Nobody's looked at these yet? I decided to take a crack at the McDonald's one. It runs in Windows 7 but you need to extract the InstallShield .cabs first. It also wants to run in full screen for some reason, so I ran it through DXWnd and it worked just fine. Strangely enough it appears to be brand new stuff, as it all uses the mouse. Also toward the end I found some online portal thing. I wonder if anybody ever used it. I know there's more in there, but I can't find it (or the educational value in this game, for that matter.) Also yes, according to the titlebar Paso Pico was correct. What that means I have no clue.
It's not entirely the same - there's some parts that are obviously similar to the regular Pico version. It seems there's less content total, but what's there is notable enhanced from the console Pico versions. As for the term "PasoPico", "Paso" is probably sort for "Pasocom" which has been a Japanese term for PCs for quite a while, so it's basically more or less "PC Pico". It'll be great to have more footage of these PasoPico available for download. Are these piratable? :P (I will forever cringe at this game, BTW, for trying to "educate" these poor kids into being minimum-wage work slaves...)
I just clicked one of the links on the page and got a trial version. The actual version, if the page is correct needs 500MB to install.
Then it is settled. We must grab the full versions of all the PasoPico games and pirate them like crazy.
The bizarre thing is that there is no less than four separate Japanese exclusive video games which are centred around working at McDonalds - three by Sega and another by TDK for the Game Boy Color it's not totally surprising that these things exist because making burgers in video games goes right back to BurgerTime (and possibly even further) but why they're exclusive to Japan is beyond me. Did the Japanese obsess over American fast food chains in the late 90s??
And two of them are on the Pico, at that. (although it's possible the Hello Kitty one is just a dolled-up graphic swap. I haven't seen much of it yet.) I think the most likely reason these didn't see a US release is because of how they glorify the fast-food dining experience in a manner that'd probably be considered controversial by US stadards, and more so than the likes of "MC Kids" or "Treasureland Adventure". A videogame about a -toddler- frying McNuggets and preparing burgers is... well, it's wrong on so many levels. On the Pico side of things it also doesn't help that it's obviously trying to sell other non-media merchandise. Notice how some titles like "Lego Fun to Build" didn't get international releases even though there doesn't appear to be any language barrier issues whatsoever? And a whole load of Disney titles, too? Especially "Toontown" or "Tokyo Disney____" stuff. The Japanese Pico games were very loose in regard t their "education" quality, and many were hardly more than minigame fluff meant to advertise toys and anime.
They'd have known they couldn't sell these things in the west from the get go (for one, the Pico was dead by that point, so that's half the games written off straight away), it's more of the idea that a bunch of executives sat around a table and said "let's make a game where kids work at McDonalds". It's just such a weird thing to do, particularly when it happens... four times, and the target market would be Japan. All the other McDonalds games you can understand, because they're not selling the fast food per se, just the "brand", and the corporate world of America likes to do that (also games like Global Gladiators tie in to the whole ENVIRONMENTSSS thing). And the Disney stuff is also understandable because Disney's pretty big in Japan (there is a Disneyland in Toyko after all).
Having said that, there had been loads of little kids large play sets based around working at McDonalds. Like this: So the idea of a kids video game of this idea doesn't seem too far fetched over here.
By the way, guys, a startling thought has occured to me. 2013 is the 20th Anniversary of the Sega Pico. Perhaps something nice for that could be arranged? I'd at least enjoy a celebratory picture.
NOTE: Correction on the title, the Pokemon one is "Hiragana! Katakana! Kakechatta!" not "Pokemon Waiwai Battle".
Also, a bit of something for the Beena. Sorta. Anyway, this just got me thinking... We obviously know by now that with the long lifespan, large library, many spinoffs and licensed clones, AND the successor, the Sega Pico did well in Japan. However, I still don't think we have anything resembling -hard numbers- on this. Is there anyone here who may be an expert on researching that? We got some numbers on the US side of things, so comparing them would make an excellent contrast in the regional performances.
"hard numbers" are erm... hard to come by for all Sega systems, not just the Pico. there are annual financial reports dating back to 2000 on Sega Sammy Holdings' website. You might get lucky, though you might not http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/printing_annual.html the rest, as with everything else, relies on magazine scans. There might be a reference or two on Wikipedia but the facts lie in magazines - you'll be surprised what the internet doesn't know
You do realize I also cover the Satellaview, yes? It's no longer surprising for me to see that the internet doesn't know something. :P Anyway, checked the Sega 2000 one. Lots of neat Dreamcast stock photos, but no sign of any Picos. Since that was in the "kids Communication Pico" era, it'd prbably be more likely to be found in a Sega Toys business report.
