The latest in bizarro 60th anniversary stunts: https://segatest.sega.com/en/index.html Sega have put together an exam about themselves. In January you can take an official test and be given official numbers to know how good you are at knowing official Sega things. All conveniently placed either in the middle of my working day, or the middle of the night, so I can't get top marks and gloat. They're releasing seminars: Hiroyuki Miyazaki talks about codenames, with special guest, a prototype Sega Venus. And yes we do live in a world where we'll want to document the test on documentation.
Thanks for sharing! This was the perfect nostalgia kick for me this morning. I think it is absolutely hilarious that they skipped over a Sega Uranus.
The Nomad we got looks decidedly more XTREME 90s and I love it, but this design seems less bulky. It's really cool to see prototype hardware from the company! I'm glad they've still got it after all these years. Source comes from this official 60th anniversary video about Sega's "planetary line" of hardware. It's got English subtitles, and it's an interesting watch!
This video's been a useful source of info for an update on https://segaretro.org/Planet_codenames - we didn't know before the codenames came in after Saturn, and we now have confirmation that not only was Uranus never used (he said SoJ didn't have any record of Pluto being used either but given he went into detail on Pluto and even asked the Sega President about Uranus and he said he'd never heard of a project being assigned it), but he also gave a reason for the lack of use, saying when pronounced in Japanese it sounds like "Uranu" or "won't sell", what he called "an ominous name for a project." I think this is probably the best we're ever going to get short of new hardware from SoA showing up. I also uploaded this!
Sega has a video out that shows Venus, the prototype of the Nomad. They apparently used planet names for all their protos. I haven't watched the video (so there's probably more), but there's people posting about it on twitter.
So if Sega makes a new console it should be the Sega Sun or start moving to more obscure celestial objects. Funny to know Uranus is multilingually unmarketable and I'm sure we all look forward to taking the test we've prepared our whole lives for.
Clockwork Knight = Apus Astal = Centaurus Panzer Dragoon = Andromeda Wing Arms = Antares Shining Force = Lacerta? It's not 100% clear which game this is referring to Virtual Hydlide = Cancer (lol) WanChai Connection = Cygnus Rampo = Columbia SimCity2000 = Draco Gotha = Pegasus Iron Storm = Aries Gale Racer = Aquarius Cyber Speedway = Cassiopeia Victory Goal = Aquila Greatest Nine = Ara Pebble Beach = Caelum
Yeah I'm sure many people, myself included, wished they told AVGN that before he made his Virtual Hydllidie episode as they heard that. Oh, and I had to screencap this part. Says everything you need to know about consoles.
I was going to post this, but sports in particular have been known to get jumpy about unlicensed use of their logos (and whatever rights were signed in 1994 will have expired by now). See: the International Olympic Committee. You're not going to go through the legal hurdles just for a quick YouTube video.
Because nobody jumped in: https://segaretro.org/Planet_codenames#Games "Coma", the code name for Shinsetsu Yumemi Yakata: Tobira no Oku ni Dareka ga... (or Mansion of Hidden Souls) isn't read out, and they've written Canis Major (カニスメジャー) for Pebble Beach Golf Links, not Caelum. They seem to use the English constellation names written in katakana rather than what the Japanese might call them. So that's Greek -> English -> Japanese.
A much more subdued affair compared to the last two - this video focuses on Sega's various arcade TCG games.
It's tricky because it's a really important part of Sega... and yet it has virtually no reach outside of Japan. I was vaguely on top of WCCF for a while, but then it started calling itself Footista and I got lost and confused. It's another case where Sega Retro needs people to go out and become experts. Not that English speakers stand a chance at the test if they've thrown in Japanese puns, mind you.
Was mildly disappointed by the lack of any behind the scenes stuff, but I didn't know most of that because, well, I didn't grow up with Japanese arcades. MesuKing in Yakuza makes more sense to me now.
I remember the one remaining "proper" arcade in town getting rid of ALL of their video machines to make way for that football thing. Died a death and it's now a pub. Doubt they even bothered getting that many cards in to begin with as the Tekken 5 machine they had previously was barely stocked (I had to buy a handful on a trip to London).
Pre-registration for this began today. Is anyone doing it? We should get a record of the three question sets.
