Sega Genesis: Difference between revisions

 

 

After failing to make a real dent against the [[NES]]<ref>At least in North America and Japan; the [[Sega Master System]] [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|did well in Europe and South America]] </ref>, [[Sega]] decided just to top them. If [[Nintendo]] was dragging their feet to a 16-bit system (the arcade standard at the time), then Sega would beat them to the punch with a console based on its System 16 arcade board.

 

 

[[Nintendo]] eventually had its own entry in the 16-bit era in the form of the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]. The SNES and Genesis had a long and fierce [[Console Wars|console war]] that is probably the best-remembered of them all.

Known as the MegaDrive outside of the US, including in Europe and Japan. "Mega Drive" was already trademarked in the US by someone making hard disk drives.

 

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* [[CPU|Motorola 68000]] runs at 7.68 MHz (varies per region).

* Graphics generated by a more advanced [[GPU|Video Display Processor]] compared to the [[Sega Master System]].

* Like the NES and [[SNES]], the Genesis could expand through chips on the carts. One was the Sega Virtua Processor, which functioned like the Super FX chip on the SNES. Unfortunately, incorporating it was a lot more expensive than an SNES chip, and only the port of ''Virtua Racing'' used it. The system was heavily marketed for its ability to render objects faster than the [[SNES]], a feature for which the Sega marketing division coined the term ''"Blast Processing"''.

* It also has a 2nd CPU, a Zilog Z80 running at 3.58 MHz, used for the Sound chips's CPU and Master System play back.

* 64 KB of main RAM and 64 KB of [[Video RAM]].

* 8 KB of [[Gaming Audio|sound memory]]

* 8 KB of extra RAM for backwards compatibility with the [[Sega Master System]] (although that requires an adapter).

* Sprites up to [http://emudocs.org/Genesis/Graphics/genvdp.txt 32x32 pixels]. As on other systems, multiple sprites were placed side by side to form the large characters in games like ''[[Street Fighter]] II'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''.

* Up to 80 sprites on screen (not including background layer textures which could also appear animated).

* Two background layers in addition to the sprite layer.

* Could not do scaling and rotating sprites, but the faster CPU could imitate them by resizing sprite data.

* 320x224.

* 64 colors on screen, 512 total.

* Yamaha YM2612 (OPN2)

** Six concurrent FM channels (voices).

** 3 squares one noise.

** modded for stereo sound (the chip's standers can only do Mono)

== Addons and peripherals ==

* '''Power Base Converter''': An add-on which allowed the Genesis to play [[Sega Master System]] games, either of the cartridge or the chip variety, and included support for the SMS's 3D glasses. This was initially marketed for the first model Genesis, but a small quantity was made for the redesigned, compact Genesis [[No Export for You|But only in Europe]]. Also, it can not play SG-1000 games (or Master System games that uses the system's video modes like F-16 Fighter Falcon) or use it's Japan only FM chip (the YM2413, which was also used on the [[MSX]] under the name ''MSX Music'' and was cloned by Konami as the VRC7 chip for the Famicom in Japan) unless the unit is modded. It also won't work with a 32X unless it is modded.

 

 

=== Specs ===

=== Sega CD games included ===

 

** ''Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm''

** ''[[Video Game/Dark Wizard|Dark Wizard]]''

** ''[[Video Game/Dungeon Explorer|Dungeon Explorer]]''

** ''Road Avenger'' (aka ''[[Video Game/Road Blaster|Road Blaster]] FX'' in Japan)

 

 

 

=== Specs ===

** ''[[Knuckles Chaotix]]''

** ''Kolibri''

** ''Star Wars Arcade''

 

 

=== Games/series which appeared on the Sega Genesis include: ===

 

** ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'' (while the other Genesis ports were western only releases, strangely this one was Japan only)

** ''Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game''

** ''Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls'' (based on the cartoon series. ''Super Double Dragon'', which holds the position of "Double Dragon IV", was exclusive to the SNES)

* ''[[Gaiares]]''

* ''[[Growl]]''

* ''Hard Drivin'': One of the very few real-time 3-D video games available for the system, although compared to Virtua Racing, the framerate is so laggy that the game is virtually unplayable.

* ''[[Herzog Zwei]]''

** ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park''

* ''[[Landstalker]]''

** ''Langrisser II''

* ''[[Light Crusader]]''

* ''[[The Lion King (Video Game)|The Lion King]]''

** ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3''

** ''Puyo Puyo Tsu''

** ''Madou Monogatari I'': The last officially released Mega Drive game in Japan.

** ''Splatterhouse 3''

* ''[[Steel Empire (Video Game)|Steel Empire]]''

** ''Syd of Valis''

** ''Valis III''

* ''Virtua Racing'': Notable for having the Sega Virtua Processor microchip, Sega's answer to the SNES's Super FX microchip, making it the second of two 100% real time 3-D video game available for the system. An upgraded version, ''Virtua Racing Deluxe'', was made for the 32X, possibly to compensate for the fact that the original game won't play on a 32X equipped Sega Genesis.

 

* [[Big Word Shout]]: "SEGA!" in the ads.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: The whole "Blast Processing" marketing was just hyping up the fact that the Genesis had a faster processor than the SNES.

* [[Fandom Rivalry]]: Bringing up the [[Console Wars]] between [[Super Nintendo]] and Sega Genesis can cause [[Internet Backdraft]] ''even today''.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xHmGaKs0Do "Can we see that again?"]

** To add insult to injury, due to relying on certain hardware, Virtua Racing was incompatible with the Model 3 Genesis ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqpWRc9BE_A unless you mod it]) and pretty much all of the unofficial clone systems. So if you bought the game years later and happened to own a Model 3 system, you were SOL.

* [[Product Facelift]]: The Genesis went through the most redesigns of ''any'' video game console in history--first, there's the model 1, which also has a link port (meant for the cancelled Sega Meganet) in the very, very earliest models, the more famous, streamlined model 2 Genesis, the Sega CDX which was a clever (but expensive) hybrid of the Genesis and Sega CD, the Model 3 Genesis from Majesco, which was as big as the ''controller'', and then there's the Sega Meganet/The Sega Nomad, both of which are literally portable Sega Genesis consoles! There is even a licensed version of the Genesis released in Europe, the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Ey5zKKldY AtGames Sega Mega Drive 20-in-1 Game Console], which contains 20 games built into the console and has [[Region Coding]] fully unlocked, is even smaller than the Model 3 Genesis, and has unofficially been dubbed the "Model 4 Genesis".

[[Category:Videogame Systems]]

[[Category:Video Game Long Runners]]

[[Category:index]]

[[Category:Sega Genesis]]