General Questions and Information Thread

Ideally YouTube wouldn't come into the equation of "preserving" it at all - it's still much better quality than the one on CDN that was nicked from a 360p Dailymotion upload though.

 

That 1GB upload limit puts a downer on most things.

One (terrible) solution would be to stick it in a 7z file and split it into two (or more) "volumes" like people used to do in the 90s, uploading each separately, but I'm not sure how the wiki would react to that. Also it wouldn't be viewable in a browser, so it couldn't "replace" the current version which is.

 

If anyone wants to play "guess that cartridge":

Saturn third-party miscellaneous cartridges

Most of these were collected from Ruten.co.tw a few years ago, and I've finally got around to putting them in a table. Problem is, I still have no idea what most of them do.

There's plenty more out there - you can even get modern tat from AliExpress, but there's quite a big language barrier.

 

Someone with much more time on their hands than me found a nice little excerpt of Sega-related stuff among the hours of footage that this account's uploaded: Hi-Tech Land Sega Shibuya in 1991 around 14:10 (spot the early Sonic plushes in the UFO Catchers too)



I would normally put this type of thing in the Sega World/assorted Sega game centre rubbish thread, but there's slightly more to this one - rare on location footage of an R360 running Rad Mobile.



Until now it was assumed this only ever turned up at trade shows/expos and the like from how little there appeared to be documented of it (no mention on Retro to begin with, only one or two photos at expos themselves, etc). I suspect it didn't get much further than this, but may well have been shifted around a few of Sega's flagship venues in Japan before being shelved.

 

I had no idea a R360 version of Rad Mobile existed - I guess you just assume a game that takes place on the road would have no need for a super duper rotating cabinet, unlike G-LOC or Wing War.

 

It doesn't look like it worked that well as an experience (i.e. throwing people upside down factor) from the few seconds of footage there are, so not all that surprising that it never got around as much as GLOC.

I'm thinking Power Drift would've been a better fit if they wanted it to run a racing game, though I suppose it was getting old by that point.

 

Anyone want to check my history homework:

Sega Retro:Todo/Yugoslavia

The idea being that if you supply a date to the flag template, it should return both the country as it was known at the time, and the flag it used.

if the flags are wrong -> Template:FlagDateCheck

if the country names are wrong -> Template:CountryCode2Country

(incidentally there are plenty I haven't added (yet?))


now of course this is incredibly messy because declaring independence is different to being recognised as a soverign state by the UN, but we're also a Sega wiki.

 

More for the collectors:



Want a Game Gear? Want Sonic 2? Get the Game Gear Sonic 2 System.

Want to use the TV tuner? Erm...








Turns out not all Sonic 2 Systems are created equal. Sega secretly removed support for the TV tuner at some point in 1993, and the only way you'd know is if you looked at the back of the box.

The removal of the TV tuner means that other than the link cable, everything Sega is advertising is to address shortcomings with the console's design. You can't see the screen - buy a Super Wide Gear! Cartridge port gets dirty - buy a Cleaning Gear! Damn thing eats batteries - buy chargers and battery packs and bags for your battery packs!

 

For the one person who cares:



Currently sifting through another press asset disc, and I spotted this screenshot from Toy Racer - there's a Japanese Sega Saturn shipping box in the background.

This was a cheaply made game sold for charity so half its assets came from Toy Commander (i.e. it might originate from there), but it's not something I would have clocked when I was ten years old.

In fact I only played Toy Racer once, because it's essentially multiplayer only and lives and dies by connecting Dreamcasts to the internet, which was a faff in 2000.

 

RE: Minor variants










Majesco distributed more re-releases than you think. While Game Gear games usually have MAJESCO SALES printed on them in big letters, the Mega Drive is less obvious. You may own undocumented variants.

Also
https://segaretro.org/File:Genesis3_MD_US_Box_Back_Alt.jpg
https://segaretro.org/File:Genesis3_MD_US_Box_Back.jpg
Minor variants of Majesco products exist too.

 

The latest in questionable life choices:

Blaze Europe doesn't exist anymore, so how did AtGames products make it to the UK? Through retail chain Argos.

As in, Argos imported and distributed the products. As in, Argos was an official Sega distributor.



Which means -> Argos.

 

Website of Dreamcast's Hong Kong distributor Sega.com Asia. The cool thing about it is that it has English and Chinese language webpages for most Japanese releases from June-December 2000. Even obscure stuff like Dejiko no Maibura, which is only vaguely described as an "internet tool" on the wiki has a detailed explanation of what it is on it's webpage. They said they were going to localise Dreamcast games into Chinese and other Asian languages, but I don't think they did, which is a shame as their game webpage English translations are high quality. I think the only Dreamcast game to get a Chinese localisation was Illbleed, but I don't think they were involved. They stopped updating the website when Sega announced they were going third-party.

 

A compilation of some Sega tweets that should probably be referenced

 

I'd like us to build up a big database of referenceable tweets but I don't really know how (to do it cleanly, at least).

In slightly-related-but-not-quite documentation news:

Handheld Electronic Games - this has been sitting under the wrong name on Sonic Retro (and Wikipedia!) since about 2006. It's unique in that pretty much all of its distributors have gone out of business and/or have left no trace of it online, but this essentially a lost piece of video game history that occurred within Sonic Retro's lifetime. So the whole "make a note of things you find on the internet because there is no guarantee someone else will" thing really is important.

Speaking of barely documented handhelds:



This is the "Gopher 2", an apparent successor to AtGames' Arcade Ultimate (also known as the Gopher). Released (I think) exclusively in Russia, it's an emulation device whose distributors claim is licensed by Sega. The same distributors who don't actually put their name on the device or packaging, but sticking magically sourced ROMs on an SD card is totally something Sega would endorse, honest.

 

Once or twice a year I end up dealing with unlicensed tat from Russia:



And it's stunts like this which make me stop. One Super Drive has 50 built in games, and another, almost identical version has 55 (none of which are GTA IV).

It's an important story to tell but lord is it tedious.

 

So this is a thing: https://stoneagegamer.com/remute-te...s-mega-drive-audio-music-album-cartridge.html

It's a Deluxe version of Technoptimistic

 

More fun and games for collectors:



Hey Retro, what's wrong with this box?

vs




The earliest PAL Saturns incorrectly claim the console is compatible with CD Video instead of Video CD (although strictly speaking you need the Video CD card (sold separately) to run a Video CD but whatever).

This was rectified shortly after with an addendum:

(the console shipping with scart cables generated a bit of contoversy at the time, as a good chunk of TVs in 1995 only supported RF)


CD Video, for those who don't know because they have lives, is an unsuccessful descendant of LaserDisc and was pretty much dead by this point in time. Video CD did a lot better, mainly in Asian markets that were less fussed about VHS (in fact the Sega Saturn was probably the main driver of the format in Europe, similar to the PlayStation 2 and DVDs, except again, you had to buy the card separately).


What makes this interesting is that Sega would have presumably had to pay a fee to use the CD Video logo. And no they didn't bother to update some of the working titles of the games listed here.

 

Finally my prayers have been answered:



It's the most classic of consoles, the Opguta OT-TYG04. Also known as there are too many and we really need a plan.

 

And the "broken keyboard" model


Zseda Zmedda Drive II

We've got a few "Sedas" and "Meddas" - I'm thinking it might be a mistranslation from Persian.

 

Or Core Systems!



Well sort of - here the contents are broadly identical, but from a documentation perspective, that's four minor variants that are only noticeable from the back.


It's why I can't stress enough - just because it looks like the internet has documented something, doesn't mean it actually has. This probably wouldn't have been noticed if I hadn't been trawling ebay listings.