don't click here

General Questions and Information Thread

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by Andlabs, Aug 25, 2011.

  1. biggestsonicfan

    biggestsonicfan

    Model2wannaB Tech Member
    1,608
    406
    63
    ALWAYS Sonic the Fighters
    Excuse me but are those COLORED and 4-WAY Versus City cabs? That might explain the unpopulated areas on the billboard unit!
     
  2. Overlord

    Overlord

    Now playable in Smash Bros Ultimate Moderator
    19,218
    965
    93
    Long-term happiness
    Mikie just got featured in Retro Gamer this month, I assume that's where you heard about it?
     
  3. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    Freaky deaky.

    No I made a page on the BBC Micro because I was in a "let's get screenshots" mood, only to spot we'd listed Shinnyuu Shain Tooru-kun as having a port.

    (I stopped being interested when I saw Klax - we have three Klax pages and I don't know how to handle comparisons yet)
     
  4. Pirate Dragon

    Pirate Dragon

    Member
    526
    104
    43
    Ha, Klax ... yeah, Klax was on everything, even Atari 2600 and Sam Coupe ...
     
  5. doc eggfan

    doc eggfan

    Are you pondering what I'm pondering? Wiki Sysop
    9,681
    232
    43
    ACT
    GreatMegaLD, GreatSC3k, Great SG1k
    Also featured briefly in 2017, in the SG-1000 Minority Report article I wrote (Retro Gamer #168, page 62)
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    For years I've wanted pie charts. Today I learnt you can make them in CSS with conic-gradient().

    So I did.

    https://segaretro.org/Template:PieChartGenre

    And a proof of concept - Sega games broken down by genre. That's genre as defined by Sega and whoever was publishing the game, with all its regular caveats. You can vaguely see changes in the market, as different types of games become more viable on console.
     
  7. Hivebrain

    Hivebrain

    Administrator
    3,047
    154
    43
    53.4N, 1.5W
    Github
    Looks good in Chrome, but Waterfox just displays them as empty circles.
     
  8. Overlord

    Overlord

    Now playable in Smash Bros Ultimate Moderator
    19,218
    965
    93
    Long-term happiness
    Waterfox is an ancient engine, that's why. Charts render just fine for me in Firefox 98.

    And thanks for the headsup on Conic Gradient: I've been looking for something to do pie-charts in PHP for ages but didn't want to delve too deep into libraries: now I can do it just in standard HTML!
     
  9. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    Firefox was relatively late to the party on this one, so it doesn't surprise me that the forks are a little behind:

    https://caniuse.com/css-conic-gradients


    I did try to achieve this in a more "traditional" way, and I think it can be done, but it wasn't working well for me:

    http://www.coding-dude.com/wp/css/create-a-triangle/

    I tried using triangles (which is achieved by abusing borders) but the angles weren't coming out correctly. Maybe something further up the CSS chain was causing an issue, idk.

    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/transform-function/skew()

    I also got somewhere by skewing rectangles, but I couldn't get it to rotate around the correct point. Or it was translating in weird directions.


    And both of these methods get complicated when you start having obtuse or reflex angles. Trigonometry + mediawiki syntax = brain hurt
     
  10. JaxTH

    JaxTH

    Pudding Deity Oldbie
    10,355
    586
    93
    Los Angeles
    Jack shit.
    Hopefully the person who kept changing "Adventure" to "Visual Novel" on Dreamcast games got rolled back to keep the chart accurate.
     
  11. biggestsonicfan

    biggestsonicfan

    Model2wannaB Tech Member
    1,608
    406
    63
    ALWAYS Sonic the Fighters
    Something I never expected to see, or why anyone would want one, but they exist, SEAMAN PLUSHIES!

    003.jpg 002.jpg 001.jpg

    Auction link here.
     
  12. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    For some reason I've been brute forcing Winter CES 1995. I've gone through all the popular gaming magazines we have scans for and have listed all the games. Probably. There were more Mega-CD 32X games announced at this single event than shipped for the platform in total (hell, Rocket Science Games alone announced five, and it cancelled all of them!).

    Anyway
    [​IMG]
    https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:ElectronicGames2_US_30.pdf&page=22


    This was the last CES show the games industry really bothered with - later in the year, the first E3 was held, and would become the staple for the years that followed. Games companies weren't allowed in the big halls of Winter CES - they were relegated to tents outside, and this year... it rained, and it was muddy. Also, while at this point both the Saturn and PlayStation had been released in Japan, neither Sega or Sony wanted to discuss their US plans, so it became a showcase of games you probably wouldn't buy for the 32X, Jaguar, 3DO and Neo Geo CD.

