Arcade Power! - The Best of the Sega System 16

[@dexocube]

I'm so glad I grew up in the era of arcades

[@yousefslimani99]

And me I don't what a bummer!

[@tournaline3448]

The arcades are where I fell in love with Sega.

[@Gatorade69]

@@JulioCesarjero "Freaky Games." What the hell do you mean ? Arcades were fun. If you didn't enjoy your time at an arcade you were either a spoiled child with everything at home or just a miserable person who brings others down. That or you were broke as hell and couldn't afford to play the games.

[@Gatorade69]

My first dat was to the pizza place/arcade where we beat The Simpsons Arcade game. She was awesome.

[@glazfe8112]

Some of my most fond memories include my grandpa taking me to an arcade.

[@EhHold]

Damn this is a powerhouse showcase of Sega ultimate arcade gaming. These games are my all time favorites from Sega without a doubt. Good thing they came out with the Astro City Mini to play these…

[@pixelgoat7317]

I always loved Alien Syndrome and it's derpy off-brand xenomorphs just bumbling around the ship looking for yummy humans to non-nom X3

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i did have this game for the master system. but the bad side was you & a friend can't play tougher like on the nes

[@pixelgoat7317]

@@cabbitkisser2620 Aww....co-op is where it's at!

[@BearfootBob]

great game and not as common in my region - no arcades had it, but whoever selected the 3 rotating games for the local grocery store knew their stuff. Alien Syndrome, Gauntlet, Outrun, Rolling Thunder, etc.

[@fartknockerR17]

Thanks for your videos. I really enjoy them. I was born in 1983 but in the middle of nowhere, so I never saw the inside of a real arcade, but sometimes a bowling alley or some random place would have a few cabinets. There's a ton of new-to-me history here.

[@PONTOCRITICO]

I'll just say one thing: many of the Master System conversions from the System 16 may not have been perfect, but they were still excellent, and Fantasy Zone on the Master System was incredible and brings back a lot of nostalgia. Especially considering that you couldn't take an arcade home with you.

[@Crono_Triggered]

Excellent video!

[@Indy721]

I got an RG35XX with a dual SD card setup. I have a lot on these games on it!

[@adventuretaco7140]

That fantasy zone dx game is also on MISTer

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

I never understood the love for "Fantasy Zone"...

[@AnthonyFlack]

Not even the music?

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

@@AnthonyFlack I reckon that's pretty good, but the game is not my cup of ovaltine...

[@42calking53]

Hey I've been letting some KZbinrs know I made a find o a lifetime yesterday! A pioneer Laser Disc printer clean as can be but but but it has a SEGA buil into and 2 controller ports I have a pic if interested lmk I didn't look at it real thoroughly but it's clean and 1 owner since purchased

[@adventuretaco7140]

COTTON RULES!

[@miketate3445]

Is Riot City the same game as Riot Zone on the Turbo Duo?

[@SegaLordX]

No. Riot Zone is based on Riot City but it's been modified heavily.

[@MrSRArter]

9:04 This game didn't come out in North America

[@legendsflashback]

Altered beast was better on Genesis imo with the parallax

[@SieffrePlays]

One thing I loved about arcade games during this era was that many titles had some kind of music or sound effect that was meant to stand out from the cacophony of audio from all the other cabinets. The sound effect of collecting a hostage in Shinobi will always be seared into my brain.

[@davidt3563]

Yea the Shinobi hostage save, Power Uuuuup from Altered Beast and the Thank you! from Metal Slug!

[@DDRPriest]

This is why as an operator of arcades today, I always make sure you can here the game. Sounds and music make up so much of the experience. A lot of arcades today forget this.

[@miguelroman4294]

Good times!

[@AnthonyFlack]

The entire soundtrack to Shinobi is seared into my brain. The music is just tremendous. The game over theme is almost worth losing for.

