Happy Birthday Genesis!

[Melf]

I'm surprised no one made a thread for this already!

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the official nationwide Genesis launch. On that day, thousands of hungry gamers paid $189 to bathe in the 10 minutes of wonder offered by Altered Beast, and then they quickly tossed it aside to play Revenge of Shinobi and Alex Kidd.

Happy birthday, you beautiful little console! :bday:

[Genesis Knight]

Wow, had no idea. It's hard to believe it's getting close to 20 years. Regardless...

WOOT!

[AD2101]

18 years and still going strong!! Congrats to the Genesis for being the awesome piece of hardware that it is!

[Blades]

18 years old, and it still has a huge internet following, with new games being made every month.

Sega Genesis, one of the most impressive feats of gaming ever created.

[Genesis Knight]

YEAH! You like Streets of Sim City!

At last, I am not alone!

[GeckoYamori]

I always prefer Sim Copter.

[Blades]

YEAH! You like Streets of Sim City!

At last, I am not alone!

Yeaaaah! Streets kicked ass. It was awesome at least see my S2000 Cities "3D-ized".

And the combat part wasn't too bad either.

[Genesis Knight]

I'm just shocked anyone remembers it. I wasted too many hours to count on that game. Makes me nostalgic.

[Aarzak]

Happy Birthday 'ol Genny!

I noticed on August 14th and today that it was the Genny's birthday, but I figured since no one gave a damn or remembered (like they do with Nintendo and Sony's consoles) that I shouldn't bring it up. I'm glad someone did though.

So, who were bought or played the console the earliest? The Pre-Sonic Genesis era is quite underrated and largely forgotten. Unfortunately I only recall playing Genesis as early as 1991 (when I was 4). Though "Altered Beast" was one of the earliest games I recall playing and I think I even beat it at that age. The extended intro sequence with the moving eyeballs used to scare the crap out of me as a little kid, as did the "Game Over" screen on Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (when the beaten character pic turns B&W and they let out their final "ughhhhh!") and Ryu's somber ending theme as well. I was such a video game puss back then. I didn't own my own Genesis until fall 1995 ( a used, Sonic-era Model 1 w/used NFR Sonic 1) though.

I wonder what were the best-selling and most popular games during the Pre-Sonic era. I bet "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" sold liek hotcaeks. It and "Revenge of Shinobi" were the highest rated '89 Genesis games by EGM.

[Melf]

I was so stoked for the Genesis that I bought the only game my local store still had in stock - World Championship Soccer, and I didn't even have the console. When my dad, who I'd gone to Texas to visit, finally got me my Genesis (after making me go to 9 different stores because he thought that the universal $189 cost was price fixing by the stores. He finally gave in and took me back to Lionel Playworld to get one.), I beat Altered Beast in about 15 minutes and then played through WCS completely in one playthrough. A friend had given me $50 to buy him Super Hang-On, and I played through that as well.


Great times. :)

[Gentlegamer]

I knew Genny's birthday was near, but I assumed someone else would make the announcement for the celebration.

Happy Birthday! Wow, can't believe it's been EIGHTEEN YEARS.

[Blaze]

That system was the one to beat, happy late B-Day baby. I gave up all the other systems for you

[Sixfortyfive]

I was wondering, how long to the patents on game consoles last? Is it 20 years? I'm trying to remember when all of those unlicensed 3rd party Famiclones started popping up and wondering how long we have to go before the Genny gets similar treatment.

[Aarzak]

I wonder if Yuji Naka will ever come out and talk about that Famicom emulator he cobbled up for the Mega Drive during it's infancy. Insider stories like that are always a treat to hear..........like the complete, unreleased, 3DFX cart-enhanced Saturn port of "Virtua Fighter 3" that's supposedly locked tight inside the proverbial vault.

Back to the Mega Drive, check out the amount of games available for it in it's first seven months in Japan:

Game Name Release Date
Space Harrier II 29 October 1988 (Launch Title)
Super Thunder Blade 29 October 1988 (Launch Title)
Altered Beast 27 November 1988
Osomatsu-kun 24 December 1988
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle 10 February 1989
Phantasy Star II 21 March 1989
Super League 22 April 1989
Super Daisenryaku 29 April 1989
Thunder Force II 15 June 1989
Hokuto no ken 15 June 1989

Damn that was rough. Nintendo and their damn policies!

