The Early Days of Sega's Genesis

[Music] the launch of new video game hardware was always a special time when you were a kid it didn't mean just new games it also meant a technological leap in power and capability in august of 1989 sega unleashed the genesis to north american audiences it had been known as the mega drive in japan and i still remember getting a hold of game pro that summer and seeing the news that both sega and nec were readying their new hardware for us launches it was also the first time i started to see sega's incredible ads for the genesis they were bold full page declarations that the genesis was a machine you couldn't live without magazines began to break down the launch titles and how they played and my god was i excited to get my hands on them and then there were those glorious television ads every time one came on i had to stop and take notice they were catchy aggressive showpieces that put the platform's arcade and sports line up front and center in this episode we are going to take a look at my early days with the genesis in 1989. we'll go over the launch titles as well as the rest of the library that landed before the year was up i hope you guys enjoyed the early days of sega's genesis [Music] the genesis launched nationwide across the united states at the end of august of 1989. it took me until the end of the year to get one for myself but when i did i was super stoked to finally try out games i had been salivating over for weeks in game magazines six games were available when the hardware launched by the time i had mine game rental stores in the area carried all of them so i had no issues getting a chance to try them out the funny thing was i actually was really let down by most of what i initially played i had always liked space harrier in the arcade so the prospect of a part 2 had always intrigued me super scalar arcade games were really impressive visually so i went into space harrier 2 with high hopes i didn't enjoy this one at all however the jerky choppy performance absolutely destroyed my desire to play it i couldn't adjust to it either it was unpleasant to my eyes and i simply didn't enjoy my time with it it was my first brush with the lack of hardware-based sprite scaling on the platform something i'd see many times in the years to come [Music] i had not been a tremendous fan of alex kidd on the master system but i figured it had to be better on the genesis nope it was significantly worse in fact i really disliked everything you were looking at i couldn't stand the hokey visuals the awful gameplay nor the sound and music i know there are those of you out there that appreciated this but it simply wasn't for me i could hardly stomach playing the first stage to completion and this was quickly blacklisted from wasting any more of my time on a side note this is on a 2 meg cartridge that's right man a 2 meg 16 bit game [Music] i wanted to like last battle so much i mean i loved how it looked the large sprites and beat-em-up gameplay really appealed but i just had no clue what the hell was going on in the game the story made no sense at all and i didn't understand the map or where i was supposed to go and when a super strong enemy popped out and whooped my ass it was right back to the title screen to start over i tried to power through it because i loved the concept but i never understood it well enough to get any real long-term enjoyment from it it was based on the fist of the north star license in japan where it was also far more violent [Music] thunder force 2 was a straight up case of a game being entirely too difficult for me to enjoy it at the time i liked shooters but i couldn't adjust well enough to deal with the brutal overhead stages the quick direction changes the enemies and weapon fire coming from every direction it really made this one tough for me to enjoy in the beginning i could deal with the side scrolling sections well enough but lost countless lives on just trying to get that far i later got decent enough to get fairly far in it but in those early days it was one of my least liked genesis experiences [Music] funnily enough the much-maligned altered beast was one of my early favorites on the genesis despite what you hear today from people that didn't own the genesis in its early days it was a hell of a great showpiece it featured two player co-ops some nice graphics and quite a decent soundtrack the gameplay was easy to get into and i always felt it did a great job as a port coming from much more powerful hardware there are those out there that would put it on worst of lists and tell you it was a joke it wasn't for me and i played the ever loving heck out of it for weeks when i first got it [Music] [Music] being a sports fan i welcome the release of tommy lasorda baseball with open arms i had loved reggie jackson on the master system and this looked like it was quite similar in both gameplay and graphics it kicked off what was to become a massive marketing campaign to sell sports related titles for the platform behind celebrity endorsements i enjoyed it pretty much on every level the gameplay was accessible and easy to understand it looked and sounded great and it was a pretty close approximation of the sport only really lacking an official mlb license out of those initial launch games we just looked at it was my most played genesis game by quite a stretch [Music] second baseman house after the initial launch title software slowly trickled out for the genesis for the rest of 1989 through a combination of rentals friends and the odd game purchase with grass mowing and snow shoveling funds i was fortunate enough to play most of them not long after i got my genesis being so hyper focused on it as my new platform of choice i remember each of these quite well the first time i played them while i had loved american football basketball and baseball growing up i can't say i ever followed soccer much back then it was a complete mystery to me how to even play it making video games based on the sport of passing curiosity i remember borrowing world championship soccer from a school mate but not making heads or tales of it while i had it the visuals were from the overhead perspective and quite fast but i just didn't have the knowledge or interest to find any real enjoyment in it [Music] i was thrilled to see super thunderblade show up because i had always been blown away by the original arcade version but again it's heavily cut back here the scaling is super jumpy and choppy and though it's more playable than space harrier 2 was i still didn't care much for it the overhead stages give you no room to actually maneuver pretty much only allowing you to move side to side and slow down the scrolling of the screen i had a few fun nights with it thanks to some of the forward scrolling levels and boss encounters but this is