The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

[greg]

Darwin 4081 is underrated IMO. Infuriating, but underrated all the same. The shot types are many and varied in this one, and you can evolve the ships firepower to terrifying proportions. But here's the thing - it's timed. As the seconds tick away you will devolve to the last shot type you held, and if you don't keep picking up the necessary icons you will end up with a pea shooter. Getting hit will devolve you lower than what you start as, to a little Solvalu-looking ship).

Thanks for that run-down. I thought I was doing something wrong. It is a bit different shmup, that's for sure. It came in a set of MD games I'd yoinked off YAJ for a cheap price, and I've given it a go a few times. I couldn't make much sense of it. But now I know! And knowing's half the battle.

As for Rainbow Islands, I have it on the PC Engine. I would like to get the MD version just for the fact that you can play the game with Darius enemies instead of the standard ones.

[Bloodreign]

Darwin 4081 is underrated IMO. Infuriating, but underrated all the same. The shot types are many and varied in this one, and you can evolve the ships firepower to terrifying proportions. But here's the thing - it's timed. As the seconds tick away you will devolve to the last shot type you held, and if you don't keep picking up the necessary icons you will end up with a pea shooter. Getting hit will devolve you lower than what you start as, to a little Solvalu-looking ship).

Thanks for that run-down. I thought I was doing something wrong. It is a bit different shmup, that's for sure. It came in a set of MD games I'd yoinked off YAJ for a cheap price, and I've given it a go a few times. I couldn't make much sense of it. But now I know! And knowing's half the battle.

As for Rainbow Islands, I have it on the PC Engine. I would like to get the MD version just for the fact that you can play the game with Darius enemies instead of the standard ones.

The Darius enemies are still in the PCE CD version, just on Island 9 Darius World. The MD one just works like RI Extra and flips them to the first world.

[BrianC]

Darius Island in regular Rainbow Islands is one of the hidden islands. Collecting all 7 big diamonds is required to get to these levels. The big diamonds appear after a boss if all 7 regular diamonds are collected in a world.

[EmperorIng]

I ditched my Model 1 for a sleeker Model 2. The main reason for this being twofold: one, my model was a non-High Definition Gfx model 1 and the sound sounded like ass, on top of the cartridge slot being finicky as hell; and two, the model 2 I stumbled upon in my local game shop was luckily a 3/4 Motherboard Model 2, which a pal of mine swears as one of the best genesiseses to own due to its inbuilt stereo support and better soundchip than most model 2s. We're both audiophiles so finding one in the wild (they aren't rare, just tricky to pin down) was lucky. You can read all about his comparison here! =)

On top of that, I wanted some hardcorez action, so I snapped up Biohazard Battle, Forgotten Worlds, and Contra Hard Corps along with it. Hard Corps cost as much as the Genesis ($30). The other two were pennies though. An AV cable comes in tomorrow, so I'm pretty stoked.

I'm actually pretty excited to play Forgotten Worlds and Biohazard Battle. I don't play enough of 16bit console shooters, but considering how I often like horizontals with plenty of atmosphere, these two seem right up my alley. I heard Phelios is a good cheap shooter as well.

I'd still like to get a handle on Bloodlines some time, but it's hard to find a cart at a reasonable price. Maybe I should just settle for Marvel Land and Shinobi III instead.

[Bloodreign]

I'd still like to get a handle on Bloodlines some time, but it's hard to find a cart at a reasonable price. Maybe I should just settle for Marvel Land and Shinobi III instead.

Both are great titles, Marvel Land though is a bitch of a game with it's difficulty and hidden warps, including one near the end that brings you back to the beginning of the game. I don't remember where it is either, and it's hidden.

[BIL]

On top of that, I wanted some hardcorez action, so I snapped up Biohazard Battle, Forgotten Worlds, and Contra Hard Corps along with it. Hard Corps cost as much as the Genesis ($30). The other two were pennies though. An AV cable comes in tomorrow, so I'm pretty stoked.

I'm actually pretty excited to play Forgotten Worlds and Biohazard Battle. I don't play enough of 16bit console shooters, but considering how I often like horizontals with plenty of atmosphere, these two seem right up my alley. I heard Phelios is a good cheap shooter as well.

You still returned from battle relatively unscathed - JP Hard Corps lacks instant death goodness and tends to cost ~8x as much. ^_~ In a sense the hitpoints are good for playing with newbies, and the game is 110% identical otherwise so it's just as hard to no-miss. But when I botch a ludicrously dangerous boss speedkill and get a laser up the ass, I want "GYAHHH" not "oof."

I really don't recommend Phelios, even for cheap. It has a nice solid feel with tight controls+collision and satisfying firepower. But after a promising start the level design just stalls again and again. Slow, easy and very repetitive. Irritatingly there is a harder mode but no way (AFAIK) to skip to it.

