When Sega made a PC. Meet the TeraDrive | Trash to Treasure PT1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
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Did you know Sega made a PC in 1991? Part business, part pleasure, it's the Sega TeraDrive.
#Sega #retrogaming #japan
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● Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Sega TeraDrive
01:48 What the Magazines Said
05:34 Who are PCBWay.com
05:56 A Tour of the Sega Teradrive?
17:42 Visit me at RetroCollective.co.uk
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Ep 1 "When Sega Made a PC": • Video
Ep 2 in progress
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If I can help out in any way with the restoration lemme know, Neil! I have had several of these pass through my hands now, and currently own a nice working Model 3. Along with lots of documentation, hard drive contents, software on disk, peripherals and so on. The main thing I don’t have is that Sega CRT, those can go for similarly insane prices as the system itself!
Thanks Clint! Fingers crossed that CRT works, I’ll definitely shout if I’m missing anything I need 👍
Noice!
@@RMCRetro This video has misinformation in it. There was a United States release, but it was in a different PC case. It was a beige box PC with a sliding door for the MegaDrive/ Genesis system instead of the flap on your PC.
@@andrewsadach3194you're thinking of the Amstrad Mega PC. Similar concept, different manufacturer and machine.
@@weltschmerz88 no I am thinking of the SEGA PC. Basically the same case, but thicker & included a CD-ROM drive. The computer was made by SEGA for the United States market on a 386 platform with Windows 3.0
I remember seeing these back in the ‘90s when I was living in Asia. I was around 9-10 yrs old and had an Mega Drive.
Owning one was the ultimate dream at the time since PCs weren’t common for home use yet.
I was familiar with PCs and DOS games because I saw them in the office where my dad worked.
Back then, PCs were all beige, and most didn’t even have CD drives or sound cards yet.
So, seeing such a modern-looking, cool black PC with a matching monitor made by Sega that could also play Sega cartridges was unreal.
It's like deja vu. I thought to myself "didn't he already do a video about this thing?" I was obviously thinking about the Amstrad Mega PC.
You mean it's not the same thing?
Oh boi never heard of it, I had an Amstrad CPC 6128+ as a first PC, would have blew my mind if had this with a MegaDrive!
I think he did feature this Terradrive some time ago, but only in passing, so perhaps you are thinking of that!
I remember the Mega PC well. It was in all the main department stores in the UK in the early 1990s. It was highly desirable but out of the price range of anyone I knew.
Every time the mention of leaking batteries happens, all of us A500+ owners shed a single tear.
You know it!!! Ha!!!
I didn't even know the A500+ had an RTC in it, what's the battery for?
I remember the first time I heard about this, I dug my A500+ out of the cupboard, opened it up, and found a pristine battery in there... and promptly snipped it off the motherboard.
That's a capacitor, not a battery
@@lookitskazzy 15:15, mentions the coin cell battery.
I once briefly owned an A500 with an expansion board which had leaked so badly it not only ate through a connection but also reached the rear I/O connections, 'thankfully' I was able to return it.
If the TeraDrive was a 486DX2 or at least a socketed 386, this thing would have been a real amazing machine for retro gaming goodness.
Why would a motherboard using hardware from 1984 use a 386?
@@miregoji2959 I mean it in the sense that if they had used PC parts that were current standard at the time, obviously.
Perhaps he could use one of the clamp-on upgrades? I believe there were some options available.
Yep. Even 386DX could be OK, but SX? Nope, alas. DBase III+/IV were quite sluggish on that, AFAIR. Supercalc too.
@@miregoji2959 This motherboard was released in 1991, that is six years after the 386 and two years after the 486 was released.
The PC side using the YM2612 sound chip is so cool! The Mega Drive's FM chip is a legitimate powerhouse to the point there's a desktop synthesizer that uses two of those chips to generate sound. It's called the MEGAfm. If you look it up you'll see the huge variety of sounds it can make, it's still so relevant today.
AIUI it was between OPL2 and OPL3 in capability, so yeah pretty freaking cool!!
