Awesome stuff you've just bought (+pics please)

[MintyTheCat]

It had a great run as a budget console here in the UK - games topped out at £30/33 whereas for the Mega Drive typically you were looking at £45/50. Almost everyone I knew had one though - often as an only console but also frequently alongside a Mega Drive. A handful of cool kids had a SNES but the SMS was very popular through being an affordable option.

It was really well supported by retailers in the early 90s whereas the NES had been pretty much abandoned in favour of the SNES. I don't recall seeing many NES titles in shops and even the few kids I knew that had one basically just had Duck Hunt and Mario/2/3.

That's how I remember it being. The Sunday Times' kids' paper always had adverts for the SMS and MD. Import shops were a bit more specialised. I was using Console Concepts back then but most of the kids at school did not know what a PC Engine was. That is how it was often in those days. Luckily, I saw the PC Engine first-hand. Thinking back I knew one friend at school who had a NES but most of the consolers had a Megadrive. But back then many more had a Home Computer which was probably more popular in England. The price of games was pretty high back then on consoles and it was not oft found that there was a budget range for consoles as there was for Home Computers. Still, most people back then were all pirating Amiga and atari games

I remember having saved up to buy my MD that after about a year or so I sold it and bought a Super nintendo - a good decision looking back but I was one of the first kids in my school year to get a SNES. I had begun reading Superplay and realised that "this is it" at that time and jumped ship

[Skykid]

It had a great run as a budget console here in the UK - games topped out at £30/33 whereas for the Mega Drive typically you were looking at £45/50. Almost everyone I knew had one though - often as an only console but also frequently alongside a Mega Drive. A handful of cool kids had a SNES but the SMS was very popular through being an affordable option.

It was really well supported by retailers in the early 90s whereas the NES had been pretty much abandoned in favour of the SNES. I don't recall seeing many NES titles in shops and even the few kids I knew that had one basically just had Duck Hunt and Mario/2/3.

Where are you from in the UK?

SMS had a strong presence in certain retailers like Currys or Comet, but larger stores like Toys R' Us or dedicated game stores were in favour of NES every time - in London.

I can't comment on places outside of London because I didn't grow up there, but most kids I went to school with had a NES and I was one of the only guys with an SMS.

MD definitely came out blasting in the UK and spawned a lot of dedicated magazines (including the Mean Machines Sega spinoff) and it took a while before the SNES drew level and eventually snuffed it. The SNES was my first 16-bit console but after a year with it I got a used MD from someone. There was a lot of time spent with both, especially when I figured out import gaming.

[MX7]

I didn't know anyone who had a NES growing up (except one person when I lived in Ireland). Everyoene had a Master System. Same deal with the SNES and MD. Obviously this is purely observational.

[charlie chong]

everyone from school i knew had different home systems.. one guy would have a amstrad ,one would have a speccy,one had a c64,one had a nes ,s.t etc
the only system that everyone had was gameboy.. then megadrives kind of changed the game once the price dropped from its initial £180 pricepoint and nearly everyone had one
one posh kid even had a bbc poor bugger

[Stevens]

Here in the states I was the kid with the SMS, everyone else had an NES.

[TransatlanticFoe]

It had a great run as a budget console here in the UK - games topped out at £30/33 whereas for the Mega Drive typically you were looking at £45/50. Almost everyone I knew had one though - often as an only console but also frequently alongside a Mega Drive. A handful of cool kids had a SNES but the SMS was very popular through being an affordable option.

It was really well supported by retailers in the early 90s whereas the NES had been pretty much abandoned in favour of the SNES. I don't recall seeing many NES titles in shops and even the few kids I knew that had one basically just had Duck Hunt and Mario/2/3.

Where are you from in the UK?

SMS had a strong presence in certain retailers like Currys or Comet, but larger stores like Toys R' Us or dedicated game stores were in favour of NES every time - in London.

I can't comment on places outside of London because I didn't grow up there, but most kids I went to school with had a NES and I was one of the only guys with an SMS.

MD definitely came out blasting in the UK and spawned a lot of dedicated magazines (including the Mean Machines Sega spinoff) and it took a while before the SNES drew level and eventually snuffed it. The SNES was my first 16-bit console but after a year with it I got a used MD from someone. There was a lot of time spent with both, especially when I figured out import gaming.

