The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by British company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. Evercade was released in May 2020 and upon its launch offered 10 game cartridges with a combined total of 122 games.
128-620: Arc System Works , Atari , G-Mode , Interplay Entertainment , Bandai Namco Entertainment and Piko Interactive have released emulated versions of their games for the Evercade. Pre-existing homebrew games have also been re-released on the system by Mega Cat Studios . The Evercade is capable of playing games originally released for the Atari 2600 , the Atari 7800 , the Atari Lynx , the Intellivision ,
256-515: A palette of 512. The games are in ROM cartridge format and inserted in the top. The Genesis produces sound using a Texas Instruments SN76489 programmable sound generator , integrated with the Video Display Processor (VDP) , and a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer chip. The Z80 processor is primarily used to control both sound chips to produce stereo music and sound effects. Most revisions of
384-485: A "Blood Code". This technicality allowed Sega to release the game with a relatively low MA-13 rating. Meanwhile, the tamer SNES version shipped without a rating. The Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was well-received by gaming press, as well as fans, outselling the SNES version three- or four-to-one, while Nintendo was criticized for censoring the SNES version. Executive vice president of Nintendo of America Howard Lincoln
512-425: A 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 processor, and it uses a Linux base. The Evercade is just over seven inches long, has 256 megabytes of RAM, and has a horizontal 4.3-inch LCD screen, with a resolution of 480x272 pixels. The screen uses the 16:9 aspect ratio , as some of the console's games were originally released for systems – such as the Atari Lynx – that use a wider screen ratio than 4:3 . The player can switch between
640-634: A 32-bit console. Following tensions with Sega Enterprises, Ltd. over its focus on the Saturn, Kalinske, who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991, lost interest in the business and resigned in mid-1996. Sega sold 30.75 million Genesis units worldwide. However, some sources claim that the console sold 40 million units during its lengthly lifespan. Of these, 3.58 million were sold in Japan, and sales in Europe and
768-589: A Genesis instead. The SNES debuted against an established competitor, while NEC's TurboGrafx-16 failed to gain traction, and NEC soon pulled out of the market. In large part due to the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog , the Genesis outsold the SNES in the United States nearly two to one during the 1991 holiday season. Sega controlled 65% of the 16-bit console market in January 1992, the first time Nintendo had not been
896-405: A ball through a long winding tube. This concept was developed with Ohshima's character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara . Although Katz and Sega of America's marketing experts disliked Sonic , certain that it would not catch on with American children, Kalinske's strategy to place Sonic the Hedgehog as the pack-in game paid off. Sonic the Hedgehog greatly increased
1024-424: A cheap, hollow device." Adam Patrick Murray of PC World rated the console four and a half stars out of five, and also praised its size. Liszewski praised the Evercade for its simplicity. Simon Hill of Wired rated it 8 out of 10, and praised the save feature. Andrew Webster of The Verge stated that the Evercade "straddles the line between modern and retro in a way that's very satisfying", while writing that
1152-513: A contract developer for Sega , Sammy , and Banpresto . It consisted at the time of around eight developers; most of whom had previously worked at Sega including founder Minoru Kidooka. It was renamed Arc System Works in 1991. In 1992 they developed a game for the Famicom called Pizza Pop! . The company produced a series of Sailor Moon video games for publisher Angel including Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jōgai Rantō!? Shuyaku Sōdatsusen which
1280-502: A distributor for a tenth of its price on an up-front volume order with the promise of more orders pending the console's future success. The appearance of the Mega Drive was designed by a team led by Mitsushige Shiraiwa that drew inspiration from audiophile equipment and automobiles. Shiraiwa said this more mature look helped to target the Mega Drive to all ages, unlike the Famicom, which was aimed primarily at children. According to Sato,
1408-659: A final version. The design is based on the D-pads featured on the Genesis and Saturn controllers. Aside from the D-pad, the console includes four action buttons on the front and two trigger buttons on top. It also has "menu", "select" and "start" buttons. The layout of the four action buttons was determined after Blaze conducted an online poll, which found that 68 percent of people wanted a layout like those used on modern game controllers. However, this created confusion, as in-game prompts never match
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#17330861704481536-496: A half stars out of five and called it "handheld heaven for older gamers wanting to revisit some classic games," while writing that "curious newcomers" may also have an interest in it. Damien McFerran of Nintendo Life called the system "appealing enough to surely sell in the modest numbers required to build a fairly robust audience". John Linneman of Digital Foundry praised the size of the console compared to smaller handhelds, writing that it has "a nice weight and doesn't feel like
1664-465: A home console. The decision to use a Motorola 68000 as the system's main CPU was made late in development, while a Zilog Z80 was used as a secondary CPU to handle the sound due to fears that the load to the main CPU would be too great if it handled both the visuals and the audio. The 68000 chip was expensive and would have driven the retail price of the console up greatly, but Sega was able to negotiate with
1792-656: A lower price along with built in games by Capcom and Taito , depending on edition. Despite not being officially branded as an Evercade console the Super Pocket does feature a cartridge slot and is compatible with all Evercade games. Preorders for the console began in July 2023 with units expected to ship in October of that year. XGP Arc System Works Arc System Works Co., Ltd. ( アークシステムワークス株式会社 , Āku Shisutemu Wākusu kabushiki gaisha ) , commonly referred to as ArcSys ,
1920-417: A mascot character to compete with Nintendo's Mario series . The winning submission was a blue hedgehog with red shoes, Sonic , created by Naoto Ohshima , spawning one of the best-selling video game franchises in history. The gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog originated with a tech demo created by Yuji Naka , who had developed a prototype platform game that involved a fast-moving character rolling in
2048-401: A month. His work was reviewed by EA's lawyers before being disseminated to Hayes and Nitchals to verify its originality, and subsequently to the rest of the developers to let them build games. After a few months, EA began developing for the Genesis in earnest. The EA founder, Trip Hawkins , confronted Nakayama the day before the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), informing him that EA had