another forgettable super scaler clone on the genesis [Music] on the flip side i loved arnold palmer tournament golf i have always had a soft spot with video games based on the sport and this one right here occupied my attention for quite a while i really dug the large characters and easy to understand gameplay it was a serious challenge too and you needed some skill to see a full match through to the end with a decent score much like tommy lasorda baseball this was an early building block to sega sports dynasty with sega's marketing slogan clearly aiming to bring the arcade home for a new generation of gamers they licensed ghouls and ghosts and made it themselves for the genesis the port was stunning particularly since it came on a tiny 5-meg card i was mesmerized by this once i played it not only did it do capcom's source material proud in terms of graphic sound and gameplay but it also needed to be beaten twice to see the real ending that meant tons of replay value this one is still impressive today and every now and then i go back to have it kick my ass for old times sake every time i see that in battle it still gives me chills how impressive it was [Music] [Music] sega also scored forgotten worlds from capcom a two-player shoot-em-up that allowed you to purchase power-ups by collecting blue orbs it makes numerous changes to the arcade's presentation but again was really impressive considering it was on such a small cartridge the co-op gameplay was incredibly solid an early indication that the genesis was indeed powerful enough to bring this kind of game home faithfully [Music] one of my biggest surprises in those early days was mystic defender it was a sequel to the master system game spellcaster and was an action platformer that had you collecting magical attacks throughout the game and switching them at will as you played this was one of those 16-bit games i played almost exclusively for its visuals i mean look at that freaking parallax scrolling just a layer upon layer of it in the background some stages even had fog style effects this was an early favorite of mine and a big surprise in those initial days of genesis ownership [Music] [Music] [Music] i had been a fan of the rambo movie since my younger days and loved the master system games as well so when i saw sega had a new one for the genesis i just had to play it this one was an overhead run and gun with exploration elements you had to do different missions like blowing up stuff and rescuing hostages it was another one that had a really memorable graphical element when rambo faced an enemy vehicle it would switch to a third person battle where you had to use your bow this looked freaking incredible at the time and i played it just to see it time and time again it was a simple but highly enjoyable game [Music] after my disappointment with super thunderblade and space harrier 2 i really didn't want to try super hang on very much i mean why did i want more super choppy eye gouging fake sprite scaling i'm glad i pushed on with this however because it's much better than i had been expecting while still not quite arcade smooth it was orders of magnitude better than what had come before it the gameplay and music were really good too while the genesis didn't have the hardware for this type of game it became perfectly clear after this one that the right team of programmers could still make the genre work at home [Music] truxxton was a pure winner on the genesis from the moment i played it it's hard but the kind of hard you get better at the more you play it thanks to the excellent gameplay the music was great too the kind of stuff that gets stuck in your head a long time after you play it i usually didn't think much of vertically scrolling shooters back then but this one definitely changed my mind if you have never played it and enjoy these types of games do yourself a favor and have a go [Music] there are platform defining games every generation that bit of software that takes advantage of all the new hardware capabilities of a new machine while being so incredibly playable almost everyone appreciates its merits the revenge of shinobi was that game for the genesis in those early days it showed a side of sega's new platform that made it instantly clear it was a contender and capable of being a market leader sound graphics gameplay it all just screamed sega arcade quality at home the best part was it wasn't based on an actual cigar arcade game which meant sega could make home exclusives just as awesome as its coin ops [Music] [Music] our last game is golden axe the two-player hack and slash beat em up they told a tale of swords and dragons huge screen-filling magic attacks were the showpiece for the genesis in those early days and were fair representations of the arcade the music was iconic too as much so as the revenge of shinobi in my eyes it was the game that got my little sister playing co-op with me and i wasted hours in it with her sega even tacked on a few extra areas to fight in and an additional final boss encounter it was short and easy but no less a memorable title [Music] 1989 was a pretty big year for me when i was younger it started the fourth generation of consoles in the us or what we called the 16-bit generation back then i of course didn't play all of these games at once they'd be spread out over the weeks and months after i got my genesis i do remember that time fairly well however and the excitement of playing these for the first time is still a potent memory all these years later the advertising campaign still brings a smile to my face every time i see the old commercials and i've curated a massive archive of print materials that i loved looking at for old time's sake the genesis was also a lot of firsts for me i was old enough to start making my own funds when it was released usually odd jobs around my neighborhood in the beginning and then later working a part-time job that allowed me to delve into the import market for the very first time along with the excitement of new more powerful hardware the ability to buy and rent my own games brought me a great sense of joy and satisfaction i think we all have that moment in our lives when we switch from being broke kids relying on others for our toys into young people with a little financial autonomy to go after what we want i see that very thing happening with my daughter today and i chuckle to myself every time i see her working out the budget for the things she wants these are powerful moments we never forget and the early days of the old genesis here is something i'll treasure forever i'm singalord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 121,136

Keywords: segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari

Id: FiYClKFBi8g

Length: 19min 37sec (1177 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 08 2020