I must have got mine in either Christmas '92, or Christmas '93.
It was the
MegaDrive model 2, and I got
Mega-Games 2 and
3.
It was unbelievably good, the best Christmas ever.
The first game we played was
Streets of Rage 1, I played Co-op with one of my brothers, the one i don't get along well with, I picked Adam, and we reached level 5, the boat level before dying.
We hadn't used the extra lives trick, which we would in the days after. I've never forgotten that.
The console of my childhood and huge influence on how I view gaming.
The time period was Sega's here in Ireland. I know one kid with a SNES and I felt sorry for him.
In school a kid, who I still know, in fact he served me a pint just last Sunday, claimed to have a Megadrive 3 at home.
In the attic.
We would talk in the playground about
Revenge of Shinobi, and how you need to use the Super Jump Magic to get by the falling logs in the waterfall on level two, one kid thought the self destruct Magic gave him extra lives. We exchanged how to get infinite shurikens.
I remember playing
Golden Axe with the awful hit-boxes and hit-stun, which I recognized at the time, even if I couldn't quite explain why the game is so spongy at the time. The story, the flying turtle, the little guys stealing your magic at the camp fire and beating Death Adder Jr.
It took many years before I recall killing Death Adder Senior for the true ending. Loved seeing all the pallet swaps as the enemies got harder.
There was
Super Monaco GP, and the rivalry you would have with other drivers, the "fosters-esque" adverts,
Alien Storm where no one wanted to be the robot with the whip, and
Super Thunder Blade where you can beat level one by flying to the top of the screen.
And I'll never forget the first time my friends and I got to Mr X. in Streets of Rage, and then turned on each other.
One thing I love is the silly memory of my mother helping me untangle the cables each time I set it up.
I always called her for help.
It must have been around 20 Years later she saw me playing Sonic 1 on Xbox 360 and remarked how she always loved that game. How it was nice and pleasant and colourful. And nice to see it again.
She passed away last year and I always think of her when I see the upcoming Sonic Mania game, I remember showing it to her when she was sick, that they were making new games like that again, she thought it was lovely to see, and loved when I would introduce my nephews to the games at home. I told her I'd make sure I'd play it with them when it came out.
