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For information on the North American version of the console, see: Sega Genesis
16-Bit personal machines like the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, as well as 16-Bit arcade machines, were outpacing the 8-bit videogame consoles. Another problem was that Nintendo had 95% of the North American videogame market, and 92% of Japan's videogame market; Nintendo's 8-bit and 16-bit machines were not that successful in Europe. Sega knew the Sega Master System was not going to make it in North America and Japan, so they decided to make a new console.
Since the System 16 arcade games that Sega was making got very popular, Hayou Nakayama , then Sega's CEO, decided to make their new system a 16-Bit one. The final design worked great, and so they used three new arcade boards, being the Megatech , Megaplay , and the System C . Any of the games made for these systems could work on their new console.
The first name Sega thought of for their console was the MK-1601, but Sega decided to use 'Sega Mega Drive' as the name. 'Mega' had the connotation of superiority, and 'Drive' had the connotation of speed and power. They went with that name for the Japanese, European, Asian, and Australian versions of the console.
When NEC released the PC Engine in Japan on 30 October, 19871987 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events January January 1 Nunavut's capital changes it name to Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay. January 3 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. January 4 An Amtrak train, it posed a threat to Sega and Nintendo. While NEC overall did not have much of an impact in the Japanese market, the Mega Drive initially had even less of an impact than NEC's system did.
The Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan in 29 October, 1988 for ¥21,000. The European release was 30 November, 1990 in the United Kingdom, priced at £190
Unlike in the United States, the Japanese Mega Drive was overshadowed by the Sega Saturn in its country. Just like its North American counterpart, however, the European Mega Drive did better than the Sega Saturn in that locale.
The Mega Drive initially competed against the 8-bit Famicom system in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe.
The Japanese audience was more fixated on the Famicom. When the Mega Drive started to overtake the market, the Super Famicom came and overpowered the Mega Drive in Japan. The Super Famicom had as much as 80% of the market in that country. The Mega Drive ended up doing worse in that market than the PC Engine did, despite its superiority over the PC Engine and the Famicom.
The European NES market was very confusing, with different companies handling the NES in different markets. The Sega Master System, as well as the Mega Drive had no problem excelling in Europe. The European Mega Drive outsold all other consoles, including the Sega Saturn. The Mega Drive was supported in that locale until 1998.
The Mega Drive counterpart in Europe eventually competed with Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, while the Japanese Mega Drive competed with the Super Famicom, the Japanese version of the SNES.
Three add-on components had been released for the Mega Drive in Japan, and two were released for the Mega Drive in Europe and Australia. The Sega Meganet modem was only released in Japan. The Sega Mega-CD was released for all versions of the Mega Drive worldwide. The Sega Super 32X came to the Japanese while the Europeans and the Australians got the Sega Mega Drive 32X.
The Sega Mega Drive 2 was the only redesign that the Mega Drive got. The redesign reduced cost and size by consolidating chips and removing the built-in headphone jack. Like later versions of the Mega Drive 1, it included a 'copyright check' in the firmware (which broke compatibility with some older unlicensed games). A new version of the Sega Mega-CD, the Sega Mega-CD 2, was made to accommodate the shape of the redesigned console.
The Mega Drive 2 had a number of sub-revisions, the very last of which consolidated most of the chips (including the Z80 and M68000 CPUs) into one large custom chip. The original console itself went through innumerable revisions, unknown to most users save the ones who owned one of the very first consoles, which had trouble playing a few of the newer games.
One unlikely market that the Mega Drive excelled in was Brazil. Brazil was also where the Sega Master System lived its absolute final days, to 1998. The Mega Drive also held over until 1998 in that area. Tec Toy was Sega's Brazilian distributor and had success with both of those consoles. Sega had 75% of the Brazilian market.
The Mega Drive was designed from the outset to be backwards compatible with the Sega Master System/ Mark III. This was achieved with a plug-in converter known as the Mega Adapter in Japan, the Power Base Converter in North America, and the Master System Converter in Europe. The device sits on top of the console and fits into the cartridge port; it takes both cartridges and cards, and includes a pause button on the front. Almost all Master System games can be played, but a few (e.g. F-16 Fighter ) are incompatible due to hardware differences. Master System accessories, including the Light Phaser and 3D Glasses, can also be used with the converter.
A newer Master System Converter for the Mega Drive 2 was released in Europe, but (as with the Master System 2) the card port was removed, breaking compatibility with card-based games and the 3D Glasses. The Mega Master was a third party Master System converter distributed by Fire and Datel in the United Kingdom. It looked like the official Mega Drive 2 Converter, but the pause button was on the side as a toggle switch.
Although Sega had talks about a Game Gear Converter, tentatively named the Mega Game Gear, Sega never made one.