2176-522: A new partner to market the Genesis in North America and offered the rights to Atari Corporation , which did not yet have a 16-bit system. David Rosen made the proposal to Atari CEO Jack Tramiel and the president of Atari's Entertainment Electronics Division, Michael Katz. Tramiel declined to acquire the new console, deeming it too expensive, and instead opted to focus on the Atari ST . Sega decided to launch
2304-620: A prominent Japanese software company. Nakayama was then installed as CEO of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Master System. This was followed by a European release the next year. Although the Master System was a success in Europe, and later in Brazil, it failed to ignite significant interest in the Japanese or North American markets, which, by
2432-483: A rounded shape, a directional pad , three main buttons, and a start button. In 1993, Sega released a slightly smaller pad with three additional face buttons, similar to the design of buttons on arcade fighting games such as Street Fighter II . Sega also released a wireless revision of the six-button controller, the Remote Arcade Pad. The system is backward compatible with the Master System. The first peripheral
2560-521: A technical protection mechanism into a new edition of the Genesis released in 1990, referred to as the Genesis III. This new variation of the Genesis included a code known as the Trademark Security System (TMSS), which, when a game cartridge was inserted, would check for the presence of the string "SEGA" at a particular point in the memory contained in the cartridge. If the string was present,
2688-404: A total of 122 games. Blaze intended to build up an Evercade game collection of more than 50 cartridges over the next few years. Cartridges by Piko Interactive and Mega Cat were among those available at launch. Evercade games typically sell for $ 20. Arc System Works published a cartridge full of beat 'em up games originally developed by Technōs . The Namco Museum Collection cartridge includes
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#17330861704482816-810: A two-part approach to build sales. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis, with slogans including "Genesis does what Nintendon't". Since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, the second part involved creating a library of recognizable games which used the names and likenesses of celebrities and athletes, such as Pat Riley Basketball , Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf , James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing , Joe Montana Football , Tommy Lasorda Baseball , Mario Lemieux Hockey , and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker . Nonetheless, Sega struggled to overcome Nintendo's presence in consumers' homes. Tasked by Nakayama to sell one million units within
2944-657: A version was operated in Brazil starting in 1995. Another phone-based system, the Mega Anser, turned the Japanese Mega Drive into an online banking terminal. In 1994, Sega started the Sega Channel , a game distribution system using cable television services Time Warner Cable and TCI . Using a special peripheral, Genesis players could download a game from a library of fifty each month and demos for upcoming releases. Games were downloaded to internal memory and deleted when
3072-479: A visual problem in which shimmering was present during scrolling. Linneman was critical of the limited aspect selections. In April 2021, Blaze announced a home console version known as Evercade VS. It is backwards-compatible with most games released for the handheld Evercade, with an output of 1080p . Unlike the handheld console, the VS has multiplayer functionality for up to four players. In addition to its own controllers,
3200-568: A way to add multiplayer, but the development team scrapped this idea because of cost and complexity, which did not go well with the console's focus. At the end of 2019, before the Evercade's release, Blaze was already working on a second version with multiplayer capability and a possible, easier alternative for connecting the console to a television. Games for the Evercade are distributed on multi-game ROM cartridges , each one usually containing between 5 and 20 games, although several cartridges contained fewer than five games. Evercade cartridges support
3328-515: A well-regarded soundtrack. ASCII Entertainment reported in early 1993 that Genesis had 250 games versus 75 for the SNES, but limited shelf space meant that stores typically offered 100 Genesis and 50 SNES games. The NES was still the leader, with 300 games and 100 on shelves. Sega's advertising positioned the Genesis as the cooler console, and coined the term blast processing , an obscure and unused graphics programming method, to suggest that its processing capabilities were far greater than those of
3456-594: Is a Japanese video game developer and publisher located in Yokohama . Founded by Minoru Kidooka in 1988, the company is known for arcade 2D fighting game franchises, including Guilty Gear and BlazBlue , as well as other license-based fighting games for Dragon Ball FighterZ , Persona 4 Arena ( Ultimax ), Granblue Fantasy Versus ( Rising ), and others. The company was founded in January 1988 and incorporated as Arc Co., Ltd. in May. The company spent early years as
3584-582: Is capable of playing games originally released for the Atari 2600 , the Atari 7800 , the Atari Lynx , the NES , the SNES , the Mega Drive , and the Intellivision . The Evercade is also capable of running Neo Geo games, although such games have not been emulated for the console, and developers would need to reach a compromise between accuracy and performance. The Evercade had 10 game cartridges available at launch, providing
3712-473: Is compatible with all previously released Evercade games, and includes 18 built-in games by Capcom . The console is white, although an all-black limited edition would also be available, with 5,000 units produced. The standard console retails for £130/$ 150, while the limited edition is priced at £180/$ 227. Compared to the original console, the EXP includes additional buttons and a slightly altered button layout. Although
3840-461: Is located on the bottom of the console, along with two volume controls. The cartridge slot, power button, and the mini-HDMI port are located on the top of the system. A MicroUSB port is used for charging the battery. Unlike modern handheld consoles, the Evercade does not have a touch screen or Wi-Fi connectivity. Blaze Entertainment developed 20 versions of the Evercade D-pad before settling on
3968-570: Is the Power Base Converter (Mega Adaptor in Japan and Master System Converter in Europe), which allows Master System games to be played. It is designed for the Model 1 revisions and will work with the Model 2 revisions, however the shell blocks the power and AC ports of the Model 2 revision, meaning that the converter must have its shell modified or by using a pass-through adaptor. A second model known as
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4096-581: Is white and red in color, for a retro appearance like the Nintendo Famicom , although a black edition was also sold in the United Kingdom. Andrew Byatt, the Evercade's development director, hoped to sell hundreds of thousands of units within the first year. On 31 May 2022, Blaze announced that it would discontinue the Evercade in favor of an upgraded version known as the Evercade EXP . The Evercade has
