Ultra rare Sega AI Computer found and emulated; software rom files and sales fliers preserved

Score one for video game preservation, or in this case, interactive edutainment software preservation. Thanks to Omar Cornut, going by @orconut on Twitter (X), as well as the website SMS Power, an ever-so-elusive Sega AI Computer has been procured and a bunch of stuff relating to it preserved online, including photos of the hardware and games, scans of sales fliers, print ads, and instruction manuals, and digital ROM files of all commercially released games. They’ve also prepared a MAME driver, allowing the AI Computer to be emulated for the very first time. 

Chances are you may not know what this is. I’ll admit, I’ve never even heard of it until now. If you’ll follow me past the break, I will sum up what this AI Computer is all about.

 

The Sega AI Computer is Sega’s second home computer, released in Japan only in 1986, the same year the Sega Master System released in the USA and parts of Europe. There were apparently even plans to release this computer in the USA, but those plans fell through. The AI Computer, as its name suggests, was designed with home markets in mind as a computer leveraging the awesome power of Artificial Intelligence, back when the concept inspired excitement and possibility moreso than anxiety with the masses. Despite the potential of a computer focused around AI, it ironically didn’t seem to have a lot of utility to it like a lot of computers of the day, at least not without some extra accessories, as edutainment seemed to be its main focus. Any potential it had beyond that was never realized. It was probably not very popular, as it’s gone one to be one of the rarest pieces of hardware to ever come from Sega with next to no public info about the system and few pictures of it or its games or documentation available online, until now.

 

Much of its software was educational and designed for young children and made use of overlay sheets going over the touchpad in the center of the main unit, making it sort of a precursor to the Sega Pico. The software came in the form of both cassette tapes and cards, much like MyCards for Master System and SG-1000 or HuCards/Turbochips for PC-Engine/Turbografx-16. A couple of software even seem based on classic literature, such as this one below that’s based on Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland series.

That’s the basic info about the Sega AI Computer out of the way, but there’s much more going into it that I’ll leave to Omar Cornut and SMS Power to explain over at their new Sega AI Computer webpage. There, you’ll also find their shared Google Drive page where you can download all the images they’ve made of the system and documentation as well as the ROM dumps and necessary files for emulation with MAME. (The majority of images in this article came from there.) Keep in mind that as of this writing, AI Computer emulation still has a few bugs to work out, but it’s getting there. Special thanks goes to each and every one of the individuals who snatched this AI Computer up and shared so much of it online. It’ll really help fill out Sega Retro’s own page on the Sega AI Computer.

Do you find this mostly unknown piece of Sega history fascinating? Do you think a lot more could’ve come from the AI Computer if its full potential was realized? Please, speak up in the comments below.

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