Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Barry the Nomad - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

I just completed an interview with Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Collected Works author Darren Wall and Console Wars author Blake J. Harris, and Blake revealed details on a cancelled Sonic the Hedgehog movie that was to debut in 1995.

All the details will be in a piece he is writing for IGN, but you can hear some teases of the two treatments in the interview I am uploading now. I'll embed the video here soon, but for now here are some tidbits:

One treatment was a young real world boy turning into Sonic, another was a Roger Rabbit scenario of the real world and the video game world meeting - which is sort of like Wreck-It Ralph

I recall some magazines back in 1995 hinted at a movie being in the works, with the Archie comics confirming it and joking that Michael J. Fox was to play Sonic (not really).

Update: Here is where the conversation begins:

52m 16s

Earlier today I bought a stack of old gaming mags, and while paging through an issue of GamePro I came across this:



It appears SEGA's Pods was made in partnership with Tiger, however I own Pods new in box and nowhere is Tiger mentioned. Either the deal changed and SEGA took over distribution and rights, or it was a 100% SEGA made product and GamePro goofed. Another interesting bit, and the subject of this topic, is SEGA's Wonderbook. I have never heard of this before! The magazine describes it as a portable Pico, however I checked online and the one source that exists clarifies that it was more like an electronic storybook, it was not a portable Pico and did not use Pico tech. Still, it had a similar concept and color scheme.

Quote

http://faberp.tripod.com/sgwb.htm



I looked into RKS and it appears that they worked with SEGA in the mid 90s on product design, designing products like Tiger's Pocket Arcade - which they won an award for in 1995: http://old.rksdesign...dex.php/awards/

Despite everything lining up - SEGA working with RKS on other products and Wonderbook being a real thing - nowhere can I find proof that this thing was released to the public outside of a forum post where a guy says his little brother owned it: http://www.assembler...ll=1#post276345

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I noted that SEGA Retro does not list this, and as mentioned I'm not even sure if it ever released. Does anybody have any info on this item? I know the Pods and IR-7000 Communicator are obscure products, so I would not be surprised if the SEGA Wonderbook fell through the cracks and was released but forgotten.

Hi again, following our Al Nilsen interview which records this Sunday, we plan to have Mr. Tom Kalinske on an episode of our podcast! If you don't know who he is, what are you doing on these forums?? http://segaretro.org/Tom_Kalinske

Please post any questions you have for Tom here!

Former SEGA head of marketing Al Nilsen will be appearing on the May 4th episode of the SEGAbits Swingin' Report Show! Al is probably one of our most important guests we've had on the show, and given his involvement in the upcoming Console Wars book and movie he will be even more of a legend.

I wanted to put the call out to the Sonic Retro and SEGAbits forums for questions people may have for Al regarding his days with SEGA during the early 90's. Anything involving the SEGA Genesis launch in America, working with Michael Katz and Tom Kalinske, and shaping Sonic the Hedgehog into the mascot be became in 1991.


We record on Sunday, May 4th, so post them here before then!

 
Today marks the 14th anniversary of SEGA's final console, the Dreamcast! While the console actually first released on November 27th 1998, I really think the US launch was the biggest of the three regions thanks to SEGA of America throwing tons of support behind the system at launch with numerous launch parties, commercials, and press events. The launch lineup in the US was the biggest of all regions, with a whopping 18 games compared to the UK's 11 and Japan's measly 4. It also helped that SEGA chose the memorable date of 9-9-99. 10-27-98 and 10-14-99 (or 14-10-99?) just don't have the same memorable pizazz. 
 

 
I thought I'd share some online events going on today to celebrate the console. Last week I had the privilege to talk with Francesca Reyes (former writer for the Official Dreamcast Magazine and current editor-in-chief of the Official Xbox Magazine), Simon Cox (former editor-in-chief of the Official Dreamcast Magazine, he also worked on EDGE, GMR, Xbox Nation, 1UP.com, GameQ, and NVision), and Ricardo Torres (former head of CNET Gamecenter and former editor-in-chief of Gamespot).
 
SEGAbits will be celebrating the Dreamcast all month, so check there often for new articles and interviews.
 
It was truly an awesome discussion, and I was shocked to learn that it was the first time Simon and Francesca spoke since the magazine ended. LOTS of amazing stories including Simon butting heads with the president of SEGA, and how the game Rez got its name (Simon named it!).
 

 
My good friend The Gagaman is planning a super cool Dreamcast thing later today related to the number 100...
 
Sonic Retro should be streaming Dreamcast games later today at http://www.twitch.tv/vidyaretro
 
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So happy 14th, SEGA Dreamcast! Know of any Dreamcast related things happening this month? Share them here!