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Sega Genesis

November 27, 2023

The Genesis, also known as the Mega Drive[b] outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis. In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil. In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.[c]

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive


  • Top: Original Japanese Mega Drive
  • Bottom: Genesis Model 2
  • Other variations are pictured under Variations below.
DeveloperSega
ManufacturerSega
TypeHome video game console
GenerationFourth
Release date
  • JP: October 29, 1988
  • NA: August 14, 1989
  • KOR: August 1990
  • PAL: September 1990
  • BRA: September 1, 1990
  • IND: April 1994[1]
Lifespan
  • 1988–1997 (Sega)
  • 1998–1999 (Majesco)
Introductory price¥21,000 (equivalent to ¥24,600 in 2019)
US$189 (equivalent to $450 in 2022)
£189.99 (equivalent to £460 in 2021)
Discontinued
Units sold
  • Sega: 30.75 million
  • Majesco: 1.5 million (projected)
  • Tectoy: 3 million
MediaROM cartridge
CPU
Memory64 KB RAM, 64 KB VRAM, 8 KB audio RAM
Display
  • Progressive: 320×224, 256×224 (NTSC) or 320×240, 256×240 (PAL) pixels, 512 color palette, 61 colors on-screen
  • Interlaced: 320×448, 256×448 (NTSC) or 320×480, 256×480 (PAL)
Sound
Online services
Best-selling game
Backward
compatibility		Master System[a]
PredecessorMaster System
SuccessorSega Saturn
RelatedSega CD
32X

Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, the Genesis was adapted from Sega's System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU, a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller, and a video system supporting hardware sprites, tiles, and scrolling. It plays a library of more than 900 games on ROM-based cartridges. Several add-ons were released, including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games. It was released in several different versions, some created by third parties. Sega created two network services to support the Genesis: Sega Meganet and Sega Channel.

In Japan, the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors, Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine, but it achieved considerable success in North America, Brazil, and Europe. Contributing to its success was its library of arcade game ports, the popularity of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, several popular sports franchises, and aggressive youth marketing that positioned it as the cool console for adolescents. The 1991 North American release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System triggered a fierce battle for market share in the United States and Europe known as the "console war".[4][5] This drew attention to the video game industry, and the Genesis and several of its games attracted legal scrutiny on matters involving reverse engineering and video game violence. Controversy surrounding violent games such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council, a predecessor to the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

30.75 million first-party Genesis units were sold worldwide. In addition, Tectoy sold an estimated three million licensed variants in Brazil, Majesco projected it would sell 1.5 million licensed variants of the system in the United States and smaller numbers were sold by Samsung in South Korea. By the mid-2010s, licensed third-party Genesis rereleases were still being sold by AtGames in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations or on online services such as the Nintendo Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam. The Genesis was succeeded in 1994 by the Sega Saturn.

History

Further information: History of video games

Development

 
The Japanese Mega Drive logo

In the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc. – then a subsidiary of Gulf+Western – was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues surpassed $200 million between July 1981 and June 1982.[6] A downturn in the arcade business starting in 1982 seriously hurt the company, leading Gulf+Western to sell its North American arcade manufacturing organization and the licensing rights for its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing.[7][8] The company retained Sega's North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. With its arcade business in decline, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. president Hayao Nakayama advocated that the company leverage its hardware expertise to move into the home console market in Japan, which was in its infancy at the time.[9]

Nakayama received permission to proceed with this project, leading to the release of Sega's first home video game system, the SG-1000, in July 1983.[10] While it had sold 160,000 units in Japan, far exceeding Sega's expectations,[11][12] sales at stores were dominated by Nintendo's Famicom which had been released the same day. Sega estimated that the Famicom outsold the SG-1000 by a 10-to-1 margin.[10] The SG-1000 was replaced by the Sega Mark III within two years.[13] In the meantime, Gulf+Western began to divest itself of its non-core businesses after the death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn,[14] so Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen arranged a management buyout of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial backing from CSK Corporation, a prominent Japanese software company. Nakayama was then installed as CEO of Sega Enterprises, Ltd.[15]

In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Master System. This was followed by a European release the next year. Although the Master System was a success in Europe, and later in Brazil, it failed to ignite significant interest in the Japanese or North American markets, which, by the mid-to-late 1980s, were both dominated by Nintendo.[16][17][18] With Sega continuing to have difficulty penetrating the home market, Sega's console R&D team, led by Masami Ishikawa and supervised by Hideki Sato,[19] began work on a successor to the Master System almost immediately after that console launched.[20][21]

In 1987, Sega faced another threat to its console business when Japanese computer giant NEC released the PC Engine amid great publicity.[22] To remain competitive against the two more established consumer electronics companies, Ishikawa and his team decided they needed to incorporate a 16-bit microprocessor into their new system to make an impact in the marketplace and once again turned to Sega's strengths in the arcade industry to adapt the successful Sega System 16 arcade board into architecture for a home console.[21][23] The decision to use a Motorola 68000 as the system's main CPU was made late in development, while a Zilog Z80 was used as a secondary CPU to handle the sound due to fears that the load to the main CPU would be too great if it handled both the visuals and the audio.[21] The 68000 chip was expensive and would have driven the retail price of the console up greatly, but Sega was able to negotiate with a distributor for a tenth of its price on an up-front volume order with the promise of more orders pending the console's future success.[10]

The appearance of the Mega Drive was designed by a team led by Mitsushige Shiraiwa that drew inspiration from audiophile equipment and automobiles. Shiraiwa said this more mature look helped to target the Mega Drive to all ages, unlike the Famicom, which was aimed primarily at children.[24] According to Sato, the Japanese design for the Mega Drive was based on the appearance of an audio player, with "16-bit" embossed in a golden metallic veneer to create an impression of power.[12]

The console was announced in the June 1988 issue of the Japanese gaming magazine Beep! as the Mark V, but Sega management wanted a stronger name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the company settled on "Mega Drive". In North America, the name was changed to "Genesis".[23] Rosen said he insisted on the name as he disliked "Mega Drive" and wanted to represent "a new beginning" for Sega.[25] Sato said some design elements changed, such as the gold-colored "16-bit" wording, because it was believed that the color would be mistaken for yellow. He believes that the changes in design are representative of the differences in values between Japanese and American culture.[12]

Launch

 
The European PAL version of the Mega Drive launched in 1990, later becoming the highest-selling fourth-gen console in Europe.

Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan on October 29, 1988, though the launch was overshadowed by Nintendo's release of Super Mario Bros. 3 a week earlier. Positive coverage from magazines Famitsu and Beep! helped to establish a following.[23] Within two days of release, the console's initial production run sold out.[26] However, Sega only managed to ship 400,000 units in the first year. In order to increase sales, Sega released various peripherals and games, including an online banking system and answering machine called the Sega Mega Anser.[23] Nevertheless, the Mega Drive was unable to overtake the venerable Famicom[27] and remained a distant third in Japan behind Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine throughout the 16-bit era.[28]

Sega announced a North American release date for the system on January 9, 1989.[29] At the time, Sega did not possess a North American sales and marketing organization and was distributing its Master System through Tonka. Dissatisfied with Tonka's performance, Sega looked for a new partner to market the Genesis in North America and offered the rights to Atari Corporation, which did not yet have a 16-bit system. David Rosen made the proposal to Atari CEO Jack Tramiel and the president of Atari's Entertainment Electronics Division, Michael Katz. Tramiel declined to acquire the new console, deeming it too expensive, and instead opted to focus on the Atari ST. Sega decided to launch the console through its own Sega of America subsidiary, which executed a limited launch on August 14, 1989, in New York City and Los Angeles. The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year.[30]

The European version of the Mega Drive was released in September 1990,[31] at a price of £189.99,[32][33] i.e. $337 (equivalent to $703 in 2022). The release was handled by Virgin Mastertronic, which was later purchased by Sega in 1991 and became Sega of Europe.[34] Games like Space Harrier II, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Golden Axe,[33] Super Thunder Blade, and The Revenge of Shinobi were available in stores at launch. The console was also bundled with Altered Beast.[32] The Mega Drive and its first batch of games were shown at the 1990 European Computer Entertainment Show (ECES) in Earl's Court.[35] Between July and August 1990, Virgin initially placed their order for 20,000 Mega Drive units. However, the company increased the order by 10,000 units when advanced orders had exceeded expectations, and another 10,000 units was later added following the console's success at the ECES event. The projected number of units to be sold between September and December 1990 had eventually increased to 40,000 units in the United Kingdom alone.[36]

Other companies assisted in distributing the console to various countries worldwide. Ozisoft handled the Mega Drive's launch and marketing in Australia, as it had done before with the Master System.[37] In Brazil, the Mega Drive was released by Tectoy in 1990,[38] only a year after the Brazilian release of the Master System. Tectoy produced games exclusively for the Brazilian market and brought the Sega Meganet online service there in 1995.[39] Samsung handled sales and distribution in Korea, where it was named Super Gam*Boy and retained the Mega Drive logo alongside the Samsung name.[40] It was later renamed Super Aladdin Boy.[41] In India, Sega entered a distribution deal with Shaw Wallace in April 1994[42] in order to circumvent an 80% import tariff, with each unit selling for INR₹18,000.[43][44]

In Russia, Sega officially licensed the console to local distributor Forrus in 1994,[45] replaced in 1996 by Bitman. That year, the video game console market generated between $200,000,000 (equivalent to $384,000,000 in 2022) and $250,000,000 (equivalent to $480,000,000 in 2022) in Russia, with Sega accounting for half of all console sales in the country. However, only about 15% of the sales were official Sega units distributed by Bitman, while the rest were unofficial counterfeit clones.[46][47]

North American sales and marketing

For the North American market, former Atari Corporation Entertainment Electronics Division president and new Sega of America CEO Michael Katz instituted a two-part approach to build sales. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis,[48] with slogans including "Genesis does what Nintendon't".[23] Since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, the second part involved creating a library of recognizable games which used the names and likenesses of celebrities and athletes, such as Pat Riley Basketball, Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf, James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing, Joe Montana Football, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Mario Lemieux Hockey, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.[22][49] Nonetheless, Sega struggled to overcome Nintendo's presence in consumers' homes.[50] Tasked by Nakayama to sell one million units within the first year, Katz and Sega of America sold only 500,000.[23] At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (Winter CES) in January 1990, the Sega Genesis demonstrated a strong line-up of games which received a positive reception for approaching arcade-quality graphics and gameplay as well as for providing non-arcade experiences such as Phantasy Star II.[51]

In mid-1990, Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske to replace Katz as CEO of Sega of America. Although Kalinske knew little about the video game market, he surrounded himself with industry-savvy advisors. A believer in the razor and blades model, he developed a four-point plan: cut the price of the console, create an American team to develop games targeted at the American market, expand the aggressive advertising campaigns, and replace the bundled game Altered Beast with a new game, Sonic the Hedgehog.[50] The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of the plan,[52] but all four points were approved by Nakayama, who told Kalinske, "I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas, so go ahead and do it."[23] Critics praised Sonic as one of the greatest games yet made, and Genesis sales increased as customers who had been waiting for the release of the international version of Nintendo's Super Famicom, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), decided to purchase a Genesis instead.[50] The SNES debuted against an established competitor, while NEC's TurboGrafx-16 failed to gain traction, and NEC soon pulled out of the market.[53] In large part due to the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog, the Genesis outsold the SNES in the United States nearly two to one during the 1991 holiday season. Sega controlled 65% of the 16-bit console market in January 1992, the first time Nintendo had not been the console leader since 1985.[54]

The Genesis outsold the SNES for four consecutive Christmas seasons[55] due to its two-year lead, lower price point, and larger game library compared to the SNES at its release.[56] Sega had ten games for every game on SNES, and while the SNES had an exclusive version of Final Fight, one of Sega's internal development teams created Streets of Rage, which had bigger levels, tougher enemies, and a well-regarded soundtrack.[56] ASCII Entertainment reported in early 1993 that Genesis had 250 games versus 75 for the SNES, but limited shelf space meant that stores typically offered 100 Genesis and 50 SNES games. The NES was still the leader, with 300 games and 100 on shelves.[57]

Sega's advertising positioned the Genesis as the cooler console,[56] and coined the term blast processing, an obscure and unused graphics programming method, to suggest that its processing capabilities were far greater than those of the SNES.[58][59] A Sony focus group found that teenage boys would not admit to owning an SNES rather than a Genesis.[60] With the Genesis often outselling the SNES at a ratio of 2:1,[61] Nintendo and Sega focused heavily on impression management of the market, even going to the point of deception; Nintendo claimed it had sold more consoles in 1991 than it actually had, and forecasted it would sell 6 million consoles by the end of 1992, while its actual U.S. install base at the end of 1992 was only just more than 4 million units.[62] Due to these tactics, it was difficult to ascertain a clear leader in market share for several years at a time, with Nintendo's dollar share of the U.S. 16-bit market dipping down from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% at the end of 1993,[63] Sega claiming 55% of all 16-bit hardware sales during 1994,[64] and Donkey Kong Country helping the SNES to outsell the Genesis from 1995 through 1997.[55][65][66][67][68] According to a 2004 study of NPD sales data, the Genesis maintained its lead over the Super NES in the American 16-bit console market.[69] However, according to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on revised NPD sales data, the SNES outsold the Sega Genesis in the U.S. market by 1.5 million units.[70]

