The Sega Genesis was Released in North America in August of 1989. The Sega Genesis had 3 Distinct Model Changes. I originally had a model one, and a friend of mine had a model 2 that we played the hell out of. I have only seen a model 3 online, but when I see one in person, for a decent price, it will be added to my collection. The controller also went from a 3 button to a 6 button due to the popularity of the fighting games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat on the Genesis.
I do not remember when I got my original Genesis, I would venture a guess and say Xmas of 89, as I remember being 15 and playing my favorite games, more on those later. What I do remember is loving playing my Genesis and in 1995 I traded it in to Funcoland (Which later was bought up and became Gamestop) for a Brand New Sony Playstation, and while I was happy for a few months playing my shiny new games, regret began to set in and would not begin to be resolved until August of 2013.
6 of my most favorite video games ever, were on the Genesis:
#1. Road Rash
#2. Road Rash II
#3. Road Rash 3
I loved the Road Rash series, and I remember when I went to trade in my Genesis and games, I told my friend, if they did not have Road Rash for the Playstation, I was keeping my Genesis and the 3 Road Rash Games. Unfortunately for me, they did have Road Rash, and I let the console and games go.
#4. Shining Force
#5. Shining Force II
I loved the Shining Force games as well, they were Segas answer to Final Fantasy, which I played on my NES (Which I still have from 1986) and I remember playing them for hours upon hours.
#6. Shining in the Darkness
This game is a Dungeon Crawler, which I purchased on layaway from Sears back in 1991. Again, I spent hours upon hours playing this game. The game had you going through dungeons and caverns in a first person view, and I remember having piles of graph paper "maps" I had made while playing.
There were also, of course the incredible Sonic the Hedgehog Games a serious rival to Mario, Altered Beast, Vectorman, Aero the Acrobat which my friend and I played on her Model 2, and so many others.
I have beat myself up and complained for 18 years about the extremely poor decision I made that day in 1995, and the Genesis was the only console I ever got rid of, I never made that mistake again.
Over the years I bought complete in box NES games I wanted, I dabbled in PC Gaming with Wolfenstein, Doom, Unreal and Quake. I also continued to pick up the new consoles, Playstation 2, Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox 360 (which is where I found another absolute favorite game series F.E.A.R.), Nintendo Wii and in December of 2010 I bought myself a Playstation 3 as a Xmas present to myself. However, no matter how much fun I had, no matter how many new games I played and enjoyed, nothing could fill that void in my soul where my Sega Genesis memories lived.
In the spring/summer of 2013 I found myself craving playing the older "retro" systems. I started playing my NES again, bought a Super Nintendo, which I never had but only borrowed from a friend and played. And as I again played those older systems, Regret and Sadness over the Genesis set back in. Then, for my birthday in August of 2013, my wonderful 19 year old daughter bought me a Model 2 Sega Genesis. I was so happy and excited, and played and played the games. We found all the Sonic Games at the Thrift store, and shortly there after I got ahold of a Model 2 Sega CD and the 32X add ons.
Here is my Genesis today:
This is the absolute favorite game system, and this will never ever go anywhere else again. Now I just need to full fill my quest to complete the replacement of the 6 favorite games I had, and as of today, I only need 5. after a year and a half, I found Road Rash II in Complete and absolute great condition at a pawn shop down the street.
I am aware, I could go online at any given time and find these games, but there is just something more satisfying about finding them "Out in the Wild".
There was a day back in the fall of 2013, when I was playing Grand Theft Auto V on my Xbox 360, and I just found myself craving playing the Genesis, so I shut down the 360 and went and played Sonic on the Genesis. While GTA V is a great game, it still does not compare to the the best game console ever made, the Sega Genesis.
