[360]

Barry the Nomad, on 09 May 2014 - 07:56 AM, said:

360, on 08 May 2014 - 03:04 PM, said:

So are we going to get confirmation of whether our questions will be included or not? It would be great if potentially Barry could write up a confirmed list of planned questions or something so we know beforehand which questions Tom's going to answer. Interested in listening to the podcast regardless.

Yeah, I'll go through here next week and post the list of questions I'll be asking.

Awesome. That's great to hear Barry. Thanks for doing that. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread then. If you do choose to include my question go with the second edited redraft I did since I think the first version is far too long a question to ask. I'd love to hear Tom's response. Looking forward to your final selection.

This post has been edited by 360: 09 May 2014 - 11:43 AM

[Pirate Dragon]

doc eggfan, on 06 May 2014 - 04:05 PM, said:

It's probably been asked before, but was backwards compatability considered for the Saturn to allow it to play mega drive games (and potentially Mega CD and 32X games). I know much of the press at the time speculated that it would be possible through the cartridge slot on the Saturn, and Sega had provided backwards compatability is every previous intergenerational transition.

It seems to me that this could have played a significant factor in the Saturn's success, providing a large software library from launch, rewarding loyalty by sticking with the same brand, and possibly even making the 32X seem less like a stop-gap solution by having cross compatability with the Saturn. I could imagine 32X/Saturn combo releases with a Cart and CD, where the Cart plays on the 32X for those opting for the cheap upgrade option, but the cart and CD in tandem on the saturn unlocks more advanced graphics (improvements in speed or unlocked texture mapping on the more powerful hardware). That's the kind of strategy I was imagining at the time when I first read about the 32X and the Saturn.

The 32-bit console Sega initially acknowledged working on dubbed the "GigaDrive" was supposed to be backwards compatible with Mega Drive and Mega CD. I think that was in 1992 and came from Kalinske himself if I remember correctly. I'll see if I can dig up the original articles which may lead to some interesting questions for him about that pre-Saturn concept. That's if there is still time pre-interview.

This post has been edited by Pirate Dragon: 09 May 2014 - 12:40 PM

[Meat Miracle]

Pirate Dragon, on 09 May 2014 - 12:40 PM, said:

The 32-bit console Sega initially acknowledged working on dubbed the "GigaDrive" was supposed to be backwards compatible with Mega Drive and Mega CD. I think that was in 1992 and came from Kalinske himself if I remember correctly. I'll see if I can dig up the original articles which may lead to some interesting questions for him about that pre-Saturn concept. That's if there is still time pre-interview.

Gigadrive (?):


Early Saturn design (mockup?):

[Pirate Dragon]

Meat Miracle, on 09 May 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

Pirate Dragon, on 09 May 2014 - 12:40 PM, said:

The 32-bit console Sega initially acknowledged working on dubbed the "GigaDrive" was supposed to be backwards compatible with Mega Drive and Mega CD. I think that was in 1992 and came from Kalinske himself if I remember correctly. I'll see if I can dig up the original articles which may lead to some interesting questions for him about that pre-Saturn concept. That's if there is still time pre-interview.

Gigadrive (?):

Where did that come from? I don't recall GigaDrive ever having actual prototype hardware (or at least not a production type shell like that). Maybe concept drawings at most. It would be interesting if Sega did actually have prototype GigaDrive hardware at some point though. Anyway, gone through the magazine scans, now have to go through the non-scanned magazines.

[Black Squirrel]

Meat Miracle, on 09 May 2014 - 01:28 PM, said:

mockup?

that's what the caption hints at... although I suppose the clue is that it's pretty horrendus

[Pirate Dragon]

Narrowing it down, this seems to be the point that Gigadrive was no more, and Saturn was the future. Sega Power August 1993 (published July 1st, 1993);

[Pirate Dragon]

Probably first mention, Sega Power April 1992 (published March 5th, 1992);



Going through these magazines reminds me that there's so much other undocumented/proto stuff I need to document ...

This post has been edited by Pirate Dragon: 09 May 2014 - 04:06 PM

[Pirate Dragon]

MegaTech March 1992 (Published February 20th 1992)



Sega Pro March 1992 (Published February 20th 1992)



I don't have the original CTW interview, but suspect that "Gigadrive" was a media creation rather than a Sega codename (I may have read that name as early as 1991 in magazine speculation pieces - need to confirm). Anyway, questions based on these articles;

1; Was "Gigadrive" an actual Sega codename, or just media speculation.
2; Was it actually envisioned to have Genesis/Mega Drive backwards compatibility, and also Sega/Mega CD too?
3; Was it purely a conceptual console, or did it ever make it to the hardware prototype stage?

I'm sure there are many other questions you or others may have about the "Gigadrive".

[Pirate Dragon]

Meat Miracle, on 02 May 2014 - 10:23 PM, said:

Some ideas, all hardware based:

- Can he tell anything about prototype hardware that never made it out?

- Were there any other hardware that used the Planet Project (or Roman God) codenames?
The ones identified for 100% so far are Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Titan, Janus, Neptune and Pluto (32x, Game Gear, Nomad, Saturn, ST-V Arcade board (Saturn based), Picture Magic (32x based), Genesis+32x combo, and Saturn+Netlink combo).
There are rumours about Jupiter (cart-based Saturn), and the Sega CD being earths moon (Luna?), which would make the earth the Megadrive.