Electronic Arts

To compete with Nintendo, Sega was more open to new types of games, but still tightly controlled the approval process for third-party games and charged high prices for cartridge manufacturing.[71] The American publisher Electronic Arts (EA) sought a better deal, but met resistance from Sega.[72] They decided to reverse-engineer the Genesis, using a clean-room method similar to the method Phoenix Technologies had used to reverse-engineer the IBM Personal Computer BIOS around 1984.[73]

The process began in 1989, led by Steve Hayes and Jim Nitchals.[74] They created a controlled room in EA headquarters nicknamed "Chernobyl", to which only one person was allowed access, Mike Schwartz. Schwartz reviewed Sega's copyrighted development manuals and tools, studied the Genesis hardware and games, and wrote original documentation that summarized his findings. The process took him about a month.[72] His work was reviewed by EA's lawyers before being disseminated to Hayes and Nitchals to verify its originality, and subsequently to the rest of the developers to let them build games.[73] After a few months, EA began developing for the Genesis in earnest.[72] The EA founder, Trip Hawkins, confronted Nakayama the day before the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), informing him that EA had the ability to run its own licensing program if Sega refused to meet its demands. Sega relented, and the next day EA's upcoming Genesis games were showcased at CES.[72]

EA signed what Hawkins described as "a very unusual and much more enlightened license agreement" with Sega in June 1990: "Among other things, we had the right to make as many titles as we wanted. We could approve our own titles ... the royalty rates were a lot more reasonable. We also had more direct control over manufacturing."[74] After the deal was in place, EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon learned that "we hadn't figured out all the workarounds" and "Sega still had the ability to lock us out ... It just would have been a public relations fiasco."[72] EA released its first Genesis games, Populous and Budokan: The Martial Spirit, within the month.[74] The first Genesis version of EA's John Madden Football arrived before the end of 1990,[74] and became what Gordon called a "killer app".[72] Taking advantage of the licensing agreement, Gordon and EA's vice president of marketing services, Nancy Fong, created a visual identifier for EA's Genesis cartridges: a yellow tab molded into the casing.[72]

Sonic the Hedgehog

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega held a company-wide contest to create a mascot character to compete with Nintendo's Mario series. The winning submission was a blue hedgehog with red shoes, Sonic, created by Naoto Ohshima,[75] spawning one of the best-selling video game franchises in history.[76][77] The gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog originated with a tech demo created by Yuji Naka, who had developed a prototype platform game that involved a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube. This concept was developed with Ohshima's character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.[78]

Although Katz and Sega of America's marketing experts disliked Sonic, certain that it would not catch on with American children,[22][79] Kalinske's strategy to place Sonic the Hedgehog as the pack-in game paid off.[4][80] Sonic the Hedgehog greatly increased the popularity of the Genesis in North America,[59] and the bundle is credited with helping Sega gain 65% of the market share against Nintendo.[2] Similarly, in Europe, Sega captured a 65% share of the European console market,[81] where the Mega Drive maintained its lead over the SNES through 1994.[82] Sonic the Hedgehog 2 set records[83] for the fastest-selling game,[84] selling 3.2 million copies worldwide within two weeks,[85] and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles sold a combined 4 million copies worldwide.[86]

Trademark Security System and Sega v. Accolade

Main article: Sega v. Accolade

After the release of the Genesis in 1989, video game publisher Accolade began exploring options to release some of their PC games on the console. At the time, Sega had a licensing deal in place for third-party developers that increased the costs to the developer. According to Accolade co-founder Alan Miller, "One pays them between $10 and $15 per cartridge on top of the real hardware manufacturing costs, so it about doubles the cost of goods to the independent publisher."[87] To get around licensing, Accolade chose to seek an alternative way to bring their games to the Genesis. It did so by purchasing one in order to decompile the executable code of three Genesis games. Such information was used to program their new Genesis cartridges in a way that would allow them to disable the security lockouts on the Genesis that prevented unlicensed games from being played.[88][89] This strategy was used successfully to bring Ishido: The Way of Stones to the Genesis in 1990.[90] To do so, Accolade had copied Sega's copyrighted game code multiple times in order to reverse engineer the software of Sega's licensed Genesis games.[91][92]

 
An edition of the original model of the Genesis, known as the Genesis III, was the model at the center of Sega v. Accolade for its incorporation of the Trademark Security System (TMSS).

As a result of piracy in some countries and unlicensed development issues, Sega incorporated a technical protection mechanism into a new edition of the Genesis released in 1990, referred to as the Genesis III. This new variation of the Genesis included a code known as the Trademark Security System (TMSS), which, when a game cartridge was inserted, would check for the presence of the string "SEGA" at a particular point in the memory contained in the cartridge. If the string was present, the console would run the game, and would briefly display the message: "Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises, Ltd."[88] This system had a twofold effect: it added extra protection against unlicensed developers and software piracy and forced the Sega trademark to display when the game was powered up, making a lawsuit for trademark infringement possible if unlicensed software were to be developed.[89][92] Accolade learned of this development at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1991, where Sega showed the new Genesis III and demonstrated it screening and rejecting an Ishido game cartridge.[89] With more games planned for the following year, Accolade successfully identified the TMSS file. It later added this file to the games HardBall!, Star Control, Mike Ditka Power Football, and Turrican.[89]

In response to the creation of these unlicensed games, Sega filed suit against Accolade in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, on charges of trademark infringement, unfair competition, and copyright infringement. In response, Accolade filed a counterclaim for falsifying the source of its games by displaying the Sega trademark when the game was powered up.[91][93] Although the district court initially ruled for Sega and issued an injunction preventing Accolade from continuing to reverse engineer the Genesis, Accolade appealed the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[94]

As a result of the appeal, the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court's verdict and ruled that Accolade's decompilation of the Sega software constituted fair use.[95] The court's written opinion followed on October 20, 1992, and noted that the use of the software was non-exploitative, although commercial.[88][96] Further, the court found that the trademark infringement, being required by the TMSS for a Genesis game to run on the system, had been inadvertently triggered by a fair use act and was the fault of Sega for having caused false labeling.[88] Ultimately, Sega and Accolade settled the case on April 30, 1993. As a part of this settlement, Accolade became an official licensee of Sega, and later developed and released Barkley Shut Up and Jam! while under license.[97] The terms of the licensing, including whether or not any special arrangements or discounts were made to Accolade, were not released to the public.[98] The financial terms of the settlement were also not disclosed, although both companies agreed to pay their own legal costs.[99]

Congressional hearings on video game violence

Main articles: Videogame Rating Council and 1993 congressional hearings on video games
 
VRC MA-13 rating, as applied to Mortal Kombat for the Genesis

In 1993, the American media began to focus on the mature content of certain video games. Games such as Night Trap for the Sega CD, an add-on, received unprecedented scrutiny. Issues about Night Trap were brought up in the United Kingdom, with former Sega of Europe development director Mike Brogan noting that "Night Trap got Sega an awful lot of publicity ... it was also cited in UK Parliament for being classified as '15' due to its use of real actors."[100] This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an edgy company with attitude, and this only reinforced that image.[27] By far the year's most controversial game was Midway's Mortal Kombat, ported to the Genesis and SNES by Acclaim Entertainment. In response to public outcry over the game's graphic violence, Nintendo decided to replace the blood in the game with "sweat" and the arcade's gruesome "fatalities" with less violent finishing moves.[101] Sega took a different approach, instituting America's first video game ratings system, the Videogame Rating Council (VRC), for all its current systems. Ratings ranged from the family-friendly GA rating to the more mature rating of MA-13, and the adults-only rating of MA-17.[101] With the rating system in place, Sega released its version of Mortal Kombat, appearing to have removed all the blood and sweat effects and toning down the finishing moves even more than in the SNES version. However, all the arcade's blood and uncensored finishing moves could be enabled by entering a "Blood Code". This technicality allowed Sega to release the game with a relatively low MA-13 rating.[102] Meanwhile, the tamer SNES version shipped without a rating.[102]

The Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was well-received by gaming press, as well as fans, outselling the SNES version three- or four-to-one,[101][103][104] while Nintendo was criticized for censoring the SNES version.[102] Executive vice president of Nintendo of America Howard Lincoln was quick to point out at the hearings that Night Trap had no such rating, saying to Senator Joe Lieberman:

Furthermore, I can't let you sit here and buy this nonsense that this Sega Night Trap game was somehow only meant for adults. The fact of the matter is this is a copy of the packaging. There was no rating on this game at all when the game was introduced. Small children bought this at Toys "R" Us, and he knows that as well as I do. When they started getting heat about this game, then they adopted the rating system and put ratings on it.[101]

In response, Sega of America vice president Bill White showed a videotape of violent video games on the SNES and stressed the importance of rating video games. At the end of the hearing, Lieberman called for another hearing in February 1994 to check on progress toward a rating system for video game violence.[101]

As a result of the congressional hearings, Night Trap started to generate more sales and released ports to the PC, Sega 32X, and 3DO. According to Digital Pictures founder Tom Zito, "You know, I sold 50,000 units of Night Trap a week after those hearings."[101] Although experiencing increased sales, Sega decided to recall Night Trap and re-release it with revisions in 1994 due to the congressional hearings.[105] After the close of these hearings, video game manufacturers came together to establish the rating system that Lieberman had called for. Initially, Sega proposed the universal adoption of its system, but after objections by Nintendo and others, Sega took a role in forming a new one. This became the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an independent organization that received praise from Lieberman.[101] With this new rating system in place for the 1994 holiday season, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed, and the SNES port of Mortal Kombat II was released uncensored.[102]

32-bit era and beyond

Sega released two add-ons to increase the Genesis capabilities: a CD peripheral, the Sega CD (Mega-CD outside North America and Brazil), and a 32-bit peripheral, the Sega 32X.[80] Worldwide, Sega sold 2.24 million Sega CD units[106] and 800,000 32X units.[107]

Following the launch of the next-generation 32-bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, sales of 16-bit hardware and software continued to account for 64% of the video game market in 1995.[108] Sega underestimated the continued popularity of the Genesis and did not have the inventory to meet demand.[108][109] Sega captured 43% of the dollar share of the U.S. video game market and claimed to have sold more than two million Genesis units in 1995, while Genesis software such as Vectorman remained successful, but Kalinske estimated that "we could have sold another 300,000 Genesis systems in the November/December timeframe".[109] Nakayama's decision to focus on the Saturn, based on the systems' relative performance in Japan, has been cited as the major contributing factor in this miscalculation.[108] By contrast, Nintendo concentrated on the 16-bit home console market, as well as its successful handheld, the Game Boy, and took in 42% of the video game market dollar share without launching a 32-bit console.[108] Following tensions with Sega Enterprises, Ltd. over its focus on the Saturn, Kalinske, who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991, lost interest in the business and resigned in mid-1996.[110]

Sega sold 30.75 million Genesis units worldwide.[111] Of these, 3.58 million were sold in Japan,[106] and sales in Europe and the U.S. are roughly estimated at 8 million[112][113] and 18–18.5 million as of June 1997 (at which time Sega was no longer manufacturing the system) respectively.[114][70][115] In 1998, Sega licensed the Genesis to Majesco Entertainment to rerelease it in North America. Majesco began reselling millions of unsold cartridges at a budget price, together with 150,000 units of the second model of the Genesis.[114] It released the Genesis 3,[116] projecting to sell 1.5 million units of the console by the end of 1998.[114] Tectoy continued to sell variants of the original hardware (including emulated variants) until June 2023, as the company no longer has any references to the console on its website, and has sold an estimated 3 million units in Brazil as of 2012.[117][118]

Technical specifications

 
European Mega Drive mainboard

The main microprocessor is a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 7.6 MHz.[119] An 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor controls the sound hardware and provides backward compatibility with the Master System. The Genesis has 64 KB of RAM, 64 KB of video RAM and 8 KB of audio RAM.[120] It can display up to 61 colors[121] at once from a palette of 512. The games are in ROM cartridge format and inserted in the top.[122]

The Genesis produces sound using a Texas Instruments SN76489 programmable sound generator, integrated with the Video Display Processor (VDP), and a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer chip. The Z80 processor is primarily used to control both sound chips to produce stereo music and sound effects. Most revisions of the original Genesis contain a discrete YM2612 and a separate YM7101 VDP; in a later revision, the chips were integrated into a single custom ASIC (FC1004).[122]

