The Mini Tower of Power – A Mega Comparison

The Mega Drive Mini is Sega’s first official in-house console launch since 2001. Bringing the Sega Mega Drive back to the masses in miniature format, the release has also resurrected a cult hardware combo — the awe-inspiring ‘tower of power’. Read on as MegaBites dives in for a close-up aesthetic comparison of the 2019 ‘tower’ and its mid-90s original.

Name a famous tower — the Eiffel Tower, the tower of London, the leaning tower of Pisa perhaps? Ask the same question to a retrogamer and the answer is likely to be Sega’s ‘tower of power’.

But what was the ‘tower of power’? In essence, it was a 32-bit CD upgrade of the Sega Mega Drive — a powerhouse made possible by combining the Mega Drive with the Mega CD and 32X. In essence, it was the Mega Drive at its most potent and powerful, if not a tad cumbersome.

Sega’s towering hardware combo promised so much — advanced 32-bit gaming, 3D graphics, smooth FMV, CD audio and the unique ‘Mega CD 32X’ disk format. For all the expectation, sadly, this tower toppled.

While the Mega CD had been available since 1991, the tower was only made possible following the release of the 32X in 1994 (Japan/USA) and 1995 (Europe). By this time, however, the Sega Saturn had already become Sega’s 32-bit showpiece, and the gaming industry at large was singing to the tune of Sony’s shiny new Playstation 1 release.

Requiring a combined investment in the range of £400 (!), young Sega fans at the time were looking at a lifetime of paid household chores to afford the ‘tower of power’ unit and its compatible titles.

With all these circumstances combined, Sega’s almighty tower was simply unrealistic and unattainable for the masses. Even today, the hardware remains an obscure anomaly to track down — until now.

Well, sort of…

 

Mini by name, mega by nature

Fast forward to 2019 — a miniature replica of the ‘tower of power’ has been made available as an add-on for the Mega Drive Mini.

At the time of writing, the accessory is only available to the public as a Japanese variant… at least for now. However, Sega has unleashed European and US formats of the mini tower to a select few social media influencers and members of the press.

With my own full size European ‘tower of power’ in tow, and the odd piece of Japanese hardware thrown in for good measure, how do the elements of the ‘mini’ shape up against their 90s counterparts?

 

A mega celebration for the mini console — MegaBites at the European Sega Mega Drive Mini launch

On 2nd October, ahead of the Mega Drive mini’s European release, London’s Queen of Hoxton venue hosted the console’s official European launch party. Attended and organised by Sega Europe and GamerDisco, the night was filled with the sights and sounds of Sega. The event provided an exclusive chance to experience Sega’s European iteration of its new mini console, coupled with retro-inspired beats and speedrun tournaments.

So, how was it to finally get our hands on the European version of the Mega Drive Mini and who would emerge as the victor of the speedrun competition? MegaBites went along to find out.

For the past few months, any European fan of Sega, Sonic and/or retrogaming will undoubtedly have had a particular date circled on their calendar, Friday 4th October 2019 — the EU release date of the Sega Mega Drive Mini. In true 90s spirit, the European release of the Mega Drive Mini comes weeks after the US, Japan and rest of the world (that’s how it always used to be, kids). Now, at last, the console has arrived on our shores. But not before it enjoyed a retro-inspired launch event…

Not one to miss out on such an occasion, I jumped on the train and made the journey to the Queen of Hoxton — the centre of the Sega universe for that evening.

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works – The MegaBites Interview

As you may have guessed, this site has something of a soft spot for a certain 16-bit console. Whether you know it as the Mega Drive or the Genesis, the chances are you’re equally familiar with the console’s spikey blue mascot, its blast processing prowess and its truly incredible back catalogue. But did you ever hear of its purple-buttoned prototype control pads? Have you cast your eyes upon its hand-drawn pre-development blueprints, or heard the inside story of its incredible hardware spinoffs? (Sega Neptune, anyone?) With these exclusives and more, MegaBites is proud to be amongst the first to reveal Read-Only Memory’s brand new Kickstarter campaign for its latest publication ‘Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works’.

