The Warp Pipe - 12/10/08
By Matt K - Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:57am
The Sega Mega Drive is due to celebrate its 20th birthday later this month, so I thought we’d take a little trip down memory lane over the next couple of weeks.
Twenty Years of the Sega Mega Drive – Part One
| October 29 is an infamous day in history, due to the “Black Tuesday” stock market crash which set off the Great Depression in 1929. Some 59 years later, the date would be the launching platform for the Japanese release of Sega’s most successful console, the Mega Drive. Sega’s previous hardware platform, the Sega Master System (or Mark III in Japan) was unable to challenge the dominance of the Nintendo Entertainment System (or Famicom) in all territories except for Europe and Australia. The company knew it would have a shot at gaining a large share of the market if it could launch a system that was superior to the NES. The System 16 arcade hardware was extremely successful at the time, so the company decided to develop a system based on a similar 16-bit architecture. The design of the Mega Drive hardware is very different to the systems of today. Rather than developing fancy new chipsets for the console, Sega used components with which they had a degree of familiarity with. The system’s main CPU was a Motorola 68000, an amazingly versatile chipset which is still in wide use today despite being released in 1979. The Zilog Z80, which was the main CPU of the Master System, was utilised as the Mega Drive’s sound processor (Sega would do this again later, using the 68000 as the Saturn’s sound processor). It had a dedicated video display processor which was based on the TMS9918, which had also been used in the Master System. As a result of all of the similarities in the architecture (and most of the same chipsets), the Mega Drive was actually backward compatible at the hardware level with all Master System games, though Sega would make gamers purchase the Sega Power Base Convertor (which is really just a glorified cartridge slot adaptor) in order to use their older 8-bit games. The rare Japanese release of Phantasy Star MD is actually a Master System game with an extra boot ROM to force the Mega Drive to start in Master System mode. The Mega Drive was not the first 16-bit console to hit the market, as NEC launched their PC Engine (Turbografix 16) a year earlier. The NEC machine was more popular, and Sega struggled to gain a foothold in the Japanese market, selling only 400,000 consoles in the first year. The company’s American operation had planned in 1987 to release the console in January of 1989, but trademark disputes (which caused the console to be released as the Genesis) and a failed distribution deal with Atari resulted in some significant delays. The Genesis hit stores in Los Angeles and New York on August 14, 1989, with a staggered launch across the country. Sega of America took a much more aggressive approach to marketing the Genesis. They played up the machine’s technical superiority over the NES with a campaign of “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”. Sega also chased endorsement deals with sports stars and celebrities, resulting in titles such as Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Joe Montana Football and Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf. While these moves were successful, Sega’s Japanese arm feared that the Genesis would repeat the failure of the Master System. They had set Michael Katz and the Sega of America team a goal of 1 million units in the first 6 months. They sold 500,000, a respectable effort, but below Japan’s requirements, so they brought in a new team of executives lead by former Matchbox and Mattel executive Tom Kalinske in 1990. Across the pond in Europe, Sega’s Master System was continuing to sell, so the launch of the Mega Drive was continually postponed until November 1990, but was successful from the start. The first signs of animosity between the Japanese and American arms of Sega began to show after Kalinske proposed his four point plan for the American market in 1991. He wanted to drop the price, establish a development studio to make games for American tastes, expand the advertising and marketing campaigns, and bundle the console with Sonic the Hedgehog. Most of the Japanese team balked at Kalinske’s plan, but it was approved. Sonic the Hedgehog became the system’s killer-app, driving sales of the Mega Drive and Genesis through the roof. The console’s newfound success caught Nintendo off guard – they were forced to rush the Super Nintendo out for release in America, and faced an uphill battle against an established competitor. Sega announced the Mega CD add-on for the Mega Drive in 1991, with American and European releases following in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The project was very much Sega of Japan’s baby. They teamed up with Sony for development of the unit, and kept the American and European division of the company in the dark – to the point where they were forced to create their own prototype machines through guesswork and dummy units. The Mega CD was designed to expand the capabilities of the Mega Drive, with a