HuguesJohnson.com Mobile: My Loser Phase

Spring 1996: 16-Bit Requiem

Spring is always associated with renewal and, well, spring cleaning. Retail stores are no exception. Starting in February and continuing through April is the process of marking down & returning clearance merchandise. By the start of summer, when kids are out of school and credit card bills paid, they want the hot new items filling the shelves. The 1995 Christmas season established the Sony Playstation as the leader of the 32-bit era. The Sega Saturn was a distant second; the Jaguar and 3DO were barely breathing. The Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo sold more games than their 32-bit counterparts that year but few new systems went out the door. It was inevitable that their real estate be reduced to make way for the new.

Approaching its eighth birthday, the Sega Genesis was a gaming geezer. Third party production of the hardware would continue well into the late 90s, at the time of this writing it's still being made in Brazil. However, for the most-part the system would see it's retail demise in 1996. Sega licensees largely abandoned the system in 1995, the few new titles were mainly '96 updates to sports franchises. I searched and searched for any Genesis game released after 1995 but couldn't find one. The closest I could find was Spiderman: Web of Fire for the 32X but I never remember seeing it on the shelf. I do remember Space Harrier for the 32X showing up around this time though, it seemed like something that should have been a launch title. The 32X and Sega CD selections vanished from existence before the Genesis. A lot of people owned a Genesis and were still prone to pick-up a $20 game from time to time. At our store Ms. Pac Man, then several years old, always sold several copies a week. The flood of emulated arcade classics hadn't appeared for the Playstation just yet so gamers looking for a retro fix resorted to this arcade approximation. Heck, Ms Pac Man is one of the few games my wife likes so I'm sure the "buying something I can play with my girlfriend" factor was a big part of it too.

Nintendo, like Sega, focused their creative efforts on their latest system. In early 1996 there was a mad dash to get the Nintendo 64 (which a lot of people still called the "Ultra 64") ready for launch. New titles for the Super Nintendo also came to a screeching halt, the last release I recall being Super Mario RPG. The Super Nintendo, thanks in part to a then solid relationship with Square, was the dominant console for RPGs. For a soon-to-be-dead system the Super Mario RPG launch was treated like a major affair. We received a lot of signage and promotional t-shirts, there was a good deal of interest in it. The original price was in the $60-$70 range so it wasn't a huge seller but was still the top selling 16-bit game at the time. Super Mario World 2, with a similar high price tag, also sold well in the system's final days. The customers buying these games weren't hold-outs to the 32-bit era. Many, especially the Super Mario RPG buyers, had a Playstation but still wanted these franchise games.

I'm sure no one will be shocked to learn that video game store employees loot the promotional items. From 1992-1996 I collected a lot of free clothing. Since I'm a guy I never get rid of clothes until they disintegrate so I still have the following in my closet:

One of aforementioned Super Mario RPG t-shirts (close to retirement)
Mortal Kombat t-shirt (even closer to retirement)
Doom t-shirt (really, really should be thrown out)
Virtua Fighter for 32X t-shirt
Donkey Kong Country 2 sweatshirt
Sonic 3 sweatshirt
Donkey Kong Country jacket (which I've never worn because it's too small and dorky looking yet I refuse to toss it)
Hats for Donkey Kong Country, Mortal Kombat, and Virtual Boy; I never wear hats though

For every one of these there are ten I've donated to the Salvation Army. The donated ones were largely for things like OS/2 Warp (which we carried briefly) or other productivity titles. I also held on to a couple pieces of decor:

Lunar Eternal Blue counter display
Sign for Super Metroid that hung from the ceiling (can't think of the correct name for this)
Banner for the simultaneous Sonic Spinball/Sonic CD/Sonic Chaos launch
Inflatable flying toaster from After Dark
Atari Jaguar and 11th Hour promo tapes

Also seeing their demise in early 1996 were the aforementioned Jaguar and 3DO systems. The Jaguar was slashed to $50 and cleared out in one fell swoop by summer. The 3DO suffered a much slower death, the shelf space gradually shirking over several months. It was still being stocked when I left Waldensoftware, but was in a sad state. We actually received a promo tape for the promised M2 system, a now famous piece of vaporware. Anyone even remotely considering buying a 3DO console, and they were a scarce few, opted to wait for the newer version. The Virtual Boy wasn't "officially" killed until late summer but was well on it's way in the spring. Since we only carried 5-10 games and no accessories it wasn't taking up much space to begin with. It was crunched into a small section with the Sega Game Gear which was also in its final days.

I didn't touch on the Game Gear in this article. It was a constant the entire time I worked at Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware. The system sold enough to stay on the shelves but never came close to the Game Boy. The price and infamous battery life kept it limited to a niche audience. Early on we sold a TV and Master System adapter for the it, the Master System adapter almost convinced me to buy one. There were two games called Poker Face Paul's Poker and Poker Face Paul's Blackjack that sold like crazy. I swear everyone who owned a Game Gear bought these two games.

Thinking about the Game Gear gave me an idea (just in case anyone from Sega ever reads this). Sega licensed a few Genesis games to be ported over to the Game Boy Advance. They weren't perfect replicas but close enough. However, I still wish Sega would make a handheld system roughly the size of a Game Boy Advance SP that could play the entire Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear catalog. The technology's there to emulate a Genesis on very small hardware. Emulating the Genesis means emulating the Z80 which was the CPU for the Master System & Game Gear. This theoretical system would also have a rechargeable battery and use tiny cartridges or play legally downloaded games. It wouldn't be competing for the same market as the Nintendo DS or PSP but would be profitable. I'd easily shell out $100 for a system like this and buy a handful of games I either loved or couldn't afford back in the day.