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But Sonic wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Every Nintendo fan knew that. Level after tiresomely similar level, whizzing about out of control, collecting those wretched rings. Sonic 2 was no different. In fact, they'd argue, you could count the number of genuinely memorable Mega Drive games on the fingers of both hands - even after gnawing three of them off while playing Sword of Sodan.

Which would perhaps have been a little unfair to Sega. But then came the Mega-CD. This overpriced, clumsy white elephant brought nothing to the Mega Drive save the emerging horror of interactive movies. And the final straw was the 32X add-on, which Sega claimed would bring amazing 32-bit games to the Mega Drive - but then forgot to write any.

Meanwhile, the SNES's smaller but more devoted following was spared such rough treatment. Nintendo had CD plans of their own, but shelved them to concentrate on what really mattered: developing great games.

By the mid-'90s, the SNES had the best catalogue of carts available for any system. Starfox was a blistering shoot 'em up powered by the 3dFX chip. Donkey Kong Country had graphics so good you had to pinch yourself. Yoshi's Island followed up Super Mario World with an explosion of Miyamoto imagination.

Sega may have sold plenty of Mega Drives, but they weren't much use to the company gathering dust in people's attics. Nintendo, meanwhile, had stayed loyal to their fans, giving them what they wanted and reaping the rewards - and shifting nearly 50 million SNES consoles in the process.