Your fondest Sega memories

[Ristar]

So I whacked on Sonic Adventure DX the other day to kill some time, and for some reason, when the Sega/Sonic Team logo, appeared I just got thrown down memory lane as to when my mate, Carl, got his Dreamcast.

Remember the DreamOn demo (i think it was called this anyway)? I remember the faint whirring of the dreamcast, the long beeps of the VMUs when they had run out of power, that amazing soundpiece on the Dreamcast BIOS screen. And Toy Commander!

When I think back to the Dreamcast, I'm just filled with the same coolness as a pack of the most fresh, expensive Philadelphia cheese.

My other fond Sega memory is the UK Sonic and Knuckles advert. I was only about 6 or 7 at the time, but I think I remember all these bikers gathered around a TV in a dingy room talking about how "hard" Knuckles is.

Oh man... the good old days.

[DJ espeed]

My fondest memory was playing Sonic Mega Collection for the first time on my new GameCube. I don't really recall playing the Genesis games all too much as it was a faint memory. I got to (in a sense) re-experience the old school games. Good times... Good times... *sigh*

[TSS_Ty]

Getting my Dreamcast for Christmas. I found out where my parents had hidden it, so I played it as soon as they went to work that day. I'll never forget that first time on Sonic Adventure, battling Chaos and speeding through Emerald Coast. I was sad when they got wise to my schemes, but instead of ruining the excitement it just made me more eager to play it. As sad as it sounds, I'd watch the Dreamcast promo video for the few seconds of Sonic Adventure it contained.

I don't think I've been as excited about any other games since.

Bonus memory: Being friends with the only guy at school who had Sonic 3 (it was imported). We'd go around after School to try and beat the Marble Garden boss which he couldn't do. Good times indeed.

[DimensionWarped]

Super Street Fighter II on Genesis at 7 years old. That game loses something when you cease to completely suck ass at it.

[GSF]

The 'SEGA!' chant.

Yeah, that sound sample that supposedly took 1/8th of the whole Sonic 1 cartridge. The cheery chant... it expressed many things back then: Speed, power, uniqueness. It expressed how awesome Sega was back then.

I was 3 or 4 years old (can't remember anymore) when I first tried it out... and kept mashing the Reset button just to hear it again! Yeah, I really wanted to hear it over and over.

...I just ran Gens to hear it again. Yes... old memories... From the old times, when Sega made us so happy.

Thankfully we don't hear the chant in the latest Sega games... (at least most, I think.)

Bonus: Streets of Rage 2. With a friend. Possibly the best two-player co-op action in the Genesis. Epic soundtrack, great gameplay, neat graphics... Awesome.

[ila]

ITT: Wanking in order to forget the shithole Sega's in these days.

For cereal now: Nothing? Uhh. Well, when Cool Spot had the contest to see who could collect all the letters on the hardest difficulty and I managed to complete it... 2 weeks after the contest ended.

[Asuma]

I remember that contest. Wasn't the prize like 100 bucks or free 7up for a free or something like that?

I remember playing Sega swirl. Hardest puzzle game ever. Harder than Puyo Puyo (Dr.R's Mean Beam machine, and that was hard.)

[Cyber Rat]

I remeber playing Sonic 1, Alex Kidd in Miracle world and Shinobi on my Sega Master System II when I was 3 years old... What's worse, I think I was even able to beat all those games at the age of 5...

[ila]

What are you Azu? A monkey full of electrodes? Sega Swirl is just a color matching thinking excercise like Boxxi or Popple or any other game game you play at a bar for a quarter.

[VectorSatyr]

I was definitely a SEGA kid when I was younger. Hell, we even played Street Fighter on the Genesis as opposed to the Super Nintendo.

Every chance we got, my brother and I played Sonic 3 & Knuckles. We could beat it with out eyes closed now, if we wanted to, yet we couldn't play the original Sonic 1 for shit. Odd. And we rarely got a chance to go at Sonic 2, I and I don't remember beating the game as Sonic until we go Mega Collection (we always used Knuckles), so that was a nostalgia treat.

I remember going to a friends house because he actually owned a Sega CD, and we'd watch him play wierd games and the occasional Sonic CD. I have always remembered the opening to this day.

Also, getting a Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure 2 for Christmas. That was the last time I payed money to own a Sonic game in my house. All other Sonic games we have rented, except Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2) which my brother actually bought for some reason. (But note that I said I, not we )

[Asuma]

What are you Azu? A monkey full of electrodes? Sega Swirl is just a color matching thinking excercise like Boxxi or Popple or any other game game you play at a bar for a quarter.

There in lies the problem.

[DimensionWarped]

There is no difficulty inherent to a puzzle game like SEGA Swirl or Puyo Pop, only in objective goals such as getting a certain score or solving a certain puzzle.

