Sega Timeline
Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis (1988-1989):
The Sega Mega Drive is a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and the PAL region in 1990. It was sold under the name Sega Genesis in North America as Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in that region.
The Mega Drive was the successor to the Sega Master System and was Sega’s third home console and second to be sold outside of Japan.
The Mega Drive is part of the fourth generation era of consoles, and the first of its generation to achieve notable market share in Europe and North America. It was the direct competitor of the TurboGrafx-16 (which was released one year earlier) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which was released two years after). The Sega Mega Drive began production in Japan in 1988 and ended with the last new game being released in 2002 in Brazil.
North America Launch (1987):
In 1987, Sega announced a North American release date for the system (under the name of Sega Genesis) of January 9, 1989, making it the second console to feature a 16-bit CPU (the first one being the Mattel Intellivision) and the first to feature single-instruction 32-bit arithmetic.
Sega was not able to meet the initial release date and U.S. sales began on August 14, 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles with a suggested retail price of $200 USD at launch. The Genesis was released in the rest of North America on September 15 of the same year with the price reduced slightly to $189.99 USD.
Sega 32X (1994):
The Sega 32X allows the user to play technically superior 32-bit games on the Mega Drive. It was released in 1994 in Japan and North America and 1995 in Europe. The 32X plugs into the Mega Drive’s cartridge slot and the game cartridges are then plugged into the 32X.
Sega Game Gear (1989):
The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console which was Sega’s response to Nintendo’s Game Boy. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the Turbo Express.
Work began on the console in 1989 under the codename “Project Mercury”, following Sega’s policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets. The system was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, North America, Europe and Brazil in 1991, and Australia in 1992. The launch price was $150 USD. Sega dropped support for the Game Gear in early 1997.