Mega-CD games

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With 262 known titles, the library of Mega-CD games proved to be more than just an "add-on"—gaining a quarter of titles the Sega Mega Drive itself would receive before the end of its life cycle. The Sega CD was released in November 1992 in the U.S. and looked very much like the Japanese Mega-CD counterpart. Several pack-in titles were included: the Sega Classics 4-in-1 CD (Shinobi, Columns, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe), Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. I, Sol Feace, and two CD+G/music CD samplers. The second U.S. production run after the initial 50,000 units had the Sega Classics 5-game CD instead of the four-game CD above. There were seven Sega CD titles available at the time of launch: Cobra Command, Night Trap, Black Hole Assault, Sewer Shark, Chuck Rock, INXS and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Packaging

Early Mega-CD titles were packaged inside a cardboard box with the instructions, and CD in a regular jewel case inside. Examples include Wonder Dog, Jaguar XJ220, and all the "Make My Video" titles except C+C Music Factory. In 1993, Sega of America began packaging them in large plastic jewel cases, about 8¼ x 5¾ inches and about three quarters of an inch thick. These are the same jewel cases used by Saturn games and some early Playstation titles. One title, Rise of the Dragon, was released both ways.

Sega of Japan continued to use regular-sized jewel cases for all Mega-CD games, with small instructions to fit inside, just like a music CD. European Mega-CD games used the jewel case quad variation, where one half would be used to store the often large multi-language instruction manuals. Sega would use a similar format for European Dreamcast games, though the casing would be designed by Sega themselves and would be slightly smaller in size.