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General Questions and Information Thread

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

  1. Hivebrain

    Hivebrain

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  2. Black Squirrel

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    I didn't realise this had been scanned:
    https://retrocdn.net/File:E32001_Directory.pdf

    The E3 2001 directory, aka everything at that year's E3 apart from the games themselves (because they were announced on the day). The reason I care is because it has contact details for various small (and now defunct) games companies. Things like accessory manufacturers which nobody gave a damn about.
     
  3. That's a good read 2001 was an excellent E3. I remember the 10% complete JSRF selling me on the XBox and been an XBot ever since


     
  4. JaxTH

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  5. Black Squirrel

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    Videogame Advisor, a magazine I didn't know existed until yesterday, has (what looks like) precise US release dates for software in the 1996 issues. Also included are games I don't think we know existed.

    It needs a proper comb through.


    Also credits for the Western Sega Saturn logo are given to "The Mendick Group". The internet doesn't believe such a thing exists... but I really like that logo so I'd love to know the full story.
     
  6. Pirate Dragon

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    This became "Game Week", quite a few of which have also recently been uploaded. It was the main US trade magazine, although there was some competitors such as MCV USA (unfortunately not scanned yet). Most of those dates probably ended up slipping (it was a monthly publication at the time), but it's useful for cross referencing with Usenet posts. Also take into account those were ship dates (ie shipped to retailers/distributors), as a rough rule of thumb the games would start going on sale in the big specialist retailers such as Electronics Boutique or GameStop the day following the ship date, and for smaller specialists who had to buy through a distributor a day or two later again. The wait for non-specialist, or more remote stores would be longer, but as a general rule ship date +1 is when they would start appearing in stores.

    Those trade magazines are also useful as they have the NPD TRSTS sales charts, I noticed a few missing ones for Dreamcast that I was unable to find on the Wayback Machine, and documented pre-Dreamcast charts are even more patchier. AFAIK the NPD software sales charts started in January 1994. Videogame Advisor started publishing them sometime between August 1995 and September 1996 issues.
     
  7. Ted909

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  8. Ted909

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  9. Black Squirrel

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    These look like photocopies on some kind of standard letterheading, which seems a bit... cheap for a newsletter.

    I wonder if it's a case where you'd make an enquiry about something, and, if they hadn't got their fancy fliers ready, Sega would mail something quickly in the post.
     
  10. Black Squirrel

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    I've been tackling Intelligent Gamer magazine. Was it "intelligent"? eehhhh.

    It printed release schedules though, and seemed to think the following was Saturn-bound for the second half of 1996 and/or first half of 1997:

    I can't currently prove any of these were actually in development for the Sega Saturn, although some are more likely than others. A good chunk of these came out on the PlayStation though, which makes me think wires have been crossed - any thoughts?


    Spoilers: They were really bad at this. For example, issue #7's "recent releases":
    [​IMG]
    I've highlighted the games that absolutely weren't recently released, because they weren't released at all (in the US). Note the duplicates (and 4x4 Gears and Guts is Hardcore 4x4).
     
  11. Speaking of mag lists. Was it ever true that 11th Hour and TomCat Alley was coming to the Saturn. I was very much looking forward to the 11th hour coming to the Saturn (at the time)

    [​IMG]
     
  12. Black Squirrel

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    Yes and probably. Tomcat Alley (Deluxe) is one of those "could (also) be a Mega-CD 32X game" - we haven't seen any screenshots, footage or prototypes out there.
     
  13. Black Squirrel

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    [​IMG]

    Retro-Bit have announced re-releases of Valis in the form of Valis Collection. So now you can see them flip-flop between "Retro-Bit" and "Retro-bit" spellings on your Mega Drive.

    When I added their previous re-release, Toaplan Shooters Collector's Edition to the wiki x months ago, I put the individual re-release details on each game's page. This time I haven't done that because a) I'm lazy and b) there are genuine changes to the ROMs. I don't know which is the best solution - you decide!

