<Tr> <Th> Predecessor </Th> <Td> Master System </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Successor </Th> <Td> Sega Saturn </Td> </Tr> <P> The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive in regions outside of North America, is a 16 - bit home video game console developed and sold by Sega . The Genesis was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System . Sega released the console as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988, followed by North America as the Genesis in 1989 . In 1990, the console was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil . In South Korea, the systems were distributed by Samsung as the Super Gam * Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy . </P> <P> Designed by an R&D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, the hardware was adapted from Sega's System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU, a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller, and a video system supporting hardware sprites, tiles, and scrolling . The system plays a library of more than 900 games created by Sega and a wide array of third - party publishers and delivered on ROM - based cartridges . The Genesis has benefited from several add - ons, including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games, as well as multiple first and third party licensed variations of the console . Sega created two network services to support the Genesis: Sega Meganet and Sega Channel . </P>

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