SEGA MEGADRIVE
Frequently Asked
Questions
Version 2.0
18/11/99
Written and updated by:
Chris Foulger (ChrFoulger@aol.com)
This F.A.Q is written
from a European (U.K) point of view if anyone
in the U.S or Japan or
Hong Kong wants to help me out with regard to
Genesis/Megadrive
information I will be more than happy.
Thanks to the following
contributors
------------------------------------
Jon Dyton (jon@wibble.powernet.co.uk)
Jon Legg (legg_jon@hotmail.com)
Ron Kiser (kiser@mciworld.com)
Andy Welburn (andrew.welburn@cableol.co.uk)
Matthew Nielson
Distribution notice
-------------------
You are free to
distribute this F.A.Q as long as it is kept intact,
Including this notice if
you have any corrections or additional
for this F.A.Q let me
know.
Also if you put this
F.A.Q on your website let me know and I will send
you the updates.
Disclaimer
----------
This F.A.Q is not
endorsed by Sega Enterprises or Sega Europe,
or anyone associated with
Sega.
No guarantee is made to
the accuracy of the information
in this F.A.Q All
trademarks and copyrights are recognized.
Where to find the latest
version this F.A.Q
--------------------------------------------
WWW:
http//www.digitpress.com
http//www.gamefaqs.com
E-MAIL: by request to megadrive@angelfire.com or ChrFoulger@aol.com
Contents
--------
I. General information
1.1 What is the Sega
Megadrive?
1.2 What is the history
of the Megadrive?
1.3 What is the
difference between Megadrive 1 and 2?
1.4 What are the
technical specifications of the Megadrive?
1.5 What are the
aesthetic differences between each Megadrive?
1.6 How many different
variations of the Megadrive exist?
1.7 What pack-in
variations exist?
II. Compatibility
2.1 can you play Japanese
or U.S games on a U.K Megadrive?
2.2 Can you play Master
System Games on A Megadrive?
2.3 Can you play Game
Gear games on a Megadrive?
III. Software
3.1 What games are
Available for the Megadrive?
3.2 Who is Sonic the
Hedgehog?
3.3 How many sonic games
are available for the Megadrive?
3.4 Do any games use
extra chips for better graphics?
3.5 In Japanese text mode
are there any differences to U.K games?
3.6 What Japanese games
had different names in the U.K & U.S?
3.7 What unreleased games
were there?
3.8 What games were
released in the U.K but not in the U.S?
3.9 what game packaging
variations are there?
IV. Accessories
4.1 What accessories are
available?
4.2 What multiplayer
accessories exist?
4.3 What are J-carts?
4.4 What cheating
cartridges are available?
4.5 Were there any
unreleased accessories?
V. Upgrades
5.1 What is the Mega CD?
5.2 What are the
technical specifications of the Mega CD?
5.3 What is the 32x?
5.4 What are the
technical specifications of the 32x?
5.5 Is it possible to
play import 32X games on a U.K 32X?
VI. Trivia
---------------------
I General Information
---------------------
1.1 What is the Sega
Megadrive?
The Sega Megadrive was
the first true 16 bit video game console
and was made by Sega.
1.2 What is the history
of the Megadrive?
After the 1984 videogames
market crash cartridge based consoles had lost acceptance in the consumer
market in favor of cheaper disk and tape based systems such as the Sinclair
Spectrum and Commodore 64.
About 1987 things were
beginning to change in the marketplace and
consoles were selling
again. Master System achieved reasonable sales
of 230,000 units in
Europe and the Nintendo N.E.S in America that was
estimated to be installed
in one out of three American households.
Sega saw that time was
right for a more adventurous console and more
importantly that people
were willing to pay for more expensive
Cartridge software.
16 bit machines had
already reached home computer users by 1987
through the Commodore
Amiga and the Atari ST. A cheap powerful
Instant loading console
based on this technology that was more
than capable of
replicating the best arcade games of the time
was bound to be a top
seller.
The first version of the
Megadrive was released in Japan in
October 1988. The four
games available Super Thunderblade, Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle, Altered
Beast and Space Harrier 2 showed how much better the Megadrive could handle
arcade conversions compared to the equivalent home computers.
A large profitable grey
import market quickly grew up around
the Megadrive and N.E.C's
also powerful console the PC Engine
Supplying gamers with
these consoles raising awareness of the
Megadrive before the
official release.
The Megadrive was renamed
Genesis and released in America in
September 1989. sports
simulations were very popular in America
especially John Madden
and NHL ice hockey that helped sell the machine.
The early launch of the
Genesis in America gained a lot of the market
from Nintendo before they
could get their 16 bit Super Nintendo on sale.
A European launch
followed in November 1990 and caught the Christmas rush.
Virgin Mastertronic
distributed the Megadrive in the U.K. The first
U.K shipment of 30 000
units went to the larger chain stores of the time
Comet, Dixons, Rumbelows
and Toys R Us and sold steadily for £189.99.
