Appeal of the Sega Mega Drive?

OldMrBrennan83 · 29-12-2018 06:25PM

Billy86 wrote: »

Nah, as great as the mega drive was the SNES had a stupidly long list of good games, and several games that would go down as all time greats.

Nobody has even mentioned super metroid for it I dont think. As about a 8 or 9 year old kid that was the first time my mind was well and truly blown away by a game, it was just so insanely huge and open for the time.

I never got around to that at the time and have been meaning to play it through on the SNES mini. Don't think I've ever played a Metroid game at all.

Billy86 · 29-12-2018 06:43PM

Patww79 wrote: »

Billy86 wrote: »

Nah, as great as the mega drive was the SNES had a stupidly long list of good games, and several games that would go down as all time greats.

Nobody has even mentioned super metroid for it I dont think. As about a 8 or 9 year old kid that was the first time my mind was well and truly blown away by a game, it was just so insanely huge and open for the time.

I never got around to that at the time and have been meaning to play it through on the SNES mini. Don't think I've ever played a Metroid game at all.

I played it on an emulator 2 or 3 years back and it really has held up very well... the map is even reasonably big compared to a good few indie equivalent games that have come out in recent years.

Agricola · 29-12-2018 07:14PM

So much of it is chance. I was playing an old Atari 2600 in the early 90's. My cousin got it from someone on the other side of the family. I wouldn't even have known about the joys of Street Fighter 2 only for a school pal of mine had an Amiga.
So when I decided to get my own console, I chose a Megadrive because a neighbour had one with an excessive collection of games. I remember being completely blown away by Mortal Kombat "graphics will never get better!"

While the Nintendo stuff was probably objectively better gameplay wise, I had no experience of it so went down the Sega and then Sony route when it came to consoles.

Say Your Number · 29-12-2018 08:30PM

Nothing like a colourful, vibrant and cartoonish 2D platformer, that severely tests your mental fortitude.

Esel · 29-12-2018 08:53PM

Anyone remember the Sega MultiMega? Took CDs as well as cartridges.

Chris_Heilong · 29-12-2018 09:01PM

You missed out big time, I still own both SNES and Megadrive but feel the Megadrive was the better of the two systems, truly the adult system of the two, better music from it also using its Yamaha YM2612 which puts out amazing FM synth which has come into fashion again thanks to YouTube channels like NewRetroWave. Being a huge Arcade Street fighter fan the Megadrive version was the only port to play correctly at home, the SNES version had some weird timings and the micro freeze when it said 'you win' after every round annoyed me. I find some of the issues people had back then was they just bought the wrong games, stick to the Japanese stuff and you were gold.

Kidchameleon · 29-12-2018 09:14PM

Did anyone ever play Kidchameleon on the Sega Megadrive?

bop1977 · 29-12-2018 10:07PM

Esel wrote: »

Anyone remember the Sega MultiMega? Took CDs as well as cartridges.

I had the American version called the megaCD. My brother brought it back with him after a stint in the US. He had the “video nasty” night trap. It was pure tripe. Two of my favourite games were desert strike and jungle strike. Urban strike was a bit crap. I also liked EA’s ice hockey game where, if you took an opponent out you got a fight. This was before EA became what they are now.

Starscream25 · 29-12-2018 10:11PM

All this talk about sound quality between the 2, when I was 10 years old or thereabouts, presumably ye were all in the same age bracket give or take a few years when both systems came, did anyone really give much of a ****e when it came to sound when ye played all these games back in the day? For me it was the fun and enjoyability factor. Maybe my ears were just never as finely tuned.

grindle · 29-12-2018 10:27PM

Starscream25 wrote: »

All this talk about sound quality between the 2, when I was 10 years old or thereabouts, presumably ye were all in the same age bracket give or take a few years when both systems came, did anyone really give much of a ****e when it came to sound when ye played all these games back in the day? For me it was the fun and enjoyability factor. Maybe my ears were just never as finely tuned.

Most people probably had shít TV speaker/s but some used nice enough speakers or some nice headphones for the time? Probably the answer. The audio quality between the two never bothered me all through my youth or seemed apparent until I heard both through nice headphones.

BeerWolf · 29-12-2018 10:31PM

Pft... I had a 3DO...!

grindle · 29-12-2018 10:37PM

BeerWolf wrote: »

Pft... I had a 3DO...!

What was it even like? I was saving for a Saturn or PS while the 3DO was wandering around trying to haunt those launches but nothing much ever happened with it?

Just a dumb median point between video games switching from 2D->3D story-telling?