From the Mega Drive’s earliest concepts, prototypes, mega-marketing campaigns and incredible rise to global fame, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works is set to showcase never before-seen material and industry insight from those closest to the console’s development and its biggest franchises – an indispensable resource for fans of the Mega Drive and retro gamers alike.

Fresh from the release of Sensible Software 1986–1999 and the title’s subsequent induction into the BAFTA library, MegaBites caught up with Read-Only Memory publishing’s Director, Darren Wall, for some exciting inside information on a project that is ‘mega’ in every sense of the word.

MegaBites: What can you tell us about Read-Only Memory’s new publication?

Darren Wall: It can all be traced back to the time of our Sensible Kickstarter campaign. I was in a meeting that was related to a separate work project. It was linked to a studio who conduct a lot of work with with Sony, as well as Sega. I mentioned to them about how I’d love to do a book on the Sega Mega Drive. The studio passed on the details of our Sensible Kickstarter to Sega.

Some time later, Sega contacted us and subsequently asked us to pitch a concept for a Read-Only Memory Sega publication. I think we were competing for the license against another publisher. We put together a pitch and we were offered the license.
Our next project will be a book about the software and related hardware of the Sega Mega Drive.

The Letter Through the Door

It was the morning of the 23rd September 1994, I was ten years old and this letter arrived in the post:

Electronic Arts UK had written back to me in response to my first foray into the world of video game design.

What followed in the coming years was an insight into the world of 16-bit game development, correspondence with some of the gaming greats of their era (mainly receptionists), freebie t-shirts in the mail and all the free gaming posters a school kid could ever desire.

Join me in the coming days for the first installment of (Mis)adventures in Game Development, a fascinating tale of one school kid’s desire to take on the gaming giants, armed only with a biro, a wad of A4 paper, an incomplete set of Berol felt-tip pens and a book of stamps (we’re talking pre-email here people).

It’s gonna be so retro, your floppy disk drives will be screeching from beyond the grave.

Sense and Sensibility

Welcome to the first in a series of company profiles, covering some of the Mega Drive’s greatest gaming developers.

First up… Sensible Software.

Established in 1986, Chelmsford based Sensible Software went on to establish itself as a dominant force in the British software developer scene of the early, to mid 1990s. Following its demise at the end of the decade, the company has gone on to gain a cult following amongst gamers today.

Founded by Essex school friends Jon Hare and Chris Yates, Sensible Software was unique in its philosophy as an independent software house. A typically British sense of humor at its core, Sensible Software with its tongue-in-cheek gaming titles, and distinctive graphical style meant for a company who became synonymous amongst the video game industry.

The Box In The Garage

The other day, I went into the garage and took a large cardboard box into the house. At first glance, it looked like any old box, nothing special. Yet, opening it revealed this collection of treasures:

Contents:
– Mega Drive II console
– Mega Drive 32X console (and box)
– 2x Sega 3 button control pads
– 2x Competition Pro 6 button control pads
– AC adaptors, AV cables, RF cable, etc.
– Various Mega Drive and 32X game cartridges

Of course, I knew exactly what was in that box. Alhough my Mega Drive gaming collection has grown over the years, beyond the contents of this box, what I saw before me represented something no eBay or car boot purchases can never replace – memories. Each piece of hardware and software contained within this box is a piece of me, a piece of my childhood, of birthdays, Christmases, of endless summer holiday afternoons. Memories of after-school evenings with friends trying out the latest cheats, reaching the highest scores, discovering the highest levels, before the arrival of the all-too-familiar game over screen.

Early One Christmas Morning…

First launched in Japan on 29^th October 1988, the Sega Mega Drive sold almost 40 million units over the course of its history. From Europe, to Japan, Australia, Asia, India, Brazil and North America (where it was called the Genesis, by the way), Sega’s sleek black 16-bit powerhouse was truly in the minds and on the TV sets of gamers everywhere. My relationship with the console began in the early nineties, when I became the proud owner of not one, but two consoles in the space of twenty-four hours. Yes, two consoles. More on that later…

It was five a.m. on the 25^th December 1993. I was just nine years-old and had been lying awake in bed for the past hour. I couldn’t get back to sleep. Why? For one, I’d already been gorging myself on the sweets left in my stocking, for the other, I knew this Christmas was going to be different.