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The Sega Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by SEGA in North America in 1989. It succeeded the 8-bit Sega Master System and became Sega's sole grand success in the console market. The Genesis launched the 16-bit era of console gaming, although in the end it was out-sold by rival Nintendo's SNES console and edged out by newer consoles like the Sony Playstation, in the mid-90's.
Outside of the U.S. the console was known as the Sega Megadrive.
A Sega Master System converter was availible for the Genesis. The Powerbase converter plugs into the cartridge port. All Master System accessories, including the light gun and 3D glasses, can be used for this converter.
16-bit home computers like the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, as well as 16-bit arcade machines, were outpacing the 8-bit videogame consoles of the mid-to-late-1980s. Nintendo at the time had 95% of the North American market, and 92% of Japan's. Sega's Master System was failing in North America and Japan, and so Sega decided to make a new console.
Since the System 16 arcade games that Sega was making were very popular, Hayao Nakayama, Sega's CEO at the time, decided to make their new home system a 16-bit one. The final design worked great and fit in well with Sega's three new arcade boards; the Megatech, Megaplay, and the System C. Any arcade game made for these systems could easily, and thus rapidly, be made to work on the new console (a process known as porting). The system also featured Blast Processing.
The first name Sega considered using for its 16-bit machine was "MK-1601", but they later decided to use Sega Megadrive. The name was designed to imply superiority, speed, and power. However, "Megadrive" was trademarked in the United States, so Sega chose the name Genesis for that region, a name meant to mark the beginning of a new age in videogames.
In 1987, Sega announced their North American release date and stated that their own console was the first true 16-bit console, and that the TurboGrafx 16 wasn't.
The Genesis was released in the United States in January 9, 1989 in New York, New York and Los Angeles, California only. It sold for around $200 at launch and was to become Sega's most successful console. It was released in the rest of North America on September 15 with a reduced price of $190.
The Genesis initially competed against the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, but although it had superior graphics and sound, had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's ubiquitous presence in the consumer's home. Sega of America competed by focusing on a slightly older user base, with such titles as Altered Beast and the Phantasy Star series. People were wowed by the power of the graphics that the Genesis had. The TurboGrafx 16, which had been released six months earlier, had been poorly marketed in North America, so it wasn't a threat in that market.
Some felt there were too many arcade ports in the Genesis's library, and that there wasn't a "killer app", but third party companies such as Electronic Arts (The Immortal), and Capcom (Strider) kept the console alive.
Eventually, the Genesis's main competition was to become Nintendo's 16-bit Super Nintendo, over which it had a head start in terms of user base and title numbers. Nintendo knew that Sega was eating up their market, so Nintendo released the SNES. The Genesis continued to hold on to a healthy fan base composed significantly of RPG fans and sports games fans, and the release of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 began to threaten Nintendo's up-to-then stranglehold on the number one console position in the USA. Sonic was released since Sega needed a better mascot than Alex Kidd, and they also needed a "killer app." This sparked what was arguably the greatest console war in North American video gaming history, at least up until that point. By 1992, Sega had a 55% market share in the North American video game market.
The release of the highly-anticipated Sonic the Hedgehog 2, coinciding with a rather vicious ad campaign barbed at Nintendo, propelled the Genesis into its heyday, outselling the Super Nintendo for the first time since the SNES's release.
Arguably, the greatest moments for the Genesis lay in the years 1992 and 1993. The Sega CD (North American version of Sega Mega-CD) once again made Sega outdo Nintendo in the "greatest technology title." Also, a swarm of third party companies were making games for the Genesis. However, Sega started to make some very bad decisions after those glory days.
There was also a redesign of the Genesis console itself, the Sega Genesis 2, which reduced cost and size by consolidating chips, and integrated stronger region encoding (which broke compatibility with some older games.) The original console itself went through innumerable revisions -- unknown to most users, the very first consoles had trouble playing a few of the newer games. A new version of the Sega CD, the Sega CD 2, was made to accommodate this.
The Sega Genesis 32X (Sega Super 32X in Japan and Sega Mega 32X in Europe) came out, but was even more so of a disappointment than the Sega CD. This ruined Sega's integrity, and the reputation would ultimately kill Sega's console business.
Because of the failures of the Sega CD and 32X, the lack of advertising, and the disputes between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, things were grim by 1994. Sega had a bad image not just from those issues, but also violence issues surrounding the Mortal Kombat games released on the Genesis. The Genesis version outsold the SNES version 4 to 1, because the Sega version had uncensored violence, unlike the Nintendo counterpart. However, people became worried over the level of violence in this and other Sega videogames. Sega introduced the Videogames Rating Council, or VRC, which helped, but to an insignificant degree.
The market share dived from 65% to 35% within the course of a year. More woes came with the announcement of the Sony Playstation in 1995, and the earlier announcement of "Project Atlantis", which turned out to be the Nintendo 64.
In 1995, a portable version of the system called the Sega Nomad was released.
In 1996, Sega dropped support of the Genesis in favor of the Sega Saturn.
Sega considered a Game Gear Converter, tentatively named the Mega Game Gear, but it was never produced.
In 1997, Majesco announced that they wanted to make a budget version of the Genesis. In 1998, Majesco released the "Sega Genesis 3" for $50, in North America only.
There were also a number of Genesis clones (see below).
Overall, the Genesis did fairly well in North America because of its arcade ports, sports titles, and platform games. While it did leave its mark on gaming history, it lost the console war by a fair margin.
See also: Sega Genesis Game List
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