Genesis:Sega Pico General Information

The Sega Pico was an educational game console based on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive hardware with the addition of a hardwired digital pen. It resembled a laptop and could fold closed. The Pico was released in June 1993 in Japan, followed by a release in the US and Europe in 1994. The console used book like cartridges with multiple pages called "storyware". The digital pen was able to detect where on the pages was touched along with large touch area below it.

While there were only 20 titles released in the US, it was wildly successful in Japan with over 200 games released. Some of these games included accessories that would connect to the cartridge and allowed you to play the game with the accessory. Some of these included steering wheels, leavers, and a hospital. There was a rare version of the Pico made by Yamaha called the Copera. This version included a microphone input, stereo, FM sound chip, MIDI in, and MIDI out. This release also used special software to utilize these extra features.

There was a successor to the Pico called the Advanced Pico Beena which was similar function to the original but updated hardware which was not backward compatible.