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Why wasn't the Genesis called the Mega Drive in the US?
- Thread starter NuclearCake
- Start date
They're both pretty stupid names. North Americans remember the name Genesis fondly and most of the rest of the world does the same for the Mega Drive. That's nostalgia for you.
(was it also called Genesis in Latin America? Anyway, it was the Genesis in Canada too)
(was it also called Genesis in Latin America? Anyway, it was the Genesis in Canada too)
Genesis is a better name.
Mega Drive is generic.
Yeah, maybe it's me and 3 other people, but I still associate Genesis more with Star Trek than the console (or as much!).
Mega Drive might not be the best name in itself, but the whole "Sega Mega" combo makes it a cool name (Or at least it did for me as a kid of the 90's).
As a a European I'm having a hard time imagining why anyone would try to place their drinks on their Super Famicom, I guess it's kinda possible, it's not like the NES which is just a large flat surface. So I'm leaning on apocryphal.
I do remember reading an interview with the American designer where he said he didn't like the look of the Super Famicom and found that it resembled a lunch box or something. I suspect a lot of these decisions were less informed and more based on personal whims than we might think.
People didn't have the kind of global mindset we do now so local divisions and resellers just had a lot of power to make whatever alterations they pleased.
Yellow peril was big in the 80s and it must've seemed like wise business sense to try and disassociate these products from their country of origin.
Best looking minis imo:
SNES EU > SFC >>> SNES US
MD JP/Asia > MD EU > Genesis
Coregrafx > PCE >>>>> TG16
OP
OP
I grew in a Mega Drive territory, so that's the nostalgia winner for me. But I think Genesis is a grander and bolder name, and I think it's objectivelly better.
The only advantages of the Mega Drive name are these two IMO:
The only advantages of the Mega Drive name are these two IMO:
- It's a more flexible scheme for a series of accessories, like the Mega CD or the Mega Modem
- It kind of fits better in the system wars with the SNES, like a battle of superlatives "Mega vs Super".
Damn right :D
In the context of the late 80's and early 90's "Mega Drive" is much, much cooler sounding. And yeah, that logo is aces.
I think it was just based on the cultural design of the era. In the late 80s/early 90s big and boxy was the style of choice in the west. It always seemed like they wanted the NES to look more like a piece of stereo equipment, and the SNES to look more "mature" than the smaller, multicolored Super Famicom which was almost toy like, especially in the wake of the Genesis launching out here a couple years earlier and really making a play for that older market.
Regarding the Genesis/MegaDrive thing, for some reason I always figured that the change was made because the word "Drive" wasn't really as synonymous with games here as it was in Europe or Japan, where they probably were more used to the idea of playing games off of disc drives (feels like the microcomputer market existed there for much longer than it did in North America), but that was always just an assumption on my part.
This. It's shocking to see so many people here saying that Mega Drive was superior, when Genesis was probably one of the most compelling console names ever, managing to be evocative and unique without falling into the trap of trying too hard to seem hip to teen boys. I've never been a big Sega fan, but they had an amazing run of names from the Genesis to the Saturn to the Dreamcast. All of these names position their consoles not as toys or gadgets but as means of transportation to mysterious universes, imagination-fueled time machines and spacecrafts. It's the same sort of branding car manufacturers have been using successfully for decades. It's Don Draper shit.
Honestly, the remaining three console manufacturers are all pretty ho hum at naming. Sony is conservative to a fault (Vita aside). Nintendo did an excellent job with the Switch brand (even if it's more utilitarian and descriptive than imaginative), but most of their previous console names range from bizarre (GameCube, Wii) to decent but lazy (SNES, N64) to completely fucking bewildering (Wii U). And Microsoft ... Do I even need to say what a mess their naming conventions are?
Hahaha. YES.
Not that I dislike the name Mega Drive, but it sounds more like a competitor to NES or an Atari than a dope new game console to bring us into the 90s.
Yeah as someone in a territory where it was Genesis, I always thought "Mega Drive" sounded like some cool name for a gaming system from like Blade Runner or something. Genesis' design language was cool though pre-redesign before the Genesis 2 and the red stripe boxes.
I like both names shrug emoji.
This too. The OG Genesis is one of my favorite console designs and I loved the boxes before they rebranded.
This too. The OG Genesis is one of my favorite console designs and I loved the boxes before they rebranded.
i might stand a lone but i like it, feels not directly related to games, less endemic and it's good.
i think most console names are bad and we just get used to them.
I waffle on dreamcast, it's kind of corny but i like it a bit. Katana would have been good though, also Neptune.
but again im in the minority. I like Switch. Do people even remember how weird Wii was when it was first anounced?
i think most console names are bad and we just get used to them.
I waffle on dreamcast, it's kind of corny but i like it a bit. Katana would have been good though, also Neptune.
but again im in the minority. I like Switch. Do people even remember how weird Wii was when it was first anounced?
is Switch disliked? I don't think I've seen much pushback against it
Over here we burnt churches, played black metal and called it the Mega Drive.
At least both the Genesis and Mega Drive sides can agree that South Korea had it worse, right?
Super Gam*Boy and Super Aladdin Boy.
segaretro.org
Super Gam*Boy and Super Aladdin Boy.
Mega Drive consoles in South Korea - Sega Retro
segaretro.org
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Funny how the Genesis Mortal Kombat blood code was ABACABB and the band Genesis released an album named Abacab.
The console was named Genesis in the land of confusion.
The console was named Genesis in the land of confusion.
