It amazes me that Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers makes the list. It really was not a very good game - just a bare bones fighting game with extremely simple controls, mediocre gameplay and graphics, and absolutely nothing to make it stand out, other than being a tie-in to a reasonably successful kids' show.
Not surprised that Altered Beast made the list. Sega pushed that game on buyers of the original Genesis system. It made the thing cost like $200 (back in 1989-1990). But i liked the game. I beat it like 10 times lol. Can still remember the corny electronic victory song.
Just kind of surprised that WWF Super Wrestlemania or WWF Wrestlemania didn't make the list. Ohhhh!!!! Kind of kidding. But not really. As viewership of Wrestling was much higher back then (than it is today) as was merchandise sales (including video games).
I got my Genesis a bit later, after it had been out a couple years. There was this crazy deal where not only did it come with the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but you could mail off for a copy of Sonic 2 either free or heavily discounted. Mine took forever to receive so I mailed in again and they ended up sending me two.
That whole thing was a proportionate response on the part of Sega corporate in japan to the then competitve u.s. gaming market. Segas saga is an interesting and sad one indeed. Not unlike that of some other areas of entertainment (i think you know what I'm eluding to). Sega could be big today still if it weren't for corporate stuborness and a series of bad decisions not the least of which was Sega Japans refusal to listen to Sega U.S. regarding matters of the U.S. market. Turns out in Japan they had no real interest in gaming console business. They just wanted to passionately crank out video games. I was astonished when i first discovered that Sega had the opportunity to be instrumental in the developement of the Playstation and then the XBOX. They turned both offers down. Amazing.
Yeah, Sega was basically the WCW of the video game industry back then. I'm glad they didn't go out of business entirely, but they made a lot of questionable decisions which is why they faded from prominence after one disaster too many.
Yes WCW indeed. A few years of great success followed by blind spending, bad decisions and downfall. Can't imagine what it cost Sega to get Michael Jackson, Joe Montana and Buster Douglas to put their names on a Genesis game. Maybe Sega's refusal to be more active in gaming was a "dodging of the bullet" for the video gaming world. The P.S. or X-Box might not have been as good as they were had Sega touched them.
I tend to put the blame for their problems on too many failed console attempts. Sega CD never caught on that much, nor did the 32x (probably because console add-ons are a bad idea all around). The Saturn wasn't a bad system hardware-wise, but it barely had any games, and most of what it had wasn't that great. The Dreamcast was better, but not without problems of its own, and by then I think it was too late for them to turn things around.
I also think the major gaming publications of the time (Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, etc.) were biased in favor of Nintendo and always gave the SNES versions of games better ratings even when there was no significant difference in quality between the two.
The 32 bit adaptation equipment wasn't the first time Sega (or other developers) tried a quick fix solution that failed. Remember the expansion consoles from the early days? Like for Atari and (ugh!) Coleco Vision. Plus the Sega console just before the Genesis also offered an expansion console add on gimmick i think.
Didn't the Dream Cast come out at about the same time as the Sony play station ? I mean the P.S. was much better i.m.o. Definitely bolder design and better games. Might have been a major reason why the Dream cast flopped and it's price.
I think the whole gaming world bias against Sega (or atleast in favor of Nintendo) was again due to Sega coporate in japan. They did not care about responding properly to their major markets. That also included P.R. Supposedly not only did Nintendo ruthlessly micromanage their product (after the outlaw wild west mud show scene that the early 1980's was in the gaming world) but they also did great P.R. with both consumers and with Journalists. Nintendo fostered great relationships with those publications. Nintendo Japan was supportive of and worked closely with Nintendo America. Sega corporate on the otherhand remaind aloof towards and distant from the American market and the gaming publications. Little surprise then that they weren't getting the top reviews.
I didn't know about Atari or Colecovision having expansion consoles, as those were before my time (NES was my first gaming system). I'm of the opinion expansion consoles were a bad idea all around. Did you know the Sony Playstation was originally being developed as an expansion for the SNES, but after the partnership between Nintendo and Sony fell through, Sony decided to just develop a whole console themselves? I think they're much better off for it, because as an SNES expansion I believe it would have failed horribly.
