Sega System 16

The Sega System 16 is an arcade board released by Sega in 1985 as a 16-bit successor to the Sega System 1. Throughout its lifespan, there would be around forty games released on this hardware, making it one of Sega’s most successful hardware designs. It was produced in three variants, the Pre-System 16, System 16A and System 16B, though the only differences between the three are clock speeds.

The System 16 is the home to many of Sega’s most successful franchises, including Shinobi, Fantasy Zone, Altered Beast and Golden Axe. It popularised the use of the Motorola 68000 CPI and Zilog Z80 combo, something which was copied for Capcom’s successful CPS-1 and CPS-2 boards (among other arcade systems of the day), as well as most notably, the Sega Mega Drive.