4224-535: The Game Gadget . Blaze began development of the Evercade in 2018, with the intention of creating a console superior to plug-and-play devices. The Evercade was announced in April 2019, as a portable retrogaming console with the ability to be connected to a television screen. The console would play emulated video games, with a focus on the 8-bit and 16-bit gaming eras. The Evercade was initially scheduled to release in
4352-559: The IBM Personal Computer BIOS around 1984. The process began in 1989, led by Steve Hayes and Jim Nitchals. They created a controlled room in EA headquarters nicknamed "Chernobyl", to which only one person was allowed access, Mike Schwartz. Schwartz reviewed Sega's copyrighted development manuals and tools, studied the Genesis hardware and games, and wrote original documentation that summarized his findings. The process took him about
4480-852: The NES , the SNES , the Sega Genesis and the PlayStation as well as arcade games, and home computer games for the Commodore 64 and Amiga . A home console version, the Evercade VS , was released in December 2021. The original handheld console was discontinued and replaced with the improved Evercade EXP , released at the end of 2022. The Evercade was developed by the UK-based Blaze Entertainment, which had previously produced Atari -related products and
4608-526: The Nintendo Virtual Console , Xbox Live Arcade , PlayStation Network , and Steam . The Genesis was succeeded in 1994 by the Sega Saturn . In the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc. – then a subsidiary of Gulf+Western – was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues surpassed $ 200 million between July 1981 and June 1982. A downturn in
4736-443: The PC , Sega 32X , and 3DO . According to Digital Pictures founder Tom Zito, "You know, I sold 50,000 units of Night Trap a week after those hearings." Although experiencing increased sales, Sega decided to recall Night Trap and re-release it with revisions in 1994 due to the congressional hearings. After the close of these hearings, video game manufacturers came together to establish
4864-459: The PC Engine amid great publicity. To remain competitive against the two more established consumer electronics companies, Ishikawa and his team decided they needed to incorporate a 16-bit microprocessor into their new system to make an impact in the marketplace and once again turned to Sega's strengths in the arcade industry to adapt the successful Sega System 16 arcade board into architecture for
4992-537: The United Kingdom , with former Sega of Europe development director Mike Brogan noting that " Night Trap got Sega an awful lot of publicity ... it was also cited in UK Parliament for being classified as '15' due to its use of real actors." This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an edgy company with attitude, and this only reinforced that image. By far the year's most controversial game
5120-621: The United States District Court for the Northern District of California , on charges of trademark infringement, unfair competition , and copyright infringement. In response, Accolade filed a counterclaim for falsifying the source of its games by displaying the Sega trademark when the game was powered up. Although the district court initially ruled for Sega and issued an injunction preventing Accolade from continuing to reverse engineer
5248-793: The Videogame Rating Council , a predecessor to the Entertainment Software Rating Board . 30.75 million first-party Genesis units were sold worldwide. In addition, Tectoy sold an estimated 3 million licensed variants in Brazil, Majesco projected it would sell 1.5 million licensed variants of the system in the United States and smaller numbers were sold by Samsung in South Korea. By the mid-2010s, licensed third-party Genesis rereleases were still being sold by AtGames in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations or on online services such as
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5376-595: The Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1991, where Sega showed the new Genesis III and demonstrated it screening and rejecting an Ishido game cartridge. With more games planned for the following year, Accolade successfully identified the TMSS file. It later added this file to the games HardBall! , Star Control , Mike Ditka Power Football , and Turrican . In response to the creation of these unlicensed games, Sega filed suit against Accolade in
5504-449: The 4 Way Play and Team Player. Codemasters also developed the J-Cart system, providing two extra ports on the cartridge itself, although the technology came late in the console's life and is only featured on a few games. Sega planned to release a steering wheel peripheral in 1994, and the Genesis version of Virtua Racing was advertised as "steering wheel compatible", but the peripheral
5632-463: The Evercade VS together. Reviewers praised the console's emulation of classic games. Andrew Liszewski of Gizmodo stated that the games worked flawlessly: "There's no stutter, no dropped frames, no screen tearing artifacts, and no issues with sound sync. They just all work and let you immediately jump into what's important: the gameplay." Brendan Griffith of GamesRadar+ rated the Evercade three and
5760-492: The Evercade. Such games were usually well known or rare. Games from Japanese studios were also sought for release on the Evercade. Aside from Blaze's requests, licensees would also make their own suggestions on which games to release. Byatt said that many games were turned down for consideration: "We've gone for quality over quantity, in our view. We don't want to be a console that has 3,000 games." Other games could not be licensed for an Evercade release because of lost paperwork that
5888-510: The Genesis 3, projecting to sell 1.5 million units of the console by the end of 1998. As of 2012, Tectoy had sold an estimated 3 million Genesis units. The main microprocessor is a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 7.6 MHz . An 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor controls the sound hardware and provides backward compatibility with the Master System. The Genesis has 64 KB of RAM , 64 KB of video RAM and 8 KB of audio RAM. It can display up to 61 colors at once from
6016-559: The Genesis was adapted from Sega's System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU , a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller, and a video system supporting hardware sprites , tiles , and scrolling. It plays a library of more than 900 games on ROM-based cartridges . Several add-ons were released, including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games. It was released in several different versions, some created by third parties. Sega created two network services to support
6144-545: The Genesis, Accolade appealed the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . As a result of the appeal, the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court's verdict and ruled that Accolade's decompilation of the Sega software constituted fair use. The court's written opinion followed on October 20, 1992, and noted that the use of the software was non-exploitative, although commercial. Further,