Western third party
publishers like Electronic Arts, Disney and later on Acclaim
were eager to sign up to
produce games for the Megadrive expanding the
variety of titles
available, Showing that the Megadrive could handle
more than just arcade
titles, Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse from Disney and Populous from
Electronic arts being two such examples.
But is was with the
release of Sonic the Hedgehog and a subsequent pack-in that saw sales really
take off.
A year later a sequel was
created (sonic 2) and Backed by an imaginative
marketing campaign (sonic
2uesday) became the Megadrive's biggest selling title ever. The Megadrive
caught the media attention in a really big way and Sega sponsored all kinds of
sport, music events and other products, continuing to bring awareness of video
gaming to a wider audience and increasing sales.
The successful sales
continued and two separate upgrades were produced a CD ROM drive and a 32 bit
adapter although due to poor software support they never achieved the same
success as the base unit.
The Megadrive was the
early 90's most successful console and gained a huge library of arcade
conversions, sports and original titles. The machines early Success lay in its
accurate conversions of popular arcade games. Later on in its life innovative
marketing wide range of great software and a £99.99 price point for the
Megadrive played a part in its
Success. The last games
released were at the end of 1997 in Europe and late 1998 in America.
1.3 What is the
difference between Megadrive 1 and 2?
In an effort to increase
the sales and reduce manufacturing costs the
Megadrive was redesigned
in 1993 and this was known as the Megadrive 2.
The technical
specifications remained the same but the casing and some
features were changed as
follows:
* Headphone jack removed
* A/V port changed to a
custom multi out port that now provides stereo sound to T.V’s (previously only
Mono was outputted on Megadrive 1 as the headphone port was used for stereo
sound.)
* RF out port removed
* Auto switching RF lead
included
* Power lead port made
smaller and a different AC adapter used
* Push button power
switch
Japanese Megadrive 2
There are also a few
slight differences to the Japanese Megadrive 2 as listed below, although the
size and shape remain identical the western version of the Megadrive 2.
* Slide switch remained
* Japanese Version had
red colored flaps on the cartridge port
* no power LED
*The text "high
grade multi purpose intelligent terminal" embossed just behind the
cartridge port
*Packaged with a 6 button
pad as standard
1.4 What are the
technical specifications of the Megadrive?
C.P.U Motorola M68000 16 bit processor
running at 7.67Mhz
Sound C.P.U Z80a running
at 3.58 MHz
Main sound chip Yamaha YM2612 6 channel FM
Additional sound chip 4
channel PSG
Palette 512
Onscreen colours 64
Maximum onscreen sprites
80
Resolution 320 x 224
Outputs separate R.F
aerial and R.G.B outputs (AUX connector - Megadrive 1 only),
stereo headphone jack
(original model only)
9 pin EXT port (Early
original model only)
Expansion port on the
bottom right hand side for Mega CD
2 nine pin joypad
connectors on the front of the machine.
1.4 What are the
aesthetic differences between each version of Megadrive?
Aesthetics for the
Megadrive 1 width 28.5 cm height 5 cm length 22.5 cm the original Japanese
Megadrive had a Gloss black finish. There was large logo in gold "16
BIT" On the circular molding on the top of the Megadrive also around this
circle was printed the text "multi purpose intelligent terminal". At
the bottom of the circle is a square section in purple. To the left side of the
console are the cooling vents. "Sega Megadrive" is printed in white
on the lower right of the console. The reset button on the machine is blue as
is the start button on the joypad.
For the American Genesis
the "16 BIT" logo was slightly smaller. Text in white was printed
around the circular molding and reads "High Definition Graphics" A
large Genesis logo was printed in front of the cartridge port. The reset button
and start button on the joypad are both now white.
The European Megadrive
had the text "high grade multi purpose intelligent terminal" printed
around the circle and the smaller "16 BIT" logo was used. "Sega
Megadrive" was printed in the same place as the Japanese machine. The
Reset button and start button are white.
There is also an Asian
Megadrive had no text printed around the circle and the larger "16
BIT" logo was used. "Sega Megadrive" was printed in the same
place as the Japanese machine. The Reset button and start button are blue. This
is often mistaken for a Japanese Megadrive
But internally is
identical to the U.K Megadrive and has a PAL output.
1.5 What different
variations of the Megadrive exist?
Original Japanese version
(Megadrive 1) featuring headphone jack and AUX
port with Japanese
language settings and a cartridge lock.
American version was
identical but renamed Genesis and had English language Settings. The cartridge
lock was removed.
European version similar
to the Genesis version but converted to display
PAL 50HZ signal and
English language settings.
Slight changes to the
Megadrive 1 removed EXT port and added the message
"produced by or
under license from Sega Enterprises" to the boot ROM.
1993 totally redesigned
Megadrive 2 more square shaped design removed the headphone jack and only one
custom multi output for sound and picture (See 1.3).
Wondermega was a combined Megadrive and Mega
CD by J.V.C that had improved sound capabilities, MIDI connections, a karaoke
function, 2 inputs for microphones and SVHS connector.
