For a brief moment in the 1990s, Sega was the king of the gaming world. The Genesis was the epitome of cool, and knocked Nintendo off the perch. Eventually, Sega’s mismanagement and hubris would come to haunt them, debilitating the company with a blow that they would never recover from, leading to them bowing out of the hardware race. But for a while, Sega beat Nintendo, before Nintendo pulled back in the lead.

And that was ultimately the whole point of the legendary Mega Drive/Genesis 16-bit console. That’s why it was made: with the single minded drive to beat Nintendo. That’s what Hideki Sato, a former President at Sega, who led the development of their consoles, mentioned in an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (translated by Siliconera).

The launch of the SG-1000 next to the Famicom was extremely rough. Eventually, the Famicom would go on to monopolize the Japanese market, and Sega would be left with nothing. With the Mega Drive, Sega specifically sought to break Nintendo’s iron grip hold over the industry, and beat them.

“We just wanted to make a game console that could beat Nintendo,” Sato said. “We released our very first video game console, the SG-1000, and it sold 160,000 units. Those were huge numbers, considering Sega has only made arcade games that sold no more than several thousand units up until then. However, it stood no chance against the Family Computer, which released on the same day…

“Back then, we had some Sega employees check out department stores to see the product packaging and customer reaction, but instead what we saw were Family Computers flying off the shelves, right before our eyes. They said that it was about ten for every one who purchased the SG-1000.”

Sato did admit that Nintendo’s victory was well earned, and that the key to their success, and to Sega’s eventual success as well, was in the software.

“I thought the difference was in software,” he said. “Honestly, the software quality wasn’t that great. The reason was because the company saw video game consoles as as an extra or bonus, in a sense. We couldn’t get our in-house development team to budge. We had no choice but to outsource the software, but against Nintendo’s fine software, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

In the end, of course, Sega’s efforts bore fruit, and they managed to break Nintendo’s monopoly—which they would never regain from that moment on, battling on two fronts against Sega and Sony first, and then Sony and Microsoft. If the Genesis/Mega Drive was specifically made to end Nintendo’s monopoly, at the very least, Sega can rest assured knowing that the system managed to do just that.

The legendary system will be available as a reissued Mega Drive Classic some time next year, if you are a fan and want to relive those glory days.

With Sony jumping in on the craze started by Nintendo’s NES Classic Mini and SNES Classic Mini, it seems like Sega is realizing the importance of doing their own classic hardware right as well. Genesis microconsole clones have been available on the market for many years now, but they have largely been outsourced to a company named AtGames, and been notorious for poor emulation quality, making the purchases unattractive to anyone who wants to play their Sega favourites on them.

However, it looks like that will be changing. The previously announced Sega Genesis Classic will now no longer be based on AtGames’ previously released units, and will instead be developed by a “trusted domestic developer”, Sega announced. The result of this is that the release of the console has been pushed to 2019. The good news is that it will now be releasing around the world (originally it was just announced for Japan).

So, the takeaway is: hopefully we get an actual good Genesis/Mega Drive microconsole out of this.

https://twitter.com/kobunheat/status/1042397400306868225?s=21

Namco is one of the most important video game companies there is- it was responsible for the rise of video gaming in arcades, via its Pac-Man and Galaga cabinets, it was a frontrunner in NES development, it is credited with the rise of Sega with the Genesis, and it single handedly blazed the trail for PlayStation’s success, thanks to early games such as Tekken and Ridge Racer. Namco is a pioneer of genres such as 3D fighters and racing games, and even today, remains one of the largest publishers in the world, and one of the few Japanese companies to have escaped the decline of the Japanese market without being affected at all.

A large part of all of Namco’s accomplishments can be credit to founder Masaya Nakamura (who even named the company after himself- Nakamura Amusement Machine Company). Nakamura-sama truly stands as one of the pioneers of the video game medium, and one of the fathers of the medium as we know it today. So it’s with a heavy heart that we have to report today that he has passed away at the age of 91. Bandai Namco confirmed his passing in a statement, where they also noted that out of respect for his family’s wishes and privacy, they would not be disclosing the exact cause of his death.

Nakamura-sama is one of the fathers of video games, and one of the reasons that all of us are playing games today. On his passing, let us all of us unite as fans of the medium to pay respects to his memories. May he rest in peace.

Previously we reported that  Castle of Illusion might be getting a HD Remaster/Remake. Starring Mickey Mouse as the main character, Castle of Illusion was a popular 2D Side Scrolling platformer back in the early 90s on the Mega Drive.

It looks like the rumors were true due to the fact that Sega is now teasing Castle of Illusion with their brand new Summer 2013 trailer. However, we are still not sure if its a HD Remaster or an actual sequel to the original game.

You can check out the teaser trailer below:

According to the trailer the game might be released sometime in Summer 2013.

Stay tuned on GamingBolt for more news regarding Castle of Illusion HD Remaster or whatever it is going to be.

Are you looking forward to this game? Are you guys excited by this announcement? Leave any comments or opinions you have down below.

Pier Solar, which released in 2010 on the Sega Mega Drive- a long dead system- will be getting an HD port for the Xbox 360, PC, Linux, Mac and Dreamcast via Kickstarter funding, which has already reached $76,468 out of its targeted $139,000, with 26 days to go before the deadline on 5th December.

The game’s got a ton of gameplay hours, 300 locations and 800 NPCs, claims developer Watermelon. And all this is despite the fact that it is a 16-bit video game.

An SD port is already ready for the new systems, but Watermelon wants to release full HD ports. “We don’t just want to re-release Pier Solar on some new platforms,” says the developer. “We want to redo the game in HD so it looks as stunning as it should,” said WaterMelon on the game’s Kickstarter. “We are putting the same level of attention and detail into Pier Solar HD that we put into our original development.”

The HD version of Pier Solar should release in December next year.

Stay tuned for more info.