by mento
If you haven't been following my blog series Mega Archive, which is going through every Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game in chronological order as I work on their GB Wiki pages, you might not know that I've been particularly interested in tracking the number of different developers that appeared on the console. Frequently contractors or companies that worked primarily with other systems that only briefly popped by for a port or two, there's nonetheless a rich tapestry of creators from all over the globe that helped give the Mega Drive the library and personality for which it was known and adored.
I'm going to keep updating this list as I produce future entries of the Mega Archive and dig up relevant info on the developers that appear. For what it's worth, I use Sega Retro, GameFAQs, Japanese and English Wikipedia, and GDRI (the Game Developers Research Institute) as my sources.
The Mega Archive entries referred to by each list entry are as follows:
| Part I: 001-020 (Oct '88 - Dec '89) | Part IX: 131-145 (May '91 - Jun '91) |
| Part II: 021-035 (Dec '89 - Mar '90) | Part X: 146-160 (Jun '91 - Jul '91) |
| Part III: 036-050 (Apr '90 - Jul '90) | Part XI: 161-175 (Jul '91 - Aug '91) |
| Part IV: 051-065 (Aug '90 - Oct '90) | Part XII: 176-190 (Aug '91 - Sep '91) |
| Part V: 066-080 (Oct '90 - Dec '90) | Part XIII: 191-205 (Oct '91 - Nov '91) |
| Part VI: 081-098 (Dec '90) | Part XIV: 206-220 (Nov '91) |
| Part VII: 099-115 (Jan '91 - Mar '91) | Part XV: 221-240 (Dec '91) |
| Part VIII: 116-130 (Mar '91 - Apr '91) | Part XVI: 241-255 (Jan '92 - Feb '92) |
Showing 1-10 of 100 items
First Appearance: 001 (Space Harrier II), Mega Archive #1 Surprising no-one, Sega developed the first game for the Sega Mega Drive. Actually, the first game was an arcade port - Space Harrier II, though that numeral isn't fooling anyone - and Sega's first real plan for their advanced 16-bit console was to convert their newer arcade games, especially the super-scaler series from which Space Harrier and a few others hailed, that wouldn't really fly on the weaker Master System. A majority of the releases during the Mega Drive's first couple of years were first-party games.
First Appearance: 008 (Super Daisenryaku), Mega Archive #1 SystemSoft, also known as SystemSoft Alpha (the branch that focused on console games, created after a merger with developer Alpha Shock), was a computer game company that developed deeper strategy titles like the Daisenryaku and Master of Monsters franchises. The Mega Drive had a computer developer-friendly microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 - one used by various western home computers too, like the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST - which helped bring a lot of that sphere into the console's orbit. Only a few of SystemSoft's strategy sims were ever localized in the west: one issue was that they kept making WW2 games where the Nazis were the protagonists, which was only natural for a country that was also part of the Axis.
First Appearance: 009 (Thunder Force II), Mega Archive #1 Technosoft, or TecnoSoft, decided to switch primarily to console development conveniently around the same time the Mega Drive launched in Japan, and would become the system's first third-party publisher (Sega published SystemSoft's first game, making them only the first third-party developer). TechnoSoft is responsible for the Thunder Force shoot 'em ups, a franchise closely associated with the Mega Drive. Its presence also supported Sega's early impetus to get the otherwise tricky-to-emulate speed of arcade shoot 'em ups to a home console with enough oomph to handle them. (If that wasn't enough, Technosoft also helped jumpstart the '90s RTS boom with Herzog Zwei.)
First Appearance: 012 (Ghouls N' Ghosts), Mega Archive #1 Capcom's never met a console it didn't like, realizing early on with the NES that home versions of their arcade classics were big earners. It didn't take them long to join in on the 16-bit action either, with a Mega Drive port of their second devilishly difficult "spooky thing n' spooky thing" series of platformers. However, Capcom still held an allegiance of sorts to Nintendo, so their few Mega Drive ports were sporadic releases; they kinda defected back once the SNES made its debut, leaving the porting work to Sega or other third-party contractors. (It's probably common knowledge, but "Capcom" is a shortened version of "Capsule Computers," referring to the arcade redemption games it made while starting out.)
First Appearance: 015 (Super Hydlide), Mega Archive #1 T&E Soft's another big name in the Japanese home computer market which is perhaps best known globally for its golfing sims and the Hydlide RPGs. T&E, incidentally, stands for "Technology and Entertainment." They only dabbled in the console market, porting over some of their better regarded games, but nothing more elaborate than that. Super Hydlide was the most effort they put into any of their Mega Drive ports, graphically remastering Hydlide 3 (first released two years prior on MSX, in 1987) for its 16-bit debut but leaving the gameplay otherwise untouched.
First Appearance: 017 (Zoom!), Mega Archive #1 Cyclone System is the type of developer we'll see a few times in this list: a minor Japanese contractor that helped port games to the Mega Drive on behalf of other developers, who either couldn't afford to do it themselves or couldn't be bothered. Zoom! was originally an Amiga game developed by a small German company, Discovery Software, which also makes it the first Mega Drive game to have originated outside of Japan. Cyclone System would show up a few more times to port Taito games (of all the developers that needed an intermediary...) disappearing shortly after the last of these ports, Cadash, in 1992.
First Appearance: 021 (Truxton), Mega Archive #2 Toaplan was an arcade shoot 'em up giant whose presence can be keenly felt in the shoot 'em up-heavy early Mega Drive library. Curiously enough, they rarely deigned to develop these ports themselves, letting Sega or third-party contrators do the work for them while they handled publishing. If they're known outside the shoot 'em up fanatic bubble for anything, it's probably Zero Wing and its meme-tastic intro cutscene concerning bases and the misappropriation thereof. Toaplan collapsed in 1994, though its demise led to the creation of still-active developers Cave (the inheritor of its shoot 'em up legacy), 8ing, Tamsoft, and several others.
First Appearance: 022 (Mahjong Cop Ryuu), Mega Archive #2 Whiteboard proved to be a tricky group to track down because, like a mob informant on the run, they kept changing their name. Mahjong Cop Ryuu, which optimistically tried to make mahjong interesting with a crimefighting framing story, was their only game as Whiteboard before changing their name to Santos. As Santos, they're best known for the bizarre golf/RPG hybrid Battle Golfer Yui. After that they became Megasoft after being bought by Sega, and worked on the so-so ninja action sequel Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master and the sumo sim Aa Harimanada before being dissolved into Sega's other divisions. They developed five Mega Drive games total, averaging about 1.666* per company name.
First Appearance: 026 (Curse), Mega Archive #2 Micronet's not a big name - their biggest Mega Drive games were the Warrior of Rome RTSes and Raiden Trad - but they made an effort to vary their projects. Curse was a shoot 'em up, while their next game Junction was more like a Pipe Dream puzzle game. They also made the weird mech fighting game Heavy Nova, a launch game for the Sega CD. None of these games were all that great, necessarily, but memorable at least. Micronet's still around today though now they only make 3D software.
First Appearance: 027 (Tetris), Mega Archive #2 Though Sanritsu's Tetris port wasn't a big deal - it never left Japan - the company itself had been working closely with Sega for a long time. Former members of the studio and Sega later co-founded SIMS (Software Innovation Multi Success) which would be a major player in every Sega system's library until the end of the Dreamcast era. Sanritsu itself is probably best known over here for their Gain Ground and OutRun ports.