6272-528: The Genesis: Sega Meganet and Sega Channel . In Japan, the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors, Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC 's PC Engine , but it achieved considerable success in North America, Brazil, and Europe. Contributing to its success was its library of arcade game ports , the popularity of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, several popular sports franchises, and aggressive youth marketing that positioned it as
6400-556: The Hedgehog , Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Disney's Aladdin . Sega Enterprises focused on developing action games , while Sega of America was tasked with developing sports games . A large part of the appeal of the Genesis library was the arcade -based experience of its games, as well as more difficult entries such as Ecco the Dolphin , and sports games such as Joe Montana Football . Compared to its competition, Sega advertised to an older audience by hosting more mature games, including
6528-471: The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles sold a combined 4 million copies worldwide. After the release of the Genesis in 1989, video game publisher Accolade began exploring options to release some of their PC games on the console. At the time, Sega had a licensing deal in place for third-party developers that increased the costs to the developer. According to Accolade co-founder Alan Miller , "One pays them between $ 10 and $ 15 per cartridge on top of
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#17330861704486656-512: The Japanese design for the Mega Drive was based on the appearance of an audio player, with "16-bit" embossed in a golden metallic veneer to create an impression of power. The console was announced in the June 1988 issue of the Japanese gaming magazine Beep! as the Mark V, but Sega management wanted a stronger name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the company settled on "Mega Drive". In North America,
6784-760: The Master System Converter II was released only in Europe for use with the Mega Drive II, which works with other region Genesis consoles and revisions but lacks the ability to use Master System cards. Both the original Power Base Converter and the Master System Converter II do not work with the Nomad or the Genesis 3. Other peripherals were released to add functionality. The Menacer is a wireless infrared light gun used with compatible games. Other third parties created light gun peripherals, such as American Laser Games and Konami . Released for art creation software,
6912-609: The Mega Drive's launch and marketing in Australia, as it had done before with the Master System. In Brazil, the Mega Drive was released by Tectoy in 1990, only a year after the Brazilian release of the Master System. Tectoy produced games exclusively for the Brazilian market and brought the Sega Meganet online service there in 1995. Samsung handled sales and distribution in Korea , where it
7040-510: The November/December timeframe". Nakayama's decision to focus on the Saturn, based on the systems' relative performance in Japan, has been cited as the major contributing factor in this miscalculation. By contrast, Nintendo concentrated on the 16-bit home console market, as well as its successful handheld , the Game Boy , and took in 42% of the video game market dollar share without launching
7168-575: The SNES port of Mortal Kombat II was released uncensored. Sega released two add-ons to increase the Genesis capabilities: a CD peripheral, the Sega CD (Mega-CD outside North America and Brazil), and a 32-bit peripheral, the Sega 32X . Worldwide, Sega sold 2.24 million Sega CD units and 800,000 32X units. Following the launch of the next-generation 32-bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn , sales of 16-bit hardware and software continued to account for 64% of
7296-557: The SNES to outsell the Genesis from 1995 through 1997. According to a 2004 study of NPD sales data , the Genesis maintained its lead over the Super NES in the American 16-bit console market. However, according to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on revised NPD sales data, the SNES outsold the Sega Genesis in the U.S. market by 1.5 million units. To compete with Nintendo, Sega
7424-420: The SNES. A Sony focus group found that teenage boys would not admit to owning an SNES rather than a Genesis. With the Genesis often outselling the SNES at a ratio of 2:1, Nintendo and Sega focused heavily on impression management of the market, even going to the point of deception; Nintendo claimed it had sold more consoles in 1991 than it actually had, and forecasted it would sell 6 million consoles by
7552-551: The Sega Activator the third-worst video game controller ever made. Both EA and Sega released multitaps to allow more than two players to play at once. Initially, EA's version, the 4 Way Play, and Sega's adapter, the Team Player, only supported each publisher's games. In response to complaints, Sega said a new Team Player, which would work with all Genesis multitap games, would be released. Later games were created to work on both
7680-554: The Sega Mega Anser. Nevertheless, the Mega Drive was unable to overtake the venerable Famicom and remained a distant third in Japan behind Nintendo's Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine throughout the 16-bit era. Sega announced a North American release date for the system on January 9, 1989. At the time, Sega did not possess a North American sales and marketing organization and was distributing its Master System through Tonka . Dissatisfied with Tonka's performance, Sega looked for
7808-418: The Sega Mega Mouse features three buttons and is only compatible with a few games, such as Eye of the Beholder . A foam-covered bat called the BatterUP and the TeeVGolf golf club were released for both the Genesis and SNES. In November 1993, Sega released the Sega Activator, an octagonal device that lies flat on the floor and was designed to translate the player's physical movements into game inputs. It
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#17330861704487936-414: The U.S. are roughly estimated at 8 million and 18–18.5 million as of June 1997 (at which time Sega was no longer manufacturing the system) respectively. In 1998, Sega licensed the Genesis to Majesco Entertainment to rerelease it in North America. Majesco began reselling millions of unsold cartridges at a budget price, together with 150,000 units of the second model of the Genesis. It released
8064-426: The ability to save a game , a modern feature not usually present in older games. The Evercade's use of game cartridges was considered unique, as most retro handheld consoles used built-in or downloaded game ROMs . Unlike other retro consoles, the goal for the Evercade was to provide retrogamers a chance to build a collection of physical games. Cartridges, clamshell packaging , and paper instruction manuals were part of
8192-404: The ability to run its own licensing program if Sega refused to meet its demands. Sega relented, and the next day EA's upcoming Genesis games were showcased at CES. EA signed what Hawkins described as "a very unusual and much more enlightened license agreement" with Sega in June 1990: "Among other things, we had the right to make as many titles as we wanted. We could approve our own titles ...