East Anglia - so not exactly the posterboy for technological progress! But I know people from around the country and most that grew up with video games had an SMSII with Alex Kidd.

Retail-wise I used to go to loads of shops around the region in search of different games - because there's only 5 notable towns to shop in anyway. But where there was SMS, the stock wasn't far off Mega Drive (and later, SNES), levels. Local Toys R Us stores had an aisle of basically every SMS game released. But pretty much every other shop that had games stocked a lot of SMS... and back then tonnes of shops sold game, not just electronics ones - Debenhams, John Lewis, Boots, United News. Woolworths even had a good selection into 1995, though the majority of shops stopped stocking SMS after the first half of 1994.

We didn't have many dedicated stores that covered consoles (loads based around personal computers that sneered at consoles and even gaming). There was an import shop in Cambridge but obviously didn't have any SMS. Future Zone came along later - they didn't stock NES for very long but SMS got shelf space right up until it became Electronics Boutique.

[lilmanjs]

Serial Experiments Lain for less than $20 at the local sidewalk sale. Blu-ray/dvd combo pack too. New Buckingham/McVie album, Hospital Ships first album, Jack Ryan movie pack on dvd.

[Tarma]

When I was a kid in the late 80s most kids had an ST or an Amiga if they were still gaming as the 16-Bit era started to develop. I only knew one kid with a SMS and one with a NES. I was lucky enough to get a NES, but the only place you could get games near me was Toys R Us, and the carts were expensive - £30 - £40 in 1989. Now when you were used to paying a tenner for a Speccy or C64 release, or £15 - £20 for a ST or Amiga release, NES games were damn expensive.

By the time I started seeing SMS and NES games being offered locally in the multiples, the Mega Drive era had begun and the SNES was just around the corner.

By the time the 32-Bit era began to kick off in 1995 (UK market) lots of kids had either SNES or MD but few had ever owned the SMS or NES previously.

[Sumez]

Just got this thing which I think definitely qualifies as "awesome stuff":

[Skykid]

Everybody's memories in the UK are really interesting!

I was trying really hard last night to remember the exact console demographic among school friends and neighbors, and managed to recall three distinct NESes: the one my friend had up the road, which is also the one I spent the majority of time on in the 8bit era because the lucky so and so had about 40 games eventually. It was the first console I ever played and the first time I held a D-Pad. It was also an early entry into import gaming because I seem to remember he brought it back from the US with Donkey Kong in tow and his mother had a struggle finding games before eventually swappng it for a UK model.

The other was a kid just around the corner. He was the first I saw with the NES Zapper and Duck Hunt.

And when in secondary school there was NES guy who was a Zelda addict and wouldn't shut up about it, and we occasionally played that at his place.

SMSII people were me and my immediate neighboir, who ended up getting one because I got one so we could trade games. And the guy opposite had an Amstrad, and we used to sit there playing Gauntlet, Barbairan, SWIV and Dizzy all day long with him.

It was a good spread. I think the NES felt more dominant to me because that was the one I played the most, even after I got my SMS, but then I practically live in my friend's house after he got one. We would be up all night demolishing the library.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was my first ever bonafide 1CC from what I can remember.

[BrianC]

I'm the oddball that grew up with the Atari 7800 (though I did have NES).

[Bananamatic]

we only had the chink bootleg NES things (when the PSX was already out because everyone was too fucking poor for actual consoles) and only 2 kids in my class had a gameboy with pokemon
thanks communism

[BIL]

Just got this thing which I think definitely qualifies as "awesome stuff":

Fucking rad.

[Stevens]

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was my first ever bonafide 1CC from what I can remember.

Ugh. I could never finish the last room.

[Skykid]

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was my first ever bonafide 1CC from what I can remember.

Ugh. I could never finish the last room.

After getting there the first time, I got a pen and paper out and started to write the sequence down before dying and having to start all over again. Took me several attempts to finish the sequence.

Cheapest piece of shit ever that last room and the ending was basically non-existent. Had fun doing it though, and there were no continues so it was 1CC or nuthin.

[BrianC]

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was my first ever bonafide 1CC from what I can remember.

Ugh. I could never finish the last room.

