I love that you guys brought up the sports titles (Also loving the WCW analogy - spot-on!). In a way, I look at this as sort of Nintendo's reckoning in the 8- and 16-bit era: Nintendo's monopoly over third party publishers left Sega to create a lot of content on its own, and it got that time to build itself up. Then, when you compare Nintendo and Sega in those eras, you always see people say "Streets of Rage (Sega) vs. Final Fight (Capcom - not Nintendo)", "Final Fantasy (Square - not Nintendo) vs. Phantasy Star (Sega)" "Virtua Fighter (Sega) /Mortal Kombat (Midway)/Street Fighter (Capcom)". It was Sega vs. the world, and for a while, they were winning. And even after they stopped winning, they held their own for a good long while after. Man, I need to get my head out of the 80s and 90s...@_@

The Genesis/MD is one of my favorite consoles of all time, have so much fun with it and there are a lot of interesting things to find out about its history. One of the greatest systems of all time I think personally, has a great library of games, as does the SNES, but it always had something about it that I just really got my interest in it and it still does. Happy anniversary SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive! I really like the PC Engine a lot too, a console I wanted for the longest time, then one day not long ago I got lucky and came across it in a retro game store I go to all the time, still cannot believe I was able to get it in person! Another great system, unfortunately somewhat misunderstood and under appreciated I think being over shadowed by the Genesis/MD, SNES and Neo Geo at the time.

Ian! Next time someone in your store says that the Sega CD was the first CD system, it is imperative that you jump up on the counter and do your best Johnny Turbo impression. Point down at your customers and proclaim, "FEKA misleads you! Turbografx had the first CD system! They even released Sherlock Holmes a full TWO YEARS EARLIER!" Then jump down and knock two people's heads together.

Cool episode. Ian, the last game for the PC Engine was Dead of the Brain 1+2 which came out in 1999, meaning the lifespan of the PC Engine was 12 years! Only one year short of the record behind the Neo Geo AES.

The "Zombie Visual Novel" Ian is referring to is called Dead of the Brain 1 & 2. It was the last game released for the PC Engine in 1999.

Happy 25th anniversary, TurboGrafx and Sega Genesis! Both great consoles. Both a lot of fun.

In dept conversation about past generation gaming, thats why I keep coming back. Keep it up guys

Altered Beast was my childhood playing it in my grandmas basement with my brother and my cousins.

Whenever someone mentions Turbografx-16, my first thought is the two-page ad for Bonk's Adventure in EVERY Marvel comic around that time...

Speaking of first CD players, the first one I dealt with was part of a 386 pc and it didn't have a disc tray. It had the equivalent to a jewel case that came out to put the CD in for you to put it in your system.

I was lucky enough as a kid to have a lot of systems, and one of my favorites was the TG 16. I got it and loved it. Dungeon Explore was one of my favorite games, but there were many others - R-Type, Ordyne, Legendary Axe 1 and 2, Order of the Griffon, Bonks 1 and 2 of course. I eventually got the CD add on when it dropped to 150 I think. It was cool , but the adaptor went out eventually after not too long. I could still use the CD player to play music and stuff. I almost got a Turbo Duo, but never did. Very underrated system, and it sucks that its pretty expensive now. One day if i find a good package deal Ill pick one up again. Great video guys - 25 years man , us 80s kids are gettin old !!

Even though it's essentially just two guys talking about videogames, I still find it quite compelling! They're the videogame nerds I wish I was.

When those systems came out, my brother and I were like we need to get our hands on that.

Kudos to you, Ian, for taking up for Keith Courage, which is so trendy to bash on forums.

Ninja Spirit for TG-16 is awesome.

Love them both. Hope to get a Turbo one of these days.

The WCW vs WWF analogy was awesome, very true.

I've always been a computer guy (family had an ol' Mac Plus, then a succession of PCs), but as a kid I was a Genesis kid by proxy. My best friend had a Genesis and a billion games. It's still the only old console I'm really interested in.

I love altered beast and bonks adventure, I loved turbo grafix 16 I bought it a couple years after it came out, what a perfect way to spend money it was worth every penny.

