Mega Drive (1988, Japan )

The Sega Mega Driver was a 16-bit system that was a competitor to the Super Nintendo and the last Sega game system regarded in hindsight as successful.

The Mega Drive is estimated to have sold 39.70 Million units worldwide,making it Sega's most successful console.

Created By: Sega

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Extra Info

The Mega Drive was released in North America as the Sega Genesis as Sega were unable to secure the rights for the trademark 'Mega Drive'.

History

Although the Sega Master System had proved a success in Brazil and Europe, it failed to ignite much interest in the North American or Japanese markets, which by the mid-to-late 1980s were both dominated by Nintendo with 95% and 92% market shares respectively. Hoping to dramatically increase their share, Sega set about creating a new machine that would be at least as powerful as the then most impressive home computer hardware on the market - the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and the Apple Macintosh II.

The first name Sega considered for its console was the MK-1601, but it ultimately decided to call it the "Mega Drive". The name was said to represent superiority and speed, with the powerful Motorola 68000 processor in mind. Sega used the name Mega Drive for the Japanese, European, Asian, Australian and Brazilian versions of the console. The North American version went by the name "Genesis" due to a trademark dispute.

Launch

The Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 29, 1988. Sega announced a North American release date for the system (under the name of Sega Genesis) on January 9, 1989. Sega initially attempted to partner with Atari Corporation for distribution of the console in the US, but the two could not agree to terms and Sega decided to do it themselves. Sega was not able to meet the initial release date and US sales began on August 14, 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles. The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year.

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User Comments

Aaron said...

I love this console. I own the model 2.