Visualshock! Speedshock! Soundshock! The Mega Drive is 20 today.

On this day in 1988 the Mega Drive was released in Japan. It was actually about 2 and a half years from this point before Sonic The Hedgehog debuted on the system. Just take that into perspective for a moment: 2 and a half years was very much the Dreamcast's entire life span (if you don't count all those shmups released here and there afterwards, but I'll be going into the Dreamcast more next month for the Dreamcast's 10th Birthday) and yet in this time the Mega Drive had barely even started and would only get stronger and stronger from there on. It was Sega's most successful console in Europe and America, and longest living on the market worldwide. It was also the only console that managed to shake up Nintendo's stranglehold on the gaming market at the time and force them to push themselves to make their own 16-bit console. If it wasn't for the Mega Drive, Nintendo would of most likely of sat on the NES for much longer and wouldn't have felt pressured to make even better games which to the most heated and most exciting console "war" in it's history to date.

The Mega Drive still lives in many forms. The games are available on the Wii's Virtual console, on many Sega collection discs released, and in dozens of TV plug in and handheld devices, like this recently released tiny console that has 20 games built in and even a cartridge slot for the original. Mega Drive systems and games are also still sold in Brazil, where it even got some brand new games like a suprisenly well done port of Duke Nukem 3D.
Still, there is nothing quite like playing these games on the original hardware and you don't as much classy than the original model. The Mega Drive looked and feeled like a truly powerful and slick piece of hardware at the time, especially compared to the plastic lump that was the NES. It was also dark and not very toy-like at all, which was quite unusual for a console. There were many different kinds of Mega Drive models released in later years (The Wondermega, MegaJet, Mega Drive II and 3, the list goes on) but this will always be the most iconic.

Saying that, this is what I currently own and is my favorite model of the lot: The Multi Mega. At about half the size, with both the Mega Drive cart slot and a Mega CD disc drive, it is a wonderfully small but robust system. Combine this with a good scart cable for my LCD telly and a extra Master System converter makes it the ultimate retro system for me. The CD drive actually conked out on it a little while ago but I made sure to get it fixed, mainly because I'll never find one of these cheap again, I reckon. Did I mention it came from a car boot sale for £6.50? I probably did, because it's probably the best gaming related purchase I have ever made.

One of my other favorite things about the Mega Drive has to be it's controller. It's possibly one of the most comfortable to hold ever made, has a fantastic d-pad and great feeling buttons. Every thing about it just comes together beautifully. The six button controller they released later was a bit small for my tastes, but many claim it to be their favorite controller of all time.

Some things I can never say i liked was how Sega of America handled the Mega Drive. Simply put, the "Genesis" is a pretty dumb name, and the advertising, while very effective, was pretty obnoxious, often making up utter codswallop like "blast processing". I guess in that case I can see Nintendo fans who grew up in the US of A found Sega to be quite annoying and quite difficult to take seriously. Sega Europe were far more clever with their advertising (if a little batshit at times, see my Pirate TV articles), which is probably why is was even bigger over here still, although it also helps that Nintendo of Europe always were and always will be incompetent.

But in the end for me it was the games that really made the Mega Drive for me. The variety and quantity on offer was just something else. The excellent video above by youtube user Alianger does a very nice job at summing up what the Mega Drive was all about. If you don't have time to dust off your Mega Drive today to give it a play, at least watch this 10 minute epic.

Sega Fanart Showcase: Space Channel 5

Haven't done one of these in a long while, have I? Even though racketboy already did a Space Channel 5 art showcase, but he barely scraped the surface of just how much great art fopr this game there is floating about. The game is still well known despite not having a new game in years, mainly thanks to Sega giving her cameos in many of their recent games like Sega Superstars Tennis and the new Samba De Amigo. With any luck they may be considering giving Ulala the come back she truly deserves with a brand new game one of these days. Until then though, here's some brilliant art by the games many talented fans. Eniotna in particular has too much great SC5 fan art to include here, so I've just featured my favorites of his here.

- Bonjour Ev'rybody - by ~Eniotna

- Pudding Desu - by ~Eniotna

More after the jump..

I'm a terrible man

Long time, no post, I know. I've actually been back from Japan now for nearly two months, and I still haven't really got off my arse to sort out my article about the surprising prevelance of SEGA within Japan. What can I say, I am a tad lazy. It may be a little while yet before you see said article, but in the mean time, let me update you on the awesomeness that is Samba De Amigo for the Wii.



