This is a spare time blog about the 16 bit Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Just some observations about my favorite home console of all time. I have modern systems but I can't help but to borderline obsess over this particular console. Before I get into observations, praise, and disappointments over this system, I guess it would be smart to at least give a baseline as to how and why I'm compelled to write a blog over such a thing. So, here we go.
Video games were always a peripheral growing up in the 80's. Sure, you didn't have to wander too far to find a new or classic game arcade cabinet enticing you to rid yourself of those coins in your pockets anywhere from pizza parlors, bowling alleys and laundromats. They were everywhere and that was a good thing. Karate Champ, Tempest, and Rolling Thunder got the lion's share of my quarters, while games like Zoo Keeper got zilch as the game ( or perhaps just this particular cabinet ), had a glitch where by unplugging it, then plugging it back in would give you a credit. Once in awhile I'd go to the larger arcades with friends to try out the newest offerings and marvel at the newest cabinet designs such as Afterburner and S.T.U.N. Runner.All in all, great fun, but with no real disposable income at a young age, I was relegated to my Atari 2600 which really didn't do much for me. If you were 14 years old or younger in 1982 i think the government issued one to the household.
So when the N.E.S. was released, I passed up on even asking my parents for one. The graphics at the time were impressive for a home console, so much so that the first run of games released for the system, ( A.K.A. the Black Box series), were given box art showcasing the pixelated graphics. You have to take it from someone who was a kid back then, those blocky sprites were looking pretty damn good in the mid 1980's.
I also remember seeing commercials around the same time for a console called the Sega Master System.
What the Hell is a Master System? I never knew anyone who had one. Besides, I only recognized a handful of games and if I wanted to play video games, I could literally go to any friends house and somewhere a N.E.S. would be plugged into a television set somewhere. Oh well, I was in 9th grade by '87 and hormones and music dominated my every waking moment. Mario was great and all, but he was no match to pretending to enjoy some awful hair band concert ( I'm looking at you Cinderella. ),with a girl I had planned would be goodly enough to let me reach 3rd base. Hooray!
By 1990 I had noticed a new console popping up in friend's houses. The Sega Genesis. The console itself was jaw dropping to look at. A headphone jack? Really? You can hook this up to a stereo? Wow! Those graphics are bad ass. So, I'm at Adam's, and he has 2 games. Altered Beast and Super Hang On. Put in Super Hang On and kept crashing over and over. Not over control problems or unfamiliarity with the game itself, but because I kept being drawn to the backgrounds. They looked so good I was just checking them out. Yes pausing the game would have been a smarter choice and I did figure that out 30 minutes later. I want one!
However I didn't get one. I had a disposable income by now working, but between high school, the job, and going out in general, I was never home. Games were all over $50.00 and it was a risk to just blindly buy a game. Yes, you could rent a game, but aside from that, unless you knew someone who had the game, or read a review in a magazine, that was all you had to go on. If a game was a real challenge, renting for 2 to 3 days was fine if you were just flaking out, but to give it a go for an hour or 2 here and there you'd never get into any real depth unless it was a puzzle or sports title. Two genres I wasn't interested in at all. So pass on another generation of system. I'm going to be graduating in '91, I guess video games just never really grabbed me.
What changed all these lackluster feelings I had about video games was after I finished Air Force Basic Training in late 1992. I went to my Tech school and another Airman I was roomed with has a Sega Game Gear. What drew me in was the fact that it was portable, ( well, within limits that is ). I didn't need a television, in fact, you could make the system itself the television ( albeit a tiny one ), the games were slightly cheaper and it just looked amazing with it's back lit screen.
On an Air Force base in the middle of nowhere, I now had free time with nothing to do. I bought 3 games with the system itself, as well as the A.C. adapter, TV Tuner and the screen magnifier known as the Super Wide Gear. I forget the exact amount but it was over $500.00.
I hadn't even noticed the games were 8 bit at first. Sonic looked like he did on the Genesis. The baseball title Clutch Hitter was fun, and Halley Wars was more than a competent shooter. The more I looked and spent attention to what was out there, I saw a good share of titles being released on both the Game Gear and Genesis. I knew the Genesis was the better of the two by far, but I made a sizable investment and was at best playing casually.
Mortal Kombat and World Series Baseball. I had no interest in sports, much less sports games, however I was was strangely addicted to Baseball titles on the Game Gear so much so it got me interested in following my hometown Boston Red Sox.This game tracked stats for an entire season and the in the batters box was shockingly realistic and you had to warm up pitchers instead of just subbing them in on the fly. That game itself was enough of a system seller for me, never mind that Mortal Kombat looked just as realistic ( fatalities aside ), with the actual digitized characters and all the look of a 1970's Kung Fu movie. The games didn't look cartoon-ish and that's what really drew me in.
It was 1994 and I was finally buying a Genesis? Talk about being late to the game. However the systems were much cheaper now and the new Electronics Boutique at the local mall had walls covered with used games that could be had at half or less of their original price points. Rumblings of newer, mind blowing CD based systems were rumored and I was curious, however the clerk at E.B. had warned me it was smart to wait a year to see which systems would catch on. Not a good sales move from a sales person, but at least he was honest.
The next generation systems had arrived. I bought a Saturn in summer of '96 and was well... disappointed. Maybe I didn't buy the right games? I thought the 3D graphics looked like garbage. Yeah, polygons were very impressive but it never looked finished to my eyes. The 2D games were much better, but even games like my beloved World Series Baseball took away it's in the box view. The crowd in the ball parks was just a flat mish mash of colors. It played great, but looked sloppy. I traded that system in for a Playstation and found it to be a bit better. Once I got my hands on titles such as Medal of Honor, and Einhander I felt that the 16 era had gone and onwards to the newer level of video gaming.
By 1998, I brought out my Genesis to take to my Girlfriend's apartment and for whatever reason, it didn't power on. Bummer. That weekend I went back to E.B., and saw two items that were priced at $50.00 each. A Sega Genesis model 3, and a system I had seen back in '95 and forgot about, the Sega Nomad. Christmas was indeed early. Now that I think of it, E.B. had about a dozen Nomads being sold. What a return a $600 investment would have paid off now.
Funny thing. After I reacquainted myself with my Sega Genesis, I've never put it away again since. Even after buying a Playstation 2, my interest in games for it slowly stalled. Not that they were bad games, In fact my favorite genre is First Person Shooters, MLB The Show is the best Baseball game to date, but I keep going back to my 16 bit buddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment