Sega Mega Drive turns 20

The Sega Mega Drive turns 20 today - the Mega Drive was introduced on Oct 29, 1988

As a wee young lad, I remember laying my eyes on the Mega Drive for the first time at my local town hall, there was some kind of expo event, and there was a gaming-related stall that had a Mega Drive unit - and kids were lining up to play it. I think Altered Beast was the very first Mega Drive game I played on that stall.

I assume there's a few OCAUers here who have fond memories of the Mega Drive...

 

I got a Mega Drive when they released the Mega Drive 2 with Mortal Kombat, Sonic 2, and 2 other games I cant remember. Was awesome! I played NBA Jam on it hardcore!

EDIT>>Streets of Rage FTW!

 

NBA Jam, is that similar to NBA Hang Time? I played Hang Time for a bit, heaps of fun that game, back in the days when Chicago Bulls had a kickass player roster

Come to think of it, I've probably played numerous PC versions (ports I guess) of Mega Drive games - Golden Axe, Hang Time, Mortal Kombat, etc.

 

NBA Jam was a really arcadey bball game... there was powerups an stuff on the court and you could pull off insane moves if you startd your move from one of the special stars that appeared sometimes.

 

probably why this is being released =p

for those who havent clicked the link yet, i'm talking about a handheld DS form factor (sorta) megadrive!

 

I still have mine and its still working

My first game was Sonic the Hedgehog 2, I played that for hours on end. I also have Cool Spot, Aladin, Ecco 2 (broken) and Adams Family.

 

I found a mega drive with a heap of games selling for $40 at a local market a few years back. I snapped it up to go with my Sega master system II that i got when i was a kid. Ever now and then i would break them out on the weekends with mates to relive the old classics like sonic, battletoads and nba jam.

That was until one day the old man decides to clean out the garage while i was out.. Bye bye 2 consoles and about 50 titles between them. I was heart broken. All the games still had original boxes and manuals. Even had the boxes for the consoles complete with manuals. I shudder to think what they would have been worth by the time i had kids to give them to if kept in that condition.

 

I feel old

 

Yeah, me too.

Lot's of fun during primary school at a friends house with these!

 

believe it or not there are people out there still making homebrew games for the megadrive too!

 

Some of them are really well done too, for example

http://piersolar.com/

http://www.beggarprince.com/

 

.. well i remember sega mega drive II. Winter 1994. Was paying equivalent of $50 to rent it between 11pm and 10am next day (only on balkans)... lots of sleepless nights

Anyway one of my favorite game was called Boogerman? anyone played that one? I had ROM for that one couple of years ago, but now i cant find anything, not even on google... damn...

game was about this green dude that fly's around using his fart as a jet fuel... cool.. hehhee


EDIT: found it
Boogerman video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzEoZ7K3X7s

 

Was this it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogerman

 

The amount of hours I clocked up on my megadrive!
Was such a part of my youth, I remember when I first played sonic on it after my cousin rented the machine, was blown away... so much fun.

My parents knew how much I wanted one and they suprised me one night - they had bought my brother and I one and pulled it out where they had hid it until the right time... man I was SOOOOO happy!!

Happy birthday megadrive

 

Revenge of Shinobi ftw!!!

 

There's something about megadrive game soundtracks/music that cannot be compared with other consoles ..... its prob the brilliance of the composer but still ...... eg Streets of Rage 123, theme from Mortal Kombat series (compare that with SNES ver which music is ho hum).

At the time, game pirates actually bothered to manufacture cartridges too, they're the only ones you can purchase in fact, and they werent that cheap.

 

haha i can still remember the commentary for NBA jam:

"He's on fire!"
"Grabs the rebound!"

gooood times

 

The hand-held unit looks sweet, I'm almost surprised they didn't add in a cart reader to revive all the games on our shelves. Some of the games in the included list are cool, but there's a few unknowns even I'm disappointed at.

 

I had an early MegaDrive which was quite bizzare: it could not play *any* of the Sonic games properly. I'd get varying levels of success, from complete game crashes to messed up sound and sprites (or sometimes sound missing, or whole sprite layers missing). Every other game I owned worked fine, just not the Sonic series.

There was definitely two different "eras" of the original MegaDrive (I'm not talking about the I and II units either, just the first). For instance Populace could only be played on one of the types (the older).

I'd heard a rumour that the Sonic games force a slight overclock of the M68K main CPU within the MegaDrive, which if true could explain why my first gen unit was always unstable with those games. I should hit up Google and find out more, I think.

Although these days it matters not. I now own half a dozen MegaDrive I and II consoles thanks to years of collecting and eBay splurges. If one unit doesn't work, I just push it to the side and grab another.

And then there's my flashable MD cartridge from Tototek. And my soon-to-be-delivered Pandora handheld emulation machine.

 

I remember when they introduced the six button controller and then getting my parents to drive me to a whole bunch of video rental shops to try and find one with Street Fighter 2:Special Edition in stock.

I think i've still got my old mega drive in a cupboard around here. Last thing i remember doing on it was trying to play through a whole normal season of NBA Live '95 without losing a game.