[@nicholasbullock1709]

Killer Instinct had many phrases that rose above the rest of the arcade clamor. “Ultraaaa Combooo!!”, “Kiiing Comboh!”, “Ccccombo Breakerrr!” Jago, Thunder and Orchids moves. As well as the music itself. Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam had plenty, too.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

"Lets make our home console a scaled back version of our arcade hardware!" was a winning strategy in the late 80s, but man did that philosophy come back to bite them later on.

[@pinebarrenpatriot8289]

Dynamic Duck was Blue with big Red shoes. Can't help but to notice the similarities to a speeding hedgehog Sega would create a year later.

[@chrislaustin]

I've been gaming since gaming became a thing(late 70's, early 80's), and SEGA was always one of my favorite arcade coin-op makers. Depending on when you might ask, they could easily take the #1 spot, and System 16 powered some of their best efforts over the years.

[@atariforever2002]

Fascinating look at the System 16. Please do a System 18 & 24 documentary! Absolutely love your work!!

[@neilmclean1527]

Love the passion you have for all things Sega. Well researched and well put together as always. I was at an arcade last week playing some of these. These boards still offer so much entertainment even today.

[@GameSack]

The Sega System 16 boards are pretty notorious for their suicide chips. I hope I can say "suicide" without KZbin flagging the comment. I have one System 16 board (Shinobi) and I love it. I want to get a few more but it's kind of annoying that they don't adhere to the JAMMA standard.

[@lazarushernandez5827]

The Master System was pretty valiant taking on some of these System 16 titles. I had Quartet, Alien Syndrome, and of course Shinobi.

[@kahuna1247]

I was disappointed with Alien Syndrome on the SMS back in the day, graphically it could have been better.

[@adonian]

Quartet was one of my favorite... The MUSIC was ROCKIN'... I have the ROM on my work pc (Shhh lol)

[@kenterminateddq5311]

Good morning, Sega Lord X and its viewers. Give this comment a thumbs up if you're watching this video right after waking up. 😊

[@johnmghanks]

Our local skating rink was lucky enough to have Aurail. Played it as often as I could along with DJ Boy. Whoever was in charge of their arcade did a great job because we also had Dynamite Duke & Toki and some other great cabinets that didn't see the placement in larger arcades in the area. Glad to see Aurail highlighted here as it's still one of my favorites I wish would get a classics release today.

[@graymars1097]

sega had some fantastic games on arcades. i just recently tried out Spikeout on sega model 3 (using an emulator not the cabinet itself)…and i’m i’m telling you it’s a fantastic 3D beat ‘em up game ❤ it is so freaking good 👍

[@michielkroder4031]

I'm very fond of Dynamite Dux. When you don't carry a weapon, don't walk up to enemies and simply press attack, as your default punch is very stubby. You need to charge up your attack by holding the button to wind up and let go to whallop 'em with a massive punch. The game looks like a belt scroller, but it doesn't play like a typical one. It's not about combos, but more about timing your hits, like doing melee attacks in Shinobi. Loved the video!

[@Marc_Araujo]

Shinobi, ESWAT, and Golden Axe are stone-cold classics. I'm glad I have the Sega Astro City mini where I can easily play these and most of the other games on this list. P.S. I vaguely remember seeing Tough Turf as a kid and always wondering "what was that beat-em-up with the guys wearing ties?" Thank you m'lord for finally putting my mind at ease.

[@adamofgrayskull7735]

E Swat is too hard

[@Gatorade69]

@@adamofgrayskull7735 I never liked it. Dynamite Dux > E Swat.

[@Gatorade69]

Does the Astro City Mini have Revenge of Deathadder ? When did Tough Turf come out ? I see that and I think of the movie Falling Down.

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@Gatorade69 The Astro City mini has both Golden Axe and Revenge of Death Adder. Tough Turf came out in 1989 apparently.

[@BigSnipp]

Alien Syndrome was an arcade favorite of mine. I loved the constant action and gross graphics of aliens exploding.

