What the hell do you mean you've never heard of a Sega Genesis???
- Thread starter Mr Jones
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OP
OP
Naw, he wasn't. He enjoyed seeing the carts that I brought into the office. He's like "how big is the Neo Geo if it uses these big ass cartridges???"
OP
OP
I mean people your age probably don't know of every 70s and early 80s console. This is the same context for him. By the time he could walk and talk the Genesis was dead. Why would he know about it unless he were a hardcore enthusiast who sought that knowledge out?
Dear God I feel old.
That means there's a lot of people in the hobby that have never seen the greatest marketing campaign ever.
That means there's a lot of people in the hobby that have never seen the greatest marketing campaign ever.
I was born in 94' I owned a Genesis and that big ass portable Genesis. He just isn't into games.
If it's someone who doesn't really follow video games why would they? I'm 28 (born in 1991) and know plenty of people who never really played anything before PS1/N64.
If it makes you feel any better OP, I was born in 97 and I know what a Genesis is. It was called a mega drive in these parts.
Sonic was kind of big back then though. Hard to imagine if you were into video games back then that you never heard of it.
I have a friend of a similar age that likes video games but didn't know who Ryu, Ken, or Chun Li by name. (he does know them by image... I believe)
Game Gear got lots of publicity with Nintendo sending a cease and desist to Sega for that Dog commercial.
Dreamcast got a ton as well. People may have been waiting for a PS2 but everyone knew what a Dreamcast was.
He was 7 when Sega exited the console business, it is perfectly normal for him to not be exposed to Sega old consoles.
Growing up he was more likely to come in contact with mass market consoles like PlayStation home consoles or Nintendo handheld consoles than a dying breed like Sega consoles.
It's like pretending younger generations should know Neo Geo arcade games because Neo Geo MVS was the most widespread arcade board in the world when in reality the chance to find arcade cabinets in the wild decreased exponentially after the '80s and '90s (at least in the west).
Growing up he was more likely to come in contact with mass market consoles like PlayStation home consoles or Nintendo handheld consoles than a dying breed like Sega consoles.
It's like pretending younger generations should know Neo Geo arcade games because Neo Geo MVS was the most widespread arcade board in the world when in reality the chance to find arcade cabinets in the wild decreased exponentially after the '80s and '90s (at least in the west).
Pfft, afterward show him the Neo Geo Pocket with the tiny ass carts and expose him to the glorious digital thumbstick.
Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this
Imagine hearing that and shrugging in confusion.
When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this
Imagine hearing that and shrugging in confusion.
I hope you are joking but modern videogame forums are largely pro-SNES and anti-Sega. Younger gamers are probably getting the impression that the SNES is filled to top 10 all-time games whereas the Genesis has no classics that hold up today. Lists like IGN's top 100 don't help here. Personally I feel almost the exact reverse where the Genesis should be the console and library getting all the praise today but that is for another thread.
Genesis and SNES were getting a trickle of new games up to 98 while greatest hits reprints of major games were happening until roughly 98-99 as well. By 97 of course both systems were largely replaced in popularity by the N64/Playstation but they weren't exactly dead.
OP
OP
Pop culture stuff from my parents era is Motown. Funk music. The AMC Gremlin. The Exorcist. Star Wars. Black Panthers. Flower Power.
I'm gonna be a boomer about this. These kids need to know their history. Every gamer should have played with a Genesis and a Super Nintendo. EVERY DAMN ONE.
I'm not surprised that someone under 30 hasn't heard of the Sega Genesis. Look at Resetera. The knowledge and respect for classic Sega here overall is a joke, and this is a major enthusiast site.
I disagree with people saying the Game Gear didn't get attention in North America. It had big TV commercials and was pretty mainstream, just not at Game Boy levels. It was the Master System and Saturn that were more for the niche, hardcore crowd.
I disagree with people saying the Game Gear didn't get attention in North America. It had big TV commercials and was pretty mainstream, just not at Game Boy levels. It was the Master System and Saturn that were more for the niche, hardcore crowd.
Excluding systems released by Nintendo, Sega, and NEC/Hudson, I wonder how many people here can name half a dozen videogame systems released in the 80's or earlier.