It has Sonic in it. That's a pretty groovy addition. Furthermore, Ulala of Space Channel 5 fame is included. I am really enjoying SEGA's recent trend of pretending the Dreamcast was the most succesful console in existence, and including references to it in its newest games. First we had SEGA Superstars Tennis, which was filled with fan service, left, right and possibly even centre, and now we have Ulala in the new Samba De Amigo game. It's like it's all coming together (just pretend Sonic & The Black Knight doesn't exist).

Okay, I realise this entire post is a big cop out on my part, but it is basically to inform you that I have intentions to make an article at some point. In the mean time, here is a small teaser image;


You saw it here first, Sonic is encouraging middle aged Japanese men to spend their hard earned yen in a very noisy gambling arcade, whilst he rocks out on a guitar and so on.

Sega of Americas Holy Grail

I'm sure if you browse gaming blogs you will have already seen this by now (most likely at Kotaku where they made up some rubbish about Sega forgetting all about it, either from mis-reading or an excuse to take a pop at Sega AKA gaming's whipping boy), but I can't NOT post about this archive of Sega's back catalog that they store at the American offices. Apparently it holds just about every game Sega has ever made or published, as well as all their consoles and peripherals. It truly is a beautiful sight to behold, and they have even more games stacked behind the ones shown in the photos!

A whole draw full of what look like Dreamcast GD-Rs. They even have a list for them all.

More after the jump!

Tiny Sega keychains of awesome

As you may of noticed, I have managed to stumble upon quite a few bits of Japanese Sega junk in recent months, from Gashapon Sega gal toys to that art book and the little NiGHTS pre-order bonus. A little while ago (the last few posts have mostly been backlog) I also got my hands on this set of Japanese Sega keychains. They were quite cheap and there was two sets all selaed up amongst them, although one of the designs shown on the card (a white Sega Saturn) was missing. Even though they're keychains you could easily take the chain part off and keep them as little figures, which I've done by sitting them along my Dreamcast game shelfs. They're rather neat, I must say. Photos after the jump!

Sega Art Book of Sheer Beauty Part 3: Wallpapers!

The same images you just saw the scans of, but now as wallpapers. They are all 1280 X 1024, so if they're too big just shrink and if they're too small, sorry! I could maybe make bigger sized versions of some of them if anyone wants them, but for now these will do.

More wallpapers after the jump!

Japanese Sega Art Book of Sheer Beauty Part 2: Scans!

As I promised here are some full scale scans from that wonderful Sega game illustrations book.

Here's a scanned example of one of the pages, which not only contains all that lovely felt-tip pen colored art from Sonic 1, but also talks of the characters' "charming and saucy nature". Hmm. No doubt the PAL Sonic 1 box art was nicer, though. More scans after the jump.

Japanese Sega Art Book of Sheer Beauty

Now, video game art books are by no means a rare thing in Japan, but Sega ones seem to be few and far between. However, I manged to find this one on Ebay some time ago and won it for about £12. The book contains a variety of artwork from many Mega Drive and Game Gear games, starring the main front cover art as full page spends and littered with character art from the lovely full colour manuals they got over there. More after the jump.

Classic Sonic Figures possibly delayed

Remember those rather fantastic classic style Sonic figures First4Figures announced some time ago? They were listed as due this month (and still are on Play-Asia) but on Play.com it now lists them for the 30th of September. Maybe the vague "July" date was just a placeholder but either way it means we've got a wait a bit longer to own what look like the nicest pieces of Sonic plastic ever made.


In other news the 12" limited edition statue of Sonic from the same range is up on both Play-Asia and Play.com, with the same date included. Above is a rather fancy picture of it as seen on First4Figures' website, where they state that preorders start on the 31st of this month. Since we saw it in those Toy fair photos it has gained a fancy Green Hill zone-like stand. My wallet is going to HURT when this stuff comes along in a few months time. Either way I've pre-ordered it with Play.com as it's £65 (and free postage) rather than the RRP of £85.That website is UK only though so sorry Americans!

Oh yeah, and remember those classic sonic range concept images from Impact Innovations? Well all those images have completely vanished from the website, replaced with simple "Coming soon!" buttons and no PDF file links. At least this most likely means those designs were far from complete and the final toys will look much nicer.

Possibly the greatest Sonic tie in the world (and some caps)

Ok, so that's maybe a exaggeration but it's still rather classy. I remember dad owning this back in the day, and on one day of sorting out from a pile of ties what to sell, my child self made sure he didn't get rid of this one. In all honestly for the last few years I had forgotten I even still had this lying around somewhere, but recently in a sort out of my wardrobe I found it tucked away in the corner where I evidentially never look, next to a pair of Sonic caps I also left down there to be forgotten about. More stuff after the jump.