Sega Nomad

The Sega Nomad was a handheld game console sold only in Japan and North America that featured a built-in 3.25 inch colour LCD screen. The console was released in October 1995 and marketed as a portable Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis in the US), playing all of the 600 titles game cartridges from the Mega Drive library.

The unit was praised for its full colour backlit display, and it was also possible to connect the console to a television via a separate A/V cable, enabling the Nomad to act as a fully functional home system as well as a portable unit. This was further enhanced by the port on the bottom of the console that enabled a second controller to be plugged in for two-player games.

However, Sega 32X and Sega CD games were not compatible with the unit, and the Nomad's six AA batteries offered limited playing time compared to other contemporary handhelds; only 90-160 minutes, whilst the Nintendo Game Boy for example had a 10-12 hour lifespan with just 4 AA batteries. In addition, the Sega Mega Drive was almost at the end of its lifespan by the time the Nomad was released, replaced by 32- bit and 64-bit consoles such as the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The general lack of interest towards older 16-bit era titles soon hastened the demise of the Nomad.

Specifications

Processor

• Motorola 68000 16 bit processor running at 7.67 MHz
• Co-processor (Sound Controller):
• Zilog Z80 8-bit at 3.58 MHz

Memory

• 156KB total
• 64 KB Main RAM
• 64KB VRAM
• 8KB Sound RAM
• 20 Kb ROM

Video

• Display Palette: 512
• Onscreen colours: 64
• Maximum onscreen sprites: 80
• Resolution: 320 x 224

Sound

• Yamaha YM2612 6 channel FM
• Additional 4 channel PSG
• Stereo sound
• Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG (Programmable Sound Generator)

Display

• Integrated LCD at 320 x 224

Power Rating

• 9V 850mA