My MegaDrive (Genesis) Collection

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:12 am

I reorginized my stuff today. I found that I currently have 30 MD games, which is not surpricing, sine I have own the system for more than 15 years.

What surprice me is that of the 30 or so MD games 25 of them are newly acquired and most of them are shmups.

Only 5 that was I orginally own 15 years ago, as I have get rid of (sold) most of the old titles I got.

So situation to my SFC collection.

I think this is partly caused by my change of teast during the years. Any of you also got similar changes to your game collection?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:48 pm

I built my Snes collection over the years, starting quite late, around 1994 iirc. I went for a balanced mix of rpgs, action, shooting, and timeless classics.

I didn't have a md at time. I purchased one some years ago, so I got something sixty games "in retrospective"... And the first difference I noticed is, I didn't pick any rpgs for the MD. To be even more specific, I think I just recently bought my only backup battery cart (Thor).

The snes collection was built while the snes was strong on market, so looking at it now, it definitely has some titles that I wouldn't buy now, some mistake purchases and such. There are also a lot of doubles, from the early import era when I thought it was cool to own multiple copies of the same game... It's also pretty much a collection which has come to a natural stop: without counting a couple of cartridges that are very expensive, I don't feel there's much to add.

At the opposite, the megadrive collection, being started in the new millenium, is much more coherent and specifically built around the system's strong points, ie fast action games. And there's still some room for it grow - like, a dozen or so titles that would be great to play.

I also dedicated some spare cash to create a decent library of "amiga classics ported on md" - which is nice, cause due to room space it's much more comfortable to plug an md than an A500.

It also led me to conclusion that all the amiga's power was not really all that necessary for a gaming system. True, the sound was awesome, and the amiga in its key years got the best from both worlds (console-type action games and home computer software) but in the end for the average, US customer which couldn't appreciate the Commodore era, the Megadrive turned out to be an excellent system on its own.

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:32 pm

First off, man, I'm pretty envious that you still have a Genesis and its great games...I was one of those suckers who traded it in for a SNES way back in the day, and I lost all the great games I had for it (PS2, TF3, etc.)

Anyway, more recently, yeah, I've noticed just recently too that most of my new games are shmups as well. First off, it's hard as hell, like in the old days. It is also satisfying to play for short bursts, because I have less time to dedicate to playing boring RPGs and such (there's only so much menu picking that I can stand - I think I went over the edge playing FF8 and its stupid magic capture deal).

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 4:09 pm

I also dedicated some spare cash to create a decent library of "amiga classics ported on md" - which is nice, cause due to room space it's much more comfortable to plug an md than an A500.

Let's see... Speedball 2, Chaos Engine, Gods, Micro Machines, Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings, Xenon 2, Turrican, Mega Turrican, World Class Leaderboard Golf, Cannon Fodder..out of those I'd say only Micro Machines and Mega Turrican are as good as the Amiga versions, although Speedball 2 and Chaos Engine play pretty well on the MD.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 4:32 pm

it290 wrote:
I also dedicated some spare cash to create a decent library of "amiga classics ported on md" - which is nice, cause due to room space it's much more comfortable to plug an md than an A500.
Let's see... Speedball 2, Chaos Engine, Gods, Micro Machines, Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings, Xenon 2, Turrican, Mega Turrican, World Class Leaderboard Golf, Cannon Fodder..out of those I'd say only Micro Machines and Mega Turrican are as good as the Amiga versions, although Speedball 2 and Chaos Engine play pretty well on the MD.

Another World, Flashback, Galahad/Leander, Wolfchild, Battle Squadron, Star Control (although the original was pc), TurricanII/Universal Soldier, Sensible Soccer, Onslaught, Fatal Rewind/The Killing Game Show (edit: thanks Zinger)...

"as good as the Amiga versions" was not my criteria though (because honestly, no one is - but then again, no japanese console was an X68000, right?).

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:53 pm

The Genesis comprises over half of my games now. I bought all but two of them shrinkwrapped (on eBay) when I was into collecting. It is by far my favorite classic system. Even though I had first grown up on NES, played hundreds of games, the Genesis has managed to be more lasting to me.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 2:00 am

For a while, I was into 100% RPGs so I ended up getting the whole Genesis and SCD RPG library. Before and since then, I've been pretty varied.

