Games that did and did not launch with the Sega Genesis in September 1989

[parallaxscroll]

Years ago there was a thread asking what games launched with the Sega Genesis. Most of the true launch games were listed, a few were not, and some people insisted some games like Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Pat Riley Basketball, Herzog Zwei, Phantasy Star II, After Burner and Ghostbusters were at launch, when they were in fact not.

Genesis had two launches in the U.S. - A test market launch in New York City and L.A, on or around August 14th, 1989 and a nationwide launch in mid September 1989.

I can't really speak about what was out for the test launch since I didn't see it, I've only read about it online years after the fact.

I can tell you what games were out in September for the nationwide launch, going by memory of the actual roll out that I remember. I lived in the Chicago suburbs at the time. Toys R US and Babbage's in Niles, IL. is where I bought systems & games.

These are the Genesis titles that were available day one, at the places I bought games and for the most part, nationwide, on or around September 15th 1989:

actually out at launch

*Altered Beast (packed in with the Genesis for $189)
*Space Harrier II
*Super Thunder Blade
*Last Battle
*Tommy Lasorda Baseball
*Thunder Force II



within days or weeks of launch / upto a month after launch

*Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Oct 1989 ?)
*Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf (Oct 1989 ?)
*World Championship Soccer (Sept - Oct 1989)
*Super Hang-On (Oct 1989)


over 1 month after / several months after / well after launch

*Forgotten Worlds (Nov 1989)
*Rambo III (Nov-Dec 1989)
*Zoom! (late 1989 or very early 1990)
*Golden Axe (December 1989, ~3 months or so after nationwide Genesis launch. Golden Axe was most definitely NOT a launch game, nor was it out within a few weeks of launch, or even a month after. I pretty much do remember seeing it at TRU in December, before the new year. IIRC it was LATE in December. Golden Axe was the most significant Genesis game actually released in 1989, since after launch. If the english version of Phantasy Star II for Genesis had actually made it out in 1989 (it did not) then that would've been the most important game for Genesis of 1989, but Golden Axe took that position.
*Revenge of Shinobi (December 1989 ~ January 1990) I don't remember for sure the actual month it was released. I'm pretty sure it was Dec or Jan. I know wasn't a launch title though. It wasn't out in Oct. and probably not Nov. either. According to Gamefaqs the Japanese version, Super Shinobi, wasn't out until early Dec 1989 and it obviously came out at least shortly before the retitled Genesis version.

*Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (sometime in late '89 or early '90)
*Mystic Defender (late 1989 or early 1990)
*Truxton (late 1989 or early 1990)
*Phantasy Star II (March or April 1990, 6-7 months after launch)
The big one! Phantasy Star II was not out until sometime early 1990...Even though copyright 1989 is on the title screen, box and manual. The Japanese Mega Drive version of PSII came out about a year earlier, in March 1989, which was before Genesis launched here, and before most gamers including myself even knew the Genesis existed! I got my Genesis in April 1990. I bought PSII soon after that, also April 1990. My reciept for PSII says 4/17/90.
I know I did not see PSII in TRU or Babbages until after I got my Genesis. For me that puts it at mid April 1990. That's the best I can do. during those months I visited TRU and Babbages usually once a week, and not more than 2 weeks would go by at most between visits. It is possible PSII came out a little bit earlier than mid April 1990, but not by much. Maybe other parts of the country got it earlier, but that was still early 1990. Just for fun I did a narrowed-down usenet search on google groups. People were talking about PSII as if it had been released , and as if they had it, in March 1990, and not before that. Amazingly, Phantasy Star III came out in Japan in April 1990, about the same time that we got PSII !! (if only a month later) We would not get Phantasy Star III in the U.S. until about the middle of summer 1991.
*Herzog Zwei
(about the same time as Phantasy Star II, maybe shortly before. I first saw Herzog Zwei in April 1990)
*Air Diver (probably March-April 1990 but as early as Jan-Feb)
*Super Hydlide (about the same as Air Diver)
( I noticed Herzog Zwei, Air Diver, Super Hydlide on April 17 at TRU. IIRC, I had not been there for a few weeks. The TRU flaps/cards for the game boxes of these 3 were all lined up together. This was the same day I bought Phantasy Star II)
Pat Riley Basketball (early or mid 1990)
Ghostbusters (summer 1990)
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (August 1990)
After Burner II (August ~ September 1990, about a year after launch)
Super Monaco GP (around the same time as AfterBurner II)
Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing (late summer, early fall 1990. This was one of the first games used in Sega's "Genesis Does" campaign)
Sword of Vermilion (fall 1990)
Thunder Force III (fall 1990)
Strider (November 1990, more than a year after launch)

any corrections, additions are welcome.