The back of the Model 1 console provides an RF output port (designed for use with antenna and cable systems) and a specialized 8-pin DIN port, which both provide video and audio output. Both outputs produce monophonic sound; a headphone jack on the front of the console produces stereo sound.[123] On the Model 2, the DIN port, RF output port, and headphone jack are replaced by a 9-pin mini-DIN port on the back for composite video, RGB and stereo sound, and the standard RF switch.[124] Earlier Model 1 consoles have a 9-pin extension port. An edge connector on the bottom right of the console can be connected to a peripheral.[125]

Peripherals

 
Genesis six-button controller

The standard controller features a rounded shape, a directional pad, three main buttons, and a START button. In 1993, Sega released a slightly smaller pad with three additional face buttons, similar to the design of buttons on some popular arcade fighting games such as Street Fighter II. Sega also released a wireless revision of the six-button controller, the Remote Arcade Pad.[126]

The system is backward compatible with the Master System. The first peripheral is the Power Base Converter (Master System Converter in Europe), which allows Master System games to be played. It is designed for the Model 1 and will work with the Model 2, but the shell does block the power and AC ports, so the converter will either to have its shell modified or a pass thru adaptor needs to be used. The converter does not work with the Model 3 or the Nomad.[127] The second model is the Master System Converter 2, released only in Europe for use with the Mega Drive II. It will work with NTSC Model 1 and 2 consoles, though not the Model 3 and Nomad.[126]

Other peripherals were released to add functionality. The Menacer is a wireless, infrared light gun peripheral used with compatible games.[127] Other third parties created light gun peripherals for the Genesis, such as the American Laser Games Pistol and the Konami Justifier. Released for art creation software, the Sega Mega Mouse features three buttons and is only compatible with a few games, such as Eye of the Beholder. A foam-covered bat called the BatterUP and the TeeVGolf golf club were released for both the Genesis and SNES.[126]

 
Sega Power Base Converter on a Model 1 Genesis

In November 1993, Sega released the Sega Activator, an octagonal device that lies flat on the floor and was designed to translate the player's physical movements into game inputs;[126][128] it was first shown at the January 1993 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where it was demonstrated with Streets of Rage 2.[129] Several high-profile games, including Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, were adapted to support the peripheral. The device was a commercial failure, due mainly to its inaccuracy and its high price point.[126][130] IGN editor Craig Harris ranked the Sega Activator the third worst video game controller ever made.[131]

 
The Arcade Power Stick

Both EA and Sega released multitaps to allow more than the standard two players to play at once. Initially, EA's version, the 4 Way Play, and Sega's adapter, the Team Player, only supported each publisher's games. In response to complaints about this, Sega publicly stated, "We have been working hard to resolve this problem since we learned of it", and that a new Team Player which would work with all multitap games for the console would be released shortly.[132] Later games were created to work on both the 4 Way Play and Team Player.[126] Codemasters also developed the J-Cart system, providing two extra ports on the cartridge itself, although the technology came late in the console's life and is only featured on a few games.[133] Sega planned to release a steering wheel peripheral in 1994, and the Genesis version of Virtua Racing was advertised as being "steering wheel compatible", but the peripheral was cancelled.[134]

Network services

 
The Mega Modem peripheral, which allowed access to the Sega Meganet service

In its first foray into online gaming, Sega created Sega Meganet, which debuted in Japan on November 3, 1990. Operating through a cartridge and a peripheral called the "Mega Modem", this allowed Mega Drive players to play a total of seventeen games online. A North American version, dubbed "Tele-Genesis", was announced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (Winter CES) in January 1990 but never released,[135][51] though a version was operated in Brazil starting in 1995.[39] Another phone-based system, the Mega Anser, turned the Japanese Mega Drive into an online banking terminal.[23]

In 1994, Sega started the Sega Channel, a game distribution system using cable television services Time Warner Cable and TCI. Using a special peripheral, Genesis players could download a game from a library of fifty each month and demos for upcoming releases. Games were downloaded to internal memory and deleted when the console was powered off. The Sega Channel reached 250,000 subscribers at its peak and ran until July 31, 1998, well past the release of the Sega Saturn.[135]

In an effort to compete with Sega, third-party developer Catapult Entertainment created the XBAND, a peripheral which allowed Genesis players to engage in online competitive gaming. Using telephone services to share data, XBAND was initially offered in five U.S. cities in November 1994. The following year, the service was extended to the SNES, and Catapult teamed up with Blockbuster Video to market the service, but as interest in the service waned, it was discontinued in April 1997.[136]

Library

See also: List of Sega Genesis games
 
A screenshot of Sonic the Hedgehog, taken from its first level, Green Hill Zone

The Genesis library was initially modest, but eventually grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players. The initial pack-in game was Altered Beast, which was later replaced with Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991.[23] Top sellers included Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Disney's Aladdin.[137] During development for the console, Sega Enterprises focused on developing action games, while Sega of America was tasked with developing sports games. A large part of the appeal of the Genesis library during the console's lifetime was the arcade-based experience of its games, as well as more difficult entries such as Ecco the Dolphin, and sports games such as Joe Montana Football.[23] Compared to its competition, Sega advertised to an older audience by hosting more mature games, including the uncensored version of Mortal Kombat.[23]

Notably, the arcade hit Street Fighter II by Capcom initially skipped the Genesis, instead only being released on the SNES. However, as the Genesis continued to grow in popularity, Capcom eventually ported a version of Street Fighter II to the system known as Street Fighter II: Champion Edition,[138] that would go on to sell over a million copies.[139] One of the biggest third-party companies to support the Genesis early on was Electronic Arts. Trip Hawkins, founder and then president of EA, believed the faster drawing speed of the Genesis made it more suitable for sport games than the SNES, and credits EA's success on the Genesis for helping catapult the EA Sports brand.[140] Another third-party blockbuster for the system was the port of the original Mortal Kombat. Although the arcade game was released on the SNES and Genesis simultaneously, the two ports were not identical. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade game, but the Genesis version allowed players to bypass censorship, helping make it more popular.[141] In 1997, Sega of America claimed the Genesis had a software attach rate of 16 games sold per console, double that of the SNES.[142]

Sega Virtua Processor

 
The graphics produced by the Sega Virtua Processor are comparable to those of Nintendo's Super FX chip.[143]

The Super NES can have enhancement chips inside each cartridge to produce more advanced graphics; for example, the launch game Pilotwings (1990) contains a digital signal processor. Later, the Super FX chip was designed to offload complex rendering tasks from the main CPU. It was first used in Star Fox (1993) for real-time 3D polygons, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995) demonstrates rotation, scaling, and stretching of individual sprites and manipulates large areas of the screen.[143]

Sega had produced such effects on its arcade platforms, and adapted some to the home console by developing the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP). Based on a digital signal processor core by Samsung Electronics, this chip enables the Genesis to render polygons in real time and provides an "Axis Transformation" unit that handles scaling and rotation. Virtua Racing (1994) is the only game released with this chip and the only Genesis cartridge with any enhancement chip, running at a significantly higher and more stable frame rate than filled polygon games on the SNES.[143] The chip drastically increased the cost of the cartridge, and at US$100 (equivalent to $210 in 2022), Virtua Racing is the most expensive Genesis cartridge ever produced. Two other games, Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA, were planned for the SVP chip, but were instead moved into the Saturn's launch line-up.[143] Sega planned to sell the SVP chip as a separate upgrade module for the Genesis,[144][145] but it was canceled, in order to focus its efforts on more powerful 32X add-on.[143]

Add-ons

 
Genesis model 2 with the Sega CD 2 and 32X add-ons attached

In addition to accessories such as the Power Base Converter, the Genesis supports two add-ons that each support their own game libraries. The first is the Sega CD (known as the Mega-CD in all regions except for North America), a compact disc-based peripheral that can play its library of games in CD-ROM format.[146] The second is the Sega 32X, a 32-bit peripheral which uses ROM cartridges and serves as a pass-through for Genesis games.[147] Sega produced a custom power strip to fit the peripherals' large AC adapters.[148] Both add-ons were officially discontinued in 1996.[66][146][147]

Sega CD

Main articles: Sega CD and List of Sega CD games

By 1991, compact discs had gained in popularity as a data storage device for music and software. PCs and video game companies had started to make use of this technology. NEC had been the first to include CD technology in a game console with the release of the TurboGrafx-CD add-on, and Nintendo was making plans to develop its own CD peripheral as well. Seeing the opportunity to gain an advantage over its rivals, Sega partnered with JVC to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Genesis.[5][149][150] Sega launched the Mega-CD in Japan[5] on December 1, 1991, initially retailing at JP¥49,800.[151] The CD add-on was launched in North America on October 15, 1992, as the Sega CD, with a retail price of US$299;[5] it was released in Europe as the Mega-CD in 1993.[151] In addition to greatly expanding the potential size of its games, this add-on unit upgraded the graphics and sound capabilities by adding a second, more powerful processor, more system memory, and hardware-based scaling and rotation similar to that found in Sega's arcade games.[5][152] It provided battery-backed storage RAM to allow games to save high scores, configuration data, and game progress.[149]

Shortly after its launch in North America, Sega began shipping the Sega CD with the pack-in game Sewer Shark, a full motion video (FMV) game developed by Digital Pictures, a company that became an important partner for Sega.[5] Touting the benefits of the CD's comparatively vast storage space, Sega and its third-party developers produced a number of games for the add-on that include digital video in their gameplay or as bonus content, as well as re-releasing several cartridge-based games with high-fidelity audio tracks.[146][149] In 1993, Sega released the Sega CD 2, a smaller and lighter version of the add-on designed for the Genesis II, at a reduced price compared to the original.[146] A limited number of games were later developed that use both the Sega CD and the Sega 32X add-ons.[153]

The Mega-CD sold only 100,000 units during its first year in Japan, falling well below expectations. Although many consumers blamed its high launch price, it also suffered from a tiny software library; only two games were available at launch. This was due in part to the long delay before Sega made its software development kit available to third-party developers.[151] Sales were higher in North America and Europe, although the novelty of FMV and CD-enhanced games quickly wore off, as many later games were met with lukewarm or negative reviews. In 1995, Sega announced a shift in focus to its new console, the Saturn, and discontinued advertising for Genesis hardware. The Sega CD sold 2.24 million units worldwide.[106]

Sega 32X

Main articles: 32X and List of 32X games

With the release of the Saturn scheduled for 1995, Sega began developing a stopgap to bridge the gap between the Genesis and Saturn and serve as a less expensive entry into the 32-bit era.[154] At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1994, Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller took a phone call from Nakayama, in which Nakayama stressed the importance of a quick response to the Atari Jaguar. One idea came from a concept from Sega Enterprises, "Project Jupiter," a new standalone console.[155] Project Jupiter was initially planned as a new version of the Genesis, with an upgraded color palette and a lower cost than the Saturn, and limited 3D capabilities thanks to integration of ideas from the development of the Sega Virtua Processor chip. Miller suggested an alternative strategy, citing concerns with releasing a new console with no previous design specifications within six to nine months.[156] At the suggestion from Miller and his team, Sega designed the 32X as a peripheral for the existing Genesis, expanding its power with two 32-bit SuperH-2 processors.[157] The SH-2 had been developed in 1993 as a joint venture between Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi.[158] At the end of the Consumer Electronics show, with the basic design of the 32X in place, Sega Enterprises invited Sega of America to assist in development of the new add-on.[156]

Although the new unit was a stronger console than originally proposed, it was not compatible with Saturn games.[157] Before the 32X could be launched, the release date of the Saturn was announced for November 1994 in Japan, coinciding with the 32X's target launch date in North America. Sega of America now was faced with trying to market the 32X with the Saturn's Japan release occurring simultaneously. Their answer was to call the 32X a "transitional device" between the Genesis and the Saturn.[155] This was justified by Sega's statement that both platforms would run at the same time and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn.[147]

The 32X was released in November 1994, in time for the holiday season. Demand among retailers was high, and Sega could not keep up orders for the system.[157] More than 1,000,000 orders had been placed for 32X units, but Sega had only managed to ship 600,000 units by January 1995.[147] Launching at about the same price as a Genesis console, the price of the 32X was less than half of what the Saturn's price would be at launch.[154] Though positioning the console as an inexpensive entry into 32-bit gaming, Sega had a difficult time convincing third-party developers to create games for the new system. After an early run on the peripheral, news soon spread to the public of the upcoming release of the Sega Saturn, which would not support the 32X's games. The Saturn was released on May 11, 1995,[159] four months earlier than its originally intended release date of September 2, 1995.[160] The Saturn, in turn, caused developers to further shy away from the console and created doubt about the library for the 32X, even with Sega's assurances that there would be a large number of games developed for the system. In early 1996, Sega conceded that it had promised too much out of the 32X and decided to stop producing the system in order to focus on the Saturn.[147] Prices for the 32X dropped to $99 and cleared out of stores at $19.95.[157]

Variations

More than a dozen licensed variations of the Genesis/Mega Drive have been released.[161] In addition to models made by Sega, alternate models were made by other companies, such as Majesco Entertainment, AtGames, JVC, Pioneer Corporation, Amstrad, and Aiwa. A number of bootleg clones were created during its lifespan.[23]