[@jm2621]

I definitely wished that sega ported the original shinobi to the Genesis

[@jollyrogerxp]

Never considered Shinobi as a game that took inspiration from Rolling Thunder, but it makes perfect sense. Namco truly has been (and still is of course) a pioneer an a giant of games, from arcades to home, and probably SEGA's greatest rival.

[@AnthonyFlack]

And for extra fun, you can see how Rolling Thunder was inspired by Elevator Action.

[@jollyrogerxp]

@@AnthonyFlack by all means!

[@AntiHeroFett]

The fan conversion of the System 16 version of Shinobi for the Genesis that's being worked on is incredibly accurate! It would have been a must purchase back in the day had they put out the arcade original prior to Revenge of Shinobi. Also hoping to see somebody take a stab at an arcade E-SWAT conversion for the Genesis some day!

[@Oysterblade84]

I'm hoping the dude finishes that game. Shinobi on the Mega Drive has been in limbo for 6 years now.

[@atariforever2002]

Thanks! Please keep doing the arcade stuff! Love it!!

[@SegaLordX]

Thanks! Will do!

[@Oysterblade84]

Gotta respect the arcades. If it wasn't for the arcade scene during the 1980's and 1990's we wouldn't have what we got in the home maket. Rieko Kodama (Phenix Rie) a former graphic artist who worked at Sega said once in an interview on Alex Kidd In Miracle World that the home market was always a generation behind the arcades and that's very true. When Sega was doing Sega system 16 scalers, we had 8-bit hardware at home, when the move came to 16-bit at home, arcades were already venturing into the 32-bit era with super scalers. It's like a generational lag between arcade and home video game hardware.

[@MaxAbramson3]

Another great look at the games of our childhood. Kids these days don't know what they missed out on!

[@VBrancoPT]

Sega should make arcade collection volumes. Available on digital stores and such. But that's just me, though. lol

[@AnthonyFlack]

And they could call the series Sega Ages. Why'd they ever stop doing this?

[@VBrancoPT]

@@AnthonyFlack Weren't those released only in Japan?

[@Nelbroth]

Such a great time for home gaming. Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Strider, Ghouls n Ghosts, Shinobi, and on and on... Sure, they weren't arcade perfect but they were darn close and arguably better than their big brothers thanks to additional content, modes, and tighter gameplay. Long live Genesis!

[@BrusqueLee]

I learned about Quartet from Project Diva, of all places. There's a remix of the Stage 1 theme that's one of my favourite songs to play in it. I wouldn't mind trying the source game one day. You're right when you say it's designed for multiplayer though.

[@AnthonyFlack]

You can see why people were disappointed with Fantasy Zone II in the arcades, but I love the Master System version. The re-imagined arcade game is fantastic, but is really a whole new game and not a substitute.

[@AnthonyFlack]

It was a great day when System 16 emulation finally arrived, up there with the Capcom CPS2. Well maybe not such a great day for arcade owners in retrospect. But I was thrilled.

[@jpetersongaming]

I loved Action Fighter! It was Sega's version of Spy Hunter but way better

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

I love Quartet. I still love that it found its way into the Sega Ages 2500 series for PS2. 4 player Quartet is just a blast.

[@leandrojimbo7652]

239 lives in altered beast, that was my childhood dream, to have money enough to beat a arcade game to the end

[@MrThunderwing]

Ahhhh, the nostalgia is strong in this one! Stuff like Shinobi and Golden Axe was what got me into Sega as well as the super-scalers. The Sega Master system port of Shinobi was the first game I ever got for the console - and a really decent 8 bit port it was too! I never got to play ESWAT in the arcade, but I loved it on Megadrive. When, years later, I got to try out the arcade version of ESWAT in MAME, actually though the Megadrive game was better.

[@davidt3563]

I wish I had a time machine/bus to take us all back in time and bring along a million or 2 in quarters and just spend a week playing in the arcades. I will never forget those days! Thank the gods for arcade games and thank the gods for attract modes!

