Video: Learn More About the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive and Its Battle With the SNES

I shall watch this right...now...

Edit: Very entertaining, although I already knew basically everything they mentioned (So yeah, I did know ), but I could have easily watched an additional 30 mins filled with even more stuff on the Genesis/Megadrive

I still say the 16bit era was the all-round most interesting, entertaining and genuinely satisfying time in gaming. That also includes the likes of the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST that were around and competing at the same time as these classic consoles too, as well as the likes of the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx and Neo Geo. Not to mention the main handhelds of/around that generation too. Ok, I will; Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Game Gear, TurboExpress. Even the arcade games of the time were amazing (Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Daytona, Smash TV, Virtua Fighter, X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Alien vs. Predator, Dungeons & Dragons, Virtua Cop, U.N. Squadron, Sega Rally Championship...) and this was undoubtably a high point for arcade gaming too. What a genuinely amazing time in gaming!

Not a lot of new info but I always love reading and listening about this. It was definitely one of the most interesting times in gaming for me.

Great video. I happy to say I lived through that era but I also learned some new things form the video. Well done! "Blast Processing" was real

@Kirk Agreed. If you still have or ever get a hold of old gaming magazines like Game Players or Electronic Gaming Monthly, give them a read. It's great reading the old articles and advertisements, and how each company hypes the new games and tech for the time. Some of it is just downright hilarious too, especially in hindsight of course.

Good video. What's truly interesting is that it showcases how important marketing and demographics are in this industry. Seems players can reject quality games based solely on the "cool" factor (then again, "quality" is a pretty nebulous term, so...).

@pyrotek85 I check out this on a regular basis just to bring back some great memories for me personally: http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/mean_machines_all_issues.php

I mean here's an example of one of the reviews from Mean Machines (Super Mario World): http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/pdf/supermario4snes.pdf

There were some other great video game mags around then too; like Super Play, Computer and Video Games, Electronic Gaming Monthly, EDGE and MAXIMUM etc. MAXIMUM came a bit later, probably more the 32bit/64bit generation, and only stayed around for a very short time (7 issues) but it was a pretty unique mag with REALLY long previews and reviews that went on for like 11 full pages packed full of high quality screenshots (great stuff).

Also; anyone remember Digitiser on Teletext?

Note: I'm from the UK, in case those magazine names aren't as familiar to some people

@Kirk Oh I didn't know. I don't know if those magazines were available in the UK or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has scans of them around somewhere.

@pyrotek85 I'll have a look for this Game Players magazine...

Edit: I'm downloading a pdf of the Nintendo Sega Issue 034 November 1993

Edit 2: It uses some kind of file I can't read, not pdf as I thought, and I can't be bothered installing some new program

I'll keep looking for some way to view it directly online though

That was a cool video. Made me want to go back and watch the Dreamcast DYK video. All the same, thanks for sharing!

@OmegaPowerDX Though the Super NES console itself wouldn't be able to handle a Sonic Genesis port, with an added speed chip on the cartridge like their other game which had added chip inside, a Sonic Sega Genesis port may work on the Super NES. Only thing is Sega ended support for Nintendo system once their competition with the Super NES and N64 started to heat up which is why both system are the only two Nintendo home system in history not to feature any Sega games.

I must admit that new model Genesis is a bit of a sexy beast.

@retro_player_22 I'm pretty sure Super Nintendo could manage a Sonic game without the extra chips to be honest.

I mean these games move pretty fast:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WNVzkmYsS0Q
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GCnyIimRS0

Also, considering the fact that a whole load of games did use custom chips on the SNES as pretty standard affair, it's not like this is something they couldn't have just done for a Sonic game if they wanted too. Super Mario RPG used the SA1 chip that pushed the clock speed to 10.74MHz for example

So ultimately the simplest answer is that the SNES could have basically run any game found on Genesis/Megadrive via any one of a number of common chips that appeared in multiple games on the system, even from day one (Pilotwings for example); except Virtua Racing I think, which as far as I'm aware used a custom chip of its own that was even more powerful than any of the custom chips on SNES.

@MasterBlaster how do you post pictures

I want Sega games on Wii U Virtual Console and on gamepad!

I wish sega would put some Genesis classics OR ANY Sega classics on wii u already!!😡😡

@Kirk I don't think you are right. Uniracer (your first video) on SNES play fast, in expense of the graphics. In fact, Nintendo hire the team to make a game to compete with Genesis in terms of speed, and what they can come up was only Uniracer. If you play Aladdin on both systems, Aladdin on Genesis was fluid, while SNES version was like in slow motion. The same comparison can also be found in Ghoul and Globbin. It explains why most games on SNES were rpg-it does not require fast CPU processing.