First-party models

 
Genesis II
 
Sega CDX
Genesis
(second model)
Genesis CDX
 
Genesis Nomad
 
TeraDrive
Genesis Nomad
TeraDrive

In 1993, Sega introduced a smaller, lighter version of the console,[122] known as the Mega Drive II in Japan, Europe, and Australia[d] and sold as Genesis (without the Sega prefix) in North America. This version omits the headphone jack, replaces the A/V-Out connector with a smaller version that supports stereo sound, and provides a simpler, less expensive mainboard that requires less power.[125]

Sega released a combined, semi-portable Genesis/Sega CD unit, the Genesis CDX (marketed as the Multi-Mega in Europe). This unit retailed at US$399.95;[162] this was roughly US$100 more than the individual Genesis and Sega CD units put together, as the Sega CD had been reduced to US$229 half a year before.[163] The CDX was bundled with Sonic CD, Sega Classics Arcade Collection, and the Sega CD version of Ecco the Dolphin.[164] The CDX features a small LCD screen that, when the unit is used to play audio CDs, displays the current track being played.[165] With this feature and the system's lightweight build (weighing two pounds), Sega marketed it in part as a portable CD player.[162]

Late in the 16-bit era, Sega released a handheld version of the Genesis, the Genesis Nomad. Its design was based on the Mega Jet, a Mega Drive portable unit featured on airplane flights in Japan. As the only successor to the Game Gear, the Nomad operates on 6 AA batteries, displaying its graphics on a 3.25-inch (8.25-mm) LCD screen. The Nomad supports the entire Genesis library (save for one game that requires the use of the reset button, which the Nomad lacks), but cannot be used with the Sega 32X, the Sega CD, or the Power Base Converter.[166]

Exclusive to the Japanese market was the TeraDrive, a Mega Drive combined with an IBM PC compatible computer. Sega also produced three arcade system boards based on the Mega Drive: the System C-2, the MegaTech, and the MegaPlay, which support approximately 80 games combined.[23]

Third-party models

 
Wondermega
 
Wondermega 2
 
Amstrad Mega PC
Wondermega (JVC model)
Wondermega 2
Amstrad Mega PC
 
Majesco's Genesis 3
 
AtGames's Sega Firecore
 
Pioneer LaserActive
Genesis 3
Firecore
LaserActive

Working with Sega Enterprises, JVC released the Wondermega on April 1, 1992, in Japan. The system was later redesigned by JVC and released as the X'Eye in North America in September 1994. Designed by JVC to be a Genesis and Sega CD combination with high quality audio, the Wondermega's high price ($500 at launch[167]) kept it out of the hands of average consumers.[168] The same was true of the Pioneer LaserActive, which requires an add-on known as the Mega-LD pack, developed by Sega, in order to play Genesis and Sega CD games. Although the LaserActive was lined up to compete with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the combined price of the system and the Mega-LD pack made it a prohibitively expensive option for Sega players.[169] Aiwa released the CSD-GM1, a combination Genesis/Sega CD unit built into a boombox. Several companies added the Mega Drive to personal computers, mimicking the design of Sega's TeraDrive; these include the MSX models AX-330 and AX-990, distributed in Kuwait and Yemen, and the Amstrad Mega PC, distributed in Europe and Australia.[23]

After the Genesis was discontinued, Majesco Entertainment released the Genesis 3 as a budget version in 1998.[170] This version is even smaller in comparison to earlier models, but it can only play standard cartridges as it omitted support for the Sega CD and the 32X.[171][172] A similar thing happened in Portugal, where Ecofilmes, Sega's distributor in the country, obtained a license to sell the Mega Game II. This version was more akin to the second first-party model, being noteworthy the inclusion of six-button controllers and a switch to alternate between different game regions, enabling this version to play all games without the need for any device or modification to bypass region locking.[173]

Re-releases and emulation

A number of Genesis and Mega Drive emulators have been produced, including GenEM, KGen, Genecyst, VGen,[174] Gens,[175] and Kega Fusion. The GameTap subscription gaming service included a Genesis emulator and had several dozen licensed Genesis games in its catalog.[176] The Console Classix subscription gaming service includes an emulator and has several hundred Genesis games in its catalog.[177]

Compilations of Genesis games have been released for other consoles. These include Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube; Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP; and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (known as the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL territories) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[178][179]

During his keynote speech at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that Sega would make a number of Genesis/Mega Drive games available to download on the Wii's Virtual Console.[180] There are select Genesis games available on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2,[181] as well as games available via the PlayStation Network[182] and Steam.[183]

Companies such as Radica Games have also released various compilations of Genesis and Mega Drive games in "plug-and-play" packages resembling the system's controller.[184]

Later releases

On May 22, 2006, North American company Super Fighter Team released Beggar Prince, a game translated from a 1996 Chinese original.[185] It was released worldwide and was the first commercial Genesis game release in North America since 1998.[186] Super Fighter Team would later go on to release two more games for the system, Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey.[186] In December 2010, WaterMelon, an American company, released Pier Solar and the Great Architects, the first commercial role-playing video game specifically developed for the console since 1996,[187] and was the biggest 16-bit game ever produced for the console at the time at 64 Mb (roughly 8 Megabytes).[188] Pier Solar is the only cartridge-based game which can optionally use the Sega CD to play an enhanced soundtrack and sound effects disc.[189] In 2013, independent programmer Future Driver, inspired by the Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, developed Fix-It Felix Jr. for the Genesis.[190] In 2017, American company Mega Cat Games released Coffee Crisis, a Beat 'em up, for the Sega Genesis.[191]

On December 5, 2007, Tectoy released a portable version of the Genesis/Mega Drive with twenty built-in games.[192] Another version called "Mega Drive Guitar Idol" comes with two six-button joypads and a guitar controller with five fret buttons. The Guitar Idol game contains a mix of Brazilian and international songs. The console has 87 built-in games, including some from Electronic Arts based on the mobile phone versions.[193] In 2016, Tectoy announced that they had developed a new Genesis console that not only looks almost identical to the original model of the Genesis, but also has a traditional cartridge slot and SD card reader, which was released in June 2017.[194]

In 2009, Chinese company AtGames produced a Genesis/Mega Drive-compatible console, the Firecore.[195] It features a top-loading cartridge slot and includes two controllers similar to the six-button controller for the original Genesis. The console has 15 games built-in and is region-free, allowing cartridge games to run regardless of their region.[196] AtGames also produced a handheld version of the console preloaded with 20 games.[195][197] Both machines have been released in Europe by distributing company Blaze Europe.[196]

In 2018, Sega announced a dedicated console, the Genesis/Mega Drive Mini.[198] The console includes 40 games, including Gunstar Heroes and Castlevania: Bloodlines, with different games for different regions and a save-anywhere function. Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro provided the menu music. The console was released worldwide on September 19, 2019.[199]

Crowdfunded Sega Genesis games have been released in recent years, with Tanglewood, a puzzle platformer being released on August 14, 2018, and Xeno Crisis released on October 28, 2019. Both games were created by indie-game developers using actual Sega development hardware to ensure compatibility with the Genesis.[200] On December 16, 2020, Paprium, WaterMelon's follow up game to Pier Solar, was released after nearly a decade in development.[201]

Reception

At the time of its release, the Genesis received positive reviews. Andy Storer of New Computer Express praised the console's responsive controls and graphics, and said the Genesis was "straight out of the future".[202] Similarly, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) in a 1989 preview of the console spoke highly of the system's hardware but questioned Sega's ability to support the console given their difficulties with the Master System.[203] New Computer Express called the Genesis "the [console] to have" in 1990, rating it 5 out of 5 stars while predicting the console would lead the market.[204] In the same year, EGM complemented how well the Genesis' games took advantage of the console's hardware, but expressed concern about the slow pace of new releases of games, with four reviewers scoring the console 9, 8, 8, and 10 out of 10.[205]

Reviewing the Genesis in 1995, Game Players noted that its rivalry with the Super NES was skewed by genre, with the Genesis having superior sports games and the Super NES superior RPGs. Commenting that the Genesis hardware was aging and the new software drying up, they recommended consumers buy a next-generation system or a Genesis Nomad instead, but also advised those who already owned a Genesis to not sell it.[206] In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five EGM editors gave the Genesis scores of 4.5, 5.0, 4.0, 4.5, and 7.5 - for all five editors, the lowest score they gave to any of the five consoles reviewed in the issue. While their chief criticisms were the lack of upcoming game releases and dated hardware, they also concurred that the Genesis was clearly inferior to the Super NES in terms of graphics capabilities, sound chip, and games library. John Ricciardi, in particular, considered the Genesis overrated, saying he had consistently found more enjoyment in both the Super NES and TurboGrafx-16, while Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer recommended it based on its selection of classic titles and the high value-for-money of the six pack-in games Sega was offering at the time.[207]

Legacy

The Genesis has often ranked among the best video game consoles. In 2009, IGN named it the fifth best video game console, citing its edge in sports games and better home version of Mortal Kombat, and lauding "what some consider to be the greatest controller ever created: the six button".[208] In 2007, GameTrailers named the Genesis as the sixth best console of all time in their list of top ten consoles that "left their mark on the history of gaming", noting its great games and solid controller, and writing of the "glory days" of Sonic the Hedgehog.[209] In January 2008, technology columnist Don Reisinger proclaimed that the Genesis "created the industry's best console war to date", citing Sonic the Hedgehog, superior sports games, and backward compatibility with the Sega Master System.[210] In 2008, GamingExcellence ranked it sixth of the 10 best consoles, declaring, "one can truly see the Genesis for the gaming milestone it was."[211] At the same time, GameDaily rated it ninth of ten for its memorable games.[212]

In 2014, USgamer's Jeremy Parish wrote, "If the Atari generation introduced video games as a short-lived '70s fad ... and the NES generation established it into an enduring obsession for the young, Sega's Genesis began pushing the medium toward something resembling its contemporary form", expounding that the system served as "the key incubator for modern sports franchises", made "consoles truly international" by providing Western third-parties previously put at a disadvantage by Nintendo's restrictive licensing policies with a more profitable alternative, created "an online subscription service" that foreshadowed "PlayStation Plus more than 15 years early" with the Sega Channel, and "played a key role in ensuring the vitality and future of the games industry by breaking Nintendo's near-monopolistic hold on the U.S. and awakening the U.K. to the merits of television gaming".[213]

For his part, Kalinske highlighted Sega's role in developing games for an older demographic and pioneering "the concept of the 'street date'" with the simultaneous North American and European release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.[214][215] John Sczepaniak of Retro Gamer noted, "It was a system where the allure was born not only of the hardware and games, but the magazines, playground arguments, climate, and politics of the time."[23] Sega of America's marketing campaign for the Genesis was widely emulated, influencing marketing in the subsequent generation of consoles.[216]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Through use of the Power Base Converter peripheral
  2. ^ Japanese: メガドライブ, Hepburn: Mega Doraibu
  3. ^ Super Gam*Boy (Korean: 수퍼겜보이; RR: Syupeo Gem Boi), Super Aladdin Boy (Korean: 수퍼알라딘보이; RR: Syupeo Alladin Boi)
  4. ^ Spelled as Mega Drive 2 (with an Arabic numeral) in Japan.

