Sega Genesis
Virtual Console VS The Compilation
By Toronto Thumbs Staff - March 4th, 2008
The business model for the Virtual Console is more profitable than releasing titles via compilation discs.
With the last generation of games, if you had the hankering for some classic gaming action, you would either have to check out a used game store for the original game or you could likely pick up a compilation disc.
Now that we have services such as the Wii’s Virtual Console, getting our retro gaming fix has become much easier, but also much more expensive. The pricing for Virtual Console titles is something that has been argued about in the past in other publications, so we won’t focus on that too much. Eight dollars is still a damn fine deal for Super Metroid no matter how you look at it.
Instead, consider the fact that compilation discs of the last generation were usually had on the cheap and that more often than not they included a bunch of games we weren’t even interested in among the ones we were looking to play. So for some, downloadable games are better than the compilation disc. Downloads are a no-frills way to enjoy only the games you want to play. You don’t have to worry about storage (memory issues aside) and you don’t have to worry about losing disc cases or manuals.
But then there are those people who just like having a lot of games to choose from when it’s game time. And then there are the collectors who like having the original packaging for their games. For them, a disc featuring a bunch of titles is where it’s at, especially since they can be had for as little as $20, sometimes even less. In fact, the only issue that compilation discs sometimes have is less-than-exact emulation of the original games and some button mapping problems.
RETRO REVIEW: Phantasy Star
By Shaun Hatton - December 21st, 2007
Phantasy Star is perhaps the greatest 8-bit game of all time.
The year was 1988. The game, Phantasy Star. I had seen a commercial for it on TV. Usually video game commercials came in one flavour: Nintendo. On the rare occasion that there was a commercial for a Sega Master System game, my ears would perk up and it would have all my attention.
A little back story for you: it was a time when there were no in-store game kiosks – only the locked glass cabinet at Toys ‘R’ Us. Behind the glass were TVs with the latest video game systems hooked up to them. And the Sega display always had HANG-ON/Safari Hunt in it. Because this was a game I already had, it wasn’t nearly as captivating as seeing another game in action. The only other way I’d see a new game would be in the Sears catalogue, the Sega game brochures that would come with games, or on the even rarer occasion that one of my friends got a new game. Mostly everyone I knew had a Nintendo Entertainment System, however. And so getting to see a new Sega game was always an exciting event even though, in retrospect, not all of them were that great.
Phantasy Star, on the other hand, was absolutely amazing, and still is. One of the first images I’d seen of the game was of a mid-air fight with an enemy that seemingly filled the whole screen: GOLD DRAGON. Its colours were bright, its linework was bold, and was that a giant fireball it was spitting out, right at the screen? Yes, yes it was. On the strength of that screenshot alone, I knew I had to have the game.