8320-443: The arcade business starting in 1982 seriously hurt the company, leading Gulf+Western to sell its North American arcade manufacturing organization and the licensing rights for its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing . The company retained Sega's North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. With its arcade business in decline, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. president Hayao Nakayama advocated that
8448-548: The aspect ratio, as some arcade games use a vertical screen that would not display properly on the Evercade's horizontal screen. A collection of games by the Oliver Twins was released later in 2020. The collection has 11 games, including Wonderland Dizzy . A cartridge of Jaleco games was released in 2021, along with another cartridge containing games from the Worms series. Other cartridges included collections of indie games, as well as Intellivision games. In 2021, Blaze also began releasing cartridges featuring arcade ROMs, with
8576-427: The buttons (a player may need to press "B" when prompted to press "A"). As the console launched, Blaze released a firmware update for the layout issue, requiring the user to connect the console through USB to the Evercade website. Two-player games converted for the Evercade retain the multiplayer function, with the intention that future hardware will allow two players. The addition of Bluetooth had been considered as
8704-454: The collections are padded out with filler that you'll play once and forget about." Other reviewers also opined that many of the games would have limited appeal. Some reviewers, overwhelmed by the wide selection of downloadable ROMs through the Internet, praised the Evercade for its limited selection. Reviewers praised the controls, but criticized the layout of the action buttons. Linneman wrote, "With NES games, for instance, A and B are mapped to
8832-440: The company increased the order by 10,000 units when advanced orders had exceeded expectations, and another 10,000 units was later added following the console's success at the ECES event. The projected number of units to be sold between September and December 1990 had eventually increased to 40,000 units in the United Kingdom alone. Other companies assisted in distributing the console to various countries worldwide. Ozisoft handled
8960-443: The company leverage its hardware expertise to move into the home console market in Japan, which was in its infancy at the time. Nakayama received permission to proceed with this project, leading to the release of Sega's first home video game system, the SG-1000 , in July 1983. While it had sold 160,000 units in Japan, far exceeding Sega's expectations, sales at stores were dominated by Nintendo 's Famicom which had been released
9088-416: The console is "a love letter to retro games that will be welcomed into the homes of classic gaming fans and collectors worldwide." Will Greenwald of PC Magazine rated the Evercade 3.5 out of 5, but was also critical of the home-conversion arcade games. McFerran praised the cartridges for their inclusion of popular games, but wrote "you really have to buy all 10 carts to get all of the best games, and some of
9216-432: The console leader since 1985. The Genesis outsold the SNES for four consecutive Christmas seasons due to its two-year lead, lower price point, and larger game library compared to the SNES at its release. Sega had ten games for every game on SNES, and while the SNES had an exclusive version of Final Fight , one of Sega's internal development teams created Streets of Rage , which had bigger levels, tougher enemies, and
9344-584: The console through its own Sega of America subsidiary, which executed a limited launch on August 14, 1989, in New York City and Los Angeles . The Genesis was released in the rest of North America later that year. The European version of the Mega Drive was released in September 1990, at a price of £ 189.99 , i.e. $ 337 (equivalent to $ 732 in 2023). The release was handled by Virgin Mastertronic , which
9472-422: The console uses a MicroUSB port rather than USB-C , and others were disappointed by the lack of multiplayer functionality. Estrada wrote that a small number of games, such as Splatterhouse 3 , suffer from audio glitches. Other critics also complained of audio problems, but Blaze worked to correct them. Reviewers stated that viewing the screen from an angle reduces the quality and visibility. Liszewski wrote that
9600-621: The console was powered off. The Sega Channel reached 250,000 subscribers at its peak and ran until July 31, 1998, well past the release of the Sega Saturn. In an effort to compete with Sega, third-party developer Catapult Entertainment created the XBAND , a peripheral which allowed Genesis players to engage in online competitive gaming. Using telephone services to share data, XBAND was initially offered in five U.S. cities in November 1994. The following year,
9728-454: The console would run the game, and would briefly display the message: " Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises, Ltd. " This system had a twofold effect: it added extra protection against unlicensed developers and software piracy and forced the Sega trademark to display when the game was powered up, making a lawsuit for trademark infringement possible if unlicensed software were to be developed. Accolade learned of this development at
9856-582: The cool console for adolescents. The 1991 North American release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System triggered a fierce battle for market share in the United States and Europe known as the " console war ". This drew attention to the video game industry, and the Genesis and several of its games attracted legal scrutiny on matters involving reverse engineering and video game violence . Controversy surrounding violent games such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create
9984-411: The corresponding buttons where I would typically prefer X and A. Mega Drive/Genesis games also make use of A, B and Y which, again, doesn't feel entirely natural to me." Ismail praised the company for its quick response to the layout issue: "The fact Blaze moved swiftly to push this update out in such close proximity to the handheld's release is a very encouraging sign that the company is listening". Murray
10112-467: The court found that the trademark infringement, being required by the TMSS for a Genesis game to run on the system, had been inadvertently triggered by a fair use act and was the fault of Sega for having caused false labeling. Ultimately, Sega and Accolade settled the case on April 30, 1993. As a part of this settlement, Accolade became an official licensee of Sega, and later developed and released Barkley Shut Up and Jam! while under license. The terms of
10240-550: The effort to appeal to retrogamers, as digital game downloads had become common in recent years. Cartridges and their packaging are numbered to encourage collecting. Evercade cartridges are white in color, and are similar in size to Game Boy and Game Gear cartridges. Giga Carts, though identical in appearance and size, will feature additional storage space for emulating modern games on the Evercade. These cartridges will debut in 2024. Cartridges contain recreations of existing games through emulation, and Evercade developers worked with
