Sega Pico/Beena Thread.

Sup

- Pink Panther's Magic Island
- Pink Panther's Shapes and Colors

many, many databases believe these two Pico games exist. But I've yet to find any photographic evidence to support those claims... and neither have they. A "1994-12-31" release date looks suspicious too.

has anyone actually seen these things

 

as a response to my earlier request about US cartridge colours - I think I've spotted a pattern

there are three "sets" of US Pico games, possibly four because there are Majesco ones. Apologies for watermarks, it just so happens that only one site has a list of games where all the boxes are the same size

SET 1: "Storyware", Red/Yellow/Cyan/Purple
When Sega started releasing Pico games to US audiences, they didn't really seem to give a damn about colour-coding things. "Set 1" is comprised of early Pico games which pre-date the ESRB. They all use Sega's VRC ratings and because we're dealing with kids, they are always "GA". Covers also feature a child's hand

http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00100-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00200-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00040-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00070-A.jpg&sizex=200

SET 2: "Storyware", Cyan
Later in the year Sega start giving a damn, and/or run out of unique colours to give each game. So everything just becomes cyan. By this point the ESRB have stepped in and are giving things eC ratings. And the child who once lent their hand to Sega is now dead. Or something.

http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00180-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00130-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00120-A.jpg&sizex=200

SET 3: "Deluxe Storyware", Purple
Still don't know what "Deluxe" means in this case, but now Sega have switched to purple. This is 1995 and beyond

http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00050-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00020-A.jpg&sizex=200
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00090-A.jpg&sizex=200

SET 4: Majesco, Light Blue?
I think when Majesco took over they recycled old boxes. That or Sega started releasing these carts at some point. I really don't know
http://i17.ebayimg.com/01/I/001/ba/7c/d14e_3.JPG

there are still exceptions to this. Games from "Set 1" have been spotted in a multitude of different colours, not just the ones set out by the boxes. I don't know why this is the case.

 

Yeah I had a quick look into that and can't find any purple Bernstein Bears carts at all - they're all cyan. Except for that yellow one. My guess is that Sega are compulsive liars.

Busiest Day Ever also comes in light blue
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/gs/U-059-S-00150-A.jpg
which again might have something to do with Majesco? idk they never changed the boxes

I'm guessing this would fit somewhere between sets 1 and 2, because it's not conforming to later rules and isn't labled as "deluxe storyware".

Mickey's Blast into the Past would fit in set 1.

 

Tedious things to look out for #32432412

Games prefixed with "Hajimema Series" on this list are re-releases.

->
(1993 -> 1998)

you know this job will prove difficult if the console was popular enough to have a budget line

This particular game, Hello Kitty no Tanoshii Butoukai is the definition of tedious. It wasn't released in the US, nor was it released in Europe, but it did see a release in Brazil. If this is a trend, Team-Europe have their work cut out for them if they're to dump every Pico game out there

Anyone have a list of Pico games released in Brazil? There's been a few Tec Toy-related lists being posted recently

 

...why does that say Hajimema Series 2
I know TecToy were never ones to hold a catalogue (and their archived sites look completely innavigable) so unless there was another catalogue or something we might need to be locky for the Pico in Brazil...

 

Searched and quickly found this. http://www.beena.jp/

 

because it's the second entry in the series (though I've no idea which is 1)

it goes up to 6 I believe

 

so I started collecting Japanese Pico scans

http://segaretro.org/User:Black_Squirrel/Pico

this is a challenge for obvious reasons. The only list we have is only about 75% "correct", and of course this is a task only for the mentally ill.

Note this is only the "basic" software for the console - no pack-ins, no crazy stuff with add-ons, no Yamaha-branded garbage, just traditional Pico software in traditional Pico cases. I'll get to the rest another day.


things I have deduced:

- there are in fact two budget lines. There's the one I mentioned above (6 games in total), the other is known as "Pico Best Selection" in which games are distributed in red boxes (7 games in total).
- games released around 2003 have "10th anniversary" branding. Some games were re-released at this point in celebration
- there are 13 Doraemon games for the Pico and two re-releases. Who the Christ buys these things
- I think there is a period in the late 90s where Sega switched to cardboard boxes. I'm really not sure, but they switched back to plastic later on
- as you can see from the gaps, there are many games which I can't find decent shots of. There are tons of Ultraman games for example, but searching on google images doesn't yield friendly results
- never sort by product code because this makes things confusing. Always go by date.

there are 207 games on this list in total. Take away the re-releases and you're left with about 185-190 unique games. That's just basic games in Japan. Compared to the 20 or so in the US.