I was born in 93. Most people only start really playing games properly when they're 6 or 8, and by that time Gamecube and PS2 were coming out. My first exposure were weird pc games and then when i was 6 a friend had an N64. The first time I played an SNES I said "Wow this feels old." and that was in 2000. You have to be born in the late 80s to find SEGA Genesis relevant unless you had one because your parents or older brother had one.
I think most people that come here are dedicated enough to name a lot of the weird NeoGeos, Atari "lynx" and other shit. It's just the general gamers from the 90s probably don't.
Not to mention people who say "I don't play Single Player games."
Not everyone plays games, and many younger people don't give a rip about what came before.
Look at Terry in Smash.
Look at Terry in Smash.
I'm 26 and my boyfriend is 27;
my first console was a Master System when I was 4, and while he got his first console way later (a PS1) he learned about older Nintendo systems as he got to go to neighbor and friend's houses to play SNES and N64..
but when we started going out 3 years ago and I started talking about SEGA systems, everything that I was saying was completely alien for him.. he never ever seen a Genesis in person nor heard of many of the iconic games of the system;
I think its natural if you really only care about a handful of franchises, but still weirds me out :p
my first console was a Master System when I was 4, and while he got his first console way later (a PS1) he learned about older Nintendo systems as he got to go to neighbor and friend's houses to play SNES and N64..
but when we started going out 3 years ago and I started talking about SEGA systems, everything that I was saying was completely alien for him.. he never ever seen a Genesis in person nor heard of many of the iconic games of the system;
I think its natural if you really only care about a handful of franchises, but still weirds me out :p
That was common. You're in a region where the Master System didn't sell well and was discontinued when you were three or four years old.
Yeah, I guess my point is I know people that probably played Genesis but didn't know it was called that. Like my sister probably wouldn't know what Genesis is, but if I just called it "Sega" she would. We had one in the house, and she's older than me.
My friend who had a Gameboy Color didn't understand me when I said that I had a regular Gameboy. He thought I was making it up.
In fact, beyond that, none of my friends had a video game console, so no one knew anything about Sega nor Nintendo. It wasn't until video game forums that I got to talk about video games with other people.
In fact, beyond that, none of my friends had a video game console, so no one knew anything about Sega nor Nintendo. It wasn't until video game forums that I got to talk about video games with other people.
The age explains it but also the fact that the person OP is talking about is mainly into PC games. Ask him about Football Manager and Total War, both published by SEGA. SEGA makes most of its money from PC games these days anyway. I have a friend who was probably born around the same time, about to get married, and I would not be surprised if he didn't know SEGA ever made consoles.
Now I'm trying to frame this in reference to my own age though. I was born in '86 and my first gaming experiences were with an NES and Genesis in 1990. Obviously I knew what an Atari was because it was ubiquitous in its day (and my brother owned one before I was born), but I had no idea there was a SEGA console before the Genesis (the Master System) until probably sometime in the mid 90's when my brother mentioned it off-hand when I saw a picture one, and I've still never played one. I've still never played an Atari, or really any pre-NES consoles. I'm vaguely aware that Colecovision, Intellivision, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum were consoles and computers that existed in the 70's and 80's but I've never actually seen or touched any of them. And I'm someone who follows video games pretty closely.
Now I'm trying to frame this in reference to my own age though. I was born in '86 and my first gaming experiences were with an NES and Genesis in 1990. Obviously I knew what an Atari was because it was ubiquitous in its day (and my brother owned one before I was born), but I had no idea there was a SEGA console before the Genesis (the Master System) until probably sometime in the mid 90's when my brother mentioned it off-hand when I saw a picture one, and I've still never played one. I've still never played an Atari, or really any pre-NES consoles. I'm vaguely aware that Colecovision, Intellivision, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum were consoles and computers that existed in the 70's and 80's but I've never actually seen or touched any of them. And I'm someone who follows video games pretty closely.
I was born in 90 and I knew of al this stuff. My first system was the Master System. Played tons of NES at friends. It's weird what 4 years can do.