It does sound like Sega didn't do themselves any favors when it came to PR. Nintendo was known back then for being super strict with their licensing and having everything be on proprietary hardware (which is one of the reasons they fell behind after Sony entered the market as competition, as they were much easier for developers to work with). It sounds like Sega might have been on the right track but with bad implementation. With regard to the Dreamcast, it was part of the same console generation as the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1, but was released several years later. They would have been better off holding out for another 2 years, upgrading the hardware, and trying to compete against the PS2 and Xbox instead. They tried to jump in between console generations and it just didn't work. Although that's definitely hindsight speaking, I'm not sure if they could have known that at the time or not.
Trust me Coleco vision was before my time as well. My brother bought one in 1983 and years later gave it to me when i was a little older. He kept it impeccably. Had like 2 dozen game catridges with it too. He spent a fortune on it at the time. The coleco had an extra cost expansion console that enabled atari games to be played as well. Nintendo and Sega games were compatible with the colecovision base system. Segas 2nd or 3rd generation console had something similar available as well (this came out after Nintendos 1985 entertainment system). This sega was my first brand new console. It was a christmas present from my parents. It even had 3d adapter glasses. Then a few years later i got a genesis and then a PS2 and then years later my final foray into gaming was a complete Nintendo Wii (with all accessories and like 6 different game dvds...now this cost me a fortune).
I didn't know that Sony was also trying to partner with Nintendo on developing the Playstation. That just shows stupidity on the part of both Sega and Nintendo. I mean when the worlds biggest consumer electronics manufacturer (at the time) SONY wants to work with you.....you know what? You run with it. I didn't like nintendo all too much before...but now that you told me this their stock has plummeted that much more in my eyes. Btw. Any thoughts on some of the indie console systems that were out there at the time? Such as the Neo Geo ?
I know the names of some of the other consoles that were around back then, but never had firsthand experience with any. I still remember the commercials for the TurboGrafix 16 and their game Bonk's Adventure which starred a caveman that headbutted things. It looked cool, but I was committed to my NES at that time and knew another console wasn't gonna happen. I did have a similar experience to your ColecoVision thing though - my older cousin that I didn't know very well at the time used to own a Magnavox Odyssey2 which I inherited, but I couldn't figure out how to hook it up so I never played it. And my mom's friend who sometimes babysat for me had some other old school console with this Dracula game that I liked to play but was absolutely terrible at. I don't remember what console it was though.
oh wow dude....Magnavox ? Now that's old school video gaming. We're talking two dots bouncing back and forth on a screen old. Well atleast they had a good run making tv's and vcr's for hah while. I almost drank the koolaid and was contemplating a turbo grafix 16 back in the day. The neo geo was this super 16 and 32 bit system that played cd based games and cartridges as well. It was ahead of its time in 1990-1991. When you were all set and done it cost about $1000. Crazy. As far as the dracula game you're talking about I can't think of it's name. I can only guess back then some titles were: Castlevania and Vampire Village (nintendo). Plus vampire killer. There was an early 1980's sega console release for a vampire game. I don't know if such a great array of games existed prior to like 1982-1985 (or as i call it the outlaw mudshow days of video gaming.....because everybody and their mother were creating video game consoles and video games) for the average consumer.
I figured out what game it was! It was Dracula for the Intellivision (speaking of ancient video gaming). My mom's friend that was sometimes by babysitter had kids that were all grown up by the time I came around, so this must have been something she had leftover from them. The Castlevania games are great - I enjoyed Simon's Quest even though that one has a bad rap nowadays, and of course Symphony of the Night on the Playstation completely revolutionized the series.
Just kind of surprised that WWF Super Wrestlemania or WWF Wrestlemania didn't make the list. Ohhhh!!!! Kind of kidding. But not really. As viewership of Wrestling was much higher back then (than it is today) as was merchandise sales (including video games).
Didn't the Dream Cast come out at about the same time as the Sony play station ? I mean the P.S. was much better i.m.o. Definitely bolder design and better games. Might have been a major reason why the Dream cast flopped and it's price.