Where is your god now?
That’s like, at least 137 bits right there.
MOOOOOORRRREEEEE!!!!!
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
This made me laugh for real.
Where’s the Sega Channel adapter?
My best friend and I would always have a sleepover on the last day of the month because the Sega Channel games flipped over on the first. We'd stay up all night eating junk food and playing Sega.
It was my dream as a kid to play the Sega channel.
To this day I’ve literally never seen it, which I guess means I never will.
I’ve also never seen a Neo-Geo in person.
We could probably figure out how to emulate it
I thought the same
Or the Master System adapter?
To be fair, a true Tower of Power can only be legit if it works. This setup wouldn’t work with the Power Base Converter attached to it
I know, it's just hilarious having it all stacked together.
We should make a religion out of it that mirrors scientology. Pic for reference.
Segantology
Altman be praised!!
Sonic be praised
I built this tower. It was ridiculous -- especially when connecting it to TV with RF boxes.
At the time, I thought it was great. But as I get older I realize I should have just asked for a SNES. I could have bought so many more games with what I spent on these additions.
I believe I bought into something with Sega marketing around the SNES days?
I turned the 32X on for one summer.
For me it was the promotion where, if you bought a Genesis with Sonic 1, you could mail in a voucher for a free copy of Sonic 2.
I sent out for it in March and it didn’t come until end of August.
Can you please explain all that’s going on here? 🤣
Sega CD on the bottom, which is connected to Genesis. The 32x, which is supposed to be the ‘new system’ (whole story there), is slotted in to Genesis and there’s some wire shenanigans linking it to Sega CD.
Then there’s a Game Genie for cheat codes, then an XBand, which was an early modem/ online play adapter. Then there’s Sonic 3, which had a port on it so you could play earlier Sonic games with Knuckles as main character.
Trivia, Sonic 2 and Knuckles was it's own game that was loaded into the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge. It was only accessible if the Sonic 2 cartridge was inserted into Sonic and Knuckles. Giving the illusion you were playing Sonic 2 with the Sonic 2 cartridge.
Further trivia: The cartridges were region locked. If you had the North American version of Sonic and Knuckles, and tried inserting a Japanese Sonic 2 cartridge, you'd get the same thing as if you inserted any other cartridge... Endless Sonic 3 special stages.
In case you're totally in the dark about the evolution of the old Sega, nobody has yet explained that instead of releasing a new generation console, Sega kept releasing hardware add-ons that plugged together like videogame Voltron.
Haha.. yeah I remember the sega CD and 32x. I was thrown off by the thing with the cord coming out of it, and I completely forgot about the sonic 3 add on cart. Someone posted a nice breakdown of it all.
Sega was a tragic mess. Really fun and I played the hell out of my Genesis, but damn this image perfectly sums up how crazy they got.
Sonic CD and Doom required some upgrades.
How it feels looking at it.
Hopefully it doesn’t end like it did for Casca there.
The phrase you’re looking for is “getting raped”, choom.
Ya, I really hope they aren't in our age group. It's been decades since I could have identified with that sort of edgy humor.
Yup, that kind of “humor” went out with our part of the generation when JNCOs, Nu Metal, and the fifth console generation were dying/ending.
Still got this, makes me want to find a 32x to plug into it
I wish I kept mine, but I thought the 32x wasn’t compatible.
The LCD on that thing though…we’ve come a long way
Wait, would that work?
I thought I was the only kid on the planet with a Sega CD.
Nope! I think the turbo grafx 16 was rarer. Only system that none of my friends or I had. My neighbor had a master system.
I had a 3d0 and have yet to meet someone irl who had one in the 90s
I think the Atari Jaguar is the only system I've never seen out in the real world
I never saw a neo goes outside of the store. That's where my dad drew the line
Good for him. That system was nothing but a status symbol at the time. Sure, they were actual arcade carts, but the engine was limited to one genre. Although King of Monsters was epic AF.
I had 1 friend who had a jaguar. He had 3 games, a brutal football game, alien vs predator and I think battle toads.
The friend I made in college who introduced me to Aphex Twin had (strike that, still has) a Jaguar and swore Tempest 2000 was an absolutely sublime experience on LSD.
Homeboy is the king of obscure peripherals. Thanks to him I got to play Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast with maracas, and Virtual On with the special twin sticks specifically made for that one game. His house is also the only place I’ve ever gotten to play Rock Band with a full band!
