Fun recollection about imports....

[MaximumRD]

 

Back in the day before we had the community and online FAQS we do now, I encountered the MegaDrive version of the Sega Genesis Game called CURSE at a small game store in Toronto, at the time I knew NOTHING about imports and such (a sheltered narrow viewed upbringing) the guy briefly explained what it was, he basically just told me "Well these are the games from Japan, in Japan Genesis is called MegaDrive!" MY MIND WAS BLOWN lol. But that cover art, I just HAD to have it, I was so excited to see a game I had never heard of, so exciting. Well, you can guess, I traded some old games to get this treasure I knew nobody else I knew would have and when I got home ran into my room and went to insert the cartridge and....NOOOOOO!

 

IT WOULD NOT FIT AHHHHH. Now, I know what most of you are thinking and sure it is common knowledge these days. But luckily by this time I was already one to take things apart, to tinker with things so after I calmed down I got out the old screw driver and went to work, I noticed after removing the cover off my Genesis I could plug in the cartridge! YES! So then I thought on my own with no prior knowledge to simply widen the cart slot, I did a very hackish piss poor job having only pliers and a worn nail file but stubbornness / persistence won the day! I re-assembled my good old Genesis and after a little bit of touch up inserted my newly acquired cart , powered on much awesome SHMUP action ensued lol.

 

Needless to say I told all my friends, most who were very excited and shocked to learn about these "import" Japanese games not only existed but we could play them, man those were exciting times. Of course I later would find how some imports would not work regardless that they now fit getting messages saying it was not meant for play outside of Japan but more often then not it was successful. Even titles that WERE available here in USA / CANADA of course often there were differences in the Japanese region version having differences ranging in everything from slight 16 bit nudity lol (shocking and exciting back then!) to even some changes in graphics altering things that were considered offensive to American audiences like religious symbols, dialog etc.

 

It was funny though even some American region carts as I accidently discovered must have actually contained both versions because one time I plugged in a cart too quickly or flicked the power switch on / off too rapidly and noticed my USA region cart now displaying Japanese text and proceeding to play the MegaDrive version which must have meant such cartridges determined the region of the console and then proceeded to load the appropriate content.