My SEGA Story – Part 1
by Jhonas Soberon
Manila — lets turn back the clock. say, somewhere between 1993 and 1994. Around this time, a kid like me grew less and less invested on playing outside with the other kids. The latest craze was playing videogames.
Specifically, the Nintendo Family Computer system.
image courtesy of Spot PH
You might say, the Famicom? In the early 90s?
Well yes. Let’s just say advancements in culture and technology reaches about 10 years too late in South East Asia.
I remember one of the neighborhood kids showed us where we can get hands on one.
It was a general store owned by this old lady. She had three famicom systems lined up inside her store. She would rent these babies out to kids for a fee. All the games you can play in an hour by paying 10 Philippine Pesos.
Back then it would be almost 3 Cents (US) an hour, if my estimate is correct.
The Family Computer aka FamiCom – image courtesy of christo (creative commons)
I remember tossing between Super Mario 1, Super Mario 3, Double Dragon, Megaman 3, Contra 1, Battle City, Excite Bike, Street Fighter 2 and Salamander to name a few.
Never got good in one game per se. I just wanted to try all sorts of types of games that was available in the store.The naughty things a kid had to do get some money to play these things. Saving school lunch money was never enough, especially during the days when there is no school.
Sometimes me and my little brother would just go there and watch other kids play just to see how far they would go within the hour. The old lady would use those analog alarm clocks where you actually turn the dial.
It was awe inspiring and learning experience how they can get so skillful on these video games.
It was the best fun we had yet. eventually the old matron introduced the Sega MegaDrive. It was all black, with a big “16 BIT” wording in the front. The controllers were bigger and now with 3 buttons. A B — and C?
The SEGA MegaDrive – image courtesy of Wikipedia
This whole thing was entirely different to the red and white Famicom that we grew accustomed with.
Our hands just molded to the curves of that black controller. aside from the additional C button, the feel of the directional buttons was different because how circular it was compared to the “Cross” shape of the Famicom. It was easier to move our sore left thumbs with.
How much was it? 20 Pesos and hour? That’s double the Famicom’s rate.
Getting 10 pesos from my parents’ (by any mean necessary) was hard enough. 20 ?
What games are possibly worth the price of thi —
ooohhh!!
SEGA Mega Drive games – image courtesy of Retro Sales (www.retrosales.com.au)
What is up with that Blue thing running and bouncing so fast?
Did that dude just turned into a werewolf?
Is that semi-naked lady with the sword just called out a fire breathing dragon?
A playable black guy fighting against street punks and not getting arrested by the police?
Wait, he is with the police?
WOW… the lights, the colors and the sounds were all sorts of different to the Nintendo…
I muttered to myself, Sega Megadrive, huh? I see you…. I can’t afford to play you just yet… But I will…
— to be continued —
— Jhonas “Jho-RPG” Soberon, producer of Timeless Gamers Show