Mega-Tech System
The Mega-Tech System, known in Japan as Mega 6, is a cartridge-based arcade cabinet developed by Sega and sold from 1989 to 1993. The arcade cabinet's motherboard contains 6 slots in the Japanese release and 8 slots in the USA and European releases where games, purchased from Sega, could be loaded by arcade owners. Similar in function to Nintendo's PlayChoice-10, the games for the Mega-Tech System were essentially Genesis or Master System games, slightly modified so they wouldn't work in home consoles. And, unlike traditional arcade games, the Mega-Tech System required the player to buy time on the cabinet and they could swap between games and restart them as they desired until their time ran out. Sega also released a slightly different arcade system called the Mega Play.
Personal
I didn't know about the Mega-Tech System when it was being sold and only learned about it decades later while researching video game history. I see it primarily as a ripoff of Nintendo's PlayChoice-10.
Technical
The cabinet's internal hardware is very similar to the Genesis featuring the same Motorola 68000 CPU and Zilog Z80 to process audio and provide backward compatibility with the Master System. Some additional hardware was added to handle the menu and timer system.
The Mega-Tech System motherboard.
The motherboard loaded with ROM cartridges.
A Mega-Tech System ROM cartridge.
Games were shipped in ROM cartridges which used the Japanese Mega Drive shell, even if they were Master System games. That automatically made them physically incompatible with the US Genesis, but they wouldn't work on any Mega Drive consoles either since they included additional circuitry. Similarly Genesis, Mega Drive, and Master System games could not be loaded on the Mega-Tech System. Cartridges are be inserted into slots on the arcade cabinet's motherboard and they appear in the menu of the arcade cabinet to be selected by players.
Games
In total, 46 games were released for the Mega-Tech System, the vast majority were developed by Sega. The original release dates for Mega-Tech System games are not accurately known since they weren't widely advertised and the copyright year in the games weren't changed, even if they were released in a different year. An additional 12 games were mentioned in flyers, but never released.
Media
Cabinet Art
Cabinet.
Marquee.
Control panel.
Documentation
Manual - UK.
Flyer - UK - 1.
Flyer - UK - 2.
Flyer - UK - 3.
Flyer - France.
Flyer - Spain.
Links
- segaretro.org/Mega_6 - Sega Retro - Mega 6.
- arcade-museum.com/Videogame/sega-mega-tech - Arcade Museum.
- wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Sega_Mega-Tech - More details.