And on the internet, I think there's something like 70-80 ROMs dumped for all regions, and presumably some are useless because they won't have pages. That means roughly 20-25% of this console's library has been preserved, compared to the 99.9% of the Mega Drive's. If you were to be poetical about this you could say this page doubles up as a MASS GRAVE because I find it unlikely that all of these things will be dumped

 

http://segaretro.org/Doraemon because they love him, and this is before adding Pico games (oh and there's one other thing on the talk page I'm not sure about)

Box dumps and page scans were something that I did point out to Kiddo who I think pointed that out to Team Europe early on and they seem to have agreed. I guess at this point all we can hope for is that some collector or someone is willing to donate... or we put our own money forward. I would... when I get money

There might be one more ROM release if I can get around to analyzing the 15 unique dumps of the thing

 

The Beena is really only something I would consider buying if I had the means and knowledge to reverse engineer the thing and preserve its game library. It doesn't strike me as something that'll provide much entertainment value to a fully grown adult, unlike say, a Mega Drive. It's a gathering of shovelware, unlike the Pico which actually had some home-grown content from Sega themselves (which I find a great deal more interesting)

Though I would imagine the Beena is a system that is far easier to collect for - it's still fairly new-ish, there's barely any demand because not many outside of Japan know it exists, and there's significantly less software than the Pico. And because this stuff is newer, there's a higher chance of finding complete versions in working order.

I've been getting scans for both the Pico and Beena, shoving names into Google Image searches and see what turns up. A good chunk of the Pico's library returned nothing of value - pretty much every Beena game returned something, even if the scans were a bit too crappy to be used. Both sets of games on Sega Retro are a mess and need checking thoroughly by someone who can read Japanese, but Beena games certainly seem easier to find


Most of the Mixt Book Copera stuff has virtually no presence on the net because (I assume) it's so rare and expensive, so it's probably one of those situations where you need to remortgage your house to preserve those games

 

After some searching, I stumbled upon this. http://my.execpc.com/~krieg/VidGames.htm

Which has a cartridge list for the Sega Pico. Take a good look at it. http://my.execpc.com/~krieg/links/pico.lib

I'm not sure how much it'll help your case, but I wouldn't be so quick to doubt it. If the games were Unreleased US Titles, it may suggest that they were entirely scrapped.

 

¡Guay!

 

Cool! A friend of mine has Tails y el músico! I Always wanted the rom. Does anyone know if Sonic Gameworld was in fact released in spain, or only Tails and the music maker was?

Also, is there any decent emulator to run those?

 

What the hell's up with those screenshots from early June? Top half of them is vertically blurred.

 

I have come to the conclusion that Sega suck

I've had another crack at A Year at Pooh Corner and its many cartridge colours. Things I am pretty confident about now:

http://segaretro.org/File:AYaPC_Pico_US_Cart_Majesco.jpg
http://segaretro.org/File:MAW101D_Pico_US_Cart_Majesco.jpg
http://segaretro.org/File:SSAA_Pico_US_Cart_Majesco.jpg

light blue carts are probably from Majesco. Majesco recycled old covers, therefore the boxes never match the cartridges.

However, I have not yet found light blue cartridges for The Lion King: Adventures at Pride Rock or Mickey's Blast into the Past, both supposedly re-released by the company. This needs more investigation, or rather, people need to take more photographs and put them online. The rest can be accounted for.



"Set 1" style games were rereleased in North America in purple. See See this post for a description of what "set 1" means

http://segaretro.org/File:AYaPC_Pico_US_Cart_Alt.jpg
http://segaretro.org/File:MBitP_Pico_US_Cart_Alt.jpg

I don't know why this happened and I don't think boxes were changed. Again, more investigation needed


A Year at Pooh Corner was released in this greeny-cyany colour. I didn't know why, but then I noticed this image was being hosted by Singapore's eBay, so assumed it was an Asian release
http://segaretro.org/File:AYaPC_Pico_AS_Cart.jpg
I now do not believe this is the case.


This is an Asian Pico and games. I don't know if this is a promotional image, but if not, it would suggest all Asian games are yellow. Incredibly tedious because all European games are yellow too.

so now I'm beginning to believe that Pooh cart is North American again... and I don't know how to class it



Math Antics with 101 Dalmatians was rereleased in yellow for North America. It is usually purple. The box says it should be purple
http://segaretro.org/File:MAW101D_Pico_US_Cart_Alt.jpg
thanks for that, Sega. Also fully aware the above image suggests there's an identical-looking Asian release. Fun times lie ahead.



overall, the North American library is extremely inconsistent.
http://www.digitpress.com/images/pico/pico_4.jpg

two games were not published by Sega, they were published by "Thinking Cap".
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00050-A.jpg
http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-059/bf/U-059-S-00010-A.jpg

if this is to be believed, T-182 is Thinking Cap's T-series code. It is currently undocumented.


EDIT:


yeah so

I don't think they really had a consistent colour scheme going on in North America

 

you didn't tell me the Italians use Japanese-style packaging


anyway I gave up trying to find colour patterns once I found out that Mickey's Blast into the Past probably uses all of them
http://segaretro.org/User:Black_Squirrel/Pico_2
(feel free to add to this)

annoyingly, the Japanese do this too. As to whether they ever got their act together, I can't say - nobody has documented the Pico before


in other painful news


South Korean Pico exclusives.

we also have situations like these
http://img5.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/b4/bb/rig_veda/folder/1499956/img_1499956_51872692_2?1256929387
In Canada, Sega of America sold repackaged French Pico games for the French Canadian population. But made new manuals.