Sega Mega Drive
 Sega Mega Drive
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Japanese Mega Drive, model 1
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| Manufacturer(s) |  Sega
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| Release Date(s) |  1988-10-29
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| CPU(s) | Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80 |
| Sound chip(s) | Yamaha YM2612, SEGAVDP PSG, DAC |
| Music section | Sega Mega Drive |
Sega Mega Drive (ja:メガドライブ), known in the USA as 
genesis and Super Gam*boy and later, Super Aladdin Boy in South Korea (ko:슈퍼겜보이 & 슈퍼알라딘보이) is a 16-bit video game system made by Sega. It was released in 1988 in Japan, as the true 16-bit home console, as opposed to its 8-bit competitors, the Famicom and the PC Engine. The Mega Drive wasn't successful in Japan, but was more successful than its 8-bit predecessors, Master System and SG-1000.
Launch titles 
Sound
The FM source of the MD is a OPN2. It is a stripped-down of the YM2608 (without the ADPCM and AY8910 channels). It has 6 FM channels, plus a DAC. The DAC serves as channel 6.
The SEGAVDP PSG is the same sound chip of the Master System, inside of the VDP generator of the SMS.
Most (both licensed by Sega and pirate) clones does not reproduce the sound 100% accurate, most notably, the AtGames clones, which have the FM toned -4 pitches and the PSG toned -7 pitches. The new Mega Drive from Tec Toy released in 2017 has good FM accuracy, but their DAC and PSG does not sound accurate compared to the real MD (e.g.: the Sega choir in Sonic games).
VGM scene
You can log MD music into VGM in various emulators, such as MESS, Kega Fusion, and GensGS-r7+, among others.
A VGM Player for the MD was released: Genesis VGM Player, by mic. It can play YM2612 and SN76489 VGMs. The ROM builder requires .NET Framework 2.0 or higher to execute it.
Another VGM Player for the MD was released: VgmPlay / VGM_PLAY (not to be confused with the VGMPlay for Windows and Linux), by DeadFish. It can play YM2612 and SN76489 VGMs.
Game info databases
- GameFAQs (1333 games as of 2014-12-25)
- Guardiana (1112 games as of 2014-12-26)
- GameBase Megadrivemania (1123 games as of 2014-12-25)
- Sega Retro (1012 games as of 2014-12-25)
- MobyGames (951 games as of 2014-12-27)
- GiantBomb (903 games as of 2014-12-25)
- Wikipedia (897 games as of 2014-12-25)
- Gamesdbase (808 games as of 2014-12-25)
- The Games DB (791 games as of 2014-12-27)
- Japanese MegaDrive DB (174 games as of 2014-12-25)
External links
- Sega Mega Drive at Sega Hardware Encyclopedia
- Sega Mega Drive at Sega Hardware Encyclopedia (old)