can also play CD+G discs. A console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles. ... Sega (セガ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... A video game console is a dedicated electronic machine designed to play video games. ... Although the history of computer and video games spans almost five decades, computer and video games themselves did not become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s. ... (Redirected from 16-bit era) In the history of video games, the 16-bit era was the fourth generation of video game consoles. ... December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in Leap years). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... Sonic the Hedgehog CD or Sonic CD (as it is known in Europe and North America) is a platform game that is still well acclaimed by Sonic fans. ... Original Sega Mega Drive (PAL version) Sega Mega Drive (Japanese: メガドライブ Mega Doraibu) is a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in 1988. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to some dispute as to Europes actual borders. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

The development of the Sega CD was top secret; game programmers did not know what they were designing for until the Mega-CD was finally revealed at Tokyo Toy Show in Japan. The Sega Mega-CD in Japan was designed to compete with the PC Engine, which had a separate CD-ROM drive. The PC Engine was a video game console released by NEC, a Japanese company, in 1987. ...

The Sega Mega-CD was not meant to compete with the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan). This posed a problem in the markets outside of Japan, where the PC Engine was not as popular, and the expectation was that the Sega CD would be in competition with Nintendo. This article should be merged with Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Famicom design differed from that of the American SNES, though the controllers are almost the same. ... The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia. ...

At first, the Sega CD was a CD tray unit that sat under the console. The Sega CD 2 was a smaller, cheaper top loading drive that plugged next to the Sega Mega Drive.

In the United States, the Sega CD was considered a failure due to its high price, low sales, few hardware upgrades, and general confusion with the Sega 32X, another Genesis peripheral offered. Due to Sega of America's lack of support for the Sega CD and 32X, many consumers lost their trust in Sega. It can be said that Sega never recovered from this, as the Saturn sold poorly; and the Dreamcast, although considered a good effort on Sega's behalf, was unable to compete effectively with Sony's Playstation 2. Sega Genesis 32X on top of regular Genesis, second model. ...

Markets

Japan

Hybrid Sega CD/Sound Minisystem manufactured by Aiwa

The Sega Mega-CD was released first in Japan in 1st December 1991. Its retail price was about ¥49,800. Initially, it was a great success because of the inherent advantages of CDs (high storage capacity and the low cost of media). The fact that it had a nice RPG catalog also helped. Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Aiwa was a Japanese consumer electronics company, founded in 1951. ... (Redirected from 1st December) December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create narratives. ...

The system sold 100,000 units during the first year of release in Japan. However, cost issues prevented more units from being sold.

North America

Sega of Japan did not speak to Sega of America about their Mega-CD plans for that market until a few months later.

The Sega CD had been announced at the Chicago CES on November 1992. Early reports had suggested that hardware in the system would allow it to display more on screen colors (from a larger palette) than the Sega Genesis or the Super Nintendo, which was an important technical concern for consumers. Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Official website: http://egov. ...

In the end, the Sega CD failed to convince North American gamers, mostly due to the cost of the console, and the lack of any hardware advancements. There just was not enough value for the price. Moreover, the game experience was little improved. Players came to have high expectations for the add-on, and Sega even promised that the Sega CD would allow a higher color pallette than the Genesis. However, the end result was somewhat lacklustre compared to expectations.

Graphically, most standard 2D platform games and RPG's looked little different from an average Genesis 2D game.

Sound was likely to be better if it included some CD audio tracks, but on the average, conventional games looked the same. Sega wanted to showcase the power of the Sega CD, and so focused on the "FMV" games rather than importing "extended" games that only expanded ordinary games by taking advantage of the extra storage space of the CD media. Sega insisted on licensing and producing primarily "full motion video" games similar to earlier laserdisc games, that were universally panned by game reviewers. Mega CD Tomcat Alley (1994) FMV games, also known as interactive movies, are a particular video game genre that was popular during the early nineties as CD-ROMs and Laserdiscs made their way into the living rooms, providing an alternative to the low-capacity cartridges of most consoles. ... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo Laserdisc certification mark The laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ...

