Sega Genesis - Knowledge

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same price as a Genesis console, the price of the 32X was less than half of what the Saturn's price would be at launch. Though positioning the console as an inexpensive entry into 32-bit gaming, Sega had a difficult time convincing third-party developers to create games for the new system. After an early run on the peripheral, news soon spread to the public of the upcoming release of the Sega Saturn, which would not support the 32X's games. The Saturn was released on May 11, 1995, four months earlier than its originally intended release date of September 2, 1995. The Saturn, in turn, caused developers to further shy away from the console and created doubt about

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however the shell blocks the power and AC ports of the Model 2 revision, meaning that the converter must have its shell modified or by using a pass-through adaptor. A second model known as the Master System Converter II was released only in Europe for use with the Mega Drive II, which works with other region Genesis consoles and revisions but lacks the ability to use Master System cards. Both the original Power Base Converter and the Master System Converter II do not work with the Nomad or the Genesis 3.

2494: 2444: 2694: 1807: 1374: 10538: 10101: 2629: 3237: 2484: 1899: 47: 955:. Between July and August 1990, Virgin initially placed their order for 20,000 Mega Drive units. However, the company increased the order by 10,000 units when advanced orders had exceeded expectations, and another 10,000 units was later added following the console's success at the ECES event. The projected number of units to be sold between September and December 1990 had eventually increased to 40,000 units in the United Kingdom alone. 1680: 3223: 709: 9734: 2649: 1469: 1443:

commercial. Further, the court found that the trademark infringement, being required by the TMSS for a Genesis game to run on the system, had been inadvertently triggered by a fair use act and was the fault of Sega for having caused false labeling. Ultimately, Sega and Accolade settled the case on April 30, 1993. As a part of this settlement, Accolade became an official licensee of Sega, and later developed and released

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its software development kit available to third-party developers. Sales were higher in North America and Europe, although the novelty of FMV and CD-enhanced games quickly wore off, as many later games were met with lukewarm or negative reviews. In 1995, Sega announced a shift in focus to its new console, the Saturn, and discontinued advertising for Genesis hardware. The Sega CD sold 2.24 million units worldwide.

1938: 3209: 2454: 6377: 3251: 6265: 40: 1537:, appearing to have removed all the blood and sweat effects and toning down the finishing moves even more than in the SNES version. However, all the arcade's blood and uncensored finishing moves could be enabled by entering a "Blood Code". This technicality allowed Sega to release the game with a relatively low MA-13 rating. Meanwhile, the tamer SNES version shipped without a rating. 2775:

where Ecofilmes, Sega's distributor in the country, obtained a license to sell the Mega Game II. This version was more akin to the second first-party model, being noteworthy the inclusion of six-button controllers and a switch to alternate between different game regions, enabling this version to play all games without the need for any device or modification to bypass region locking.

1647:, sales of 16-bit hardware and software continued to account for 64% of the video game market in 1995. Sega underestimated the continued popularity of the Genesis and did not have the inventory to meet demand. Sega captured 43% of the dollar share of the U.S. video game market and claimed to have sold more than two million Genesis units in 1995, while Genesis software such as 1191:

games, and wrote original documentation that summarized his findings. The process took him about a month. His work was reviewed by EA's lawyers before being disseminated to Hayes and Nitchals to verify its originality, and subsequently to the rest of the developers to let them build games. After a few months, EA began developing for the Genesis in earnest. The EA founder,

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was faced with trying to market the 32X with the Saturn's Japan release occurring simultaneously. Their answer was to call the 32X a "transitional device" between the Genesis and the Saturn. This was justified by Sega's statement that both platforms would run at the same time and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn.

1435:, and copyright infringement. In response, Accolade filed a counterclaim for falsifying the source of its games by displaying the Sega trademark when the game was powered up. Although the district court initially ruled for Sega and issued an injunction preventing Accolade from continuing to reverse engineer the Genesis, Accolade appealed the verdict to the 1984:. Using a special peripheral, Genesis players could download a game from a library of fifty each month and demos for upcoming releases. Games were downloaded to internal memory and deleted when the console was powered off. The Sega Channel reached 250,000 subscribers at its peak and ran until July 31, 1998, well past the release of the Sega Saturn. 1394:" This system had a twofold effect: it added extra protection against unlicensed developers and software piracy and forced the Sega trademark to display when the game was powered up, making a lawsuit for trademark infringement possible if unlicensed software were to be developed. Accolade learned of this development at the 2115:. Although the arcade game was released on the SNES and Genesis simultaneously, the two ports were not identical. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade game, but the Genesis version allowed players to bypass censorship, helping make it more popular. In 1997, Sega of America claimed the Genesis had a software 1355:, "One pays them between $ 10 and $ 15 per cartridge on top of the real hardware manufacturing costs, so it about doubles the cost of goods to the independent publisher." To get around licensing, Accolade chose to seek an alternative way to bring their games to the Genesis. It did so by purchasing one in order to 776:

which, by the mid-to-late 1980s, were both dominated by Nintendo. With Sega continuing to have difficulty penetrating the home market, Sega's console R&D team, led by Masami Ishikawa and supervised by Hideki Sato, began work on a successor to the Master System almost immediately after that console launched.

