51 replies to this topic

[super_quincy]

So as we all know the Mega CD was a massive commercial failure, eclipsed only my the 32X, but I have fond memories of getting a faulty Japanese Mega CD mk1 from a mate and restoring it back to health. The console had been plugged into a UK PSU and the power board had blown, I had it replaced, but in order for it to work with my UK Megadrive I had to buy a CDX Pro cartridge for it to run anything! £30 on said cartridge and £40 on a copy of Silpheed and I was ready to go! That Easter (1993) holiday I experienced Final Fight CD, Thunder Hawk and Lunar The Silver Star.
A year or so later I traded it for a Neo Geo, and forgot all about it. A few years later I bought a Multi Mega (which I used as a portable CD player more than a Games Machine!) and got back into the grainy FMV action. There were a few gems though, Keio, Snatcher, Robo Aleste which I have enjoyed playing.
I now have a pretty nice Mega CD collection and I'm still enjoying even the daft FMV games that made it infamous.
Anyone else feeling the Mega CD Love?


P1080440 by superquincy, on Flickr

[Redsquirrel]

I had a megadrive and a friend got a mega CD for xmas. It was one of the frontloading ones - looked pretty damn cool for the time.

He had a couple of games, perhaps sewer shark and a flight game - thunderhawk i believe.

I don't know why, but i decided to get one. It wasnt exactly like I thought it looked better (infact the grainy video wasnt good back then),

So anyway, i bought one for £180. It was actually the Mega CD 2. It looked a bit cheap but it worked. It came with a copy of Road Avenger and that 6 in 1 sega cd that I don't think i ever even bothered to play.

I did enjoy Road Avenger, but by the next day I had finished it. quite a easy game but was fun.

Later that night my brother got a bit angry and punched the mega cd 2. It died.

Thankfully it came with a reciet for dixons so we managed to get it swapped Happy times.

I ended up getting several games for it - sherlock holmes was a waste of money, I thought it was awful.

Sonic CD was decent, although I only ended up borrowing it of a mate for the summer holidays.

Night Trap was probably my most remembered - still remember going to buy it from the local paper from a guy with a slot machine in his room. "I dont think your kid should be playing this, its age rated". I still did.

Again, it wasn't the best game - had it finished pretty quickly but kept entertained for a little. The game was a bit pointless because if you want to beat the game you have to miss anything actually entertaining happening.

I ended up buying a magazine that had a demo game on each month. Don't see that much anymore! generally none of the games peaked my interest though - silpheed was quite nice, soul force(sp) was quite a nice star fox style game, wasnt as good though.

I ended up selling my Megadrive & Mega CD down the line - i ended up getting conned by someone using a fake cheque. Never did get any of my money back. Think the bastard got sent to jail though as it wasnt the only "job" he did.

Got a Multimega about 10 years ago - had some fun replaying old games, but last time i tried to use it a few years back - it appears that something has failed as the cd doesnt spin.

In any case, i enjoyed the few games i played on it - but quite a big waste of cash on my part.

[Lorfarius]

I loved the system when I had one a year or two back. Snatcher and Popful Mail in my mind made it worth owning. I did play Luna but never got far

[super_quincy]

Lunar was the first JRPG that I ever got really into, I even kept a journal as I played though it.

[sandman]

I loved mine at the time - particularly Thunderhawk, Night Trap, Sonic CD and a few others. The wife loved sewer shark. But, it hasnt aged well IMHO.

[Dandy_Sephy]

Night Trap *shudder*

[Asura]

I ended up buying a magazine that had a demo game on each month. Don't see that much anymore! generally none of the games peaked my interest though - silpheed was quite nice, soul force(sp) was quite a nice star fox style game, wasnt as good though.

I think you're confusing two games there, though everyone did at the time, so this takes me back. There were two titles; "Sol Feace" which was a 2D side-on shooter, and "Soul Star" which was a 3rd-person on-rails shooter which, as you say, was a little like Starfox/Afterburner, though it had some weird mode-7-esque bits where I think you could fly where you wanted.

[Redsquirrel]

I think you're confusing two games there, though everyone did at the time, so this takes me back. There were two titles; "Sol Feace" which was a 2D side-on shooter, and "Soul Star" which was a 3rd-person on-rails shooter which, as you say, was a little like Starfox/Afterburner, though it had some weird mode-7-esque bits where I think you could fly where you wanted.

Ah yeah soul star was the one im thinking off. I think i have played sol feace but really cant remember much - going back a long time here!

[Grey Fox]

One of my favourite machines and massively underrated. Wasn't helped by the fact that most the games on the shelves were the FMV ones as the bettergames had sold or were ordered in very low numbers. there are a ton of fantasticgames on the system as well as some highly underappreciated games. Not helped I guess by a number also being on cartridge. Stuff like Eternal Champions Challenge form the Dark Side was a huge expansion on the cartridge original. Terminator Cd was a cracking game with a soundtrack that was all sorts o awesome. Sonic CD, Final Fight cd, Snatcher, Batman Returns, shining Force cd, Lunar Silver Star, Lunar Eternal Blue are some of the better known titles along with the Core titles such as Thunderhawk, Soul Star and Battle Corps but there are some bubbling under the surface like Dungeon Explorer, Lords of Thunder, Cobra Space Adventure, Rise of the Dragon, Eye of the Beholder,Dungeon Master 2, Keio Flying Squadron, Wing Commander, Mickey Mania, Jurassic Park and others that were some great games albeit some are already on other formats. Loads of quality 16 bit titles with some amazing soundtracks.