References

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  2. ^ a b Sonic the Hedgehog GameTap Retrospective Pt. 3/4. GameTap. February 17, 2009. Event occurs at 1:25. from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2011. cf. "Review: Sonic Jam". Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 22. August 1997. p. 68. The original Megadrive game sold over 14 million copies.
  3. ^ Boutros, Daniel (August 5, 2006). "A Detailed Cross-Examination of Yesterday and Today's Best-Selling Platform Games". Game Developer. from the original on November 20, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
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  12. ^ a b c Sato, Hideki; Famitsu DC (February 15, 2002). Interview: The Witness of History. Famitsu Books (in Japanese). Enterbrain. pp. 22–25. ISBN 978-4-75770789-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help) (Translation by Shmuplations. 2020-08-14 at the Wayback Machine).
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  16. ^ Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 303, 360. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
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  18. ^ "Nintendo's Market Share 1990". BusinessWeek. New York: Bloomberg L.P. 1999. p. 60.
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  20. ^ Harris, Blake J. (2014). Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. New York, New York: HarperCollins. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-06-227669-8.
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November 27, 2023
sega, genesis, genesis, also, known, mega, drive, outside, north, america, fourth, generation, home, video, game, console, developed, sold, sega, sega, third, console, successor, master, system, sega, released, 1988, japan, mega, drive, 1989, north, america, g. The Genesis also known as the Mega Drive b outside North America is a 16 bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega It was Sega s third console and the successor to the Master System Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis In 1990 it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe Ozisoft in Australasia and Tectoy in Brazil In South Korea it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy c Sega Genesis Mega DriveTop Original Japanese Mega Drive Bottom Genesis Model 2 Other variations are pictured under Variations below DeveloperSegaManufacturerSegaTypeHome video game consoleGenerationFourthRelease dateJP October 29 1988NA August 14 1989KOR August 1990PAL September 1990BRA September 1 1990IND April 1994 1 Lifespan1988 1997 Sega 1998 1999 Majesco Introductory price 21 000 equivalent to 24 600 in 2019 US 189 equivalent to 450 in 2022 189 99 equivalent to 460 in 2021 DiscontinuedWW 1997 Sega NA 1999 Majesco Entertainment BR 2023 Tectoy Units soldSega 30 75 million Majesco 1 5 million projected Tectoy 3 millionMediaROM cartridgeCPUMotorola 68000 7 6 MHz Zilog Z80 3 58 MHzMemory64 KB RAM 64 KB VRAM 8 KB audio RAMDisplayProgressive 320 224 256 224 NTSC or 320 240 256 240 PAL pixels 512 color palette 61 colors on screen Interlaced 320 448 256 448 NTSC or 320 480 256 480 PAL SoundYamaha YM2612 Texas Instruments SN76489Online servicesSega Meganet Sega Channel XBANDBest selling gameSonic the Hedgehog 15 million pack in 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 6 million 3 BackwardcompatibilityMaster System a PredecessorMaster SystemSuccessorSega SaturnRelatedSega CD32XDesigned by an R amp D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa the Genesis was adapted from Sega s System 16 arcade board centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller and a video system supporting hardware sprites tiles and scrolling It plays a library of more than 900 games on ROM based cartridges Several add ons were released including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games It was released in several different versions some created by third parties Sega created two network services to support the Genesis Sega Meganet and Sega Channel In Japan the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors Nintendo s Super Famicom and NEC s PC Engine but it achieved considerable success in North America Brazil and Europe Contributing to its success was its library of arcade game ports the popularity of Sega s Sonic the Hedgehog series several popular sports franchises and aggressive youth marketing that positioned it as the cool console for adolescents The 1991 North American release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System triggered a fierce battle for market share in the United States and Europe known as the console war 4 5 This drew attention to the video game industry and the Genesis and several of its games attracted legal scrutiny on matters involving reverse engineering and video game violence Controversy surrounding violent games such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council a predecessor to the Entertainment Software Rating Board 30 75 million first party Genesis units were sold worldwide In addition Tectoy sold an estimated three million licensed variants in Brazil Majesco projected it would sell 1 5 million licensed variants of the system in the United States and smaller numbers were sold by Samsung in South Korea By the mid 2010s licensed third party Genesis rereleases were still being sold by AtGames in North America and Europe Many games have been re released in compilations or on online services such as the Nintendo Virtual Console Xbox Live Arcade PlayStation Network and Steam The Genesis was succeeded in 1994 by the Sega Saturn Contents 1 History 1 1 Development 1 2 Launch 1 3 North American sales and marketing 1 4 Electronic Arts 1 5 Sonic the Hedgehog 1 6 Trademark Security System and Sega v Accolade 1 7 Congressional hearings on video game violence 1 8 32 bit era and beyond 2 Technical specifications 2 1 Peripherals 2 2 Network services 3 Library 3 1 Sega Virtua Processor 4 Add ons 4 1 Sega CD 4 2 Sega 32X 5 Variations 5 1 First party models 5 2 Third party models 5 3 Re releases and emulation 5 4 Later releases 6 Reception 7 Legacy 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External linksHistoryFurther information History of video games Development nbsp The Japanese Mega Drive logoIn the early 1980s Sega Enterprises Inc then a subsidiary of Gulf Western was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States as company revenues surpassed 200 million between July 1981 and June 1982 6 A downturn in the arcade business starting in 1982 seriously hurt the company leading Gulf Western to sell its North American arcade manufacturing organization and the licensing rights for its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing 7 8 The company retained Sega s North American R amp D operation as well as its Japanese subsidiary Sega Enterprises Ltd With its arcade business in decline Sega Enterprises Ltd president Hayao Nakayama advocated that the company leverage its hardware expertise to move into the home console market in Japan which was in its infancy at the time 9 Nakayama received permission to proceed with this project leading to the release of Sega s first home video game system the SG 1000 in July 1983 10 While it had sold 160 000 units in Japan far exceeding Sega s expectations 11 12 sales at stores were dominated by Nintendo s Famicom which had been released the same day Sega estimated that the Famicom outsold the SG 1000 by a 10 to 1 margin 10 The SG 1000 was replaced by the Sega Mark III within two years 13 In the meantime Gulf Western began to divest itself of its non core businesses after the death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn 14 so Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen arranged a management buyout of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial backing from CSK Corporation a prominent Japanese software company Nakayama was then installed as CEO of Sega Enterprises Ltd 15 In 1986 Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Master System This was followed by a European release the next year Although the Master System was a success in Europe and later in Brazil it failed to ignite significant interest in the Japanese or North American markets which by the mid to late 1980s were both dominated by Nintendo 16 17 18 With Sega continuing to have difficulty penetrating the home market Sega s console R amp D team led by Masami Ishikawa and supervised by Hideki Sato 19 began work on a successor to the Master System almost immediately after that console launched 20 21 In 1987 Sega faced another threat to its console business when Japanese computer giant NEC released the PC Engine amid great publicity 22 To remain competitive against the two more established consumer electronics companies Ishikawa and his team decided they needed to incorporate a 16 bit microprocessor into their new system to make an impact in the marketplace and once again turned to Sega s strengths in the arcade industry to adapt the successful Sega System 16 arcade board into architecture for a home console 21 23 The decision to use a Motorola 68000 as the system s main CPU was made late in development while a Zilog Z80 was used as a secondary CPU to handle the sound due to fears that the load to the main CPU would be too great if it handled both the visuals and the audio 21 The 68000 chip was expensive and would have driven the retail price of the console up greatly but Sega was able to negotiate with a distributor for a tenth of its price on an up front volume order with the promise of more orders pending the console s future success 10 The appearance of the Mega Drive was designed by a team led by Mitsushige Shiraiwa that drew inspiration from audiophile equipment and automobiles Shiraiwa said this more mature look helped to target the Mega Drive to all ages unlike the Famicom which was aimed primarily at children 24 According to Sato the Japanese design for the Mega Drive was based on the appearance of an audio player with 16 bit embossed in a golden metallic veneer to create an impression of power 12 The console was announced in the June 1988 issue of the Japanese gaming magazine Beep as the Mark V but Sega management wanted a stronger name After reviewing more than 300 proposals the company settled on Mega Drive In North America the name was changed to Genesis 23 Rosen said he insisted on the name as he disliked Mega Drive and wanted to represent a new beginning for Sega 25 Sato said some design elements changed such as the gold colored 16 bit wording because it was believed that the color would be mistaken for yellow He believes that the changes in design are representative of the differences in values between Japanese and American culture 12 Launch nbsp The European PAL version of the Mega Drive launched in 1990 later becoming the highest selling fourth gen console in Europe Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan on October 29 1988 though the launch was overshadowed by Nintendo s release of Super Mario Bros 3 a week earlier Positive coverage from magazines Famitsu and Beep helped to establish a following 23 Within two days of release the console s initial production run sold out 26 However Sega only managed to ship 400 000 units in the first year In order to increase sales Sega released various peripherals and games including an online banking system and answering machine called the Sega Mega Anser 23 Nevertheless the Mega Drive was unable to overtake the venerable Famicom 27 and remained a distant third in Japan behind Nintendo s Super Famicom and NEC s PC Engine throughout the 16 bit era 28 Sega announced a North American release date for the system on January 9 1989 29 At the time Sega did not possess a North American sales and marketing organization and was distributing its Master System through Tonka Dissatisfied with Tonka s performance Sega looked for a new partner to market the Genesis in North America and offered the rights to Atari Corporation which did not yet have a 16 bit system David Rosen made the proposal to Atari CEO Jack Tramiel and the president of Atari s Entertainment Electronics Division Michael Katz Tramiel declined to acquire the new console deeming it too expensive and instead opted to focus on the Atari ST Sega decided to launch the console through its own Sega of America subsidiary which executed a limited launch on August 14 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year 30 The European version of the Mega Drive was released in September 1990 31 at a price of 189 99 32 33 i e 337 equivalent to 703 in 2022 The release was handled by Virgin Mastertronic which was later purchased by Sega in 1991 and became Sega of Europe 34 Games like Space Harrier II Ghouls n Ghosts Golden Axe 33 Super Thunder Blade and The Revenge of Shinobi were available in stores at launch The console was also bundled with Altered Beast 32 The Mega Drive and its first batch of games were shown at the 1990 European Computer Entertainment Show ECES in Earl s Court 35 Between July and August 1990 Virgin initially placed their order for 20 000 Mega Drive units However the company increased the order by 10 000 units when advanced orders had exceeded expectations and another 10 000 units was later added following the console s success at the ECES event The projected number of units to be sold between September and December 1990 had eventually increased to 40 000 units in the United Kingdom alone 36 Other companies assisted in distributing the console to various countries worldwide Ozisoft handled the Mega Drive s launch and marketing in Australia as it had done before with the Master System 37 In Brazil the Mega Drive was released by Tectoy in 1990 38 only a year after the Brazilian release of the Master System Tectoy produced games exclusively for the Brazilian market and brought the Sega Meganet online service there in 1995 39 Samsung handled sales and distribution in Korea where it was named Super Gam Boy and retained the Mega Drive logo alongside the Samsung name 40 It was later renamed Super Aladdin Boy 41 In India Sega entered a distribution deal with Shaw Wallace in April 1994 42 in order to circumvent an 80 import tariff with each unit selling for INR 18 000 43 44 In Russia Sega officially licensed the console to local distributor Forrus in 1994 45 replaced in 1996 by Bitman That year the video game console market generated between 200 000 000 equivalent to 384 000 000 in 2022 and 250 000 000 equivalent to 480 000 000 in 2022 in Russia with Sega accounting for half of all console sales in the country However only about 15 of the sales were official Sega units distributed by Bitman while the rest were unofficial counterfeit clones 46 47 North American sales and marketing For the North American market former Atari Corporation Entertainment Electronics Division president and new Sega of America CEO Michael Katz instituted a two part approach to build sales The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head on and emphasize the more arcade like experience available on the Genesis 48 with slogans including Genesis does what Nintendon t 23 Since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time the second part involved creating a library of recognizable games which used the names and likenesses of celebrities and athletes such as Pat Riley Basketball Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf James Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing Joe Montana Football Tommy Lasorda Baseball Mario Lemieux Hockey and Michael Jackson s Moonwalker 22 49 Nonetheless Sega struggled to overcome Nintendo s presence in consumers homes 50 Tasked by Nakayama to sell one million units within the first year Katz and Sega of America sold only 500 000 23 At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show Winter CES in January 1990 the Sega Genesis demonstrated a strong line up of games which received a positive reception for approaching arcade quality graphics and gameplay as well as for providing non arcade experiences such as Phantasy Star II 51 In mid 1990 Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske to replace Katz as CEO of Sega of America Although Kalinske knew little about the video game market he surrounded himself with industry savvy advisors A believer in the razor and blades model he developed a four point plan cut the price of the console create an American team to develop games targeted at the American market expand the aggressive advertising campaigns and replace the bundled game Altered Beast with a new game Sonic the Hedgehog 50 The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of the plan 52 but all four points were approved by Nakayama who told Kalinske I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas so go ahead and do it 23 Critics praised Sonic as one of the greatest games yet made and Genesis sales increased as customers who had been waiting for the release of the international version of Nintendo s Super Famicom the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES decided to purchase a Genesis instead 50 The SNES