When I first discovered Mega Drive Console and Games.

[MaximumRD]

First to set the scene, the time was sometime during the original retail sales of the Sega Genesis (IE: TOO LONG AGO  )

Place - Canada, Toronto Ontario to be specific. 

 

The first ever Mega Drive game I ever heard about I seen in person and this is how that happened. 

Curse by Micronet was my personal introduction to a "bigger world". Meaning, though I was aware video games and consoles were sold and enjoyed worldwide I was not aware in the differences in console names, styles, colors etc. A tiny electronics shop opened in my neighborhood and due to my typical curiosity I entered the shop and up on the shelf was a box with what looked to me to be a Sega Genesis except the coloring of the trim was slightly different and it had this really cool name "Mega Drive" so I asked and got the story how it was the "Japaneses  import version of my beloved Genesis! 

 

How cool I thought, sadly I did not have enough money to buy it BUT I did have enough to buy one of the import games on display and it was this very game, the cover art grabbed me immediately and I had not heard of this games "Curse" but I knew I liked games like Gradius and of course Life Force on NES was a old favorite and the style of this shooter reminded me of an upgraded version. So I bought it right then and there excitedly wondering what it would be like, the graphics represented on the box looked amazing. OF COURSE as you are probably thinking I was in for  little bit of a shock when I attempted to plug the cartridge in, it was too wide for the slot! Now the weirdest part is, I was so disappointed and though I had not heard of this previously I was always a bit of a tinkerer so I took a nail file, dismantled the Genesis and began filing the slot sides, it seemed to take forever and the end result was not pretty but I plugged it in, turned it on and.....YES !!!!! It worked, and a whole new world was open to me. Of course the knowledge of this "mod" was well known to many and common place for many but when I did it I had no idea if it would actually work. Now there were pitfalls to be sure as I would also come to learn that some titles would still refuse to run due to regional lockouts and even more surprising some games would have unexpected content in the form of 16 bit boobs or unexpected amounts of blood etc, it would only be years later trying the same titles on a friends actual Mega Drive that I learned the content and sometimes even the title screens changed depending on if they were loaded onto a Genesis or Mega Drive lol. Still to me it was fascinating and magical and something I still enjoy today. 

 

[CrossBow]

My first experience with the Genesis was in high school. Right around when the original Sonic was released. I honestly wasn't playing console games during this time as I had moved over to my PC for all my video game playing by then. But I obviously knew about the Genesis and had even borrowed a friends SMS a few years earlier.

 

Anyway, my friend starts telling me about this really awesome new game he is renting and says I have to see it. So that is when I first saw and played Sonic the Hedgehog on his model 1 Genesis. Over the course of the next year, there would be a few other times I would come over to see a cool new game on his Genesis. I remember Herzog Zwei though I never fully understood how to play it and it still doesn't quite gel with me even now.

 

Later when I was in the Army, one of my friends down the hall in the barracks had a Genesis and eventually a SegaCD. I was introduced to Earthworm Jim and Sonic CD and thought they were pretty cool, but just still didn't take much interest in the consoles anymore since by '93/94 I now had wavetable roland sound with my SB 16 and SVGA graphics and games on CD that could never be bested by any console offerings of the day. 

 

It wasn't until 1999 once I was married with my first kiddo on the way and owned my first house, that I suddenly was introduced to emulators from a fellow co-worker. Later that night I looked on the web and found out about GENS and SNES9x and other emus. I got hooked suddenly playing some old console games I missed out on. When i went to play Sonic the hedgehog in GENS on my PC at the time, the audio was off and the game stuttered and had some graphic issues. I sought out to find a used Genesis and registered and made my first ebay purchase. I still use that Model 1 non-tmss VA2 Genesis (Now heavily modded), as my daily Genesis console and my Genesis collection of games is my largest next to my Atari 2600 collection of games.

 

I haven't stopped playing the Genesis since...

Edited April 5, 2018 by CrossBow

[Atari 5200 Guy]

My first Genesis experience was from a rental unit on the way home from another town.  When we returned it Mom got me a Genesis from the same place for my birthday.  I was still in high school.  I think 10th grade.  May have been 11th.  Can't remember any more.  First games I played was Sonic The Hedgehog and Star Control.  I then rented Phantasy Star III and became a Genesis fan since.  Well rounded console with lots of good games.  Got shovelware close to the end of its production run, though.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I do have Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the MD which plays fine on my Genesis Model 1 unit.  Strangely, the cart is the same shape as the US carts.  

 

[MaximumRD]

I do have Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the MD which plays fine on my Genesis Model 1 unit.  Strangely, the cart is the same shape as the US carts.  

 

Picture 40.jpg

I could be wrong but is that a Pal version, I think they were also called MegaDrive in Europe, I think only Japanese had the different shaped carts, I could be wrong though for sure. 

 

UPDATE after some quick Googling : 

 

 

 

 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

It's possible. It could be a PAL version with code for more than one region. It doesn't play any different on an NTSC system. Pretty cool to have, though. I really dig the Japanese style of the carts, though. Most of their system carts have details that make them stand out and unique. I also prefer the FC game carts over what we got. At least they came in multiple colors and styles instead of the same old boring gray carts.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Its possible. Plays fine an NTSC system.

 

I'm going to take a guess...the Japanese game shown in Max's post is either Puyo Puyo or Phantasy Star 2. Girl throws it off. Japs always did draw cute characters.

[CrossBow]

Its possible. Plays fine an NTSC system.

 

I'm going to take a guess...the Japanese game shown in Max's post is either Puyo Puyo or Phantasy Star 2. Girl throws it off. Japs always did draw cute characters.

Yes that is Puyo Puyo...rebadged as Dr, Robotnik's Mean Bean machine here in the US.

 

Also... regarding your MD cart. I've ran across this before. It would seem that many Canadian released games seem to have combos of MD and Genesis labeling. I've seen the Sonic 2 MD cart even here in OK and wondered what the heck. The interesting thing is that there isn't a notch cut out on the cart and I thought all the European and JPN released games had that notch for the cart lock in feature?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Never was a fan of Puyo Puyo. It bored me. Would be cool to see what the MD got that the US didn't. I am surprised that Konami never made ports of Gradius, Gradius II, Salamander/Life Force to the Genesis. They should have. The MD/Genesis was a very capable system.

[dgrubb]

16 bit boobs

 

Normally there's only two. Normally.