Yanno, for me, those were odd years - GREAT years for the gaming industry, I was lucky enough to have a top of the line PC back in 1990, and I remember stuff like Comanche 64, Daggerfall, and Wing Commander 2. At the time when we had the NES, I was playing the very first 3D type games! So console wise, I got the SNES, PlayStation, and N64 before I switched to PC entirely. But I REALLY love the SNES, it was my favorite single game machine, and the NES was also a revolutionary console. My parents had a Coleco-vision when I was still to young to really get games, other than the simple ones like Asteroid (or a clone of any of these) Space Invaders and missile defense, ofc it didn't help that the Coleco had those ungodly controllers... But they sold that and bought an NES when I was 4 in 1989.

I will always remember playing the TurboGrafix 16 at A pre-launch, at The PNE Exibition in Vancouver, the summer before it came out. There was this huge tent, with like 50 systems set up, so you could play for FREE ! I was like 10 years old, it was a DREAM !!! My parents had to fight with me to go on the rides, ie. roller coasters, ect...

Hey guys, I like the analogy you used to compare the SNES and Genesis as WWF vs. WCW. In that case, the TurboGrafx is like ECW. It was nowhere as big as the other two, but it was out there and it had a cult following, myself included.

I'll still play Tecmo Baseball from 94 on my Genesis. Even today it's still fun.

I have my original turbografx from when I was a kid. Still plays great

Nice talk about both systems. I always liked both, but the TG16 was the one that really caught my attention when I was a kid. Still have one, though I haven't plugged it in in a few years... not enough games for it... they're too hard to come by and too expensive when I do. Good beer choice, Ian. Lagunitas does good stuff.

The visuals of the later KGJ game on SNES were pretty impressive for 16 bit (but so was WSB on Genesis but for different reasons)

I can't believe Ian, Pat, and I are in the minority when it comes to liking Altered Beast! I really liked the concept and the transformation sequences are very memorable. It's a simple game with a straightforward lay out - defeat enemies, collect power-ups, defeat the boss. Sure it's a bit clunky for a beat-em-up and the game is pretty short, but it's still one of my favs big time!

We weren't well-to-do, so when it came time for a 16 bit system in our house, we gambled on the TurboGrafx. The Nintendo frustrated us all too often and the Sega Master System just looked.....bad, so we didn't go the Genesis route, either. The TurboGrafx 16 was a fun system, certainly. It's kinda cool that the standard controller had its own turbo switches. And it was fantastic if you liked shooter games: Raiden, R-Type (a re-release, I know), Aero Blasters, Solder Blade, Blazing Lasers, and Air Zonk were all great (and I'm sure I'm leaving a few off). Some of the problems were in hardware. The games were on these plastic cards, and it didn't even use the whole card. That little vinyl patch? That's where the game was. No room for a battery or much circuitry. Also, the console itself only had one controller port. So they released the TurboTap so you could play with up to five players. It only cost about $20 and the controllers were less, but you're still funneling the button signals of two or more controllers into one controller port on the console. So bottlenecking became a common issue. Another problem was the cost. The console didn't cost us much. I think it was like $150 when the Super Nintendo was pushing $250 (and that's fucking expensive in the late '80s/early '90s!). But even when $250 was really expensive, there was the Turbo CD attachment which cost some $400. By today's standards, that's like if a console went for over $1,000! The TurboExpress was another problem. It was cool that it could play the standard games from the main console, but it went for some $300 when the Game Boy went for maybe $90. And I didn't even get into the games. Since the 8 bit era, games typically and consistently sold for about $50 a pop. I think they only started costing more with the last generation or two's game libraries (well into the 21st Century!). However, the typical TurboGrafx game sold for $80. And you look over at the Super Nintendo and Genesis titles and those games went for some $50, but then there's these TurboGrafx games, with the hardware limitations I outlined above, and they went for EIGHTY BUCKS. Even today, that shit is whack!

I only knew of the turbo grafx when i saw one on display at toysrus back in the day.

Sports talk baseball for genesis was the best, especially when you make ur entire team Ron Gant and hit HRs like every at bat. World series baseball for saturn is one of my favorite bb games

That Zombie game you mentioned was call Dead of Brain 1 and 2. I think there's were 5,000 of them released in 1998 (was a delayed release well after 96 I know). Imported new back then and now I regret selling it.

