The Amstrad Mega PC was a budget IBM 386 clone PC developed by Amstrad and released in 1993 that features twin motherboards. The PC itself runs on a IBM motherboard powered by an Intel 80386SX CPU, but an additional motherboard allows the PC to function as an officially licensed SEGA Mega Drive. Amstrad didn’t have strong experience in developing software for IBM PCs, so it was a far more cost effective solution to bundle the PC with Mega Drive functionality as the system would now offer users access to the entire range of Mega Drive software. The PC came bundled with internal speakers, a monitor, keyboard, mouse and an Amstrad-branded Mega Drive controller which is cross-compatible with SEGA’s own Mega Drive systems. The Mega PC did not prove successful as its CPU was considered outdated at the time of release and its original £999.99 RRP was far too high for the market it was competing in. A successor called the Mega Plus was planned but never released.

Specifications

CPU
32-bit Intel 80386SX @ 25 MHz
Motorola 68000 @ 7.14 MHz

Graphics
SVGA Graphics with 256KB RAM

RAM
1MB SIMM RAM (expandable to 16MB)

Storage
ROM cartridge
Diskette

Images


The Mega PC photographed in these images is part of the collection at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, UK. Photos taken by Lewis Clark