The Sega Genesis Turns 20 Years Old This Week

What will be known as the most successful console in Sega’s long history, the Mega Drive (aka Genesis) was first released this week in Japan back in 1988. The Genesis officially began the 16-bit era, offering near-perfect ports of popular arcade games as well as hot original titles. It struggled at first in the face of the long-running NES and new-comer TurboGrafx-16, until a little blue hedgehog came along and changed the industry forever.

Once Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis, the console wars had begun. While it actually dominated the market in Japan, the TG-16 fizzled into obscurity. Nintendo scrambled to keep up by developing its own 16-bit console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Though the SNES arguably hosted some of the most beautiful and well-designed games of the era, it couldn’t beat Sega’s roughneck attitude.

After Sonic, The Big N suffered its second blow with the release of Mortal Kombat. The Genesis port (while in many other ways inferior) was able to deliver the explosive blood gamers had been demanding, when the SNES version was censored to spraying white “sweat.” Or at least, god, we hoped it was sweat!

Drunk with power, Sega worked toward expanding the Genesis brand with loads of add-ons and peripherals. Sega helped make backward compatibility popular with the Power Base Converter, which allowed you to play the 8-bit Sega Master System games on the Genesis. The cartridge for Sonic & Knuckles also allowed you to connect previous Sonic games atop it and play through them as Knuckles.

The Sega CDX: The Genesis's Ultimate Stage of Evolution

Then came the components that are known to make up the “Sega Tower Of Power.” First came the underrated Sega CD, a system that had great potential, but couldn’t get past annoying interactive movie-style games. To lead the way into the ambiguous 32-bit era while they continued to develop the Sega Saturn, Sega released the 32X add-on which had a small (yet respectable) lineup and needed its own power supply!

During the lifespan of the Genesis, the system underwent many redesigns. There were four major versions of the base console, ending with the Genesis 3, made by Majesco. There were two portable versions of the Genesis starting with the Japanese Mega-Jet, a handheld unit with controller buttons and connected to a television. Next came the Nomad, which sported a built-in LCD screen.

Many combination units were also produced, incorporating the Sega CD. The Sega CDX is a hot commodity because of its superior hardware, low production run, and it doubles as a portable CD player! Third party units include JVC’s X’eye, Pioneer’s LaserActive, and the Aiwa Mega CD boombox. That’s right… A boombox that plays Sega Genesis games.

While the primary lifespan of the Genesis ended after a solid 10 year run, games are still in production for the console to this day. Just released this year was Legend of Wukong, an independently developed RPG that got published as a cartridge! The Genesis is even remembered in collections of its most classic titles ported for current-gen consoles.

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