Sega Mega Drive
More info
- Owner
- Sega
- Released
- 1988 (Japan), 1990 (Europe)
- Type
- Games console
- CPU
- Motorola 68000 plus Zilog Z80
The sixteen-bit console that took on Nintendo with attitude, faster hardware and a hedgehog.
The machine appeared in Japan in 1988 and is called the Genesis in North America. Inside sat a Motorola 68000 for the game and a Z80 handling sound, which also made the console backward compatible with its predecessor, the Master System. The power allowed more colours and faster scrolling than the NES, which the marketers called blast processing without the phrase meaning anything technically specific.
Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 gave the platform an identity and the advertising an enemy: the "Genesis does what Nintendon't" campaign is still a textbook case of comparative advertising. Around 30 million units were sold, and the console war between Sega and Nintendo shaped the whole games market of the 1990s.