Today (August 14th) is the anniversary date of the launch of the SEGA Genesis here in the United States, back in 1989. The console enjoyed success here, strongly competing with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and even taking the lead at times in sales. I thought it would be fun to share some anecdotes and observations relating to SEGA’s 16-bit machine that did what Nintendidn’t. (Allegedly.)
For starters, in August of 1989, I was not yet a console video game player. As a soon-to-be high school senior in Greenfield, Massachusetts, I was still all in on my Commodore 64 for home play and would play any arcade game I could find while out and about. Notably, I was playing a lot of Hardball!, 4th & Inches, and California Games on my C64– sports video games that were laying a foundation for my video gaming preferences for many years to come. I also played Cyberball at the local teen center every weekend, too, further feeding into that sports game interest.
When I did play console video games in 1989 and 1990, it was mostly at friends’ houses, and on NES consoles. My little brother saved money and bought a TurboGrafx-16 for Christmas of 1989, which I played at times. Genesis just wasn’t on the radar. When I got my own NES for Christmas of 1990, that was followed in the fall of 1991 by an SNES that I bought. NES and SNES is what my friends and I were playing. John Madden Football, Super Bases Loaded, F-Zero, and others got regular play and rotation among us.
In the fall of 1992, while visiting a small independent video game store in Auburn, MA, I saw a Genesis playing a demo game of football. What I saw wasn’t the kicker (no pun intended). It was the sound– specifically, Sports Talk commentary. NFL Sports Talk Football ’93 blew my mind. The concept of running commentary in a sports game completely changed my expectations for presentation. It was kind of like watching the game on TV, even if some of the lines were a bit delayed or occasionally repetitive. The game looked good, too… and after trying a few plays myself, I bought a used Genesis and this game.
Sports games, to me, are what sets Genesis apart from Super Nintendo. Not that Genesis doesn’t have non-sports games that I play (the Road Rash series, the Streets of Rage series, several STGs, and more), but sports games for the Genesis so often made their SNES cousins look bad by comparison. Sports games from Electronic Arts had smoother animations and quicker pacing. SEGA’s own sports games were fun to play, with earlier offerings leaning toward the arcade side of the spectrum. Several games, like NBA JAM, had battery saves versus passwords for the SNES versions. If you were a sports video game player, as I was and still am, owning a Genesis was/is essential.
In the late winter of 1994, I wound up choosing the Genesis as my NBA JAM machine. That was a huge deal, given how much of a fan of the arcade game that I was. March 4th, 1994 was the tail end of a sizable snowstorm in Western Massachusetts… but I was not going to be denied. I walked from my house to the Fairfield Mall in a steady snowfall to get the game I preordered, then walked back home. After shrugging off my wet clothes, I then played JAM for hours that afternoon. It was the best choice, too, as not only did this version of JAM have battery backup, but also better music and more voice clips. While I own both versions today, the Genesis version is still the one I fire up every now and again. I’ll tinker with the SNES version in emulation, where save states replace passwords, but the Genesis version and I will always have history.
PGA Tour Golf III for the Genesis remains one of my all-time favorite golf video games. That’s elite company when you think about how many strong golf games have come out since late 1994. For me, it’s still right there with Hot Shots Golf for the original PlayStation, Links 2004 on the original XBox, Tiger Woods 2004/2005 for XBox (and PS2), Mario Golf for Game Boy Color and its Advance Tour (GBA) and Toadstool Tour (GCN) sequels, and the PS2 Hot Shots Golf games. PGA Tour Golf III does the little things. Cumulative course and golfer stats, ball striking adjustments, new courses… all while retaining the features from its PGA Tour Golf predecessors that, to me, make PGA Tour Golf III special to me. I’ve spent many hours sitting in front of a TV or monitor, sometimes with a calculator in hand, combining planning, math, and timing to orchestrate under-par rounds and good tournament outcomes. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Good stuff.
30+ years later, I’ve re-added Genesis to my collection and have built a formidable library of sports games for it. The games nobody else seems to want sit on my shelves, as reminders of why I consider the Genesis to be great. NHL 94 and beyond. The World Series Baseball games. The evolution and growth of the Madden series. Arcade and sim sports co-existing, where I can pop in Cyberball or Super High Impact and then get more serious with Madden. Greatest Heavyweights is no Super Punch-Out!!, but it’s not trying to be. Even more so than in the 90s, I have access to a library of games that can scratch the itch for any sport in video game form that I have, and that’s great.
Admittedly, my video game collecting energy has shifted more to Super Nintendo and even back to the original PlayStation than to my Genesis library, but my trip to RetroWorld Expo in mid-September opens the playing field. Road Rash 3, maybe? NBA Live 98 and NHL 98, perhaps? Tecmo Super Hockey? Phelios? I’m excited to see what’s next… but it sure is fun to look back, too.
Happy US-versary, Genesis. Thanks for the memories then, and now.
Pete's Perspective 
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