The single speed CD drive added load times to all games, and the 64-color graphics and underpowered processor (for video rendering) made these full-motion games look terrible. One particularly infamous result of the single speed CD drive and its subsequent load times came in the form of Mortal Kombat CD, which was widely criticized due to that fact the certain moves, particularly the games popular "fatalities", would not perform until after a notable lag between the execution of the move and its actual on screen animation.

Another problem was that much of the Sega CD library consisted of quick upgrades of existing Genesis games. Most of them just had some extra FMV scenes and an enhanced soundtrack, but the game is still the same. However, some games such as Earthworm Jim or Spider Man vs. the Kingpin added some extra levels or made some game changes. (Spider Man vs the Kingpin in particular made many changes, which drastically restructured the game, making it somewhat non linear, and adding animated cutscenes.) The console also had one standard Sonic game, simply titled Sonic CD. While the game is generally well regarded as a solid, fun Sonic game, the CD platform offered little different in the way of gameplay, except for some animated cutscenes and a slightly larger number of levels. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Earthworm Jim Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform video game starring an earthworm who battles evil. ...

Despite a somewhat lackluster library of games, the console produced two very famous titles. The Sega CD had the Lunar series, which, despite the relatively narrow circulation the two titles on the Sega CD received, went on to be critically acclaimed and became a cult classic, with both games remade for the PlayStation in the late nineties and the Nintendo DS in 2005. The same company that released Lunar, Working Designs, also released another RPG for the platform, entitled Vay. While it received generally positive reviews, the game was not as popular as the Lunar titles, both of which can fetch somewhat high prices on ebay. The Lunar games, made by Game Arts and published in the United States by Working Designs, are a series of computer RPGs. ... The PlayStation is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ...

Europe

In Europe the Mega-CD was thought to be overpriced. It was released in April 1993 in the United Kingdom for £270 (over €400 now). Unlike The Mega Drive, which was a very successful console in Europe, only 60,000 of the 70,000 Mega-CD's shipped to Europe were sold by August 1993. 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 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. ...

Some European countries (Spain for instance), would not get the original Mega-CD, but the Mega-CD 2, which also slowed sales.

Australia

The Australians got their Mega-CD on 19 April 1993. April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Models

The following models were released:

• Sega Mega-CD I (Sega CD I in North America)
• Sega Mega-CD II (Sega CD II in North America). Designed for the Mega Drive/Genesis II and to reduce manufacturing costs
• JVC Wondermega (Xeye in North American release, never released in Europe), was an all-in-one Genesis/Sega CD unit
• Sega Multi-Mega (called Sega CDX in North America). A portable CD player that plays both Mega Drive and Mega-CD games
• Pioneer LaserActive Sega CD module, an add-on device you could add to a Laseractive Pioneer Laserdisc player

The Sega Mega (Japanese: メガCD) is an add-on device for the Sega Mega Drive released in Europe, Australia and Japan. ... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo Laserdisc certification mark The laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ...

Screenshots

Battlecorps	Dune	Road Avenger	Sewer Shark
Core Design (1994)	Cryo (1994)	Wolfteam (1992)	Digital Pictures (1992)

Sonic CD	Third World War	Tomcat Alley
Sega (1993)	Micronet (1993)	Sega (1994)

Battlecorps Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Dune Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Road Avenger Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Sewer Shark Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Dune, by Cryo Interactive, is one of the Dune computer games. ... Sewer Shark, a first-person rail shooter game, is the first video game for a game console to use full-motion video for its primary gameplay. ... Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game developing company that appeared in the early 1990s. ... Sonic CD Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Third World War Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Tomcat Alley Sega Mega CD screenshot, using Kega Fusion This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Sonic the Hedgehog CD or Sonic CD (as it is known in Europe and North America) is a platform game that is still well acclaimed by Sonic fans. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Tomcat Alley is a full motion video game for the Sega CD that was the first (and only) Sega CD game to have full screen-full motion video. ... Sega (セガ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Sega (セガ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ...

Technical Specifications

CPU

The main CPU is a 12.5-MHz 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor. The Mega Drive/Genesis has the same processor, but at a lower clock rate of 7.67 MHz. Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor in a ceramic PGA package A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in software. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... The Motorola 68000 is a 32 bit CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Clock signal. ...

