In part 1 of this series, I talked about the good times CJ and I had with the Super Nintendo (SNES). I wouldn’t stop gushing over the great games we had for the console and how it influenced both of us over the years. With how popular the console was to us, there was another that mysteriously found its way into our home. Hidden away in a back room in our house sat a Sega Genesis. The Genesis never left the room and was connected to a small television that was in there. It was in the back corner of the room, and at the time we were using it as a storage room; so we had to make a path and sit on bins in order to play the console. We had no interest in moving the console since we didn’t know how to set it up at the time.

Despite the obstacles, we got some millage off of the console. We had a handful of games that we would constantly play. Just like with the SNES games, we have no idea where these games came from, but I guess our dad just saw them and thought they were fun.

The game that we played the most was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This was our first introduction to Sonic, and it left a lasting impression. Besides the kickass stages and music, Sonic 2 came with a feature that we were all about, “co-op.” While one person controlled Sonic, player 2 could join the fun by playing as Tails. This was the ultimate “hand an unplugged controller to your younger sibling” as player 2 was just….there. The game did not care about player 2 since the game was called Sonic the Hedgehog and not Sonic and Tails. To make matters worse, Tails could not carry Sonic like he could in the following game. This did not ruin the fun for me since I was a dumb kid and I was just happy to be playing a game with my brother. He would try to slow down to let me catch up, but not even he could control the wild speeds. I was, however, a great resource when it came to boss fights.

Brushing off from Sonic 2, we also had Sonic and Knuckles. This was the weird cartridge that had a slot on top to insert another Genesis cartridge in. It was basically an DLC expansion pack for Sonic 3 if you had it. You could also play as Knuckles if you connected it with Sonic 2. I remember playing this but not as much as we did with the second game. It wasn’t until the Gamecube era that we were able to play the full game of Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

The last game that we were fascinated over was the creation tool game called Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio. I am convinced that no one has ever heard of this game, or it was so bad that no one wanted to talk about it. This was Sega’s answer to Mario Paint and it has a lot going for it. There were applications for creating music, animations, and artwork. It even came with a mouse that we never used (this is a console, not a computer!). Sadly, the contents of the game have faded from my memory. Even when I was looking up images from the game, the user interface (UI) doesn’t look familiar. I’m sure if I asked CJ he might remember more than I do.

There were a few other games that we had, but they were hard, like Aladdin, or forgettable like Disney’s Bonkers (anyone remember Bonkers?). There were games that we would rent from the local video store to play, but nothing really kept us coming back to the console. We had more enjoyment out of it when we would visit a cousin of ours who had a large collection of games. To this day, CJ still has the Sega Genesis, although he can’t really use it as is.

I forget what year it was, but one day we decided to resurrect the old console from the storage room. The console was connected to the TV via a one-pin cable cord (the same one still use for cable). What was suppose to be a simple “unscrew the cord” turned into me yanking the cord and breaking the pin. This was before the going online and ordering a replacement, or going to the store and finding a new cord. In a small town where we grew up, it felt like we had screwed up big time and we would never use the console again. I bet we could find a replacement cord today, but there is no real point now. When the GameCube came out, we got the Sonic games back; and honestly those were the only games that we enjoyed on the system. Plus most Genesis games are available on current gen consoles and PC.

This is where today’s story ends. Continuing the stories revolving around each console generation, we are heading to the fifth generation of consoles with the Nintendo 64! If you felt that this post felt bland at most, that perfectly describes my feelings towards it.

Thank you for reading,

DanamesX