Love Ian's little golf claps! lmao

I had all the sega CDs and Genesis versions even the sega CDX and I used it as a CD player in my car I also had a portable tv in the car to play games at lunch when I was in high school

I remember when I saw the Revenge of Shinobi intro for the first time at my friend's house and my jaw dropping to the ground. I had a Turbo with fucking China Warrior lol.

Another area that I considered a major strength for the Genesis was arcade ports and arcade style games, it also did shmups, beat em ups and run and gunners better in my opinion, this is largely due to a faster processor which also lead to smoother animation. When I play games like Thunder Force IV (lightening Force) or Gunstar Heroes, I seriously am convinced those games could only be done on the Genesis, the speed and number of sprites on screen would have caused constant slowdown on the SNES. I love my PC Engine too, it's so refreshing playing all of these classics like Blazing Lazers, Splatterhouse, Air Zonk and R Type.

awesome guys miss playing the Genesis

My Dad bought me a TG-16 when I was a kid. We ended up returning it because the Genesis games could be rented at the local video store.

I can't tell you how pissed I was after spending hours in the arcade playing Mortal Kombat in the arcade and buying it for SNES at Service Merchandise then getting it home and finding out there was bullshit sweat instead of blood... Rage

I had a megadrive growing up, along with my PlayStation. ironically I was given the megadrive when I had a PlayStation 2. I still loved the games on there. must dig it out.

what date is the marathon this year planned for?

Woo hoo, happy birthday to both consoles!

yall make me so pleased to be a cas. thank my lucky stars I don't know this much about games.

Genesis! The blood! The glorious blooood!

I never got the turbo graphics console but my sega Genesis was one of my favourite consoles of all time along with my Snes and my favourite the master system because of the nostalgic feeling I get playing the games and remembering playing them back when I was 10 or 11 I also had an Atari 2600 first but the sega master system was the first console I really loved

where in north jersey was pat from? grew up there too. "toys r we" games were damn expensive, had to find games at local stores used.

The Sega genesis is awesome. It deserves more attention than it gets. Most of the library for it is fairly cheap and lots of great games on it. It will always be my favorite game system.

It was amazing how effective Sega's marketing worked on me as a kid. I HAD to have a Sega Genesis, and then I HAD to have a Game Gear, and then I HAD to have a Sega CD and 32X (though at least I didn't get those last two until years later when they were clearanced out), and then I sold every game I owned just to get a Saturn during its early launch window, and then even after that debacle, I bought a Dreamcast on launch day. In hindsight, I may have been swindled. ^_^

The TG16 is considered a collector's thing now, huh? And to think, I almost bought one with my birthday cash when I was a kid. Must have been on its way out, because I think it was marked to $200 at the time.

Sega does what Nintendont! Those Sega genesis commercials and catch phrases will never get old lol

I had Hard Ball III for my Genesis. I loved that game!

I bought My Genesis on it's birthday, and i didn't even know it! (model 1 at a ridiculous low price and all the accessories) And first besides Pat!

The Megadrive might be my favorite console ever. I still have my original one with a bunch of games.

so perhaps the Turbo Grafx 16 is ECW in the wrestling analogy? smaller product that was able to gain traction for a few years against the top two juggernaut standards that perhaps provided a higher quality product but ultimately was too small to compete in the end

Someone saying Sega CD was the first CD-based game system isn't so bad. I once heard an employee at a game store tell another customer that the Dreamcast was the first system that could play music CDs.

I grew up a NES fanboy of the late 80s, and both my cousin and his older friend (who I ended up becoming best friends with and was sort of an older brother figure to me) had a Master System and Genesis, and they both definitely sold me on the fact that Sega was "cooler". I was 12 years old, and they were 14 and 16, and their taste in gaming certainly affected my outlook as I started delving into more simulators and RPG games. However, I still loved my SNES (I traded my initial console actually for a Genesis and then by Christmas '93 had both again), because Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were vastly superior on it, blood or no blood. I love both systems, but at the end of the day, I think that Sega's grittier, edgier appeal stands out a lot in a great library of games. The first one I ever played on the system was Revenge of Shinobi, and the gameplay, graphics and music blew my 11-year-old mind.

