Time Frame

• The Sega Genesis was released in the United States in 1989. This release was known as the Sega Mega Drive worldwide, but got a new name when it was imported into the United States. This system was released a few years before the Super Nintendo and was Sega's newest system after the Master System was released in 1986. The official release dates were October 29, 1988 for Japan, August 14, 1989 for the United States and November 30, 1990 for Europe.
  
  

Features

• The Sega Genesis was a main competitor for Nintendo, and while Nintendo had a popular fan base with the side-scrolling games featuring Super Mario, Sega attempted to gain fans with the fast and more advanced Sonic the Hedgehog. A Sonic the Hedgehog game was usually packaged with a new Sega Genesis system, and these Sonic games are what helped fuel the system's success.
  
  

Identification

• The Sega Genesis is a large, black video game system with a top-loading cartridge slot on the top. If you bought the system when it was first released, it would feature a on/off switch, volume control and a reset button. All of the releases featured two controller ports.
  
  

Function

• The Sega Genesis saw the release of popular game franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat. Players would use a three-button controller that was an upgrade over the NES two-button controller, but the Super Nintendo later featured six buttons that players could use. Sega later released an official six-button Sega Genesis controller.
  
  

Types

• Along with the original release, Sega released a couple of upgrades and add-ons for the system. One of the first add-on features available for the Sega Genesis was "Sega CD." This was before the Sony Playstation was released and allowed players to play longer games with improved graphics. The "Sega CD" was released in Japan first on December 1, 1991, and almost a year later came to the United States on October 15, 1992. The European release was in April of 1993.
  The Sega 32X was an upgrade that would fit right into the cartridge slot of a Genesis, but it had a lot of flaws, and games like Doom were overpriced and ignored once the Sony Playstation was released. The Sega 32X was released in November 1994 in both the United States and Europe. The Japan release of the 32X came in December of 1994.