[Pirate Dragon]

So Mega CD 1 also released in Sweden on May 27, 1993 for SEK 3,495. Probably only about 2-3,000 units. So pretty much all significant PAL distributors (Ozisoft - Australia, Giochi Preziosi - Italy, Playmix - Nordic Countries, and Sega Europe - rest of Europe) received it in limited quantities, just Sega Europe decided that their 68,000 units weren't enough to bother releasing outside of the UK in the other countries they covered. Maybe Playmix decided the same, releasing only in Sweden out of the Nordic countries.

http://segaforce.ram...force-1993-nr-3

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CD-MEGA-NYTT

Vad vore väl denna nyhetssida utan en liten notis om CD-släppet; denna eviga följetong? Nu är det spikat: Sverige och Storbritannien blir de enda europeiska länder där CD-1:an (Även känd som Mega-CD) kommer att släppas. Hur många maskiner som tilldelas Sverige är ännu inte beslutat av Sega:s höjdare, men det blir knappast mer än 2-3.000 apparater. Efter sommaren kommer CD-2:an, den lilla söta modellen som kommer att bli den massproducerade versionen.

CD MEGA NEW

What could be the news page without a small note on the CD release; this eternal serial? Now it nailed: Sweden and Great Britain becomes the only European countries where CD-1st (Also known as Mega-CD) will be released. The number of machines allocated to Sweden is not yet decided by Sega's big shots, but there will be hardly more than 2-3000 appliances. After the summer, the CD 2nd, the little cute model that will become the mass-produced version.

http://hemdatornytt....e/1993_07/#/38/

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Mästare på TV-spel!

Efter hårda och tuffa uttagningar ute I landets butiker så var det då dags för final I det som kallats en TV- spelares största utmaning. Drygt 2000 tävlande - unga och gamla, flickor och pojkar, kvinnor och män, alla hade gjort upp om de tio finalplatserna.

Finalen gick av stapeln den 22 Maj på Stockholms Globe Hotel. Deltagarna var indelade I Juniorer respektive seniorer och man tävlade om att, på så kort tid som möjligt, skrapa ihop så många poäng som möjligt I fem olika Sega-spel.

Påhejade av familj, vänner och släktingar tävlades det I ett högt temo och några finalnerver balnd de yngre deltagarna märktes inte trots den stora publiken.

Två stycken av dessa alla tävlande stod till slut som segrare I den otroligt jämna kampen. Mikael Roth, 12 år från Farsta samt Per Lundborg l5 år från Linköping kommer att representera Sverige I Europamästerskapen I Berlin senare I höst. Ett stort grattis till vinnarna och ett varmt tack till alla
deltagare önskade Playmix.

Under dagen visades även Sega Mega CD för första gången upp för publik. Mega CD är det första CD-ROM baserade TV-spel som släppts på den europeiska marknaden. Spel på CD-skiva innehåller mycket mer information än traditionella TV-spel. Ljud, grafik och snabbhet når oanade höjder och ger dig en helt ny spelupplevelse. Se vår förhandstitt I SHN nr 5/93.

Sedan den 27 Maj finns Mega CD ute I handeln. Försäljningen uppges av Playmix ha överträffat alla förväntningar. Över 1.5 miljoner MegaDrive TV-spel har sålts I England under de senaste två åren. Den 2 April släpptes 80000 Mega CD ut på marknaden och dessa rapporteras tagit slut redan efter två veckor! Mega CD lanseras till en början endast I England och Sverige, men den officiella europeiska lanseringen sker först I September.

Master of Video Games !

After hard and tough competitions out there in country stores so it was time for the final in what has been called a TV player's greatest challenge. More than 2,000 athletes - young and old, girls and boys, women and men , all had agreed on the ten final places .

The finale was held on May 22 at the Stockholm Globe Hotel . The participants were divided into juniors and seniors and they competed in , in as short a period as possible , scrape up as many points as possible in five different Sega games.

Cheered on by family , friends and relatives competed in a high thermostat and some final nerves balnd the younger participants was not noticeable despite the large crowd .

Two of these all contestants were eventually victorious in the incredibly even fight . Michael Roth , age 12 from Farstavägen and Per Lundborg l5 years from Linkoping will represent Sweden at the European Championships in Berlin later this fall . Congratulations to the winners and heartfelt thanks to all
Playmix desired participant .