[Dreamc@sting]

I'm almost 100% positive that Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle was a launch title in August in '89 - August 14th to be exact

[parallaxscroll]

I'm almost 100% positive that Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle was a launch title in August in '89 - August 14th to be exact

That sounds right. That's the test launch in a few cities.

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle was one of the first 4 MegaDrive games released in Japan, so it makes sense that it would be a launch game for Genesis.

[RASTAN]

I could've swore the horrid LAST BATTLE (Hokuto No Ken 2) was available at the same time that Rambo III, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi were in late 1989. It was about that time I would see that montage commerical for the Sega Genesis, where'd you'd see about 4 seconds of Revenge of Shinobi, and like 2 seconds of "Last Batte" [of Kenshiro doing a jump kick]. Other than that, I'd say this list is spot on. I remember I kept driving the people at the Lackland Air Force Base AAFES BX nuts with my weekly "do you have it yet?" requests for Golden Axe, Shinobi and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Only back then I didn't understand that bothering the stocking personnel wouldn't make games come out faster. , I was 11 back then so...

[Dreamc@sting]

I could've swore the horrid LAST BATTLE (Hokuto No Ken 2) was available at the same time that Rambo III, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi were in late 1989. It was about that time I would see that montage commerical for the Sega Genesis, where'd you'd see about 4 seconds of Revenge of Shinobi, and like 2 seconds of "Last Batte" [of Kenshiro doing a jump kick]. Other than that, I'd say this list is spot on. I remember I kept driving the people at the Lackland Air Force Base AAFES BX nuts with my weekly "do you have it yet?" requests for Golden Axe, Shinobi and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Only back then I didn't understand that bothering the stocking personnel wouldn't make games come out faster. , I was 11 back then so...

Last Battle was definitely out at launch, and the only reason I remember this was because my cousin got a Genesis for Christmas in '89 and his dad went to the August launch to pick it up. He got it along with Thunder Force II, we played the hell out of both those games Christmas night

[parallaxscroll]

I could've swore the horrid LAST BATTLE (Hokuto No Ken 2) was available at the same time that Rambo III, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi were in late 1989. It was about that time I would see that montage commerical for the Sega Genesis, where'd you'd see about 4 seconds of Revenge of Shinobi, and like 2 seconds of "Last Batte" [of Kenshiro doing a jump kick]. Other than that, I'd say this list is spot on. I remember I kept driving the people at the Lackland Air Force Base AAFES BX nuts with my weekly "do you have it yet?" requests for Golden Axe, Shinobi and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Only back then I didn't understand that bothering the stocking personnel wouldn't make games come out faster. , I was 11 back then so...

Thanks for your post man. I am very certain Last Battle was a launch game. Whereas Rambo III, Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe were not. Rambo III might have been out as early as October 1989 (if not Nov-Dec) but that's still after launch. Golden Axe I know was not until December. Revenge of Shinobi was not around any sooner than Nov 1989, maybe as late as Dec '89 or Jan 1990. I'm also certain that Michael Jackson's Moonwalker came out much later, not until well into 1990.

, I was 13 when Genesis launched in the U.S. and I was 14 when I got mine in spring 1990 (April). My memory is pretty good, though not perfect ^__^

What's really funny to me now is, at the time the MegaDrive launched in late 1988 in Japan (something I learned years later), I had no idea, at 12 years old, that Sega had another console.


Now for a trip down memory lane:

I had my Atari 7800 in 1988 and was trying to get a Sega Master System. I didn't get the SMS until my birthday, Feb 1989, and still I did not know of the existance of the MegaDrive/Genesis. I learned of it during early summer 1989. By that time I had SMS and was getting more & more games, and I would call 1-800-USA-SEGA every day or so. I found out about this new thing called "16-bit" and "Genesis" on one of the recorded messages left by one of the female staff at SoA for that hotline! I had no idea what Genesis or 16-bit meant. All I knew was that it was something new. I didn't even know it was a new system. It could've been that I had thought it was a new game, lol. I really didn't get it.

