Miss Shampoo's mini Sega Genesis FAQ ( Non-Technical )Aug 02 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line My 10 year old Genny still works!
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on the Sega Genesis, but for it being my all time favorite system, I felt compelled to write up a sequel or companion of sorts to the old review I did on it during my newbie days on epinions. The Genesis as we know it, did not sell as quickly as the PS2 did during its initial release but it was, however the leading console for a good 4 years before being finally brought down by the SNES in 1994. Its only real competitor at the time was the NEC TurboGrafx 16 which would later die out leaving Sega on top of the hill after defeating the once mighty NES. Clearly, Nintendo wasn’t about to let it all slip away without at least putting up a fight. They had stubbornly held on to their aging NES till it proved no longer profitable while watching their share of the console market dwindle as Sega continued to eat away at the profits they could have had. As previously mentioned, this mini FAQ is meant to serve a companion to my earlier review on the Genesis. It is covers the most basic questions on the topic while leaving out all the complicated technicalities. Areas briefly covered include hardware, history, statistics & software. Having said all that, we can now begin with our FAQ. Q: What was the official release date? A: The Genny was first released in Japan as the MegaDrive on October 29, 1988 and made its way to the United States 10 months later. There has been some confusion over the official North American release date with many believing it to be September 15, 1989 when it should have been a month earlier on August 14. With the August release confined to a smaller audience that was New York & Los Angeles, other parts of the continent had to wait an entire month before finally getting a taste of the Genny. The Europeans were the last to get their hands on the system after a long 15 month wait following the North American release. Q: Why were there 3 versions ( generations ) made and what’s the story behind them? A: The first Genesis was a rather expensive piece of hardware to produce compared to subsequent models. Given the high initial price, this did not seem to bother Sega much during its first 4 years in production. Sega had then controlled some 60% of the console market and this was especially evident in the first 2 years after the arrival of the SNES. As SNES sales figures started picking up, Sega was forced to cut their prices on the Genesis accordingly in keeping up with the ever-growing Nintendo threat. As a result, the smaller Genesis 2 was born out of need to cut back on production costs and this clearly shows given the poor workmanship & more fragile nature of the second machine. The third Genesis wasn’t meant to be a mainstream system but rather it was more of a resurrection of the already dead Genny 1 & 2 machines. It had been marketed as a cheap alternative to those who were unable to cough up a 3-figure sum needed for the more expensive N64 & PSX systems. Q: Which of the 3 systems would you recommend & why? A: In all, you’d probably get the best value for your dollar with the first machine. Being the sturdiest & most durable of the 3, the first Genesis has been known for its ability to withstand an incredible amount of punishment that would have otherwise put a flimsy machine like the PSX out for the count. Incredible as it seems, my very first Genny, purchased in 1991 still works fine after all these years. I would not recommend the second due to its more fragile build & third from its problems with incompatibility. Q: Incompatibility problems? A: Aside from missing the Z80 processor, the third Genny is also without the expansion port that supposedly connects it to the Sega CD. Obviously being the cheapest of the 3 variations had also made it the most handicapped of the bunch. Q: How many units were actually sold worldwide during its years in production? A: A rough estimate of 29 million which probably doesn’t include the Genny 3. Q: Why the name Genesis? A: Sega of America was unable to obtain the rights to the original MegaDrive name because it had already been taken as a trademark by some other North American based company. Q: What’s the deal with the Sega CD? A: The Sega CD ( or Mega CD in Japan ) was a more advanced companion system to the Genesis enabling it to play cutting edge CD-based games. There were roughly 150 games produced in its seemingly short life-span including the then controversial Night Trap title. The system wasn’t doing too well prompting Sega to pull the plug on it to concentrate on their up & coming Saturn system, which coincidentally had also failed for the most part in its challenge against Sony’s mighty gray machine. Q: Were they really only 3 territorial versions of the Genny made? A: That’s the general assumption. The 3 territories we know of are Europe, Japan & North America respectively, however I found that there was another version in between that had the MegaDrive name plastered across the front but was capable of playing American-released titles. My first Genny was an example which puzzled me with its ability to play the Japanese version of Ringside Angel while at the same time was also compatible with non-Japanese titles like Streets of Rage ( not Bare Knuckle ). Surprisingly though, the Japanese version of SOR 3 ( Bare Knuckle 3 ) did not work on my first Genny which had forced me into buying the Japanese MegaDrive 2. Side Note: My first Genny could have been the exclusive Asian version not found anywhere else. Q: What’s the Sega Nomad? A: A portable version of the Genesis that runs on AA batteries. It’s about the size of a Game Gear with 6 buttons & a 3-inch LCD screen. Q: What about the 32X? A: Another add-on to the Genny that was an even bigger failure than the Sega CD. It supposedly enhanced the Genesis’s 16 bit graphics & sound to a 32-bit level. Q: Why was Sonic so important? A: With the release of the first Sonic game in 1991, Genesis sales had more than quadrupled from a miserly 1.6 million in 1990 to over 7.5 million units the following year. Proof again that a system will not sell by itself. A deciding factor clearly lies in the quality of games available as exemplified with titles like Sonic on the Genesis & Final Fantasy 7 on the PSX. Q: What’s the most sought after title on the Genesis? A: There’s been rumors of an ultra-rare Phantasy Star released exclusively in Japan. Microprose’s Pirates Gold comes in a distant second. It can still be found at online auctions with prices skyrocketing to as high as $40 for the cart alone. Q: What's the absolute worst game on the Genesis? A: Double Dragon 3 by far. Even the arcade version sucked. Q: Was there ever a problem with piracy on the Genesis? A: Unfortunately, yes. Piracy was especially rampant in Asian countries and not much so in the United States. Fake carts were being manufactured in shady warehouse-like factories in several Asian countries and sold to neighboring territories. This was also a bit of a problem in South America, where the Genesis was surprisingly popular in countries like Brazil. Fake carts are easily identified with their flimsy build & fragile structures. A typical cart ( pirate & non-pirate alike ) is made up of 2 plastic pieces on the outside, held together in the middle. The pirate cart is poorly held together and may feel like it might fall apart. You could even slide the 2 plastic parts a good fraction of an inch too. The quality of plastic used is very poor, like the ones you find on cheap toys. Also, the labels on the cases are very fake looking, often slightly distorted from the poor printing process. There is also no instructional booklet accompanying the package. Fake compilations were popular during the early 1990s and most of them had up to 4 games jammed into a single cart. Unlike the official Sega 6-packs, these were clearly illegal since they probably came out of some hidden Asian sweatshop factory. Conclusion The Genny may be long gone, but like the SNES along with other remnants of Arcade’s golden era, it will continue to live on in the minds of us older gamers, fortunate enough to have experienced it all. The console can still be found on sites like Ebay at ridiculously low prices ( I got my second Genny 1 for $9.00 ), in case anyone’s still interested. *Miss Shampoo is a proud owner of 4 Genesis systems & a former owner of a Sega CD & Game Gear*  |
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