Sega Did What Nitendidn't
61
The Only Three Game Machines I Need
SEGA!
In the beginning
there was SEGA and Nintendo. Okay, I'm lying, there was also ATARI (need an explanation?), NEC (Ever seen a TurboGrafx16?) and 3D0.
Those existed during a sixteen-bit era of video gaming that became the talk of school yard playgrounds.
Well, mine, anyway.
In my neck of the woods, like many, we had grown tired of the Nintendo Entertainment System. It wasn't that we hated Nintendo, at first...but hey, how long were they going to milk their now ancient console (it came to the U.S. in 1985, the year after I was born!) and it was 1989 already.
The arcades were full of smash hits like Outrun, Shinobi, Altered Beast, and my favorite, Golden Axe. Those games were all produced by SEGA, and I've only listed a few that were quite popular.
In 1989 they dipped their toes back into territory outside of Japan, and when they prepared their second home console to battle rival Nintendo they got smart. They built a machine, dubbed The MegaDrive (to make it sound all big and techie and awesome and stuff.) throughout most of the world, although in my home country it's entitled the SEGA Genesis. Still a cool name, and fit well in with the American culture.
This machine was sixteen-bit in all it's glory. I still don't really know what that means, or why I should care, but sixteen is twice as many as eight. Which was how many the NES had.
The other great thing? It was basically a miniature version of their arcade machine. It was going to be easy to bring the games to the house that were popular with the questing quarter by quarter crowd.
Me, and a Couple of my Favs for this Console
The Genesis lived through a Dream(cast)
Sonic V.S. the SNES
A Sonic Rush
I'll be honest. My family..we're generally the type of people who are last to get new stuff. It's not that we don't like new stuff, it's just that we like eating more. However, my sister and I got a real cool gift Christmas morning of 1993. A new (but well used) television, a little television stand (with wheels!) and........a SEGA Genesis. With a few cool games. "Haunting, Starring Polterguy," was my favorite. But Sonic 2 was very groovy as well.
And it had to be.
SEGA had failed at creating an iconic brand for the Genesis, let alone one that gave much identity to "SEGA" it's self. But in 1991, with anticipation of the coming Super Nintendo they had to do something real quick-like to secure the market place of sixteen bitdom.
Sonic the Hedgehog was a surprise hit, due to it's speed. They called it "Blast Processing," to make the Genesis sound wicked cool. Sorta like how the Super Nintendo clique went around late in it's life span p0wning us SEGA lovers with the fabeled contraption and marketing word "Mode 7."
Oh, IN YOUR FACE SNES!
The Genesis it Began was Wrought with Folley
The SEGA Genesis had a lot of great ideas. You could buy a compact disc add-on, where upon you could watch some movie scenes and press a button every couple of minutes. It was called the SEGA CD. You could even use it as a portable CD player. Not bad for something that was still hundreds of dollars anyway.
There was also a couple of other contraptions made by SEGA. They introduced a six button pad in response to the Super Nintendo's four (and left/right triggers), there was the 32X which was basically a way to upgrade the power of the Genesis and allow a whole new set of possibilities with slightly better graphics. This was actually done in response to Nintendo's Starfox, which utilized a special chip (called the SuperFX) to achieve the same thing.
SEGA was green, they didn't want to have to build in this special circuitry with each cartridge. It was expensive.
And of course, there was my favorite innovation:
Sega Channel.
This was a service you paid to your cable company and they would come out and give you a special game that connected to a thin black magical wire that came out from behind your television.
They always had fifty games you could play at any time, all you had to do was turn on your Genesis, browse the menu system, and choose a game. Five minutes or so later, that game had been sent to you by magic fairies and placed into that special game cartridge the cable company hooked you up with.
It was...bliss. But only lasted for a few years.
The company tried a lot to break rank and file, to kill the Nintendo crowd one console convert at a time. And it worked, for awhile...then management got in the way, as it always seems to do, at SEGA.
But we'll save that for another time....
SuperFX Chip (Nintendo)
32x (Sega's Answer)
You Can STILL Get it!
|
Genesis 16 Bit Video Entertainment System
The OG of 16-bit.
Price: $149.95
|
|
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a very fun fast paced ring grab that set the example for multiplayer in it's day.
