The softer curved design of the PAL versions of these cartridges casings always appealed to me more than the chunky ones sold in the US.

I never understood why they were different though.

The PAL SNES just reused the curved design of the original Japanese Super Famicom. I also find it way more appealing than the US version, but I grew up in Europe, so it is the one that I saw back in the day.

FWIW I grew up with the North American design and I still find the JP/PAL design nicer.

They were a big step up from the original nintendo cartridges we blew in and wiped with alcohol to keep Tyson winking, but I went the Sega route as Genesis was a better system at the time, but that of course is debatable. Happy people still are interested in the archaic gaming systems.

Pfft, only 52 simultaneous colors vs 256!

I may be a biased Genesis Kid, but SEGA was always ahead of its time.

PC Engine was also ahead of its time, actual 8-bit games on CD-ROM!

...much to their detriment, sadly.

R.I.P. Dreamcast, R.I.P. 32x, R.I.P. Mega CD, R.I.P. Saturn...

Not sure how any of these except maybe the Dreamcast (and then not by that much - it was almost literally a contemporary arcade board clone) were examples of “ahead of its time”.

On the S-RTC, it was used in that specific game to control time ruin events. When you start the game you're asked to input date and time, and from there the game tracks time to enable certain events.

(2024)

Some discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40111274