Originally came packed
with a four game CD called Game Garden that featured the Megadrive game Flicky,
a quiz game and Pyramid a puzzle game. The Game Garden disc is also compatible
with CDG (CD and Graphics)
Enabled CD players. A
later pack in Japan was a platform game Wonderdog by Core. The Wondermega also
included a built in sound to graphics program that showed graphics that moved
when a music CD was inserted.
The enhanced audio
capabilities of the Wondermega were its main selling point. Additional
peripherals included a cartridge "Wonder MIDI" that let you create
music and connect to MIDI compatible devices another add on was a music
keyboard "Piano Player" that allowed you with the additional software
to learn to play the keyboard and create music.
The Wondermega was also
redesigned and the machine was given a softer more curved look and some of the
extra features and connectors were removed and the joypads were remodeled infra
red joypads.
Renamed Xeye when
launched America and did not get a European release.
Multimega was a Portable Megadrive and Mega
CD combined and was aimed at
a more affluent market.
The launch price for the Multimega was a staggering £350.00. Although it had no
built-in screen it could double as a portable CD player and was powered by 2 AA
batteries that only had enough power to run the CD payer. To play Megadrive and
Mega CD games the Multimega had to be plugged into the mains.
The portable CD control
buttons are on the front of the console (play, stop, Etc.) and a backlit L.C.D
displayed the track number. An extra line out port was provided for connection
to stereo equipment.
The Multimega was known
as the CDX in America.
Nomad was a fully portable Megadrive
with a built in 3-Inch colour L.C.D screen that could also be connected to a
television using the same scart or RF lead as the Megadrive 2.
There was a second joypad
port on the bottom of the machine for two player games.
The Nomad played normal
Megadrive cartridges so it had the same wide
range of software as the
Megadrive. The Nomad had 6 fire buttons for use on 6 button games. The Nomad
was powered by 6 AA batteries that you fitted to a case that clipped to the
back of the unit. A rechargeable battery pack and AC adapter were also
available.
The Nomad was released in
America in late 1996 for $149.99 but did not receive a European release.
Megatech was an arcade machine that
featured 10 interchangeable Megadrive games in a juke box style arcade cabinet.
This was first released about 1989 fitted with the best Megadrive games
available at the time, like Thunderforce II, Altered Beast, Tetris, Last
Battle, Space Harrier 2 and Golden Axe. The games could be changed at any time
and later titles available included sonic. The games were identical to the
Megadrive versions, even the game cheats worked!
The games for this
cabinet were supplied on a Japanese shaped Megadrive cart although they are
slightly heavier. The labels on the games were silver and red and only had
Megatech and the name of the game printed on them. These carts were not
compatible with a standard Megadrive due to the extra information that was
stored on them to run the second monitor,a different length edge connector, number of pins,
pinouts, and spacing.
A second smaller 9-inch
monitor was built into the top of the cabinet
and displayed
instructions for each of the games. But you paid to play for a timed period as
the time ran out the playing screen
would flash green to
inform you that extra credits would needed be inserted to continue playing.
Megajet was a handheld Megadrive that
could be rented for use on Japan airlines flights. There was no built in screen
as you plugged the unit into the L.C.D television that folded out from the
armrest.
The cartridges plugged
into the top of the Megajet and it had 6 fire buttons for compatibility with
games like Street Fighter 2. There was a second joypad port on the bottom of
the Megajet for 2 player games.
A selection of four games
were available to hire for the flight including Super Monaco GP 2 and Sonic,
although you could use your own games if desired. The Megajet was also
available in limited quantities at Japanese retail outlets. And was marketed as
a portable Megadrive.
Laseractive this was a laser disc player from
Pioneer that could take plug in modules and one of these could play Megadrive
and Mega CD games. It could also display Megadrive graphics over Streamed video
from compatible Laser discs.
The format was known as
Mega LD and only a few games were released on this format. 3D glasses were also
produced for the Laseractive for use on compatible disks. Other modules could
play PC Engine games and karaoke.
Mega PC a PC made by Amstrad that could
play normal Megadrive games and PC games.
This was launched in
Japan as the Terra drive but I believe that it was a different company
cooperating with Sega. Released in the U.K in 1993
redesigned and changed
casing colour from dark grey to cream. The specs
were 386sx running at
25Mhz, 1 MEG RAM and a 40 MEG hard disc IBM compatible. Mega PC could also be
connected to a Mega CD. An updated version was later released called the Mega
Plus with improved specs 486, 33Mhz with 4 Meg RAM.
MSX Two of the AX series of machines
that were only ever released in the Arab countries by a company called
Universal were capable of playing standard Megadrive cartridges. The AX330 MSX
had a cartridge port on the top of the machine and had 4 built in MSX program’s
Calendar, painting, Arabic writing and English writing. The other MSX machine
the AX990 came packaged with 50 program’s but I would think that they are
likely to be either MSX program’s or an unofficial Megadrive multi cart.
1.6 What pack-in
variations exist?
