Sega MD had also occupied a fairly important place in Cheng Tian's gaming life.
Although Sega MD had completely failed to beat Nintendo's SFC in the console wars, piracy in mainland China had been rampant back then. There had been far more pirated Sega MD consoles domestically than Nintendo SFCs, and it was on this console that Cheng Tian first experienced sound, visuals, and gameplay far beyond what the NES could offer.
Limited by resources, Cheng Tian had not actually had access to many MD games at the time. But perhaps the owner of that shady game shop had good taste, or perhaps the MD's lineup and quality had simply been exceptionally strong back then; nearly every MD game Cheng Tian first encountered had been a masterpiece.
Sonic 3Yu Yu Hakusho: Demon Power Unification BattleContra: Hard CorpsStreets of RageWild GunsSky FangComix ZoneGolden Axe 3Power-Up FamilyBattletoads, and so on.
It was also then that Cheng Tian learned games from the same series could be ported differently across platforms, and that the MD Platform had its own knockoff imitators.
For example, Water Margin Wind and Cloud Legend.
When he played it, Cheng Tian had felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, but he had not realized why at the time. Only after he had encountered more games and looked back did he discover that this domestic Water Margin Wind and Cloud Legend was an ultimate Frankenstein creation built on the framework of Knights of the Round Table, incorporating many Round Table character models, a few character models from Streets of Rage 3, and the magic system of Golden Axe.
It had even incorporated Knights of the Round Table's Cutting Technique, except it lacked the most essential loot system.
...Actually, it was pretty fun.
Once he entered Sega, Cheng Tian was practically a mouse