After getting there the first time, I got a pen and paper out and started to write the sequence down before dying and having to start all over again. Took me several attempts to finish the sequence.

Cheapest piece of shit ever that last room and the ending was basically non-existent. Had fun doing it though, and there were no continues so it was 1CC or nuthin.

From what I remember, I did something along the same lines. I'm glad I got that game. Funny thing is despite ordering from a US store, the game seems to have been the EU version since it had the EU style multi-language manual and box.

[MintyTheCat]

When I was a kid in the late 80s most kids had an ST or an Amiga if they were still gaming as the 16-Bit era started to develop. I only knew one kid with a SMS and one with a NES. I was lucky enough to get a NES, but the only place you could get games near me was Toys R Us, and the carts were expensive - £30 - £40 in 1989. Now when you were used to paying a tenner for a Speccy or C64 release, or £15 - £20 for a ST or Amiga release, NES games were damn expensive.

By the time I started seeing SMS and NES games being offered locally in the multiples, the Mega Drive era had begun and the SNES was just around the corner.

By the time the 32-Bit era began to kick off in 1995 (UK market) lots of kids had either SNES or MD but few had ever owned the SMS or NES previously.

It was early on in the console introduction. I remember a few kids had 2600 machines too but most had a Megadrive.
But more so kids had a home computer; loads of friends learned to program on Spectrums and Commodore 64 machines and then many upgraded to Amiga and atari.
In late 80s and early 90s money 40-50 quid was a lot back then. I remember buying games such as Turrican for a pound or so on budget release for the C64. I actually completed my first games on the C64 back then : Turrican and Midnight Resistance. I still think that the C64 and the Amiga are pretty good for games.

Sonic on the Megadrive really changed many things for kids. The number of people who have told me that they saw Sonic the Hedgehog on The Gamemaster TV show and then wanted a MD is quite some It was a marvellous time.

Edit: and the GM show is on YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umD4dhqLjC4

That was a decent TV show back in the early 90s. It was a UK show that covered all sorts of gaming. It was mad to see old grannies battling each other on a NeoGeo AES playing King of the Monsters 2 I can tell you

[Skykid]

Oh Games Master was the best thing ever. I lived by that show, my highlight of the week. Bless Dominik Diamond and his pre-watershed surreptitious profanity and overt sexism, he was legendary.

[MintyTheCat]

Oh Games Master was the best thing ever. I lived by that show, my highlight of the week. Bless Dominik Diamond and his pre-watershed surreptitious profanity and overt sexism, he was legendary.

It felt kind of underground back then. I used to tape it on VHS no less.

"overt sexism" We did not care about that back then.

They were really good at covering the NeoGeo. I had played it in arcades about a year or so before GM covered it.
It was all kind of underground through the magazines and GM and then there was Bad Influence that always had Joe & Mac being played in the background. A very different world it was back then.

[FinalBaton]

Here in my part of NTSC-U land, it was almost all NES for that gen(plus the ubiquitous Gameboy!). We got ours in 88, and rented one a couple times before. We had a 2600 before that

Didn't know anyone else back then with a SMS. These days I'm able to retrace a few owners in my entourage though.

16 bit gen was very even in my entourage. pretty much 50/50 SNES/GEN (didn't know anyone who owned a Turbogarfx 16). I personnally had a SNES and loved it. The Square RPGs were mind blowing to me, I played some of them on release or very close to it (FF2, FF3, Crono Trigger, Secret of Mana) and they are probably my fondest gaming memories ever, that was such a wonderful time. I'll cherish this forever and wouldn't trade that for anything in the world

before owning my SNES we rented one on every birthday party or whenever friends slept over. Turtles in Time and Street Fighter 2 were both YUGE rentals. YUUUUUUUGE

One of my best friends had a Genesis and copies of Phantasy Star IV and Shining Force 2 amongst others and those 2 impressed me soooo damn much, they captured my imagination like no other. I would watch him play them regularly. We were playing D&D hardcore back then and we even did a campaign set in the Phantasy Star universe, lol. That's how much we were nuts over that game. I would also routinely create classes based on FF characters.

On the computer front I personally didn't have a lot of computer gamer friends back then, but I'm sure it's not representative of the landscape. Commodore 64 sold like gangbusters over here too and it seems many people gamed on them.