Megadrive 1 packs have
included the following games at some time
Altered Beast plus one
joypad (original pack-in £189.99)
Megadrive 1 altered
beast, one joypad, Moonwalker plus Moonwalker video (special offer pack-in)
Megadrive 1 Sonic the
Hedgehog plus one joypad
Megadrive 1 World Cup
Italia 90 plus one joypad
Megadrive 2 packs-ins
have included:
Street Fighter 2, virtua
racing, Sonic 3, The lion king, Aladdin, EA Double Headder (John Madden, NHL
ice hockey) ,Sonic 1,Sonic 2 and Sonic collection.
Megagames one (columns,
world cup Italia 90, super hang on)sonic & Streets of rage, sonic 2,
Megagames 6 packs there
were three different versions of these which were on 6 game multi game
cartridges.
Variation 1 (Revenge of
Shinobi, golden axe, streets of rage, columns,
world cup Italia 90,
super hang on)
vol.2 (World Cup Italia
90, Alien Storm, Super Thunderblade, Columns, Super Monaco GP, Super Hang on)
vol.2 variation 2(Revenge
of Shinobi, golden axe, streets of rage, columns, sega soccer, sonic)As of
November 1999 this pack is still available from the catalogue shopping store
Argos.
Another limited edition
value pack in set was Megagames 3 (Alien Storm, Monaco GP and Super
Thunderblade) Ecco the Dolphin and European Club Soccer.
-------------
Compatibility
-------------
2.1 can you play Japanese
or U.S games on a U.K Megadrive?
Originally the Japanese
games did not fit a European Megadrive because the cartridges were a slightly
wider and a different shape to the European games. This was easy to overcome by
either using a converter cartridge that simply extended the Megadrive’s
cartridge connector and then you just plugged the Japanese game on top.
Or the other way you
could overcome this was by cutting two notches out from the side of the
cartridge port so the Japanese game would fit.
Early Genesis games had
no protection at all and could played without a converter or any modification.
July 1992 saw extra protection being added to a lot of the games by means of a
software program that checked the language setting on the machine and what
signal the Megadrive is outputting (N.T.S.C 60Hz Japan & America P.A.L 50Hz
Europe). If the game was being played in the wrong territory a message usually
appeared telling you that the game was incompatible. Again this was not too
hard to overcome new converter cartridges could be brought similar to the
Japanese converters but on the back of the cartridge there were a set of dip
switches and if you set them in the right order the import came would play. The
settings were often shown on a sticker attached to the front of the cartridge.
The second method requires an internal conversion to be made to your Megadrive
and two switches need to be added to change the settings of the Machine. One
switch toggles between Japanese and English text the other toggles between 50Hz
& 60Hz display.
The Megadrive could then
be set to a European, American or Japanese hardware configuration.
2.2 Can you play Master
System Games on A Megadrive?
Yes but you will need a
Powerbase Converter this sits on top of the Megadrive and plugs into the
cartridge port and allows you to play
the Master System
cartridges and cards and the pause button was on the front. You can use light
gun and 3D glasses games and any other master system accessories. A new version
was released in Europe that was compatible with the Megadrive 2 but the card
port was removed so you could no longer play card games or 3d glasses games. A
third party Master System converter called the Mega Master and was distributed
by Fire and Datel in the U.K this looked like the Megadrive 2 converter but
could not play card games the pause button was a toggle switch on the side.
2.3 Can you play Game
Gear games on a Megadrive?
Unfortunately not,
although a converter was talked about in some magazines and referred to as the
Mega Game Gear there was no official announcement was made.
-------------
III. Software
-------------
3.1 What games are
Available for the Megadrive
There is not enough space
in this F.A.Q to list them all but there is possibly more than 900 games
including variants released during the 10 year life span of the Megadrive. The
most popular games were the sonic series, streets of rage series, Fifa soccer
series, John madden American football series, Street fighter II special
champion edition and the Mortal Kombat series.
3.2 Who is Sonic the
Hedgehog?
Sonic was and still is
Sega’s mascot character. After witnessing the success of Nintendo's character
Mario and the success of his games Sega realized that they needed a strong
character and game to help push Megadrive sales. Development started in April
1990 they looked at their previous mascot character for the Master System Alex
Kidd, but he did not have a real mass market appeal, and was too similar to
Mario.
They decided to make a
new Character by holding an internal design competition at Sega Japan. There
were 100 competition entries out of which 4 finalists were chosen. The 4
designs were a wolf, a bulldog, a fat man (who was developed into Dr. Robotnic)
and a blue hedgehog created by artist Maoto Oshima. He came up with the
character by crossing Felix the cat with Mickey Mouse and the developing the
character further. The Sonic game was finally released in July 1991 and was a
staggering success.
Several more Sonic games
were made across all the Sega machines including 2 arcade games (Sonic the
arcade game & Sonic Fighters).
3.3 How many Sonic games
are available for the Megadrive?