There isn't a game on SNES that is comparable to sonic in terms of graphics and speed simultaneously. Nintendo decided to use a cheap CPU so as to lower the console cost.

@GreatPlayer I'm not convinced the simplicity in the graphics in Uniracer was solely because they couldn't have made them any more complex while still retaining the speed. That may be the case and it may not but I personally don't think it is. I mean that boost in Super Metroid clip I provided is clearly very fast too and that's a very nice looking game. There's obviously no reason, certainly not that I can think of, that some developer couldn't have built a whole game around that kind of speed in a world with that kind of visual flair if they really wanted.

There are games on SNES that are comparable to Sonic in terms of speed and graphics but they just aren't platformers for the most part. I mean F-Zero is both blazing fast and technically more advanced than almost everything on the Genesis/Megadrive; it just wasn't a side scrolling platformer. If you look at this conversion of F-Zero running on Megadrive* you can however see that it doesn't even come close to the SNES game, which is an argument you can level regarding some games that appeared on both Genesis/Megadrive and SNES but happened to run slower on SNES. I'm sure there's plenty of games you could put on SNES and because of its custom graphics functions like Mode 7 along with custom chips like the FX Chip if you tried to put those same games on the Genesics/Megadrive it would basically blow up if it tried to run them (of course I exaggerate).

*F-Zero (homebrew) running on Genesics/Megadrive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3gKAobaTE
vs
F-Zero running on SNES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXnmUUOXg3Y

I mean it's an impressive feat on the Genesics/Megadrive but to me what's going on in the SNES game simply blows it away and that was a launch title on SNES.

The Genesics/Megadrive had a faster processor, no one is debating that fact, but the fact is that the Super Nintendo was more powerful in pretty much every single other spec (on paper at least), be it graphics related stuff, sound or even the controller etc, and with all the custom graphics functions built right into the system, like the Mode 7 and proper transparency (something the Genesics/Megadrive sorely lacked) etc, it means that in general you could do a lot more visually on the SNES than you could on the Genesics/Megadrive other than making sure there wasn't as much slowdown in certain action heavy traditional style games (admittedly a big plus point for the Genesics/Megadrive).

Overall speed was/is nice but it really wasn't as anywhere near as big a factor back in the day as people seem to be putting on it now after the fact. Not that I recall. I recall that most people back in the day saw the SNES as the most impressive system when it came to graphics overall and to me that is still evident even today, if you look at the most graphically impressive and visually beautiful games across the two systems. The truth however is that most of the best looking games on SNES used custom chips in the carts but the fact is that this was commonplace on the SNES and no one at the time thought "Well, it's on a custom chip so I guess this means the Genesics/Megadrive has more impressive looking games than F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Secret of Mana 1/2, Donkey Kong Country (series), Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, Doom, etc."

Having said that; these two Genesis/Megadrive are frikin impressive (custom chips or not): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVi3aL6ol0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Ow3w2DIRc

Basically, I don't think you'd be losing if you chose either to be honest.

I will say this: SNES had the better hits: TMNT IV > Hyperstone Heist, Contra III > Hard Corps, Super Castlevania IV > Bloodlines, but some ports were better on GEN like SF II Champion Edition, Captain America and the Avengers, and Pebble Beach Golf Links. GEN also had better X-Men games. Also, for every hit SNES had, it had like 3 times the shovelware, while GEN had lots of really good games. Honestly, I would rather have a GEN than SNES so I can enjoy lots of good games rather than a few great games, though I admit to owning both consoles and owning great games like Comic Zone and Chrono Trigger.

@NTELLIGENTMAN I'm pretty sure if someone made a list of say all the 70+ games on both Genesis/Megadrive and SNES that the SNES would come out on top. I mean it was around/supported for longer, I think, and I think it also had more widespread third party support overall as far as I recall. I wouldn't put money on this, the list thing, but I just think that's likely to be the case.

I mean if I look at these two Top 100 games lists for each system I think I see a more games I'd rather play over and over on SNES than the Genesis/Megadrive, although to be fair, both are great lists full of awesome games:

Genesis/Megadrive: http://retro-sanctuary.com/Top-100-Megadrive-Games-Page-1.html

SNES: http://retro-sanctuary.com/Top-100-SNES-Games-Page-1.html

Seriously though; those are two amazing Top 100 lists and I honestly couldn't blame anyone for swinging either way

PS. Love your icon.

Largely didn't know most'a this. Heck, didn't even know what PEGI and CERO meant, so...