However all would become crystal clear soon after (with days or a few weeks) when I tagged along to do the grocery shopping with my mom one day that July at the Jewel-Osco supermarket. I checked the magazine isle as I always did (I had been getting a few issues of Video Games & Computer Entertainment so I knew about the PC-Engine with its games on cards and R-Type).. I saw this new magazine that day, Electronic Gaming Monthly. (This would be issue number 2)... It had previews for the new systems coming out including the Genesis, that *thing* I had just recently heard about from Sega's line, lol. So I learned Genesis was a totally new gaming system beyond my Master System! It looked so awesome as did the games.





I looked at the TurboGrafx-16 also, the other new system coming out, realized that it was actually the PCE I read about in VG&CE earlier. I had to have one of these new systems!

Within a few days or weeks of getting EGM and understanding that a new wave of systems was about to come out in a few months, and before school started (8th grade Junior High for me!) I struck a deal with my dad after showing him the Genesis & TurboGrafx -- He would buy me either one of my choice if I kept my grades at an average of a B+ with no single grade lower than a C+ (lol) for 2 quarters of the year. I often wonder what other parents & kids did as far as things like that, back then. I had not done so well in 7th grade, my first year of Junior High school. I now had a REASON to do better, heh! So over the next 5 months or so, I worked hard at doing well in school. I managed to achieve this goal in the first 2 quarters which ended in early 1990. Before I got my 2nd report card, I was not sure if I had done well, I was preparing to go "all out" in the 3rd quarter if I did not have that B+ average. However, my 2nd RC was GOOD, I had made it, YES! I was so excited that winter day (imagine running home from school through the snow as happy & excited as you have EVER been! ) I had the grades needed. It would still be awhile before my dad actually bought the Genesis, about 3 months, which explains why I didn't get Genesis until April 1990, lmao.

Oh gawd all of that sounds funny to me now, and I am sure it sounds silly to you guys. Heh I am almost embarrassed I wrote that. Anyway, that's how I found out about, and got, Sega Genesis.

[parallaxscroll]

BTW I realized after looking at that other/old thread that there are no good tricks AFAIK for telling apart Genesis launch titles from non-launch titles, or even 1989 releases from 1990 releases. It was mentioned that the 1989 games had "16-Bit Cartridge" on the box covers, and this was changed in 1990. While that's true, some of those games didn't actually come out until well into 1990 (i.e. Phantasy Star II).


Also, the earliest magazine print ad does not help either:



Soccer (World Championship Soccer) and Super Hang-On were not exactly launch games, although they were both near-launch. Rambo III certainly wasn't launch. most interestingly, "Hollo Fighter" (WTH? lol ) came out in March or April 1990, retitled Super Hydlide.


A better way of estimating the real release (though still not exact) is looking at what issue/month the games were reviewed in EGM.

i.e Truxton, Zoom, Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe are all reviewed in
EGM Number 8 (March 1990) which would've been in mail boxes that February, and actually written a month or two in advance (Dec-Jan).

Mystic Defender and Phantasy Star II were reviewed in EGM Number 9 (April 1990). That magazine would've been in mail boxes in March, and written in Jan-Feb. Looking at the PSII review at the top it says release: 3/31/90. so according to that end of March 1990. Now, PSII was actually an older game, completed development before most of the others since it had been released in Japan in Mega Drive all the way back in March 1989 according to everything I've read -- That is well before the U.S. Genesis launch.

Air Diver - Herzog Zwei - Super Hydlide
(3 games that I saw together when I went to buy PSII at TRU in mid April 1990. Those 3 I had not seen in stores before) were reviewed in EGM number 10 (May 1990). The magazine would've been in our hands probably that April, yet written in Feb-March.


The best way of knowing release is going by your memory or someone else's memory. modern websites like Wikipedia and Gamefaqs are often right but DO make mistakes all the time. So do fan sites. That's why someone's memory that's really really good & sharp, is best.

You can also pretty much figure out stuff by searching Dejanews
(i mean Google Groups) Usenet archive and using the Advanced Search . Then narrow down a timeframe (Return messages posted between) i.e. say the span of 1 or 2 months and put in the name of the game you want to see, if it was talked about by anyone in any discussions. Usually a game isn't mentioned much, if at all, if it had not been released yet during the timeframe you're searching. You can basicly see that Phantasy Star II isn't out in the U.S. in late 1989 at all. PSII is mentioned once in 1989 because someone knew PSII was coming and it was already out in Japan. Though it's not really talked about (much) in Jan or Feb 1990 (only mentioned 3 times) but by March-April 1990, people are talking about PSII a lot, asking questions, comments, etc because it's been released

Genesis Golden Axe is only mentioned once in all of 1989, it isn't even out at the time. Even when I know it was released, sometime in late December, it still isn't talked about. It's not until early 1990 that people have started talking about it, further proving it wasn't released at or near Genesis launch.

[RASTAN]

Oh gawd all of that sounds funny to me now, and I am sure it sounds silly to you guys. Heh I am almost embarrassed I wrote that. Anyway, that's how I found out about, and got, Sega Genesis.

Don't be. The Mega Drive (yes I live in the US, but I always prefered the JPN & Euro name over "Genesis") is my all time favorite system. Still have my original Japanese Model 1 MD that I bought in 1994 too, many things have come and gone but not that system. Though strangely enough, my father had actually purchased the JPN MD system BEFORE buying me the Genesis, but he didn't realize it was an import, as he was doing business Internationally and picked one up without a box and what not. Got it home (no convetor) and it wouldn't work, thought it was broke. Then we saw the "Genesis" and bought that in Febuary 1990, and I shit bricks. The rest is history really.

I also remember being confused early on in the Genesis' life due to "differences" from pictures shown for upcoming games and what we actually got. Point in case, there was a fold out advert that came with Alex Kidd or Mystic Defender, (don't remember which anymore) that showed the box cover for "Revenge of Shinobi" but it was still titled Super Shinobi like the Japanese version and I was like WTF? for quite awhile. Also pictures for RAMBO III, showed Rambo on stage 3 on a bridge that was blown up, and it looked like he would have to swim ala' IKARI... and 3 Lorry's were parked nearby with some barracks up ahead. THIS NEVER APPEARS IN STAGE 3! much to my dissapointment. Guessing it was a early beta version, but I liked the idea we'd have to fight from the water, instead that stage has two bridges you can cross, and no Lorrys (deuce-n-a-halves), right after passing the area where a area of Jeep riding Spestnaz Commandos are. Things like this used to confuse me as well as piss me off. ***Ahhh, the memories indeed. Of course I literally freaked when upon using my first Honey Bee Mega Drive convertor cart I was able to bring up the JPN versions of Super Shinobi on Revenge and Kujaku Oh II on Mystic Defender, then thought EVERY game would do this only to learn that other than MERCS going back into Battlefield of the Wolf 2 (Commando II), not many games would.

[segagamer]

That sounds right. That's the test launch in a few cities.

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle was one of the first 4 MegaDrive games released in Japan, so it makes sense that it would be a launch game for Genesis.

I would like to make a correction that Alex Kidd for the Genesis/Mega Drive was not a launch title. The US version actually came out in the first half of 1990, at around the same time Herzog Zwei, Zoom, and Phantasy Star II came out. I know because I used to work at a local Babbage's back in the early 1990's.

Only three games were launched with the JPN Mega Drive in late 1988: Altered Beast, Space Harrier II, and Super Thunder Blade. Notice that all three games have a copyright of 1988 on the title screen.

[parallaxscroll]

I would like to make a correction that Alex Kidd for the Genesis/Mega Drive was not a launch title. The US version actually came out in the first half of 1990, at around the same time Herzog Zwei, Zoom, and Phantasy Star II came out. I know because I used to work at a local Babbage's back in the early 1990's.

Thanks segagamer.

I am torn, if I should change my OP again. Yet I also think you're right. See, my memory used to be razor sharp with this stuff. Bare with me a moment. My "memory of my memory" seems to keep remembering that Alex Kidd was not actually part of the launch line-up, that it came out sometime after launch. I trust your memory on this more than my own. I know that by the time the middle of April rolled around, Phantasy Star II and Herzog Zwei were both out at Toys R US.

I didn't buy Herzog Zwei until the summer at Babbage's in Golf Mill shopping center in Niles IL where they were selling it for $45.

Only three games were launched with the JPN Mega Drive in late 1988: Altered Beast, Space Harrier II, and Super Thunder Blade. Notice that all three games have a copyright of 1988 on the title screen.

That's right, even the American Genesis versions of those games have copyright 1988 on the title screens.

Space Harrier II and Super Thunder Blade launched with the Mega Drve in Japan. Altered Beast followed within days or weeks, still in late 1988.

Alex Kidd came out a few months later in early 1989. All of this happened before Sega of America had announced its final plans for U.S. Genesis rollout, and before most of the average gamers like myself even knew about the 16-Bit Sega console.

[parallaxscroll]

4/17/90
I traded in my free Forgotten Worlds, the game I selected from Sega's free rebate program, at TRU after my dad "twisted the managers arm" so they'd accept a game that never came from TRU (got $62 "geoffrey money" / store credit) used that towards buying Phantasy Star II ($79.99), paying the rest with $24 real cash.

still have the receipt for that:

note the date, the $79.99 price (Phantasy Star II) the $62.00 store credit (Forgotten Worlds, hehehe), the $24.00 cash I still had to pay. So basicly, for buying a Genesis, not only did I get Altered Beast as everyone else did at the time, I also got free game of my choice. There was no choice of Phantasy Star II, so I selected Forgotten Worlds, used that to help pay for most of the game I really wanted ^__^

It was not until late 1989 or early 1990 that I finally bought Last Battle (after I played it at a friend's) and Tommy Lasorda Baseball (when I started getting into the sports games and picked up both Soccer and Golf as well).

I never did get Soccer or Golf. I played them via emulation sometime in 2000-2001 when I got into emulation but that does not count. I bought the real Last Battle shortly after I got my Genesis. I clearly remember playing Last Battle during spring break. It was either just before or just after I got PSII.

I too always wondered how those pics looked so good. I always thought it was because they were shown in RGB mode, versus composite.

I think almost anyone looking at those 1989-1991 magazine print ads could be fooled into thinking Genesis displays more colors than it does. Not only do the screens look really sharp and vivid because they're probably being shown via RGB instead of composite, they look more colorful too. Or maybe that's just me.

I wish Sega had given the MegaDrive/Genesis the same color capability as their standard System16b board that powered arcade Altered Beast, GoldenAxe, etc. which can display something like 1536 ~ 2048 colors (or at least 1,000+) on-screen at once out of a color palette of 32,768. Not quite as good as NEO-GEO (4096 out of 65,536) but far better than 64 / 512.

[segagamer]

Not a problem, parallaxscroll. Off topic: I used to go to that Toys R Us in Niles, IL, when I was in the general area (Golf Mill) or just browsing their shelves for new SMS or Genesis games. I used to live in Skokie, IL so I was not far from either the Evanston store or the Niles store. I believe the Evanston store has since been closed.

You are correct about Altered Beast being released shortly after the system launch.

Do you still live near the Niles Toys R Us?

[parallaxscroll]

I managed to take decent, readable pics of EGM Number 3 (Aug-Sept 1989) Genesis preview

The preview in EGM Number 2 that I already posted was actually a pretty bad article but this next one is better.

Both articles are pre-launch so nothing has been released yet in America. Upcoming games for Genesis goes from a handful of MegaDrive games one month, a severe lack of software, to the next month of over a dozen games shown at CES (back in June) and many more on the way from Japan. Dramatically changing the excitement for Genesis before launch.

There are some mistakes in this article (Hollo Fighter *is* Hydlide) and some of the games announced never came out at all (Omega Fighter, Falcon, Power Drift, Tele-Genesis Modem / Baseball) but this was an article that solidified my choice of Genesis over TurboGrafx.

[DigitalSpace]

I have to say, this is one of the better threads I've seen in a while. Thanks for the stories and scans, parallaxscroll!

[Rob2600]

Years ago there was a thread asking what games launched with the Sega Genesis. Most of the true launch games were listed, a few were not, and some people insisted some games like Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Pat Riley Basketball, Herzog Zwei, Phantasy Star II, After Burner and Ghostbusters were at launch, when they were in fact not. ... any corrections, additions are welcome.

Why not just look up each game on Wikipedia.org or Mobygames.com? Mystery solved.

[boatofcar]

Why not just look up each game on Wikipedia.org or Mobygames.com? Mystery solved.

Because those two sites are never, ever wrong.

[Steven]

Oh nevermind, Dynamite Duke came out in 1990. For some reason I thought it was an 89'er

[segagamer]

Years ago there was a thread asking what games launched with the Sega Genesis. Most of the true launch games were listed, a few were not, and some people insisted some games like Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Pat Riley Basketball, Herzog Zwei, Phantasy Star II, After Burner and Ghostbusters were at launch, when they were in fact not.

Genesis had two launches in the U.S. - A test market launch in New York City and L.A, on or around August 14th, 1989 and a nationwide launch in mid September 1989.

I can't really speak about what was out for the test launch since I didn't see it, I've only read about it online years after the fact.

I can tell you what games were out in September for the nationwide launch, going by memory of the actual roll out that I remember. I lived in the Chicago suburbs at the time. Toys R US and Babbage's in Niles, IL. is where I bought systems & games.

These are the Genesis titles that were available day one, at the places I bought games and for the most part, nationwide, on or around September 15th 1989:

actually out at launch

*Altered Beast (packed in with the Genesis for $189)
*Space Harrier II
*Ghouls 'n Ghosts
*Super Thunder Blade
*Last Battle
*Tommy Lasorda Baseball
*Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf
*Thunder Force II
*Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle


within days or weeks of launch / upto 1 month after launch

*World Championship Soccer (Sept - Oct 1989)
*Super Hang-On (Oct 1989)

over 1 month after / several months after / well after launch

*Forgotten Worlds (Nov 1989)
*Rambo III (Nov-Dec 1989)
*Zoom! (late 1989 or very early 1990)
*Golden Axe (December 1989, ~3 months or so after nationwide Genesis launch. Golden Axe was most definitely NOT a launch game, nor was it out within a few weeks of launch, or even a month after. I pretty much do remember seeing it at TRU in December, before the new year. IIRC it was LATE in December. Golden Axe was the most significant Genesis game actually released in 1989, since after launch. If the english version of Phantasy Star II for Genesis had actually made it out in 1989 (it did not) then that would've been the most important game for Genesis of 1989, but Golden Axe took that position.
*Revenge of Shinobi (December 1989 ~ January 1990) I don't remember for sure the actual month it was released. I'm pretty sure it was Dec or Jan. I know wasn't a launch title though. It wasn't out in Oct. and probably not Nov. either. According to Gamefaqs the Japanese version, Super Shinobi, wasn't out until early Dec 1989 and it obviously came out at least shortly before the retitled Genesis version.
*Mystic Defender (late 1989 or early 1990)
*Truxton (late 1989 or early 1990)
*Phantasy Star II (March or April 1990, 6-7 months after launch)
The big one! Phantasy Star II was not out until sometime early 1990...Even though copyright 1989 is on the title screen, box and manual. The Japanese Mega Drive version of PSII came out about a year earlier, in March 1989, which was before Genesis launched here, and before most gamers including myself even knew the Genesis existed! I got my Genesis in April 1990. I bought PSII soon after that, also April 1990. My reciept for PSII says 4/17/90.
I know I did not see PSII in TRU or Babbages until after I got my Genesis. For me that puts it at mid April 1990. That's the best I can do. during those months I visited TRU and Babbages usually once a week, and not more than 2 weeks would go by at most between visits. It is possible PSII came out a little bit earlier than mid April 1990, but not by much. Maybe other parts of the country got it earlier, but that was still early 1990. Just for fun I did a narrowed-down usenet search on google groups. People were talking about PSII as if it had been released , and as if they had it, in March 1990, and not before that. Amazingly, Phantasy Star III came out in Japan in April 1990, about the same time that we got PSII !! (if only a month later) We would not get Phantasy Star III in the U.S. until about the middle of summer 1991.
*Herzog Zwei
(about the same time as Phantasy Star II, maybe shortly before. I first saw Herzog Zwei in April 1990)
*Air Diver (probably March-April 1990 but as early as Jan-Feb)
*Super Hydlide (about the same as Air Diver)
( I noticed Herzog Zwei, Air Diver, Super Hydlide on April 17 at TRU. IIRC, I had not been there for a few weeks. The TRU flaps/cards for the game boxes of these 3 were all lined up together. This was the same day I bought Phantasy Star II)
Pat Riley Basketball (early or mid 1990)
Ghostbusters (summer 1990)
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (August 1990)
After Burner II (August ~ September 1990, about a year after launch)
Super Monaco GP (around the same time as AfterBurner II)
Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing (late summer, early fall 1990. This was one of the first games used in Sega's "Genesis Does" campaign)
Sword of Vermilion (fall 1990)
Thunder Force III (fall 1990)
Strider (November 1990, more than a year after launch)

any corrections, additions are welcome.

Again, I feel the need to make a few corrections here:

The correct launch titles in the US during the September launch were:

*Altered Beast (packed in with the Genesis for $189.99)
*Space Harrier II
*Super Thunder Blade
*Last Battle
*Tommy Lasorda Baseball
*Thunder Force II

I remember that day vividly because that I purchased the system and 3 of the 5 launch titles at Toys R Us in Evanston, IL.

*Ghouls 'n Ghosts
*Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf

Both of the above titles came out about 1 month after the Sept launch. Also not available at launch in September was the Power Base Converter. I believe the Control Pads were available about 1 week after the launch date.

[RASTAN]

I've played all three completely different Rambo 3 games

-Master System
-Arcade
-MegaDrive / Genesis

I like them all, don't have a favorite. Although like you, I really wanted that beta area from level 3 of MD/Gen Rambo 3 to be in the game. I had no idea it was not gonna be there, that it was changed, until I played through the released version. I bought the game based on those pictures.

Do you also notice how Genesis games in those print ads tend to look better than the actual game on your TV? Maybe they're using an RGB monitor. Everything looks more colorful than it really is.

#1> Yeah, I totally bought RAMBO III based on that picture too. Which is kind of odd, because I should've known that it would be a different game than the Taito arcade version due to the top/down perspective versus the behind-Rambo quasi Cabal, Nam-1975, Blood Bros. perspective. For some reason though, that one picture SOLD me on the game. I remember saying outloud after the onslaught of jeep riding Spetsnaz Commandos I'd blown up with my bow & explosive arrows. "WTF? Where's the barracks and Lorry and the blown up bridge!" Only to hear my mother in the living room yell back at me: "LANGUAGE!"

Funny thing is Rambo's bullets ended up being red and not white like in the picture, and ontop of all that, SEGA did the wickedly cool thing by somehow getting the actual sound of Rambo's AKM-47 from the movie's Prison-escape scene into a 16-Bit cart. Most RGS games don't have an actual assault rifle noise to accompany their on screen actions, to this day I find this awesomely cool... kinda' like Stitch Jones (Mario Van Peebles) pre dating the Acky Breaky Moon Walk by 5 to 8 years. "Earl of funk, Duke of Cool... Atollah ah rock 'n Rolla!"

#2> I also noticed that the Mega Drive games looked worlds better in photos too. Both back in the day and looking at photos now. I always figured it had something to do with them being played using computer monitors, and back then my dad just wasn't going to buy a computer. Didn't get our first one until the fall of 1991, a Tandy 1000 without a harddrive.

I played all my NES and Genesis games on a 13" color TV in my bedroom. Hooking up the systems to the TV in our living room was a privilege. Can you imagine? It didn't even phase me at the time. Even my computer monitor now days is 20". A 13" screen still boggles my mind.

Hey now, I play all my Mega Drive, Famicom, PS2 and 7800/2600 games as of the year 2008 on a 13" SANYO TV! Nothing to be upset about. Personally I find in our High Def day and age, I prefer playing on smaller TV. I remember awhile back I had my MD hooked up to the 20" SANYO Flatscreen along with my then CMVS 2-Slot system (since I needed the S-Video hookup for the CMVS) and the MD games looked horrid on it. Go back to a 13" and it looks fine. Good times either way though.

Again, I feel the need to make a few corrections here:

The correct launch titles in the US during the September launch were:

*Altered Beast (packed in with the Genesis for $189.99)
*Space Harrier II
*Super Thunder Blade
*Last Battle
*Tommy Lasorda Baseball
*Thunder Force II

I remember that day vividly because that I purchased the system and 3 of the 5 launch titles at Toys R Us in Evanston, IL.

*Ghouls 'n Ghosts
*Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf

Both of the above titles came out about 1 month after the Sept launch. Also not available at launch in September was the Power Base Converter. I believe the Control Pads were available about 1 week after the launch date.

Yes, THANK YOU for correcting that list. I knew I wasn't crazy in thinking that Last Battle was a launch title. It's just that I didn't buy my copy (well, the parents didn't buy) until almost 1990 in my case.

[segagamer]

It was not until late 1989 or early 1990 that I finally bought Last Battle (after I played it at a friend's) and Tommy Lasorda Baseball (when I started getting into the sports games and picked up both Soccer and Golf as well).

I too always wondered how those pics looked so good. I always thought it was because they were shown in RGB mode, versus composite.