The games are, Sonic the
Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic spinball, Sonic
collection (sonic 1,2 and DR Robotnic’s mean bean machine on one cartridge) and
Sonic 3D also known as Sonic Blast in America.
Also on available on Mega
CD Sonic the Hedgehog CD and on 32x Knuckles Chaotix featured sonic characters
but not Sonic.
Sonic made cameo
appearances in a few games as follows Soiell, Art Alive, Wacky Worlds, Ultimate
Soccer, Joe Montanna football and was on the loading screen on some Sega
released Mega CD games. DR. Robotnic’s mean bean machine was a puzzle game with
sonic’s main enemy DR. Robonic taking the lead role.
3.4 Do any games use
extra chips for better graphics?
Like the Super Nintendo
there is a Megadrive game that uses extra chips to improve graphic performance.
Virtua Racing from Sega
uses the Sega Virtua Processor created in conjunction with Hitachi.
The specifications of the
SVP are as follows:-
Chip Command Type: DSP, 1
command, 1 clock
Speed / Instruction per
second: 23MHz (23 mips)
ROM: I-ram (instruction
RAM) 2048 bytes
Polygons per second
300-500 (16 colours) with 4 interrupts
RAM: D-RAM (optional
installation)
Sound expansion: 2 channels
PWM (pulse wave Modulation)
Data BUS bandwidth:
internal / external 16 bits
3.5 In Japanese text mode
are there any differences to U.K games?
Yes quite a few Megadrive
games include bilingual text options some that I am aware of are as follows:
Mystic Defender / title
reads Kujuki 2(Spellcaster 2)also the intro changes from a page of text telling
the story to an animated Cinema
featuring the games
characters.
Legend of Ju Ju/ title
reads Toki
Ghouls and Ghosts /title
reads Daimakumaira, restart points in the game are different.
Revenge of Shinobi /title
reads Super Shinobi
Truxton / title reads
Tatsujin
Streets of rage 1 & 2
/title reads Bare knuckle
Mercs /title reads
Commando II in Japanese text
Super Fantasy Zone /
cinemas are in Japanese text
Cyberball / Modem option
is added to the select screen (not selectable)
Also if you use a
Powerbase converter there are some Master System games that show Japanese text
or different titles screens when played through a Megadrive with Japanese
settings.
3.6 What Japanese games
had different names in the U.K & U.S?
Lots of games were
reprogrammed for western releases to satisfy the growing demand for new
software. These changes were often more obvious then the bilingual text options
that were already built into some games
(see 3.5). Sega and
particularly Renovation who specialized in converting games for release in the
west converted the most games in this way. So far the games that I know of that
have different names to the Japanese releases are:-
Axis FZ – Final Zone
Devils Crush - Dragons Fury
Super Masters – Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf
Volfied - Ultimate Qix
Final Blow - Buster Douglas Boxing
Shiten Myooh - Shadow Blasters
Runark - Growl
Assault Suit Leinos – Target Earth
Magical Hat Adventure - Decap attack
Soko Ban - Boxxle
Wani Wani World - Berlin wall
Junkers High - Outrun 2019
Puyo puyo - DR Robotnic’s Mean Bean Machine
3.7 What unreleased games
were there?
Due to the fact that the
Megadrive was released in three main territories there are some games that were
announced for a western release but never appeared. Even between the America
and Europe some games were not released (see 3.8) for example X-perts and
Vectorman 2 were due for a European release but never arrived although they
were released in America.
These are the games that
to the best of my knowledge were announced but
never released in any
area.
Wacky Races
Chaos Engine 2
Last Survivor (AKA Battle
Isle)
Fireteam Rogue -
Interplay
monster hunter (Menacer
game)- Sega
Power Drift - Sega
zero Tolerance 2
Zeewolf
Dino racer
Stephen Segal,
House of Fun (a license
from the band Madness)
Akira
Shadow of Yserbius
Interplanetary Lizards
Smaartvark (A.K.A Arnie
the Ardvark),
Elite (Megadrive version
also contained 32X code)
Kartoon Kombat
Mall rats (based on the
film).
Four Sega VR games
Outlaw Racing
Iron Hammer
Nuclear Rush
Matrix Runner
all of which were 16 MEG
cartridges.
3.8 What games were
released in the U.K but not in the U.S?
This section is under
construction and more titles will be added, so far I know of the following PAL
only titles. Some of these were also released in Japan.
Super Fantasy Zone, Alien
Soldier, Megaman the Willey Wars, Wrestle War, Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker,
Micro machines Military, Brian Lara Cricket, Brian Lara Cricket 96.
3.9 what game packaging
variations are there?
Often due to the various
different shaped cartridges made by the many companies releasing games for the
Megadrive this lead to a wide variety of different cases for the games. One
small thing to note about Japanese import games is that they have no have no
tags on the top to hang the games from shop racking.
A few of the Sunsoft
games were sold in mini boxes that were half the size of the standard boxes,
The lager companies produced their own dedicated cases and carts Taito capcom
and Namcot all had there name printed inside the box and on the back of the
carts. Card boxes were used for later releases in the US and Accolade games
were released in card boxes that the top lifted off like a box of chocolates.