Holy shit, I had Neo Geo rich friends, but they weren't THAT rich!
Opposite for me. A friend had a Jaguar, but I've never seen a 3d0 outside a store.
My best friend had one. Pretty much a waste of money but it was a fun novelty for like one or two games.
I had a Panasonic 3DO, Sega Master System before that, then a Genesis. Eventually caved and got a Super Nintendo, the a N64. But I started with the seemingly rare Master System which I loved.
Master System had the best version of the Ghostbusters game!
I still have a 3DO! Super underrated system!
My friend from middle school has one!
I had one! It was....
Terrible.
Took forever to load, and there were only a handful of games worth playing. Neat idea, but flawed execution
I just remember how much fun road rash was
Yes! And need for speed, wing Commander III, and this game where you could choose a few different military vehicles and try to capture your opponent's flag. I can't remember what it was called...
Edit: Return Fire!
Neo-Geo?
I knew this spoiled kid that had one and then through it into his parent's swimming pool. That family was really fucked up as I recall.
I think I maybe saw a couple of them over the years. They cost about 10x as much from what I remember.
I distinctly recall them breaking the $500 mark -- in like '94. Insanity. There was this guy a friend of mine and I happened to see carrying one into his house as we rode by on our bikes. We figured he was some kind of legend.
It was the only one with Street Fighter for years. People took that shit serious at the arcade. Maybe a decade before Killer Instinct.
I'm wondering if you meant Samurai Showdown? 'Cause Street Fighter II and it's many variants were on SNES and Genesis.
Just thinking about Street Fighter 1. Had really unique sound effects.
I almost boughta turbo grafix 16 back in the day, was under $100 and came with like 16 games. I still wonder why i never bought it sometimes.
atari jaguar is the rarest. I think I saw 1 in my entire life. it was outrageously expensive with no games.
That was pretty up there. Even worse was the 3do. Whats funny is both these systems we mentioned had CD add-ons too. Actually you know what f it, neo geo probably had them all beat.
I got to play the display model at Toys R Us
Nobody knew what the fuck they were looking at when I busted out my TurboExpress, and when I slapped on the tv tuner peripheral you could practically see the steam leaking out of their ears.
I excitedly opened my Christmas present in, I think, 1993, to discover that I had gotten…..a TurboGrafx 16.
Great.
I had a turbo grafx 16, but not the Sega CD. Bonk's Adventure, Legendary Axe, Vigilante, and Keith Courage.
I have the CDX. It was actually my CD player for a while haha
I've still got my old Sonic CD and Ecco CD games around here somewhere.
I had one. Loved it!
I loved mine. Fun games too
There were handfuls of us!
I had the v2 genesis and segacd, but everything else here minus the net adapter
The story behind all these accessories is insane. You should read Console Wars if you never have.
The Get Played podcast has a pretty good episode on peripherals, too
For the very few that were lucky enough to play over XBand you got to experience one of the greatest gaming experiences of your life. It’s such a shame that it wasn’t bigger. It was really something special.
I loved XBand so much, but no one else at my school had one. I tried explaining how every evening I was participating in hardcore gang warfare over a telephone line plugged into a Super Nintendo game, but they would just give me a blank stare and say, "So, anyway..."
I was Nationally Ranked number 1 overall on NHL 96 over XBand for a time. Still one of my life’s greatest achievements.
I would give anything for them to bring back XBand.
Nice, I did quite well at Killer Instinct for a while, but I got so into the clan warfare part of it that I ended up using it almost exclusively for that. At one point I was the leader of a clan called Evil Empire (-E-) with over 800 members.
Do you have kids ? I can just imagine the blank stare my kid would give me if I tried to explain how awesome that was back then.
I do, and my son is a gamer. He appreciates that little piece of gaming history when I told him about it. Such rare and fun little community XBand was. I even met a couple of the people I played with in real life. Sucks that it was so short lived.
There was a short period when my daughter was obsessed with everything Mario. So I pulled out Mario Bros. The arcade game thinking she would be fascinated with the history. Let’s just say my daughter is Queen of the blank stare to eye roll .
Yeah, that’s just the side scroller in general. I bought the new Mario for my kid and he wants no part of it. Played it for 10 minutes and that was that.