    You'd think after a display like this, Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors would be the most infamous cancelled game at WCES 1995. But no - Nintendo's headline act was StarFox 2. What a weird convention.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • List
  13. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:GameFan_US_0303.pdf&page=106

    The latest in weird Sega of America plans that didn't go anywhere. This, apparently is sega's "triple play" strategy, circa January 1995.

    For the casual player, the $99.99 Sega Genesis.

    For the mainstream, the $149.99 Sega Neptune. Bearing in mind a 32X was still priced at $159.99 at this point.

    For the hardcore, the $300-$500 Sega Saturn.


    versus what actuallly happened:

    Genesis sales were fine throughout 1995 and pretty decent for 1996, despite everyone writing off 16-bit games at this point in history.

    The Neptune wasn't released and pretty much all 32X development ceased within the first half of 1995.

    The Saturn launched too early in the West and was lacking in software for the first year. It nevertheless hoovered up most 32X software and became the platform of choice.


    aka the end of 1995, the "casual" wasn't casual, the "mainstream" wasn't mainstream, and the "hardcore" wasn't hardcore. Nicely done.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
    • List
  14. Bobblen

    Bobblen

    Member
    373
    187
    43
    It's a small one, but those of you who follow the wiki very closely may have noticed I added some Saturn stuff to Primal Rage Hidden Content a few days ago. This included a cheat menu which I don't think has ever been documented anywhere online before. I guessed the code when I noticed that Saturn, 3DO and Jaguar versions all had the same menu graphics (so probably had similar methods to access a cheat menu, and Jag/3DO codes were already known). Now you can cheat your way past those dinosaurs to your heart's content in full 32 bit glory, you lucky lucky people! :D

    Primal Rage/Hidden content - Sega Retro
     
  15. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    [​IMG]
    https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:GameFan_US_0104.pdf&page=64

    I've talked about this somewhere before but Mortal Kombat was soooo popular in 1993 that Acclaim brought... this to Winter CES 1993. It's the Mega Drive port, as it stood at the time.

    Scorpion and Sonya in a void. I think it was playable, in that you could move them left and right.

    The SNES version was in a much more healthy state, in that it had moves and backgrounds, but I suspect similarly empty versions might have been on display for the Game Gear and Game Boy. Not that they were trying to pass this off as something "finished" though - this was just proof that "yes, we're working on it".

    These days it would be a pre-rendered teaser trailer that told you nothing.


    EDIT:
    [​IMG]
    https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:GameFan_US_0104.pdf&page=73

    oop there you go - Game Gear.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2022
  16. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    So you know how you've never wanted the development timeline of Golf Magazine: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples??

    https://segaretro.org/Template:VTimelineDevelopment

    Mostly automated, and pulling in prototypes we don't have pages for yet.


    Of course, when you've got multiple prototypes released within a few days of each other, it's an ugly mess (and truthfully I don't know how best to solve this, bearing in mind any and all "drawing" is programmatically done), but hey, it's a thing!

    It should assist in visualising which prototypes were likely to have been made for CES or E3 or whatever.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
    • List
  17. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    F-15 Strike Eagle II is a combat flight simulator.

    It was originally released for the IBM PC in 1989.

    There were ports to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1991.

    It turned up on the Mega Drive in 1993. All versions were handled by MicroProse. Some people cared.



    Turns out, this was actually the second attempt at bringing the game to the Mega Drive. The first was announced way back in 1990... and Sega themselves were going to do it:

    [​IMG]
    https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:EGM_US_013.pdf&page=79

    From Summer CES 1990. I don't know if it was playable, but these are certainly screenshots.

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Literally nothing matches the game we actually got. The 1993 edition stems from changes made for the Amiga/Atari ST, while these shots from 1990 are a closer match to the IBM original.


    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Too lazy to get the shots myself, but here's the IBM version from MobyGames. It's not an exact match, so they weren't cheating with non-Sega screenshots. The game was ported twice.


    1990 pre-dates MicroProse getting into the console market. This falls under the same category as 688 Attack Sub and M-1 Abrams Battle Tank, where Sega acquired the rights to games from publishers, rather than publishers... publishing themselves.

    Incidentally I think this might also be the case with (the also unreleased) Mega Drive port of Vette!. Licensed from Spectrum Holobyte, but made by Sega. Probably some arm of Sega of America trying to get more computer titles on the platform.