2366:. One idea came from a concept from Sega Enterprises, referred to by former Sega of America producer Michael Latham as "Genesis 2", which was a new standalone console. The concept was initially planned as a new version of the Genesis, with an upgraded color palette and a lower cost than the Saturn, and limited 4735: 1006:

experience available on the Genesis, with slogans including "Genesis does what Nintendon't". Since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, the second part involved creating a library of recognizable games which used the names and likenesses of celebrities and athletes, such as

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was also responsible for renaming the machine for the American market. It has been suggested that this was the result of a trademark dispute, but Rosen is adamant he simply didn't like the term 'Mega Drive'. 'I came up with the name "Genesis" because I felt this would be a new beginning for Sega,' he

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After the Genesis was discontinued, Majesco Entertainment released the Genesis 3 as a budget version in 1998. This version is even smaller in comparison to earlier models, but it can only play standard cartridges as it omitted support for the Sega CD and the 32X. A similar thing happened in Portugal,

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Although the new unit was a stronger console than originally proposed, it was not compatible with Saturn games. Before the 32X could be launched, the release date of the Saturn was announced for November 1994 in Japan, coinciding with the 32X's target launch date in North America. Sega of America now

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capabilities thanks to integration of ideas from the development of the Sega Virtua Processor chip. Miller suggested an alternative strategy, citing concerns with releasing a new console with no previous design specifications within six to nine months. At the suggestion from Miller and his team, Sega

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to allow more than two players to play at once. Initially, EA's version, the 4 Way Play, and Sega's adapter, the Team Player, only supported each publisher's games. In response to complaints, Sega said a new Team Player, which would work with all Genesis multitap games, would be released. Later games

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30.75 million first-party Genesis units were sold worldwide. In addition, Tectoy sold an estimated 3 million licensed variants in Brazil, Majesco projected it would sell 1.5 million licensed variants of the system in the United States and smaller numbers were sold by Samsung in South Korea.

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Finally with regards to the launch of the 32X Shinobu Toyoda of Sega of America recalls, 'We had an inventory problem. Behind the scenes, Nakayama wanted us to sell a million units in the US in the first year. Kalinske and I said we could only sell 600,000. We shook hands on a compromise—800,000. At

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noted, "It was a system where the allure was born not only of the hardware and games, but the magazines, playground arguments, climate, and politics of the time." Sega of America's marketing campaign for the Genesis was widely emulated, influencing marketing in the subsequent generation of consoles.

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The system is backward compatible with the Master System. The first peripheral is the Power Base Converter (Mega Adaptor in Japan and Master System Converter in Europe), which allows Master System games to be played. It is designed for the Model 1 revisions and will work with the Model 2 revisions,

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greatly increased the popularity of the Genesis in North America, and the bundle is credited with helping Sega gain 65% of the market share against Nintendo. Similarly, in Europe, Sega captured a 65% share of the European console market, where the Mega Drive maintained its lead over the SNES through

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equipment and automobiles. Shiraiwa said this more mature look helped to target the Mega Drive to all ages, unlike the Famicom, which was aimed primarily at children. According to Sato, the Japanese design for the Mega Drive was based on the appearance of an audio player, with "16-bit" embossed in a

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was used as a secondary CPU to handle the sound due to fears that the load to the main CPU would be too great if it handled both the visuals and the audio. The 68000 chip was expensive and would have driven the retail price of the console up greatly, but Sega was able to negotiate with a distributor

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In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Master System. This was followed by a European release the next year. Although the Master System was a success in Europe, and later in Brazil, it failed to ignite significant interest in the Japanese or North American markets,

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The late November release of Donkey Kong Country stood in stark contrast to the gloom and doom faced by the rest of the video game industry. After three holiday seasons of coming in second to Sega, Nintendo had the biggest game of the year. Sega still outperformed Nintendo in overall holiday sales,

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The 32X was released in November 1994, in time for the holiday season. Demand among retailers was high, and Sega could not keep up orders for the system. More than 1,000,000 orders had been placed for 32X units, but Sega had only managed to ship 600,000 units by January 1995. Launching at about the

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In response, Sega of America vice president Bill White showed a videotape of violent video games on the SNES and stressed the importance of rating video games. At the end of the hearing, Lieberman called for another hearing in February 1994 to check on progress toward a rating system for video game

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EA signed what Hawkins described as "a very unusual and much more enlightened license agreement" with Sega in June 1990: "Among other things, we had the right to make as many titles as we wanted. We could approve our own titles ... the royalty rates were a lot more reasonable. We also had more

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The Mega-CD sold only 100,000 units during its first year in Japan, falling well below expectations. Although many consumers blamed its high launch price, it also suffered from a tiny software library; only two games were available at launch. This was due in part to the long delay before Sega made

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that include digital video in their gameplay or as bonus content, as well as re-releasing several cartridge-based games with high-fidelity audio tracks. In 1993, Sega released the Sega CD 2, a smaller and lighter version of the add-on designed for the Genesis II, at a reduced price compared to the

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Sega sold 30.75 million Genesis units worldwide. Of these, 3.58 million were sold in Japan, and sales in Europe and the U.S. are roughly estimated at 8 million and 18–18.5 million as of June 1997 (at which time Sega was no longer manufacturing the system) respectively. In 1998,

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and re-release it with revisions in 1994 due to the congressional hearings. After the close of these hearings, video game manufacturers came together to establish the rating system that Lieberman had called for. Initially, Sega proposed the universal adoption of its system, but after objections by

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As a result of piracy in some countries and unlicensed development issues, Sega incorporated a technical protection mechanism into a new edition of the Genesis released in 1990, referred to as the Genesis III. This new variation of the Genesis included a code known as the Trademark Security System

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Due to these tactics, it was difficult to ascertain a clear leader in market share for several years at a time, with Nintendo's dollar share of the U.S. 16-bit market dipping down from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% at the end of 1993, Sega claiming 55% of all 16-bit hardware sales during 1994, and

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of the market, even going to the point of deception; Nintendo claimed it had sold more consoles in 1991 than it actually had, and forecasted it would sell 6 million consoles by the end of 1992, while its actual U.S. install base at the end of 1992 was only just more than 4 million units.

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For the North American market, former Atari Corporation Entertainment Electronics Division president and new Sega of America CEO Michael Katz instituted a two-part approach to build sales. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like

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as the Mark V, but Sega management wanted a stronger name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the company settled on "Mega Drive". In North America, the name was changed to "Genesis". Rosen said he insisted on the name as he disliked "Mega Drive" and wanted to represent "a new beginning" for

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to rerelease it in North America. Majesco began reselling millions of unsold cartridges at a budget price, together with 150,000 units of the second model of the Genesis. It released the Genesis 3, projecting to sell 1.5 million units of the console by the end of 1998. As of 2012, Tectoy had

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The process began in 1989, led by Steve Hayes and Jim Nitchals. They created a controlled room in EA headquarters nicknamed "Chernobyl", to which only one person was allowed access, Mike Schwartz. Schwartz reviewed Sega's copyrighted development manuals and tools, studied the Genesis hardware and

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As a result of the appeal, the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court's verdict and ruled that Accolade's decompilation of the Sega software constituted fair use. The court's written opinion followed on October 20, 1992, and noted that the use of the software was non-exploitative, although

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I heard, I kid you not, that the characters were "unsalvageable," that this was a "disaster," and that "procedures would be put in place to make sure that this sort of thing would never happen again." These "procedures" included a proposed "top ten list of dos and don'ts" to follow when making

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Sega hit its projections on the mark, selling 1.1 million hardware units and 3 million Sega Genesis games. While the company recently announced it will dispose of all remaining 16-bit peripheral inventory, specifically the Genesis 32X and Sega CD products, it will continue to sell Genesis

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editors gave the Genesis scores of 4.5, 5.0, 4.0, 4.5, and 7.5 – for all five editors, the lowest score they gave to any of the five consoles reviewed in the issue. While their chief criticisms were the lack of upcoming game releases and dated hardware, they also concurred that the Genesis was

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Estimated dollar share for Sega-branded interactive entertainment hardware and software in 1995 was 43 percent, compared with Nintendo at 42 percent, Sony at 13 percent and The 3DO Co. at 2 percent. Sega estimates the North American videogame market will total more than $ 3.9 billion for

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manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues surpassed $ 200 million between July 1981 and June 1982. A downturn in the arcade business starting in 1982 seriously hurt the company, leading Gulf+Western to sell its North American arcade manufacturing organization and the

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established it into an enduring obsession for the young, Sega's Genesis began pushing the medium toward something resembling its contemporary form", expounding that the system served as "the key incubator for modern sports franchises", made "consoles truly international" by providing Western

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In 2009, Chinese company AtGames produced a Genesis/Mega Drive-compatible console, the Firecore. It features a top-loading cartridge slot and includes two controllers similar to the six-button controller for the original Genesis. The console has 15 games built-in and is region-free, allowing

1529:. In response to public outcry over the game's graphic violence, Nintendo decided to replace the blood in the game with "sweat" and the arcade's gruesome "fatalities" with less violent finishing moves. Sega took a different approach, instituting America's first video game ratings system, the 2742:

on April 1, 1992, in Japan. The system was later redesigned by JVC and released as the X'Eye in North America in September 1994. Designed by JVC to be a Genesis and Sega CD combination with high quality audio, the Wondermega's high price ($ 500 at launch) kept it out of the hands of average

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while under license. The terms of the licensing, including whether or not any special arrangements or discounts were made to Accolade, were not released to the public. The financial terms of the settlement were also not disclosed, although both companies agreed to pay their own legal costs.