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:16 am

I have over 50 games for the Megadrive and roughly 15 for the Snes but I think I value my Megadrive more. Currently the games I've been playing on that system the most are Senible Soccer (Euro Edition), Gunstar Heroes, Zerowing (to see if it's actualy any good), Guantlet IV and Dr. Robotnik's mean bean machine although lately I have been a bit partal to a bit of Thunderforce IV!

Saying that most of these are newly aquired to, in fact I got rid of my Megadrive ages ago but came across one with a MegaCD on it for £10 with 15 to 20 games with it in a junk shop so I brought it and only needed to replace the plug for the MegaCD.

I got rid of my old one to make way for an flashy Amiga CD 32 because when I was younger I did not have enough money to keep buying consoles but now that I have a steady job I can hoarde as many as I like which includes that old SNES I used to own but I did recently buy a converter for that so now I can play forgien MD and SNES games but I have to admit most of which I have been buying recently for these systems a shmups or "run and gun" style games.

Of course though recently I have also been concentrating on my newly aquired neo geo mvs system which is changing my buying habbits a bit forcing me to buy decent puzzle, fighting and shmup games...

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:47 pm

it290 wrote:
I also dedicated some spare cash to create a decent library of "amiga classics ported on md" - which is nice, cause due to room space it's much more comfortable to plug an md than an A500.
Let's see... Speedball 2, Chaos Engine, Gods, Micro Machines, Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings, Xenon 2, Turrican, Mega Turrican, World Class Leaderboard Golf, Cannon Fodder..out of those I'd say only Micro Machines and Mega Turrican are as good as the Amiga versions, although Speedball 2 and Chaos Engine play pretty well on the MD.

What about The Killing Game Show, wasn't that originally an Amiga game?

Anyway, the Mega Drive remains my favourite game system of all time. I only have a small collection of games left for it though, about 15 (recently sold about 100 of them). Simply because I only keep games that I play these days, so the ones I have left are really top-notch. There are still a few gems I need to pick up though.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:56 pm

Yep, it sure was. There are a few others as well. Two of my favorites are Zany Golf and Marble Madness, not strictly Amiga games, but the Genesis versions are the best you can get aside from the Amiga ones.

The Genesis/MD is one of my favorite consoles as well. I have about 150 games for it -- some of them are crap, but I enjoy most of them. I'm still missing several essential titles, too. I also have two separate systems hooked up - 1 model 1 (no TMSS) with a Sega CD (and optional Power Base Converter), and 1 model 2 w/32X... looks better that way.

The thing I hate about the system is the crappy quality of the video output, though. My model 1 is S-video modded, but it still displays some nasty banding. Maybe I should get a model 3 and S-video mod that, as I've heard it has the best video quality out of all the systems. I wouldn't be able to play some of my Japanese carts or my early EA games that way, though.

Melf · Post by **Melf** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:50 pm

YES! YES! I can feel the Genesis love making me stronger!

GIVE ME YOUR POWER!

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:00 pm

Just get an RGB cable and it looks stunning.

I also have a variety of systems, but the one I have hooked up is a Japanese MD (mk1) with a stereo RGB cable and Mega Key 2 (which let's you change region via a set of dipswitches).

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:37 pm

My set = a pal megadrive 1 modded by a friend, with language and hz switches, and RGB cable. And my trusty "true multistandard" sony 21" trinitron tv!

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:24 pm

Turrican wrote:And my trusty "true multistandard" sony 21" trinitron tv!

Same here, but Panasonic. The size is just right for most purposes IMO, easy to TATE etc.

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:32 pm

Yeah, the MD has some great games, at the time of the snes everybody preferred the snes, but now i think that time has aged the md better, more gameplay oriented than the fancy graphics which the snes relied on. i have a healthy md collection too, probably 25 games or so. a good mixture of shmups, beat em ups and platformers. The MD is one of the consoles i stick on when im sick of modern shmups, the old games are like a breath of fresh air when you havnt played in a while

However, a lot of games released, especially of PAL or US origin, were and remain pap.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:26 pm

DC906270 wrote:Yeah, the MD has some great games, at the time of the snes everybody preferred the snes, but now i think that time has aged the md better, more gameplay oriented than the fancy graphics which the snes relied on.

