Amstrad Mega PC

Amstrad Mega PC

Manufacturer	Amstrad (licensed by Sega)
Generation	Fourth generation (16-bit era)
Retail availability	1993 1993
Media	Cartridge, Diskette
CPU	32-bit Intel 80386
Storage capacity	Hard Drive, Floppy Disk

The Mega PC was manufactured and released by Amstrad in 1993 under licence from Sega. It was similar, but unrelated to the Sega TeraDrive. Essentially just a standard Amstrad PC with Sega Mega Drive hardware bundled inside, the system was wired to share the dual-sync monitor and speakers, with the Mega Drive on a separate circuit board.^[1]

Initially released in PAL areas such as Europe and Australia in 1993,^[2] its success was very short-lived due to its very high retail price of £999.99 (later reduced to £599), with the CPU also being outdated by the time of the system's release. It is slightly easier and cheaper to acquire an Amstrad Mega PC in Europe due to more units being manufactured, than it is to acquire a Sega TeraDrive elsewhere. In recent years, both systems have increasingly become relatively difficult to come by, as they are owned and often purchased by many as collector's items.

Technical specifications

Specifications
Processor	Intel 80386 @ 25 MHz Motorola 68000 @ 7.14 MHz
Memory	1MB SIMM RAM (expandable to 16MB)
Storage	3.5" FDD, 40MB HDD
Video	SVGA Graphics with 256KB RAM
Operating System	MS DOS 5.0 with Amstrad Desktop
Dimensions	325 mm(w) x 78 mm(h) x 292 mm(d)
Power Usage	~50W

Amstrad promoting the Mega PC

In general, the Mega PC was seen as a nicer build than that of Sega's TeraDrive, as the unit itself was more robust and managed air circulation more efficiently than the TeraDrive.^[3]

Side view of the unit, showing the ISA card, spare slot and RAM positioning

The machine shipped with 1MB of RAM, provided by 4× 256KB 30-pin SIMM sticks. This was expandable to 16MB by using 4× 4MB memory modules.^[4]

Close up of the front of the unit

Although it boasted a higher specification than the Sega TeraDrive (having more RAM and a faster processor), the specification of the CPU, similarly to Sega's TeraDrive, was a generation behind its time, with the newer Intel 80486 on the market and the first Pentium processors being released the same year as the Mega PC was. The system was unable to act as a Software Development Kit due to the inability to simultaneously use the PC and the Mega Drive hardware. A cover on the front of the unit prevented the insertion of a Mega Drive game cartridge while using with the PC hardware.^[5]

Input/Output

Close up of the rear of the unit, showing ports and their positions

The machine's rear housed several I/O ports. These included two COM ports, a 25-pin LPT port, a VGA port with combined signals for a standard VGA monitor and sound (Amstrad monitor only), a speaker/headphone jack, and a 15 pin game port for a joystick .

View of the ISA card inside the Mega PC, showing the free ISA slot

The motherboard included a 16 bit ISA slot with a riser card connected to it, providing a total of two 16 bit ISA slots. One of these was populated with an ISA card which provided connections for sound at the rear of the machine, and a connection for the Mega Drive cartridge at the front. The other slot was left free for expansion (such as a modem or Network Interface Card).^[4]

Whereas the Sega TeraDrive included stereo RCA jacks and composite NTSC video output for connection to a TV, the Mega PC lacked this feature, and thus lacked the ability to connect to a television set.^[5] This is more than likely because the Mega PC was designed to only allow 1 section of the unit to be used at any given time, so to provide the ability for a 2nd video output wouldn't have been worthwhile. Therefore, outputs from both the PC and Mega Drive units was available only through the SVGA connector to the supplied dual-sync (15 kHz/31 kHz) monitor.^[1]

Compatibility

Although shipping with an Amstrad branded controller, the wiring was identical to that of Sega's controllers, thus could be used on either system.

Peripherals

Amstrad bundled several peripherals with its Mega PC; these included:

• Dual sync 15 kHz/31 kHz Amstrad branded 14" white monitor with internal speakers
• Standard Mega Drive white control pad with Amstrad branding
• Amstrad white joystick
• Standard Amstrad keyboard and mouse using PS/2 interface

Mega Plus

Amstrad later released a second system as the successor to the Mega PC, by the name of the Amstrad Mega Plus. This boasted a slightly higher specification with an upgraded processor to an Intel 80486 running at 33 MHz, along with a RAM upgrade of 4× 1MB SIMM sticks to 4MB.^[6]

See also

• Amstrad
• Sega TeraDrive

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Amstrad MegaPC @". Everything2.com. 2000-10-29. http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=810824. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Assembler: Page 3 (via Archive.org)". Web.archive.org. 2008-05-23. Archived from the original on 2008-05-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20080523123514/http://assembler.roarvgm.com/Amstrad_megadrive_computer_1/Amstrad_megadrive_3/amstrad_megadrive_3.html. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Amstrad Mega PC Service manual" (PDF). http://www.amstradcg.nl/mega.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Assembler: Page 1 (via Archive.org)". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-06-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20080614215246/http://assembler.roarvgm.com/Amstrad_megadrive_computer_1/amstrad_megadrive_computer_1.html. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
6. ^ "1000 BiT +- Computer's description". 1000bit.net. http://www.1000bit.net/scheda.asp?id=2038. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 

External links

• http://www.uk.playright.dk/raretitel.php?id=13883
• Amstrad Mega PC article at Assembler (via Archive.org)