10368-450: The end of 1992, while its actual U.S. install base at the end of 1992 was only just more than 4 million units. Due to these tactics, it was difficult to ascertain a clear leader in market share for several years at a time, with Nintendo's dollar share of the U.S. 16-bit market dipping down from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% at the end of 1993, Sega claiming 55% of all 16-bit hardware sales during 1994, and Donkey Kong Country helping
10496-473: The establishment of a North American branch in Torrance, California , known as Arc System Works America, Inc. In July 2024, Arc System Works has opened its European branch at Paris , France. Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis , known as the Mega Drive outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega . It was Sega's third console and
10624-404: The family-friendly GA rating to the more mature rating of MA-13, and the adults-only rating of MA-17. With the rating system in place, Sega released its version of Mortal Kombat , appearing to have removed all the blood and sweat effects and toning down the finishing moves even more than in the SNES version. However, all the arcade's blood and uncensored finishing moves could be enabled by entering
10752-453: The faster drawing speed of the Genesis made it more suitable for sport games than the SNES, and credits EA's success on the Genesis for helping catapult the EA Sports brand. Another third-party blockbuster for the system was the port of Mortal Kombat . Although the arcade game was released on the SNES and Genesis simultaneously, the two ports were not identical. The SNES version looked closer to
10880-503: The first four containing games from Technōs, Data East, Gaelco , and Atari. In July 2022, Blaze announced a cartridge featuring Commodore 64 games, the first with ROMs from a home computer system. Cartridge cases are different in color: red for retro, purple for arcade, and blue for computer. Each type is also numbered separately. In addition to those available on cartridges, hidden games can be unlocked from menu codes, button combo codes, and certain combinations of cartridges inserted into
11008-456: The first official English translation of the game Mappy Kids . Iron Commando , which had previously received only a limited release by Piko, also saw a release on the Evercade. Other cartridges include games such as Tanglewood , and a collection of Atari Lynx games. Home conversions of arcade games, such as Asteroids and Pac-Man , have also been released. The original arcade ROMs were initially not used because of issues concerning
11136-555: The first year, Katz and Sega of America sold only 500,000. At the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (Winter CES) in January 1990, the Sega Genesis demonstrated a strong line-up of games which received a positive reception for approaching arcade-quality graphics and gameplay as well as for providing non-arcade experiences such as Phantasy Star II . In mid-1990, Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske to replace Katz as CEO of Sega of America. Although Kalinske knew little about
11264-471: The fourth quarter of 2019, before being delayed to 20 March 2020. The release was later pushed back to 22 May 2020, although this was expected to be delayed up to two additional weeks in some areas because of shipping delays, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic . The console retailed for £60/$ 80 with a pack-in game cartridge , while a premium edition retailed for £80/$ 100 and included three game cartridges. The console
11392-469: The front of the console produces stereo sound. On the Model 2, the DIN port, RF output port, and headphone jack are replaced by a 9-pin mini-DIN port on the back for composite video , RGB and stereo sound, and the standard RF switch. Earlier Model 1 consoles have a 9-pin extension port. An edge connector on the bottom right of the console can be connected to a peripheral. The standard controller features
11520-561: The game cartridges "strike a nice balance of well-known hits and more obscure releases." Nick Thorpe of Retro Gamer praised the inclusion of Atari 7800 games, which are lesser-known and more difficult to acquire. Adam Ismail of Tom's Guide rated the console four stars out of five, but criticized the lack of games from Nintendo and Sega . Marcus Estrada of Hardcore Gamer praised the variety of available games, but criticized arcade games such as Centipede for being home conversions rather than original releases. He ultimately concluded that
11648-507: The handheld Evercade can be plugged into the VS and used as a controller. The VS was released in December 2021. A cheaper redesign, the VS-R, is scheduled to release in July 2024. In May 2022, Blaze announced the Evercade EXP, an improved version of the original Evercade. It was released on 15 December 2022. The console is held horizontally, but can also be positioned vertically for arcade games. It
11776-422: The issue was remedied ahead of the console's launch. Kyle Orland of Ars Technica criticized the use of cartridges at a time when downloadable games had become commonplace: "Going back to the bad old days of switching between cartridges just isn't that appealing anymore." The console's price was praised and considered affordable. The cartridge packaging received praise as well. Some critics were disappointed that
11904-474: The lack of Bluetooth . A redesigned version, the Evercade EXP-R, will release in July 2024 at a lower retail price, while the original EXP will be discontinued. The redesign excludes the mini-HDMI port and the 18 built-in games. In July 2023, Blaze Entertainment unveiled its new line of Super Pocket handhelds to be produced under the company's new HyperMegaTech brand. The console featured a smaller design at
12032-466: The launch was overshadowed by Nintendo's release of Super Mario Bros. 3 a week earlier. Positive coverage from magazines Famitsu and Beep! helped to establish a following. Within two days of release, the console's initial production run sold out. However, Sega only managed to ship 400,000 units in the first year. In order to increase sales, Sega released various peripherals and games, including an online banking system and answering machine called
12160-489: The licensing, including whether or not any special arrangements or discounts were made to Accolade, were not released to the public. The financial terms of the settlement were also not disclosed, although both companies agreed to pay their own legal costs. In 1993, the American media began to focus on the mature content of certain video games. Games such as Night Trap for the Sega CD , an add-on , received unprecedented scrutiny. Issues about Night Trap were brought up in
12288-413: The mid-to-late 1980s, were both dominated by Nintendo. With Sega continuing to have difficulty penetrating the home market, Sega's console R&D team, led by Masami Ishikawa and supervised by Hideki Sato, began work on a successor to the Master System almost immediately after that console launched. In 1987, Sega faced another threat to its console business when Japanese computer giant NEC released