Virtua Racing needed a special box due to a much larger cartridge although the
size for the case was not changes only the cartridge holder on the inside of
the case.
---------------
IV. Accessories
---------------
4.1 What accessories are
available?
Menacer Sega's own light gun the biggest
light gun ever created for a home system.
The Menacer was made up
of three interchangeable sections, the main section could be used as a pistol
and to this a stock could be added for extra support and the third section was
with twin sights that clipped on to the top.
The Menacer was powered
by 6 AAA batteries and was not connected by a wire to the Megadrive but by an
Infra-red beam that relayed signals to a receiver box that sat on top of the
television. The Menacer was advertised as the most accurate light gun ever. The
Menacer retailed for £60.00 and came packaged with a 6 game cartridge that was
mostly target shooting games. The best game was based on the Megadrive game
Toejam & Earl which the player fired tomatoes at enemies from the Toejam
& Earl game.
Only three other games
were Menacer compatible T2 the arcade game, Bodycount and Corpse Killer on Mega
CD (there is also a 32x CD version of Corpse Killer)
Arcade power stick this was Sega's own large sturdy
three-button arcade style joystick and was available at launch. There was
adjustable speed rapid fire for each button. The Japanese version and a
micro-switched joystick but the U.K and U.S versions used rubber contacts.
Analogue control pad this was called the AX-1E
controller and was a black, circular shaped pad. There was an analogue sick and
an analogue throttle control as well as 4 independent fire buttons and a start
button.
This controller was
compatible with Afterburner II, F1 Hero and Galaxy Force II. This pad was only
released in Japan.
Infra red control pads
sold as a
complete set that included a receiver box and two three button controllers.
These were sold as a dual format peripheral due to the compatibility between
Megadrive and Master System controllers.
6 button joypad Sega made a 6 button joypad for
use on games like Mortal Kombat and Street fighter II that required more than
the 3 buttons that the standard Megadrive joypad had.
Features included a
rolling base to the D pad and 6 buttons there
is a mode button on the
top right of the pad that if held down when turning on the Megadrive the pad
would set to a three button mode. This was needed for games that were
incompatible in 6 button mode I.E Forgotten Worlds, Alien3, Golden Axe 2 and
Decapattack.
The mode button could
also be used as a extra fire button or a select button. The Japanese version of
the 6 button pad was slightly smaller with a shorter lead and a purple start
button.
Arcade Power Stick II a joystick similar design to the
Arcade Power Stick except with 6 buttons and a mode button.
CD ROM drive (see 5.1)
32 bit adapter (5.3)
Interactor One of the more unusual Sega add
ons was this controller that was a sort of virtual reality controller. The
Interactor had eight sides and was placed flat on the floor. Infra red beams
were projected up from each of the sides.
The player stood in the
middle and broke the beams at different hights and combinations to produce the
moves on screen. compatible mostly with
fighting games. only
released in America.
Mega modem before Sega TV and Edge 16 modems
was the Mega Modem that was only released in Japan in 1991. This plugged into
the EXT port at the back of the original Megadrive. A Sega game net was set up
to use the system but was not a success. The Mega modem was due for release in
America under the name "Tele-Genesis Modem". Three games were
launched with the Mega modem Cyberball by Tengen and the two other games were a
version of Mar Jong and a Baseball game. One of the later released compatible
titles was Advanced world war simulator and all the instruction books for these
games included the Mega modem manual in the back section.
Batter Up a baseball controller for use on
baseball games that are popular in America. Made by Sports Sciences and was
only available in America.
TV Golf a Golf controller for use on EA
golf games like the PGA series the controller was shaped like a golf club. A
second unit plugged into the control port one and was placed on the floor
in-front of the player. A very expensive item that sold for about £100. This
was also produced by sports sciences.
Master System
converter (see
2.3)
Various converters to
play imported games made by third party manufacturers
2 button mouse made by Sega primarily for use on
role playing games,
This mouse was a standard
shaped mouse with red buttons the left mouse button had identifying lines on
it. The most interesting feature is that this mouse can double as a trackball
by turning it upside down, pushing the ball acted as another fire button.
Mega mouse A 3 button mouse was also
released this had an extra button but could not be used as a trackball and was
only released in America.
2 different modems for
use in America. Edge 16, X band
Sega TV Cable games adapter was created
in cooperation with Time Warner and Sega. The adapter was a similar shape to
the Master System converter 2 except it was a bit larger and had a cable TV
connector on the side of the unit. You paid monthly fee like a standard
cable/satellite channel and selected games were provided to play for a limited
time. Playable previews of Games due for release were also made available on
the Sega TV channel. The idea being to promote more sales of the game on
release. Games could not be saved on the adapter so if you liked a game you
could go and buy it. Sega TV was only available in a few areas of the U.K that
had cable TV although not all areas that had cable were given the option of
Sega TV. The service was eventually stopped late 1997 after a run of a couple
of years.
