Sega CD
The Sega CD, known as Mega-CD[a] in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, October 15, 1992, in North America, and April 2, 1993, in Europe. The Sega CD plays CD games and adds hardware functionality such as a faster CPU and graphic enhancements such as sprite scaling and rotation. It can also play audio CDs and CD+G discs.
Also known as
Mega-CD (most regions outside North America and Brazil)
1991–1996
January 1, 1996
2.24 million
Motorola 68000 @ 12.5 MHz
custom ASIC
Ricoh RF5C164
Sega sought to match the capabilities of the competing PC Engine CD-ROM² System, and added an additional CPU and custom graphics chip. They partnered with JVC to design the Sega CD. Fearful of leaks, Sega refused to consult with Sega of America until the project was complete. Sega of America assembled parts from dummy units to obtain a functioning unit. The Sega CD was redesigned several times by Sega and licensed third parties.
The main benefit of CD technology at the time was greater storage; CDs offered approximately 160 times more space than Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges. This benefit manifested as full-motion video (FMV) games such as the controversial Night Trap, which became a focus of the 1993 congressional hearings on issues of video game violence and ratings.
The Sega CD game library[2] features acclaimed games such as Sonic CD, Lunar: The Silver Star, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Popful Mail, and Snatcher, but also many Genesis ports and poorly received FMV games. Only 2.24 million Sega CD units were sold, after which Sega discontinued it to focus on the Sega Saturn. Retrospective reception has been mixed, with praise for some games and functions, but criticism for its lack of deep games and its high price. Sega's poor support for the Sega CD has been criticized as the beginning of the devaluation of its brand.
History[edit]
Background[edit]
Released in 1988, the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive in most territories outside of North America) was Sega's entry into the fourth generation of video game consoles.[3] In the early 1990s, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske helped make the Genesis a success by cutting the price, developing games for the American market with a new American team, continuing aggressive advertising campaigns, and selling Sonic the Hedgehog with the Genesis as a pack-in game.[4]
By the early 1990s, compact discs (CDs) were making headway as a storage medium for music and video games. NEC had been the first to use CD technology in a video game console with their PC Engine CD-ROM² System add-on in October 1988 in Japan (launched in North America as the TurboGrafx-CD the following year), which sold 80,000 units in six months.[5] That year, Nintendo announced a partnership with Sony to develop a CD-ROM peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Commodore International released their CD-based CDTV multimedia system in early 1991, while the CD-i from Philips arrived later that year.[6] According to Nick Thorpe of Retro Gamer, Sega would have received criticism from investors and observers had it not developed a CD-ROM game system.[7]
Development[edit]
Shortly after the release of the Genesis, Sega's Consumer Products Research and Development Labs, led by manager Tomio Takami, were tasked with creating a CD-ROM add-on. It was originally intended to equal the capabilities of the TurboGrafx-CD, but with twice as much random-access memory (RAM).[8] In addition to relatively short loading times, Takami's team planned to implement hardware scaling and rotation similar to that of Sega's arcade games, which required a dedicated digital signal processor.[8][9] A custom graphics chip would implement these features, alongside an additional sound chip manufactured by Ricoh.[7] According to Kalinske, Sega was ambitious about what CD-ROM technology would do for video games, with its potential for "movie graphics", "rock and roll concert sound" and 3D animation.[7]
However, two major changes were made towards the end of development that dramatically raised the price of the add-on. Because the Genesis' Motorola 68000 CPU was too slow to handle the Sega CD's new graphical capabilities, an additional 68000 CPU was incorporated.[8] This second CPU has a clock speed of 12.5 MHz, faster than the 7.67 MHz CPU in the Genesis.[7] Responding to rumors that NEC planned a memory upgrade to bring the TurboGrafx-CD RAM from 0.5 Mbit to between 2 and 4 Mbit, Sega increased the Sega CD's available RAM from 1 Mbit to 6 Mbit.[8] This proved to be a technical challenge, since the Sega CD's RAM access speed was initially too slow to run programs effectively, and the developers had to focus on increasing the speed.[9] The estimated cost of the device rose to US$370, but market research convinced Sega executives that consumers would be willing to pay more for a state-of-the-art machine.[8] Sega partnered with JVC, which had been working with Warner New Media to develop a CD player under the CD+G standard.[5][10]
Sega of America was not informed of the project details until mid-1991. Despite being provided with preliminary technical documents earlier in the year, the American division was not given a functioning unit to test.[11] According to former executive producer Michael Latham: "When you work at a multinational company, there are things that go well and there are things that don't. They didn't want to send us working Sega CD units. They wanted to send us dummies and not send us the working CD units until the last minute because they were concerned about what we would do with it and if it would leak out. It was very frustrating."[6]
Latham and Sega of America vice president of licensing Shinobu Toyoda assembled a functioning Sega CD by acquiring a ROM for the system and installing it in a dummy unit.[6] The American staff were frustrated by the Sega CD's construction. Former senior producer Scot Bayless said: "[It] was designed with a cheap, consumer-grade audio CD drive, not a CD-ROM. Quite late in the run-up to launch, the quality assurance teams started running into severe problems with many of the units—and when I say severe, I mean units literally bursting into flames. We worked around the clock, trying to catch the failure in-progress, and after about a week we finally realized what was happening." He said the problems were caused by the need for games to use more time-seeking data than the CD drive was designed to provide.[12]
Launch[edit]
As early as 1990, magazines were covering a CD-ROM expansion for the Genesis.[13][14] Sega announced the release of the Mega-CD in Japan for late 1991, and North America (as the Sega CD) in 1992. It was unveiled to the public at the 1991 Tokyo Toy Show,[15][16] to positive reception from critics,[15] and at the Consumer Electronic Show in Chicago in mid-1991.[17] It was released in Japan on December 12, 1991, initially retailing at JP¥49,800.[18] Though the Mega-CD sold quickly, the small install base of the Mega Drive in Japan meant that sales declined rapidly.[19] Within its first three months, the Mega-CD sold 200,000 units, but only sold an additional 200,000 over the next three years.[7] Third-party game development suffered because Sega took a long time to release software development kits.[15][20] Other factors affecting sales included the high launch price of the Mega-CD in Japan and only two games available at launch,[15] with only five published by Sega within the first year.[7]