Price: $34.99
|
|
Pirates! Gold
Surf the world, make enemies, use canons, have sword fights, complete quests and generally go YARRR!
Price:
|
|
Skitchin'
So you want to Skitch? It's tough. You need roller blades, lots of health and cash, the ability to grab onto cars and dole out whacks upside the dome with various weapons.
Price: $499.99
|
Genesis does what Nintendon't
Sega Did What Nitendidn't in the News
- Thursday Deals: Core i7 Laptops, Sega GenesisTom's Hardware1 second ago
As usual, a big thanks to our partner, Logic Buy, for sponsoring this post. Be sure to let us know if you take advantage of any of these deals and how it works out for you! Sega - Video game - Games - Console Platforms - Genesis
- News: SEGA signs Bishop for Aliens vs PredatorEurogamer2 days ago
Henriksen: not bad for a human. SEGA has persuaded renowned actor Lance Henriksen to appear in Aliens vs Predator, due out this February. You'll know him better as Bishop, of course - the android of Aliens. Henriksen will reprise his AVP: Aliens vs. Predator role as Karl Bishop Weylund, the man upon whom android Bishop was based. Read more...
More Great Games
|
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
Funny, funny game. It's a little bit of everything, with plenty of minigames and people to annoy. I can't tell you how unique and wonderful this game is to play.
Price:
|
|
Earthworm Jim
So there's a worm who becomes a super hero named Jim when a suit lands on him. Makes sense? Nope, I didn't think so. None of this game makes sense...except for how fun it is.
Price: $49.99
|
|
Road Rash II
Road Rash II was a game that came out before Skitchin'. It's like Skitchin' but with motorcycles. Race for money, slap people around. That simple.
Price: $49.99
|
|
Vectorman
A really good looking game that came out late in the Genesis' life span. Much like Sonic, but with a green robot thing and a futuristic trash planet earth.
Price: $17.80
|
|
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
The SNES may have seemed to look better, but this game has blood. The Nintendo crowd missed out on that one. Suckas!
Price: $74.99
|
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
SEGA!
Totally agree! I love Gauntlet a lot too. I have Gauntlet Legends for my Dreamcast...it's way nummy.
Golden Axe was my favourite too, that and Double Dragon, we're talking arcade though, I was never wealthy enough to actually buy a Megadrive, or any other console, lol. a friend of mine did give my an ageing Dreamcast a few years back though with Crazy Taxi and a few other games with it, pretty cool.
Great hub Ixxy/GIM, or whoever you are :p and I definitely see what you mean about snazzing them up, telling it in a way that relates to yourself, still managing to sneak in those keywords, and your excellent use of the media works really well. And your beards pretty impressive too (and I thought my chin was bushy, lol).
I'll definitely try and take a few lessons from this one, although most of the things I can actually relate too: drugs, weapons, gambling, sex, etc. are banned by Google. :( * Don't forget about the YouTube partner program also (am sure you've heard of it) you're obviously not camera shy (good little vid that) and I would have thought there's some money to be made there also - although I know you're more of an 'artiste' than a cent grabber like me. :D
Could do with a game of Street Fighter II about now, cool stuff, cheers for sharing.
Jeez I should have turned that comment into a hub! My apologies.
It's okay bud, always time to make a hub about gaming, with your own personal spin. ;)
Glad ya like what I did. Money to be made indeed, but all things in time.
I appreciate your reception of my media mixing...it's taken me a lot of practice, but I feel it fits well right in. =)
And I really am camera shy, I hate being behind the lens..but I'm trying to iron that out..thanks for your encouragement.
I'm not amish, I just had an ewok fall through my family tree.
Hey, your handsome face, you didn't give a shout out to the ratus ratuses! Hey again, I had an atari.. the superman game rocked IMHO..better than pong. There was a driving game too that I couldn't win. As far as Star Fox, that was my son and ex's favorite for a long time. I couldn't win that either. I don't fly or drive on games well but I could play the individual battles if I could keep the firing lock on.. I suck at video games.. sigh!
Better than pong? It's all about joust, right? ;D
Thanks for the handsome face comment *blush* =P
Didn't know they had a superman game..must look it up!