    (it's also the first time these have been "officially" available in PAL regions. They all pre-date region locking, but outside of music for 2 and 3, they were never optimised. Don't know if that's changing.)
     
  14. JaxTH

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    The individual game releases should go on the individual game pages and we could use the Comparison pages to jot down any differences and make a note on the pages that things are different.

    EDIT: This better not be different: https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/collections/valis-collection

    EDIT 2: Each game has it's own Collector's Edition and North America can order them from Castlemania Games or Limited Run Games while Europe only has Strictly Limited Games to order from.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2022
  15. Black Squirrel

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    I'm not sure this was clocked last year:

    [​IMG]

    In 2021 Sega released the Mega Drive Tower Mini Zero... which isn't really a "tower", it's a Power Base Converter (Mega Adaptor in Japan) and a bunch of fake Master System cartridges. In my head, I filed it along with the little chairs you can get for the Astro City Mini - little cosmetic things to please the Japanese.

    But it's actually a tie-in with Lost Judgment. Between the events of Judgment (Judge Eyes in Japan), Takayuki Yagami traded his pinball table for a Sega Master System, and you can pick up fully playable cartridges along the way. There's 8 in the base game, and a further 4 in DLC... and they're the same games listed above.

    It's still a bit of a stretch - Yagami owns a real Master System, not a Mega Drive (and so can play Snail Maze), but hey, it's a thing. You know what else is a thing? That version of Sagaia (Darius II) wasn't released in Japan, so you can own a small cartridge of a game that doesn't technically exist.


    And yes there are two different emulated versions of Fantasy Zone in Lost Judgment. But there's also robot battles which you're probably going to miss because they bury things behind the dance club.
     
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  16. I remember (I think it was Sega Power) talking of a TomCat Alley Delux on the 32X. I never saw much talk of the 11th hour coming to Saturn. A shame it never was ported :(
     
  17. Black Squirrel

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    [​IMG]
    We sure live in weird times. Right after posting "Sega game with Darius in it", we've got a new "Darius game with Sega in it" - Dariusburst CS Core + Taito/Sega Pack

    Well, sorta new. It's a slightly enhanced PS4 game with some of the DLC included by default. But hey, Taito game with Sega IPs in it on a Nintendo console - try explaining that in 1986.


    Sega Retro hasn't got a page on the "original" Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours release, though we probably should. There were six DLC packs representing other companies, and Sega was pack 2 - every represented game gets its own special "mode" with different rulesets, so yes, Opa-Opa shoots things, gets coins, goes to a shop to buy upgrades - it's not just a quick reskin.

    Thing is though, the base game has nothing to do with Sega, nor does the other five DLC packs. This is a situation that's coming up quite often, so perhaps we need a specialised solution for optional add-ons.

    Other examples off the top of my head:
    - The PS Vita Ridge Racer, which has the Daytona USA hornet as DLC
    - Fall Guys
    - Minecraft
    - Probably other things
     
  18. Black Squirrel

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    For at least the last 15 years, ebay has been awash with these aftermarket Mega Drive controllers. They're made in China for pittance and disintegrate within minutes of use, and while some brands are better than others, nobody with any interest in gaming would ever recommend one.

    But Sega Retro documents all things related to Sega, including the crap things nobody wants nor cares about. "Tomee" gaming products are sold everywhere, but I've no idea if it's a company, a sub-brand, or aliens infiltrating the commercial sector - these things just "exist", and you can buy them. And they play games in more ways than one:

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Because it's not good enough that they release the controller once - they have to update the packaging almost every year, to make sure they'll never be documented properly on our wiki. 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 variants (there's also an older 2010 version in different packaging but that doesn't annoy me as much).

    Tomee also make cables, which are generally better and more useful, but they too get minor box updates almost every year, right up to and including 2022.
     
  19. SuperSnoopy

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    5 different variants of the same packaging but they never bothered to change the abhorrent machine translated french blurb, this was painful to read - and I'm assuming the spanish version doesn't fare much better :V
     
  20. Hivebrain

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