Sega · 1991 · Mega Drive / Genesis
Sega's CD-ROM add-on gave the Mega Drive a second 68000, scaling and rotation hardware and CD audio. It sold 2.24 million units and is remembered for both Sonic CD and a wave of grainy full-motion video games.
The Mega-CD launched in Japan on 12 December 1991 at ¥49,800, and as the Sega CD in North America on 15 October 1992 at $299, reaching Europe in April 1993. It added a CD-ROM drive to the Mega Drive along with its own Motorola 68000 processor running at 12.5 MHz, 6.5 megabits of RAM for programs, graphics and sound, and a custom chip offering sprite scaling and rotation similar to Sega's arcade hardware. A redesigned Model 2, smaller and without a motorised disc tray, followed in April 1993. CD storage encouraged developers to experiment with full-motion video, and titles such as Night Trap made the add-on a symbol of the early-1990s interactive-movie boom. The results were mixed: video quality on the system was poor, limited by weak compression software and the Mega Drive's restricted colour palette, and FMV games failed to catch on. The add-on's best games came from elsewhere — Sonic CD, its best-seller at 1.5 million copies; Game Arts' RPGs Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue; Popful Mail; and Hideo Kojima's Snatcher. The Sega CD received more than 200 games and sold 2.24 million units worldwide. Sega stopped production in 1996, concluding that its high price and single-speed drive could not compete with the new generation of CD consoles.