[Spike]

Playing Sonic 2 on my Genesis back when I was three years old is one of my first memories. I remember that it got too hard after Chemical Plant, so after I beat the Chemical Plant boss I would hit reset and just play the first two zones over and over. Good times, good times.

[tentril]

Playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Knuckles' final fight against (Super?) Mecha Sonic. It was so epic that I played it like 12 times, and then had to go to my cousin's house... so i brought it with and made him watch me play it more.

[Kain]

As a kid, I had a neighbor for a year who had a Genesis (myself being a Nintendo kid) which I went over and played a few times. Nothing stands a chance against the powers of nostalgia laced with a dash of scarcity. My fondest memories lie with ToeJam & Earl.

[Blue Emerald]

My fondest memory is when I first played the Genesis. I was 3 at the time, and the first ever game I played on that system was Columns. I was really good at that game back then, too. Every now and then, my cousin would show up to play Columns. Sometimes I would pick up the second controller, and I always thought I was playing Columns with him. I even remember telling him where the blocks should fall. I still love Columns to this day, and I think it has a lot to do with my love for puzzle games.

Then I remember a bunch of us kids playing Sonic Spinball one Thanksgiving, which was the first Sonic game I ever got to play. None of us were any good at it, nor did we really understand the game; we kept falling into the water in the first level. But of course, my cousin was a pro. I remember him beating the first level boss and we cheered him on. I remember how fun it was to watch Sonic row across the level in the garbage can and ride the mine carts to the emeralds.

I was so sad when, a few years later, my uncle traded out the Genesis for a PlayStation (to which I was introduced to Crash Bandicoot). The first time I ever got to play Sonic again was 4 more years later, when Sonic Adventure 2 Battle came out for the Gamecube.

Later on, I started playing some of the old Sonic games, and I fell in love with the Genesis series again. I quickly found out they were harder in comparison to my GBA and GCN games, but I kept sharpening my skills on those games, and still do to this day.

But when it all comes down to it, my continued love for 16-bit games began with the Genesis.

[Shane]

My fondest memory was probably when I beat Sonic 2 for the first time. Sonic 2 was and still is one of my favourite games. I remember getting it with a Sega Genesis back in 1992. Man, those were the good old days.

I remember my brother kicking my arse at that game when I was a kid (he was 12 and I was 4, so...) When I was 13 or 14, I tried to take him on again and he kicked my ass again, haha. Now I can finally beat him, 15 years later. ;

[Jamie Bailey]

My first SEGA experience was with the Master System, it was given to me and my brother as a Christmas present, but I didn't know what it was until I saw my brother controlling Michael Jackson on the TV (Michael Jackson's Moonwalker) and I've been into games from that point on.

The first Sonic game I played was the Master System version of Sonic 1, then my older brother got a Mega Drive with Sonic 1, and even though he kept getting naff Mega Drives and we had to play it with flickering colours, I'm sure he must have had nightmares of me constantly asking "Can I play on your Mega Drive?". And when we got Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive, we had to play it on a TV with no sound, but I was still so excited by the game that I couldn't sleep.

Ah, those were the days...

[ila]

Oh yeah. In Sonic 2, the first time using 4 1 2 6.

[BlazeHedgehog]

Spending all summer beating Sonic 3 & Knuckles with my friends in every possible configuration.

Realizing I had spent 70+ hours playing Phantasy Star Online in a little over a month.

[Icecreamkid]

My best memory has to be when I got my Sega Genesis when I was 6 years old for Christmas. I got two games: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Madden 98(I believe). I remember loving that Sega chant when I first turned the game on. I also remember not being able to beat the game because I was stuck on Carnival Night Act 2 on that stupid floating platform thing. It took me 8 years to beat that level and that was on Sonic Mega Collection. And man did I feel sooo stupid when I found out that you had to move the D-Pad Up and Down until it goes all the way down.

[GSF]

@Icecreamkid: Indeed... Like I said in the Sonic 360 topic (I think...), a Mega Play magazine shed some light on the matter of that goddamned barrel... Heck, back then I felt so good after finally seeing Icecap...

[Epon]

I can't find the original picture.... but here's the cutout I used to use:

http://eponisdumb.com/old/

[Andrew]

I remember when I first saw that, Epon. It was very cute.

Mine was getting my Megadrive with Sonic 2 for my birthday. As odd as it sounds, my most fond memory was getting frustrated at Metropolis Zone and instead of just playing a different game, I strived to beat it.

This is SNinty related, but eh: Playing Power Rangers so much that I got blisters on my thumbs. And kept playing.

[hRook]

My fondest Sega memory by far was finally beating the Underground Zone boss on Sonic 2 for the Game Gear. That is easily the hardest classic Sonic game. I had no problem beating any of them after that.

Sky High's brutal Act 2 hang-gliding section through the spike tunnel right before the end? The COMPLETELY underwater Aqua Lake Act 2? Silver Sonic in Scrambled Egg?

When I finally beat that game, I felt like a champ.