Sega Genesis

The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive[c] outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth-generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. The Genesis was Sega’s third console and the successor to the Master System. 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 Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tec Toy in Brazil. In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.[d] In Russia, it was distributed by Bitman.

Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, the Genesis was adapted from Sega’s System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU, a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller, and a video system supporting hardware sprites, tiles, and scrolling. It plays a library of more than 900 games on ROM-based cartridges. 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: Sega Meganet and Sega Channel.

* Information provided by Wikipedia

Manufacturer Sega
Generation Fourth generation
Type Home video game console
Release date August 14, 1989
Introductory price US$199
Discontinued 1997 (Sega)
Units sold 30.75 million
Media ROM Cartridge
CPU Motorola 68000 @ 7.6 MHz
Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz
Memory 64 KB of RAM
64 KB of Video RAM
8 KB of Audio RAM
Graphics 320×224, 256×224, 512 colors, 61 at one time
Sound Yamaha YM2612, Texas Instruments SN76489
Controller input Sega Game Pad
Power Varies per version

 

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