العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolSEGA MEGA-CD
The is an add-on device for the Sega Mega Drive released in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The Genesis add-on for the North American market was called 'Sega CD'. The device allowed the user to play games, audio CDs, and CD+G discs.
The development of the Mega-CD was confidential; game developers were not made aware of what exactly they were working on until the add-on was finally revealed at the Tokyo Toy Show in Japan. The Sega Mega-CD was designed to compete with the PC Engine in Japan, which had a separate CD-ROM drive.
The Sega Mega-CD was not meant to compete with the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan). This posed a problem in the markets outside of Japan, where the PC Engine did not fare very well, and the expectation was that the Mega-CD would be in competition with Nintendo.
The first version of the system sat under the Mega Drive console and loaded CDs via a motorized tray. The second version of the system, dubbed Mega-CD 2, had the CD-ROM drive relocated to the right of the Sega Mega Drive system, changed to a top-loading CD-ROM drive with a lid, and was meant primarily to be used with the redesigned Sega Mega Drive 2. However the original model of the Sega Mega Drive could still be used with the addition of an extension that allowed the system to firmly sit on the add-on without overhanging the edge (the Sega Mega Drive still sat on top of the system, but to a much lesser extent than before).
Markets
Japan
Hybrid Sega CD/Sound Minisystem manufactured by Aiwa
The Sega Mega-CD was released first in Japan in December 1 1991. Its retail price was about ¥49,800. Initially, it was a great success because of the inherent advantages of CDs (high storage capacity and the low cost of media). The fact that it had a large RPG catalog also helped.
Despite having been on sale for over 2 years, by March 1994 the MEGA-CD had only sold 380,000[1] units in Japan, which meant that only 11% of Japanese Mega Drive owners had purchased the add-on unit.
North America
Sega of Japan did not speak to Sega of America about their Mega-CD plans for that market until a few months later.
The Sega CD had been announced at the Chicago CES on January 1992. Early reports had suggested that hardware in the system would allow it to display more on screen colors (from a larger palette) than the Sega Genesis or the Super Nintendo, which was an important technical concern for consumers.
Sega CD logo.
In the end, the Sega CD was unable to convince North American gamers, mostly due to the cost of the console, and the lack of any hardware advancements. Many people felt there was not enough value for the price. Moreover, the game experience was little improved. Players came to have high expectations for the add-on, and Sega even promised that the Sega CD would allow a higher color palette than the Genesis. However, the end result was somewhat lackluster compared to expectations. Graphically, most games ended up looking not much better than normal Sega Mega Drive games, though the sound quality was higher, owing to the CD format of the games.
Sega wanted to showcase the power of the Sega CD, and so focused on "FMV" games rather than taking advantage of the extra storage space of the CD media. Sega insisted on licensing and producing primarily "full motion video" games similar to earlier Laserdisc games, that were universally panned by game reviewers. The limited 64-color palette of the system, combined with the processor not being well-suited for video, did not lend itself well to reproducing video, resulting in grainy video in most games.
Another criticism of the software library was that most titles consisted of Shovelware, in which a developer takes an existing title and adds minor new content (usually a CD audio soundtrack, or video sequences) while not expanding the original game itself. Few titles received major changes, but two exceptions were ''Earthworm Jim'' which featured additional levels and game changes, and ''The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin'', which featured many changes, which drastically restructured the game, making it less linear, and adding animated cut scenes.
Despite a somewhat lackluster library of games, the console introduced very famous franchises. The ''Lunar'' series, which despite the relatively narrow circulation the two titles on the Sega CD received, went on to be critically acclaimed and became a cult classic, with both games receiving remakes for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in the late 90's; and a prequel to the series for the Nintendo DS in 2005. The English publisher of the two Lunar titles, Working Designs, also published another RPG for the platform, entitled ''Vay''. While it received generally positive reviews, the game did not obtain the same popularity as the ''Lunar'' titles. Another notable title was the cult-classic ''Snatcher'', a cyber-punk digital comic released by Konami and designed by Hideo Kojima and the only version of the game released in English.
One exclusive game that was published for the Sega CD is the now famous Sonic the Hedgehog CD, or Sonic CD. Sonic CD is praised for having good graphics, superior CD quality sound to the Genesis/Mega Drive games, and an innovative style of stages, having four versions of each of the three zones in each stage. Many fans praise the game as the best of the series for these reasons. Sonic CD is the most well known non-Sonic Team game at this point.