What a good thing there are a few VSTs if you want to achieve a similar thing in your DAW and there is also the Sonicware Liven Mega Synthesis hardware groove box which I own and love and even a midi adapter for your Mega Drive!
@@SproutyPottedPlant there is a midi adapter for saturn that is bundled with a piano learning program, but have not seen anyone hack anything
Sega Saturn midi
Yuzo Koshiro harnessed the Power
"Mother Board provided by IBM"
I can only imagine IBM's response to SEGA when they asked. "You want us to build you a PC with a *what*?"
I would've loved to hear that phone conversation.
"Mega Drive, huh? Would that be a hard file, or high-capacity floppy? .... uh huh ... uh huh ... Uh, genesis of what, exactly? ... uh huh ... I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say 'hedgehog?' ... You did. .. Uh huh ... 'Tube?' ... OH, sorry, 'Tude.' ... Short for 'attitude.' ... I see. Well, to be perfectly honest, sir, I'm not sure what to suggest. We don't really do 'fun' around here. _Our_ mascot is a silent film actor. I'll see what I can do. I'm sure manufacturing could have a prototype for you in about ... three, four years...? For the chassis, do you prefer beige or cream? .... Uh huh. Well, that would be highly unusual."
I'm imagine it was a handful of Japanese men in pressed black suits with a leather briefcase full of cash presented on a conference table in Texas.
Or maybe "Thank you! We've got so many we were about to throw awa--- er, we mean, sure, we want to sell these state-of-the-art pieces of hardware! Totally not obsolete tech!"
Considering that the entire PS/2 line was built to differentiate the hardware from generic PCs, i think they would have welcomed the opportunity if they didn't pitch the idea first.
I think back then IBM was quite open to doing consoles. They also made the motherboards for the Atari Jaguar.
Having owned a IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 (my 1st PC) and a SEGA Mega Drive at the same time back in the early 90s, this blows my mind! A combo of these two! Oh, you lucky devil Neil!
that keyboard looks gorgeous
It was built by Alps and uses Alps Buckling Spring!
@@loz9324 fascinating, I’ve only used their simplified and complex leaf-switch designs.
@@kaitlyn__L it really is! google Alps SKCP plate spring if you wanna learn about another interesting alps switch
I had an IBM PS2 keyboard for years and it eventually went the way of the swan. Was built like a tank! It was also quite noisy and used to wind up my housemate. 😃
Absolutely stunning piece of technology, i love seeing retro motherboard layouts. Back when chips took up most of the space on the board, nowadays the chips barely take up any room and most of the board is just silk screen.
Back in the days there was this Sega-only magazine in Brazil called SuperGame, they release an article about the Tera Drive.
11 out of 10 people you show would have their minds blown, and as a kid we rightaway started thinking you'd be able to develop games for the Mega Drive and all sorts of crazy stuff.
Good ole times...
Absolutely incredible.
I never knew such a thing existed, thanks for making the video and sharing this oddity with us. Looking forward to part 2
3:24 - 2 CPU, 1UP.
It looks waaay cooler than the Amstrad PC/Megadrive abomination. (in every way, but the spec)
Thank you! In my memory it was an Apricot PC but just googled it.
You know, I'd just been thinking didn't Amstrad do something like this
@@johnd6487 I had one. The Amstrad PC was not particularly integrated with the Megadrive other than they shared the monitor and case
I was just thinking about that white / grey one . Never understood the point of it when i saw it in a shop here
"OK Bill, if you can beat me in 'Street's of Rage II' I'll approve your budget for the year. If not, you're entire team gets laid off."
When you are booked to visit tomorrow to the cave and you see this and not after the final part of the series!
I tend to struggle with life and my mind racing. Your videos really calm everything down for me and remind of good times in my life.
Really cool machine, i miss the 90's innovation where companies took chances and things didnt always had to make sense^^
The SMD caps on these IBM hard drives are prone to leaking, and it looks like yours is affected too. IIRC, you can access all of them without having to remove the HDA.
yes, mine wasnt booting reliably until i replaced them and now it seems functional
One of the best channels on youtube, love it.
Great production and presenting, hope to visit one day!
Thanks for sharing this video I didn't know it existed and it is really awesome concept. I will keep an eye out for part two and hope to see it working
Years ago I was a proud owner of an Amstrad Mega-PC, a similar idea to this. It was simply and Amstrad 386 PC compatible computer with a sliding door on the front of the desktop unit. If you slid the door across to the right, you found a Megadrive cartridge slot. It came with a beige Sega controller, and the computer literally had nothing to do with the Megadrive bits. Neither part spoke to the other. It was two machines in one case essentially, and sliding the door cut off one part so you could use the other. Both outputted to the same monitor and speakers though.
This was UK computer, and I wrote this before the Mega PC was displayed in the video.
Looks like it would stack well with a CDTV 😋 fully equipped black desktop setup if you could do some KVM switching.
Such a cool piece of hardware. Looking forward to part 2!
thanks for a great video!, hope part 2 comes soon
What a brilliant video! Never heard of it and really enjoyed this!!
An utterly, utterly fascinating machine.
So cool! Very excited for this series.
These were definitely sold here in the Netherlands. No idea about how popular they were, I've only seen a single advertisement in an Escom brochure in the early 90's.
Maybe you are confusing it with the Amstrad Mega PC? (I am in Germany, and a friend recently told me they had one when he grew up)
They never were released outside of Japan.
@@Bort_86 I might be, it's been a while. I only remember seeing an ad. I do distinctly remember the advertised machine being black. Aren't the Amstrads all white/grey?
@@jinxterx but they were sold here, he is right. Maybe some company that imported them and not official Sega , but they came here. But not popular because the PC part was too old when they came here and people had moved to 386/486
@@speedysandisk78 you were right, I still have 2 magazines that cover these, with actual info where you could buy it, and not just some preview article
🎵SEGA🎵
Ah that crunchy sample that fills ones heart with joy to this day.
What a cool piece of gear! I am looking forward to the next video in the series.
These keyboards rule! Built by Alps and uses Alps Buckling Spring. Similar to the IBM Buckling Spring but it uses a slider and buckles in a different direction
Really interesting system. I look forward to part 2.
Yes please Make PT2, the Sega Genesis and Dreamcast are my favorite consoles. When the Dreamcast stopped production I moved to PC Gaming.
Really cool machine ... Looking forward to part 2 :)
Nice! What a fun watch! I guess I found a new channel to chill out to!
looking forward to the repair video :D
Great video love it ❤
Seeing a Sam Coupe in the background made me happy, while at the same time sad that my parents threw away my old one, with dev card and loads of software, when they moved years ago..
There's something about the Coupe that I really still love the look of.
Very cool to learn about this stuff.
New "trash to treasure" on a long weekend? Yes please! Thanks Neil :)
Wonder how many office executives were able to sneak this in as a company purchase for their office and were playing sonic at work
Rocking outro music! 🤘
Another discovery for me, the cave is indeed a treasure trove!
Oh wow. I actually had one of these. A friend of mine gave it to me after his dad bought two back from a business trip in early 1992. It was very weird when, in 1993, the Mega PC from Amstrad came out.
That is an awesome looking computer!
It should be pointed out that the 286 cpu used in the TerraDrive is a 2nd gen one from 1985 rather than a 1st gen 1982 286. There is a tendency for people to conflate early PC CPUs but usually there were 2 or 3 generations of each chip. The original 1982 286s were either 5, 6 or 8 MHz and the 2nd gen 1985 ones were much faster at 10 or 12.5mhz. As Intel shifted to 386 production, AMD and Harris released 16, 20 and 25 MHz 286s which were basically equal in performance to a 386SX at the same clock. 486s first came out in 1989 but it wasn't until 1991 that they had dropped enough in price to be really found in home builds so fast 286s and 386SXs were still very common for budget home setups. These PCs would have been fine running most software up until 1993 at which time 486s and the new Pentiums started to completely take over.
it's often overlooked how long the cpu gens were sold as lower end offerings. 1991 home 486 was still very, very rare and you could still buy a 8mhz xt.
but then again you could still buy a new c64 too in 1991.
I lived in Japan in the early 90s while I was in the Navy. I vaguely remember seeing these for sale at some of the stores in Akihabara.
Gorgeous machine. Inside and out.
with some expected sega jankiness
Wow amazing
You think anyone is ever going to be nostalgia about the designs of the 2010s and 2020s? Somehow, I doubt it.
There is just something so timeless about these old computers. Every company added their own flare with lines, and curves, and color choice. Even the branding is beautiful on these old machines.
I'm inclined to think the 90s were the last time that tech looked beautiful. From the 2000s onwards, they seemed to have lost the ability to make things look good. Now it's all about rgb but it still doesn't hold a torch to those old machines in my opinion.
I mean... we have black boxes and glass boxes that shine in RGB lights.
Yes because that's how nostalgia works. Things will change and the adults will of tomorrow will pine for the things available to the kids of today
@@bryndaldwyre3099I’ve already seen nostalgia for the 00s and early-10s designs from people 5-10 years younger than me, even though I tend to consider them sludge. I’ve also seen many people a bit older than me saying that computer aesthetics peaked in the 70s, turning ugly in the early 80s! 😅😊
The iMacs from 2010 are a timeless design, its why it is so copied. iPad for tablets. iPhone for smart phones.
In consoles, probably not,
Some of the Yoga 2in1 designs are nice, and the Surface Studio from Microsoft is a nice design.
The Unibody laptop design is nice, and has been copied.
The big problem is, the good designs are so copied they become mundane.
The Wii and Wii U are going to be iconic, however. The Switch is already being copied, but the Nvidia Shield is kinda iconic as well.
The Mac Pros are iconic and a beloved design, if we skip the Trash Can Mac. (That is iconic in itself, but not for the same reasons. :))
great stuff ,thanks love the video / never seen it before look cool , dam now I want one 🥺🤩😍🤣🤣
5:05 that IBM quip made me literally laugh out loud!
This was a PC I'd have sold my soul for as a kid!
I would totally build a modern gaming PC in one of those cases.
12 years on TH-cam and I am just now finding your channel!? I feel cheated by the algo! Where is Sega or IBM on this? They should be helping us piece together their history...
It's in great hands. Sega had one of these on display at SegaFes 2018 in Tokyo, so cool!
Apparently Amstrad had an upgrade for the Mega PC called the Mega PC Plus, which used an 80486 processor and had a RAM upgrade. That's probably the rarest Megadrive PC.
I remembered when this first came out in Australia, It was a pathetic 286/16 then later models was a 386 which was 2 generations out of date of the current PC's for the same price. It was way cheaper to buy a 486/dx33 AND a MegaDrive separately.
Getting distracted by the SAM Coupe lurking in the cabinet ...
14:36 "Factory fitted patch wires" is a nice way of saying "Bodge Wires" ☺
I picked the best time to become a Patreon :D
I've wanted one of these for decades now, I was a kid when they were relatively cheap online (couple hundred max), now they're impossible to find under thousands.
An IBM, PS2 and Mega Drive? I'm in!
I've always wanted one of these, especially the MegaCD model.
Amazing... It's so clean inside without case rusting (excluding PSU)
very cool, I miss Sega and arcade gaming
That would have been so great to own!
That SEGA branded Model M is gorgeous
As an interesting side note, Egyptian (ex Kuwaiti) company Al Alamiah also brought out the AX-660 and AX-990 in 1992. Both were MSX 1 computers even though MSX 2 and 2+ already existed. Both systems had integrated MegaDrive clones and you could switch between MSX mode and MegaDrive mode.
Part 2 suggestion: It would be nice to hear a short description of how the 3 CPUs (286, 68000, Z80) differ in terms of CPU architecture.
