by Isaac Mayo

Back in the days of yore there were two machines that battled it out for supremacy in basements and bedrooms across Suburbia. It was the second wave of the age of home video game consoles that were not Atari’s. And, as with most things that are totally dorky, there could be only one victor. It was the Sega Genesis. Not the Super Nintendo. This is the story of why. To start, the Sega Genesis is older, which is awesome. It was released in 1989; Super Nintendo was late on the scene in 1991. Even though the Genesis was older, the hardware kicked ass. It may have had half the RAM of the SNES, but the processor was twice as fast. The Genesis wins here because lots of people don’t know what RAM is, but everyone knows faster is better. Plus, the faster processor allowed more intense spaceship shooters—this was why the Sonic games could even exist. SNES tried to compete with their fairly mediocre title Uniracers, but to do that they needed to put a special chip on the cartridge which made the game even more expensive.

The Genesis’s main processor was a Motorola 68000; this was a very common piece of computer architecture and was used in many of their devices—everything from TI calculators, to the Amiga, to the NEO-GEO. It had been around since the late ’70s, so anyone who knew anything about writing code could work with it. One of the coolest features was that the Genesis was backward compatible with the Sega Master System. It used the same Zilog Z-80 sound processor, so you could play your old games on the same machine. Nintendo made you keep your NES, so you had to have two ugly systems hanging around your TV if you still wanted to play Zelda. Speaking of things that had to be hanging around your TV, it was more fun to look at the Genesis—it was black and red and had an interesting and futuristic design, like a spaceship. The SNES was an ugly gray and purple box that didn’t look anything like a spaceship. The Genesis had a power light, which is sweet, and if you wanted to play into the wee hours without being hassled by parental units, there was a handy headphone jack with volume control. And while we’re on the topic of long gaming sessions, it’s worth noting that Sega controllers were easier on the thumbs—the circular pad was way better than the cross... especially with the introduction of the six-button controller, which was hailed by many as one of the best controllers of all time. Of course, the machine is only half the equation. The games are where it’s really at. Here, the Genesis delivers.

Sega had fantastic in-house development and some awesome arcade licenses to pull from, such as Outrun, After Burner, Space Harrier, Golden Axe, Shinobi, etc. Plus, the Genesis had a shit-ton of awesome games specific to it alone; for example: Sonic the Hedgehog, Gunstar Heroes, General Chaos, Star Control, Strider, Phantasy Star, Streets of Rage, Shinobi 3, Castlevania: Bloodlines, and my personal favorite, Herzog Zwei. Also, the Genesis had a much cooler signature character—a feisty little hedgehog named Sonic. He had attitude and freshness, while Mario was the same slow fat fuck from six years ago. Plus, Sonic had three excellent sequels, while Super Mario World only had one. Throw in the fact that Sega games were generally cheaper and it gets even better. While SNES games would fetch between $40 and $70, you could build a Genesis library at $20-$50 a pop.

It’s also important to note that the Nintendo was for wimps. They wouldn’t allow “mature”-rated games on their system. Mortal Kombat didn’t have blood or fatalities. When you put the code ABACABB into the Genesis, you could see all the blood and death that your youthful heart desired. Not very wimpy at all. Because of this, the Super Nintendo version got hammered four-to-one in sales. Best of all: The Genesis is STILL successful in Brazil. Nobody cares about the SNES anymore... not even Brazilians.