Sega Mega Drive . For the object in the Archie Comics, see Mega Drive (Archie). Genesis logo. Mega Drive logo. Sega Genesis. A Sega Mega Drive II. The Sega Mega Drive (.

It was sold under the name Sega Genesis in North America as Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the . The Mega Drive was Sega's third home console and the successor to the Sega Master System.

It was a direct competitor of the Turbo. Grafx- 1. 6 (which was released one year earlier) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which was released two years later). The Sega Mega Drive began production in Japan in 1.

Now that Sega's official sultan of speed, Sonic The Hedgehog, has officially zipped onto retail shelves across the country, it's time to see just what makes the speed.

Brazil. The console has a legacy with certain games available on the console being offered as downloads to be played on modern consoles, fan translations. Hayao Nakayama, Sega's CEO at the time, decided to make its new home system utilize a similar 1. Any game made for the Mega Drive hardware could easily be ported to these systems. The name was said to represent superiority and speed, with the powerful Motorola 6. The North American version went by the name .

The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year. Following on from the European success of the Sega Master System, the Mega Drive became a very popular console in Europe. Unlike in other regions where the Nintendo Entertainment System had been the dominant platform, the Sega Master System was the most popular console in Europe at the time. In the United Kingdom, the most well known of Sega's advertising slogans was .

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Some of these adverts employed adult humor and innuendo with sentences like . Since the Mega Drive was already two years old at the release in Europe, the many games available at launch were naturally more in numbers compared to the launches in other regions. The ports of arcade titles like Altered Beast, Golden Axe and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, available in stores at launch, provided a strong image of the console's power to deliver an arcade- like experience. Tec Toy also ran the Internet service Sega Meganet service in Brazil as well as producing games exclusively for the Brazilian market. Despite this, the Mega Drive was all but ignored in Japan as soon as it was launched. Some positive coverage came out of magazines Famitsu and Beep!, but Sega shipped only 4. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head- on and emphasize the more arcade- like experience available on the Genesis, summarized by the slogan .

Although Kalinske initially knew little about the video game market, he learned quickly and surrounded himself with industry- savvy advisors. A believer in the razor and blades business model, he developed a four- point plan: cut the price of the console; create a US- based team to develop games targeted at the American market; continue and expand the aggressive advertising campaigns; and replace the bundled game, Altered Beast, with their new title, Sonic the Hedgehog. The Japanese board of directors were even more unimpressed than when he started. All hints of friendliness were replaced with confusion, shock and rage. Shinobu Toyoda, who was accompanying Kalinske attempted to translate a barrage of complaints and criticisms.

Nakayama pounded his fist on the table, silencing the room, and approved Kalinske's plan. This left the board of directors furious, but Kalinske knew there would be a success.

Magazines praised Sonic as one of the greatest games yet made, and Sega's console finally took off as customers who had been waiting for the Super NES decided to purchase a Genesis instead. It outsold all other consoles, including the Sega Saturn, in later years. While the Mega Drive add- on did contain a faster CPU and some enhanced graphics capabilities, the main focus of the device was to expand the size of games: cartridges of the day typically contained 8 to 1.

CD- ROM disk would hold 6. Sega of Japan, partnering with Sony, refused to consult with Sega's American division until the project was completed—Sega of America had to assemble parts from various . Although this add- on contained two 3. CPU chips and a 3.

D graphics processor, it failed to attract either developers or consumers as the superior Saturn had already been announced for release the next year. Originally released at US$1.

Sega dropped the price to $9. As the Saturn was leading Sony's Play. Station in Japan while the Mega Drive was never successful there, Sega of Japan CEO Hayao Nakayama chose to discontinue the Mega Drive. While this made perfect sense for the Japanese market, it was disastrous in North America: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for the Saturn, but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand. In comparison, Nintendo concentrated on the 1. The last commercially licensed release in North America was Frogger, released in 1. The Mega Drive's add- ons, the Mega CD and 3.

X, were also both discontinued at this point, having been the same general failures they were in the other regions. The latest version, called . The Guitar Idol game contains a mix of Brazilian and international songs. The console has 8. Electronic Arts, originally cellphone games: FIFA 2. Need for Speed Pro Street, The Sims 2 and Sim City.

In 2. 00. 8 Chinese company ATGames produced a new Mega Drive compatible console. It features a top- loading cartridge slot and includes two controllers similar to the six- button controller for the original Mega Drive. The console has 1. ATGames also produces a handheld version of the console. Both machines have been released in Europe by distributing company Blaze Europe.

Mitashi, a consumer appliance manufacturer in India, released a version of the Mega Drive called Game- In Xtreme, with a few built in games. Even though the name 'Mega Drive' has never been mentioned, it plays 1. Mega Drive cartridges. In North America during 2. ATGames released two new officially licensed Genesis consoles: the Firecore and the Gencore. In addition to that, two new officially licensed Genesis portables also made their debut; the Retrogen, and the Genmobile.

The Firecore can play newly developed . All the consoles ship with twenty official Genesis games built in (with the exception of the Retrogen which, instead, is shipped with twenty homebrew games).

It does not have a cartridge slot, and thus is a dedicated console. There are also selected Mega Drive titles on the Xbox 3. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2. The 1. 6- bit design is based upon the 8- bit design, albeit enhanced and extended in many areas. In order to achieve backwards compatibility, the Master System's central processor and sound chip (the Zilog Z8. The Power Base Converter does not contain any Master System components, instead functioning as a pass- through device. The converter contains a top slot for cartridge- based games along with a front slot for card- based games, as well as the 3- D glasses adapter. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Blender Software Tutorials.

When a Master System game is inserted, the system puts the Z8. Mega Drive's main 6. The PAL variant is called the . A second version, the .

This second version adapter was produced in a far smaller quantity and only released in Europe. The controller itself has a distinctive rounded shape.

It was released in 1. Japan (after the release of the Sega Saturn in that region) and North America and 1. Europe. The 3. 2X plugs into the Mega Drive's cartridge slot and the game cartridges are then plugged into the 3. X. The Menacer Light Gun was developed in response to the Super Scope for the SNES and is only compatible with the Menacer 6- game cartridge and a few other games. A foam- covered bat called the Batter.

UP and the Tee. VGolf golf club were both released for the Mega Drive and SNES and provide support for similar games. Later games were created to work on both adapters. Codemasters also developed the J- Cart system, providing two extra ports with no extra hardware, although the technology came late in the console's life and only featured on a few games. The maximum addressable memory is 1. M6. 80. 00 is located to the top right of the picture). The 6. 80. 00 runs at 7.