My family wasn't computer gamers at all, my oldest brother got a pre-286 at some point and he fiddle on it but not the rest of us. We computer-gamed a bit later with Alone In The Dark and Doom on our newfangled 486 in 95 or so, but not much before. (played DOOM at school in computer class like everyone else of the era, though)
We were pretty much console peasants. lol

[Skykid]

Oh Games Master was the best thing ever. I lived by that show, my highlight of the week. Bless Dominik Diamond and his pre-watershed surreptitious profanity and overt sexism, he was legendary.

It felt kind of underground back then. I used to tape it on VHS no less.

"overt sexism" We did not care about that back then.

They were really good at covering the NeoGeo. I had played it in arcades about a year or so before GM covered it.
It was all kind of underground through the magazines and GM and then there was Bad Influence that always had Joe & Mac being played in the background. A very different world it was back then.

Indeed it was. Amazing memories. If they weren't so special I doubt any of us would be drawn to the hobby the way we are today.

I remember the Neo on GM, especially the Top Hunter challenge because I thought the game looked so incredible at the time. I also remember seeing my first Neo Cart firsthand in the import store, Fatal Fury, being pulled out of its enormous shockbox and slapped into an AES on the counter. I was a little kid and asked a stupid question about it. Good times!

[FinalBaton]

Top Hunter

that's a very colourful game, I wish I saw it on an arcade monitor back then!

[MintyTheCat]

Top Hunter

that's a very colourful game, I wish I saw it on an arcade monitor back then!

I love it. It was one of the games that 'would be mine' one day as I stood outside Console-Concepts in 1994 watching it in action - they had Last-Resort on the display next to it too.

Top-Hunter may well be one of the most beautiful 2D platformers that easily comes to mind and it has that 'jumping between planes' mechanic. Really nice, lush graphics.
I got mine from a guy in sapporo back in the late 90s way before we were using PayPal; each AES title told its own tale of acquisition back then for me.

[BrianC]

Charlie Brown!

[wgogh]

Charlie Brown!

Oh, i got two volumes of that "Complete Peanuts". Good stuff. Hail the Great Pumpkin.
Dont know about that new movie yet, though

[BrianC]

Charlie Brown!

Oh, i got two volumes of that "Complete Peanuts". Good stuff. Hail the Great Pumpkin.
Dont know about that new movie yet, though

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Great Pumpkin also happens to be one of the specials in the 60s set. I have an older collection of 50s Peanuts comics and I was impressed by the quality of the Complete Peanuts book.

[MintyTheCat]

Charlie Brown!

I have some of these collected Peanuts works and they are really nice. It is interesting to see the original designs for the characters for the early strips.

[BrianC]

Charlie Brown!

I have some of these collected Peanuts works and they are really nice. It is interesting to see the original designs for the characters for the early strips.

This is my first Fantagraphics volume, but I have a book with 50s comics and it's no contest which one is better quality. I was also impressed by Fantagraphics volumes of Carl Barks Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics.






I initially ordered the Bourne Classified collection since it was on sale for cheaper than the Bourne Trilogy, but it was getting to the point I didn't know when or if it was coming. I also had no interest in Bourne Legacy or the cardboard sleeve packing, so I cancelled the order and ordered the Trilogy instead.

[wgogh]

Fantagraphics had awesome releases. I wish they would sell it around here.
Man, the Love & Rockets books..

[Tarma]

Top Hunter

that's a very colourful game, I wish I saw it on an arcade monitor back then!

I love it. It was one of the games that 'would be mine' one day as I stood outside Console-Concepts in 1994 watching it in action - they had Last-Resort on the display next to it too.

Top-Hunter may well be one of the most beautiful 2D platformers that easily comes to mind and it has that 'jumping between planes' mechanic. Really nice, lush graphics.
I got mine from a guy in sapporo back in the late 90s way before we were using PayPal; each AES title told its own tale of acquisition back then for me.

Gamesmaster was just fucking awesome... except Season 3 with Dexter Fletcher, which was a bit meh.

I've got the final episode on DVD, it was a freebit with the magazine, donkeys years back.

Did either of you go to Gamesmaster Live at the NEC in late '92?