It seemed like such a good idea... and for a while, it was. Sega wasn't the first to bring CD technology to the American market -- that would have been NEC with its Turbo CD. But it was the first to make the technology stick. The Sega CD was introduced as an add-on to the highly successful Genesis that would play games, as well as music and CD+Graphics discs. My roomate bought one. It was pretty cool back then. The really good games were the the RPG's.
The Sega CD is an add-on device for the Sega Genesis video game console, designed and produced by Sega and released in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and North America. In North America, it was renamed Sega CD,
as the name Mega-CD bore no obvious associative meaning in that market
where the console was named "Genesis" instead of "Mega Drive". The
device adds a CD-ROM drive to the Mega Drive, allowing the user to play
CD-based games and providing additional hardware functionality. In
addition, the add-on can also play audio CDs and CD+G discs.
The development of the Sega CD was confidential; game developers
were not made aware of what exactly they were working on until the
add-on was finally revealed at the Tokyo Toy Show in Japan. The Sega CD
was designed to compete with the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) in Japan, which had a separate CD-ROM drive.
The first version of the Sega CD sits underneath the Mega Drive
console and loads CDs via a motorized tray. A second version places a
top-loading CD-ROM drive to the right of the console, and is intended
primarily for use with the redesigned Sega Mega Drive 2. Both versions
of the Mega-CD are compatible with both versions of the Mega Drive
console.
Sega wanted to showcase the power of the Sega CD, and so focused on "FMV" games
rather than taking advantage of the extra storage space of the CD
media. Sega insisted on licensing and producing primarily "full motion
video" games similar to earlier Laserdisc
games, that were universally panned by game reviewers. The limited
512-color palette of the system, combined with the processor not being
well-suited for video, did not lend itself well to reproducing video,
resulting in grainy video in most games.
Another criticism of the software library was that most titles consisted of Shovelware,
in which a developer takes an existing title and adds minor new content
(usually a CD audio soundtrack, or video sequences) while not expanding
the original game itself. Few titles received major changes, but two
exceptions were Earthworm Jim which featured additional levels and game changes, and The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin, which featured many changes, which drastically restructured the game, making it less linear, and adding animated cut scenes.
Despite a somewhat lackluster library of games, the console introduced some notable franchises. The Lunar
series, which despite the relatively narrow circulation the two titles
on the Sega CD received, went on to be critically acclaimed and became
a cult classic, with both games receiving remakes for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in the late '90s; and a prequel to the series for the Nintendo DS in 2005. The English publisher of the two Lunar titles, Working Designs, also published another RPG for the platform, entitled Vay. While it received generally positive reviews, the game did not obtain the same popularity as the Lunar titles. Working Designs also published Popful Mail for the Sega CD. Another notable title was the cult-classic Snatcher, a cyber-punkdigital comic released by Konami and designed by Hideo Kojima and the only version of the game released in English.
One exclusive game that was published for the Sega CD is the now-famous Sonic the Hedgehog CD, or Sonic CD. Sonic CD
has been praised for its visual style, superior CD sound, and an
innovative time-travel mechanic, allowing players to explore four
versions of each stage. Many fans praise the game as amongst the
series' best for these reasons.
The Sega CD was awarded Best New Peripheral of 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