[@asmrdestiny]

Riot City did get a home port called Riot Zone as a Super CD on the TurboDuo!

[@SegaLordX]

Similar, but not a direct port.

[@asmrdestiny]

@@SegaLordX yep - graphics and characters were greatly altered by Hudson Soft, but the core DNA of the game is still evident. The redbook audio for the SCD port was pretty awesome (by T’s Music if I’m not mistaken!)

[@mjdf122]

Sega Lord X Back Again To Show Us The Way Thanks For All Your Work

[@pixhell]

the System 16 was such a thing for all the people who love to go to an arcade room back during the 90's. most of my first a more memorable discover in video game was by this hardware, the specific color palette and obviously the rising golden age of Sega. wow.... when i remember that..... 90's was a really great time to be a kid and a video game lover with a lot of quarter's.

[@phoenixmixgaming4625]

Oh yeah dynamite dux is my favorite system 16 game

[@jpetersongaming]

The tunes in that game were catchy too

[@adventuretaco7140]

Love the system 16 core on my MISTer!!

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

That Duck game actually looks pretty good, gameplay wise, it's a bit like Streets of Rage, but you can even throw items in diagonal direction! How many beat em ups can do that??

[@AnthonyFlack]

I always had a bit of fondness for it. It's very much its own thing, much more focused on projectile attacks to the point where it's more of a brawler/shooter hybrid.

[@thecunninlynguist]

Now you're playing with power....sega 16 power

[@tylerwerrin41]

Aw, I loved Dynamite Dux! That opening stage music - I still hum it from time to time!

[@jpetersongaming]

That tune was so catchy

[@OllyDee123]

This video reminds me of going to pubs in the late 80's and early 90''s. I can almost smell the stale lager and cigarettes. Altered Beast was always in one of my locals pubs and they also had a table cabinet trackball game which I've never seen anywhere else.

[@MrMartellSincere]

This is worth watching of Sega arcade games 🎮

[@adamofgrayskull7735]

Cotton is Kiki's Delivery Service

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

Is the Dynamite Dux character "Bean the Dynamite"? He looks a lot like him but blue, everything else about him is the same. At the very least, he seems like the characters inspiration.

[@rogerspacebucks450]

My license plate says 'Sega 16'

[@axguzman-gq9fz]

Que regresen los salones árcades

[@Guernicaman]

Never understood why the SEGA Genesis didn't receive ports or console editions of many of these System 16 arcade ganes. We got stripped down versions of some of the super scalers ported, as well as beautiful versions of Altered Beast & Golden Axe, but where were the rest?! SEGA Genesis versions of Alien Syndrome, Quartet, Aurial & Action Fighter, would've been virtually arcade-perfect. They didn't even have to be1 - 1 arcade ports - but better yet, instead, these games could've gotten the Revenge of Shinobi/E-SWAT/Shadow Dancer treatment - that is, spiritual sequels to great arcade games, w/gameplay more suitable for home consoles.

[@mistress_remilia]

There's a sort-of-conversion sort-of-reimagining of Riot City for the PC Engine called Riot Zone. It's not too bad, but it changes player 2's character (so we sadly lose that funky walking animation)

[@TboneTenEighties]

Man I love Sega. My Japanese Saturn collection is getting bigger by the week. Dreamcast too. Altered Beast is one of my favorites all time. Fell in love at first sight as a kid. Good vid 👍 SEGA!!!

[@fazares]

i didnt know aurail..thanks sega lord x! Riot City got semi ported to the PCE as Riot Zone btw

[@rigues]

Riot City was "remixed" into Riot Zone for the PC-Engine. Funny to see a "SEGA" game that only saw a release on a competitor's console. But when you have Streets of Rage...

