From the arcades into your living room…the other way around.

1989/1993

 

First off, big thanks is due KLOV, MAME, and especially pelikonepeijoonit.net, “The Arctic Computer and Console Museum,” for getting me started and providing the manual for the Sega Mega Tech. Arrrhalomynn was instrumental in helping me get started on this with some good pictures and information.

 

The following information is mostly relevant to the Sega Mega Tech as the Sega Mega Play is virtually unknown on the English side of the ‘net outside the KLOV listing and the System 16 website's page (which is down as I write this). The Mega Play has a port of Shinobi 3, and thus all Sega Master System/Genesis titles except The Cyber Shinobi and the Sega Master System release of Shadow Dancer were available in the arcades of one region or another. Adding a further wrinkle to this is the fact that the two systems share no Shinobi titles—possibly the result of both being released in Japan (which I have not confirmed). Cartridges for the two systems are not interchangeable; the Mega Tech’s cartridges are quite similar to those found in the Japanese Mega Drive so the same system may have been found inside Japan itself, and one wonders what Mega Play games looked like.

 

 

You might call this a Mega Drive in an arcade cabinet, but that’s a bit misleading. It’s an eight slot machine, and a rather ugly one at that (though still ahead of some of the stuff that passes for an arcade machine in Northern Europe these days, who apparently have very few choices for arcades these days :/). Like the Nintendo PlayChoice-10 system, it uses two monitors, one above the other. The top one lists the games currently installed in the system from which you make a selection, and the bottom one actually displays the game being played.

 

The Mega Tech operator’s manual may be found in Adobe *.PDF format here, and a good article with a good picture (and one not so good) of the Mega Tech may be found at the same website’s article The Hidden Arcade of Finland.

 

“Port’s origin” shows what system the title was ported from. There may have been Japanese and European specific releases, such as Revenge of Shinobi: The European cartridge is labeled “Revenge of Shinobi” but some screenshots show “Super Shinobi,” which is the Japanese title for this game. Since all Mega Play titles seem to be Mega Drive titles only, I have thrown the systems of other ports worldwide for your enjoyment.

 

 

All Mega Play games appear to be Mega Drive only.

 

Mega Tech known titles list (courtesy of KLOV, MAME, and Arrrhalomynn from the Digital Press Retrogaming Roundtable. Mega Play titles list courtesy of KLOV.