debuted against an established competitor while NEC s TurboGrafx 16 failed to gain traction and NEC soon pulled out of the market 53 In large part due to the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog the Genesis outsold the SNES in the United States nearly two to one during the 1991 holiday season Sega controlled 65 of the 16 bit console market in January 1992 the first time Nintendo had not been the console leader since 1985 54 The Genesis outsold the SNES for four consecutive Christmas seasons 55 due to its two year lead lower price point and larger game library compared to the SNES at its release 56 Sega had ten games for every game on SNES and while the SNES had an exclusive version of Final Fight one of Sega s internal development teams created Streets of Rage which had bigger levels tougher enemies and a well regarded soundtrack 56 ASCII Entertainment reported in early 1993 that Genesis had 250 games versus 75 for the SNES but limited shelf space meant that stores typically offered 100 Genesis and 50 SNES games The NES was still the leader with 300 games and 100 on shelves 57 Sega s advertising positioned the Genesis as the cooler console 56 and coined the term blast processing an obscure and unused graphics programming method to suggest that its processing capabilities were far greater than those of the SNES 58 59 A Sony focus group found that teenage boys would not admit to owning an SNES rather than a Genesis 60 With the Genesis often outselling the SNES at a ratio of 2 1 61 Nintendo and Sega focused heavily on impression management of the market even going to the point of deception Nintendo claimed it had sold more consoles in 1991 than it actually had and forecasted it would sell 6 million consoles by the end of 1992 while its actual U S install base at the end of 1992 was only just more than 4 million units 62 Due to these tactics it was difficult to ascertain a clear leader in market share for several years at a time with Nintendo s dollar share of the U S 16 bit market dipping down from 60 at the end of 1992 to 37 at the end of 1993 63 Sega claiming 55 of all 16 bit hardware sales during 1994 64 and Donkey Kong Country helping the SNES to outsell the Genesis from 1995 through 1997 55 65 66 67 68 According to a 2004 study of NPD sales data the Genesis maintained its lead over the Super NES in the American 16 bit console market 69 However according to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on revised NPD sales data the SNES outsold the Sega Genesis in the U S market by 1 5 million units 70 Electronic Arts To compete with Nintendo Sega was more open to new types of games but still tightly controlled the approval process for third party games and charged high prices for cartridge manufacturing 71 The American publisher Electronic Arts EA sought a better deal but met resistance from Sega 72 They decided to reverse engineer the Genesis using a clean room method similar to the method Phoenix Technologies had used to reverse engineer the IBM Personal Computer BIOS around 1984 73 The process began in 1989 led by Steve Hayes and Jim Nitchals 74 They created a controlled room in EA headquarters nicknamed Chernobyl to which only one person was allowed access Mike Schwartz Schwartz reviewed Sega s copyrighted development manuals and tools studied the Genesis hardware and games and wrote original documentation that summarized his findings The process took him about a month 72 His work was reviewed by EA s lawyers before being disseminated to Hayes and Nitchals to verify its originality and subsequently to the rest of the developers to let them build games 73 After a few months EA began developing for the Genesis in earnest 72 The EA founder Trip Hawkins confronted Nakayama the day before the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show CES informing him that EA had the ability to run its own licensing program if Sega refused to meet its demands Sega relented and the next day EA s upcoming Genesis games were showcased at CES 72 EA signed what Hawkins described as a very unusual and much more enlightened license agreement with Sega in June 1990 Among other things we had the right to make as many titles as we wanted We could approve our own titles the royalty rates were a lot more reasonable We also had more direct control over manufacturing 74 After the deal was in place EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon learned that we hadn t figured out all the workarounds and Sega still had the ability to lock us out It just would have been a public relations fiasco 72 EA released its first Genesis games Populous and Budokan The Martial Spirit within the month 74 The first Genesis version of EA s John Madden Football arrived before the end of 1990 74 and became what Gordon called a killer app 72 Taking advantage of the licensing agreement Gordon and EA s vice president of marketing services Nancy Fong created a visual identifier for EA s Genesis cartridges a yellow tab molded into the casing 72 Sonic the Hedgehog Main article Sonic the Hedgehog Sega held a company wide contest to create a mascot character to compete with Nintendo s Mario series The winning submission was a blue hedgehog with red shoes Sonic created by Naoto Ohshima 75 spawning one of the best selling video game franchises in history 76 77 The gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog originated with a tech demo created by Yuji Naka who had developed a prototype platform game that involved a fast moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube This concept was developed with Ohshima s character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara 78 Although Katz and Sega of America s marketing experts disliked Sonic certain that it would not catch on with American children 22 79 Kalinske s strategy to place Sonic the Hedgehog as the pack in game paid off 4 80 Sonic the Hedgehog greatly increased the popularity of the Genesis in North America 59 and the bundle is credited with helping Sega gain 65 of the market share against Nintendo 2 Similarly in Europe Sega captured a 65 share of the European console market 81 where the Mega Drive maintained its lead over the SNES through 1994 82 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 set records 83 for the fastest selling game 84 selling 3 2 million copies worldwide within two weeks 85 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic amp Knuckles sold a combined 4 million copies worldwide 86 Trademark Security System and Sega v Accolade Main article Sega v Accolade After the release of the Genesis in 1989 video game publisher Accolade began exploring options to release some of their PC games on the console At the time Sega had a licensing deal in place for third party developers that increased the costs to the developer According to Accolade co founder Alan Miller One pays them between 10 and 15 per cartridge on top of the real hardware manufacturing costs so it about doubles the cost of goods to the independent publisher 87 To get around licensing Accolade chose to seek an alternative way to bring their games to the Genesis It did so by purchasing one in order to decompile the executable code of three Genesis games Such information was used to program their new Genesis cartridges in a way that would allow them to disable the security lockouts on the Genesis that prevented unlicensed games from being played 88 89 This strategy was used successfully to bring Ishido The Way of Stones to the Genesis in 1990 90 To do so Accolade had copied Sega s copyrighted game code multiple times in order to reverse engineer the software of Sega s licensed Genesis games 91 92 nbsp An edition of the original model of the Genesis known as the Genesis III was the model at the center of Sega v Accolade for its incorporation of the Trademark Security System TMSS As a result of piracy in some countries and unlicensed development issues Sega incorporated a technical protection mechanism into a new edition of the Genesis released in 1990 referred to as the Genesis III This new variation of the Genesis included a code known as the Trademark Security System TMSS which when a game cartridge was inserted would check for the presence of the string SEGA at a particular point in the memory contained in the cartridge If the string was present the console would run the game and would briefly display the message Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises Ltd 88 This system had a twofold effect it added extra protection against unlicensed developers and software piracy and forced the Sega trademark to display when the game was powered up making a lawsuit for trademark infringement possible if unlicensed software were to be developed 89 92 Accolade learned of this development at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1991 where Sega showed the new Genesis III and demonstrated it screening and rejecting an Ishido game cartridge 89 With more games planned for the following year Accolade successfully identified the TMSS file It later added this file to the games HardBall Star Control Mike Ditka Power Football and Turrican 89 In response to the creation of these unlicensed games Sega filed suit against Accolade in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on charges of trademark infringement unfair competition and copyright infringement In response Accolade filed a counterclaim for falsifying the source of its games by displaying the Sega trademark when the game was powered up 91 93 Although the district court initially ruled for Sega and issued an injunction preventing Accolade from continuing to reverse engineer the Genesis Accolade appealed the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 94 As a result of the appeal the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court s verdict and ruled that Accolade s decompilation of the Sega software constituted fair use 95 The court s written opinion followed on October 20 1992 and noted that the use of the software was non exploitative although commercial 88 96 Further the court found that the trademark infringement being required by the TMSS for a Genesis game to run on the system had been inadvertently triggered by a fair use act and was the fault of Sega for having caused false labeling 88 Ultimately Sega and Accolade settled the case on April 30 1993 As a part of this settlement Accolade became an official licensee of Sega and later developed and released Barkley Shut Up and Jam while under license 97 The terms of the licensing including whether or not any special arrangements or discounts were made to Accolade were not released to the public 98 The financial terms of the settlement were also not disclosed although both companies agreed to pay their own legal costs 99 Congressional hearings on video game violence Main articles Videogame Rating Council and 1993 congressional hearings on video games nbsp VRC MA 13 rating as applied to Mortal Kombat for the GenesisIn 1993 the American media began to focus on the mature content of certain video games Games such as Night Trap for the Sega CD an add on received unprecedented scrutiny Issues about Night Trap were brought up in the United Kingdom with former Sega of Europe development director Mike Brogan noting that Night Trap got Sega an awful lot of publicity it was also cited in UK Parliament for being classified as 15 due to its use of real actors 100 This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an edgy company with attitude and this only reinforced that image 27 By far the year s most controversial game was Midway s Mortal Kombat ported to the Genesis and SNES by Acclaim Entertainment In response to public outcry over the game s graphic violence Nintendo decided to replace the blood in the game with sweat and the arcade s gruesome fatalities with less violent finishing moves 101 Sega took a different approach instituting America s first video game ratings system the Videogame Rating Council VRC for all its current systems Ratings ranged from the family friendly GA rating to the more mature rating of MA 13 and the adults only rating of MA 17 101 With the rating system in place Sega released its version of Mortal Kombat appearing to have removed all the blood and sweat effects and toning down the finishing moves even more than in the SNES version However all the arcade s blood and uncensored finishing moves could be enabled by entering a Blood Code This technicality allowed Sega to release the game with a relatively low MA 13 rating 102 Meanwhile the tamer SNES version shipped without a rating 102 The Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was well received by gaming press as well as fans outselling the SNES version three or four to one 101 103 104 while Nintendo was criticized for censoring the SNES version 102 Executive vice president of Nintendo of America Howard Lincoln was quick to point out at the hearings that Night Trap had no such rating saying to Senator Joe Lieberman Furthermore I can t let you sit here and buy this nonsense that this Sega Night Trap game was somehow only meant for adults The fact of the matter is this is a copy of the packaging There was no rating on this game at all when the game was introduced Small children bought this at Toys R Us and he knows that as well as I do When they started getting heat about this game then they adopted the rating system and put ratings on it 101 In response Sega of America vice president Bill White showed a videotape of violent video games on the SNES and stressed the importance of rating video games At the end of the hearing Lieberman called for another hearing in February 1994 to check on progress toward a rating system for video game violence 101 As a result of the congressional hearings Night Trap started to generate more sales and released ports to the PC Sega 32X and 3DO According to Digital Pictures founder Tom Zito You know I sold 50 000 units of Night Trap a week after those hearings 101 Although experiencing increased sales Sega decided to recall Night Trap and re release it with revisions in 1994 due to the congressional hearings 105 After the close of these hearings video game manufacturers came together to establish the rating system that Lieberman had called for Initially Sega proposed the universal adoption of its system but after objections by Nintendo and others Sega took a role in forming a new one This became the Entertainment Software Rating Board an independent organization that received praise from Lieberman 101 With this new rating system in place for the 1994 holiday season Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed and the SNES port of Mortal Kombat II was released uncensored 102 32 bit era and beyond Sega released two add ons to increase the Genesis capabilities a CD peripheral the Sega CD Mega CD outside North America and Brazil and a 32 bit peripheral the Sega 32X 80 Worldwide Sega sold 2 24 million Sega CD units 106 and 800 000 32X units 107 Following the launch of the next generation 32 bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn sales of 16 bit hardware and software continued to account for 64 of the video game market in 1995 108 Sega underestimated the continued popularity of the Genesis and did not have the inventory to meet demand 108 109 Sega captured 43 of the dollar share of the U S video game market and claimed to have sold more than two million Genesis units in 1995 while Genesis software such as Vectorman remained successful but Kalinske estimated that we could have sold another 300 000 Genesis systems in the November December timeframe 109 Nakayama s decision to focus on the Saturn based on the systems relative performance in Japan has been cited as the major contributing factor in this miscalculation 108 By contrast Nintendo concentrated on the 16 bit home console market as well as its successful handheld the Game Boy and took in 42 of the video game market dollar share without launching a 32 bit console 108 Following tensions with Sega Enterprises Ltd over its focus on the Saturn Kalinske who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991 lost interest in the business and resigned in mid 1996 110 Sega sold 30 75 million Genesis units worldwide 111 Of these 3 58 million were sold in Japan 106 and sales in Europe and the U S are roughly estimated at 8 million 112 113 and 18 18 5 million as of June 1997 at which time Sega was no longer manufacturing the system respectively 114 70 115 In 1998 Sega licensed the Genesis to Majesco Entertainment to rerelease it in North America Majesco began reselling millions of unsold cartridges at a budget price together with 150 000 units of the second model of the Genesis 114 It released the Genesis 3 116 projecting to sell 1 5 million units of the console by the end of 1998 114 Tectoy continued to sell variants of the original hardware including emulated variants until June 2023 as the company no longer has any references to the console on its website and has sold an estimated 3 million units in Brazil as of 2012 update 117 118 Technical specifications nbsp European Mega Drive mainboardThe main microprocessor is a 16 