Category Archives: Sega Genesis

Can You Visualise a Sega Cart from 2017?

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The Sega Genesis, or Mega Drive if you’re not from North America, isn’t exactly this summer’s hottest new console, but it still has a huge following 29 years after launch. Fans range from retro Sonic enthusiasts to hardcore chiptune composers, and this year, Catskull Electronics is releasing a Genesis compilation album on a cartridge with a rather special feature.

The cartridge sports an 8×8 LED matrix, which acts as a visualiser for the audio coming out of the console. They’re controlled with a combination of data and address lines with some buffers and 74-series glue logic to make it all …read more

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How Third-Party Game Devs Reverse-Engineered Their Way Onto Your Consoles (and Into Your Heart)

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Third-party developers weren’t always quite so revered in the video game industry, but a pair of legal decisions helped them earn their place at the table. Continue reading How Third-Party Game Devs Reverse-Engineered Their Way Onto Your Consoles (and Into Your Heart)→

Sega Genesis Chiptunes Player Uses Original Chips

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If you were a child of the late 1980s or early 1990s, the chances are you’ll be in either the Super Nintendo or the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive camp. Other 16-bit games consoles existed, but these were the ones that mattered! The extra power of the Nintendo’s souped-up 16-bit 6502 derivative or the Sega’s 68000 delivered a gaming experience that, while it might not have been quite what you’d have found in arcades of the day, was at least close enough that you could pretend it was.

The distinctive sound of consoles from that era has gained a significant following …read more

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