All-time Favorite Sega system?

[kool kitty89]

The irony in this is pretty funny, swap Sega for Nintendo, and Europe for North America an you're closer to the truth

Nah, Sega just royally scrwed up marketing in the US... that and they were at a severe disadvantage from Nintendo at the time: Nintendo OWNED Japan by 1986, so they had leverage and after they were established, they had more control over western devs too... actually to the extent of being illegal with exclusivity contracts. (which Tengen eventually won in court in the mid 90s)
The Famicom was 3 years old already with many established developers and a following in Japan, the SG-1000 Mk.I/II/SC-3000 had done very modestly by comparison (especially with 3rd parties) and the Mk.III was new and Sega had to fight an up-hill battle.
The slightly later release in EU combined with Nintendo's tardiness (especially in the UK), Sega's better marketing, and (importantly) near direct competition from home computers made it a much healthier market for Sega. (again, it was mainly the UK that was really Sega biased, Germany being the opposite -though in both cases I'd bet home computers were more popular -the ST was very strong in Germany and the UK for 16-bit computers iirc -the 8-bits for sure for the more budget side of things and the Amiga was pretty expensive until the late 80s at least)

In reality the Master System was an extremely competitive product which made the NES look pretty outdated, just the better graphics and Sega licences alone should've afforded the Master System a decent early market share in the US, decent enough for 3rd parties to start taking a chance and leaving Nintendo (we know hoards of companies hated Nintendo for its policies even this early, if they'd been able to they would've shifted consoles). The NES may be better all said and done, but not in all areas, and not to the stage that it deserved a monopoly of the market

Well the NES WAS outdated: 1983 vs 1985 hardware (namely the VDP), the sound hardware was unfortunately outdated though, and non-upgradable in the west unfortunately. (really should have added the YM2413 standard assuming it was available in 1986 -one of the cheapest if not the cheapest sound chip ever manufactured by Yamaha)

Wow I'm really seeing how much better the NES was, wow, jesus, look at that!

Obviously graphics don't define the quality of a game alone, but with all else equal the SMS is a big win... However many arcade ports pushed harder on the SMS (to a fault in the case of Double Dragon -with the NES limiting sprite size and enemies on-screen to avoid excessive flicker -there's also control issues on the SMS iirc) and the sound was definitely weaker... again a same it lacked the FM. (even with FM PCM playback would be much weaker given the NES's hardware 7-bit DPCM playback -also possible for straight 7-bit linear PCM when used as a bare DAC, opposed to using a hack for the PSG on the SMS)

God knows what us Europeans were thinking when we gave the Master System a decent market share I guess the fact that the NES didn't own 90% of our market just proves without a shadow of a doubt we were Sega biased, or maybe that Nintendo never wanted our market in the first place, yeah, thats got to be the reason why their graphically inferior, more expensive system didn't take over around here.

The NES only owned 90% at it's peak ~1989/90, it was considerably less prior to that. (very split with Sega/Atari Corp/Nintendo in 1986 -sega a bit behind in part with a later release but also the most expensive and limited software and somewhat poor marketing -Atari was far more limited but lest wasteful and had a budget oriented focus with the very affordable 7800/games and downright cheap 2600 Jr, a lead for Nintendo by 1987 though not sure how much, but still in the ~70% range in 1988, tha absolute peak was ~93% some time in 1990 iirc)

MASTER DOES WHAT ZOLTAR DON"T, Okay fine, i don't love it as much as genesis but its still a damn good system

Ya know, with that SMS Bios screen and now my mention of the 7800, it just seems a same to leave out another psudo 3D example with awesome music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57t83OvRdZM

[FlackoWeasel]

Sega Mega Drive Model 1



That's what my dad bought and that's why it's my fav. Lots of memories etc.

[jerry coeurl]

Genesis, duh. Whoever (Zoltor?) said it has no great games obviously has no idea what they're talking about. Talk about your ignorant statements.

[N.Saibot]

Wow, your console is in very good condition Flacko! But you forgot to put the volume up
to 10 ; ) This makes it only 90% awesome.

[FlackoWeasel]

It's not mine, I just took some google image to show what console I meant

[Zoltor]

Genesis, duh. Whoever (Zoltor?) said it has no great games obviously has no idea what they're talking about. Talk about your ignorant statements.

When I say great, I mean "Great", there's a differance, so please don't misunderstand.

If I meant anything other then a "Great", I wouldn't use that word at all, I would've used a word like awesome instead.

[roundwars]

hell even die hard Sega fans almost unamously agree that Sonic CD, and SA 2 are the best Sonic games

I don't think you've met many Sonic fans if you think they're anywhere near unanimous on that issue.

[doomguy]

I really cant answer that it just depends what mood im in.

[evil_ash_xero]

Genesis/Mega Drive all the way. It has the largest library, and the most games that still "hold up" today, from Sega's other systems.

Saturn had a short life span, and when I think of it, I think of two things: 1) Shmups 2) A few good 3D games that look horrendous now. The shmups are great, but that's not enough to put it on a "greatest" list. Unless it's "greatest shmup machine".