Hey, it's not about fancy graphics. Sometimes people tend to forget how great the snes was just because they take it for granted. But how could you live without Mario Kart, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, SMW, FFIII/6j, SoM, Akumajo Dracula and the list goes on...

Honestly, I think that overall the Snes library aged better. It's just that on this forum the fast action / shooting genre is preferred to the rest...

Plus, the MD has too little Konami on it to be the greatest, imho ^_^

GateofThunderforceIII · Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:44 pm

I LOVE both the Mega Drive and Super Famicom, but whenever I look at my SNES collection (which is pretty large and somewhat diverse), I just don't get near as excited as when I look at my Genesis/MD games. It's true that the MD has so much more action oriented/intense games than the more calm SNES game library and perhaps that is why. The 68000 processor RULES THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:16 am

Turrican wrote: Honestly, I think that overall the Snes library aged better.

Dammit, you. All of those games listed are a top 100 games of all-time gamefaqs snore. I really tried playing Super Metroid last year and I just couldn't. Dud.

Plus, the MD has too little Konami on it to be the greatest, imho ^_^

Bloodlines, Hard Corps and RKA are the best things they had going in those days. I can see the appeal of Castlevania 4, but Contra 3 is a dud. Sparkster is a dud. 1 Parodius is enough. Twinbee sucked/sucks. Etc.

Dinoland > SNES

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:53 am

Dammit, you. All of those games listed are a top 100 games of all-time gamefaqs snore. I really tried playing Super Metroid last year and I just couldn't. Dud.

Generally I'd agree, Super Metroid, Zelda, Chrono Trigger and all that are pretty boring. Much like the PCE, the shit everyone recommends for SNES sucks mostly. Yoshi's Island is really enjoyable so far though, esp. going for 100 point clears of the levels. Ganbare Goemon 1 and 4 are good, Magical Pop'n is ok too. The best is probably Do Re Mi Fantasy though. The 16 bit consoles seem to have the most rapid fanboyisms but they've all got decent stuff really.

edit - check out Joe & Mac 2 as well. Data East goodness.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:13 am

Yeah, the SNES games I think are classic are slightly less accepted. Lufia II (best 16-bit RPG? maybe), Bio Metal (severely undervalued), Pocky & Rocky.

I tried playing Yoshi's Island for about 5 hours and it was just soo boring. I can take cute, but the pastels were getting to me and it was slow. I don't like my platformers that slow. To me it has none of the appeal of Super Mario World, which is perhaps my favorite SNES game despite its emptiness compared to Mario 3. Good use of colors without being a dithery mess and good use of transparencies, without too much mode 7 garbage. Nice use of the sound chip, and just a Mario game.

Zelda 3 is cool but its quality is blown way out of proportion. Zelda 64 did it all better.

Post by **nZero** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:55 am

I think a lot of the popular parts of the systems' libraries from the time got obsoleted. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, NBA Jam, EA Sports stuff, etc. all were later done better elsewhere. Having a SuperNES was great at the time (no complaints about the Genny, by any means) but it got left with a pretty small "timeless" library. Especially for action oriented gamers.

Of course, my Genesis (which I bought during the 32-bit era) and TG16 (since 1989, but never got the CD-ROM) libraries remain small as well. I think I prefer to remember the 16-bit era than continue to enjoy it. Especially with the advent of accessible emulation of nearly all of the arcade games I was enjoying ports of back then.

Rob wrote:Lufia II (best 16-bit RPG? maybe)

I concur. Despite the dialog translation. There are moments that still choke me up.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:59 am

Yeah, I like some popular SNES stuff like the 3 main Mario games, every MM except MM7, have nostalgia for DKC1, and fond memories of the many SNES RPGs I played back then (thank goodness I never got to the crappy SNES RPGs back then; there are quite a few).