[@jamiefrisby1914]

Had a master system I did, loved playing Shinobi, Alex Kidd, Wonder boy, Contra, (Had this on Sega Game Gear, and Shinobi), Altered beast, Golden Axe, Mickie Mouse, Ecco the Dolphin, loved Sega, and enjoyed playing those games. Thanks for video

[@jonathanlisowski5618]

FYI, Riot City looks like it did get a home port on the PCE CD/TG-16 CD called Riot Zone. I had no idea this was previously an arcade game. I thought it was designed from the ground up for the PCE CD/TG-16 CD.

[@BillAnt]

Hey Sega Lord X, House of Pain - Jump Around - has the lyrics just for you. :D Tryin' to play me out like as if my name was Sega But I ain't goin' out like no pro, bitch Get used to one style and yo, and I might switch

[@ravagingwolverine]

Fun retrospective for a significant arcade platform. As a beat-em-up fan, I consider Golden Axe, TMNT, and Final Fight the big three of 1989. They were all very important games in the genre at the time and looked way more advanced than almost anything else. It's funny how Sega and Konami both had other 1989 releases, Tough Turf and Crime Fighters respectively, that looked way behind their big releases I mentioned. I wonder if they were started earlier on. It goes to show that a lot of progress was being made in 1989 and 1990 but it was a period of transition in game development. You can see the same thing with the early Neo Geo games with some looking far more advanced than others. I've been wanting to go back to Aurail. It was good when I tried it, but the difficulty ramped up pretty quickly and I just wasn't ready for that then. But I did like the look and feel of it.

[@tommik1283]

Those FM chips used were quite poor at producing sound effects. All sounding too metalic and high pitched. I think most of these arcade systems also had proper ADPCM chips so I am surprised these games still used just FM. Just compare the Mega Drive version of Air Buster to arcade original to get the idea what MD was highly missing.

[@chrisredfield-wq8wi]

Even though Sega didn't do a home version of Riot City, the TurboGrafx Super CD got a version called Riot Zone. It's single player, with 2 playable characters that were changed appearance wise from the original arcade version.

[@TheDannylarson]

Action fighter is sooo much better than spy hunter, my friend had this game & a master system growing up, to me its action fighter & super spy hunter, the og spy hunter is such a disappointment on the nes

[@Tolbat]

looking at these we should have had 1 to 1 arcade ports back then, SEGA cheaped out.

[@AlanAndalon]

Riot City got a port for the Turbo Grafx 16 & PC Engine Super CD. These japanese version is called Crest of Wolf and the character sprites look different, like Axel Stone from Streets of Rage

[@stevetb7777]

Nuh uh.. you did NOT have to confuse my brain at 2:05 like that! Playing Golden Axe music on top of Altered Beast visuals... LOL! =D

[@dingo-by-the-sea1296]

Yes!!! Didn’t play arcade Alien Syndrome until the Astro City Mini, but I loved it on my Game Gear! And been a big fan of Shinobi, Golden Axe and Altered Beast since the 80s!

[@billcook4768]

Sega, how about taking 8-10 System 16 games (but not Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe or Altered Beast), slap them on a cart and release on modern systems. Please.

[@henrymatos9551]

Experiencing Alien Syndrome and Quartet in the arcades have been so pleasant, truly a joyful entertainment. I hope to see them again available in the home console. Fantasy Zone I truly recommend and Action Fighter is a complete fun shooter. Great video and Sega please make Alien Syndrome, Action Fighter and Quartet available for the current home console! 👍🏼

[@marcoprocida1244]

Ehu SEGA Lord X, you really should implement chapters with name of the games, also replicated in the description for better tracking.

[@Dagoth_Ur_1]

The most impressive arcade game I've played was Sega's Galaxy Force II (I think it was called) the visuals and parallax scaling, was unlike anything I've seen. Really cool game.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

Well, yeah.The Super Scaler hardware games were all well ahead of their time with amazing and smooth pseudo 3D visuals. Seeing something like Space Harrier back in 1985 was a revelation. Everything else looked so primitive in comparison. Super Scaler boards were very complex and expensive. System 16 was their mainstream/affordable arcade board designed for more traditional games.

