Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Tuesday, 1 Sep 1992 02:14:35 CDT
From: <U20565@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: A bad OMEN for the GENESIS from Japan

About a month ago I put a post asking anyone who owned a SNES and GENESIS to
comment on which was the better system. After explicitly stating that no one
who just owned one or the other should participate (obvious bias) I only
received one of the latter responses.

Basically the SNES won. People's experiences seemed to parallel mine. They
purhcased the GENESIS for its superiority and obvious better graphics and
gameplay over the other home systems.

Then the SNES comes along and despite a much more limited library has
demonstrated more quality games within that limited library than the GENESIS.
Not that no quality games exist for the GENESIS but given the much larger
library the selection has been piss poor. Unfortunately we seemed to have
gone through whatever quality games existed for the GENESIS and our SEGA
system has been idle.

I have gotten a lot more value in my investment in the SNES. I have purchased
more games in a two month period than I have for the GENESIS in a year. Add the
fact that the last two for the GENESIS were complete dogs and about $100
wasted dollars and my apprehension has increased substantially. Lots of new
games for the GENESIS mentioned on the pages of EGM but very few look
attractive.

After my experimental questionaire, which by no means is scientific, I saw
some complaints by a couple of GENESIS owners about the lack of any decent
games coming out. Complaints about the fact that anything that was produced
by other than SEGA, you had to watch your dollars (potential dogs).

Don't get me wrong, I like my GENESIS. After a very long haitus, something
came along (that I rented) that I liked. Road Rash from Electronic Arts.
After seeing "Fatal Rewind" from Electronic Arts (EA) I questioned anything
put out by the company.

I look forward to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Batman Returns for the SEGA CD.
I saw the latter two a the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Chicago.
Problem is, that's about the only thing which caught my eye. And say what
you want the lack of punch in the GENESIS in quality games finally has
manifested itself in real world terms.

It was reported that sales of the MegaDrive (GENESIS here in the US) have
plummetted in Japan in recent months. That and the reception of the MEGA-CD
have been mediocre. I wonder why.... (source of info: EGM)

I think after you own a SNES system and see some of the games, the latter
would explain itself very clearly. In fact this has been the impetus for the
initial research and development of a 32 bit system from SEGA. Such a system
would be far off. SEGA has to save itself by getting its third party
licenses in the ass and get some better games out on the market. SEGA itself
hasn't been a bed of roses either. Their "Alisia Dragoon" which was my last
GENESIS purhcase was awful, lame, crappy, add whatever else "superlatives"
you like.e

The SNES may have some inherent advantages, scaling and rotation. Keyword
here, "inherent." Rotation has been demonstrated very well on the GENESIS,
e.g. Sonic the Hedgehog in the bonus stages. However inherent facilities are
different from those which you have to reinvent the wheel for every game.
The SNES has demonstrated much richer colors as well.

Even with the latter points against the GENESIS I still think it can be
as good as the SNES in terms of quality. "Quality" games that is. People have
different tastes, but that doesn't explain the great disparity in the amount
of money I have invested in the SNES per unit of time than the GENESIS.

What is happening in Japan I believe is simply a concrete example of how the
GENESIS lacks quality in terms of games when compared to the SNES system.
You can say whatever you wish, but numbers don't lie. When sales drop off
there must be an underlying reason......
Newsgroups: rec.games.video