12416-403: The month. The first Genesis version of EA's John Madden Football arrived before the end of 1990, and became what Gordon called a " killer app ". Taking advantage of the licensing agreement, Gordon and EA's vice president of marketing services, Nancy Fong, created a visual identifier for EA's Genesis cartridges: a yellow tab molded into the casing. Sega held a company-wide contest to create
12544-416: The name was changed to "Genesis". Rosen said he insisted on the name as he disliked "Mega Drive" and wanted to represent "a new beginning" for Sega. Sato said some design elements changed, such as the gold "16-bit" wording, in case it was mistaken for yellow. He believed the changes represented different Japanese and American cultural values. Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan on October 29, 1988, though
12672-459: The original Genesis contain a discrete YM2612 and a separate YM7101 VDP; in a later revision, the chips were integrated into a single custom ASIC (FC1004). The back of the Model 1 console provides an RF output port (designed for use with antenna and cable systems) and a specialized 8-pin DIN port, which both provide video and audio output. Both outputs produce monophonic sound; a headphone jack on
12800-476: The original software developers to ensure accurate game recreations. Atari was announced in April 2019 as the first game publisher to work with the Evercade developers. Subsequent partnerships were announced with Interplay Entertainment , Data East , and Bandai Namco Entertainment . Each Evercade cartridge contains games unique to their respective publishing company. Blaze Entertainment held discussions with game licensees and requested specific games for release on
12928-485: The plan, but all four points were approved by Nakayama, who told Kalinske, "I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas, so go ahead and do it." Critics praised Sonic as one of the greatest games yet made, and Genesis sales increased as customers who had been waiting for the release of the international version of Nintendo's Super Famicom, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), decided to purchase
13056-482: The popularity of the Genesis in North America, and the bundle is credited with helping Sega gain 65% of the market share against Nintendo. Similarly, in Europe, Sega captured a 65% share of the European console market, where the Mega Drive maintained its lead over the SNES through 1994. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 set records for the fastest-selling game, selling 3.2 million copies worldwide within two weeks, and Sonic
13184-517: The rating system and put ratings on it. In response, Sega of America vice president Bill White showed a videotape of violent video games on the SNES and stressed the importance of rating video games. At the end of the hearing, Lieberman called for another hearing in February 1994 to check on progress toward a rating system for video game violence. As a result of the congressional hearings, Night Trap started to generate more sales and released ports to
13312-450: The rating system that Lieberman had called for. Initially, Sega proposed the universal adoption of its system, but after objections by Nintendo and others, Sega took a role in forming a new one. This became the Entertainment Software Rating Board , an independent organization that received praise from Lieberman. With this new rating system in place for the 1994 holiday season, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed, and
13440-418: The real hardware manufacturing costs, so it about doubles the cost of goods to the independent publisher." To get around licensing, Accolade chose to seek an alternative way to bring their games to the Genesis. It did so by purchasing one in order to decompile the executable code of three Genesis games. Such information was used to program their new Genesis cartridges in a way that would allow them to disable
13568-423: The royalty rates were a lot more reasonable. We also had more direct control over manufacturing." After the deal was in place, EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon learned that "we hadn't figured out all the workarounds" and "Sega still had the ability to lock us out ... It just would have been a public relations fiasco." EA released its first Genesis games, Populous and Budokan: The Martial Spirit , within
13696-554: The same day. Sega estimated that the Famicom outsold the SG-1000 by a 10-to-1 margin. The SG-1000 was replaced by the Sega Mark III within two years. In the meantime, Gulf+Western began to divest itself of its non-core businesses after the death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn , so Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen arranged a management buyout of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial backing from CSK Corporation ,
13824-435: The screen is one of the largest ever seen on a handheld console, but "not one of the best," stating "you don’t have to tilt the console too far to find the screen starting to lose color." He added that the resolution is fine for gameplay, but "it leaves menus looking over pixelated, unless you’re willing to just pass that off as retro charm." Other reviewers criticized the minimal menu designs as well. Some reviewers complained of
13952-531: The screen is the same size as the original handheld, the EXP plays in higher resolution at 800x480. It has a mini-HDMI port for connection to a television, with output at 720p. The EXP uses a 1.5 GHz processor and has 4GB of RAM. It offers Wi-Fi for software and firmware updates. The console has a larger 3,000 mAh battery for up to five hours of usage, and it uses USB-C for recharging. The console's improved screen and its addition of vertical orientation were both praised, although some critics were disappointed by
14080-436: The security lockouts on the Genesis that prevented unlicensed games from being played. This strategy was used successfully to bring Ishido: The Way of Stones to the Genesis in 1990. To do so, Accolade had copied Sega's copyrighted game code multiple times in order to reverse engineer the software of Sega's licensed Genesis games. As a result of piracy in some countries and unlicensed development issues, Sega incorporated
14208-431: The service was extended to the SNES, and Catapult teamed up with Blockbuster Video to market the service, but as interest in the service waned, it was discontinued in April 1997. The Genesis library was initially modest, but eventually grew to contain games to appeal to all types of players. The initial pack-in game was Altered Beast , which was replaced with Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. Top sellers included Sonic
14336-688: The successor to the Master System . Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis. In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil. In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy . Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa,