Europe
.jpg)
PAL Mega Drive II and Mega-CD II
In Europe the Mega-CD was thought to be overpriced. It was released in April 1993 in the United Kingdom for £270.
Unlike the Mega Drive, which was a very successful console in Europe, only 60,000 of the 70,000 Mega-CDs shipped to Europe were sold by August 1993.
Some European countries (Spain for instance), would not get the original Mega-CD, but the Mega-CD 2, which also slowed sales.
Australia
The Mega-CD was released on 19 April, 1993 in Australia.
Brazil
The Sega-CD 2 was launched in the Brazilian market exactly at the same time of the U.S. Release. Since the original Sega-CD was never released there, it was simply called "Sega-CD". However, because several Mega-CD units imported from Japan were already in the market, it was informally known as "Mega-CD". It was manufactured locally by Tec Toy.
Models
The following models were released:
★ Sega Mega-CD I (Sega CD I in North America)
★ Sega Mega-CD II (Sega CD II in North America). Designed for the Mega Drive 2 / Genesis (second model) and to reduce manufacturing costs
★ JVC Wondermega (X'Eye in North American release, never released in Europe), was an all-in-one Mega Drive/Mega-CD unit
★ Sega Multi-Mega (called Sega CDX in North America). A portable CD player that plays both Mega Drive and Mega-CD games, as well as audio CDs, and CD-G discs. Resembling a slightly longer version of the typical portable CD player of the day.
★ Pioneer LaserActive Sega Mega-CD module, an add-on device available for the LaserActive system
Technical specifications
The Sega Mega-CD specifications were as follows: [2]
CPU
The main CPU is a 12.5-MHz 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor. The Mega Drive/Genesis has the same processor, but at a lower clock rate of 7.67 MHz (NTSC) / 7.61 MHz (PAL).
Graphics
★ Graphics Processor: Custom ASIC
★ Number of simultaneous colors on screen: 64 out of 512
★ Display resolution: 320 x 224 pixels and 256 x 224, video size from ¼ to full screen
★ Advanced compression scheme
★ Software-based upgrade
★ Scaling and rotation effects
RAM
★ Main RAM: 6 Mbit
★ PCM samples: 512 Kbit
★ CD-ROM data cache: 128 Kbit
★ 64 Kbit Internal Backup RAM
Storage
★ 500 MB CD-ROM discs (equivalent to 62 min of audio data)
★ ¼ screen B/W footage video: 1.5 to 4 hours
★ ¼ screen color footage: 45 minutes
★ CD-ROM drive transfer rate: 150 Kbytes/s (1x)
''(Above specs prior to compression)''
BIOS
★ Size: 1 MBit
★ Used for games, CD player, CD+G and karaoke
★ Access time: 800 ms
| BIOS Version | Machine |
| 1.02 | Pioneer LaserActive Mega LD (Japan/North America) (based on ver. 0.98 proto Mega-CD BIOS) |
| 1.00 | Original Mega-CD (Europe/Japan) |
| 1.10 | Original Sega CD (North America) |
| 2.00 | Mega-CD 2 (Europe/Japan), Sega CD 2 (North America) |
| 2.11 | Mega-CD 2 (Europe/Japan), Sega CD 2 (North America) |
| 2.21 | Sega Multi-Mega (Europe/Japan), Sega Genesis CDX (North America) |
Audio
''The Mega-CD adds 10 extra sound channels to the Mega Drive's YM2612 SPU.''
★ Sound format: Stereo PCM
★ Sound channels: 8
★ Maximum sample rate: 32 kHz (44.1 kHz for CD-DA)
★ 16 bit DAC
★ 8x internal over-sampling digital filter
★ Frequency Range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
★ Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 90.0 dB @ 1K
★ Channel Separation: > 90.0 dB
★ Output: RCA stereo Pin Jack x2 (L/R) / SCART cable
★ Mixing Input Port for stereo sound on the original Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis Model.
Other
★ Dimensions: 301mm × 212.5 mm × 112.5mm
★ Weight: 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs)
Accessories
★ Few accessories were released for the Mega-CD. The most notable being an external memory card that came in the form of a Mega Drive cartridge. Titled the "CD Backup RAM Cart", it was placed in the Mega Drive slot like a normal Mega Drive game, and the Mega-CD would detect this cartridge upon booting up. Games could either be saved directly to it (on the titles that supported it) or to copy/transfer game saves to and from the Mega-CD's internal RAM. Complete backups were possible as the CD Backup RAM Cart contained 16 times the amount of RAM as the Mega-CD (1Mbit, or 2000 Game Save Blocks, compared to the Mega-CD's 64Kb, or 125 Game Save Blocks.)
