NES vs SEGA GEN

I was thinking about the era of the NES and the SEGA GEN. I remember when I was a kid and I'd see SEGA GEN commercials and being amazed at the amazing graphics, sound, and game play. Then I'd go home and play my 8 bit NES. I'd be jealous of my friends that had it. I felt like I was stuck in the past. Yet, even with its amazing graphics and game play, how is it that the NES still whooped SEGA GEN in sales? I remember my mom telling me that it was too expensive for her to get me one. I could understand that being that my family was raised by a single parent on a waitress job. Was this the case in its downfall? Expense? Just curious. Yall prolly know alot more about this stuff than I do.

-Pico

Well, the NES was released in '85, the Genesis in '89, the NES used alread old tech when it was made, the Genesis used fairly new tech. so the NES had already had time to be dropped in price and such a number of times...

Read the above post. Nintendo had a 4 year head start, price drop, and a massive library of games (not to mention a nearly 80% grasp of the home console market) by 1989.

I don't think you can accurately compare the two consoles unless you compare their sales numbers after 1989 and up.
The NES died around 1993, while the Genesis was in its prime.

theyre not even the same generation are they? i thought sega's answer to the nes was the master system. genesis is supposedly 16 bit, and nes obviously isnt. my thought was that genesis was a competator to the snes.

I did some research real quick (not hard w/ Wikipedia ). The Genesis was originally competing against the NES, and was still struggling:

It wasn't until the SNES was released two years later that it's main competition was Nintendo's 16-bit console:

nintendo and genesis were not competeing nintendo had already defeated SMS so sega jumped the gun as they always do to try and get people early they did it with saturn and dreamcast as well releasing it way too early so that noVice gamers would be in awe of segas advances even though other companies were exceeding segas advanaces by being more patient which in turn caused sega to throw in the towel with systems. genesis competed with SNES and they battled head to head for quite sometime. each having its advantages and disavantages.

How do you figure that? the dreamcast was released to compete against the PS and N64, and it came out much later than the rest.

Actually, the NES had not defeated the SMS. Sega decided to market more in Europe, since this was a place that Nintendo did little marketing with. The SMS was hugely popular over there. The NES was hugely popular over here.

I would say the NES and Genesis were in competition. Like it says above, the Genesis was out for two years before the SNES came out. Sega had to market their system at the same time that Nintendo was marketing their 8-bit machine. Granted, the SNES was being boasted about later in those two years, but there was no availability for it yet since it wasn't out. There were people wondering if they should get new games for the NES, or get the new Genesis with all the great graphics. The SNES came into play later, then that's when the competition started between SNES and Genesis.

I always wondered, the Genesis had a bad sound card that made voices very "grumbly". If you had the ability to change it, would it take away that "grumble"?

Wow...

Here we go...

No, the Saturn was released during the same generation as the PS and N64, it was less than a year early. the Dreamcast was released because the Saturn had many design flaws. Such as being terrible to program for, due to the fact that only one of the SH2 CPUs could access RAM at a time. This resulted in a lot of waiting, and difficulties. The Dreamcast is of the same Generation as the GameCube/PS2/Xbox, and it really not all that inferior to the PS2.

DC: 200Mhz SH2 CPU, 16MB system RAM, 8MB graphic RAM,NEC POWerVR2 GPU, 2MB audio RAM, 1GB capacity "GD-ROM" drive

PS2: 300Mhz MIPS CPU, 32MB total RAM (shared between the CPU, GPU, and audio chip) "Emotion Engine" GPU, and a DVD drive.

Yes, in some areas the DC is limited, such as the storage capabilties of the game media. but if you play Ferarri F355 Challenge, try to tell me that the DC can't compete with this generation if only people would push it.

Next point:

The Genesis/MegaDrive, as well as the SMS were wildly successful outside of North America, and even within. The SMS was STILL getting new games up until around 1997. The Genesis did overtake Nintendo for a short time, as I recall.

Also, if the Genesis was such a huge failure as you all seem to think, why did Majesco get the rights to produce a new style one in 1998? Why did it spawn a handheld version, which in my opinion was the best, most POWerful handheld around prior to the DS/PSP. if Sega failed so terribly, would they have the money to produce these things?

The Genesis also had amazing arcade ports, things that the SNES, and really, any other console short of the Neo Geo couldn't even dream of doing.

In conclusion, Stop the sega hate. Sonic loves you, even if you love that fat over used plumber.

I dont hate sega, nor do i think the genesis was a failure. The contarary, rather. Just dont like when people jump down my throat when i get a fact wrong.

That wasn't directed at you specifically, I was just correcting that fact. it was primary aimed at the last 5 posts or so that are all Sega hate.

No: The samples would sound the same, because of their low resolution, reguardless of the quality of hardware it's played back on. That's why, for example, sound quality is not (greatly) improved when playing Megadrive games under emulation.

The Genesis/Megadrive's sound chips were actually quite impressive for the time, and a huge leap over pretty much any system that had come before. it's also worth considering that it was also prior to the MP3 file format, so high quality wave sounds took up a LOT of space especially on a cart based system. On top of that, I doubt either the 68000 or Z80 under the hood of the Genesis would have had the grunt to decode something like that.

If I had the ability to change it, I would replace the sound chip in SNES with the one from the Genesis. A few seconds of obligatory "grumbly voices" isn't going to deter me from a system with an amazing wave and percussion sound.

This topic has officially gone down the toilet.

I honestly was used to the SNES clear vocal reproduction and music. I feel it was alot clearer than the Genesis. I actually just got a free genesis 3 from a friend of mine. And still the sound card sort of bugs me. The games are good though I got.

Sonic and Knuckles
Sonic 1
Robocop Vs Terminator (with box)
Maden Football 92 (with box and instructions)

There's no sound "card" it's a chip.

You say the SNES is more clear than the Genesis? I suggest you Hook the two consoles up side by side through an AV selector, and run the same game in both. I used Mortal Kombat, and the difference in audio quality was stunning. The SNES is all muffled, it sounds like there's a pillow over the speakers, while the Genesis was crisp, clear, and beautiful.

The SNES does do better voices though.

Hmm,...maybe that's what I'm associating it with. Who knows? I just grew up with the SNES.

Either way, it's still an excellent system.

The Genesis was a direct assult on the Nes...but only after the Nes slaughtered the Master System...
Yes, it was typical for Sega to jump the gun on hardware releases in the past...but I always appreciated it and saw it as a preview of what was to come in the next generation of consoles.
In terms of Nes vs. Genesis (albeit SNES was the true equall...) I still have to give it to the NES... don't get me wrong I'am a Sega fan, but still if it simply came down to those two choices I would much rather end up w/a Nintendo...I don't know why...
Well on the topic of sound...Genesis had a great sound capability....but I'am sorry the SNES was way, waaaaay better... true the Genesis had cool arcade quality sounding tracks in their titles....but nothing like the orchestrated richness of games such as Castlevania 4, Actraiser, and Contra 3....just listen for yourself..besides the sound technology for the SNES was engineered by Sony.

I'd give 'er to the NES. Sega has always made games that were just plain cool, but their consoles attracted far more crap games than good ones.