The year is 1989. In that year, people such as Taylor Swift, Danielle Radcliff, the late Avicii, SZA, Pewdiepie, Markiplier, and myself were born. Songs like “Bust A Move” by Young MC, “Cherish” and “Like A Prayer” by Madonna, and “Love Shack” by The B-52’s topped the charts. Movies like Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the Tim Burton directed Batman, Ghostbusters II, and Weekend At Bernie’s premiered in theaters. The Simpsons, Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Family Matters, Baywatch, and Seinfeld premiered on TV. In Japan, anime like Dragon Ball Z, Patlabor, and Ranma 1/2 premiered on TV while Kiki’s Delivery Service premiered in theaters. Video games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, SimCity, and DuckTales came out while Sega launched arcade games like Golden Axe, Turbo OutRun, and Tetris. Sega had done something else even more significant on this day that very same year, though. They launched the Sega Mega-Drive in North America as the Sega Genesis and the world would never be the same. Happy 35th anniversary!
On August 14th, 1989, Sega of America launched the Genesis in North America to much fanfare, including with a televised launch party attended by convicted felon and overall weirdo Donald Trump. Sega had failed to make much of a splash in North America with the still beloved Master System, but they had a new plan in mind for the Genesis. That plan included a fierce mockery of Nintendo’s strict adherence to sanitized, family friendly gaming, with the tagline “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t” remaining a staple in gamer lingo. This allowed Sega to stand out with the teens-to-adults crowd and ended up with Sega being the first video game console manufacturer to seriously threaten Nintendo’s market dominance, as well as inspiring future console rivals Sony and Microsoft to do the same with the PlayStation and Xbox respectively, while stealing Sega’s thunder in the process. Today, the Sega Genesis lives on in gaming and pop culture history as one of the most influential and memorable gaming consoles of all time and a hallmark of the 1990’s.
Come with us past the break to continue this celebration.
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You may remember us reporting on Parking Garage Rally Circuit, an upcoming indie racing game coming soon to Steam, which is styled after a Sega Saturn game and could actually become a Saturn game if it gets enough sales on Steam. After that article, I have reached out to Tim of Walaber Entertainment, the studio developing Parking Garage Rally Circuit, for an interview with the man behind the game. He has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the game for all our readers.
