Sega turns 60 this year, having come into existence on June 3, 1960. To celebrate, the video game publisher started something called the “Sega Seminar,” which, as the name suggests, consists of a series of videos that educate viewers on the company’s history. Sega producer and manager Hiroyuki Miyazaki hosts the first video, which walks viewers through Sega’s hardware lineage for a little over twenty minutes. It even includes machines that never managed to see the public eye, such as Sega’s Genesis Nomad prototype.
The Genesis Nomad was a portable version of Sega’s Mega Drive console, which launched in 1995 only in North America. Sega pit the console against Nintendo’s Game Boy to try and take away its competitor’s control over the handheld market. The attempt didn’t quite work out in Sega’s favor, as the Nomad ended up a commercial failure, having sold only 1 million units in around four years. Still, it garnered praise for being the first true 16-bit handheld console.
According to Miyazaki, Sega named the prototype of this device “Venus,” which falls in line with the names of other prototype Sega consoles. The company usually codenames them after planets until settling on an official moniker for the console’s final version. The console that the Genesis Nomad succeeded, Sega’s Saturn, was the only one of the company’s to retain its prototype name even through release. Viewers can see Venus at the video’s 11:37 mark.
Venus’ codename sits printed on the console’s design, which does share similarities with the Genesis Nomad’s, at least in terms of its layout. Otherwise, Sega certainly made some noticeable changes. Outside of the obvious color difference, Sega also decided to give the Nomad a more tapered look for some reason, whereas Venus’s is more uniform. It almost resembles the bottom half of the Nintendo DS. Sadly, Miyazaki doesn’t discuss why exactly Sega went in the direction of Nomad’s design.
However, he does provide a lot of information about Sega’s family of consoles overall, everything from the SG-1000 to the Dreamcast. It’s certainly an interesting watch for anyone interested in Sega’s consoles, both released and otherwise. Not only that, but the video also doubles as preparation for a test that Sega will be dealing out in January. In the video description, Sega says that it will host the test on January 23-24, 2021. It will be held three times a day, with an hour time limit. It will also consist of 60 questions that cover Sega and Sega group company operations. It’s unclear if there’s a prize involved, though.
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