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remained successful, but Kalinske estimated that "we could have sold another 300,000 Genesis systems in the November/December timeframe". Nakayama's decision to focus on the Saturn, based on the systems' relative performance in Japan, has been cited as the major contributing factor in this

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helped to establish a following. Within two days of release, the console's initial production run sold out. However, Sega only managed to ship 400,000 units in the first year. In order to increase sales, Sega released various peripherals and games, including an online banking system and

2111:, founder and then president of EA, believed the faster drawing speed of the Genesis made it more suitable for sport games than the SNES, and credits EA's success on the Genesis for helping catapult the EA Sports brand. Another third-party blockbuster for the system was the port of 5408:"Sega of America sold about 400,000 16-bit consoles in N. America last year, based on estimates extrapolated from NPD Group's Toy Retail Statistical Tracking Service. That compares with just over one million Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (SNES) sold by Nintendo of America." 1662:, and took in 42% of the video game market dollar share without launching a 32-bit console. Following tensions with Sega Enterprises, Ltd. over its focus on the Saturn, Kalinske, who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991, lost interest in the business and resigned in mid-1996. 2391:, even with Sega's assurances that there would be a large number of games developed for the system. In early 1996, Sega conceded that it had promised too much out of the 32X and decided to stop producing the system in order to focus on the Saturn. Prices for the 32X dropped to 1991:, a peripheral which allowed Genesis players to engage in online competitive gaming. Using telephone services to share data, XBAND was initially offered in five U.S. cities in November 1994. The following year, the service was extended to the SNES, and Catapult teamed up with 5334:

While a new generation of home game systems got all the hype in '95, the older 16-bit machines still jumped off the shelves. – Nintendo SNES 2.7 million – Sega Genesis 2.1 million – Sega Saturn 300,000 – Sony PlayStation 550,000 – 3DO 250,000 – 64-bit Atari Jaguar

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chip. The Z80 processor is primarily used to control both sound chips to produce stereo music and sound effects. Most revisions of the original Genesis contain a discrete YM2612 and a separate YM7101 VDP; in a later revision, the chips were integrated into a single custom

2186:(1994) is the only game released with this chip and the only Genesis cartridge with any enhancement chip, running at a significantly higher and more stable frame rate than filled polygon games on the SNES. The chip drastically increased the cost of the cartridge, and at 4320: 3871: 3639: 2293:

299; it was released in Europe as the Mega-CD in 1993. In addition to greatly expanding the potential size of its games, this add-on unit upgraded the graphics and sound capabilities by adding a second, more powerful processor, more system memory, and hardware-based

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of three Genesis games. Such information was used to program their new Genesis cartridges in a way that would allow them to disable the security lockouts on the Genesis that prevented unlicensed games from being played. This strategy was used successfully to bring

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The Genesis outsold the SNES for four consecutive Christmas seasons due to its two-year lead, lower price point, and larger game library compared to the SNES at its release. Sega had ten games for every game on SNES, and while the SNES had an exclusive version of

997: (equivalent to $ 500,000,000 in 2023) in Russia, with Sega accounting for half of all console sales in the country. However, only about 15% of the sales were official Sega units distributed by Bitman, while the rest were unofficial counterfeit clones. 2206:, were planned for the SVP chip, but were instead moved into the Saturn's launch line-up. Sega planned to sell the SVP chip as a separate upgrade module for the Genesis, but it was canceled, in order to focus its efforts on the more powerful 32X add-on. 3178:

more than 15 years early" with the Sega Channel, and "played a key role in ensuring the vitality and future of the games industry by breaking Nintendo's near-monopolistic hold on the U.S. and awakening the U.K. to the merits of television gaming".

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on November 2, 2011. "Sega tackles Indian market with local maker From spring 1995, Sega will start manufacturing video games consoles in India with local partner Shaw Wallace. Move will circumvent 80 per cent import tariff on games units which

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campaign for Genesis established it as the system to own ... singlehandedly revolutionizing the way videogames were marketed. It's almost impossible today to even find a videogame ad that doesn't owe something to Sega's shock-tactics marketing

3158:, superior sports games, and backward compatibility with the Sega Master System. In 2008, GamingExcellence ranked it sixth of the 10 best consoles, declaring, "one can truly see the Genesis for the gaming milestone it was." At the same time, 2791:

subscription gaming service included a Genesis emulator and had several dozen licensed Genesis games in its catalog. The Console Classix subscription gaming service includes an emulator and has several hundred Genesis games in its catalog.