Well, this makes me feel old. :) I was 13, totally remember it, but being an arcade guy my first system after the NES was a Genesis, then SNES. What sold me was getting Altered Beast and games like Golden Axe. The reason I bought a SNES was because of Street Fighter II - World Warriors. Back then, the arcade graphics were superior, and I wanted that feeling and those games as home. Didn't play my first rpg until FF7. Those are reasons I never bought a Turbo graphics 16, games. And it's not like I had a lot of choices at 13, money being an issue. Although, I did see games that did look cool in EGM magazine, Bonk, then it was Zonk. There was also a feeling of not knowing much about it, and buying an Atari 7800 before my NES, realizing that was a waste of money because NES was so much better, I think i compared Turbo graphics 16 too that, having an Atari 7800 to having a NES, why go with the less popular and inferior(at the time of my 13 year old thinking) system. If I knew or had friends with the system, honestly, I would of been excited to try it out and play new games, just never happened.

Not going to lie, I love Altered Beast too. Something about how simple it is, and yet, how hard it can be, just is a lot of fun for a quick game. Was a bigger fan of Streets of Rage 1 & 2. Never had the privilege of owning a TurboGrafx-16, and they are nearly impossible to find where I live. At least in working condition.

Both consoles were awesome!!!

Do you know if there is a flight simulator controller for the Genesis I don't remember there being one but my friend says there was one could you tell us if there was and also pat did you appear on the history channel's show rick's restoration

Both console are awesome, the both can do analogue and digital sound,both had a cd addon, both had the same amount of buttons on their controller,both had a special 6 button controller,both have different version of their console,both had mono rf output, and the genesis was more powerfull but tricks could be used on the turbo graphix to achieve simmilar effects .

Don't have any history with the Turbo Graphix (I lived in a market that it wasn't sold in), but I always wanted a Genesis. I got a NES and SNES (which I was happy with), but part of me was always envious of kids who had a Genesis. I ended up getting a retro system a few years back, and I have about 40-50 Genesis games, bus I still don't own an original Genesis console.

I really like altered beast too I played it so much as a teenager I had to get a second copy because it stopped working from switching back and forth between altered beast and sonic the hedgehog

I thought I was the only one that liked altered beast it was one of my favourite games on the Genesis

I still play with my marbles and rocks and sticks. I'm old school.

sega genesis is probably the only console i ever really enjoyed playing sports games on. joe montana's sports talk football and nba live 95 i played the heck out of. only bad thing is after owning genesis for a few years i stopped playing nintendo and ended up selling all my nes games to funco land to purchase a few new sega games :( wish i would have kept them all

The golden days of gaming are over. R.I.P.

I bought both good times TG16 not a lot of games but the few I had where great fun and that's what gaming is all about fun

I had a SNES and a Megadrive as a kid and loved them but i hadn't even heard of the Turbografx 16 until i started watching gaming videos on KZfaq. I guess it wasn't popular in the UK.

Tenchi I believe it was the Sega Neptune, although it was shelved.

The Sega Dream Cast had the highest Pre-Order in History

Yea, the rich friend who's an asshole that we use for their games, ahhh the memories.

F*ck the tech specs. The TG-16 had a 16-bit heart, dammit!!

The Genesis is the only console that I'll play any kind of group sports game on like hockey or football

speaking of genesis you guys should talk about internet access for these beginning consoles... like sega channel when you had to plug in the phone to the back of the sega expansion and anytime you got a phone call you would lose connection lol... I know the Commodore 64 had internet access but Im not sure if you could access games online... if you know more about this Id like to hear it on the next podcast or maybe talk about XBAND or the Famicom Modem? Pat the NES Punk

Super NES not being backward compatible opened the door for the Genesis the 1st time, the 2nd time was the Mortal Kombat/censorship issue and the 3rd time, which was the nail in the coffin, was refusing to make the Nintendo Ultra 64 CD-Rom based and sticking with cartridges. That move made most of their third party support leave and go to Sony.

hu-card's! god i loved them. strangely though, even as a kid when i bought the brand new neutopia 2 and opened the box and it was this flimsy plastic holding the card, no actual case..i knew the system was nearing the end, even as a kid. but man i loved it

I wonder if the resolution of the Genesis vs the SNES had anything to do with the better PC ports for the Genesis... most PC games output at 320x200, and the Genesis output at 320x224 whereas the SNES output at 256x224, so it would've required heavy reworking of a game's interface and graphics to accommodate the SNES. I think it also may have had to do with the familiarity of the Moto 68000 processor of the Genesis vs the proprietary CPU of the SNES.

