Inside The Mega Drive

When Sega set out to replicate its arcade hardware in an affordable form, it ignited a console war and captivated a generation. Retro Gamer speaks to key developers to learn about the technological factors that made this 16-bit console a classic…

Takashi Iizuka, Rieko Kodama and Trip Hawkins discuss the hardware that powered Sega’s 16-bit magnum opus

If there’s one thing that characterises Sega during its years as a console manufacturer, it’s a relentless pace of technological development. By the middle of 1986, the company had put together the SG-1000, an exterior redesign in the form of the SG-1000 Mark II and the vastly upgraded Mark III. The design of the Master System, the export version of the Mark III, was finished and manufacturing had started. Having released four pieces of hardware since 1983, it might have seemed like Sega should take a break. However, none of the company’s releases had helped it to claw market share away from the dominant manufacturer, Nintendo.

To try to make an advance in the market, Sega began work on a ‘Mark V’ console designed to achieve a true generational leap. In the book Sega Mega Drive/genesis: Collected Works, Masami Ishikawa explains that the primary goals in producing the Mega Drive were to retain compatibility with the Master System, and to provide the basic performance of its relatively new System 16 board. This board was already powering hit games like Fantasy Zone, and would remain an active part of Sega’s development plans for the remainder of the Eighties, hosting games such as Shinobi, Alien Syndrome, Altered

Beast and Golden Axe. This project would ultimately become known as the Mega

Drive (or Genesis, in North America).