The Super Bombermans are still great with friends, TMNT: Tournament Fighters is the only fighter to own besides the SFII games, Capcom's beat-em-ups are still fun, and I still really like Dracula XX (and not brown and boring CV4) as well as Acclaim's Marvel sidescrollers (like Wolverine: Adamantium Rage and Arcade's Revenge, a guilty, pseudo-masochistic pleasure of mine but I digress

) but that's about it in terms of what I find to be enjoyable action titles on the SNES...

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:16 am

I like a lot of the more popular games on both SNES and Genesis, but some of the most enjoyable games are those that you don't hear as much about. Here are some more the more obscure/lesser known games that I like:

Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage SNES: This game really surprised me. A fun little action platformer based on Looney Tunes with fun animations. The enemies have some AI to them and actually dodge attacks.

Judge Dredd SNES: I am the law! A surprisingly good side scroller based on a laughingly bad move and a much better comic book. The game is also rather difficult.

Whip Rush Genesis: Usually compared to R-Type (mainly becuase of the ship), but is drasticly different in gameplay and much more fast paced than R-Type. Has some excellent music and fun gameplay.

Burning Force Genesis: A behind the character game somewhat like Space Harrier, but with on the ground jet scooter levels. Very shmupish and quite a bit of fun.

Goemon 4 SNES: This seems to be the least talked about of the Goemon games, but it's also one of the better ones. It has the series trademark wackiness and some crazy level designs. One of my favorite moments in the game is the level where this hand with a gun that looks similar to the one from Doom is chasing you.

Tetris 2/Tetris Flash SNES: One of the more obscure Tetris variants. It's basically Dr. Mario with Tetris pieces. The SNES one is one of the better versions of it due to the awesome puzzle mode.

Trouble Shooter Genesis: A fun semi-cute em up with female main characters. Has some wacky moments and cool gameplay with an AI partner that you can make change directions.

Demon's Crest SNES: The third action game with RPG elements starring Firebrand. The game is non-linear like Super Metroid, but has different areas and a mode 7 map screen (unlike the overworlds of Gargoyle's Quest 1 and 2).

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:55 am

These are my Megadrive/Mega CD games:

All of them are Japanese and complete.

Megadrive:
- Alien Soldier
- Alisia Dragoon
- Altered Beast
- Arrow Flash
- Bare Knuckle
- Bare Knuckle II
- Battlemania
- Burning Force
- Contra: The Hard Corps
- Daimakaimura
- Darius II
- El Viento
- Elemental Master
- Fushigi No Umi No Nadia (The Secret of Blue Water)
- Gaiares
- Gleylancer
- Gunstar Heroes
- Gynoug
- Hellfire
- Kujaku-Oh 2 (Mystic Defender)
- Landstalker
- Monster World III (Wonderboy V)
- Monster World IV
- Musha Aleste
- Phelios
- Pulseman
- Quackshot
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Steel Empire
- Street Fighter II Dash Plus
- Strider Hiryu
- Tatsujin
- Thunderforce III
- Thunderforce IV
- Twinkle Tale
- Undeadline
- Valis III
- Vampire Killer (Castlevania)
- Whip Rush

Mega CD:
- Bari-Arm
- Dennin Aleste
- Detonator Orgun
- Earnest Evans
- Final Fight CD
- Heavy Nova
- Keio Yuugekitai
- Popful Mail
- Sega Classics Arcade Collection
- Silpheed
- Wondermega Collection

Most of this was acquired in the last couple of years. As you can see, I've been focusing mainly on shooters and arcade-style action games.

Right now there's 50, and of those there's about 10-15 games I will sell next month, since I just don't think they're that good. There's still 6 or 7 games I would like to have (Splatterhouse 2&3, Eliminate Down, Panorama Cotton, among others) and will probably pick up at some point, but unfortunately those are all a bit more pricey.

Recently I've been buying more Super Famicom games. The system tends to attract the RPG crowd, but there's some great arcade style games, that are not as widely known as the stuff on Megadrive. I recently got Wild Guns and the second Kiki Kaikai. Very cool games!

Anyway, 50 games seems about the max for most systems, while still guaranteeing a high quality to crap ratio. Any more than that and you'll start getting more and more mediocre stuff that will just catch dust and take up valuable space.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:24 am

Nice collection CIT. I have a copy of Splatterhouse Part III in great shape, complete, JPN. Interested?

