Sega Mega-CD

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Mega-CD (Sega CD)
Manufacturer	Sega
Type	Video game console
Generation	16-bit era
First available	December 1, 1991 October 15, 1992 April, 1993
CPU	MC68000 @ 12.5 MHz
Media	CD-ROM
System storage	Internal RAM
Units sold	6 million (380,000 in Japan)
Top-selling game	Sonic CD

The Sega Mega-CD (メガCD, mega CD^?) was 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 ontop of the system, but to a much lesser extent than before)

In North America, the Sega CD was considered a failure due to its high price, low sales, few hardware upgrades, and general confusion with the Sega 32X, another Genesis peripheral offered. Due to Sega of America's lack of support for the Sega CD and 32X, many consumers lost their trust in Sega. It can be said that Sega never recovered from this, as the Saturn and the Dreamcast — although considered good efforts on Sega's behalf — were unable to compete effectively with Sony's PlayStation consoles.

Contents 1 Markets 1.1 Japan 1.2 North America 1.3 Europe 1.4 Australia 1.5 Brazil 2 Models 3 Technical specifications 3.1 CPU 3.2 Graphics 3.3 RAM 3.4 Storage 3.5 BIOS 3.6 Audio 3.7 Other 3.8 Accessories 3.9 Graphic trivia 3.10 Controversy 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Markets

[edit] Japan

The Sega Mega-CD was released first in Japan in 1st December 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

[edit] 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 November 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.

In the end, the Sega CD failed 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.

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.

Because of the CD format, games suffered load times, which some players criticized. One of the worst examples of which being the port of Midway's Mortal Kombat which suffered from excessive load times, which would often stop the game in the middle of play to load data from the CD.

Another criticism of the software library what 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. Some titles such as Earthworm Jim or The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin featured additional levels and game changes. (Spider Man vs the Kingpin in particular featured many changes, which drastically restructured the game, making it more non-linear, and adding animated cutscenes.)

Despite a somewhat lackluster library of games, the console produced two very famous titles. 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 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. Other notable title were 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.

[edit] Europe

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-CD's 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.

[edit] Australia

The Mega-CD was released on 19 April 1993 in Australia.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] Technical specifications

The Sega Mega-CD specifications were as follows: ^[2]

[edit] 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).

[edit] Graphics

• Graphics Processor: Custom ASIC
• Number of simultaneous colors on screen: 64 out of 512
• Display resolution: 320 x 224 pixels, video size from ¼ to full screen (only one game had full screen full motion video)
• Advanced compression scheme
• Software-based upgrade

[edit] RAM

• Main RAM: 6 Mbit
• PCM samples: 512 Kbit
• CD-ROM data cache: 128 Kbit
• 64 Kbit Internal Backup RAM

The Mega-CD also features sprite enhancement effects such as scaling and rotation, similar to that of the Super Famicom/SNES Mode 7. However Sega refused to allow developers access to the software required to take advantage of these features, partially leading to the system's downfall.

[edit] 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)

[edit] BIOS

• Size: 1 MBit
• Used for games, CD player, CD+G and karaoke
• Access time: 800 ms

BIOS Revisions

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
2.11	Mega-CD 2
2.21	Sega Multi-Mega (Europe/Japan), Sega CDX (North America)

[edit] 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.

[edit] Other

• Dimensions: 301mm × 212.5 mm × 112.5mm
• Weight: 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs)

[edit] 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

[edit] Graphic trivia

While the system was in development, several US video game magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and Game Pro had published reports that the Sega CD was going to be able to display more on-screen colors then 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 CD, 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.

[edit] Controversy

• On October 15, 1992, the system received one of the most controversal titles of all time, Night Trap, developed by Digital Pictures. The game was a FMV title, and starred a young 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 rereleased under the new "M" rating, for Mature. In reality the scenes in question were not nearly as bad as some made them 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 the Sega 32X.

[edit] See also

• List of Sega CD games
• Sega Multi-Mega/Sega CDX
• Sega 32X
• 16-bit Era

[edit] External links

• Defunct Games: Sega CD Review Archive
• Sega-16 - Comprehensive site with hundreds of reviews and articles.
• Console Passion Retro Games - includes reviews, polls, online shopping, modifcation and much more.
• Retroscene Retro Games - supplier of Sega Mega CD retro games.
• SegaBase - Comprehensive history of this system
• Sega CD Universe - Includes Reviews, Screen shots, Music, and much more!

[edit] References

1. ^ "MEGA", Future Publishing, August 1994, p. 24. (in English)
2. ^ Schiller, Christian (1998-12-06). Sega CD programming FAQ (plain text, 7bit ascii). Retrieved on 2006-09-03.