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clearly inferior to the Super NES in terms of graphics capabilities, sound chip, and games library. John Ricciardi, in particular, considered the Genesis overrated, saying he had consistently found more enjoyment in both the Super NES and

1077:. The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of the plan, but all four points were approved by Nakayama, who told Kalinske, "I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas, so go ahead and do it." Critics praised 4526: 4444: 1050:(Winter CES) in January 1990, the Sega Genesis demonstrated a strong line-up of games which received a positive reception for approaching arcade-quality graphics and gameplay as well as for providing non-arcade experiences such as 581:. Several add-ons were released, including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games. It was released in several different versions, some created by third parties. Sega created two network services to support the Genesis: 9624: 1120:

reported in early 1993 that Genesis had 250 games versus 75 for the SNES, but limited shelf space meant that stores typically offered 100 Genesis and 50 SNES games. The NES was still the leader, with 300 games and 100 on shelves.

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In addition to accessories such as the Power Base Converter, the Genesis supports two add-ons that each support their own game libraries. The first is the Sega CD (known as the Mega-CD in all regions except for North America), a

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products for the American market. Additionally, I was told that the marketing group would be contacting a known character designer (I won't reveal the name, but it made me cringe at the time) to make a character that showed

1276:, who had developed a prototype platform game that involved a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube. This concept was developed with Ohshima's character design and levels conceived by designer 1533:(VRC), for all its current systems. Ratings ranged from the family-friendly GA rating to the more mature rating of MA-13, and the adults-only rating of MA-17. With the rating system in place, Sega released its version of 6920: 3149:

named the Genesis as the sixth best console of all time in their list of top ten consoles that "left their mark on the history of gaming", noting its great games and solid controller, and writing of the "glory days" of

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In November 1993, Sega released the Sega Activator, an octagonal device that lies flat on the floor and was designed to translate the player's physical movements into game inputs. It was first shown at the January 1993

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complemented how well the Genesis' games took advantage of the console's hardware, but expressed concern about the slow pace of new releases of games, with four reviewers scoring the console 9, 8, 8, and 10 out of 10.

1614:, an independent organization that received praise from Lieberman. With this new rating system in place for the 1994 holiday season, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed, and the SNES port of 1163:

To compete with Nintendo, Sega was more open to new types of games, but still tightly controlled the approval process for third-party games and charged high prices for cartridge manufacturing. The American publisher

1965:(Winter CES) in January 1990 but never released, though a version was operated in Brazil starting in 1995. Another phone-based system, the Mega Anser, turned the Japanese Mega Drive into an online banking terminal. 1544:

was well-received by gaming press, as well as fans, outselling the SNES version three- or four-to-one, while Nintendo was criticized for censoring the SNES version. Executive vice president of Nintendo of America

1067:, he developed a four-point plan: cut the price of the console, create an American team to develop games targeted at the American market, expand the aggressive advertising campaigns, and replace the bundled game 872:

Sega announced a North American release date for the system on January 9, 1989. At the time, Sega did not possess a North American sales and marketing organization and was distributing its Master System through

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His first priority is fixing the disaster in the U.S. market, where Nintendo's share of the 16-bit machine business plummeted from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% a year later, according to Goldman, Sachs &

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due to its use of real actors." This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an edgy company with attitude, and this only reinforced that image. By far the year's most controversial game was

1046:. Nonetheless, Sega struggled to overcome Nintendo's presence in consumers' homes. Tasked by Nakayama to sell one million units within the first year, Katz and Sega of America sold only 500,000. At the Winter 5358: 1229:". Taking advantage of the licensing agreement, Gordon and EA's vice president of marketing services, Nancy Fong, created a visual identifier for EA's Genesis cartridges: a yellow tab molded into the casing. 5116:

During the run-up to the Western launch of Mega-CD ... mentioned the fact that you could just 'blast data into the DACs'. loved the word 'blast' and the next thing I knew 'Blast Processing' was born."

6706: 2529:(without the Sega prefix) in North America. This version omits the headphone jack, replaces the A/V-Out connector with a smaller version that supports stereo sound, and provides a simpler, less expensive 820:

Sega. Sato said some design elements changed, such as the gold "16-bit" wording, in case it was mistaken for yellow. He believed the changes represented different Japanese and American cultural values.

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screen that, when the unit is used to play audio CDs, displays the current track being played. With this feature and the system's lightweight build (weighing two pounds), Sega marketed it in part as a

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is the only cartridge-based game which can optionally use the Sega CD to play an enhanced soundtrack and sound effects disc. In 2013, independent programmer Future Driver, inspired by the Disney film

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the end of the year, we had managed to shift 600,000 as estimated, so ended up with 200,000 units in our warehouse, which we had to sell to retailers at a steep discount to get rid of the inventory.'