Graphics

• Graphics Processor: Custom ASIC
• Number of simultaneous colors on screen: 64 (Using programming tricks, this limit is increased to 128 colors via raster effects)
• Colors available in Cinepak and TruVideo modes: 128 to 256 colors
• Video size from 1/4 to full screen
• Advanced compression scheme
• Software-based upgrade

RAM

• Main RAM: 6 Mbit
• PCM samples: 512 Kbit
• CD-ROM data cache: 128 Kbit
• 64 Kbit Internal Backup RAM

The Sega CD also features sprite enhancement effects such as scaling and rotation, similar to that of the Super Famicom/SNES Mode 7. This article should be merged with Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Famicom design differed from that of the American SNES, though the controllers are almost the same. ... The European SNES design is identical to the Super Famicom. ... The term Mode 7 originated on the Super NES video game console, on which it describes a simple texture mapping graphics mode that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled. ...

Storage

• 500 MB CD-ROM discs (equivalent to 62 min of audio data)
• 1/4 screen B/W footage video: 1.5 to 4 hours
• 1/4 screen color footage: 45 minutes
• CD-ROM drive transfer rate: 150 Kbytes/s (1x)

(Above specs prior to compression) The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...

BIOS

• Size: 1 MBit
• Used for games, CD player, CD+G and karaoke
• Access time: 800 ms

This article is about the software. ... The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb. ... A Karaoke machine Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, empty, and オーケストラ ōkesutora, orchestra) is a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer or singers sing along with recorded music on microphone. ... Mil-li-sec-ond One hundreth of a second ...

Audio

The Sega CD adds 10 extra sound channels to the existing Genesis Z80 SPU. The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ... SPU can stands for: Seattle Public Utilities Synergistic Processing Unit ...

• Sound format: Stereo PCM
• Sound channels: 8
• Maximum sample rate: 32 kHz (44.1 kHz for CD-DA)
• 16 bit DAC
• 8x internal over-sampling digital filter
• Frequency Range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 900 dB @ 1K
• Channel Separation: > 900 dB
• Output: RCA stereo Pin Jack x2 (L/R) / SCART cable
• Mixing Input Port for stereo sound on the original Sega Genesis / Megadrive Model.

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a digital representation of an analog signal where the magnitude of the signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, then quantized to a series of symbols in a digital (usually binary) code. ... In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC or D-to-A) is a device for converting a digital (usually binary) code to an analog signal (current, voltage or charges). ... SCART plug Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Scart SCART (from Syndicat des Constructeurs dAppareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment together. ... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ...

Other

• Dimensions: 301mm × 212.5 mm × 112.5mm
• Weight: 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs)

Technical Trivia

• Using HAM (Hold and Modify) techniques with the colors used for their games, some developers managed to display much more color than the meager 64 that the Sega CD could normally display. This was especially put to good use for the games Snatcher (which can display 192 colors on screen at once) and Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side (which displayed a whopping 256 colors at once!!)

Sega CD Snatcher, the first and only English version made. ...

See also

• List of Sega CD games
• Sega Dreamcast
• Sega Gamegear
• Sega Master System
• Sega Nomad
• Sega CDX
• Sega 32X
• 16-bit Era

This is a list of games for the Sega CD video game system, organized alphabetically by name. ... The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Blackbelt, Dural and Katana during development) was Segas last video game console. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The Sega Master System (SMS for short) is an 8-bit cartridge-based gaming console that was manufactured by Sega. ... The Sega Nomad was a handheld game console sold in North America and South America, mainly in Brazil, essentially a mini-Genesis console, based on the Japanese Mega Jet and featuring a built-in color screen. ... The Sega CDX was a 16-bit video game console released in 1994, combining the Sega Genesis and one of its add-ons, the Sega CD, into single, compact unit as a final attempt by Sega to encourage consumer interest in its unpopular Sega CD format. ... Sega Genesis 32X on top of regular Genesis, second model. ... In the history of video games, the 16-bit era was the fourth generation of video game consoles. ...

External links

• Sega-16 - Comprehensive site with hundreds of reviews and articles.
• The Digital Pictures Project
• Console Passion Retro Games - includes reviews, polls, online shopping, modifcation and much more.
• SegaCD.org complete game listing
• Retroscene Retro Games - supplier of Sega Mega CD retro games.
• SegaBase - Comprehensive history of this system