Dreamcast was premature, and died quickly. Doesn't have a lot of games. Love me some Bangai-O, and it had some good games that have been ported(Rez, RE: Code Veronica, Ikaruga, Virtual On: OT). A few good shmups(not great like Saturn's though), like Mars Matrix, Border Down, Under Defeat, and a few others. The good fighters I think were mostly ported, but I don't like fighters that much.

Haven't really messed with the SMS or the Game Gear.

I think the Mega Drive is one of the best systems ever. Their other systems were too short lived to build up any kind of impressive catalog. I'll give the DC a lot of props for being so forward thinking, but it was killed off too soon.

[jerry coeurl]

When I say great, I mean "Great", there's a differance, so please don't misunderstand.

If I meant anything other then a "Great", I wouldn't use that word at all, I would've used a word like awesome instead.

Great Genesis Games

Castle of Illusion
Castlevania Bloodlines
Dynamite Headdy
Ecco the Dolphin
Gunstar Heroes
LandStalker
Lightening Force/Thunder Force IV
Phantasy Star IV
QuackShot
Ranger X
Revenge of Shinobi
Rocket Knight Adventures
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Streets of Rage 2

That's just off the top of my head, there are plenty more I'm sure I've neglected to mention. There is no consensus for the Sonic games, but Sonic 2 & Sonic 3&K seem to be the most loved. Sonic Adventure 2? That game is garbage, and certainly not a "great" SEGA game.

[ApolloBoy]

1: Genesis/MD
2: SMS/Mark III
3: Game Gear
4: Dreamcast
5: Saturn

[theredlineboss]

For me, it is the Genesis, without a doubt. I was not much of a gamer when I was young, but I do remember my cousins having (and loving) their Sega Genesis (Genesii?). Heck, I probably didn't say "Sega" on its own until well after Sega bowed out of the hardware business. lol

At any rate, I am quite pleased with my takes-up-way-too-much-space Model 1 Genesis/ Model 2 CD / 32x / wireless controller-equipped system.

-Rob

[bobbledick]

That's a no-brainer: the default sega genesis (no cd or 32x). there aren't really any other games I like on any other sega platform with the exception of 1 or 2 games apiece, which probably has to do with the failure of those consoles in the general market.

[kool kitty89]

What are you talking about, I like the Genesis(does it beat the DC, hell no, but I still like it), and I like the Sega CD as well.

I also don't like the N64(with the exception of Goldeneye), and the GC is a POS all around, but excuse me, It's not my fualt I like Nintendos classics more then Sega's classics, however I also like Sega's newer games more in comparison to their older stuff(with the exception of like Shining Force 2), and more then Nintendos newer games as well.

That's obviously all up to opinion, but I had much more fun on the N64 and GC than I've had on the NES, or Wii so far. (grew up with NES, then SNES, N64, GC, Wii, plus PC) SNES is up there too, better than GC, probably not N64 in terms of the amount of fun I've gotten from it. (namely the multiplayer isn't nearly as good, and my best memories are of party multiplayer... which is one thing that also detracts from the PSX/PS2; Yoshi's Island and Star Fox are among my top favorites of all time though, but if you go into single player experiences, there's far, far more for me to consider with PC games)
I really don't get the hate for the GC... obviously it was less popular, but it's got a ton of great games.

Why are you fighting me on this anyway, hell even die hard Sega fans almost unamously agree that Sonic CD, and SA 2 are the best Sonic games, so why are you picking on me for the same(10 bucks says It's because I voted on the Nintendo Systems in the console war threads)?

Where's you get that idea? Most old Sega fans tend to shy away from the 3D games, many seem to prefer SA1 if anything, some agree on SA2 but not the majority by far (SA2 is one of my favorite 3D platformers, but I'm not an exclusive Sega fan whatsoever -grew up Nintendo/PC as I said-).
Sonic CD is often not the preferred classic title either, it's usually either Sonic 2 or Sonic 3&Knuckles, sometimes Sonic 1, but CD isn't at the top whatsoever other than a few BS US magazine lists. (Japanese lists tend to favor Sonic 1, EU/UK favor Sonic 2)

Some favor the 8-bit games too.

That's a no-brainer: the default sega genesis (no cd or 32x). there aren't really any other games I like on any other sega platform with the exception of 1 or 2 games apiece, which probably has to do with the failure of those consoles in the general market.

Hmm, most have tons of good games... depending on the genres you like, but even then, if you like much of what's on the Genesis, the SMS, Saturn, Sega CD, DC, and possibly 32x have games to offer. (not sure why taking the CD and 32x out of the picture would make the choice easier... including the added CD and 32x games easily pushes the Genesis further ahead -regardless of the marketing issues with the CD and conflict of 32x/Saturn and resulting harm to sega: looking at the games in an unbiased context, there's a lot of good stuff -32x more limited in scope due to its short life)

[tomaitheous]

Sega Genesis. Followed by the Dreamcast. I like the Saturn, but only for 2D stuff. Dislike 3D from that era.