here's something funny: i remember being at a big sega genesis release
show at my mall around early/mid summer '89. i also distinctly remember
the genesis being out before TG16 where i was, with TG16 arriving a mere
month or so later. the genesis was available for @$200~215 at macy's and
toys'r'us, just about the only places selling it nearby (outside of FAO
shwartz in the city ~ sorry, san francisco).
the show took up the center of the mall outside of macy's for about 1-2
weeks. it had thunderforce 2, revenge of shinobi (i believe a japanese
version, interestingly enough w/ infinite lives selectable), last
battle, space harrier 2, altered beast, and a few others that i can't
remember off the top of my head right now. there was, like, only altered
beast and like 2 other games available for purchase at macy's at the
time, too. and at toys'r'us there was the system, altered beast, like a
pair of other games, and around under 10 "coming soon" advert slots in
the gaming aisle.
i *always* remembered that genesis came out before tg16. it was the talk
of summer among my sega clique, and was the talk of school once it
resumed in late august. but i never realized that it might've been a
localized test release... it might make sense, i do live in SF bay area,
and have for a long time, and sega of america is right here, so it
wouldn't surprise me if we and a few other major metro areas got a sneak
preview.
there's a lot of stuff that i take for granted here that next to never
appears or heard about by relatives living elsewhere in america. in
fact, i have a relative from kentucky who says she anecdotally
calculated the cultural delay between l.a./n.y./s.f. to
lexington/cincinatti/etc area to around 3 years. took apparently 3-5
years for the skateboarding explosion to reach her neck of the woods.
and i wouldn't believe it unless i saw it for myself, but pogs
apparently took 3 years to explode all over ohio/tennessee/kentucky
region, being pawned off as the latest thing at hardee's and other chain
family restaurants as we were driving all over that place. they were
already as dead as a doornail from where i was in california. and this
is to speak nothing of the indie/subculture/world culture stuff. i still
shake my head in shame and despair when i think of what was being passed
off as "cutting edge youth music and dance" when i visited.
i can believe this piece, it seems to correlate to my anecdotal
experience growing up. in fact, i always believed my version was the
correct one, having no idea that people thought the tg16 came out first.
i just always assumed they were wrong and didn't do their homework, or
were from bumfucke nowhere, usa. little did i realize that perhaps it
was a limited release and my experience was the exception, not the rule.
;) funny how perspectives can be, huh?
Air Raid wrote:
> I've read that too. but not the 1987 part. Sega was *just* developing
> the MegaDrive in 1987, and had only launched the Master System in the
> U.S. the year before. they would not have made an announcement in 1987
> for the U.S. launch, and probably not even for the Japan launch.
>
> I have read the part about the supposed January 1989 test launch in the
> U.S. but I *don't* believe it is true.
>
>>From what I understand however, there was probably a mid-to-late
> *August* 1989 test launch in select cities, NYC and L.A. (price
> unknown, but probably $199 at the most)
>
> Then the nationwide launch in September 1989 for $189, 10 bucks less
> than TurboGrafx-16 which launched nationwide (i believe) in August for
> $199.
>
> The internet is full of errors, and, I believe the Wikipedia entry is
> just a copy from an older source of incorrect info that was put on the
> internet. I read the same thing (sans the 1987 part) in the late 90s
> or early 2000s. I also read on the internet that the early test
> launch (the fictional January one, or the likely real August one)
> price-point was $249, which I do *not* believe was true.
>
> side note: what is largely true, is that the MegaDrive launched in
> Japan in 1988 and Japanese Phantasy Star II was released in March 1989,
> BEFORE most U.S. gamers had even *heard* of a new 16-bit Sega
> videogame system. most of us were playing NES, Master System, and
> Atari, completely unaware that a next-generation 16-bit tsunami was
> upon us.
>
> I was not aware of the Genesis until sometime around late June or mid
> July 1989. phoning 1-800-USA-SEGA, a recorded message told me about
> the "16-bit" (WTF is that??? i thought at the time) Genesis, and then
> reading EGM (Number 2) in the grocery store ;)
>
> Greg Gillis wrote:
>> I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for the Genesis system recently,
>> and I was surprised to read the following:
>>
>> "Sega announced their North American release date for the system in
>> 1987, becoming the second console to feature a 16-bit CPU (the first one
>> being the Mattel Intellivision) and the first to feature single
>> instruction 32-bit arithmetic. U.S. sales began on January 9, 1989 in
>> New York City and Los Angeles with a suggested retail price of $200 at
>> launch. It was released in the rest of North America on September 15
>> with the price reduced slightly to $190."
>>
>> This is the first I've ever heard of the Genesis launching early. Every
>> other source I've ever encountered pins its release down to the fall of
>> 1989, and the game mags of the day didn't seem to cover the system's
>> launch until their August or September issues. If it's true, I'm
>> guessing there couldn't have been much more than Super Thunder Blade and
>> Space Harrier II available for the Genesis test launch.
>>
>> It also seems a bit odd that Sega would announce a North American
>> release date for the Genesis in 1987... a year before the Mega Drive was
>> even released in Japan.
>>
>> Can anyone here shed any light on this whole early Genesis launch thing?
>> Or is Wiki perhaps a bit off on this one?
>>
>> --
>> Greg Gillis
>>
>> Visit The Armadillo Games Home Page:
>>
http://homepage.mac.com/greggillis/armadillogames
>> ... featuring "Radiant Weirdness Zone", the "Fawn" RPG series, and
>> numerous armadillii...
>>
>> Visit FORS YARD, A Chronological Retrospective of the Sega Genesis:
>>
http://homepage.mac.com/greggillis>
