Genesis 1st Games Line Up?

[Brad2600]

I didn't get a Genesis until Christmas of '92. However, I do remember a lot of the games from when they were first released. I don't even know what made me want a Genesis.

[gdement]

It seems that Phantasy Star II was probably rushed into production. The battle scenes in the original PS had a proper graphical background according to what kind of terrain you were in. In PS2, they just had that weird 3-D grid. That grid really looks like standin art while they were working on the graphics. It was a good game though, and a friend of mine bought his Genesis after I showed it to him.

[A2600]

It seems that Phantasy Star II was probably rushed into production. The battle scenes in the original PS had a proper graphical background according to what kind of terrain you were in. In PS2' date=' they just had that weird 3-D grid. That grid really looks like standin art while they were working on the graphics. It was a good game though, and a friend of mine bought his Genesis after I showed it to him.[/quote']

 

In my opinion it just a cool futuristic effect but you may have a point there too!

[ApolloBoy]

You guys forgot Ghostbusters

 

Ghostbusters wasn't released in 1989, it didn't come out until 1990.

[NE146]

k. Broke out one mag... Sorry I don't have a scanner at home so this is the best I could do

[NovaXpress]

I enjoyed reading that, it doesn't confirm the actual release schedule but it proves that we're barking up the right trees.

[NE146]

aah! And found this too More input is always good

 

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25381

 

Joe has a pretty good idea himself and looks pretty accurate to me.

[Mr Egg]

lets not forget m1 abrams and 688 attack sub

[NovaXpress]

It doesn't look like the DP kids have it any more sorted out than we do.

 

Isn't it unbelievable that we can't find anyone who worked for a company that made or sold the Genesis who can give us anything to confirm this? This wasn't that long ago. This is proof that no one gives a fuck about their gaming history. Us oldsters are taking better care of our classic era than the 20-whatevers are taking with theirs.

[ApolloBoy]

lets not forget m1 abrams and 688 attack sub

 

Those weren't released until 1991...

[A2600]

Picked up Phantasy Star II for 3 dollars Boxed (sorry no manual or strategy guide)

[Kid Chameleon]

I know this is an ancient thread, but I'm currently trying to research which Genesis games actually was available in 1989, and what month they were released. The amount of mis-information floating around on the web is pretty amazing. You can look at ten different "supposed" launch lists, and you'll get ten different lists. It's amazing how many people believe that Alex Kidd was a launch game, let alone, that it was actually available for sale in 1989. I've been looking thru old GamePro's, EGM's, VG & CE's and Game Players issues from this time period, and all the clues suggest that Alex Kidd was actually delayed quite a bit. If Alex Kidd was actually available in 1989, then it was late December 1989. More likely, it came out in January or February of 1990.

 

Anyways, one thing that has been confirmed, is the original batch of games that launched with the system on launch day. There were 6 Genesis games available on launch day:

 

Altered Beast (pack-in)

Tommy Lasorda Baseball

Thunder Force II

Super Thunder Blade

Last Battle

Space Harrier II

 

 

Those 6 games, were the only 6 games available at launch. Anything else that you read that suggests otherwise is incorrect. Again, tons of mis-information is floating around on this topic.

 

 

The other thing that I'm certain of, is that Ghouls 'n Ghosts was one of the next couple of games released. I won't say for certain that Ghouls was the 7th Genesis game available, but if it was 7th, then it was definitely the 8th Genesis game available. Here are some tidbits of info I found on various so called launch games:

 

Golden Axe - It seems that this game was delayed quite awhile. In fact, I think this actually slipped all the way into 1990.

 

Alex Kidd - Again, this game was not a launch title, and it might have actually arrived in late December, or even missed 1989 altogether

 

Revenge of Shinobi - This game either came out in Late December, or early January.

 

Pat Riley Basketball - This game was a 1990 game, but for some reason, people seem to remember it as a launch game. It wasn't. In fact, the earliest this game could have been available was April or May 1990.

 

Phantasy Star II - Everything I could find on this, suggests that this game was released in March 1990.

 

 

Games that I'm 99.9 percent positive were available in 1989, but not sure of the order of release:

 

World Championship Soccer

Super Hang-On

Rambo III

Forgotten Worlds

 

 

Games I'm 80 percent positive were available in 1989, but not sure:

 

Zoom!

Truxton

Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf

 

 

Again, Golden Axe, as far as I can tell, appears to be a January 1990 release. Revenge of Shinobi may have just barely made it out in 1989, but it's also possible it was very early 1990 release.

 

I'm continuing to research this whole thing but if anybody else has any interesting information to provide, please do so. Thanks.

[number six]

I got a Genesis for Christmas 1989. I remember the line-up being pretty limited at the time. The only game I got with it (other than Altered Beast, obviously) was Last Battle. So that was definitely available at launch.

 

I remember with Rambo III came out as it was one of the first games I remember buying for the Genesis.. but that wouldn't be until the next year probably (1990). I live on the East Coast so it's possible that Rambo was released on the West Coast sooner.

 

I'm pretty sure Ghouls and Ghosts was available at launch, although I didn't get it until later so I could be wrong. I remember it being the game usually touted up against the Turbo-Grafx as there was that rivalry going at the time.

 

Tommy Lasorda Baseball

Thunder Force II

Super Thunder Blade

Last Battle

Space Harrier II

 

These all seem accurate for being available that christmas as well.

 

I've got plenty of stuff from that era, magazines, catalogs, etc so i might be able to look something up. I might even have an EB catalog or something from christmas '89.

[Kid Chameleon]

Yeah, ideally, it would be nice if we knew somebody that worked at Software ETC or Babbages or Kay B Toys at that time, and if they had an internal inventory list, with the date that items were put up for sale. Unfortuantely, I don't know of anybody having anything like that. I have a collection of old gaming mags, and I've been slowly but surely going thru them, looking for clues. There of course is the US trademark office, and you can look up the date of "first use", but sometimes it's not 100 percent accurate. I do remember there was a huge debate once about when the Super Nintendo first launched, and that debate was decided by old usenet posts. I don't have access to usenet, to look up old posts during that time frame, but I imagine that would be a great resource as well.

 

Unfortunately, the average person's memory can't be trusted. I know this from personal experience. I could have sworn that I bought my Genesis around March of 1990, but instead I found out that I actually bought one closer to August or September. No matter how much we swear up and down that something for sure happened, our memories can sometimes fail us. To bad there isn't an old Sega employee from that time period that is the defacto Sega historian, and then we could likely turn to him for the correct launch release dates.