[@Sandlot1992]

I didn't grow up on these back then since I was born in 1992!

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

I got lucky, I was born in 1999, but my first was the MegaDrive and Sonic The Hedgehog. And I was raised the same way as those before me with 4th gen, then 5th and 6th gen hardware. I do miss the arcades that slowly fizzled out into the mid 2010's though. Games like Daytona, House of The Dead and others were a real blast; people today don't know what they're missing out on.

[@budyll1]

Altered Beast to me was one of the worst video games ever made. Gameplay was boring, music annoying, main character was painfully slow and the difficulty was sky high.

[@axguzman-gq9fz]

Mucho poder de sega

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

1:13 Sonic Boom: an arcade game that has nothing to do with Sonic the Hedgehog because he wasn't even created yet. It's also weird that Sega would make a Sonic show and game decades later in the 2010s called Sonic Boom.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

Riot city did come out on the turbographix/pcengine under a different name though.

[@rameybutler-hm7nx]

I wish someone would make a new game system that only used a strictly 2d processor. 2d processors are leaps and bounds better than they were since the 90's. Hell they could keep it at 16 or 32 megabyte. Indie developers would line up in droves to put games on it.

[@raedvalenzuela5085]

Finally! Someone talking about the Sega system 16 arcade hardware! The most transcendent board of all time. Konami used it, and even capcom to name a few has used this board in their arcade games! Also it is the board of the Sega Genesis, aside with cost cutting measures for selling it.

[@guardianbeardizer6361]

Shinobi brought back memories of an old barber shop my mom used to go to that had the arcade machine along with Play Choice 10 that I played everytime. Had a couple others in the back but sadly they were broken. Tried to get mom to buy a broken one from him for me to fix but she wouldn't

[@thecowboy2]

There's an infamous trick hidden in the code of Dynamite Dux where if you enter a certain word at the end of a hidden programmer rant, it turns the opening cinematic into something from a p**n film. No joke.

[@MrSRArter]

6:37 M2 could make new Genesis/MD ports of Shinobi and Alien Syndrome if Sega makes a third Genesis/MD Mini.

[@zenopsy0149]

Man the moment i saw the boss from altered beast I could hear him yell at me WELCOME TO YOUR DOOOOOOOOM.

[@moverofobjects]

Anyone else notice the opponent in Heavy Weight champs has a striking resemblance to Niel degrasse Tyson? 😅 1:36

[@willrobinson7599]

Whilst I loved the home consoles of the late 80s early 90s. I still loved the atmosphere of the arcades. We was lucky and had a great one in our town that had most new machines within a few weeks of release. So many amazing sega games like shinobi , golden axe

[@pjretroredux]

man i do love how you edit your videos, keep it up fella. pop over and say hi some time :)

[@admiralAlfonso9001]

a video on multiplayer games would be cool I got a sega dreamcast and I think a video on the best multiplayer games for segas platforms would help people

[@Llukario]

Arcade gaming is always awesome to see. I was born in the 90's so the arcades were on the tail end but every time I walked in one a smile was on my face! Great review and Great selection of games SLX!

[@ultragoldenantchannel5648]

Riot Zone has a decent port for the Turbografx CD, but is lacking the 2 Player Co-op

[@gmarzzz]

Imagine we had a consolized version of the System 16 or a home console with similar capabilities instead of the Megadrive.

[@BubblegumCrash332]

I'd love to see what the homebrew community could squeeze out of this system. I'd imagine it's like a Genesis on roids.

[@Jokerwolf666]

Honestly fantasy Zone 2 on the Master System and the new one they made both have their place and play differently enough that it's worth going back to both.

[@ProBreakers]

Going to the local pizza place used to be a huge deal as a kid. Pizza and video games at the attached arcade. What a great Friday night that was as a 10 year old. A real arcade, not the sad remains you get these days that contain nothing but a few old shooting or driving games.