By talking about this console we have to go back in 1988 when in Japan was released the Mega Drive, this will be the best SEGA' s console ever with more than 29 Million units sold, but numbers were not enough to conquer the japanese market where Nintendo was reigning. The success of Mega Drive was visible in Europe and in the U.S. where it was released in 1990 and for a long time the SEGA console was the leader against the war with Nintendo. Now the Mega Drive is still sold in Brazil with some new versions of this system.
TECHNOLOGY
Processor: Motorola 68000 16/32-bit processor running at 7.67 MHz
Co-processor (Sound Controller): Zilog Z80 8-bit at 3.58 MHz
Memory: 64K work RAM (68000), 64K video RAM, 8K work RAM (Z80) (Later hardware had an internal 1Kx8 ROM for the license display screen.)
Display Palette:512 colors (3:3:3 RGB)
Onscreen colors: 64 (normal) or 183 (shadow/highlight mode)
Maximum onscreen sprites: 80 (320-pixel wide displays) or 64 (256-pixel wide displays)
Resolution: 256×224, 256×448, 320×224, 320×448, (PAL and NTSC) 256×240, 320×240, 256×480, 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)
PERIPHERALS
Controller and in 1993 a six button version
Menacer Light Gun
Sega Mega-CD / SEGA CD
Sega 32X
Sega mouse and mega mouse
HISTORY:
-October 29 1988, Sega Mega Drive Launched in Japan
- August 14 1989, Sega Genesis Launched in Northern America
- November 1990, Sega Mega Drive Launched In EU
- Late 1990, the console was launched also in Brazil where it will be a triumph
-The first name for the console was MK1601, then changed to Mega Drive
- The 16 Bit was a revolution in that period when the NES was using just a 8 Bit system
-From 1992 SEGA started to overtake Nintendo.
- in 1991 Sega Mega CD was launched in Japan, worldwide 1 year later, but it was not a success
-1994 32x Was launched, the failure of this add on and the Sega Cd was part of the decision of SEGA to don' t develop any other Console after Dreamcast.
-Sega mega Drive II was nothing than a deign development that did not involved any technical element.
- The last game released for the console was Frogger in 1998, but some games are developed from a couple of teams and many other versions of the console was released specially in Brazil.
LINKS
Soon I will write more articles about this console, about the new versions, the Add ons, of course about the emulators and many reviews of some games.... STAY TUNED!
It's not Over!
Player 1