Console1988

Sega Mega Drive

Summary

At the time of its release, the Mega Drive/Genesis is technically clearly superior to Famicom, yet the superiority of Nintendo prevents Sega from gaining significant market shares.

Genesis will only be a success when Sega leaves all marketing freedoms to the American arm of the company. One of the most important decisions of the Americans is to sell the console along with the hit game Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega also runs an aggressive advertising strategy that directly attacks Nintendo.

Sega’s target groups are not, as with Nintendo, children, but teenagers, which is also reflected in the games, some of which are significantly more violent and are an important factor in the introduction of self-regulation in the game industry in 1994.

Sega extended the life cycle of the Mega Drive through extensions and granted licenses to other manufacturers. Thus, over decades different versions and new editions appeared. In 2017, AtGames sold the licensed Sega Genesis Flashback. Sega itself picked up the console in 2019 with the Mega Drive Mini. These later retro devices show how long the platform worked beyond its original market phase.

Detailed description

The Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America) is a game console of Sega Corporation, Japan. It is one of the game consoles of the 4th generation (16-bit era). There are a number of variants of Mega Drive.

Sega released the console in Japan in the fall of 1988. She competed there first against the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the PC Engine of NEC. It was technically superior to these two 8-bit systems, but was never very popular in Japan. This was also due to the fact that two years after the Mega Drive release competitor Nintendo entered the 16-bit competition with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

In North America, where Sega released its console in 1989 under the name Sega Genesis, the system sold much better. Also in Europe (published at the end of 1990) it could stand up better than in the Japanese market. The Sega Mega Drive was also very popular in Brazil, where it was marketed in a licensed version by Tec Toy.

In 1993 the visually redesigned Mega Drive II appeared. It was more compact than the original version, but did not have an RF and a headphone output. It is interesting that the Mega Drive II has a new gamepad by default, which has six action buttons (the original gamepad version has only three).

Sega also tried to adapt the Mega Drive with add-ons to the technologically advanced market. So an extension called Sega CD could be docked, with which next to the standard cartridges also games could be played on CD-Rom. In a very limited number, a combination of Mega Drive and Sega CD was released, which was marketed in Europe as a Multi-Mega and in North America as CDX. In 1994 the 32X was released. This is an add-on that raised the system performance from 16- to 32-bit. Both Sega CD and 32X were supported by relatively few titles or game developers. Connected to all expansions, the Mega Drive has an enormous size and looks pretty rough. Perhaps that’s why the Sega Nomad was finally released in 1995 (but exclusively in the USA). This is a portable Mega Drive system with built-in screen. It could also be connected to the TV via an AV cable.

As a manufacturer of arcade machines Sega produced some exclusive implementations of its arcade titles. In order to play titles such as Super Hang-On, Golden Axe or Out Run in front of the home TV, fans had to grab Sega’s 16-bit machine. Other exclusive series such as Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star and above all Sonic The Hedgehog made sure that the Mega Drive (despite its weak performance in Japan) could build up a loyal fan base. With a total of just over 30 million devices sold, it remained behind the SNES from a commercial point of view (about 49 million units sold), but was much more successful than the PC Engine (about ten million units sold).

Historical retail price

21,000 Yen (approximately, adjusted for inflation: 160 €).

Japan, October 1988. Original Japanese standard model HAA-2500.

Purchasing-power comparison at September 2026 prices; exchange rate dated 27 October 2026. Calculation and data sources.

Sega: Mega Drive hardware history

Technical data

Motorola 68000, 7.61 MHz (for PAL)
Coprocessor Z80A for sound processing
Yamaha YM2612 Soundchip and Texas Instruments SN76489
64 KiB RAM, 64 KiB Video RAM
1 MiB ROM
64 colours from 512
320 x 240 pixels (in PAL), in text mode 40 x 28 characters
Maximum 80 sprites

In this collection

Manufacturer: Sega
Type/model-A: Sega Mega Drive, PAL-G version (Model No. 1601-20)
Type/model-B: Sega Mega Drive II, PAL version (model for Europe, Australia and New Zealand, model number MK-1631-50)
Type/model-C: Sega Mega Drive PAL-G (Model 1601-18)
Type/model-D: Sega Mega Drive II PAL, original packaging, new
Serial number-A: 120153112
Serial number-B: 730257572
Serial number-C: 120357259
Accessories-A: no accessories and without original carton
Accessories-B: Two Sega Mega Drive Control Pads (model number 1850-50)
Accessories-C: AC-Adpater England (Model No. 1602-05), (with Sega Mega-CD, Model 1690-18 and Sega AC-Adaptor), instruction for Mega Driver, registration card and instruction for Mega-CD
Accessories: Sega AC-Adapter MK-1636-18 for Sega Mega-CD, 2 x Sega Mega Drive AC-Adpator 1602-18, AC-Adpater England (Model No. 1602-05)
Condition-A: acceptable, no accessories and without original carton
Condition B: acceptable, power cable patched, no accessories or original box
Condition-C: good, with conversion to 50/60 and PAL/NTSC switch, 2 Sega Controller Model 1650
Release: 1988

Family tree

PredecessorMaster System
This objectMega Drive/Genesis
SuccessorSaturn

Sources and further links

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