Amstrad Mega PC
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| Amstrad Mega PC | |
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| Manufacturer | Amstrad (licensed by Sega) |
| Type | Video game console / Personal computer |
| Generation | Fourth generation (16-bit era) |
| First available |  1993 1993 |
| CPU | 16-bit Intel 80386 |
| Media | Cartridge, Diskette |
| System storage | Hard Drive, Floppy Disk |
The Mega PC was manufactured and released by Amstrad in 1993 under license from Sega, which was a similar, but unrelated system to the Sega TeraDrive. It was initially released in PAL areas such as Europe and Australia. Its success was very shortlived due to its very high retail price (£599 + VAT), which averged almost 3 times more expensive than the release price of the Sega TeraDrive. It is slightly easier and cheaper to acquire an Amstrad Mega PC in Europe than it is to acquire a Sega TeraDrive elsewhere, with both systems being relatively difficult to come by, particularly in recent years.[citation needed]
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[edit] Specification
| Specifications | |
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| Processor | Intel 80386 @ 25MHz Motorola 68000 @ 7.14MHz |
| Memory | 1MB SIMM RAM (4MB Capacity) |
| Storage | 3.5" FDD, 40MB HDD |
| Video | SVGA Graphics with 256KB RAM |
| Operating System | MS DOS 5.0 with Windows 3.11 |
| Dimensions | 325mm(w) x 78mm(h) x 292mm(d) |
| Power Usage | ~50W |
In general, the Mega PC was a much nicer build than that of Sega's TeraDrive.[citation needed] The unit itself was more robust and it accommodated for air circulation more efficiently than that of the TeraDrive.[citation needed]
Although it boasted a higher specification than the Sega TeraDrive,[citation needed] it was unable to act as a Software Development Kit due to the inability to interact both the PC and the Mega Drive together, as it was essentially just a PC with Sega Mega Drive hardware bundled inside.[citation needed] A cover on the front of the unit prevented the ability to play Mega Drive games while interacting with the PC side at the same time, therefore making it impossible for a Mega Drive game cartridge to be inserted while using the PC side of the machine.
Although it shipped with only 1MB of on-board RAM, this was expandable by 16MB via 4 SIMM memory sockets.[citation needed]
[edit] Peripherals
Amstrad bundled several peripherals with its Mega PC; these included:
- Dual sync 15 kHz/31 kHz Amstrad branded 14" white monitor with internal speakers
- Standard Mega Drive white control pad with Amstrad branding
- Amstrad white joystick
- Standard Amstrad keyboard and mouse using PS/2 interface
[edit] Input/Output
The machine's rear contained several I/O ports, which included: 2 COM ports, 25-pin LPT port, VGA port with combined signals for a standard VGA monitor and sound (Amstrad monitor only), speaker/headphone jack with additional volume control and an MIDI port for a joystick.
Whereas the Sega TeraDrive included stereo RCA jacks and composite NTSC video output for connection to a TV[citation needed], the Mega PC lacked this feature, and thus lacked the ability to connect to a television set[citation needed]. This is more than likely due to the fact that the Mega PC was designed to only allow 1 section of the unit to be used at any given time, so to provide the ability for a 2nd video output wouldn't have been worthwhile.[citation needed] Therefore, outputs from both the PC and Mega Drive units was available only through the SVGA connector to the supplied dual-sync (15 kHz/31 kHz) monitor.[citation needed]
The machine shipped with 2× 16 bit ISA slots, one which was populated and the other which was left free.[citation needed]
[edit] Mega Plus
Amstrad later released a second system as the successor to the Mega PC, by the name of the Amstrad Mega Plus. This boasted a slightly higher specification with an upgraded processor to an Intel 80486 running at 33MHz, along with a RAM upgrade to its capacity of 4MB.[1][2]