Now that we're talking about launch titles you know what that means..........first-gen commercials!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBMbRvoPbIw (Genesis commercial feat. "Ghostbusters", "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" and "Forgotten Worlds"......w/ live-action re-inactions!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kxghxCcfqo (same style commercial feat. "The Revenge of Shinobi" and "Super Monaco GP")

[Joe Redifer]

On that day, thousands of hungry gamers paid $189 to bathe in the 10 minutes of wonder offered by Altered Beast, and then they quickly tossed it aside to play Revenge of Shinobi and Alex Kidd.
No they didn't because Revenge of Shinobi and Alex Kidd weren't available at launch. Neither was Ghouls n Ghosts, though that did come quite awhile before RoS.

[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 (http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/md/soft.html)
3rd party (http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/md/soft_licensee.html)

I had started to translate (http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/genesis.htm) 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.

[Aarzak]

Anyone here got any magazines with first-gen Genesis game reviews? I'd like to see some scans of those. "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" seemed to have been the Genesis' first recipient of EGM's "Game of the Month" going by the cover of the 6th issue.

[BlueBlur]

I first played the Genesis in 93 or 94, when my cousin came to visit and brought her system. From the first time I played, I was hooked. Sadly, I never did get a system of my own while it was still hot. That's okay though, cause I just got one off of ebay along with 9 games and I only paid $25! What a deal! I stumbled across this site while waiting for the system to come in the mail and literally spent all day looking through old articles (I especially like the Stories From the Book of Genesis). I feel like I've taken my first step into a larger world and I know it's gonna be one heck of a ride.

[Genesis Knight]

Glad you like what you see, Blue. Welcome to Sega-16!

[cdoty]

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the official nationwide Genesis launch. On that day, thousands of hungry gamers paid $189 to bathe in the 10 minutes of wonder offered by Altered Beast, and then they quickly tossed it aside to play Revenge of Shinobi and Alex Kidd.


That's the Japanese launch date, correct?

[Zebbe]

No, the Japanese launch date was October 29th 1988.

[xbrinkx]

Anyone here got any magazines with first-gen Genesis game reviews? I'd like to see some scans of those. "Ghouls 'N Ghosts" seemed to have been the Genesis' first recipient of EGM's "Game of the Month" going by the cover of the 6th issue.

I don't have a scanner, but here's a review of Thunder Force II from VG & CE (taken with my camera.)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/tfii_vgce_1.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/tfii_vgce_2.jpg

[The Sports Guy]

Sixty bucks is stiff for 1988, IMO. Good game, but i dont think i would buy this one right away. i would have waited for it to come to the discount bin before i picked it up.

[xbrinkx]

I agree. When Thunder Force IV came out, it was $75 (at Toys R Us) and we bought it. About a month later it dropped down to $50, so we returned it and bought it at Electronics Boutique.

[xbrinkx]

While going through some old magazines, I came across an article on the Genesis when it first came out...

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/vgce_sg_1_jpg.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/vgce_sg_2_jpg.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/vgce_sg_3_jpg.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/28/1302105/vgce_sg_4_jpg.jpg

[Aarzak]

Wow great article, and in turn some "juicy" game screenshots in it.

[Joe Redifer]

I have that mag. I remember reading that article again and again, just looking at those pictures. I couldn't wait for the damn machine to come out.

[xbrinkx]

I like the 'state-of-the-art' audio part and the fact they put the Genesis on a pedestal...where it belongs!

[xbrinkx]

I have that mag. I remember reading that article again and again, just looking at those pictures. I couldn't wait for the damn machine to come out.

Do you have any reviews of early Genesis games you could share?

[Joe Redifer]

Of course I do. Here's some from Electronic Gaming Monthly (or EGM to those who are hip and with it):

-Last Battle, Tommy Lasorda Baseball & Thunder Force II (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview1.jpg)

-Truxton, Zoom & Revenge of Shinobi (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview2.jpg)

-Golden Axe (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview3.jpg)

Don't let your browser shrink these images or they may be difficult to read and/or look like ass.

[Zebbe]

I wonder why only the king and not the princess is hanging upside down in that Golden Axe pic they have there.

[Genesis Knight]

Isn't that the way it is in the game?

[Melf]

Ouch. They were kind of hard on Truxton. :(

[Genesis Knight]

Kind of hard on nostalgia, you mean. :p The game isn't that great.

[Zebbe]

Isn't that the way it is in the game?

Yes, I'm afraid.

[Melf]

Kind of hard on nostalgia, you mean. :p The game isn't that great.

Truxton is cool, just not as complex as other shmups on the Genesis. It's classic Toaplan, and I love to rock it every so often. I'd agree with those scores now, but back at launch? Weird.

[Aarzak]

Were those release dates correct? EGM stated that "Last Battle", "Lasorda" and "Thunder Force II" were to be released that October, and that "Golden Axe" would be released in February 1990.