32 bit Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 7 6 MHz 119 An 8 bit Zilog Z80 processor controls the sound hardware and provides backward compatibility with the Master System The Genesis has 64 KB of RAM 64 KB of video RAM and 8 KB of audio RAM 120 It can display up to 61 colors 121 at once from a palette of 512 The games are in ROM cartridge format and inserted in the top 122 The Genesis produces sound using a Texas Instruments SN76489 programmable sound generator integrated with the Video Display Processor VDP and a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer chip The Z80 processor is primarily used to control both sound chips to produce stereo music and sound effects Most revisions of the original Genesis contain a discrete YM2612 and a separate YM7101 VDP in a later revision the chips were integrated into a single custom ASIC FC1004 122 The back of the Model 1 console provides an RF output port designed for use with antenna and cable systems and a specialized 8 pin DIN port which both provide video and audio output Both outputs produce monophonic sound a headphone jack on the front of the console produces stereo sound 123 On the Model 2 the DIN port RF output port and headphone jack are replaced by a 9 pin mini DIN port on the back for composite video RGB and stereo sound and the standard RF switch 124 Earlier Model 1 consoles have a 9 pin extension port An edge connector on the bottom right of the console can be connected to a peripheral 125 Peripherals nbsp Genesis six button controllerThe standard controller features a rounded shape a directional pad three main buttons and a START button In 1993 Sega released a slightly smaller pad with three additional face buttons similar to the design of buttons on some popular arcade fighting games such as Street Fighter II Sega also released a wireless revision of the six button controller the Remote Arcade Pad 126 The system is backward compatible with the Master System The first peripheral is the Power Base Converter Master System Converter in Europe which allows Master System games to be played It is designed for the Model 1 and will work with the Model 2 but the shell does block the power and AC ports so the converter will either to have its shell modified or a pass thru adaptor needs to be used The converter does not work with the Model 3 or the Nomad 127 The second model is the Master System Converter 2 released only in Europe for use with the Mega Drive II It will work with NTSC Model 1 and 2 consoles though not the Model 3 and Nomad 126 Other peripherals were released to add functionality The Menacer is a wireless infrared light gun peripheral used with compatible games 127 Other third parties created light gun peripherals for the Genesis such as the American Laser Games Pistol and the Konami Justifier Released for art creation software the Sega Mega Mouse features three buttons and is only compatible with a few games such as Eye of the Beholder A foam covered bat called the BatterUP and the TeeVGolf golf club were released for both the Genesis and SNES 126 nbsp Sega Power Base Converter on a Model 1 GenesisIn November 1993 Sega released the Sega Activator an octagonal device that lies flat on the floor and was designed to translate the player s physical movements into game inputs 126 128 it was first shown at the January 1993 Consumer Electronics Show CES where it was demonstrated with Streets of Rage 2 129 Several high profile games including Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition were adapted to support the peripheral The device was a commercial failure due mainly to its inaccuracy and its high price point 126 130 IGN editor Craig Harris ranked the Sega Activator the third worst video game controller ever made 131 nbsp The Arcade Power StickBoth EA and Sega released multitaps to allow more than the standard two players to play at once Initially EA s version the 4 Way Play and Sega s adapter the Team Player only supported each publisher s games In response to complaints about this Sega publicly stated We have been working hard to resolve this problem since we learned of it and that a new Team Player which would work with all multitap games for the console would be released shortly 132 Later games were created to work on both the 4 Way Play and Team Player 126 Codemasters also developed the J Cart system providing two extra ports on the cartridge itself although the technology came late in the console s life and is only featured on a few games 133 Sega planned to release a steering wheel peripheral in 1994 and the Genesis version of Virtua Racing was advertised as being steering wheel compatible but the peripheral was cancelled 134 Network services nbsp The Mega Modem peripheral which allowed access to the Sega Meganet serviceIn its first foray into online gaming Sega created Sega Meganet which debuted in Japan on November 3 1990 Operating through a cartridge and a peripheral called the Mega Modem this allowed Mega Drive players to play a total of seventeen games online A North American version dubbed Tele Genesis was announced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show Winter CES in January 1990 but never released 135 51 though a version was operated in Brazil starting in 1995 39 Another phone based system the Mega Anser turned the Japanese Mega Drive into an online banking terminal 23 In 1994 Sega started the Sega Channel a game distribution system using cable television services Time Warner Cable and TCI Using a special peripheral Genesis players could download a game from a library of fifty each month and demos for upcoming releases Games were downloaded to internal memory and deleted when the console was powered off The Sega Channel reached 250 000 subscribers at its peak and ran until July 31 1998 well past the release of the Sega Saturn 135 In an effort to compete with Sega third party developer Catapult Entertainment created the XBAND a peripheral which allowed Genesis players to engage in online competitive gaming Using telephone services to share data XBAND was initially offered in five U S cities in November 1994 The following year the service was extended to the SNES and Catapult teamed up with Blockbuster Video to market the service but as interest in the service waned it was discontinued in April 1997 136 LibrarySee also List of Sega Genesis games nbsp A screenshot of Sonic the Hedgehog taken from its first level Green Hill ZoneThe Genesis library was initially modest but eventually grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players The initial pack in game was Altered Beast which was later replaced with Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 23 Top sellers included Sonic the Hedgehog its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Disney s Aladdin 137 During development for the console Sega Enterprises focused on developing action games while Sega of America was tasked with developing sports games A large part of the appeal of the Genesis library during the console s lifetime was the arcade based experience of its games as well as more difficult entries such as Ecco the Dolphin and sports games such as Joe Montana Football 23 Compared to its competition Sega advertised to an older audience by hosting more mature games including the uncensored version of Mortal Kombat 23 Notably the arcade hit Street Fighter II by Capcom initially skipped the Genesis instead only being released on the SNES However as the Genesis continued to grow in popularity Capcom eventually ported a version of Street Fighter II to the system known as Street Fighter II Champion Edition 138 that would go on to sell over a million copies 139 One of the biggest third party companies to support the Genesis early on was Electronic Arts Trip Hawkins founder and then president of EA believed the faster drawing speed of the Genesis made it more suitable for sport games than the SNES and credits EA s success on the Genesis for helping catapult the EA Sports brand 140 Another third party blockbuster for the system was the port of the original Mortal Kombat Although the arcade game was released on the SNES and Genesis simultaneously the two ports were not identical The SNES version looked closer to the arcade game but the Genesis version allowed players to bypass censorship helping make it more popular 141 In 1997 Sega of America claimed the Genesis had a software attach rate of 16 games sold per console double that of the SNES 142 Sega Virtua Processor nbsp The graphics produced by the Sega Virtua Processor are comparable to those of Nintendo s Super FX chip 143 The Super NES can have enhancement chips inside each cartridge to produce more advanced graphics for example the launch game Pilotwings 1990 contains a digital signal processor Later the Super FX chip was designed to offload complex rendering tasks from the main CPU It was first used in Star Fox 1993 for real time 3D polygons and Super Mario World 2 Yoshi s Island 1995 demonstrates rotation scaling and stretching of individual sprites and manipulates large areas of the screen 143 Sega had produced such effects on its arcade platforms and adapted some to the home console by developing the Sega Virtua Processor SVP Based on a digital signal processor core by Samsung Electronics this chip enables the Genesis to render polygons in real time and provides an Axis Transformation unit that handles scaling and rotation Virtua Racing 1994 is the only game released with this chip and the only Genesis cartridge with any enhancement chip running at a significantly higher and more stable frame rate than filled polygon games on the SNES 143 The chip drastically increased the cost of the cartridge and at US 100 equivalent to 210 in 2022 Virtua Racing is the most expensive Genesis cartridge ever produced Two other games Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA were planned for the SVP chip but were instead moved into the Saturn s launch line up 143 Sega planned to sell the SVP chip as a separate upgrade module for the Genesis 144 145 but it was canceled in order to focus its efforts on more powerful 32X add on 143 Add ons nbsp Genesis model 2 with the Sega CD 2 and 32X add ons attachedIn addition to accessories such as the Power Base Converter the Genesis supports two add ons that each support their own game libraries The first is the Sega CD known as the Mega CD in all regions except for North America a compact disc based peripheral that can play its library of games in CD ROM format 146 The second is the Sega 32X a 32 bit peripheral which uses ROM cartridges and serves as a pass through for Genesis games 147 Sega produced a custom power strip to fit the peripherals large AC adapters 148 Both add ons were officially discontinued in 1996 66 146 147 Sega CD Main articles Sega CD and List of Sega CD games By 1991 compact discs had gained in popularity as a data storage device for music and software PCs and video game companies had started to make use of this technology NEC had been the first to include CD technology in a game console with the release of the TurboGrafx CD add on and Nintendo was making plans to develop its own CD peripheral as well Seeing the opportunity to gain an advantage over its rivals Sega partnered with JVC to develop a CD ROM add on for the Genesis 5 149 150 Sega launched the Mega CD in Japan 5 on December 1 1991 initially retailing at JP 49 800 151 The CD add on was launched in North America on October 15 1992 as the Sega CD with a retail price of US 299 5 it was released in Europe as the Mega CD in 1993 151 In addition to greatly expanding the potential size of its games this add on unit upgraded the graphics and sound capabilities by adding a second more powerful processor more system memory and hardware based scaling and rotation similar to that found in Sega s arcade games 5 152 It provided battery backed storage RAM to allow games to save high scores configuration data and game progress 149 Shortly after its launch in North America Sega began shipping the Sega CD with the pack in game Sewer Shark a full motion video FMV game developed by Digital Pictures a company that became an important partner for Sega 5 Touting the benefits of the CD s comparatively vast storage space Sega and its third party developers produced a number of games for the add on that include digital video in their gameplay or as bonus content as well as re releasing several cartridge based games with high fidelity audio tracks 146 149 In 1993 Sega released the Sega CD 2 a smaller and lighter version of the add on designed for the Genesis II at a reduced price compared to the original 146 A limited number of games were later developed that use both the Sega CD and the Sega 32X add ons 153 The Mega CD sold only 100 000 units during its first year in Japan falling well below expectations Although many consumers blamed its high launch price it also suffered from a tiny software library only two games were available at launch This was due in part to the long delay before Sega made its software development kit available to third party developers 151 Sales were higher in North America and Europe although the novelty of FMV and CD enhanced games quickly wore off as many later games were met with lukewarm or negative reviews In 1995 Sega announced a shift in focus to its new console the Saturn and discontinued advertising for Genesis hardware The Sega CD sold 2 24 million units worldwide 106 Sega 32X Main articles 32X and List of 32X games With the release of the Saturn scheduled for 1995 Sega began developing a stopgap to bridge the gap between the Genesis and Saturn and serve as a less expensive entry into the 32 bit era 154 At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1994 Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller took a phone call from Nakayama in which Nakayama stressed the importance of a quick response to the Atari Jaguar One idea came from a concept from Sega Enterprises Project Jupiter a new standalone console 155 Project Jupiter was initially planned as a new version of the Genesis with an upgraded color palette and a lower cost than the Saturn and limited 3D capabilities thanks to integration of ideas from the development of the Sega Virtua Processor chip Miller suggested an alternative strategy citing concerns with releasing a new console with no previous design specifications within six to nine months 156 At the suggestion from Miller and his team Sega designed the 32X as a peripheral for the existing Genesis expanding its power with two 32 bit SuperH 2 processors 157 The SH 2 had been developed in 1993 as a joint venture between Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi 158 At the end of the Consumer Electronics show with the basic design of the 32X in place Sega Enterprises invited Sega of America to assist in development of the new add on 156 Although the new unit was a stronger console than originally proposed it was not compatible with Saturn games 157 Before the 32X could be launched the release date of the Saturn was announced for November 1994 in Japan coinciding with the 32X s target launch date in North America Sega of America now was faced with trying to market the 32X with the Saturn s Japan release occurring simultaneously Their answer was to call the 32X a transitional device between the Genesis and the Saturn 155 This was justified by Sega s statement that both platforms would run at the same time and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn 147 The 32X was released in November 1994 in time for the holiday season Demand among retailers was high and Sega could not keep up orders for the system 157 More than 1 000 000 orders had been placed for 32X units but Sega had only managed to ship 600 000 units by January 1995 147 Launching at about the same price as a Genesis console the price of the 32X was less than half of what the Saturn s price would be at launch 154 Though positioning the console as an inexpensive entry into 32 bit gaming Sega had a difficult time convincing third party developers to create games for the new system After an early run on the peripheral news soon spread to the public of the upcoming release of the Sega Saturn which would not support the 32X s games The Saturn was released on May 11 1995 159 four months earlier than its originally intended release date of September 2 1995 160 The Saturn in turn caused developers to further shy away from the console and created doubt about the library for the 32X even with Sega s assurances that there would be a large number of games developed for the system In early 1996 Sega conceded that it had promised too much out of the 32X and decided to stop producing the system in order to focus on the Saturn 147 Prices for the 32X dropped to 99 and cleared out of stores at 19 95 157 VariationsMore than a dozen licensed variations of the Genesis Mega Drive have been released 161 In addition to models made by Sega alternate models were made by other companies such as Majesco Entertainment AtGames JVC Pioneer Corporation Amstrad and Aiwa A number of bootleg clones were created during its lifespan 23 First party models nbsp