Sega Venus

No idea why they didn't go with this design, looks like an evolution of the Game Gear, although the color here doesn't suit it. Black, obv.

Sega turns 60 this year, and the company has been celebrating that fact in a wide range of ways – one of which is a special video history lesson which runs through the company's home hardware lineage.

This particular seminar was held by Sega producer and manager Hiroyuki Miyazaki and takes us from the early days of 1983's SG-1000 (released in Japan on the same day as Nintendo's considerably more popular Famicom) right the way up to Sega's final home console, the Dreamcast.

During the talk, Miyazaki goes into detail on how Sega was fond of using the names of planets as the internal codenames for its systems (the exception being the Saturn, which retained its codename right the way up to launch). He speaks about the Sega Nomad, a portable Mega Drive system which was released in North America in 1995 and was Sega's final attempt to wrestle control of the handheld market away from the Nintendo Game Boy (spoiler: it didn't work, but the machine is great – if a little battery-hungry).

A nice surprise was that Miyazaki showed off a prototype of the console that has, up until now, never been seen in public. Still retaining the "Venus" codename, the prototype Nomad is rather fetching, and arguably more attractive than the oddly-shaped system we actually got. (What is that slanting top section all about, anyway?)

This year, Sega paid tribute to its most famous handheld console, the Game Gear, by releasing a micro version exclusively in Japan.

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Just give me Company of Heroes 3.

That's all I want from SEGA.

@R4gn4r0k: Creative Assembly probably will return to it after they finished AoE:IV. SEGA Europe is actually quite profitable during the pandemic period so I personally believe there will be more investment in new games especially in CoH after CoH2 became one of the best selling RTS on Steam.

@sakaixx: Relic is slow in making their games, but they sure make some great games. AOE IV is my most anticipated game.

Only Dawn of War 3 was a flop, unfortunately

@R4gn4r0k: I just realized I mixed up Relic and Creative assembly lol. Total War Troy has consumed me for sometime and I got confused.

I never played Dawn of War 3 due to I just don't understand how Relic keep changing the formula for the series. I just want the 40k RTS of the first game with the dozen or so races.

Creative Assembly is a diverse developer, and I like those two the most: Creative Assembly and Relic.

But CA has only ever made one RTS: Halo Wars 2, have you played it ? :)

@R4gn4r0k: No I have not either. I seldom plays on PC unless for a very specific genre or franchises like Europa Universalis, Football Manager or city building games.

I have a Nomad and it's pretty great. The screen isn't half bad actually, nor is the sound, and the d-pad is phenomenal.

As a lay-on-the-couch it's a winner. As an actual portable it's nonsensical because it is huge and that is WITHOUT a battery attached.

Still, these days I just use my Genesis with retrobit wireless controller and keep the nomad tucked away safe

I have yet to play Halo Wars 2 as well :P

I did play the first one. As it was made by the late Ensemble Studios.

So what games are you playing at the moment?

That's actually really cool. I didn't know that the Nomad prototype looked more like a Game Gear. Man, I wish Game Gear had been a bit more successful. It needed games like Ninja Turtles and Ducktales... games Nintendo grabbed exclusively for their systems for quite some time.

Thanks for sharing.

Love seeing stuff like this, I can't imagine how many other unreleased handheld/consoles are out there.

After watching the entire video, it looks like at the end they are teasing Jan 23rd next year. Not sure if it's eluding too anything.

Yea, big Game Gear fan. Nostalgia bias for sure, but the actual design was top notch.

It's unfortunate they kinda went down bizarro route and released a mini-console, for a mini-console where it becomes a joke item.

Releasing a Game Gear with modern tech and the ability to be modded and opened for roms, possibly with a few more buttons as in the Venus design, very morish.

@uninspiredcup: I wanted a Ninja Turtles game on the system since I got mine around 1991. I even moved forward with looking into actually creating the game last year. The programing knowledge evades me but I had everything else basically done. Even made a mock video of what it would be like.

https://youtu.be/puQ_irGnNgw

After the 30 second mark, skip to the 2 min mark for mock gameplay. I also made a box, cartridge label and full manual with like an 8 page start story.

@Telekill: Very impressive dedication.

Not impressed by the style but I bet its far more comfortable to hold than the nomad. The DPAD on that always looked horrendous.

The idea of releasing a handheld mega drive at that time was a winner, not sure why they didn't back it more. Instantly you have a large library on the go, and more you can always release more games if its a success. The design was crap and it feels like they never had confidence in it.

Here's a shitty mock up.

@uninspiredcup:

That screen size lol

@DocSanchez: the d-pad on the nomad is fantastic. Picture the late genesis/Saturn d-pad with a better roll

@ivangrozny: If think that was small the micro will make you feel like Mr. Magoo.

Pretty interesting lecture, with all the internal codenames.

Mark codenames:

• Mark I = SG-1000
• Mark II = SG-1000 II
• Mark III = Sega Mark III
• Mark IV = Master System
• Mark IV Jr. = Master System II
• Mark V = Mega Drive

Planetary codenames:

• Mercury = Game Gear
• Venus = Nomad
• Earth =/= Mega Drive
• Moon = Mega Drive Mini
• Mars = 32X
• Jupiter = Cancelled cartridge-based Mega Drive successor
• Saturn = Sega Saturn
• Neptune = Mega Drive + 32X
• Uranus = N/A
• Pluto = Saturn with built-in online capabilities

Really? It looked terrible. Until you've played one you can never say with any confidence and that's the proof. Nothing will better my SNK Neo Geo Pocket though.

@DocSanchez: yeah it doesn't feel/operate at all like how it looks (almost looks like a toggle or something)