Retro Gaming, Collections- Part 2: Game Consoles and their libraries

For part 2 I will be giving brief discussions of what types of games are on each systems, and where to start your reseach on all these games.

Here is a guide of what game genres you should expect to run into for different systems

NES- There is seriously something for everyone on the NES because it has a little bit of everything. Shooters, (a lot of) platformers, action/ adventure games, puzzle, racing, even RPG’s. There is a reason why some people hold the NES high on a pedestal, and that’s because so many of the games were great, even the 3rd party ones. But keep in mind that nothing is perfect. Although there are certainly a lot of gems on the NES, theres a lot of crap too. This is more noticeable for NES games later in it’s lifespan.

Sega Master System- The Master System, Sega’s first Console, was technically superior to the NES with a wider color palette and a better sound chip. Although it has these advantages, it never was the success Sega expected. It has a similar range of genres to the NES, but a more limited library, at least in the US. This in part is due to Nintendo’s tyrannical dealings with third party developers in the 1980’s. (They basically told developers either you make games just for the NES, or not at all.) Despite all this, it didn’t stop Sega from releasing some great games on their own. ( It even had the first J-RPG released in America, (Phantasy Star.)

Sega Genesis- The genesis is a great Gamers game system and has a lot of action games, platformers, sports games, adventure games, and shooters. The Genesis has a very large game library, (around 500 games,) and many classic Sega franchises first got their debut on this system. There aren’t a ton of RPG’s for the genesis, and most of them are directly from sega, but the ones that the Genesis got are pretty good. You really can’t go wrong with any Phantasy Star, or Shining Force

Turbografx-16- The turbografx is a neat little oddity. The games are stored on credit card sized chips and even though it is a few years older than the Genesis, it has a MUCH larger color palette Having only recently acquired a Turbografx, I’m not nearly as familiar with its library, but I’ll give it a shot. -_-;;  The Turbografx has many excellent scrolling shooters and arcade ports, as well as some cool platformers and action games. Neither the game cards or the Turbografx itself can store save data, (without an add-on,) so don’t expect many RPG’s, or strategy games. . If you are lucky enough to have the pricey (region & copy protection free) CD add-on, you can find more high(er) quality, longer games, including many excellent RPG’s, strategy games, and anime style games complete with cinimatics and voice acting.

Part 2 Continued will include Game console/game library info for the Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, Playstation 1, N64, and Dreamcast.

Next Time: either a journal entry or Retro Gaming Part 2 (cont.)

Peace out and geek out,

Mikeke352