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cartridge games to run regardless of their region. AtGames also produced a handheld version of the console preloaded with 20 games. Both machines have been released in Europe by distributing company

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game was somehow only meant for adults. The fact of the matter is this is a copy of the packaging. There was no rating on this game at all when the game was introduced. Small children bought this at

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On December 5, 2007, Tectoy released a portable version of the Genesis/Mega Drive with twenty built-in games. Another version called "Mega Drive Guitar Idol" comes with two six-button joypads and a

1199:(CES), informing him that EA had the ability to run its own licensing program if Sega refused to meet its demands. Sega relented, and the next day EA's upcoming Genesis games were showcased at CES. 8855: 1207:

learned that "we hadn't figured out all the workarounds" and "Sega still had the ability to lock us out ... It just would have been a public relations fiasco." EA released its first Genesis games,

4434: 5463: 4516: 2988:. In 2016, Tectoy announced that they had developed a new Genesis console that not only looks almost identical to the original model of the Genesis, but also has a traditional cartridge slot and 5784:

what the American market needed. Needless to say, this character designer would have been totally inappropriate for the Japanese market. Not that great for the American market either, I suspect.

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original. It was released worldwide and was the first commercial Genesis game release in North America since 1998. Super Fighter Team would later go on to release two more games for the system,

733:. The company retained Sega's North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. With its arcade business in decline, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. president 1132:

focus group found that teenage boys would not admit to owning an SNES rather than a Genesis. With the Genesis often outselling the SNES at a ratio of 2:1, Nintendo and Sega focused heavily on

4574: 4040: 3616: 2751:, the combined price of the system and the Mega-LD pack made it a prohibitively expensive option for Sega players. Aiwa released the CSD-GM1, a combination Genesis/Sega CD unit built into a 1818:, three main buttons, and a start button. In 1993, Sega released a slightly smaller pad with three additional face buttons, similar to the design of buttons on arcade fighting games such as 9610: 4709: 4088: 3727: 3174:

third-parties previously put at a disadvantage by Nintendo's restrictive licensing policies with a more profitable alternative, created "an online subscription service" that foreshadowed "

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for music and software. PCs and video game companies had started to make use of this technology. NEC had been the first to include CD technology in a game console with the release of the

1428: 978:, where it was named Super Gam*Boy and retained the Mega Drive logo alongside the Samsung name. It was later renamed Super Aladdin Boy. In India, Sega entered a distribution deal with 885:

and the president of Atari's Entertainment Electronics Division, Michael Katz. Tramiel declined to acquire the new console, deeming it too expensive, and instead opted to focus on the

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released on October 28, 2019. Both games were created by indie-game developers using actual Sega development hardware to ensure compatibility with the Genesis. On December 16, 2020,

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as one of the greatest games yet made, and Genesis sales increased as customers who had been waiting for the release of the international version of Nintendo's Super Famicom, the

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system, providing two extra ports on the cartridge itself, although the technology came late in the console's life and is only featured on a few games. Sega planned to release a

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With the release of the Saturn scheduled for 1995, Sega began developing a stopgap to bridge the gap between the Genesis and Saturn and serve as a less expensive entry into the

5687: 8685: 3082:) in a 1989 preview of the console spoke highly of the system's hardware but questioned Sega's ability to support the console given their difficulties with the Master System. 2747:, which requires an add-on known as the Mega-LD pack, developed by Sega, in order to play Genesis and Sega CD games. Although the LaserActive was lined up to compete with the 2407:

More than a dozen licensed variations of the Genesis/Mega Drive have been released. In addition to models made by Sega, alternate models were made by other companies, such as

2379:. At the end of the Consumer Electronics show, with the basic design of the 32X in place, Sega Enterprises invited Sega of America to assist in development of the new add-on. 1370:

to the Genesis in 1990. To do so, Accolade had copied Sega's copyrighted game code multiple times in order to reverse engineer the software of Sega's licensed Genesis games.

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but the 500,000 copies of Donkey Kong Country that Nintendo sent out in its initial shipment were mostly sold in preorder, and the rest sold out in less than one week. It (

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to replace Katz as CEO of Sega of America. Although Kalinske knew little about the video game market, he surrounded himself with industry-savvy advisors. A believer in the

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In Russia, Sega officially licensed the console to local distributor Forrus in 1994, replaced in 1996 by Bitman. That year, the video game console market generated between

9213: 1390:"SEGA" at a particular point in the memory contained in the cartridge. If the string was present, the console would run the game, and would briefly display the message: " 9139: 8146: 5200: 9036: 8393: 7293: 6545: 4684: 3401: 787:

amid great publicity. To remain competitive against the two more established consumer electronics companies, Ishikawa and his team decided they needed to incorporate a

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Granted, the Mega Drive wasn't met with quite the same levels of enthusiasm in Japan, but in the US and Europe the Mega Drive often outsold the SNES at a ratio of 2:1.

