Sega System 16
From Sega Retro
Sega System 16 | |||||||||
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Manufacturer: Sega | |||||||||
Variants: Pre-System 16, System 16A, System 16B, System 18, System C | |||||||||
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The Sega System 16 (セガ システム 16) is an arcade board released by Sega in 1985 as a 16‑bit successor to the Sega System 1 and Sega System 2. Throughout its lifespan, there would be around forty games released on this hardware, making it one of Sega's most successful hardware designs. It was produced in three variants: the Pre-System 16 (1985), System 16A (1986), and System 16B (1987). The only difference between the Pre-System 16 and System 16A are clock speeds, while the System 16B has improved graphics, sound and memory.
The System 16 is the home to many of Sega's most successful franchises, including Shinobi, Fantasy Zone, Altered Beast and Golden Axe. Following the Sega Hang-On hardware, the System 16 popularised the use of the Motorola 68000 and Zilog Z80 combo, which was later imitated for Capcom's successful CPS-1 and CPS-2 boards (among other arcade systems of the day), as well as the Sega Mega Drive and Neo Geo consoles.
In order to prevent piracy, as well as illegal bootleg games, many System 16 boards used an encryption system. A Hitachi FD1094 chip, containing the main CPU as well as the decryption key, was used in place of a regular CPU.
Though Pre-System 16, System 16A and System 16B are the three most recognised variants of the hardware, there is technically a fourth, dubbed "System 16C", which was used by the 2008 release of Fantasy Zone II DX: The Tears of Opa-Opa. Although Fantasy Zone II DX arrived almost a decade and a half after the System 16 hardware was discontinued, its real arcade release means that System 16C specifications may belong to the Sega System 16 series. Fantasy Zone II DX needs more RAM than any of the previous System 16 boards can offer, but otherwise adheres to their limitations.
Contents
Technical specifications
System 16 specifications
- Board Composition: CPU Board, Video Board
- CPU:
- MCU:
- Sound Chips:
- FM Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2151 @ 4 MHz (8 FM synthesis channels)
- PCM Sound Chip: NEC μPD7751 ADPCM Decoder @ 6 MHz[1]
- ADPCM Sampling Channels: 3
- Audio Bit Depth: 8‑bit
- GPU Chipset: 315‑5011 sprite line comparator, 315‑5012 sprite generator, 2× 315‑5049 tilemap chips, 315‑5107 & 315‑5108 display timers, 315‑5143 & 315‑5144 sprite chips, 315‑5149 video mixer[2]
- Clock Rate Performance: 12.5874 MHz sprite line buffer render clock, 6.2937 MHz sprite line buffer scan/erase & pixel clock
- Memory: Up to 1252 KB (304 KB main, 801 KB video, 163 KB sound)
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- Main RAM: 48 KB (16 KB work RAM, 16 KB I/O, 16 KB NVRAM)
- Video RAM: 97 KB
- CPU Board: 42 KB (32 KB tiles, 4 KB text, 2 KB sprites, 4 KB color, 16 KB I/O, 16 KB NVRAM)
- Video Board: 55 KB SRAM (2 KB line buffers)
- Sound RAM: 2 KB
- Display Resolution:
- Horizontal: 320×224 (display), 342×262 (overscan)[1]
- Vertical: 224×320 (display), 262×342 (overscan)
- Scanlines: 224 (display), 262 (overscan), progressive scan
- Line buffer resolution: 512 pixels
- Color Palette: 98,304
- Colors on Screen: 4096 (unique colors) to 6144 (with shadow & highlight)[1]
- Graphical Planes:
- Fillrate per Scanline: 800 sprite pixels/texels (800.75 sprite processing ticks) per scanline
- Sprites per Scanline: 100 sprites per scanline
- Colors per Sprite: 16
- Sprite Sizes: 8 to 256 pixels width, 8 to 256 pixels height[1]
System 16B specifications
System 16B featured the following upgrades:[6][4]
- Board composition: CPU Board, ROM Board
- Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 5 MHz (8/16‑bit instructions @ 0.725 MIPS)
- PCM Sound Chip: NEC μPD7759 ADPCM Decoder @ 640 kHz[7]
- ADPCM Sampling Channels: 1
- Audio Bit Depth: 9‑bit[8]
- Other Features: 8 kHz sampling rate, up to 128 KB audio ROM, up to 256 samples, speech synthesizer
- GPU Chipset: 315‑5196 sprite generator, 315‑5197 tilemap generator, 315‑5213 sprite chip, 315‑5248 & 315‑5250 math chips[2]
- Sprite Capabilities: Sprite scaling
- Memory: Up to 3675 KB (667 KB main, 2913 KB video, 194 KB sound)
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- ROM: Up to 3528 KB (520 KB main, 2816 KB video, 192 KB sound)
System 16C specifications
System 16C featured the following upgrade over System 16B in 2008:[6]
- RAM: 387 KB, including 104 KB high-speed SRAM (Static RAM)
- Main RAM: 288 KB (256 KB work RAM, 16 KB I/O, 16 KB NVRAM)
- Video RAM: 97 KB, including 84 KB SRAM (4 KB sprites, 4 KB color, 64 KB tiles, 4 KB text, 8 KB line buffers)
- Sound RAM: 2 KB SRAM
List of games
Pre-System 16
- Major League (1985)
- Body Slam / Dump Matsumoto (1986)
- Alien Syndrome (1987)
- Quartet (1987)
- Quartet 2 (1987)
System 16A
- Action Fighter (1986)
- Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (1986)
- Fantasy Zone (1986)
- SDI (1987)
- Shinobi (1987)
- Time Scanner (1987)
- Sukeban Jansi Ryuko (1988)
- Tetris (1988)
- Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (1988)
System 16B
- Alien Syndrome (1987)
- Dunk Shot (1987)
- Time Scanner (1987)
- Bullet (1987)
- Super League (1987)
- Sonic Boom (1987)
- Charon (198?)
- Altered Beast / Juuouki (1988)
- Dynamite Dux (1988)
- Heavyweight Champ (1988)
- Passing Shot (1988)
- Sukeban Jansi Ryuko (1988)
- Tetris (1988)
- Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (1988)
- Ace Attacker (1989)
- Bay Route (1989)
- ESWAT (1989)
- Excite League (1989)
- Flash Point (1989)
- Golden Axe (1989)
- M.V.P. (1989)
- Tough Turf (1989)
- Wrestle War (1989)
- Aurail (1990)
- Ryu Kyu (1990)
- Atomic Point (1990) [NOTE: Unlicensed]
- Snapper (1990) [NOTE: Unlicensed]
- The Destroyer From Jail (1991) [NOTE: Unlicensed]
- Cotton (1991)
- Riot City (1991)
- Touryuumon (1995)
System 16C
Production credits
- Designer: Toshiyuki Kaji
Magazine articles
- Main article: Sega System 16/Magazine articles.
Photo gallery
Pre-System 16
Sega System 16A
Sega System 16B
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Sega Pre-System 16 & System 16A Hardware (MAME)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sega 16‑Bit common hardware (MAME)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sega Pre-System 16 hardware notes (2004-03-29)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Sega System 16B hardware notes (2003-01-12)
- ↑ Sega "X-Board" hardware notes (2004-12-03)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Sega System 16B Hardware (MAME)
- ↑ File:UPD7759 datasheet.pdf
- ↑ NEC UPD7759 ADPCM Speech Processor (MAME)
- ↑ File:TMM2018 datasheet.pdf
- ↑ File:SS16CSTV2 Album JP Booklet.pdf, page 5
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