stronger CPU, more RAM and greatly increased game sizes. While the system had many great games such as Sonic CD, Final Fight CD, Snatcher, Lunar and The Secret of Monkey Island, the high price resulted in lower than expected sales (roughly 6 million, compared to 29 million Mega Drives), and the unit was considered a failure. Throughout 1992, Sega’s Mega Drive and Nintendo’s Super NES went toe to toe. With many third parties sick of Nintendo’s arrogant treatment during the NES years, Sega amassed a large number of third party developers. Electronic Arts was one of Sega’s strongest supporter (due to a lucrative manufacturing deal), making many exclusive games and releasing superior versions of their sports titles on the Mega Drive, resulting giving the system more appeal to the older audience. Nintendo fought back with its own stable of franchises like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and by securing key exclusives, like the arcade smash hit Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Street Fighter II mania buried the Mega Drive in Japan, and really helped the machine gain ground in America and Europe. Sega hit back with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which would go on to be the Mega Drive’s best selling game. By the end of the year, Sega held the greatest share of the market in America and Europe, but was on life support in Japan, leading to a lot of animosity among the Japanese executives who were jealous of the system’s overseas success. The 16-bit console war grew more intense through 1993. The expiry of many of Nintendo’s exclusivity agreements saw many third parties developing games for both systems. The systems seemed like they were evenly matched, each with their strong exclusive titles and respective strengths. The issue of video game violence was rising, as more realistic games like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat caught the attention of over-protective parents and opportunistic politicians. In a way, this almost decided the outcome of the war; the family friendly Nintendo decided to enforce Midway to excise most of the violent content from the SNES version of Mortal Kombat, while Sega insisted it be accessible via an in-game cheat code. Nintendo looked on helplessly as the Mega Drive version outsold the SNES game by as much as 6:1. Sega looked like it was going to dominate Christmas with Sonic 3, Aladdin and its own version of Street Fighter II, the improved Championship Edition. Sonic 3 was delayed and split into two games, and Nintendo got the Turbo edition of Street Fighter II (which was worked into the Mega Drive version anyway, but not explicitly promoted) but Aladdin, with amazing support from Disney, dominated the holiday season and kept Sega leading. We’ll continue next week with the Mega Drive’s fall from grace and afterlife. | ) Once upon a time, you used to get a free game with a new console |
) Tom Kalinske is responsible for much of the Mega Drive’s success in North America | |
) Sonic was the system’s first runaway hit | |
) Add-ons sounded good on paper, but were never successful | |
) Mortal Kombat put Sega in the driver’s seat | |
) Mickey’s a bit of a swinger |
The Best Bits 1988-1993
| Everybody’s going to have different opinions about which games on the Mega Drive are the best – no doubt some of these have already been covered in this column over the course of the year. I thought I’d take the opportunity to run through a list of a few of my absolute favourite Mega Drive games from the first five-and-a-bit years of the system’s life. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Sega, 1990) Sega got a hold of the Disney license in the early part of the Mega Drive’s life, and made many of its own video games based both on original stories and Disney films. Castle of Illusion put you in the shoes of Disney’s most famous character as he fought against the evil witch Mizerabel, who had kidnapped Minnie. Great graphics, catchy soundtrack and just all around fun. Disney’s Aladdin (Virgin, 1993) Developed by Dave Perry and a handful of other blokes in just 90 days (with a little help from Disney), Aladdin was the smash hit of the 1993 holiday season. Gorgeous sprites, beautiful sound and unbelievable animation are backed up by superb gameplay. Can get a tad hard in some parts, though. FIFA International Soccer (EA, 1993) EA made the best sports games on the Mega Drive, but it took them a few years to get onto the soccer bandwagon. FIFA differed from the other games on the market with its unique isometric viewpoint, but backed it up with surprisingly sharp gameplay. Plus you can push the other blokes over and run away from the ref, who’ll relentlessly chase you across the ground ala Benny Hill. Flashback (Delphine, 1993) Flashback is a cyberpunk adventure about a fellow named Conrad whose memory is wiped by alien nasties who wish to take over the world. Conrad’s memory has all of the information regarding the alien plot, so you need to help him recover it. The game is wonderfully animated, due in large to Delphine’s use of rotoscoping, which allows for extremely smooth movement. Flashback’s levels also have an amazing level of