★ A Light gun named "The Justifier" was also released bundled with Lethal Enforcers
★ A multi-functional cartridge called "Megacart" was released in 2006. It works as a region converter, RAM cart and can flash cart games.
Graphic trivia
While the system was in development, several US video game magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and Gamepro had published reports that the Sega CD was going to be able to display more on-screen colors than the Sega Genesis. It appears that there had been some discussion about upgrading the hardware in the Sega CD to compete with the color capabilites of the Super Nintendo, but it was vetoed.
A common myth surrounding the Mega-CD is in regard to the number of colors it can display on-screen. Like the unexpanded Mega Drive/Genesis, the published specifications of the Mega-CD indicate that the system can produce up to 64 colors on-screen out of a global palette of 512. However, many people claim that some games, such as ''Snatcher'', ''Jurassic Park'' and ''Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side'', exceeded the on-screen limit with the use of programming tricks, achieving 112, 192, even 256 colors simultaneously. Some versions of this rumor claim that there was a version of the Cinepak video codec that could render FMV in 256 colors on the Mega-CD as well.
The idea of displaying more than 64 colors at once in Mega-CD games is not groundless. What is not widely realized, however, is that the Mega-CD breaks this limit with the same methods that can be executed on an unexpanded console, and also that these methods are all severely limited in practical use.
The most common way of displaying extra colors is with the use of raster effects, which involve simply changing the on-screen color palette in between TV scanlines as the picture is being drawn. Sonic games use this to make underwater effects. A lesser known trick is to use the priority bit of a pixel for color purposes, allowing any color to have 3 shades (normal, bright and dim) and effectively tripling the number of colors available onscreen. However, this trick compromises the video display processor's capabilities so drastically that it was rarely ever used, especially for in-game graphics. Finally, many developers simply relied on dithering, a simple artist's method of drawing pixels of two similar colors in an alternating, checkerboard-like manner, and relying on the inaccuracy of composite or RF video signals to blend the colors together into a third color. On a side note, this same method could be used to make a fake transparency just by leaving every other pixel blank.
The programming trick which many mistakenly believe can be used to display extra colors on the Mega-CD is called HAM, or Hold And Modify. This complicated trick was used with the Commodore Amiga line of computers with the same goal of raising the on-screen color limit. However, the Amiga could also use raster effects, and this is where the confusion most likely started. At some point, it was probably said that a trick similar to one used on the Amiga could be used with the Mega-CD to display extra colors on-screen. Since people knew there was a trick to get extra colors out of the Amiga called HAM, they may have then assumed that the Mega-CD could use HAM as well. However, the Mega-CD has no support for this or a similar function at all whereas the Amiga's graphic chip was designed for it.
Controversy
On October 15, 1992, the system received one of the most controversial titles of that time, ''Night Trap'', developed by Digital Pictures. The game was a full motion video title, and starred Dana Plato as one of a group of young girls having a slumber party in a house whose family were secretly vampires. The action consisted of playing the part of a "security guard" and watching cameras inside the house. The player has control over various traps in the house, and when "Augers" (men in black outfits) threatened one or more of the girls, the player has to time the springing of the trap to successfully trap the "Auger." The title received widespread criticism (and controversy) due to several scenes where the girls could be seen in skimpy clothing/underwear, in addition to the violence. This lead many public figures to condemn the game and demanded it be pulled off store shelves. Along with ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Night Trap'' led to the formation of the ESRB. On December 16, 1993 the game was pulled, and the offending scenes edited out, the game was then re-released under the new "M" rating, for Mature. In reality, the scenes in question were not as graphic as they were made out to be (some people were claiming the game featured actual nudity, which it did not.) The game was also released for several other systems, including the PC, 3DO, and even updated for the Sega 32X.
Mega Drive/Genesis Titles Re-appearing on CD
Several Mega Drive/Genesis titles (As well as franchises appearing on other platforms) were ported to Sega's CD format. Referred to as "shovelware," many saw these ports as negative points for Sega's platform. However, the CD versions usually offer added stages, new full motion video (oftentimes illustrating the storyline), or reworked/completely re-developed soundtracks. Some of these titles and their differences:
★ 'Afterburner III' - A port of G-Loc from the Genesis/Mega Drive. This particular title does feature a hard-rock/heavy-metal re-produced soundtrack of the majority of the original Afterburner/Afterburner II music. Disc doubles as a music CD.