Beasty · 29-12-2018 10:41PM

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

Im not sure about Senna GP it could have been on Nintento 64

Senna GP was definitely on the Mega Drive. I lent it to someone and still haven't got it back:(

Then there was Sonic - who cares about Mario when you have Sonic?:P

unkel · 29-12-2018 10:45PM

Awesome. Desert strike! Got a loan of one when I was a student and I played it day and night until I finished that game. I knew then that gaming would be a dangerous addiction for me, so I haven't gamed since

Anyone remember what that game was called with the mountain bike? You descended a hill and the more intricate and complex your stunts were, the more points you got. I still have the background tune in my head the guts of 30 years later

McMurphy · 29-12-2018 10:58PM

unkel wrote: »

Awesome. Desert strike! Got a loan of one when I was a student and I played it day and night until I finished that game. I knew then that gaming would be a dangerous addiction for me, so I haven't gamed since

Anyone remember what that game was called with the mountain bike? You descended a hill and the more intricate and complex your stunts were, the more points you got. I still have the background tune in my head the guts of 30 years later

Was it excite bike?

unkel · 29-12-2018 11:08PM

Nope. It was a single bike (push bike / mountain bike / bmx - not a motorbike) doing a downhill if my memory still serves me reasonably well

what the hell! · 29-12-2018 11:08PM

We had the Master System in this house. Loved it. Alex the Kidd built in.

Sciprio · 29-12-2018 11:24PM

The games i loved and still do for the Sega Megadrive are:

1 -GoldenAxe
2-Streets of Rage
3 -Mortal Kombat
4 - Gunstar heroes.
Those are the ones that stick out straight away but there was a few others.
I don't think i'd buy a console just to relive it when i can emulator nowadays if i wanted.

gmisk · 29-12-2018 11:26PM

grindle wrote: »

Yep, and v2 allowed up to 8 players thanks to that control scheme and the swanky cartridge

Pete sampras tennis was the same, great 4 player game.

weemcd · 29-12-2018 11:41PM

You had a good mixture of fairly mature, grown up games like:
Streets of Rage Trilogy - anyone who says the sound wasn't spectacular on these games needs their ears checked. There's soon to be a 4th BTW!
Mortal Kombat
Altered Beast
Shinobi

ComixZone was light years ahead stylistically to anything on the SNES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjgNdMfg2ow

Also another underrated game that hasn't been mentioned yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtId7oQz8-s

Then of course you have your Sonic games, Golden axe, road rash etc etc

ibFoxer · 29-12-2018 11:52PM

I'd a NES myself that i sold to buy a Mega Drive and if I was being completely honest, despite the countless hours of fun i had on it, I always regretted it. Something about the NES catalogue i had-Digger T Rock, Low G Man, Gumshoe, California Games-that I could never quite replace on any other console, Sega or otherwise.

Necro · 30-12-2018 12:03AM

Insect Overlord wrote:

Anyone ever play Soleil?

Soleil was absolutely amazing, and the only two-player RPG I can recall (online does not count, I like my multiplayers offline)

All this thread makes me want to do is buy the Mega Drive console preloaded with loads of games....

AllForIt · 30-12-2018 12:13AM

The whole Sega Mega Drive thing completely passed us by. I never seen one, never knew anyone who had one. We had Sinclair computers and then SNES boxs in our house that's it. Just his week I managed to connect my phone to my TV via hdmi cable and am playing Super Mario games on it with use of a software emulator and a bluetooth wireless controller all working perfectly like the real thing. Bitta nostalgia for xmas.

McMurphy · 30-12-2018 01:13AM

Just fired up micro machines for the mega drive there on Retrox.

Ah, the nostalgia.

Irish Guitarist · 30-12-2018 02:16AM

"To be this good takes AGES" was a great slogan. "To be this good takes ODNETNIN" wouldn't have had the same ring.

Raheem Euro · 30-12-2018 04:44AM

Road Rash was a good un. (not unique to sega)

dfx- · 30-12-2018 05:58AM

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

We had both in our house growing up, they were both good machines in their own ways.

Megadrive had such classics as Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Sonic and one of my own persoanal favourites - Populous, but as already mentioned , the sound from it never compared with a SNES.

The SNES had some genius games too mind you, Mario World was a classic, as was Mario Kart , and we had hours upon hours of fun with super tennis, and my favourite for the SNES was pilot wings.

The stereo audio, and mode 7 meant the SNES takes it for me overall though.

A brilliant game. Our house had the SNES, pilotwings was the go-to game after a while.

Kidchameleon · 30-12-2018 07:33AM

Necro wrote: »

All this thread makes me want to do is buy the Mega Drive console preloaded with loads of games....

I would wait until a proper one is released by sega, the one available that you are probably refering to is by a company called AT games, the console is meant to be terrible - bad controllers, slow gameplay and bad sound emulation. You would be better off getting a real megadrive. You could get real controllers with it and perhaps an "everdrive" that would allow you to play any game.

McMurphy · 30-12-2018 10:16AM

Kidchameleon wrote: »

I would wait until a proper one is released by sega, the one available that you are probably refering to is by a company called AT games, the console is meant to be terrible - bad controllers, slow gameplay and bad sound emulation. You would be better off getting a real megadrive. You could get real controllers with it and perhaps an "everdrive" that would allow you to play any game.

Get a Nvidia shield, and install RetroX.

That's what I have, and I can play pretty much any game I want from any platform, ranging from Atari 2600 right the way through to Amiga and spectrum or C64 - all the hand-held consoles, to PlayStation.

Atoms for Peace · 30-12-2018 10:21AM

A raspberry pi running retropie is another option, requires a bit of work to set up though.

Appeal of the Sega Mega Drive?

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