Mega Drive

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Fast Facts on the Sega Mega Drive

Made by: Sega
Variants: Mega Drive 2, Genesis 3, Sega Mega Jet, Sega Nomad, Sega Teradrive
Processor: Motorola 68000 (or equivalent), 7.67MHz NTSC/7.61MHz PAL; Zilog Z80 (or equivalent) for sound programming and Master System compatibility, 3.58MHz NTSC/3.55MHz PAL
Released in US: 9 January 1989
Released in EU: Winter 1990
Released in JP: 29 October 1988

The Sega Mega Drive, or Sega "Genesis" as it is called in the United States is a 4th Generation Home video game console produced by Sega. It was introduced to the market in 1989 as competition to rival Nintendo's Super Nintendo Console.

The Mega Drive is a Video Game console that is based mainly for home use. During it's run, Sega had three models released (while the last model was not produced by Sega, but by another company unde license) and each one becoming smaller than the original. The system ran through an A/V out cable that connected to a television. The console itself boasted one of the fastest processors in it's time, The Motorolla 68000 series. This chipset was attributed to making the Mega Drive run at such high speeds without lag that most processors of its time would crash from the amounts of instructions being sent to be processed. Along with it, it also came equipted with a Zilog Z80 chip that handled sound and music processing for the console. With all of this running inside, the Mega Drive was one of the first game console to boast of having 16-bit music and art, and to top it off, the Genesis had "Blast Processing," which was not much other than a marketing slogan.

Model 1 and Model 2 Mega Drives have an expansion port for the Sega CD peripheral. In addition to the Sega CD, in 1995 Sega released the 32x peripheral. This piece of equiptment was to be placed directly into cartidge slot, and enhanced the console with two 32-bit CPUs and increased audio and video capabilities.

Hardware Revisions

Model 1

File:Megadrive1.jpg
An early Model 1 Sega Genesis.

Model 1 is the original release of the system in 1988. This version was released in all regions. The only differnces between the two versions is that the American Release had "Genesis" printed on it as apposed to "Mega Drive"

Basic Features

File:MD1Ports.jpg
The outputs on the back of the Model 1 Genesis.
  • Two Controller ports
  • A/V out ports
  • The system had the switch that selected which channel the RF Signal would be picked up on
  • Capabilities to play up to 4 MB (more with special cartridges) games
  • Stereo sound output only through headphone port
  • EXT port on the back of the console, used mostly for the Mega Modem
  • Larger circuit board and less distorted sound output
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A sample of the Mega Drive's sound capability.


The Model 1 Mega Drive can easily be identified by the large rectangular shape, and the non-distorted audio.