I remember "Zoom" mostly off of the tiny scan of the cover to EGM #8 that they had in their anniversary piece for their 8th anniversary issue (May 1996, #82). They stated that it (at the time) was one of the eight rarest issues of EGM, and that the rarest one was an alternate #8 with a baby blue background and frames around the Genesis and Turbografx sprites (as if they were cut out from the game screens). That alternate issue was only distributed at that year's CES.

I remember obsessing over that cover and trying to identify all of the sprites, having never played a TurboGrafx at the time and being on a 1st-gen Genesis game binge in '96. A grade school friend at the time said the Zoom sprite was off of a game called "Phalanx" and that he was the main character. Turned out he lied, and "Phalanx" was just a bland SNES shmup with infamous cover art. Bastard.

About 9-10 years ago, some homeless dudes around my way used to have makeshift flea markets in the middle of the sidewalk often (on a busy thoroughfare in our 'hood) and some of their selections used to be lots of (mint) early '90's issues of EGM & GamePro. They were $1 a pop and I was salivating to get my hands on them, but my mother didn't want to be seen buying used game mags in the middle of a sidewalk......from dirty, smelly homeless people. My nagging got to her over time and I scored some good deals from them over a period of 2-3 years, like a dilapidated copy of "Donkey Kong Country" for SNES ($1), a mint, cart-only copy of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project" ($2-$3 IIRC), a couple of '92-'93 GamePro issues and this circa-1990 "Sega Genesis Guidebook" from Game Players magazine in which they reviewed and had lots of coverage of almost every Genny game from launch to mid-1990. It was a thick, oddly shaped mini-book, but man was it badass.

Unfortunately those homeless peeps are long gone, driven away by police and gentrification. Who knows if they're still alive.........but it was one of many opportunities which I had to cop '90's game magazines for less than $5 a pop, and failed to capitalize on. But then there's this story about how I got my mint, front-loading NES w 4 games (Zelda, Ninja Gaiden II, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Pro Wrestling) for about $30 from a random sidewalk flea market I just happened to walk past, but that's another story for another time........

[Joe Redifer]

EGM was never tremendously accurate with their release dates. Tommy Lasorda, Thunder Force 2 and Last Bizzattle were all out in September. Golden Axe came out in February I think.

[Aarzak]

February 1990? I didn't figure 'Axe came out that late. I figured December 1989 at the most; it could've really been pushed as a killer-app for that holiday season and have moved Gennys and copies liek hotcaeks.

I hear "Forgotten Worlds" came out hella late as well, turns out it'd be the worst of Sega's "reprogrammed" ports of Capcom's arcade games ("Ghouls", "Forgotten Worlds", "Strider", "MERCs", "Chiki Chiki Boys" and lastly "Final Fight" for Sega CD) though it was still okay (in the Review database in their '99 Buyer's Guide, it says they (EGM) gave "Worlds" 8's across the board)

Man, I've been honkering for early EGMs and GamePros for over 10 years now, ever since EGM's 8th Anniversary issue and their piece on it piqued my interest on the early days of both mags; I'll scan the piece when I have the time. How much have you guys seen early EGM's and 'Pros go for on the market? The earliest issue of a game mag I've owned was a late '92 issue of GamePro that I bought from the aforementioned homeless people around my way about a decade ago. I've long since thrown it away, it was in mint condition too!

Earlier this year I banished about 90%-95% of my game mag collection (mostly consisting of EGM's and GamePro's from between fall 1998 and early-to-mid 2004; I owned almost every issue of both during that period) because I no longer have the space to even scratch my balls in my tiny, cubic bedroom and overall my tiny apartment. I did however clip articles I deemed important or historic wherever I could them while hurriedly browsing through every mag (and bowdlerizing them so no one could pick 'em up from the trash and cash in on them); I clipped EGM and Pro's articles on the announcement of the PS2 and the Japanese launch of the PS2, unfortunately I didn't clip EGM's article on their first look at the DC hardware). I kept all the good stuff though, such as:

- Still shrink-wrapped copies of the September 2001 and November 2003 issues of EGM, which were limited editions of said issues that contained "Final Fantasy" covers drawn by Yoshitaka Amano.

- 10th anniversary, 150th issue and 15th anniversary issues of EGM.

- 10th anniversary and 150th issue of GamePro.

- 1999-2003 EGM Video Game Buyer's Guides.

- EGM and GamePro's issues on the launch of the Dreamcast (circa fall 1999), PS2 (circa fall 2000), XBOX and Gamecube (circa fall/winter 2001), and their first reviews of the launch lineups.