Not sure about the US version's availability, but Fire Shark/Same! Same! Same! is for my money the ultimate affordable MD shooter. Super solid conversion by Toaplan. Plays a fun milder game on Easy/Normal, unleashes a hail of sniper tank death on Hard.

Both are great titles, Marvel Land though is a bitch of a game with it's difficulty and hidden warps, including one near the end that brings you back to the beginning of the game. I don't remember where it is either, and it's hidden.

Interesting, I'll have to check out Marvel Land. I love most of the Namco MD games I've played, but I booted Phelios out of my library for reasons above (Rolling Thunder 2 and Splatterhouse 2+3 otoh are boss as hell). I'd assumed ML was weenietyme too and never even tried it (a bit foolishly, now I remember how mean some similar-looking AC sidescrollers can be).

[BIL]

As often happens with blackoak's wonderful shmuplations, I was inspired to revisit Koutetsu Teikoku this weekend after reading the interview with developer Yoshinori Satake.

Like many console shooters, I find this improves a lot if you alter the defaults a little. Specifically, setting difficulty to Hard, treating your individual lives as credits, and (I added this last step tonight) employing the level up cheat to start off with lvl10 weapons. That may sound like a cop-out, but with Normal lacking intensity, and Hard's boosted enemy HP making it impractical if not impossible to kill the majority of even small fry, neither is ideal. Halving the misjudged powerup curve flushes out the Euroshmup badness that would usually set in around stage 4, ensuring you can tear through enemies without resorting to bombspam.

What wasn't misjudged is the stage design. I really appreciate how the devs didn't take the lifebar as a license to bunk off, but instead used it to design a tougher than average console shooter without alienating console audiences. Even at default firepower, this could've easily worked as a more traditional three lives, one hit death affair. Frantically busy-feeling game from the get-go on Hard.

Game's best feature is still its world and machine designs, which fortunately have a competent shooter foundation - it'd have been a damn shame for this stuff to have gone to waste. This is the closest I've seen to both a horizontal Battle Garegga, in its onslaught of bristling vintage/fantasy military machines, and Rayforce in the feel of a tiny ship threading through an immense war. Mucho manlove for stage 4's ferocious naval battle, stage 5's sorrowful downturn and lonely descent into the glittering enemy capital, and the finale's deliberately quaint "trip to the moon."

[Xyga]

I love Steel Empire, but the too-frequent slowdowns kind of make me frown at it.
And the zeppelin is useless, I wish the game offered a better alternative ship than this one.

[Skykid]

I love Steel Empire, but the too-frequent slowdowns kind of make me frown at it.
And the zeppelin is useless, I wish the game offered a better alternative ship than this one.

Eh, I 1cc'd it with the Zeppelin on practically my first attempt. I found it a lot easier than the biplane.

[BrianC]

I still need to get the Genesis version (kicking myself for missing that cheap one I saw), but I like the Japanese GBA version quite a bit. Interesting info on that site, not just about Steel Empire, but about Over Horizon too. Gdri credits a company named pixel (not to be confused with the maker of Cave Story) for the game, but, from the interview, it sounds like Hot-B did most of the development.

[CIT]

Apparently there's a 3DS version of Steel Empire in the works too.

[gabrielesquaratti]

my megadrive/genesis collection so far (still working on it)

sonic
sonic 2
sonic 3
herzog zwei
thunder force 2
thunder force 3
thunder force 4
eliminate down (REPRO,original is WAAAAY too expensive)
gleylancer (again repro)
aleste musha ntsc j
sonic ntsc j
shadow dancer
elemental master ntsc j
earthworm jim
fire shark
pitfall
spiderman vs the kingpin
ecco the dolphin
light crusader
altered beast
streets of rage
streets of rage 2
robocop vs the terminator
golden axe
shinobi 3
mega turrican
contra hard corps
vector man
nba jam
castlevania the new generations (pal is rarer than usa but censored)
alisia dragoon
twin hawk
kid chameleon
phantasy star 4
alex kidd
the revenge of shinobi
strider
street fighter 2
gunstar heroes
truxton
raiden trad
rocket knight adventures

future purchases :

darius 2 ntsc j
hellfire
zero wing
gynoug
phelios
bio hazard battle
gaiares
bio ship paladin (if i will ever find a copy!)

[Captain]

Gley Lancer VS Eliminate Down.

Who wins?

[BIL]

Hellfire. ^_~

[Xyga]

Eliminate Down.

[gabrielesquaratti]

they are pretty different.

eliminate down is kinda a mix of thunder force series,r-type and toaplan vertical games.

gley lancer is more gradius and image fight mix.

they are pretty awesome both



i'd like to buy the real thing,but i've already bought Hyper Duel,and that is the max value that i can spend for a game.

maybe once in a year

[Ganelon]

Dracue—the developer behind Gunhound—is remaking Assault Suit Leynos: http://leynos.dracue.co.jp/

I didn't like the original at all but I suppose I'll give this one a shot for old Masaya's sake.

