While we might have to choose between either Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo for our video game consoles nowadays, back in the 80s and 90s that wasn't the case. Sega used to be a massive competitor in the console market and was even number one at one point in time.
It all started with the Sega Genesis, which was released all the way back in 1989 in North America, but in order to keep up with advancing technology, Sega released the Sega CD to combat their biggest console rival, Nintendo and their newest console, the legendary SNES.
10 Release Date
The Sega CD was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, October 15, 1992, in North America, and April 2, 1993, in Europe. It was actually named the Mega-CD outside of the North American and Brazilian Markets because outside of those markets the Sega Genesis was actually named the Sega Mega Drive.
Over its 5-year long life span starting with its release in Japan only sold around 2.24 Million units which might sound like a large number but the details of its sales will be further explained below.
9 One Of The First CD Based Game Systems
The Sega CD, naturally, made use of, at the time, state of the art CD-ROM technology. This was done to allow for greater memory, as CD-ROMs have a much larger amount of memory they can store when compared to the standard video game cartridges that the standard Sega Genesis uses.
With the Sega CD technically being a part of the fourth console generation, being an add-on it was one of the first disc-based consoles ever released.
8 Made To Compete With The Super Nintendo
When the Sega Genesis was first released, it was marketed on the fact that it made use of 16-bit graphics in its games when compared to the original Nintendo Entertainment Systems 8-bit graphics.
This lead to the classic marketing tagline that Sega went with "Genesis does what Nintendon't" When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came around in 1990, Sega couldn't say they do what Nintendon't anymore, so they created the Sega CD add on to get back to the graphical edge that they used to have with the extra power that CDs provided.
7 Terrible Sales
Like we mentioned earlier the Sega CD sold around 2.24 million total units worldwide. This sounds fairly decent considering the time it was released and the price that it was available for at the time.
First released in 1992 in North America, the Sega CD went for around $299.99 US dollars. Now that is a fairly high number for an add on to a console that cost $189 USD during its launch but then you have to know that the $299 USD price isn't the price adjusted for inflation, that was it's price then. No wonder it only sold 2.24 million compared to the Genesis's 30.75 Million.
6 It Physically Attached To The Sega Genesis
Like you probably guessed from previous entries the Sega CD wasn't it's own unique standalone console, but an addition that was used to extend the lifespan of the Sega Genesis when Nintendo's SNES was released.
The reason for making an add on instead of just creating a new console is largely unknown but for whatever reason, the Sega CD was created as a physical attachment to the Sega Genesis and was supposed to basically be a new console with its own line of games, but that did not come to pass.
5 It Had Its Own Power Adapter
One thing that made the Sega CD even more annoying than it already was for most people was that it had its own power adapter, AKA the part of the machine that you have to plug into the electrical socket.
Fans found this strange as of the Genesis to work you have to physically plug it into the Genesis, which already had a huge box power adapter that plugged directly into an outlet. The Sega CD required that you plug in an adapter that was as big and bulking as the one that the standalone Genesis had, meaning it was hard to get the thing to turn on in the first place.
4 Took Forever To Load
Despite the Sega CD marketing itself on it being more powerful, with better visuals, sound, gameplay and load times due to the more powerful processor in the Sega CD and using CDs instead of cartridges.
Somehow the load times on Sega CD games were really long, longer than the ones on the standard Genesis. This is strange as most of the games on the Sega CD, as well will get into, do not seem like they should take that much processing power to load.
3 Most Games Were In Full Motion Video
The reason that it would seem like most of the games on the Sega CD should take to long to load is because most of the games ran in a full-motion video (or just FMV).
This is because of the games were in an old school arcade adventure game style, where you would do a limited amount of actions in a given section and then you would receive a cutscene, usually a live-action one but there were also games that used cartoon-style graphics, like older arcade games. Most of these games can't really be called games and are more like interactive movie experiences that you would get on old DVDs
2 How Much For A Sega CD Today
Like we mentioned earlier the Sega CD was pretty expensive, especially at the time it was released. This was a lot of money considering it was an add on that only let you play a few extra games, most of which weren't that good and aren't remembered too fondly if at all today.
When you look up the price of a Sega CD on eBay today they start at 300.00 dollars. To be fair they are also bundled usually with the basic Sega Genesis, some controllers and some games but still, it seems like a lot for an uncelebrated old console.
1 It's Most Famous Game
The Sega CD had two games that it was most famous for. The first being Sonic CD obviously being the Sonic game that was made to push this new system. Sonic CD was the best selling game on the console, selling 1.5 million copies, which is around half of the total number of Sega CDs sold worldwide.
Aside from Sonic CD, which was considered pretty good by most fans, the game that became a cult classic from the Sega CD was Nighttrap, which was recently released on the Nintendo Switch Shop.