EDIT: Here's what my japanese MD collection used to look like, all mint/complete. I'm glad I got rid of all that junk.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:27 pm

Neon wrote:
Dammit, you. All of those games listed are a top 100 games of all-time gamefaqs snore. I really tried playing Super Metroid last year and I just couldn't. Dud.
Generally I'd agree, Super Metroid, Zelda, Chrono Trigger and all that are pretty boring. Much like the PCE, the shit everyone recommends for SNES sucks mostly.

Here's a short summary of humankind's history:

Big bang > Earth > begins life in the sea > homo sapiens > gamers play to SMW, SoM, Chrono Trigger etc > bored by these "yawn games" that they take for granted, true hardcore gamers go in search of the true, hidden gems that only they can discover and truly appreciate, because the rest of humanity is clearly inferior > thus, with the internet they spread the Verb: the best games ever are Little Ralph, Panzer Bandit, Biometal and that other one with the japanese title you never heard before. The other losers that thought Super Metroid was a cool game have been brainstormed by Nintendo.

Neon wrote:Bloodlines, Hard Corps and RKA are the best things they had going in those days. I can see the appeal of Castlevania 4, but Contra 3 is a dud. Sparkster is a dud. 1 Parodius is enough. Twinbee sucked/sucks. Etc.

The only one I agree on is RKA, which is miles and miles better than both its sequels. Hard Corps tried hard to be as cool as Spirits but, no way. It's also worth to mention that something like three years are between them. (the same could be said for AlttP and OoT, btw)

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:03 pm

zinger wrote:Nice collection CIT. I have a copy of Splatterhouse Part III in great shape, complete, JPN. Interested?

Yeah sure. How much do you want for it? I could also send you my trading list.

EDIT: Here's what my japanese MD collection used to look like, all mint/complete. I'm glad I got rid of all that junk.

Oof! That's a lot of Megadrive! And so nicely stored! Why did you sell? Just too many crap games you never played?

I recently sold off about two thirds of my PCE collection myself. Just too much stuff there, that I never touched, and I figured better to get rid of it, and buy a few real classics insteads.

The craziest MD collection I've ever seen is that of the owner of Tokoton Megadrive Densetsu

I think this is actually all Japanese MD carts, 32X carts and CDs, and all US-only and PAL-only games. Ah! The craziness!!!

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:16 pm

CIT wrote:Oof! That's a lot of Megadrive! Why did you sell? Too many crap games you never played?

Well yeah, I was aiming to get all japanese releases (which means a fair share of crap titles) but suddenly lost all of my collector mentality...

About that other collection... WOW!

I know there's a guy over at the Assembler forums who's just a handful of games from having a complete collection of JPN MD games (he might even have acquired them by now). That's a lot of money just lying on the shelf, especially for a poor student like myself.

Please do send me your trading list...

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:22 pm

The only time I ever sell a game is when I either get tired of it to the point where I hate it (rarely ever happens) or the game sucks & I've played enough of it to know that I hav eno desire to keep playing. Such was the case w/ about 3 PSX games I don't regret trading in. Otherwise, I've kept every game I've purchased since high school.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:34 pm

Turrican wrote:because the rest of humanity is clearly inferior

So true. The thing about Super Metroid is Symphony of the Night. See, I had already played that one multiple times and it doesn't leave much room for Super Metroid. I enjoyed Aria of Sorrow more, which is like 1/5th SOTN quality.

The only one I agree on is RKA, which is miles and miles better than both its sequels. Hard Corps tried hard to be as cool as Spirits but, no way. It's also worth to mention that something like three years are between them. (the same could be said for AlttP and OoT, btw)

Contra 3 is simply Contra on the SNES. What one would expect, kind of a slower colorful take on Contra. Hard Corps has the multiple distinct characters, multiple switchable weapons, multiple paths/endings, faster action, more/bigger bosses. You know, more of everything basically. The one drawback would be the absence of stretches with soldiers and other smaller enemies/environment obstacles, but I think the originals handled that style well enough and Hard Corps was something different. Different is good.

For the Link to the Past to Ocarina gap it might as well have been 20 years. To punctuate how much more stunning it is. Best game ever!