Really? The Mario Wonder game ? I have a slight confession, I just could not get into it. But probably not because it’s the same old formula, but because it’s too wild and crazy for me. I’d think kids would love that.
He’s used to playing 3D shooters and RPGs on PC. He’s a little older now (15), so I guess maybe it is too “kiddie” for him as well. I think it’s fun but definitely a lot going on compared to older Mario games.
The OG tech stack
The damn metal pieces of 32x were the bane of my existence
Probably fleeing the burning house after the power strip required for that setup exploded.
I had to text my husband to make sure it wasn't him that did this, haha. I'm impressed and curious AF if you got it to work.
It's not mine. I thought this stack would resonate with this community.
Tower of Power right here!!
The old Tower of Power.
XBand and Sega Channel blew my god damned mind. Of course, my parents would never fork out for them. But I've never lusted after anything harder in a magazine and yes, I know what I just said and I stand by it.
And to top it off, I find out many years later there was a cable "modem" cartridge for the Atari 2600. You can't make this up. The future was then. We're just living in it's shadow.
Intellivision had PlayCable in some cities. Almost like a sega channel but for Intellivision in 1981 !
Ah, it hurts!
Im erect
So is that system
I'm coming over! I'll bring the pizza!
This towering monstrosity is why Sega lost the console war in the 90s
Especially the third from the bottom. I wonder if they learn about Sega in the 90s in business schools in Japan. Nerds born in the 80s and earlier are just in awe of the f ups they did in the mid 90s. They had soooo much on stuff out there. Wonder how much resources they put into weird one-offs like the cd-x and x'eye. There was another one too, forget the name.
Nice one
He’s cracked the code!
Still ass at the damn special stages
What did the Xbynd do?
Xband was a cartridge you put in between the console and the game cart. It was a dial-up modem and a BIOS+GUI for an online gaming service. You subscribed to the monthly X-Band service and could dial into the local phone numbers and play games with other people. I primarily used it to play Mortal Kombat 3, Killer Instinct, and Super Mario Kart. The service actually worked pretty well and didn't have a lot of lag. I remember destroying people on Killer Instinct, and they would pull out the phone cord and disconnect instead of letting me get credit for the win.
It had a messaging system, player profiles, and a cool soundtrack: XBAND BIOS (SNES) Soundtrack (youtube.com)
I had XBand as a kid for a short period of time. I bought it not knowing I’d need a credit card to make any kind of use out of it. It was still fun creating an avatar but I don’t think I ever ended up playing anyone else over the service.
Did this really work?
I legit used to play Sonic 3 and Knuckles with a game genie on my nomad. Even in the 90s that turned a lot of heads...
Have mercy!
And knuckles
I had the genie but that was about it. This is like a physical version of WeMod
SJenga
I was an avid Sega guy, but I'm gonna need some help--what are the things between the Game Genie and the Sonic 3 cartidge? I feel ashamed I don't know.
My boy... what have you done to my boy!
Does it boot up properly?
Man! I haven’t seen a game genie since I was like 10 or 11! The technology is just… so… advanced 🤣
I’ve been playing old nes games on retroarch which can run game genie codes to cheat at games. Some of the codes that people have discovered are just incredible. The game genie really could make all of your old games fun again.
Oh that thing is amazing to play old games on
I mean sure this is cool but let’s ask the real question here…
Does It Blend???
NOFX
Why does this inspire envy in me?
Can you hear its whispers. Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth? Do you seek truth?
I thought my family was the only one that it’s a 32X!
Did anyone ever use the headphone jack? Lol. If the studio is on the TV why would I need that
Wow!!
You wish to challenge my god?? Fine...I shall summon him!
(on controller) A-B-A-C-A-B-B
tfw you plugged in a random game on top of sonic and knuckles and realized each game generated a different bonus level
Now what game would actually play well with this setup in the universe that the Xband still were operating?
We should have continued this method for another 30 years! I want to be on the 2nd floor being like DJ Khalid "Another One"
What kind of witchcraft is this?
There's a lot to unpack in this picture...
Clearly OP has had some kind of mental break though... we should all do a wellness check.
Now bow 👇
Sega Genesis > all other entertainment systems until PlayStation came out.
That’s a funny way of spelling SNES.
I prefer my blood red not green.
It was a cartridge system…Hey, the 80s called, they want their entertainment system back
Genesis does what Nintendon't
[GIF]