Sega Genesis: The Un-Nintendo

Last Updated on May 29, 2025 by Dave Farquhar

It was 35 years ago this week, on August 14, 1989, that Sega released is its 4th generation game console, the Sega Genesis, to the North American market. It initially cost $189. In other parts of the world, you know this console as the Mega Drive. In the United States, it was Sega’s most successful console and it created a blueprint for competing with Nintendo.

What was special about the Sega Genesis?

The Genesis boasted of being a 16-bit console, and if anything, that was understating its capabilities a bit. Its graphics capabilities, 320×240 resolution with 61 colors out of a palette of 512, were in the same league as an Atari ST or Commodore Amiga computer and well beyond what the 8-bit NES could do.

The sound, provided by a Yamaha YM2612, had six channels in stereo and was capable of playing samples with software tricks. It also had a TI SN76489 on board for backward compatibility with Master System titles. A secondary CPU, a Zilog Z-80, provided backward compatibility and acted as a coprocessor for controlling the sound chips, leaving the 68000 free to handle the gameplay and graphics.

The main processor was a Motorola 68000, which really was a 32-bit processor internally, with a 16-bit data bus. It was the most powerful CPU from this console generation, and Sega had just the thing to show it off.

Showing off the capability

One of the things the NES did well was including a launch title that showed off its capabilities and that would be extremely difficult for other existing systems to pull off. On the NES, that title was Super Mario Bros.

The answer on the Genesis was Sonic the Hedgehog, released June 23, 1991 in North America and widely included as a pack-in. The concept behind Sonic wasn’t especially original. It was a platform game where you ran and jumped around and collected rings instead of coins. The difference was the pace of the game. There was more going on on the screen, and the game was fast. It showed the public that this new system was perfectly capable of a compelling and challenging platform game, but also that it could make it a very fast paced platform game.

Other differentiators

In this generation, Sega leaned into being the un-Nintendo. The game content didn’t have to be g-rated. The game Mortal Kombat was notorious for its depiction of violence and gore. On Nintendo systems, the game had to tone all of that way down, to the point of replacing blood with sweat. On the Genesis, Sega allowed them to make the game faithful to the arcade original.

Sports titles, the bane of the modern collector, were a big selling point for the Genesis. The NES had a few good sports titles, but the Genesis had a few good sports titles every year, updated for the current season.

Sega also didn’t demand 2-year exclusivity the way Nintendo did. Initially they wanted to, but they relented, especially after Electronic Arts figured out how to bypass Sega’s lockout mechanism.

A third thing Sega did was to embrace the rental business. Sega didn’t sue Blockbuster, they partnered with Blockbuster. They sold the consoles in the stores and didn’t do anything to try to prevent game rentals. It was a smart move that benefited both companies. It gave Blockbuster a big ticket item to sell, and it increased the console’s exposure, since anyone who went to Blockbuster on Friday or Saturday night to rent a movie would also see the console.

All of this really allowed Sega to position Nintendo as the console you had when you were a kid. If you had outgrown Saturday morning cartoons but still liked the idea of video games, you just wanted your video games to be more like an action movie than like a Saturday morning cartoon, the Genesis was just the thing for you.

Success

The Genesis sold really well initially, especially when it was competing against the NES. Nintendo was slow to release a 16-bit successor, and when it did, Sega had a bit more difficulty Competing. By going second, Nintendo was able to design a system specifically to compete with the Genesis, giving it capabilities that matched up well with it, while reducing costs in other areas. The Super Nintendo had a much less powerful CPU, but slightly better graphics capabilities. Sega sold around 35 million units, compared to 49 million units for the SNES, so Sega held its own.

Ultimately, the Super Nintendo ended up out selling the Genesis, but the Genesis provided a template for competing against Nintendo. Sega’s execution of this strategy peaked with the Genesis, but Sony and Microsoft adopted it very successfully competing in later generations.

The Genesis broke a great deal of ground, and Sega released several expansions for it to extend its capabilities. Building out a Sega Tower of power that includes the 32x and the CD add-on makes for a delightfully over-the-top console. Unfortunately, for Sega, they were never able to replicate its success, and they bowed out of the console market after two more generations, continuing on solely as a software publisher.

But the Genesis was definitely fun, both to play and to collect. A replacement power supply is easy to source, and it’s straightforward to connect to a modern TV.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.