Sega Mega Drive SKU12 (in original box)

Sega Mega Drive SKU12 (in original box).  Sega Mega Drive (NTSC) is a vintage gaming system and one of the most popular 16-bit systems of its time. With a Motorola 68000 (7.61 MHz) processor, powerful performance is expected from the Sega console. The 64 Kb RAM of the Sega Mega Drive (NTSC) ensures that the system does not stutter while gaming. With a resolution of 320 x 224 pixels, you get clear and vivid images with this gaming system. The integrated PSG (TI 76489 chip) and Yamaha YM 2612 FM chip of the Sega console ensure superior sound, to make the gaming experience more immersive. The two controller input ports of the Sega Mega Drive (NTSC) let you connect controllers and adeptly manipulate the gameplay.

The Mega Drive was envisioned at the next technological step over other video game consoles available at the time. It is a “16-bit” machine, named after its use of a 16-bit CPU (in this case, the Motorola 68000), and was marketed as being superior to popular “8-bit” consoles dominating the market at the time, usually the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) but sometimes its immediate predecessor, the Sega Master System. 16-bit CPUs had been gaining popularity since the mid-80s and were almost expected to be found in new home computers and arcade machines – it was therefore considered logical that the next “generation” of dedicated video game consoles should follow suit.

The Mega Drive builds on technology found in the Master System (and with adaptors, is fully backwards compatible), though as well as upping the technical specifications for more demanding gameplay, sound and graphics, makes a number of cruicial changes to the design of consoles which continue to this day. Firstly it added a third face button, C, to the (now ergonomically designed) control pad. The Mega Drive outputs sound in stereo, and makes an attempt to region lock games through software. Also, when utilising the right cables, the Mega Drive is natively able to produce a clearer image than its rivals (on top of its already higher resolution 320×240 display).

All Mega Drives ultilise a top-loading design (as opposed to the cumbersome VCR-style cartridge loading of the Western NES), while having removable controllers (unlike the Famicom). It was designed from day one to allow hardware expansions, and its use of dark plastic means that the “yellowing” of older systems (from bromine-based flame retardants reacting with oxygen) is less of an issue.

Original item pictured