page_title: Amstrad Mega PC
section_title: Technical specifications
hierarchical_section_title: Amstrad Mega PC / Technical specifications
caption_attribution_description: English: Side view of the Amstrad Mega PC showing the ISA slot, card and RAM positioning. Picture was taken by myself of my own equipment and released into public domain.
context_page_description: The Mega PC is a computer manufactured and released by Amstrad in 1993 under license from Sega. It was similar but unrelated to the Sega TeraDrive. It is a standard Amstrad PC with Sega Mega Drive hardware bundled inside; the system was wired to share the dual-sync monitor and speakers with the Mega Drive on a separate circuit board.
  Initially released in PAL areas such as Europe and Australia in 1993, its success was short-lived due to its high price of £999.99 and a CPU that was outdated by the time of its release. It was slightly easier to acquire an Amstrad Mega PC than the Sega TeraDrive system due to higher manufacturing volumes. Both systems have become collector's items.
context_section_description: In general, the Mega PC was seen as a better-built device than Sega's TeraDrive, as the unit was more robust and had more efficient air circulation. The Mega PC was IBM-compatible and had a Mega Drive ISA card, a Mega Drive Controller, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Joystick and Internal Speakers.
  The machine shipped with 1MB of RAM, provided by 4× 256KB 30-pin SIMM sticks. This was expandable to 16MB by using 4× 4MB memory modules.
  Although it boasted a higher specification than the Sega TeraDrive (having more RAM and a faster processor), the specification of the Mega PC's CPU was a generation old. The newer Intel 80486 was on the market and the first Pentium processors were released the same year as the Mega PC. The system was unable to act as a Software Development Kit due to its inability to simultaneously use the PC and the Mega Drive hardware. A cover on the front of the unit prevented the insertion of a Mega Drive game cartridge while using the PC hardware.
caption: Side view of the unit, showing the ISA card, spare slot and RAM positioning
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