Sega CD

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The **Sega CD** (known as the **Mega-CD** in Europe and Japan) is a CD-based add-on for the Sega Genesis designed and produced by Sega. The Mega CD was the first attempt by Sega to prolong the life of the Genesis, along with the Sega 32X.

The way that the Mega-CD was designed to work was that the Genesis system would handle the gameplay and the controls, while the Mega CD system would handle any cutscenes, music, and sound effects.

## Why It Rocks

1. It was Sega's first game console that uses CD-ROMs, and was the first successful game console that used CDs as its primary format.
2. It had some good games, such as *Sonic CD*, *Mortal Kombat*, the *Lunar* duology, *The Terminator*, *Shining Force CD*, *Lords of Thunder*, *Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side*, *Popful Mail*, *The Adventures of Batman and Robin*, and the only version of *Snatcher* that was released outside of Japan.
3. It showed gamers and companies the possibilities that CDs had in comparison to ROM cartridges (which included; larger games, better audio, full motion video, and cheaper production costs).
4. A few alternatives that included both the Mega CD and Genesis built into one single device such as the Victor Wondermega/JVC X’Eye and Sega’s own CDX/Multi-Mega were released.
5. Most Genesis ports to the Mega CD have some great CD quality music, such as *Earthworm Jim Special Edition*, *Ecco the Dolphin*, and *Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures Of Mickey Mouse*.
6. It even had some near-perfect ports of arcade games that didn't make it to the Genesis, such as *Final Fight CD* and *Starblade*.
7. Like the TurboGrafx-CD, you can listen to your own music CDs on this.
8. Unlike the TurboGrafx-CD, Atari Jaguar CD, and canceled SNES CD add-ons, the Sega CD also included technical improvements such as sprite scaling and rotation. A demonstration of this appears when starting up the console, which shows the Sega CD logo stretching and moving across the screen.
	* Examples of games that took advantage of this were the special stages in *Sonic CD*, the additional boss levels in *Puggsy*, the cutscenes and driving stages in *Batman Returns*, and the first-person stages in *3 Ninjas Kick Back!*.
	* Other good/decent games that took advantage of the systems capabilites include *Soulstar*, *BC Racers*, *Battlecorps*, *Robo Aleste*, and *Silpheed.*
9. All the qualities above made the system good enough to win Best Peripheral of 1992 by Electronic Monthly Gaming.

## Bad Qualities

Despite its good qualities, it still failed in the end, see CGW for more info.

## Trivia

* A year after the Model 1 Mega-CD (shown in the picture above in the infobox), Sega would release a top-loading Model 2 Mega-CD, being significantly cheaper ($230) and smaller.
	+ This model, known as the Mega-CD 2, is the more recognized version, while the Model 1 is rarer.
* In 1994, Sega eventually released the Sega CDX (known as the Multi-Mega in PAL regions), a hybrid system that combined the Genesis/Mega Drive, Mega-CD, and 32X all into one sleek package.
* Ironically, even though the Sega/Mega-CD was created to extend the Genesis'/Mega Drive's lifespan, the original console ended up outliving it. In fact, the Genesis/Mega Drive 3 doesn't even support the Sega/Mega-CD.