[Xyga]

i'd like to buy the real thing,but i've already bought Hyper Duel,and that is the max value that i can spend for a game.

Goes for around $800/$900 on ePig now, lol.

[EmperorIng]

I wonder why of all my recent genesis pick-ups, I'm playing Marvel Land the most? It must be that sugary cutesy style. Strangely addicting!
I guess the game being a hard pain in the ass helps, too.

Dracue—the developer behind Gunhound—is remaking Assault Suit Leynos: http://leynos.dracue.co.jp/

I didn't like the original at all but I suppose I'll give this one a shot for old Masaya's sake.

I'd prefer a straight-up port of the translated Assault Suits Valken, to be honest.

I guess since Gunhound was pretty much inspired by Target Earth anyhow. As long as they don't change the early-90s anime-style portraits to the meh ultra-clean look of Gunhound's. You have to draw the line somewhere.

[BrianC]

Are there any major differences between the US Genesis and JP Megadrive versions of Marvel Land?

[Bloodreign]

The Japanese MD cover is far far better than the cover that we saw here. Count me in as someone who likes Marvel Land, it's a tough son of a bitch to get through, seems to me to be heavily memory based. The game once played will hook you in, the level designs are pretty good, but the enemy placement is a major pain in the ass, but the game has a ton of warps in sometimes unusual places. Some you can see, some invisible.

[BrianC]

I found a site with a list some of the differences. Mostly cosmetic changes, but added parallax for the US sounds pretty cool.

[CIT]

I found a site with a list some of the differences. Mostly cosmetic changes, but added parallax for the US sounds pretty cool.

Man, I love these late-90s game-tribute websites. This one is particularly nicely crafted. They just don't make websites like this anymore. ^^

[Ex_Mosquito]

I never knew I still had my old Japanese MD until the other week! I remember having a 2nd one off my friend in about 2000 when we did a few videogame swaps, but I sold off all my gaming stuff in 2006 and I didn’t think I had anything left. Anyway, I went into my Mothers attic again the other week and I came across my old childhood Japanese 60htz Scart Megadrive from 1990, I totally forgot I still had it! In 2006 I made a consious effort to keep my first ever ZX Spectrum game and my first Jpn MD game so I still have one game for it. I dug out my old Commodore 1084S RGB monitor and thought I’d do a replay of one of my fav MD games as a kid, E-swat. This is the only game I have for the Megadrive right now but I may have pick up few cheap favs now that I have it up and running again, Japanese of course.

I tried using a pad for a bit but I'm not fully comfortable with a pad anymore. I feel I have more control with a joystick these days so I ripped out the PCB and modded my old Supergun Sanwa-Modded Dreamcast stick for that arcade experience. I personally think the MD version of E-swat is better than the arcade, same goes for Shadow Dancer.

It’s good to play on the old Megadrive again after all these years. I still think it’s my personal fav console of all-time with the Super Famicom a close 2nd. It’s mainly due to the arcade focus of the library. Such a classic system. RIP Sega.

*I also dug out an old C&VG with E-swat and my old Complete Guide to Consoles with the MD Eswat on the covers for that early 90's feel.

Eswat - Completed 1 Life
http://youtu.be/26WGZmmFo9A

[BIL]

Nice vid, very cool to see MD E-SWAT played with an arcade stick! Would be cool to try that with Chelnov, Snow Bros, Puyo Puyo Tsu and other first-rate MD home ports. Although I could never settle on one system among FC/MD/SFC (all have a good dozen or so of my favourites), the MD's demi-arcade nature has a particular place in my heart.

[Ex_Mosquito]

Cheers mate Yeah, I havnt used a D-pad for over 10years and when I tried using the MD pad again it felt kinda restricting and less precise, that's why I went with the stick. I also think an arcade stick adds 20% to the funability factor Yeah same as me, I love the SFC as well but I think if I had the choice of 1 console I'd go with the MD, purely for the short arcade style games. I've never been much of a fan of RPGs really.

[yojo!]

E-Swat is one those game where hard mode is significantly harder on the JP version than on the US one. Most noticeably on the 3rd level where you really start to feel the pain with that purple stuff failing from the ceiling.

[BrianC]

E-Swat is one those game where hard mode is significantly harder on the JP version than on the US one. Most noticeably on the 3rd level where you really start to feel the pain with that purple stuff failing from the ceiling.

I have to check to see if the US cart plays the JP version. I know for sure the title screen is different (says City Under Siege under ESWAT in US mode, but has the acronym spelled out as something like Enhanced Special Weapons and Tactics in JP mode).

[Ex_Mosquito]

I thought the high difficulty setting just gave you less energy and capped it at 4bars? I wasn't aware the enemies were harder?

[BrianC]

Telling from videos, it looks like Stage 4 (the stage with the slime) has different enemies for the US and JP versions of ESWAT. US version has extra soldiers in the level and the JP version has a rain of slime at the beginning of the stage.