The Teradrive was another
kooky console/PC hybrid, this time brought to us by
Sega. Actually, it was manufactured by
IBM in
Japan and as such was
DOS-based (
DOS-V in this case, and was fully
PC AT compatible). Sega apparently really wanted to push this to the
folks looking for a new PC, but
the PC part of it was rapidly approaching an
obsolete state and as such, the Teradrive's life was very
short-lived. Sega managed to release
three different models, though; the third one's specs are listed below.
Now, on to the aesthetics. On the left side of the unit, we had a front-loading slot for Mega Drive (Genesis) games, with two controller ports beneath it, as well an adjacent Reset button and a switch to alternate between Mega Drive and PC modes. On the right, a lovely 3.5" floppy disk drive, accompanied by a headphone jack, main power button, and ports for PS/2-compatible mice and keyboards. Not to mention the volume slider in the middle. Stupidly, the only way to play Mega Drive games is through the composite output, and the only way to use the PC is with the RGB output. This is a step backward compared to the Sharp X1 Twin, which allowed you to play your PCE games and do your word processing on the same monitor. Oh well...the Teradrive is slicker-looking anyway.
Sega Teradrive Model-3 Technical Specifications
CPU: Intel 80286 (PC), Motorola MC68000 + Zilog Z80A (Mega Drive), Mega Drive custom coprocessors
Speed: 10MHz (80286), 10MHz (68000), 3.58MHz (Z80A)
Main RAM: 2.5MB
System (BIOS) ROM: 640KB
Input/output: RCA composite video/audio output, parallel printer port, AC 100V in,
RS-232C in, Analog RGB out, serial external device input, internal ISA slot
Display interface: Analog RGB (15.70Khz/31.47Khz)
Graphic resolutions: 320x244 (Mega Drive VDP Mode), 320x200 (MCGA), 640x480 (VGA),
800x600 (SVGA)
Onscreen Colors: 64 out of 512 (Mega Drive), 256 out of 262144 (SVGA)
Sound:PCM + FM (Megadrive), system beep (PC)
Media: 3.5" FDD, 30MB HDD
Operating System: DOS-V
Accessories: PS/2-compatible 106-key PC AT keyboard with JIS keyboard modes,
PS/2-compatible mouse, Mega Drive-compatible gamepad (all Sega-branded)
Fun fact!: In the Dreamcast game Segagaga, the supercomputer that runs all functions of Sega in the year 2025
is called...wait for it...the Teradrive! Unfortunately (or thankfully?) it shares nothing else with the unit you learned about today.