2319:, a company that became an important partner for Sega. Touting the benefits of the CD's comparatively vast storage space, Sega and its third-party developers produced 6568: 5257: 5716: 5656: 8944: 8913: 3478: 791:

microprocessor into their new system to make an impact in the marketplace and once again turned to Sega's strengths in the arcade industry to adapt the successful

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similar to that found in Sega's arcade games. It provided battery-backed storage RAM to allow games to save high scores, configuration data, and game progress.

9587: 9244: 4208: 8712: 7411: 5810: 4124: 3512: 6829: 4017: 3468: 1961:", this allowed Mega Drive players to play a total of seventeen games online. A North American version, dubbed "Tele-Genesis", was announced at the Winter 1436: 9552: 8847: 11817: 11812: 10785: 5494: 5082: 7584: 5455: 10928: 2172:

Sega had produced such effects on its arcade platforms, and adapted some to the home console by developing the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP). Based on a

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game cartridge. With more games planned for the following year, Accolade successfully identified the TMSS file. It later added this file to the games

8882: 6025: 4562: 2351: 518:. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis. In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by 8475: 5350: 3608: 962:

handled the Mega Drive's launch and marketing in Australia, as it had done before with the Master System. In Brazil, the Mega Drive was released by

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packages, a record high for Sega software. "Sonic 2," introduced in November 1992, proceeded to outperform its predecessor. The initial release of

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that requires the use of the reset button, which the Nomad lacks), but cannot be used with the Sega 32X, the Sega CD, or the Power Base Converter.

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in 1990, only a year after the Brazilian release of the Master System. Tectoy produced games exclusively for the Brazilian market and brought the

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advocated that the company leverage its hardware expertise to move into the home console market in Japan, which was in its infancy at the time.

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It's about a hundred bucks more than buying the systems separately, and what you really end up paying for is the sleek, new design and the CDs.

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The Genesis library was initially modest, but eventually grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players. The initial pack-in game was

1569:, and he knows that as well as I do. When they started getting heat about this game, then they adopted the rating system and put ratings on it. 752:

which had been released the same day. Sega estimated that the Famicom outsold the SG-1000 by a 10-to-1 margin. The SG-1000 was replaced by the

6950: 3112:. Commenting that the Genesis hardware was aging and the new software drying up, they recommended consumers buy a next-generation system or a 2984:

game contains a mix of Brazilian and international songs. The console has 87 built-in games, including some from Electronic Arts based on the

2180:, this chip enables the Genesis to render polygons in real time and provides an "Axis Transformation" unit that handles scaling and rotation. 10574: 9089: 9002: 5242: 2054: 3154:. In January 2008, technology columnist Don Reisinger proclaimed that the Genesis "created the industry's best console war to date", citing 3086:

called the Genesis "the to have" in 1990, rating it 5 out of 5 stars while predicting the console would lead the market. In the same year,

2536:

Sega released a combined, semi-portable Genesis/Sega CD unit, the Genesis CDX (marketed as the Multi-Mega in Europe). This unit retailed at

1128:, an obscure and unused graphics programming method, to suggest that its processing capabilities were far greater than those of the SNES. A 9110: 8505: 7606: 6851: 3182:

For his part, Kalinske highlighted Sega's role in developing games for an older demographic and pioneering "the concept of the 'street date

1020: 9466: 6541: 629:". This drew attention to the video game industry, and the Genesis and several of its games attracted legal scrutiny on matters involving 5031:) established the Super NES as the better 16-bit console and paved the way for Nintendo to win the waning years of the 16-bit generation. 1885: 4186: 889:. Sega decided to launch the console through its own Sega of America subsidiary, which executed a limited launch on August 14, 1989, in 877:. Dissatisfied with Tonka's performance, Sega looked for a new partner to market the Genesis in North America and offered the rights to 2585:. Its design was based on the Mega Jet, a Mega Drive portable unit featured on airplane flights in Japan. As the only successor to the 2107:, which sold more than a million copies. One of the biggest third-party companies to support the Genesis early on was Electronic Arts. 1511: 1463: 1259: 9529: 9015:

The Sega Genesis is not dead. Thanks to indie studios like Mega Cat Studios, fans can still collect and play new games for the system.

7518: 5675: 4494: 2082:. Compared to its competition, Sega advertised to an older audience by hosting more mature games, including the uncensored version of 1889:, were adapted to support the peripheral. The device was a commercial failure, due mainly to its inaccuracy and its high price point. 10710: 8791: 8675: 3780: 756:

within two years. In the meantime, Gulf+Western began to divest itself of its non-core businesses after the death of company founder

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specifically developed for the console since 1996, and was the biggest 16-bit game ever produced for the console at the time at 64