I adored EA sports games, NHL, Madden and the Lakers vs Celtics and the NBA Playoffs. Man, I wanted the last game SO BAD, being able to play as Michael Jordan. My dad and I liked Ken Griffey, Jr., what made it better is we made our own rules, that you could only move your batter before the pitch, not after the ball was thrown, that's made the game leaps and bounds funner because it was too easy to hit the ball sliding around when the ball was in the air. if they would added that feature to the game, would of made it a lot funner and a bit more sim. I'm playing Bases Loaded a lot now, that game was still much better. anyway, great memories, fellas.

I packed up my Genesis/Sega CD in a box with all my games for safekeeping and what do my parents do?! Place it on the front porch for goodwill to pick up. >:( It's my personal "My mother got rid of my baseball cards/comics" moment.

couldn't get my parents to buy me the Sega Genesis because of the price and I already had the Nes. So I did what a few other kids did and hung out at Lionel Playworld and played the one they had on display.

TGX-16 was amazing

FULL MOTION AUDIO

I agree with Ian that I get irked when people call the Sega CD the first CD console. TG had it first, period. It (much like the dreamcast) I feel suffered for being simply too ahead of its time. Such a phenomenal console with a crapload of awesome games -- especially shooters.

They are 25 years old??? I feel so old now.... LOL.

So if Genesis vs SNES was the gaming monday night war, does that make the Turbografx 16 was the ECW of that story.

So does that make tg-16 ECW? A console with a small but loyal fan based that followed it to the end? I had a tg-16 as a kid. I also prefer ecw to wwe or wcw. So I just kinda like that analogy.

Ian what kind of beer are you drinking?

Can't be worse than the guy who saw a Atari jaguar at my local game store and called his favorite Sega system. I asked him more about partly to see if he was serious and he said that it was the first Sega console he owned and that he had sonic C.D. for it. Every one there was laughing there ass off because I am the local Sega lover/collector. I told him I agreed out of kindness and he left thinking he "schooled us".

Got a 1st gen genesis at flea market yesterday for 10$ :) it was meant to be!

Holy shit Ian lay off the wine.

Kings bounty... yes! Buck Rogers!

MLBPA was easily the best SNES baseball game, imo, and I played just about every baseball game on the system.

Ian do you have altered beast for your PC engine collection yet remember you need the system 1.0 card to play it

my favorite sports game on Genesis has to be NBA Jam

why does Ians leg twitch every time does he get excited?

What beer you sippin on

At least Sega didn't pissed off 2 companies like Nintendo did with Philips & Sony. At least Sega made a system that was heavily ahead of it's time. (A.K.A the Dreamcast) At least Sega didn't made a system that gave a lot of people headaches like Nintendo did with the Virtual Boy. At least Sega has Blast Processing. At least Sega made a portable Handheld with Color. At least Sega knows their lost & moved on to 3rd party. At least Sega made a portable handheld Genesis. At least Sega has Sonic the hedgehog. At least Sega tried their best to beat Nintendo until Sony came.

Alter Beast? Don't get me wrong, I love it too. Cool game, but... my games were the Shinobi games. Like, Shinobi's Revenge(which was OK), Shinobi 3, and Shadow Dancer. Then there's Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star 2, Golden Axe, Golden Axe 2... But, I gotta say... Too much Sports. One reason why I played my brothers SNES more was because there was more games on it that I liked. Genesis didn't have as much cool games for me.

I had the turbo grafx as a teen, at one time, and had Blazing Lasers, Splatterhouse and a few others, it was a good system, but yeah Sega thought they could get away with anything after the short success with the genesis, and shot themselves in the foot with the add-ons, and new systems... and spelt out it's future, with those failures...

Mega drive/sega was HUGE in the uk. U didn't see anything but sega till the playstation. US experience of video games v UK is completely different.