[gospvg]

Unfortunately mine was very much left unused, I saved up nearly £280 to purchase the Mega CD, Backup Cartridge & Shining Force CD.
Only to be left really deflated by the game thus did not really look into any of the US RPGs at the time & brief plays of the usual shovel ware titles like Road Avenger/Cobra Command.

10 years later though I did purchase a lovely Multi-Mega which I do wonder why Sega never released that instead of the add-on

[NonShinyGoose]

I had one - got it when the system was on its deathbed. A store in town used to sell the games for very cheap prices - the common games were about £3 each, like Road Avenger and Time Gal. Ideal pocket money prices, really.

I was lucky enough to find a huge pile of demo disks at a carboot and I played these quite a bit. Apparently the demo of Keio Flying Squadron was actually the full game - you could use a level select on it. Didn't know this back the day when I had it though.

[marsh]

I had one of these and at the time I thought I was the fucking Don. Some of the games were pretty good too, and the mag that has been mentioned came with game demos. Shame it never got the backup it deserved, the music on Sonic CD was amazing.

My biggest shame is having a copy of Snatcher and NEVER playing it

[Hambury]

Didn't play many of the games, and as a kid I was on Nintendo's side.

However, this is one of the finest images there's ever been:

Attached Files

•  91_Sega_Mega-CD_MK1.jpg   44.25K   3 downloads

[Nish]

Mega CD how I love thee

Switch
Lunar 1 + 2
Rise of the Dragon
Snatcher
Sonic CD
Keio Flying Squadron
Batman Returns (turn off the platform sections)
Monkey Island
Thunderhawk
Final Fight CD, two player!
Ecco 1+2 greatly improved soundtrack I could not stand the cart version music

Did anyone else have the Flux music visualizer cartridge?

[Yiggy]

Yeah I still have one in the retro set-up but my finances have caused me to sell some of the premium titles like Snatcher and Shining Force CD.

I liked it. Dune, Thunderhawk, Keio, Sonic, Eye of the Beholder etc. I have an import cart for Lunar, Rise of the Dragon etc.

It was certainly ahead of its time for about 18 months as far as CD based consoles in the west were concerned. Jp had already had PC Engine CD of course, which I also love. I just love that period of transition to CD based gaming for some reason. Its also why I am a sick man who loves his 3DO.

I have quite a few Jap titles including the Game Cans (Jap rarities) and the Aleste one. Final Fight CD is great too.

[super_quincy]

I am pleasantly surprised that so many have played Lunar, considering the rarity of the CDX import cartridge!

Good show lads!

[Yiggy]

I am pleasantly surprised that so many have played Lunar, considering the rarity of the CDX import cartridge!

Good slow lads!

There's a more modern version of the import cart. It's what I've got and it also does rom storage. You can boot into any of the 3 regions Bios. Works brilliantly.

[Mr Monday]

Is that the MegaCart?

http://products.genn...gacart_v1x.html

[Yiggy]

Is that the MegaCart?

http://products.genny4ever.net/megacart_v1x.html

That's the one. Works great. Opens up quite a few import options.

[Asura]

Did anyone ever play any of the "CD32X" games? I say games but I seem to recall there was only one - a basketball game of some kind.

[Xevious]

There was a CD32X version of Night Trap as well, I believe.

[super_quincy]

There were 4 details here

[superstarbeejay]

Yeah, there are a few. I have only ever seen the basketball one.

I have a healthy mega cd collection (about 40 games I think) but have played very few of them.

I started playing shining force cd a couple of years ago on the xbox but ran out of steam with it so I need to go back to that.

The one I have played the most is final fight.

[deKay]

I always maintain that Night Trap was a fantastic game. I don't care what anyone else says.

Did anyone ever play any of the "CD32X" games? I say games but I seem to recall there was only one - a basketball game of some kind.

Slam City with Scottie Pippen. It's awesome.

[Redsquirrel]

I always maintain that Night Trap was a fantastic game Low budget Movie. I don't care what anyone else says.

fixed

[deKay]

Wrong! It was excellent. Still is. Stick it on XBLA with properly encoded video and I'll buy at a high price.

[Redsquirrel]

I think the idea was great - i loved the augs! I just felt the game was poorly executed.If you wanted to actual finish the game, you had to miss anything interesting going on and spend the entire time catching the augs.. miss a time and your screwed.

Was the 32x version better video? a pc version doesnt exist does it?

[mindgames]

I've got a pile of Mega CD demo disks sat here that I really should do something with

[super_quincy]

If you've got the pugsy / psygnosis one I'd be interested in that. Just cos I had it back in the day!

[super_quincy]

I think the idea was great - i loved the augs! I just felt the game was poorly executed.If you wanted to actual finish the game, you had to miss anything interesting going on and spend the entire time catching the augs.. miss a time and your screwed.

Was the 32x version better video? a pc version doesnt exist does it?

The 32x cd version a has better FMV and a nicer GUI, I've yet to see the 3do version but it's on the wants list!