Hyperscore this was a plug through cartridge
for recording high scores that could then be displayed on Teletext. The game
Cartridges were plugged into the top of the Hyper score and then the high
scores were saved into it. Next there was a phone number you could call and
upload your score by means of a speaker on the front of the Hyperscore similar
to a tone dialer. All the game scores were then put into a national league and
the highest score won a prize. Scores could be checked by going to the
Hyperscore Teletext page. The Hyperscore was made and marketed by Hasbro.
Multi game selector For Genesis this was an adapter
that plugged into the cartridge port and had spaces for ten different games.
The idea was similar to a juke box so you could select to play different games
easily by just pushing a button. This was a third party peripheral that was
only released in America.
Justifier this was Konami's own gun for use
on their titles. This was a more standard looking light gun shaped like a
revolver. For two player games the second gun plugged into the bottom of the
player one gun. the player one gun was pale blue player two's was pink.
Compatible games were Lethal Enforcers 1 and 2 (also the Mega CD versions)
Snatcher and Corpse Killer on Mega CD (there is also a 32x version of Corpse
Killer)
The Justifier was not
compatible with Menacer software.
Sega Powerstrip The complete Sega Megadrive set
up required four power supplies Megadrive, Mega CD, 32x and a television as the
adapters were quite large often normal extra plug extension sockets would not
fit. Sega released their own extension unit colored blue with red sega text
printed along the top. This provided 5 plug sockets. Only available in America.
Miracle keyboard For Genesis this was a complete
music keyboard add on for learning to play the keyboard. A separate game
cartridge plugged into the Megadrive and contained several practice programs
and games to help you learn to play. This was a third party peripheral that was
only released in America. Cost of this peripheral was over $200 due to the size
of the keyboard.
4.2 What multi taps
exist?
There are two official
multi tap adapters available one from Electronic Arts and one from Sega, and
one third party multi tap adapter made by Gamester.
The E.A tap was a small
adapter that plugged into both the joypad ports and the four ports were on the
front.
The Sega multi 4-player
adapter plugged into the player 2 joypad port. A lead extended from the port to
a small box that had four ports and a sliding selector switch on the top. The
selector switch had five settings 1 to 4 and Multi if you were playing a 2
player game you could choose which port to use and multi selected the four
player mode
five players could be
used as a controller could be plugged into port one.
Colour stickers were
provided with the adapter that could be attached to each of the pads to
identify each players controller.
One obvious advantage of
the sega adapter was that two adapters could be used for eight player games
like the Japanese released J League Soccer.
Unfortunately they were
incompatible with each other Electronic arts
Four score only worked
with E.A games and the Sega multi player adapter only worked with the sega
games. The Gamester adapter provided the ideal solution to this situation by
being compatible with both multi tap standards. Later released games were
programmed to work with both Sega and E.A adapters.
4.3 What are J-carts?
J-Carts were made by
Codemasters and these were cartridges with two joypad ports built in. The idea
being that if you brought the game you could enjoy multi player games without
the need for an additional multi tap. This was especially useful because as
there were already two incompatible multi tap’s available.
4.4 What are J-carts were
made?
Only Codemasters made
J-carts the titles are as follows:-
Pete Sampras tennis
Pete Sampras tennis 96
Micromachines 2
Micromachines 96
Micromachines Military
Super Skidmarks
At a later time some of
these titles were produced on standard cartridge for a lower price
4.5 what cheating cartridges
are available?
Action Replay made and distributed by U.K
company Datel who also make various console peripherals. They also made a
second version the Pro Action Replay 2 that had a built in code finder. The
Action Replay could be used to play Japanese import games and if the correct
codes were found import games with programmed protection could be played.
Game Genie by Codemasters distributed in the
U.K by toy manufacturer Hornby. The Game Genie had a disadvantage over the Pro
Action Replay and that was due to the fact that the codes had to be provided by
Hornby although you could create your own codes it was very difficult.
4.6 Were there any
unreleased accessories?
Yes there were these are
the unreleased accessories that I am aware of.
Virtual reality
headset that was
shown with four games (see 3.6)at the 1993 C.E.S show in Chicago U.S.A. Sega VR
(The official name) was due to go on sale in America in December 1993.
Graphics tablet was announced when the Megadrive
was launched it was delayed and eventually cancelled. It is possible that
development was changed over to the Sega Pico (an educational graphics tablet).
Keyboard and 3.5 in
disk drive were
cancelled due to the poor performance of the Mega Modem in Japan.
Neptune a 32x and Megadrive combined
similar in shape to a Megadrive 2.
Only one non-working
prototype of this is known to exist, which is only a case mock up for display
purposes and does not contain any working electronics.
Analogue steering
wheel designed by
AM2 for use on Virtua Racing was also shown prior to the release of the game
but was never released due to the expense of the wheel. It was later modifications
were made the base of the wheel was changed and then launched as the Saturn
Arcade Racer.