Other stuff I kept was every issue of "GameFan" I owned up until now (circa 1999-2000), summer/fall 1995 issues of "Game Players" and "VG & CE" (long having switched to just "Video Games" by then) and other odd stuff. Still, there were a lot of good mags I've lost or thrown away over the years (EGM #100 anyone?) which I'd like to get again. If I had the space, I'd probably start collecting '90's era mags, but I simply don't..........and those must be expensive to collect.

[Joe Redifer]

Golden Axe was definitely not a holiday game, and Forgotten Worlds also came out before it, but well after Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Forgotten Worlds was 1989 as I remember buying it with Christmas money that year.

Maybe later I'll post up some more reviews from early mags if anyone cares.

[Aarzak]

Please do, I'd like to see more. Post any notable Masterbate System and NESS reviews as well.

[Joe Redifer]

Alright, here's some more reviews from EGM! Please note that some of these are quite large since I took reviews from multiple pages and combined them into one graphic. Each link represents a single issue's reviews, though. EGM wasn't very good about numbering their issues (they soon got into "volumes" which really screws things up) so I will not put the numbers on the links, only the games represented.

Flicky, Sagaia, Fatal Labyrinth, Valis 3 & SHADOW DANCER!!!!!!!!! (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview4.jpg)

Target Earth & Curse (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview5.jpg) - I don't think Curse was ever released in the US, but it was slated to be.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker & The Wrath of Budokan (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview6.jpg)

Castle of Illusion, Dynamite Duke, Final Zone & John Madden Football (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview7.jpg) - Yes, the best version of John Madden Football ever... though the 3DO version was pretty cool.

Street Smart, Sonic the Hedgehog & 688 Attack Sub (http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/egmreview8.jpg)

Again, be careful about letting your browser shrink the images. Sorry about the "multi-pass" JPEGs. That's the default of Adobe CS3 and I forgot to set it to baseline. They'll still work fine, though.

[Aarzak]

Great, thanks a lot!

Little did they know that Madden would become a yearly phenomenon.

EGM's reviews back then were pretty........vanilla. For some games scoring low they seemed inconclusive. "Let's give it a score, amateurishly write a small paragraph, DONE!" I bet GamePro's reviews at the time were better as they were more full fledged. "This game is for anyone who's ever played inside a dream!".............come on now!

Did you frequent usenet game boards and the like back then Joe? I've gotten a kick out of reading late '80's-early '90's usenet archives. They were bashing EGM even back then. All of the good stuff was discussed in those.

[Joe Redifer]

I bet GamePro's reviews at the time were better as they were more full fledged.

GamePro was perhaps one of the worst magazines written... EVER. It was awful. The so-called "reviews" rarely talked about the game itself, mostly the story and what type of game it is (like "You must fly through 7 stages of insane enemies who are all bent on stopping you complete your mission" and the like) only to have one little paragraph at the end that even gave anything close to an opinion. Their stuff was basically what you'd expect to find on the back of the game's box or in it's manual. Plus any writer who is afraid to use their real name and instead go by stuff like "Scary Larry" automatically loses a point of credibility. Sometimes they had employees from the companies themselves write the reviews (John Sauer from Sega was one and wrote the Phantasy Star 2 review as well as a few others). You can't really trust that. Notice how Sega Visions also sucked incredible amounts of ass in every category... GamePro was responsible for that horrible rag as well.

Check out this REVIEW they did for Ys Book 1 & 2 on the TurboGrafx CD:

http://pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/ysreview.jpg

It is clear that they did not play the game even once and just used the press kit provided by NEC to write the "review". Anyone who has played this game can tell you that. GamePro also stole tricks and passwords from EGM quite often.

GamePro may dedicate entire pages to their reviews and have a comic strip drawn by a marginally talented artist, but the writing is geared to children ages 6-10, the reviews told you nothing about the game and the mag really offered nothing at all. At least EGM would tell you if the game was bad or good, and their writing (even with its lameness) was leagues above GamePro's level. If anyone at this forum likes GamePro, it can ONLY be because they liked it when they were 6-10. The only good thing GamePro ever did was be the first to show the Shuttle, Core and SuperGrafx and actually get the information correct.

I'd take a single issue of EGM (any one, even the current stuff) over every issue of GamePro any day.

[Zebbe]

But they call it a "proview" - which if my brain isn't damaged must be a combo of "pro" and "preview". I can't fully see why they put ratings in a preview though, that's for the review alone. But I guess NEC paid them to do this one, including the ratings, to have lots of people buy the game when it came out. They do that a lot in media. As you said, it seems the writer hasn't even played the game at all - there is nothing describing the game in detail at all.