- Also, was it really based on planets, or actually roman gods? Or even just Sailor Moon characters (the order of appearance would, interestingly, mostly fit with release dates!)...

- Were there any other codenames used internally we don't know about? The Virtua Helmet (unreleased) and the Activator (infrared ring-shaped mat controller) may have had some, perhaps fitting in with the above theme?

There was also the Mega Drive based Teradrive, which plays on the Latin for Earth (Terra) and SI prefix Tera, which also fits with Mega (Drive) and Giga (Drive).

[Meat Miracle]

Pirate Dragon, on 09 May 2014 - 06:30 PM, said:

There was also the Mega Drive based Teradrive, which plays on the Latin for Earth (Terra) and SI prefix Tera, which also fits with Mega (Drive) and Giga (Drive).

I suspect that to be unrelated. It was a machine produced in 1990. Every other system using the codenames dates to 1993+.

Except the game gear, but I don't remember -any- source for that being "project mercury" at any point.

[doc eggfan]

I know I have been proven wrong, and I shouldn't continue to propogate a false rumour, but I could have sworn that I read that the original 1989 Mega Drive was known as "Project Venus" because it was the "Mark V" project. I know Venus is now associated with the nomad, and the original mega drive had a boring non-planet codename, but I still like the elegance of my false memory.

[Pirate Dragon]

Meat Miracle, on 09 May 2014 - 10:02 PM, said:

Pirate Dragon, on 09 May 2014 - 06:30 PM, said:

There was also the Mega Drive based Teradrive, which plays on the Latin for Earth (Terra) and SI prefix Tera, which also fits with Mega (Drive) and Giga (Drive).

I suspect that to be unrelated. It was a machine produced in 1990. Every other system using the codenames dates to 1993+.

Except the game gear, but I don't remember -any- source for that being "project mercury" at any point.

Oh yeah, I also think that probably was unrelated to "Terra", but it would be nice to confirm. I don't know if Mr Kalinske would know that anyway as I don't have any evidence that it was planned to be released in US (just Europe, against the wishes of SOE :p )

doc eggfan, on 09 May 2014 - 10:08 PM, said:

I know I have been proven wrong, and I shouldn't continue to propogate a false rumour, but I could have sworn that I read that the original 1989 Mega Drive was known as "Project Venus" because it was the "Mark V" project. I know Venus is now associated with the nomad, and the original mega drive had a boring non-planet codename, but I still like the elegance of my false memory.

Even "false rumours" are legitimate questions if they can be proved or disproved by the answer Anyway, regardless of the questions asked, thanks to Mr Kalinske for answering them, it's much regarded.

[Meat Miracle]

Pachuka once mentioned seeing a front-loader Sega console when he was working at Sega, supposedly some early prototype that never reached production - might be worth asking what this machine was?

doc eggfan, on 09 May 2014 - 10:08 PM, said:

I know I have been proven wrong, and I shouldn't continue to propogate a false rumour, but I could have sworn that I read that the original 1989 Mega Drive was known as "Project Venus" because it was the "Mark V" project. I know Venus is now associated with the nomad, and the original mega drive had a boring non-planet codename, but I still like the elegance of my false memory.

Problem with that theory is that it was never labelled with roman numerals. SMS was labelled as M4 and/or Power Base, Japanese SMS was labelled M4J (Mark 4 Japan, presumably), SMS2 was M4Jr. (Mark 4 Junior), and Megadrive was M5 (Mark 5).

edit: you might be thinking of Sam Pettus' Rise and Fall of Sega, which says "we'll reserve talking about Project Venus until we get to the Genesis". And that book is, er, dubitable.

This post has been edited by Meat Miracle: 10 May 2014 - 10:37 AM

[LocalH]

Question for Tom:

Can you give us any information on the alleged licensing of Sonic to US Gold, for release on the Commodore 64 and Amiga? Magazines of the time reported that US Gold would be bringing Sonic to those platforms, The Retro wiki here has two scans from magazines mentioning it (one of the scans mentions C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and Amiga versions, and the other scan shows what are likely mockups), and this page on Games That Weren't 64 that has a scan from ZZap!64 further mentioning a C64 port. Were there actually talks or plans to license the game for release on other systems before deciding on a plan of exclusivity? If so, was there any work done past the mockup stage, such as an engine test (whether self-running or playable), or was the license revoked or otherwise not given to US Gold?

Possibly a little wordy, so you may want to edit it down. I'm basically fishing for information about these versions of Sonic that weren't, and with him being president/CEO during the time when these releases would have been considered, it would make sense that he may be able to shed some light on this.

[NiktheGreek]

Good question and one worth asking, but it may not shed much light as it probably never crossed his desk. Licensing deals were super-loose back then, as I'm sure you're aware - I can't imagine the deal that gave US Gold the right to make Strider II went particularly high up the Capcom chain of command.

The people behind The History Of Ocean are looking to do a US Gold book next, so that might be a more fruitful avenue of enquiry. Geoff Brown certainly seems willing to talk, as he's also involved in that From Bedrooms To Billions project.