I think SEGA Japan did have such plans I remember reading about the GigaDrive before the MD even launched in Europe and I'm sure there's an actual interview with SEGA Europe where they confirmed the GigaDrive was real
A better idea is what they actually went with for the most part because it doesn't alienate the costumers as much and doesn't drive them more towards the competition. The problem is when they released the model 2s is that they should of really went with the Muiltimega (Sega CDX) as their standalone re-release and ditched the idea of it being able to also run off batteries as a portable CD player and not bother to do the model 2 versions of what we got for the Mega Drive and Mega CD. Upgrading the graphics could of been as simple as what the 32X did but it would make setup more complicated but not that much more complicated.
I agree. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, SEGA should have taken the WonderMega concept minus the extra functions and made it the standard system like NEC did with the Duo in Japan. I think that really helped get more developer support. SEGA's trouble with the Mega-CD was very much like SONY's with VR. The In-House teams couldn't support 2 different units with enough software, the price was high, but when the Mega CD and VR were used correctly the experience was far ahead of the base system. I also think it was a huge cock up on SOJ part to cancel PS IV on the Mega-CD SEGA should have looked to have dual development of Mega CD/Drive games where you could have a cart version as well, just minus content and some of the Mega-CD features. SOJ really should have looked to make an enhanced Mega-CD port of Strider and Ghost N Ghouls with all of the Arcade speech, Arcade perfect (or better) music and more animation in the Mega-CD version and I would have loved to have seen a better version of Moonwalker The Mega-CD was such a wonderful system when used correctly.
I think it kind of made sense that these type of games were not ported during the height of "getting your money worth with long RPG" type of games. But XBLA opened up such a huge venue. And after the Dreamcast, Sega was under alot less stress to put out huge games that sell consoles. Its crazy that we got Revenge of Death Adder and Spikeout in the 2020s either though mini consoles or a mini game within another games. Both games could have been sold on a PS2 collection or be an XBLA/PSN release 15 years ago. Again my missed oppurtunity for Sega is not going even bigger and crazier on XBLA/PSN during that generation of consoles. They did put alot of stuff...but there is so much more.
I read with Spikeout, that it was the DC memory that was the issue, I think that was from Nagosgi-san himself . I used to know someone who worked at Lionhead and he told me the memory of the DC was the biggest bottleneck in the system, with it being so slow and also too low. I don't know how much of that was true myself, but I would put it more down to Spikeout didn't do that well in the Arcades and a Step 2 conversion was even more hard work than a basic Model 3 port . We of course did get an Xbox version and while I love the game the graphics were a letdown with the Model 3 version looking better in parts. Revenge of Death Adder on the Saturn made so much sense, but I can only guess the Arcade game didn't do well and the simple fact of people getting bored of that style of game and not looking to spend £50 on it
I been playing the Master System via emu over easter and It would have been nice if SEGA Europe had brought out the Master System with the FM sound chip. It really makes such a difference to the MS games
I wish Sega of America hadn't picked such a fugly box art for the Dreamcast version of Skies of Arcadia. Granted, it wasn't nearly as bad as many old SoA covers like the ones for Phantasy Star, Shining Force, Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd, Landstalker... But still pretty bad compared to the superior Japanese/European box art, which conveyed the game's tone far better.
I found the USA Dreamcast games to usually have better box art and more importantly lovely artwork inside the case, under the disc holder, which was lacking in many Japanese versions D2 being a good example. I wasn't a fan of Benrie or SOA in the Saturn days, but they did so much right with the Dreamcast right down to the artwork and game cases. Such a shame it was SOJ turn to mess up and Sega Europe was run by morons sadly
I have a vague recollection of there being some dumb reason for some of the US box art decisions at the time - like you had to put pictures of people on the covers for some reason. See: Final Fantasy US covers of the time vs. Japan/Europe - for me, it happened too often to be a coincidence. US Dreamcast box art was often the weakest of the three main regions, and it doesn't help that they had a crisis of confidence just months after launch, changing all their white covers black. But it's not uniquely bad - there's some questionable PlayStation covers too, and the Saturn was much worse in the early days.
I don't agree over DC box art. SEGA America was terrible in the Saturn and Mega Drive days but really upped their game for the DC where they looked to use the game art itself more and more and I also loved the artwork that used inside the case the under the disc holder. I partially loved the white and green used on the USA cover to Virtual Tennis, it looked so much better than the Japanese version and the less said about the Pal artwork and case the better. But I guess it is subjective