[Aarzak]

Ah well............at least their presentation and screen-caps were of slightly higher quality than EGM's at that time. But "DieHard GameFan" takes the cake for old-school gaming magazines as far as screenshot quality goes.

Speaking of game magazines and their relationships with developers/publishers, here's a good sign of GamePro's relationship with Acclaim back in the day, or so I think:

http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1161164707-00.jpg

Right smack in the center of the cover! Exclamation marks and hyperboles all over the packaging! Perfectly situated and captured screenshots that make the game seem better then it actually is! Man, I sure miss Acclaim's packaging and advertising efforts.

...........It was actually a good port right? The Playstation 1 port was delayed for over two years and left in limbo, and when it finally came out in early 1998 it was THE worst Capcom 2D fighter port on the system, tied with "X-Men Vs. Street Fighter".

I digress, but yeah..........them early days of EGM & GamePro were sure unpolished.

[Joe Redifer]

GamePro called their reviews "Proviews". Only reviewed games got a rating. Their previews were called "Short Proshots" and stuffed into the back of the mag. I'd be surprised if any TurboGrafx-CD owners read GamePro back then, though.

Notice how they say the game has standard role-playing type battles where the gamer is mostly a spectator. That right there proves they never powered the game up even once, or knew anything about it except what the press kit told them, for that matter.

EGM at least gave you information and was entertaining to read. GamePro was like reading air. I was going to scan some old Genesis Proviews and post them here until I realized that they said absolutely nothing at all.

[Melf]

You can't really trust that. Notice how Sega Visions also sucked incredible amounts of ass in every category... GamePro was responsible for that horrible rag as well.

GamePro was offered to publish Sega Visions but declined. It was funded completely by Sega, and the reason it was so biased was that the company considered it little more than a marketing tool, kind of what you see with Nintendo Power. Nothing negative was ever allowed to be written about any game that appeared, no matter how bad it was.

But at least SV had the excuse of being a Sega mag. GamePro had no such defense for its horrible writing and lack of depth.

[Zebbe]

Nothing negative was ever allowed to be written about any game that appeared, no matter how bad it was.

But John Sauer said this in your latest interview: "We worked hard to discuss games fairly and would deliver some [not too much, because we did have to walk the line between selling games, third party developers and free speech advocates] criticism of games that were not up to par"

Swedish Sega Force gave very generous grades in the beginning, but later they put higher demands on the games and the scores sank a bit. Still, most of the games had some cons pointed out (for example ALL SMS games had complaints on the sound, which was kind of entertaining to read).
I really like the magazine, someday I might write something about it ;).

[Gentlegamer]

Post some more GamePro! I used to read that magazine years during that era until I realized how crappy it was, then I switched to EGM.

I remember that Ys "review" . . . it almost literally says nothing!

[Joe Redifer]

Couldn't I just scan nothing and post it? It would be similar to any GamePro reviews, just without the pics. ;)

I'll try to cook up something.

[Melf]

But John Sauer said this in your latest interview: "We worked hard to discuss games fairly and would deliver some [not too much, because we did have to walk the line between selling games, third party developers and free speech advocates] criticism of games that were not up to par"

Heh, have you ever seen those "criticisms?" They're just not as gushing as the positive comments. SV wasn't negative about anything. Heck, they spent two pages praising the Activator in one issue!

[Joe Redifer]

In all fairness, Sauer did complain about putting your name in each time you save in GamePro's Phantasy Star 2 review. But that was right after he basically said it was the best thing ever and an orgasm in a cartridge.

[Zebbe]

I've never seen a single Sega Visions review. Please post, dear Americans, so I know how they try to criticize!

[Ugly Bob]

I remember playing Altered Beast at Lechmere (A great store that will be missed!). It was a fun time and graphically impressive. I never bought the game, but got to play it a lot as it was the game that had come with my uncle's Genesis circa 1991. Streets of Rage was definitely the better game, but Beast was worth a playthrough.

[VinnyT]

I've never seen a single Sega Visions review. Please post, dear Americans, so I know how they try to criticize!
A summary of a review of Chuck Rock II in Sega Visions:

It's time again to travel back to the past! Remember Chuck Rock's awesome madcap adventure! Well, it's time to revisit it, but now as his son! OUTSTANDING! Take Chuck Rock Jr through 8 exciting and tremendous levels on your SEGA GENESIS to save his dad, Chuck Rock! The adventure will Rock your world coming this fall. For your Sega Genesis.