Sega Nomad - Videogame History #30 - Retro Review
In the 90s the video game company Nintendo with its brand new Game Boy reigned in sales with portable consoles, many companies tried to compete against this great reign, one of them was SEGA since October 1990, time in which he removed the remembered Game Gear to the market, in a certain part it had a better performance than the Game Boy but it always came out winning by battery saving the console of the great N.
In spite of this SEGA never gave up, always gave the necessary support to its portable console, later it made a special contract with the airlines of Japan, to realize a Mega Drive with a very different form to the original one which could be connect in the seats which included screens in 1993, this console was called Sega Mega Jet, this product was not available in any video game store, this caught the attention of consumers, so in 1994 SEGA decided to release an edition for the public, which would preserve the same aesthetic, but this did not have commercial success.
However, SEGA took advantage of the conceptual scheme and hardware of the Mega Jet to create one of the most unknown portable consoles of this company called Sega Nomad, this could play any game of the Mega Drive, a color screen, 6 buttons that symbolized the control of the Mega drive, a good D-Pad, the possibility of connecting it to a TV, a connector for a control that allowed to play any game that had the option of two players, it really was a wonderful idea when it was launched in 1995.
For hardware reasons this device was not compatible with the extension peripherals of the Mega Drive, that is, the 32X, Mega CD and Power Base Converter could not be connected in the Nomad, however, it retains all the potential of the device. Sega Bits, having absolute compatibility with the entire catalog of this console.
Everything seemed to be perfect, a 16-bit portable console, color screen, you could place all the games of the great Mega Drive, a great hardware, optionally you could play locally with a partner, connectivity to a TV, a good material resistant, why this console was not successful ?, the first factor was the battery consumption, the Nomad used a total of 6 AA batteries, to only have 3 hours of use, if we compare this with its great competitor the Game boy, which lasted more than 20 hours and a use of 4 AA batteries was simply overwhelming, its launch price was $ 180, a super high price for which many people decided to ignore it and keep their conventional Mega Drive and finally what that finished to bury it was the date of its launching, for 1995 the Mega Drive already was obsolete by the same SEGA, because at that time they had already sent the Sega Saturn to the market, this caused that in less than 1 a or the Nomad was discontinued, topping its price in stores at $ 40 brand new.
Maybe if the Nomad had left a year after the Mega Drive and with a more accessible price would have had a very different story, is a portable console that has great hardware and good design, really did not deserve that fate within the world of videogames, but as many know this market does not forgive any type of error, now you can get from 100 to 200 dollars depending on your state, although at the time it was not very sold is easy to get through the electronic markets , in short Nomad is an excellent creation of SEGA that was pitifully created at the most inappropriate time and moment.
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See You!!!
Wow!!!Nice:)
i pre order in my country cant wait to get it..
I had one of these early on and loved it. Not the battery eating so much but it was great to plug in and play in bed after "lights out" at my parents house. Some fun times there because I could play a Sega Genesis RPG like Phantasy Star III or IV on the TV, save and move to the Nomad and be good to go. Ah, the memories.
That was the main idea of the Nomad, that portability made it excellent with the cartridges of the Sega Gnesis, I'm glad it brought you those immortal memories!
Great review! I had one of these.