Genesis II nbsp Sega CDXGenesis second model Genesis CDX nbsp Genesis Nomad nbsp TeraDriveGenesis Nomad TeraDriveIn 1993 Sega introduced a smaller lighter version of the console 122 known as the Mega Drive II in Japan Europe and Australia d and sold as Genesis without the Sega prefix in North America This version omits the headphone jack replaces the A V Out connector with a smaller version that supports stereo sound and provides a simpler less expensive mainboard that requires less power 125 Sega released a combined semi portable Genesis Sega CD unit the Genesis CDX marketed as the Multi Mega in Europe This unit retailed at US 399 95 162 this was roughly US 100 more than the individual Genesis and Sega CD units put together as the Sega CD had been reduced to US 229 half a year before 163 The CDX was bundled with Sonic CD Sega Classics Arcade Collection and the Sega CD version of Ecco the Dolphin 164 The CDX features a small LCD screen that when the unit is used to play audio CDs displays the current track being played 165 With this feature and the system s lightweight build weighing two pounds Sega marketed it in part as a portable CD player 162 Late in the 16 bit era Sega released a handheld version of the Genesis the Genesis Nomad Its design was based on the Mega Jet a Mega Drive portable unit featured on airplane flights in Japan As the only successor to the Game Gear the Nomad operates on 6 AA batteries displaying its graphics on a 3 25 inch 8 25 mm LCD screen The Nomad supports the entire Genesis library save for one game that requires the use of the reset button which the Nomad lacks but cannot be used with the Sega 32X the Sega CD or the Power Base Converter 166 Exclusive to the Japanese market was the TeraDrive a Mega Drive combined with an IBM PC compatible computer Sega also produced three arcade system boards based on the Mega Drive the System C 2 the MegaTech and the MegaPlay which support approximately 80 games combined 23 Third party models nbsp Wondermega nbsp Wondermega 2 nbsp Amstrad Mega PCWondermega JVC model Wondermega 2 Amstrad Mega PC nbsp Majesco s Genesis 3 nbsp AtGames s Sega Firecore nbsp Pioneer LaserActiveGenesis 3 Firecore LaserActiveWorking with Sega Enterprises JVC released the Wondermega on April 1 1992 in Japan The system was later redesigned by JVC and released as the X Eye in North America in September 1994 Designed by JVC to be a Genesis and Sega CD combination with high quality audio the Wondermega s high price 500 at launch 167 kept it out of the hands of average consumers 168 The same was true of the Pioneer LaserActive which requires an add on known as the Mega LD pack developed by Sega in order to play Genesis and Sega CD games Although the LaserActive was lined up to compete with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer the combined price of the system and the Mega LD pack made it a prohibitively expensive option for Sega players 169 Aiwa released the CSD GM1 a combination Genesis Sega CD unit built into a boombox Several companies added the Mega Drive to personal computers mimicking the design of Sega s TeraDrive these include the MSX models AX 330 and AX 990 distributed in Kuwait and Yemen and the Amstrad Mega PC distributed in Europe and Australia 23 After the Genesis was discontinued Majesco Entertainment released the Genesis 3 as a budget version in 1998 170 This version is even smaller in comparison to earlier models but it can only play standard cartridges as it omitted support for the Sega CD and the 32X 171 172 A similar thing happened in Portugal where Ecofilmes Sega s distributor in the country obtained a license to sell the Mega Game II This version was more akin to the second first party model being noteworthy the inclusion of six button controllers and a switch to alternate between different game regions enabling this version to play all games without the need for any device or modification to bypass region locking 173 Re releases and emulation A number of Genesis and Mega Drive emulators have been produced including GenEM KGen Genecyst VGen 174 Gens 175 and Kega Fusion The GameTap subscription gaming service included a Genesis emulator and had several dozen licensed Genesis games in its catalog 176 The Console Classix subscription gaming service includes an emulator and has several hundred Genesis games in its catalog 177 Compilations of Genesis games have been released for other consoles These include Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection for PS2 Xbox and GameCube Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP and Sonic s Ultimate Genesis Collection known as the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL territories for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 178 179 During his keynote speech at the 2006 Game Developers Conference Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that Sega would make a number of Genesis Mega Drive games available to download on the Wii s Virtual Console 180 There are select Genesis games available on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2 181 as well as games available via the PlayStation Network 182 and Steam 183 Companies such as Radica Games have also released various compilations of Genesis and Mega Drive games in plug and play packages resembling the system s controller 184 Later releases On May 22 2006 North American company Super Fighter Team released Beggar Prince a game translated from a 1996 Chinese original 185 It was released worldwide and was the first commercial Genesis game release in North America since 1998 186 Super Fighter Team would later go on to release two more games for the system Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey 186 In December 2010 WaterMelon an American company released Pier Solar and the Great Architects the first commercial role playing video game specifically developed for the console since 1996 187 and was the biggest 16 bit game ever produced for the console at the time at 64 Mb roughly 8 Megabytes 188 Pier Solar is the only cartridge based game which can optionally use the Sega CD to play an enhanced soundtrack and sound effects disc 189 In 2013 independent programmer Future Driver inspired by the Disney film Wreck It Ralph developed Fix It Felix Jr for the Genesis 190 In 2017 American company Mega Cat Games released Coffee Crisis a Beat em up for the Sega Genesis 191 On December 5 2007 Tectoy released a portable version of the Genesis Mega Drive with twenty built in games 192 Another version called Mega Drive Guitar Idol comes with two six button joypads and a guitar controller with five fret buttons The Guitar Idol game contains a mix of Brazilian and international songs The console has 87 built in games including some from Electronic Arts based on the mobile phone versions 193 In 2016 Tectoy announced that they had developed a new Genesis console that not only looks almost identical to the original model of the Genesis but also has a traditional cartridge slot and SD card reader which was released in June 2017 194 In 2009 Chinese company AtGames produced a Genesis Mega Drive compatible console the Firecore 195 It features a top loading cartridge slot and includes two controllers similar to the six button controller for the original Genesis The console has 15 games built in and is region free allowing cartridge games to run regardless of their region 196 AtGames also produced a handheld version of the console preloaded with 20 games 195 197 Both machines have been released in Europe by distributing company Blaze Europe 196 In 2018 Sega announced a dedicated console the Genesis Mega Drive Mini 198 The console includes 40 games including Gunstar Heroes and Castlevania Bloodlines with different games for different regions and a save anywhere function Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro provided the menu music The console was released worldwide on September 19 2019 199 Crowdfunded Sega Genesis games have been released in recent years with Tanglewood a puzzle platformer being released on August 14 2018 and Xeno Crisis released on October 28 2019 Both games were created by indie game developers using actual Sega development hardware to ensure compatibility with the Genesis 200 On December 16 2020 Paprium WaterMelon s follow up game to Pier Solar was released after nearly a decade in development 201 ReceptionAt the time of its release the Genesis received positive reviews Andy Storer of New Computer Express praised the console s responsive controls and graphics and said the Genesis was straight out of the future 202 Similarly Electronic Gaming Monthly EGM in a 1989 preview of the console spoke highly of the system s hardware but questioned Sega s ability to support the console given their difficulties with the Master System 203 New Computer Express called the Genesis the console to have in 1990 rating it 5 out of 5 stars while predicting the console would lead the market 204 In the same year EGM complemented how well the Genesis games took advantage of the console s hardware but expressed concern about the slow pace of new releases of games with four reviewers scoring the console 9 8 8 and 10 out of 10 205 Reviewing the Genesis in 1995 Game Players noted that its rivalry with the Super NES was skewed by genre with the Genesis having superior sports games and the Super NES superior RPGs Commenting that the Genesis hardware was aging and the new software drying up they recommended consumers buy a next generation system or a Genesis Nomad instead but also advised those who already owned a Genesis to not sell it 206 In a 1997 year end review a team of five EGM editors gave the Genesis scores of 4 5 5 0 4 0 4 5 and 7 5 for all five editors the lowest score they gave to any of the five consoles reviewed in the issue While their chief criticisms were the lack of upcoming game releases and dated hardware they also concurred that the Genesis was clearly inferior to the Super NES in terms of graphics capabilities sound chip and games library John Ricciardi in particular considered the Genesis overrated saying he had consistently found more enjoyment in both the Super NES and TurboGrafx 16 while Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer recommended it based on its selection of classic titles and the high value for money of the six pack in games Sega was offering at the time 207 LegacyThe Genesis has often ranked among the best video game consoles In 2009 IGN named it the fifth best video game console citing its edge in sports games and better home version of Mortal Kombat and lauding what some consider to be the greatest controller ever created the six button 208 In 2007 GameTrailers named the Genesis as the sixth best console of all time in their list of top ten consoles that left their mark on the history of gaming noting its great games and solid controller and writing of the glory days of Sonic the Hedgehog 209 In January 2008 technology columnist Don Reisinger proclaimed that the Genesis created the industry s best console war to date citing Sonic the Hedgehog superior sports games and backward compatibility with the Sega Master System 210 In 2008 GamingExcellence ranked it sixth of the 10 best consoles declaring one can truly see the Genesis for the gaming milestone it was 211 At the same time GameDaily rated it ninth of ten for its memorable games 212 In 2014 USgamer s Jeremy Parish wrote If the Atari generation introduced video games as a short lived 70s fad and the NES generation established it into an enduring obsession for the young Sega s Genesis began pushing the medium toward something resembling its contemporary form expounding that the system served as the key incubator for modern sports franchises made consoles truly international by providing Western third parties previously put at a disadvantage by Nintendo s restrictive licensing policies with a more profitable alternative created an online subscription service that foreshadowed PlayStation Plus more than 15 years early with the Sega Channel and played a key role in ensuring the vitality and future of the games industry by breaking Nintendo s near monopolistic hold on the U S and awakening the U K to the merits of television gaming 213 For his part Kalinske highlighted Sega s role in developing games for an older demographic and pioneering the concept of the street date with the simultaneous North American and European release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 214 215 John Sczepaniak of Retro Gamer noted It was a system where the allure was born not only of the hardware and games but the magazines playground arguments climate and politics of the time 23 Sega of America s marketing campaign for the Genesis was widely emulated influencing marketing in the subsequent generation of consoles 216 See also nbsp Video games portal nbsp Electronics portal nbsp 1980s portal nbsp 1990s portalList of best selling Sega Genesis games Neo Geo Philips CD iNotes Through use of the Power Base Converter peripheral Japanese メガドライブ Hepburn Mega Doraibu Super Gam Boy Korean 수퍼겜보이 RR Syupeo Gem Boi Super Aladdin Boy Korean 수퍼알라딘보이 RR Syupeo Alladin Boi Spelled as Mega Drive 2 with an Arabic numeral in Japan References Shaw Wallace to manufacture and market Sega TV games in India a b Sonic the Hedgehog GameTap Retrospective Pt 3 4 GameTap February 17 2009 Event occurs at 1 25 Archived from the original on July 21 2016 Retrieved September 24 2011 cf Review Sonic Jam Sega Saturn Magazine No 22 August 1997 p 68 The original Megadrive game sold over 14 million copies Boutros Daniel August 5 2006 A Detailed Cross Examination of Yesterday and Today s Best Selling Platform Games Game Developer Archived from the original on November 20 2015 Retrieved May 20 2022 a b Fahs Travis April 21 2009 IGN Presents the History of Sega page 5 IGN Archived from the original on March 22 2016 Retrieved October 5 2013 a b c d e f Kent Steven L 2001 The War The Ultimate History of Video Games The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World Roseville California Prima Publishing ISBN 0 7615 3643 4 Brandt Richard Gross Neil February 21 1994 Sega BusinessWeek Bloomberg L P Archived from the original on December 3 2013 Retrieved October 10 2013 Pollack Andrew October 24 1982 What s New in Video Games Taking the Zing Out of the Arcade Boom The New York Times Archived from the original on December 19 2013 Retrieved November 27 2013 The Bottom Line Miami Herald August 27 1983 Archived from the original on November 10 2013 Retrieved October 10 2013 via NewsBank Battelle John December 1993 The Next Level Sega s Plans for World Domination Wired Conde Nast Publications Archived from the original on May 2 2012 Retrieved October 9 2013 a b c Sato November 5 2018 Former Sega President Talks About Making The Mega Drive To Beat Nintendo Siliconera Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved November 5 2018 Marley Scott December 2016 SG 1000 Retro Gamer No 163 Future Publishing pp 56 61 a b c Sato Hideki Famitsu DC February 15 2002 Interview The Witness of History Famitsu Books in Japanese Enterbrain pp 22 25 ISBN 978 4 75770789 4 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2020 08 14 at the Wayback Machine Kohler Chris October 2 2009 Playing the SG 1000 Sega s First Game Machine Wired Magazine s online site Archived from the original on 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gloom and doom faced by the rest of the video game industry After three holiday seasons of coming in second to Sega Nintendo had the biggest game of the year Sega still outperformed Nintendo in overall holiday sales but the 500 000 copies of Donkey Kong Country that Nintendo sent out in its initial shipment were mostly sold in preorder and the rest sold out in less than one week It Donkey Kong Country established the Super NES as the better 16 bit console and paved the way for Nintendo to win the waning years of the 16 bit generation a b c Kent Steven L 2001 The Ultimate History of Video Games The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World Roseville California Prima Publishing pp 434 448 449 ISBN 0 7615 3643 4 Wilson Johnny L June 1993 The Software Publishing Association Spring Symposium 1993 Computer Gaming World p 96 Archived from the original on July 2 2014 Retrieved July 7 2014 Damien McFerran Retroinspection Mega CD Retro Gamer Vol 61 London UK Imagine 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revolutionizing the way videogames were marketed It s almost impossible today to even find a videogame ad that doesn t owe something to Sega s shock tactics marketing innovations External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sega Mega Drive nbsp Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Genesis Programming Listen to this article 2 parts 1 hour and 18 minutes source source source source nbsp These audio files were created from a revision of this article dated 6 August 2019 2019 08 06 and do not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sega Genesis amp oldid 1186036675, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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