Happy Birthday Genesis!

[Aarzak]

Is that so? Would you like to elaborate on the release dates for the first-gen games? You only ever hear of the titles that launched with the system and then Phantasy Star II in February 1990, as if there wasn't anything released inbetween. And Alex Kidd not launching with the Genesis was INEXCUSABLE. It had already been out for over a half-year, yet "Thunder Force II" and "Hokuto no Ken" came out in June and were ready and in English (Aarzak>>>>Kenshiro) for launch by August/September. Alex Kidd would've REALLY helped out at launch. Imagine how much more it could've cut into sales of "Super Mario Bros. 2" (still selling liek hotcaeks in '89) and other NES best-sellers. They should've built the entire Genesis launch around Alex Kidd, not "Altered Beast". But no, it wasn't featured in any TV or print ads whatsoever. Alex Kidd would've made "Keith Courage" cower in fear.

...................

If lots of early Mega Drive titles were released with bilingual options, does that mean that:

a) The English translations were handled over in Japan

b) That the Japanese and American releases were near-simultaneous?

Here's the first year release chart from "Game Pligramage" which should be taken with a grain of salt in some parts, care to comment on it Joe?

August 1989

Altered Beast
Revenge of Shinobi
Herzog Zwei
Rambo 3
Thunder Force II
Super Thunder Blade
Space Harrier II
Ghouls N Ghosts

November 1989

Golden Axe
Super Hang On
Mystic Defender

December 1989

Truxton

January 1990

Afterburner II
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

February 1990

Phantasy Star II
MUSHA

March 1990

Air Diver
Granada (Month unknown)

June 1990

Ghostbusters
Target Earth (Shooter blend, Assault Suits Leynos)
Thunder Force III (Month Unknown)

July 1990

Batman (Sunsoft game)
ESWAT: City Under Siege

August 1990

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

End year 1: 24 Titles

[Sixfortyfive]

Official Mega Drive release list (Japan):
1st party
3rd party

I had started to translate the list but took a break after finishing the 1st party titles.

Haven't found anything comparable for other regions.

[Joe Redifer]

What do you want me to comment on? About 3 weeks after the Genesis launched, Ghouls 'N Ghosts came out. A few more weeks after that, Revenge of Shinobi was here. It was well over a month and a half after the Genesis launched before RoS came out. Same with Super Hang-On which came at around the same time. The actual launch games if I recall correctly were:

Altered Beast
Space Harrier II
Super Thunder Blade
Thunder Force 2
World Championship Soccer
Tommy Lasorda Baseball
Last Battle

I have no clue when Alex Kidd came out, but I know it wasn't at launch. Having Alex Kidd at launch would have sold maybe 1 or 2 more Genesis's.

There's no way Afterburner 2 came out in January of 1990. That was before I ever even rented my first Japanese Mega Drive game (Herzog Zwei which would come to the US a couple months later). I purchased the Japanese version of After Burner 2 which works perfectly on the Genesis despite people saying it doesn't. I had it for well over a month before I saw it in US stores. Air Diver came LOOOOOOOONG before MUSHA. Whoever made that list is a complete retard who obviously wasn't Genesis-shoppin' at the time.

[Benjamin]

Yeah, hard to imagine Altered Beast being not just a showcased pack-in title but also one which was used to drive sales of the Genesis, but it was a dominant arcade game of the time. The only real problem with the Genesis' launch line-up was that it focused too much on Sega's arcade heritage. I was concerned back then that Sega's arcade heavy line-up would be poor for a home system as it was for the SMS, but things did improve over the next year. Having PC developers bring over ports to a console was a big plus for me considering I could never enjoy all those games I'd read about since I didn't have the thousands for a PC then.

[Aarzak]

That release date list (which even the webmaster's aware is inaccurate as he's going by memory and assumption) is from "Game Pilgrimage" if you haven't heard from it already: a great site for comparisons in-between consoles and multi-platform games:

http://www.gamepilgrimage.com/

Saank Yoo for elaborating Joe, as it's been easy for me to bunch up all of the Genesis games with the first-gen packaging and Genesis logo as launch games or at the very least '89 games. (Need I mention how I used to believe that first-gen Genny games with just the "Sega Genesis" logo on the cart label were "inferior" 8-Bit games just because it didn't have the "16-Bit Cartridge" on the label? Upon getting "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" though, that all changed.)

[B - Mark]

I known about Genesis release in 1989 in Internet.

But in Brazil, the Genesis are released by Tec Toy in December 1990 with Mega Drive name.

In Brazil the console complete 17 years and still manufactured in my country with several games built in.

But the last model have a problem:
- The lack of Catridge slot.

The reason: The Tec Toy isn´t sell the catridges.

[VinnyT]

Well, by the time I get here it's old and off topic....

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

I was probably playing with my old VTech tv game while the Genesis was released a few blocks away. 4 years later i'd never touch the VTech again.

[Melf]

Aazark: thanks for posting those links! These will make fine additions to our video archive.

[AxelStone]

Damn I wish I had the internet at home again! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENESIS
*raises champagne glass full of pixels*

[outrunner]

Wow I feel old now that the Genesis 18 years old.

[AxelStone]

I wish I was this age back in 1989 when the Genesis came out...2007 sucks

[megabomberman]

Melf you seem like quite the skilled gamer, altered beast is hard and unforgiving, along with one player italia 90? that ain't easy, also super hang on? doesn't that take ages (not counting hours spent writing down passwords) you must clarify, perhaps your skills are those of a chosen one, perhaps it was then destiny that you would lead the biggest sega revival in the world, (lets be honest sega-16 is its home)

God it was sonic 1 for me, as an 8/9 year old that was the most awesome moment of my life, playing that game for the first time... followed by the 3 pack of shinobi, GA and SoR, unbelievable, and that was well into the 90s at that stage, what a console..

[Joe Redifer]

Hey Aarzak thanks for the link to that site. I went there and did a lot of reading. I like the guy who runs the site based on what he has written even if a ton of stuff has errors in it (he claims the 32X Mortal Kombat 2 didn't have the scaling floor and then shows a video of the 32X scaling floor fatality, he says that no version of Shinobi has voice effects (the SMS version has a "Hiya"), claims that Virtua Fighter Saturn ran at an inconsistent 30fps when it actually runs at 60fps all the time, etc. I do like his page called "PS1 glitches", though. I have been touting these defects that I figured I was the only one in the world to notice. The PS1 had very grainy/dirty graphics that warped like hell in many/most games.

[Genesis Knight]

Yeah, I put that link up a few months ago but IIRC people dismissed it as overly analytic. Or something.

[Zebbe]

16bitter hated it. And everybody hated 16bitter. That's what I remember.