    And yes there is a feature in this game where you can get a reverse cockpit view, so you can see the pilot instead of something... useful.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • List
  18. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • List
  19. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    It's pointless going further back than 1990, so ~CES MYSTERIES~

    The following are unreleased games that I've seen mentioned by more than one source, but I can't definitively prove they existed. If magazines are copying each other's homework, sources might be wrong, etc.


    (all Mega Drive unless explicitly stated)

    R.B.I. Baseball 2

    Tengen apparently announced this in 1990 alongside a NES version. It didn't ship, but a year later, R.B.I. Baseball 3 did. Theoretically it means Tengen attempted to release effectively the same game four times for the console, rather than just three.

    Andre Panza Kick Boxing

    Psuedo-sequel Best of the Best: Championship Karate exists on the Mega Drive but there's weirdness to these games. Best of the Best is mostly the same game, but adds things to Andre Panza, and is different on consoles for some reason, and I haven't bothered to solve this one yet.

    F-19 Stealth Fighter

    Flight sim by MicroProse, not dissimilar to F-15 Strike Eagle II. Apparently MicroProse were working on a Mega Drive version. I can't find it.

    Solo Flight

    Ditto of the above. Except MicroProse originally released this title this waaaay back in 1983, which raises questions. Were they planning to remake it?

    Dungeon Master

    Mega-CD game from Summer CES 1992. Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep came to the system in 1994 - is this a port of the original game, or an early version of the sequel?

    RBI-5

    A Mega-CD RBI game Tengen apparently brought to Winter CES 1993. Did this become something else?

    Kung Fu: The Legend(s) Continue

    Data East apparently brought this to Winter CES 1994. The internet says it's a cancelled SNES game - there's not much talk of a Mega Drive version.

    Magician's Castle

    One of Psygnosis' many cancelled titles, apparently, which appeared at Winter CES 1994. This was meant to come out for the Amiga, but didn't... and maybe came to the IBM PC in 1996 as "Necromantics"?

    Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road Baja 1000

    Or Super Off-Road: The Baja. Weird sequel to Super Off Road for the SNES, that Game Players seems adamant was also set to come to the Mega Drive.



    My thinking is prototypes of these might have been spotted and not dumped - I'm not sure we have a definitive list of undumped games.

    As a general rule, we're always after old promotional material* and footage from show floors, because magazines lie. CES is nice in this respect because booths had free flyers you could take away - even have scans of some of them.


    *fun fact: sometimes this takes the form of free posters distributed with other games, or adverts on the back of game manuals.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
    • List
  20. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

    no reverse gear Wiki Sysop
    8,543
    2,465
    93
    Northumberland, UK
    steamboat wiki
    So I've been through all the CES-es, now to tackle E3. Or at least, the best approximation of a show with 4321890384092 games and lots of misleading marketing.

    [​IMG]

    87 references so far for E3 1996 and I still don't think we've got all the games. But we do have this - "Worldwide Soccer II".


    Worldwide Soccer II is a sequel to Worldwide Soccer, a Saturn launch title in the West released outside of the Americas as Sega International Victory Goal. SIVG is a middle-of-the-road football game that was superseded by better attempts (including some of Sega's) - Japan never received it, instead getting the original Victory Goal (which uses the Japanese J.League) and this pseudo-update, pseudo-sequel thing. All are entries in a lineage that spans eight Saturn releases, with the later entries being some of the best football games of the 1990s.

    But Worldwide Soccer II... was never released. In fact, Worldwide Soccer II... never existed.

    1:39, and you might spot something curious in the associated footage - it's Japanese. And so it was on the show floor too, because this isn't "Worldwide" Soccer, it's the then-recently released Victory Goal '96 (which is again, more Japanese J.League). It's not an attempted localisation - the booth might have said Worldwide Soccer II, but the game said Victory Goal 96, because spoilers: it's almost certainly the stock Japanese game running on a stock Japanese system.


    As far as I can tell, "Worldwide Soccer II" is a localised name for a video game Sega of America had no plans to actually release. Instead it was used as a vague promise about the future - "we're making a game and it looks something like this", which would turn out to be Sega Worldwide Soccer 97 five months down the line. There's no guarantee development on SWWS 97 had even begun when E3 was running, and I've no idea if the name "Worldwide Soccer II" ever made it into a development build.



    p.s. if you live in the US and want a mystery concerning your version of football: 49:15.

    "Ultimate Football"

    except the game is (the unreleased) Prime Time NFL Football Starring Deion Sanders (Saturn). Except Sega had NFL '97 on show. Why would you bring two American football games to the same event.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • List