Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Relive The Days When Sega Totally Bagged Nintendo
By bohus
The unshakable NES owned the late 80's video game scene. Not only did they bring gaming back to living rooms to stay, they went from strength to strength for at least five whole years (though games continued to be published until 1995, and the Famicom was still manufactured in Japan until 2003!) - an eternity in technology years.
Arcade rival Sega tried to counter with their own 8 bit Master System home video game, but made little mark. Sega wouldn't pose a serious threat until 1989 when they unveiled their 16 bit Mega Drive system (Genesis in the US) and shook up Nintendo's dominance. Mega Drive had superior sound, tremendous speed, and increased graphics horsepower (we can all chuckle today at the "High Definition graphics" label stenciled onto every American Genesis). It took a number of years for Nintendo to catch up, and in terms of sales the Mega-Drive is the last time that Sega really counted in the console game.
Hard to believe that this battle for home TV screens raged on 20 years ago. To commemorate the fight, Sega has released this nylon bag with the proud countenance of a Mega Drive on it. This item is for sale in Japan's Sega-owned Joypolis shops, but it's now also available in the states for $55 plus shipping. That's several times the price of a used Mega Drive unit, but then again you can't carry around your lunch inside a game console. Not around here, anyway...
Order a 16-bit bag of your very own
related:
Please ask Santa to bring me a Sega Nomad
Beggar Prince - first Genesis homebrew game
Sega Game Gear had little chance against Nintendo's Game Boy
Tiny Sega handheld by Coleco