atmosphere. Gunstar Heroes (Treasure, 1993) Treasure’s action-packed side scrolling shooter was the Mega Drive’s best selling game in Japan, and still has a large fanbase to this day. Gunstar Heroes combines the hectic shooting combat of Contra with the beat ’em up stylings of Streets of Rage. It’s got a neat little weapon system based on combinations of the player’s two existing weapons, not to mention some pretty damn amazing boss battles. Jungle Strike (EA, 1993) The second of EA’s mission based helicopter sim has you taking on the son of the now-deceased General Kilbaba, and his drug baron accomplice. Through the game’s nine levels you’ll do all sorts of weird and wonderful missions, including protecting the presidential motorcade, rescuing POWs and destroying weapons supplies. Jungle Strike also has missions where you leave the helicopter to pilot other vehicles, including a hovercraft and a F117 Nighthawk. NHLPA Hockey 93 (EA, 1992) It might not have had the official NHL license, but NHLPA Hockey 93 was one of the finest hockey games of its era. It’s fast paced gameplay was among the most brutal sports video games of its time – the game promoted violence in the sport, with injuries and fights encouraged as part of your match strategy. Fortunately, there was also a solid representation of the sport underneath the violence, though it had its share of exploits. Road Rash II (EA, 1993) Road Rash is one of those series that EA seems to have forgotten about. Players competed in long distance motorcycle races where violence was the name of the game. If you can’t pass the guy – smash him in the face with your chain or club. Road Rash II not only had better tracks than the original game, but also had split screen play, which made the game far more fun than its predecessor. Rocket Knight Adventures (Konami, 1993) Konami attempted to get in on the mascot platformer craze with Rocket Knight Adventures, which starred the jetpack clad opossum Sparkster. Amazing character designs, fluid animation and a pumping soundtrack made Rocket Knight Adventures one of the best platformers on the Mega Drive. It’s a pity the sequel wasn’t anywhere near as good. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega, 1991) The Mega Drive’s breakout game remains one of the all-time great platformers. It was faster than any game around, but Sonic also had amazingly tight level design, beautiful sprites and backgrounds, and a brilliant soundtrack. The game may be a bit easy (save for Labyrinth Zone), but it’s a quality experience that nobody should miss. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega, 1992) The second Sonic game is probably the hedgehog’s greatest outing. The levels were bigger and better, the graphics were more impressive, and there were cooperative and competitive gameplay modes along with another superb soundtrack. The game’s end levels are really quite awesome – and so is the first appearance of Super Sonic, provided you manage to get the seven chaos emeralds. Streets of Rage 2 (Sega, 1993) Streets of Rage 2 takes the techno-charged action of the first game, and gives it a total face lift and gameplay boost. The characters look fantastic, the soundtrack is sublime, and it plays like an absolute dream. While most beat ‘em ups will tire you with their repetitive nature, Streets of Rage 2 manages to never get boring – even after 15 years. ToeJam and Earl (Sega, 1991) Two jive talking aliens from the planet Funkatron crash their ship and land on Earth. You get to help them rebuild it while interacting or avoiding some weird and wonderful creatures, including a deadly hamster in a ball, a deranged dentist, a wise carrot-man and a rocket powered Santa Claus. Through finding presents around the world, you’ll discover handy gadgets (running shoes and rocket skates), power ups (health and extra lives) and the occasional disastrous element (tomato rain, a thundercloud). Best played with a friend. WWF Royal Rumble (Acclaim, 1993) Perhaps it’s just one of those guilty pleasure games, but one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Mega Drive is the 12 man battle royal in Royal Rumble. It’s an over the top rope elimination contest with every man for himself. Features some of the most popular WWF/E superstars, including Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Zombies Ate My Neighbours (LucasArts, 1993) LucasArts mixes classic horror with the action/maze stylings of Gauntlet in this hilarious game. Through something like 50 odd levels, you’ll need to rescue a pre-determined amount of innocent civilians from flesh eating zombies, hockey mask-wearing chainsaw wielding thugs, axe-toting dolls and Egyptian mummies. It’s a long, difficult game, but you can have plenty of fun with it. It’s also got a cameo from the Tentacles of Day of the Tentacle fame. | ) Memory loss is a pain in the keister |
) I’ve still got the organ music stuck in my head | |
) Rocket Knight Adventures is one of the best platformers ever | |
) Sonic will probably never be this good again | |
) ToeJam & Earl’s split-screen on the fly has never been used since | |
) I’d let them eat the mean looking teacher |
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