???? – 1996retired
32X
“Project Mars never quite landed, but it gave the Genesis a brave, brief boost.”
“Blast processing its way into our hearts, one 16-bit cartridge at a time.”
The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive outside North America, was a 16-bit fourth-generation home console and Sega's third, succeeding the Master System. Built by an R&D team under Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa from Sega's System 16 arcade board, it packed a Motorola 68000 CPU and a Zilog Z80 sound controller into a machine that played more than 800 games on ROM cartridges. It traveled the world under many names
Sega discontinued the Genesis in 1996, ending a run that began with the October 1988 Japanese launch and the August 1989 North American debut. It left behind add-ons like the Power Base Converter, two network services in Sega Meganet and Sega Channel, and a sprawling library of cartridges. It also left behind the memories — the kind that bring people to a site like this one.
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“Project Mars never quite landed, but it gave the Genesis a brave, brief boost.”
“Product of the Year 1993, gone by 1996 — even Time can't save you from a price tag.”
“The first 64-bit system, if you were willing to meet it halfway”