Megadrive/Genesis Appreciation Thread

[Team Andromeda]

Don't go there...as an ST owner who had loads of Amiga-owning friends, it's all too painful...

Haha the old Amiga fans...

Used to get stick off them, for being a MegaDrive fan (never mind having a ST). Love the day I showed them the MD ports of Strider, Ghost N' Ghouls and Super Hang-On and seeing them left speechless.
Have to say Amiga was a great machine thouugh (way better than the ST Was even better for me as I mine given to me for nothing .

[imzu]

Haha the old Amiga fans...

Used to get stick off them, for being a MegaDrive fan (never mind having a ST). Love the day I showed them the MD ports of Strider, Ghost N' Ghouls and Super Hang-On and seeing them left speechless.
Have to say Amiga was a great machine thouugh (way better than the ST Was even better for me as I mine given to me for nothing .

I used have both an Amiga and a Megadrive. But game conversions are not only down to the target hardware but to the skill of the game programmers and how much support Capcom/Konami/whoever give to the conversionists.

Rainbow Islands (Taito) was an excellent Amiga game, New Zealand Story wasn't bad either.

Amiga Ghouls n Ghosts /Strider were nowhere near as impressive as the MD versions. Mind you, if the Amiga came with a 3 button joypad by default and you gave the conversion to a bunch of ****-hot Scandinavian demoscene coders with 12 months to kill...

[muddy]

Mind you, if the Amiga came with a 3 button joypad by default and you gave the conversion to a bunch of ****-hot Scandinavian demoscene coders with 12 months to kill...

...then the game would have a lush intro and still play like ****

[Leon Retro]

I think you picked me up wrong mate. He had mentioned that the SNES beat the MD in every area, thats why I couldn't beleive he had a MD.

Arcade conversions, shoot-em-ups and beat-em-ups all rocked on the MD

Atari ST appreciation thread - coming up soon

What I meant is, at the time the SuperNintendo arrived with it's 256-colours, a brilliant sound-chip, and the machines output looked crisper and sharper. I genuinely felt the machine destroyed the MD, that is the emotion I had when I witnessed the first-gen games with all their graphical tricks and effects plus the amazing music in games such as F-Zero CV4 and Actraiser.

Lots of people felt the same way- it wasn't some FanBoy thing. Just look at the old mags and how they went crazy about the SuperFamicom as if it were the most amazing thing ever. I always got the impression from most mags that the MD was put in the shadows somewhat when the SuperNintendo appeared.

I expressed my liking for the MD- and all the games that gave me good memories. As Duddy said- the 16bit era benefited from having bother machines, and as a result there are tons of 16bit classics to play today.

I may favour the snes, but I would never be stupid enough dismiss the MD, as it is without doubt home to some of the best games ever made, and many of which I still play today!

Peace!

[Mu5]

Peace!

Sweet mate, no worries

[baad bwoy]

The snes generally gave the more glossy experience of the two consoles, whether this translates to the superior gaming experience is clearly down to personal tastes, I rememer micro machines being pretty good on the megadrive, used to play it round a friends for many an hour.

[vertigo]

The MD's composite/RF encoder, which is probably what most of us were using at the time, was really really crappy and the red bleeds all over the place, which is why in some ways the SNES looked superior, but also because the MD couldn't have as many colours on screen as the SNES (64 compared to 256).
It's a bit of a shame also that many developers chose to use dark versions of colours, like burgundies and browns instead of vivid reds, coz that also had the effect of making MD games look quite dull and lifeless a lot of the time.
The MD is still ace though, obviously
Oh and TF4 forever! Thanks very much.

[Duddyroar]

RGB on my MD was always rock-solid...even more so when played through a monitor.

In fact, it's the best picture I've ever seen from a console.

[Ostrog]

Amiga Ghouls n Ghosts /Strider were nowhere near as impressive as the MD versions.

Agreed, but GnG had nice music. In fact, the first level's tune was pretty good - quite ominous, really.
Turrican on the MD (not Mega Turrican - that was class) didn't look or sound as nice as the Amiga version, though.
I remember one of my mates trying to play the game with a joystick - he couldn't handle the whole 'push up to jump' concept at all!

[Duddyroar]

Turrican on the MD (not Mega Turrican - that was class) didn't look or sound as nice as the Amiga version, though.
I remember one of my mates trying to play the game with a joystick - he couldn't handle the whole 'push up to jump' concept at all!

But Turrican was an Amiga conversion. For direct arcade conversions, the home computers usually lost out to the consoles.

Does anyone remember the terrible Universal Soldier game - which was basically a re-tooled Turrican? It was bloody awful!

Plus, the 'push up to jump' control method was terrible, that was one of the worst things about home computer platform games!

[muse hunter]

The MD's composite/RF encoder, which is probably what most of us were using at the time, was really really crappy and the red bleeds all over the place, which is why in some ways the SNES looked superior, but also because the MD couldn't have as many colours on screen as the SNES (64 compared to 256).
It's a bit of a shame also that many developers chose to use dark versions of colours, like burgundies and browns instead of vivid reds, coz that also had the effect of making MD games look quite dull and lifeless a lot of the time.
The MD is still ace though, obviously
Oh and TF4 forever! Thanks very much.

Yeah totally agree with you there 100%. Too many md games used dark colours, thats why if i play those games today they feel lifeless and characterless, i like my 16 bit games to be bright and full of colour. Thats probably why i don't like the streets of rage and shinobi games, hopefully when i get a jap MD i'll stick to the more colourful games like new zealand story, gunstar heroes, and rainbow islands.

BTW has anyone here played the MD version of snow bros? How does it compare to the arcade version? just curious.

[Duddyroar]

Thats probably why i don't like the streets of rage and shinobi games

SOR is probably one of the most colourful series on the MD!

[muse hunter]

when i played it this year i thought the colours was very bland and not bright at all.

[muddy]

one point about the SNES graphics, a lot of the games use shades of grey instead of black for backgrounds and shadows. most MD games plumped for straight black. This alone would make all MD games look darker by contrast, but would help making things look crisper on a good RGB connection.

I played my MD through a 14" Sony portable SCART connection. loved it!

[wheelaa]

BTW has anyone here played the MD version of snow bros? How does it compare to the arcade version? just curious.

I've got both. MD version plays pretty well tbh, great fun. Cool box art too. Little pricey though but fairly easy to find.

Also get Pengu. Classic stuff for sure.