SegaCD Emulation Sections . .


About the unit:
The Sega CD debuted in Dec. 1992. Though it wasn't the first CD-ROM based console unit to hit the market, it was the first CD-ROM based system to become popular. It was released in a time when the Genesis was king with a huge library of games and the SNES was too new and thus had a small library of games. The Sega CD was a chance for a change of pace from your standard low density ROM cartridge to the mind bungling capacity of CD-ROM! Although the Sega-CD had an overall lackluster lifetime, a few gems made the Sega CD shine.
Sega CD Unit Image
The SegaCD
The Sega CD offered a CD-ROM drive, which made it possible to play larger games with CD-quality music, digitized sound samples and the tool of the devil, FMV. The Sega CD added a little extra RAM and a whole new processor, which was an exact copy of the one in the Genesis with more power. It also added scaling and rotation effects seen in the SNES in the form of "Mode 7". Besides Sega CD games, the unit was also capable of playing CD+G disks (CDs with extra graphics that can be shown while the music is playing) and Audio CDs.
One thing the Sega CD didn't add, however, was enhanced colors. It would not be until the 32X's debut that the Genesis and Sega CD would be able to display more than 64 colors per screen from the small pallet of 512. (Well, you CAN switch the pallet between scanlines for higher colors a la Eternal Champions...but that slows things down and is complicated).
Many of the games made for the units were enhanced versions of the Genesis ROM counterpart, like Earth Worm Jim: Special Edition and Sonic CD. Many other games pushed the Sega CD's technology to the limit to create some creative looking games, like "Make My Video." The Sega CD's loading speed was horrible. It was not so much the drive's single speed data read speed, but the seek time of 1 sec (geez!) To find something on the disk at that speed really slowed the Sega CD down. One example is Mortal Kombat. Sure, the sprites are larger than the Genesis version, but you have to wait like 1 min between matches just so you can play. This problem was found on many other games and thus plagued the unit with annoying 10-20 sec load times verses the instant load time found in the Genesis. However, nothing could be done about it short of a whole new Sega CD unit with a new drive.
SegaCD Sections

  • Accessories
  • Emulators
  • Emul. Operation Tips
  • GD&L
  • PC equivilents
  • Screen Shot Comp.
  • Tech. Resource Info.
  • CDX & 32X
  • And Finally...

    Console Sections

  • 32x
  • Gameboy
  • GameGear
  • Genesis
  • N64
  • Neo-Geo
  • NES
  • Playstation
  • SNES
  • Sega-CD
  • Master System
  • Turbo Graphics 16


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  • Email . .
    Auston ~
    Head SegaCd Page Maintain- er

    ~
    Generial Maintainer
    SegaCD Emulation Sections . .
    Accessories - Toys for your toys: a listing of add-ons available for the unit.

    Emulators - A section that reviews each emulator and discusses the pros and cons of each emulator from Hybrid's to Synergy

    Emulator Operation Tips - Having trouble with a those tricky Boot ROMs? CD not readin? Come here and save yourself the trouble of trying to figure out those docs!

    GD&L - Games, Utilities, Sega CD files of interest, etc.

    PC equivilents - A list of Sega CD titles ported to your PC.

    Screen Shot Comparison - A simple page to compare the graphical emulation of all Sega CD emulators.

    Technical Resource Information - Are you an emulator author looking for technical related information concerning this unit? Look no further! (Actually, this is a link to Eidolon's Inn's excellent SegaCD documentation page.)

    And Finally... - Crazy tails of the Sega CD, it's times, the morons and mischeif at Sega =)

    CDX & 32X - Can the two work with each other? What are the long-term consequences? What does Sega say? How far will they go to cover up an FCC violation? You NEED to read this.


    Quick Specs List:
  • Released: 1992
  • Main Processor: Motorola 68000 processor running at 12.5Mhz
  • Co-processor: GPU custon ASIC (Sega CD) 68000, Z80 (Genesis) 2X SH-2 (32X)
  • Data Path width: 16-bits
  • Color Palette: 512
  • On screen: 64
  • Sound: 8 channel stereo w/ CD-ROM audio
  • Ram: 6 Megabits ( 0.75 Megabytes )
  • Rom addressing: could read genesis carts
  • CD Size: 500 Megabytes
  • CD transfer rate: 150kb/s (1 speed PC equ.)

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  • Submit any comments or correction to us at wacko@javanet.com or Poleza@aol.com. Thanks goes out TRUG MA and Jeff for some help earlier on.