Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
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Manufacturer | SEGA |
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Generation | Fourth generation |
Release date | October 29, 1988 (JP) August 14, 1989 (NA) |
Media type | ROM cartridge |
Predecessor | Sega Master System |
Successor | Sega Saturn |
The Sega Genesis is a home video game console released on October 29, 1988 by Sega as the Mega Drive (メガドライブ Mega Doraibu), the name it is known as outside North America. The reason for the two names is that Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in North America. As a fourth-generation console, the Sega Genesis is Sega's third console and the successor to the Sega Master System with which it has backward compatibility when the separately sold Power Base Converter is installed.
The Sega Genesis was the first of its generation to achieve notable market share in continental Europe and North America, where it competed against a wide range of platforms, including both dedicated gaming consoles and home computer systems. Two years later, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the competition between the two would dominate the 16-bit era of video gaming. The console began production in Japan in 1988 and ended with the last new licensed game being released in 2002 in Brazil.
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Technical specifications
Processor: | Motorola 68000 16/32-bit processor @ 7.67 MHz |
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Co-processor: | Zilog Z80 8-bit @ 3.58 MHz |
Video display processor: | Yamaha YM7101 |
Memory: | 64kB work RAM (68000), 64kB video RAM, 8kB work RAM (Z80) |
Display palette: | 512 colors (normal) or 1536 (shadow/highlight mode) |
Onscreen colors: | 64 (normal) or 183 (shadow/highlight mode) |
Maximum onscreen sprites: | 80 (320-pixel wide display) or 64 (256-pixel wide display) |
Resolution: | 256×224, 256×448, 320×224, 320×448, (PAL and NTSC)
256×240, 256×480, 320×240, 320×480 (PAL only), 256×192 (SMS games only) |
Sound: | Yamaha YM2612 5 channel FM and 1 channel FM/PCM, Texas Instruments SN76489 4 channel PSG (Programmable Sound Generator) |
Hardware
Over its lifetime, the Genesis came in three different models, each of which had several motherboard revisions. For more details, see Sega Genesis Hardware.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis model 1
The model 1 Sega Genesis is the largest model and features a headphone jack with a volume slider. There are at least seven motherboard revisions of the model 1 that are known to exist, labeled VA1 - VA7. Early revisions, which bear the text "HIGH DEFINITION GRAPHICS" in white above the cartridge slot, are considered to have the best audio output of any version of the Genesis. The VA7 is the latest revision, and internally they are similar to the model 2 Genesis, and they do not have the "HIGH DEFINITION GRAPHICS" text on them.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis model 2
The model 2 was smaller than the model 1 and lacked a headphone jack but was capable of outputting stereo audio through its rear A/V multi-out port.
Changing in the audio mixing circuts of the model 2 genesis gave it lesser sound quality than the early model 1 genesis.
Sega Genesis model 3
The model 3 was released exclusively to North America in 1998 as a "budget system", and sold for $50. Many features were removed as cost cutting measures such as the expansion slot used by the sega cd, stereo sound, and a power LED.
The sega 32x, and the power base converter and could not be used with the sega cd due to the lack of an expansion slot.
The genesis 3 had compatibility issues with virtua racing.
A addressing bug was fixed with the genesis 3, which makes it incompatable with games that exploit this bug.
Sega CDX/Multi-Mega
The Sega CDX was released in 1994 in North America for $399, and in 1995 in Europe as the sega multi-mega for £350.
The Sega CDX is a Sega Genesis, and Sega CD combined into one compact machine. It can also be used as a portable CD player.
About 5,000 CDX units were released in North America, and are considered rare and collectable.