Sega CD / Mega CD
Released by Sega across 1991 & 1992, the Sega CD (also known as the Mega CD outside the US), is a CD-ROM add-on for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.
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Mega CD featured additional hardware that helped the Mega Drive deliver improved graphics. Audio soundtracks benefit from being CD quality. The Mega CD saw the introduction of many FMV (Full Motion Video) games. Many FMV games appeared on the Mega CD such as Night Trap, Sewer Shark & Road Avenger. FMV games such as Night Trap courted a lot of controversy in the early 1990s. Although they seem very timid by today’s standards, governments voiced concerns about the impact of violence in video games on children.
With the technical limitations of the Mega Drive and Mega CD, users did not see much of an improvement overall. With the exception of the newly introduced FMV games, games were mostly Mega Drive quality with CD soundtracks. With the price proving prohibitive for a large proportion of users, people could just not justify the huge cost for very little gain in graphical fidelity or gaming experience.
The Mega CD retailed until 1996.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).