During the day also showed Sega Mega CD for the first time in public. Mega CD is the first CD-ROM based video game released on the European market. Games on CD contains much more information than traditional video games. Audio , graphics and speed reaches unprecedented heights and gives you a whole new gaming experience . See our preview of SHN 5/ 93.

Since May 27 is the Mega CD in shops . Sales reported by Playmix have exceeded all expectations. Over 1,500,000 Mega Drive video games have been sold in the UK over the past two years. April 2 was released 80000 Mega CD on the market and these are reported run out after just two weeks! Mega CD launched initially only in Britain and Sweden , but the official European launch takes place only in September.

http://segaforce.ram...force-1993-nr-4

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3.495:- RENT NÖJE!

Nu vet vi släppdatum för Mega-CD:n! Säkert! Hur kan detta komma sig? Jo, det var för nästan två månader sedan...

3495: - PURE PLEASURE!

Now we know the release date for Mega CD! Secure! How can this be? Well, it was almost two months ago ...

This post has been edited by Pirate Dragon: 24 May 2014 - 05:16 AM

[Cooljerk]

I know that, as late as the Sega Saturn era, France and Spain received different games than the UK. Dragonball Z: Legends, for example, only launched in Spain and France (and the french version actually has a french translation).

[Black Squirrel]

Adverts are useful:

http://segaretro.org...intAdvert_3.jpg

Officially the Game Gear launched in the US on April 26, 1991, but like the Mega Drive, it appears it had a pre-release test run thing in New York and Los Angeles on the 15th. That means US systems are 11 days older than previously thought!

[Meat Miracle]

Cooljerk, on 25 May 2014 - 05:28 PM, said:

I know that, as late as the Sega Saturn era, France and Spain received different games than the UK. Dragonball Z: Legends, for example, only launched in Spain and France (and the french version actually has a french translation).

By the Saturn era, a lot of games started getting different releases per country. FIFA games in particular had many localizations, so did Disney games. And many german releases had toned-down violence on top or next to other localizations. I think even the Mega CD had one or two non-English localizations too.

The case with Dragonball Z games is a bit more peculiar - it was a gigantic hit in France so they had many of the games translated (to various degrees of accuracy) and brought over. Including the SNES and Megadrive games too (I have the French copy of the latter). One of them even had a French soundtrack CD with different (worse) instrumentalizations of the tunes.

Pirate Dragon, on 23 May 2014 - 12:42 PM, said:

It was reviewed in Sega Power when they only reviewed official releases. At £29.99, the review points out it's cheaper than standard Mega Drive games which were £34.99. It was also widely advertised by multiple "official UK software" retailers over a long period of time, so it really should have been released in the UK. It's not the sort of game people were upgrading to Mega Drive for in 1990 though (not much better than the SMS version), so probably just didn't sell that much.

Not sure if the UK itself got a copy, but there definitely were European stand-alone releases of Columns, Super Hang-on, and World Cup Italia 90. I had two of the three and they were some of my favourite titles. They also appear on that early giant sized Sonic poster that had all the early games listed on the back (there was another version of that poster with Sonic Spinball, that had MD2 related stuff on the back, and it had hardware images too - infrared pads, master system converter 2, etc).

[Scarred Sun]

June 19, 1990 for France.

[Pirate Dragon]

Scarred Sun, on 26 December 2014 - 10:24 AM, said:

June 19, 1990 for France.

This was the European press launch as mentioned here. This is probably where the PAL prototype MD press shots came from. The console didn't get released until several months later. Something similar happened with the Game Gear, which had it's European press launch at the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix, but saw it's actual release about 6 weeks later.

[Pirate Dragon]

Pirate Dragon, on 01 November 2013 - 11:02 AM, said:

I'd be inclined to go with September 15 1990 as UK MD release date, most of the companies attending these shows had stands where they sold their wares (including Virgin Mastertronic for computer software at least according to one letter), and it doesn't seem that anyone was advertising official MDs prior to ECES 90. It probably took a week or two to filter through distribution channels before they appeared in High Street stores (an article in October where they visited high street retailers mentions Dixons had the Mega Drive in stock).

It seems that Virgin had a sign at their stand saying "There are NO official Mega Drives on sale here today", so I guess that rules out ECES as an actual release date. That should narrow it down to the second half of September.

http://I.imgur.com/zBF6mGu.jpg