Didja know you could plug in a SEGA Genesis controller into the ATARI? Same port! It's way handier than a joystick. ;)
Oh gosh, you were to capture Lex Luther and 5 henchmen and take them to jail, find Lois and get her back to the Daily Planet..but there's a catch..you can pick them up and fly but if they have cryptonite you loose your ability to fly until you find lois and kiss her. So I just picked her up and carried her till I found them all.. however, if you put her down, she wanders away. there's a subway you can use for shortcuts.. oh, do go find it, it was 1D fabulous! I did not know that about the controller! Wow!
The Sega Genesis Rocked. Of course being a little older my NES will always be dear to my heart. I wish I had that Sega channel option it sounds so awesome and I had no idea of it when I had one. I stuck with Sega and got the Sega CD and the 32X. The machines were great but, the loading time on the Sega cd was a real drag. I loved the few games I got for the 32X but, they never made any others. I bought a robot fighting game and beat it within an hour of purchasing it. So I returned because even though it was fun it was no challenge at all. I loved Space Harrier on it. The graphics were awesome and identical to the arcade. My favorite games were Landstalker, MKII, Flash Back, Lost Vikings and Splatter House made for a cool gory mess. Oh and Zombies ate my neighbors was a ton of fun.
Candie--
I'm setting up an e-mail I'm sure you will be happy to receive. ;)
Jim10-
Zombies At My Neighbors was aweseome! I need to pick that up again sometime, I keep forgetting. ;)
Lost Vikings was fun, too..kinda like Lemmings, right? And Splatter House.. ;D I have Flash Back as well, just for the Genesis.
Hi GM, it's been a long time pal! Well-written hub to dig our childhood memories :)
My brother got a Sega when it came out and I loved playing Sonic. It seemed so advanced to what was out before and really it is still not bad even today.
Love the old Gauntlet - didn't really get into the new 3d one as much though. It is really tough with consumer electronics - you never really know which one is going to make it. I was really surprised that the Wii beat out Sony and XBox.
Hi guys!
shamel, thanks. Glad you enjoyed them. =D
CD: Sonic made Nintendo go back to the drawing board. They haven't stop drawing since.
Aya: I dunno, the 3D was.interesting to me. Fun. Sony is a "standard" machine, losing steam because of it's better competitor, the 360.
This migh possibly make me sound old, but--I grew up playing Atari. Frogger, Pitfall, Slolem (sp?) Ms. Pac-man--there were a ton and my dad still has all of it! At some point we got a Nintendo (I can still woop your butt in Mario 3 btw) and I still have that and the games in my garage. And yes we bring it in a play still :) I never had a Sega but my best friend in grade school did and we used to play NBA Jam and Sonic all the time. I kicked butt on NBA jam, but her little sister always beat me at Sonic...
Pitfall rawks! Mario 3 is hardcore, I've beaten it many times though. NBA Jam..haha, its all about Shaqfu ;)
"You're on fire!!!"
"You're burning up!!"
Hahaha exactly!
That's not fair! I didn't know about that much fun a Sega would be?!...well, it didn't work, so I guess there's no need to mad.
Hey, Atari was great! You could hit the little ball, run to the store, mow the lawn and get back to the TV in time to hit it back again. I'm not sayin' it was slow or anything....
I know there are lots of exciting games these days (my son plays them) but I still like the original Nintendo (Zelda!). Yes, yes, I know that makes me a dinosaur.
may: the genesis was the number one console in the world for a time.
shirley: the nes is groovy, dun feel bad. ;) zelda was rockin' it in 85.
Oh great, now I want it fix!
it's cheap. ;) surf eBay
.
cool label!
Thanks you guys! I appreciate your comments. ;D
My first system ever was a Sega, to many years ago to count. lol, I loved that machine. :D
They always had the coolest stuff.. =D
Just got bogged down by all the competition because of petty company in-fighting.
My god. Yer only a year older than my youngest who is 16 years younger than my eldest. I feel so oldt! LOL
CC you're only as young as you feel! I need a cane now...*sigh*.. ;)
A SEGA Genesis Review
waynet says:
6 months ago
I still have a sega megadrive (or genesis) and I always go on Gauntlet , I love that classic as I used to play it in the arcade and pretty much all of them games I remember...retro gaming is still in even today!!