14464-454: The transaction, the company took the publishing duties from Aksys Games for Virtual Console releases in North America, though some Technōs games were already published by Arc System Works. On February 6, 2017, the company acquired the rights to the Jake Hunter , Theresia , Nazo no Jikenbo , and Koneko no Ie series from publisher WorkJam . On November 2, 2017, the company announced
14592-492: The two aspect ratios. Like the Nintendo Switch , the Evercade can be connected to a television, however with a mini-HDMI cable, as opposed to a normal HDMI output. The Evercade offers a television output of 720p , and supports high-definition upscaling on all games when the console is connected to a television. The console has a rechargeable 2,000- mAh battery that lasts four to five hours. A 3.5 minijack for headphones
14720-450: The uncensored version of Mortal Kombat . The arcade hit Street Fighter II by Capcom was initially released on the SNES. As the Genesis continued to grow in popularity, Capcom released a Genesis version, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition , which sold more than a million copies. One of the biggest third-party companies to support the Genesis early on was Electronic Arts. Trip Hawkins , founder and then president of EA, believed
14848-640: The video game console market generated between $ 200,000,000 (equivalent to $ 400,000,000 in 2023) and $ 250,000,000 (equivalent to $ 500,000,000 in 2023) in Russia, with Sega accounting for half of all console sales in the country. However, only about 15% of the sales were official Sega units distributed by Bitman, while the rest were unofficial counterfeit clones. For the North American market, former Atari Corporation Entertainment Electronics Division president and new Sega of America CEO Michael Katz instituted
14976-427: The video game market in 1995. Sega underestimated the continued popularity of the Genesis and did not have the inventory to meet demand. Sega captured 43% of the dollar share of the U.S. video game market and claimed to have sold more than two million Genesis units in 1995, while Genesis software such as Vectorman remained successful, but Kalinske estimated that "we could have sold another 300,000 Genesis systems in
15104-443: The video game market, he surrounded himself with industry-savvy advisors. A believer in the razor and blades model , he developed a four-point plan: cut the price of the console, create an American team to develop games targeted at the American market, expand the aggressive advertising campaigns, and replace the bundled game Altered Beast with a new game, Sonic the Hedgehog . The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of
15232-467: Was Midway 's Mortal Kombat , ported to the Genesis and SNES by Acclaim Entertainment . In response to public outcry over the game's graphic violence, Nintendo decided to replace the blood in the game with "sweat" and the arcade's gruesome "fatalities" with less violent finishing moves. Sega took a different approach, instituting America's first video game ratings system, the Videogame Rating Council (VRC), for all its current systems. Ratings ranged from
15360-443: Was cancelled. In its first foray into online gaming , Sega created Sega Meganet , which debuted in Japan on November 3, 1990. Operating through a cartridge and a peripheral called the "Mega Modem ", this allowed Mega Drive players to play a total of seventeen games online. A North American version, dubbed "Tele-Genesis", was announced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (Winter CES) in January 1990 but never released, though
15488-410: Was critical of the shoulder buttons for being too sensitive and the action buttons for being placed too close to each other. Reviewers complained that the games fit too tightly in the cartridge slot, making extraction difficult. This was worsened by the fact that the cartridges have a smooth design which makes gripping them difficult. Blaze stated that these reviewers had received an early model and that
15616-401: Was first shown at the January 1993 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where it was demonstrated with Streets of Rage 2 . Several high-profile games, including Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition , were adapted to support the peripheral. The device was a commercial failure, due mainly to its inaccuracy and its high price point. IGN editor Craig Harris ranked
15744-562: Was later purchased by Sega in 1991 and became Sega of Europe. Games like Space Harrier II , Ghouls 'n Ghosts , Golden Axe , Super Thunder Blade , and The Revenge of Shinobi were available in stores at launch. The console was also bundled with Altered Beast . The Mega Drive and its first batch of games were shown at the 1990 European Computer Entertainment Show (ECES) in Earl's Court . Between July and August 1990, Virgin initially placed their order for 20,000 Mega Drive units. However,
15872-411: Was more open to new types of games, but still tightly controlled the approval process for third-party games and charged high prices for cartridge manufacturing. The American publisher Electronic Arts (EA) sought a better deal, but met resistance from Sega. They decided to reverse-engineer the Genesis, using a clean-room method similar to the method Phoenix Technologies had used to reverse-engineer
16000-515: Was named Super Gam*Boy and retained the Mega Drive logo alongside the Samsung name. It was later renamed Super Aladdin Boy. In India, Sega entered a distribution deal with Shaw Wallace in April 1994 in order to circumvent an 80% import tariff, with each unit selling for INR₹ 18,000. In Russia, Sega officially licensed the console to local distributor Forrus in 1994, replaced in 1996 by Bitman. That year,
16128-491: Was necessary to prove who owns the rights to such games. Discussions were also held with indie game developers about launching original, retro-like games on the console. Mega Cat Studios later made an agreement to release an Evercade cartridge with 10 homebrew games that had previously been released for the NES and the Mega Drive. The Evercade runs emulators that have been licensed by Blaze or custom-built in some cases. The console
16256-516: Was quick to point out at the hearings that Night Trap had no such rating, saying to Senator Joe Lieberman : Furthermore, I can't let you sit here and buy this nonsense that this Sega Night Trap game was somehow only meant for adults. The fact of the matter is this is a copy of the packaging. There was no rating on this game at all when the game was introduced. Small children bought this at Toys "R" Us , and he knows that as well as I do. When they started getting heat about this game, then they adopted
16384-447: Was the first fighting game they produced . They published their first title in 1995 which was Exector for the PlayStation . On June 11, 2015, the company acquired all intellectual properties of Technōs Japan , such as Double Dragon and Kunio-kun , from Million Co., Ltd. Even prior to its acquisition of Million's library, the company had been the publisher of Technōs' video games for Virtual Console in Japan. Following
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