FLips' Sega MegaDrive Thread

[Onyx2]

The always-excellent Kim Justice just finished her playthrough of every Mega Drive ROM. I have definitely already posted this on the forum but this thread couldn't be more appropriate:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2003236869

 

[Jazzy G]

7 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

Almost certainly Dropzone.

 

It was Bandits At Zero On my Commodore +4 (a variant on the Commodore 16)

 

[Daaaaaad!]

I didn't start my console journey until the age of 11 with FIFA 2000 on the PlayStation, but around that time my aunt's new husband (still my uncle as of today) told me he had 'one of those Seeega Mega Drive things from aboot 1995' and that he'd bring it to my Grandma's house next time we were up in Scotland. Sure enough, he brought it and I was introduced to a variety of different games - mostly sidescrolling action/beat 'em ups.

The Terminator - at that age I found this game to be ridiculously hard, even more so considering my total inexperience. If you've never played it, the first level throws you into the 'future' setting with nothing but grenades and immediately plonks a giant tank robot that looks like Sir Killalot in front of you. After you get past it, you get bombed by a plane and have to try and make your way underground, where Arnie clones potter about seeking to splatter you. The music, sound effects and visuals have stuck with me for years afterward, but I was completely unable to make my way past LA 2029 and so will never in fact save Sarah Connor.

Batman - now this is more like it! SunSoft's game of the movie had loads of different levels that put you in control of several different Bat-gimmicks, including Ace Chemicals with the grappling hook, piloting the Batmobile and Batwing amongst other levels. I got much further on this one and so enjoyed it a lot more. Sadly though I don't think it had the Elfman theme.

Gunship - this strange helicopter game had three different components; the first part had you plan your route, which always took me ages because I didn't understand what to do; the second was first-person piloting where you shot things out of the air, then a final side-view bit. The visuals made it seem epic in its scale, even comparing to the PS1 which I spent far more time on. I was amused to discover later that this game was made by a company called U.S. Gold, who were founded in Birmingham.

Sonic the Hedgehog - what else really? I figured out at one point that I've owned a version of this game on  different systems: Mega Drive, GameCube (Mega Collection), Xbox 360/Xbox One (twice if you consider that it was included in Sonic Generations), GBA, DS, 3DS, Saturn (Sonic Jam), iPhone and Nintendo Switch. I even downloaded it for the iPod Classic! You had to control Sonic with the clickwheel and use the central button to jump. It was not good. Anyway, this was of course a classic and the 50Hz version will always stick with me as the original and best. Sadly at the time I was unable to get past sodding Marble Zone with its shitty spiky caterpillars, lava pits and Andy Williams knockoff music. My cousin once joined us and got all the way to Labyrinth Zone but it wasn't until picking up a Saturn from my local Gamestation with a copy of Sonic Jam that I was able to actually finish the game. Which is probably cheating really as you could save in that one.

Speaking of Gamestation, as they had a fairly robust retro collection I did later pick up FIFA '97 and Micro Machines 2. I also have a weird feeling I've forgotten a fifth game from the list above but if I have it can't have been that good now can it?

[BigJag]

Didn't the Megadrive debut Desert Strike?

[LCJ]

7 minutes ago, BigJag said:

Didn't the Megadrive debut Desert Strike?

Yes. EA seemed to debut a lot of their big titles on Megadrive. FIFA being another.

[Merzbow]

EA's relationship with Sega is pretty funny, they were so close yet started out with EA reverse engineering the console and developing their own carts as to not have to pay them for thev expensive licensing.

I'm sure Codemasters did the same.

[johnnyboy]

26 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I'm sure Codemasters did the same.

Codemasters were always doing crazy stuff.  Had the joystick port carts for the MegaDrive (like a multi tap built into the cartridge for two more controllers) and then on the NES the original Micro Machines was a pass through cartridge.  You needed an original NES game to plug into Micro Machines for the console to register it.

Edit: MD multitappers were called J-Carts.

Edited January 4 by johnnyboy

[Merzbow]

1 minute ago, johnnyboy said:

Codemasters were always doing crazy stuff.  Had the joystick port carts for the MegaDrive (like a multi tap built into the cartridge for two more controllers) and then on the NES the original Micro Machines was a pass through cartridge.  You needed an original NES game to plug into Micro Machines for the console to register it.

I think all their many NES games are counted as unlicensed bootlegs, they never once got that simply BS Nintendo seal of approval.

[LCJ]

Nintendo took Codemasters to court in the States over NES Game Genie. Codemasters won.

[FLips]

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

Known as one of the essential platformers of the system, the first "Illusion" game came in 1990, so a full year before Sonic The Hedgehog and his blast processing took the console by storm. A cynic would say this might be why the game ended up being so popular, as at this point the main competition was Alex Kidd (or Alex The Kid when you ask any adult that stopped playing games in the 90s) which at the time was junk and is even worse by today's standards.
Castle of Illusion is even more impressive in that regard in that it was great then and even now the MegaDrive has came and went, it holds up strong against the full catalogue. It got a much improved sequel which in my opinion could very well be the best platformer on the console with World of Illusion, and then various other not-as-good sequels across multiple consoles and generations after that.
In 1996 the game had a final swansong on the system being packed with Quackshot starring Donald Duck in a fantastic double bill. While Sonic may have ended up being the mascot for the console, you can't argue against the longevity of Castle of Illusion as it essentially opened and closed the book on the MegaDrive as not much good came before it and not much good came after the 1996 Disney Double.

The premise is a simple one. The evil witch Mizrabel has kidnapped Minnie Mouse and plans to steal her beauty and youth, booting the titular castle's King out and taking over. As Mickey it's up to you to get the the Seven Gems of The Rainbow and rescue Minnie.
As you travel through the castle you venture behind various doors to different worlds including Forest, Toy Land and a Dessert Factory.
For a game so early in the console's life cycle it looks pretty stunning too. Say what you want about Disney (there's a whole thread on it) but there's no denying the sheer quantity of fantastic games they released in the 8 and 16 bit eras and this is no exception.
The Storm level especially has gorgeous parallax scrolling on the fire-soaked clouds behind you, making what is essentially a pallette swap of the Forest stage stand out on it's own merit. Toy Land is exactly what you would expect with it's big colourful blocks, clunky toy soldiers and toy planes whizzing past your head. The showcase stage for me though comes early in the middle of the Forest as you jump between leaves suspended on spiderwebs drenched in glistening mildew, dodging the creeping spiders. It must have been a favourite with the developers too as the exact same stage returns in World of Illusion looking even better.

Musically the game does well too with some really catchy compositions each fitting the stage they represent down to a T.
The Forest with it's living trees and wobbly mushrooms serves you up a whimsically jolly tune as you frolic past the leaves and swing across the vines, whereas the Toy Land thumps away with an childish marching beat that matches the toy soldiers that inhabit it. Impressively too the game features something close to dynamic sound as the various sections of each level change the music up while keeping a similar theme, meaning each area fully defines the segments within to make the game feel richer and deeper. The Forest's joyful bounce quickly replaced by more a more urgent siren as a giant apple rolls downhill at you.

The big selling point for Castle of Illusion comes in the gameplay and like any good platformer it's responsive but also requires you to fully explore and remember the levels to make the journey to the castle a less deadly one. Castle of Illusion is a challenge for sure, and one of the games you see from that era that will present you with an easy mode which knocks the difficulty down but also only gives you a portion of the game to play and then a brutal prompt to grow up and play the game on a harder difficulty.
A little insulting but also a fair warning to do the aforementioned exploring and learning. In the "practice" difficulty on this you'll get one segment each from the Forest, Toy Land and Storm stages with less enemies and pitfalls and no bosses. For the younger kids it's a good way to make them feel like they accomplished something and for those a bit older it's essentially a demo to see if you like what you're playing. For me it was a good way to go back into stages and get screenshots I forgot the first time round without having to replay the game in full.
Normal difficulty is the intended way to play though, giving you longer stages with more holes, traps and tricks as the enemies are in full swing too. Each world has a proper boss which vary nicely and also give us some of the best boss music I've heard in a platformer.

Mickey's main approach to enemies is a jump and butt-bounce combo, which when learnt properly is a really fun and fluid way to get through the stages, as similarly to the Mario series you can reach hard to get places and cross gaps by bouncing off an enemy. If you prefer a more grounded approach you can throw projectiles such as apples and marbles to defeat enemies but this way of playing is less fun and also ammo is finite so it's best to save them for tricky sections.
The platforming here is a challenge but never unfair. There's enough fairness to clear areas on your first go, but it does pile the pressure on at points to react quickly or fail and retry. A skilled player could beat it on a few goes but most of us will definitely run out of lives fairly quickly and have to replay to learn the layout a bit. Mickey controls well enough that this never feels like an issue though, as the game is naturally difficult and enjoyable and not just a badly made unresponsive slog.
The only issues I felt with controls is when jumping and firing at the same time. Mickey can jump and then throw, but if you throw then immediately jump after, the jump never fully takes off resulting in some pretty embarrassing hits and deaths you didn't have to take. The collision with grabbing swinging ropes is a tiny bit hit and miss too resulting in some heroic jumps immediately followed by embarrassing pitfalls.
The game ramps up the challenge as you go, with even the early stages and bosses posing a fairly good threat. As early as the first Forest stage you're swinging vines across pits, avoiding fire-spitting flowers and then finally facing down with a giant living tree reminsicent of Wispy Woods from the Kirby games.
Later stages increase the enemy count but also the threat they pose, giving them more ways to attack and harder to read patterns. By the time you reach the halfway point of the game you'll need to know what you're doing to progress further to the end.
For those who master the normal difficulty there's a difficult setting too, but by my own admission I was never tempted by that.

Overall Castle of Illusions still stands up today as one of the shining moments of the MegaDrive. A solid and deep platformer pre-empting Sonic's debut that succeeds in every way you want a platformer to; responsive controls, beautifully varied graphics and gameplay, and catchy songs you'll have stuck in your head all day after playing. While it may not be as polished as some of the games that followed, it can be forgiven as it came so early in the console's life, but even on re-release with Quackshot 6 years later never looked or felt archaic thanks to the bright and wonderful sprite graphics and simple gameplay. The re-re-releases of the game on later consoles coming as early as the Sega Saturn and as late as the Xbox 360/PS3 and the remake on the latter shows the longevity is has as one of the 16-bit era's finest achievements, and set a precident for the Disney games to follow it like Aladdin and Mickey's Wild Adventure which both use identical gameplay mechanics.
It may not reach the same pinnacle as something like Sonic 3 & Knuckles but if that was S Tier then this is A+ and still worth a play today.
---
Soundtrack

Highlights for me are the Forest and Boss stages.

---

Sega Logo of the Week

Sonic The Hedgehog 2's logo makes the cut this week as Castle of Illusion is standare fare. The accompanying SEEEEGAAAAA chant would represent the brand for generations. There may be more creative logos on the system but it's doubtful there's a more iconic one. Wonderful.
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Cheat of the Week
Just like with Eternal Champions last week, it seems the cheats for Castle of Illusion don't exist. I found two, one for an extra life after each level which never worked, and one for a "ghost mode" which also never worked. I'm getting a pattern only two weeks in of bogus cheats, which in itself is a whole discussable sub culture of retro gaming.

So with that being the case this week's Cheat of the Week comes courtesy of James Pond 2: Robocod.
At the very start of the game in the main hub before entering a stage, collect the items on the roof in the following order: Cake, Hammer, Earth, Apple, Tap (CHEAT) to gain 10 minutes of invincibility.

---

That's all for this week!
Next week will be The Terminator. I'll be back.

[johnnyboy]

4 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

The accompanying SEEEEGAAAAA chant would represent the brand for generations.

I may have mentioned this the last time MD chat was about, but my younger brother swore blind it was "Mega" due to it being on the Mega Drive at the start of the Sonic games.  I think he was dropped as a baby.

[SuperBacon]

24 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

I may have mentioned this the last time MD chat was about, but my younger brother swore blind it was "Mega" due to it being on the Mega Drive at the start of the Sonic games.  I think he was dropped as a baby.

Wouldn't he have then heard it as "Maaaaaygaaaaaaa"? Bit Trumpish.

He definitely was dropped.

[BomberPat]

21 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

A cynic would say this might be why the game ended up being so popular, as at this point the main competition was Alex Kidd (or Alex The Kid when you ask any adult that stopped playing games in the 90s) which at the time was junk and is even worse by today's standards.

I love Alex Kidd In Miracle World, though every Mega Drive iteration of the series is utter dogshit. People used to call it "Alex The Kid" even at the time, though! I used to get really annoyed, they'd be saying "Alex The Kid" while the title screen was right in front of them!

[BigJag]

 

These guys have a handheld Megadrive/Genesis. It plays the actual cartridge games. Isn't this what the NOMAD did? 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

1 hour ago, BigJag said:

 

These guys have a handheld Megadrive/Genesis. It plays the actual cartridge games. Isn't this what the NOMAD did? 

It certainly is Jag. Battery life was always the issue with the Nomad. Hopefully the advance in battery technology might make that a bit more user friendly.