I had something similar as a kid, I think it was the megaPC, maybe by amstrad, is was a dos computer and a megadrive. It was my first introduction to PC gaming and it shaped my life so much! I am so happy I had that system
oh, you mention it later, yeah it was that!
Cool thanks 👍
That's a beautiful bit of kit . U would have to be well rich to have had one of them back in the day , as usual amstrad tried to do something similar but about 2 years too late
Can't wait for the next part
Good one for the Measeum
nice, i saw the sc-3000 in your lineup
Crazy partnership between ibm & sega
@13:50 - I remember these rails. IBM used those in their PS/ValuePoint PCs... Maybe my toys in the attic playing tricks again.
Just for the sake of preservation (and maybe a dash of curiosity), I'd like to see a detailed scan and / or photo of the motherboard and other PCBs especially since this system seems to be more rare than hen's teeth and unicorn leavings combined.
Wow, I was just reading an old issue of EGM from late 90 that had mentioned this was in the works. I'm here because I wanted to learn more about it.
Very timely...i recently found my Mega PC which was bought from new, still in as-new condition and decided to restore it. Currently battling a possible faulty onboard WDC FD controller (very common in IBM conpatibles at the time) which is preventing booting up with the HDD.
Obviously outside the scope of a museum, but it would be really interesting if it were possible to reverse engineer this and/or the Amstrad and see if it wouldn't be possible to make a 486 version of this concept. That would've been the ultimate early 90s machine.
Interesting to note at 3:33 that screenshot of Sonic 1 is from a prototype because its missing the s from "rings" and I think the flower sprite is slightly different.
The TeraDrive is nowadays a very desirable Sega console. As you mentioned, the capacitors are the main issue with a 30 years old computer/console. Despite that it is for sure a great rare item to get in your collection.
It’s not in his collection, it’s on loan.
As someone who followed this stuff closely back then, the TeraDrive name was in line with the GigaDrive, the original planned successor to the MegaDrive that rumours swirled around at the time. Things changed quickly back then.
286, though? Oof.
Saw one on sale as a kid, in 1997, but seeing as I was on holiday it would have been impossible to haul back. I was 12 and here I see people not knowing about this, 30 years later, to my great surprise. I wish more people would have paid attention back then, like a few of us did, when it came to games :(
Wow, this is such a cool piece of kit. Knew of them but never actually seen one or even one shown in detail on a video. Really interesting, makes you think perhaps Sega should’ve gone into the gaming pc market?
I’m aware of the Amstrad MegaPC, which is basically the same thing but the Teradrive is new to me? Thanks @RMCRetro
It sure is pretty. I’d absolutely love to play MegaCD Lunar on this in a room full of cigarette smoke and laserdiscs.
Damn... I'd buy and unironically use that keyboard now.
I want one.. :)
and the Amstrad one
I've seen such a PC in France, it had a sliding part in front to hide either the cartridge slot or the floppy/cd drive. I don't remember which drive(s) it had.
It seems people are looking for forgotten pieces and bits about these machines, so just in case, the one I saw was in a shop called nasa or tardy in early 90s, in the center of Strasbourg.
Overcharging for crap hardware is what IBM excelled at in those days.
That is a sexy looking machine. Can't wait for part 2.
Isn’t Microsoft supposedly planning a similar move with the Xbox in the near future?
Game consoles and Windows PCs essentially use the same hardware and run the same game software nowadays, so owning a bespoke console that cannot be used as a conventional PC is kind of pointless.
Maybe a Microsoft branded line of Windows-powered gaming PCs is in the horizon?
More PLS!!!❤💙
Ah, the good old times where "compatibility" meant slapping the entire processor of the guest device in an expansion card and hooking that wholesale to the host
In related news: has somebody tried to make the CD drive compatible with the Sega Mega CD add-on? And what about the 32X?
Sega meets spreadsheets. That's my definition of hell.
"Too late, Mr. Sugar..." Sounds familiar!
Time for another Trash to Treasure. 👍