Modular Cartridge containing the Sega Virtua
processor as more games that used the SVP chip were planned this would have
reduced the cost of these games by containing the SVP on the modular cartridge.
The games would then plug in on top containing the game data for the chip. This
would have saved paying for a new expensive SVP chip each time a new game came
out by using this add on.
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V. Upgrades
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5.1 What is the Mega CD?
The Mega CD is a CD ROM
drive that plugs into the expansion port on the side of the Megadrive and
allows specially written CD software to be played on the Megadrive. The Mega CD
could also play normal music CDs both 5 and 3 inch discs and could play CD+G
discs. The Mega CD also improved the graphics and sound of the Megadrive. There
are 2 versions of the Mega CD that are technically the same but with different
casings.
The Mega CD 1 Sat
underneath the Megadrive 1 and featured a motorized
front loading CD drive.
The Mega CD 2 was released at the same time as the Megadrive 2 and attached to
the side of either version of the Megadrive and had a top loading CD drive.
5.2 What are the
technical specifications of the Mega CD?
Main C.P.U Motorola 68000 running at 12.5Mhz in parallel
with the
Megadrive’s C.P.U
Graphics processor Custom
ASIC chip that could handle scaling and rotation.
CD Drive Single speed CD
ROM with a 150 Kbytes a second data transfer rate
CD Buffer 128 K bit CD
ROM data cache memory
Sound Stereo P.C.M 6 channel
16 Bit D/A converter
Save memory 64 K bit back
up RAM (back up RAM cartridge is also available)
Outputs stereo phono
sockets
The Mega CD did not
improve the colours on the Megadrive although it did allow the Megadrive to
display film footage F.M.V.
5.3 What is the 32x?
The 32x is a 32 bit
upgrade unit that plugged into the cartridge port of
the Megadrive. The 32x
improved the graphic and audio capabilities of both the Megadrive and Mega CD.
Extra graphic abilities included the ability to display graphics layered over
standard Megadrive graphics for example on the 32x version of Mortal Kombat II
the backgrounds were made by the Megadrive whilst the sprites were handled by
the 32x.
The 32x could also
display 50 000 texture-mapped polygons a second
and hardware scaling and
rotation.
5.4 What are the
technical specifications of the 32x?
C.P.U Two Hitachi SH2 32BIT RISC running
at 23Mhz / 40 MIPS
Co processor A new 32x VDP works with the Megadrive’s
68000 and Z80
Palette 32,768 simultaneous colours
Memory 4 MBIT RAM in addition to the
Megadrive and Mega CD
sound Digital stereo PCM, programmable sample
rates, audio mixing
with Megadrive sound.
5.5 Is it possible to
play import 32X games on a U.K 32X?
It is not possible to
play Japanese or American imports on a U.K 32X due to the poor sales of the 32X
no converters were produced. If you have a switched (50/60hz) Megadrive though
an American 32X will work. This is the only way to play import 32X games.
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VI. Trivia
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* DR Robotnic’s Mean Bean
Machine was originally a Japanese game called Puyo Puyo from Compile. The
puzzle section remains the same but the cinemas feature DR. Robotnic trying to
take over Sonics world. This was done to make the game more appealing to the
western audiences.
* Zero Tolerance is a
Doom style corridor shooter that has the ability
to link up 2 Megadrive’s
and 2 televisions like the link mode seen in some Playstation games. The link
lead was received through a mail in voucher that was packaged with the game.
The link lead plugged into each of the second joypad ports and was similar to a
joypad extension lead.
* The main bad enemy
character in Sonic the Hedgehog Dr. Robotnic is known as Dr. Eggman in Japan.
* There are 2 versions of
Klax available for the Megadrive one is made by Namcot for Japanese release.
The second version was made by Tengen for the western release. In my opinion
the Tengen version is the better.
* Some of the best music
ever produced for the Megadrive as heard in The
Revenge of Shinobi and
streets of rage was created by a top Japanese musician Yuzo Koshiro he actually
had a Megadrive sound chip built into his recording studio. Music CDs could
also be brought in Japan with his
Megadrive music re-mixed.
* Joe Montanna American
Football II was the first game ever to feature a full running commentary as
heard in a lot of sport CD games today. This was revolutionary advance in game
sound and was even featured on a U.K science and technology program (Tomorrows
World). There was also a Sportstalk baseball released in the US.
* Sega's Sonic license
was taken into new territory with a Sonic fruit machine this licensed gambling
machine was released through Deith Leisure a subsidiary of Sega Europe who also
run Sega's arcade machine business in the U.K.
* Virtua racing caused an
interesting problem for some people with cordless phones, the frequency of the
SVP chip was picked up by the phones and they would ring.
* The rarest Megadrive
game ever released was the original Phantasy Star. There were only ever 1000 of
these ever made and it was only sold in Japan. The game was a straight port of
the Master System version with no improvements as it ran on the Megadrive’s
internal Master System chip.
THANKS & SEE YOU IN
THE NEXT UPDATE.
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