941: 833: 504: 132: 8038: 7496: 5763: 3880: 3689: 3648: 3125:, while Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer recommended it based on its selection of classic titles and the high value-for-money of the six 1847:. Released for art creation software, the Sega Mega Mouse features three buttons and is only compatible with a few games, such as 11563: 10864: 10859: 10720: 10705: 10700: 10690: 10680: 10660: 9987: 3848: 3571: 3264: 3170: 1756: 1093:, the Genesis outsold the SNES in the United States nearly two to one during the 1991 holiday season. Sega controlled 65% of the 9058: 7952: 6699:"Sega captures dollar share of videogame market again; diverse product strategy yields market growth; Sega charts path for 1996" 6343: 10921: 10063: 9783: 9502: 9203: 8652: 8142: 7324: 5351:"Sega tops holiday, yearly sales projections; Sega Saturn installed base reaches 1.6 million in U.S., 7 million worldwide" 2831: 2165: 1221: 744:, in July 1983. While it had sold 160,000 units in Japan, far exceeding Sega's expectations, sales at stores were dominated by 9147: 9028: 5321: 5190: 740:

Nakayama received permission to proceed with this project, leading to the release of Sega's first home video game system, the

58: 11691: 10643: 8383: 7469: 7285: 6758: 6170: 5236: 4054: 8424: 5132: 2755:. Several companies added the Mega Drive to personal computers, mimicking the design of Sega's TeraDrive; these include the 604:, but it achieved considerable success in North America, Brazil, and Europe. Contributing to its success was its library of 64: 11807: 11802: 11797: 9958: 8621: 5709: 5649: 5267: 3794: 2285:

to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Genesis. Sega launched the Mega-CD in Japan on December 1, 1991, initially retailing at

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for a tenth of its price on an up-front volume order with the promise of more orders pending the console's future success.

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praised the console's responsive controls and graphics, and said the Genesis was "straight out of the future". Similarly,

11263: 10780: 10672: 9266: 5971: 3428: 2933: 2140: 2103: 1611: 1147:, the Genesis maintained its lead over the Super NES in the American 16-bit console market. However, according to a 2014 1082: 866: 658: 622: 8082:"Sega president and CEO also announces immediate availability of Sega Saturn in 1,800 retail outlets in U.S. and Canada" 6519: 5426: 4461: 10516: 9444: 8967: 7910: 7815: 6972:

Schilling, Mellissa A. (Spring 2003). "Technological Leapfrogging: Lessons From the U.S. Video Game Console Industry".

6481: 6171:"Reverse Engineering and the Rise of Electronic Vigilantism: Intellectual Property Implications of "Lock-Out" Programs" 2593:, displaying its graphics on a 3.25-inch (8.25-mm) LCD screen. The Nomad supports the entire Genesis library (save for 2169:(1995) demonstrates rotation, scaling, and stretching of individual sprites and manipulates large areas of the screen. 2101:

was initially released on the SNES. As the Genesis continued to grow in popularity, Capcom released a Genesis version,

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Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan on October 29, 1988, though the launch was overshadowed by Nintendo's release of

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Zackariasson, Peter; Wilson, Timothy L.; Ernkvist, Mirko (2012). "Console Hardware: The Development of Nintendo Wii".

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instead, but also advised those who already owned a Genesis to not sell it. In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five

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head Joe Miller took a phone call from Nakayama, in which Nakayama stressed the importance of a quick response to the

11792: 11727: 10914: 10567: 10162: 7992: 7054: 6733: 6679: 6643: 6457: 6326: 6293: 6248: 6215: 6147: 6113: 6080: 6002: 5582: 5173: 5057: 5019: 4962: 4937: 4891: 4861: 4836: 4596: 4391: 4366: 4329: 4239: 3955: 3922: 3554: 2609: 10655: 9579: 2375:-2 processors. The SH-2 had been developed in 1993 as a joint venture between Sega and Japanese electronics company 1348: 951:. The Mega Drive and its first batch of games were shown at the 1990 European Computer Entertainment Show (ECES) in 11763: 10607: 10195: 9236: 7762: 7722: 7192: 6881: 5547:

Linhoff, Joe (2004). "Video Games and Reverse Engineering: Before and After the Digital Millennium Copyright Act".

1849: 1507: 416: 10650: 8708: 6794: 3826: 9968: 5800: 4005: 2556: 2084: 1520: 1042: 649: 2289:

49,800. The CD add-on was launched in North America on October 15, 1992, as the Sega CD, with a retail price of

1654:

miscalculation. By contrast, Nintendo concentrated on the 16-bit home console market, as well as its successful

669:

in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations or on online services such as the

11604: 10885: 10619: 10344: 10145: 9556: 6175: 4732: 3358: 3338: 1251: 1085:(SNES), decided to purchase a Genesis instead. The SNES debuted against an established competitor, while NEC's 7403: 5486: 5074: 4116: 3504: 1957:, which debuted in Japan on November 3, 1990. Operating through a cartridge and a peripheral called the "Mega 807:

The appearance of the Mega Drive was designed by a team led by Mitsushige Shiraiwa that drew inspiration from

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