★ 'Batman Returns' - One of the more lengthy ports. The game features the full side-scrolling game of Batman Returns from the Mega Drive/Genesis, as well as new driving action stages in between each side-scrolling hub. A completely original soundtrack created by Spencer Nilson (Ecco the Dolphin) features many dark symphonic tunes mixed with batches of rock/heavy-metal. The new driving modes show off much of the Sega CD's added power with big sprites and a lot going on with little slowdown. The disc doubles as a music CD.
★ 'Chuck Rock' - A direct gameplay port. Visuals come out as a little bit smoother than other versions, and the game includes a re-produced CD soundtrack.
★ '' - Title includes a re-done CD soundtrack as well as well-done intro and ending video sequences, detailing the storyline.
★ '' - A port of the Genesis game with a new stage and a re-produced CD soundtrack. Music is possibly from the PC edition of the game (Or vice-versa, the PC game soundtrack may be from the Sega CD game).
★ 'Ecco the Dolphin' - A direct port of the Genesis/Mega Drive game. There are no differences in gameplay, visuals, or sound effects, except for some new levels. The soundtrack is, however, a completely new symphonic work by Spencer Nilson. The disc doubles as a music CD.
★ '' - A direct port of the Genesis/Mega Drive game with a re-vamped CD soundtrack and lengthy CG sequences illustrating the story throughout the game. Disc doubles as a music CD.
★ '' - More of a full-on sequel to the original Eternal Champions. With all of the enhancements and editions (Characters, fatalities, CG sequences, re-worked soundtrack and fresh story elements), it should not be confused as a direct port.
★ 'Final Fight CD' - Up until Final Fight was re-released in the recent Capcom Classics collections for PlayStation 2, XBOX, and PSP, the Sega/Mega CD version of the game offered the most-complete experience. Guy is a playable character, the game takes advantage of the Sega CD's added power with smoother animation than other previous ports (SNES/SFC), and also incorporates simultaneous two-player gameplay, along with extended intro and ending sequences and a revamped musical score with real instruments on a CD-Player-Friendly soundtrack. A time-attack mode is also available, where one or two players are pitted against as many enemies as they can handle within a defined amount of time.
★ '' - A port of the PC game. Includes all CG FMV sequences and each stage now features its own full-length, high-quality music track (versus the short music clips that played sparsely throughout the game in the original PC game and console ports). By far one of the (if not the) most-complete, most-enjoyable versions of Flashback.
★ 'Heart of the Alien' - A port of Out of This World, which originally debuted on the PC, Mega Drive, and SNES. Sega CD version includes smoother animation and quicker gameplay overall with less slowdown, a revamped CD soundtrack, as well as the full sequel, Out of This World 2: Heart of the Alien.
★ 'Lethal Enforcers' - Identical to the earlier console ports, although it includes the full arcade soundtrack. A lightgun bundle was released.
★ 'Mortal Kombat' - The Mega CD version features the most-complete port of the original arcade game, with the full arcade soundtrack, as well as more accurate details (Including blood, heads, and bodies in the pit stage). The game also has a FMV intro via the original MK TV commercial. When the CD is inserted into a CD player, the full soundtrack as well as the original Mortal Kombat Motion Picture Soundtrack theme are playable. Other remixes of the MK Movie theme are also included on the disc.
★ 'NBA Jam' - The most complete port of the arcade game, the title features a FMV ending, as well as the full arcade CD soundtrack. Game data is stored via the Sega CD's internal memory backup.
★ '' - A direct port of the Mega Drive/Genesis game, albeit with FMV intros and a fullly re-produced, booming CD soundtrack.
★ 'Prince of Persia' - One of many ports of the game with subtle differences from the rest. Includes anime-styled FMV sequences, a full CD soundtrack, and the ability to save your progress via internal memory, as well as the option to increase or decrease the games speed/framerate.
See also
★ List of Mega-CD games
★ Sega Multi-Mega/Sega CDX
★ Sega 32X
★ 16-bit Era
★ Sega 16
External links
★ Sega-16 - Comprehensive site with hundreds of reviews and articles.
★ SegaBase - Comprehensive history of this system
References
1.
MEGA
2.
Sega CD programming FAQ
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
