Dreamcast Magazine Issue 19

Issue 19 of Paragon Publishing Dreamcast Magazine hit the stores on 22 February 2001, just a month before the Dreamcast console went out of production. That didn't stop it being absolutely filled with awesome new games though, and the cover featured Neversoft and Activision's great 3D roaming beat 'em up Spider-Man. Inside the magazine a huge feature on the 2001 ATEI (Amusement Trades Exhibition International) held at Earls Court, London over two days in January, speculated on various Sega arcade IPs that may be heading to the Dreamcast. Of the 12 games featured, only 3 actually made it to the Dreamcast (Cosmic Smash, WWF Royal Rumble and Sports Jam) but the feature hints at what could have been had the console survived another year or two.

The news section gives first details on sequels for Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Mr Driller and Metropolis Street Racer; and conversely also confirms the cancellation of Star Wars Super Bombad Racing. Other titles 'confirmed' for Dreamcast include House of the Dead 3, Virtua Golf and the MMORPG Farnation - a game that was subsequently moved to the Xbox before being canned. News of a PAL 'Mega Drive Compilation' is reported, and this could be linked in some way to the recently discovered official emulator, but I'm just speculating. Speculating wildly, while waving my arms and frothing at the mouth in a way that only a rampant fanboy can.

Also covered in the news section is the confirmation of the cancellation of Dreamcast hardware production, but also the news that during Christmas 2000 the Dreamcast actually took a 43% market share in the UK, beating the PlayStation into second place with a 41% share of retail sales.

The final piece of surprising news in issue 19 comes in the form of a story involving Nintendo and the New York Times. Apparently, on 27th December 2000 the NY Times published a story that stated that Nintendo was in advanced talks to purchase Sega. Naturally, this wasn't true and mirrors the current climate of 'fake news' allegations being thrown around with abandon; but the difference here is that both Sega and Nintendo suffered financial losses due to the story. Sega actually responded to the story by posting an open letter to the NY Times on its Japanese website. The contents of the letter are reproduced in a scan below but the font used is a little hard to read to here's the full transcript:

While Sega has always been fond of The New York Times' objective coverage of our company, we would like to express our concern over the fallacy that appeared on 12/27/00 regarding Nintendo's buy out of Sega. Not only did this erroneous allegation cause the trade of Sega's corporate stock to be temporarily suspended while substantially influencing Sega and Nintendo's stock prices, it caused unnecessary confusion among stockholders, affiliated companies, business partners, and end-users of both companies. 

It also severely damaged Sega's corporate and brand image during a very precarious time in the video game industry. Although top executives of Sega and Nintendo flatly and completely denied the rumor, The New York Times has published yet another article containing similar content on 12/29/00. Such repeated and arbitrary publication of groundless statements is pure harassment and unacceptable obstruction of our business, which we cannot overlook. We believe that The New York Times as a news organization is heavily responsible for this misinformation.

Sega Corporation is requesting that The New York Times immediately run a notification and apology for the fallacious feature in the same scale and manner as the initial article. We expect The New York Times to address this issue in the honorable tradition of a respectable news source by taking the appropriate and responsible measures toward reparations.

Shunichi Nakamura
Corporate Executive Vice President
Sega Corporation of Japan

The interesting thing about this, is that if you try to find the actual article on the NY Times website - even with good old Wayback Machine - the article has long since been removed. You can still read up about this story here though, and it makes for a fascinating read (click the images below for full size versions in a new window).

Previews in Dreamcast Magazine issue 19 include Fighting vipers 2, Fire Pro Wrestling D, NBA Hoops, 18 Wheeler, Dragon Riders and Daytona USA 2001; while the reviews section covers Phantasy Star Online, Grand 2, Vanishing point, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, 4x4 Evolution, F1 Racing championship, Speed Devils Online, Championship Surfer and European Super League.

Enough waffling from me in text form though - here's a video walkthrough:

If you enjoyed this article and/or the video walkthrough, you can find all of the previous Dreamcast Magazine articles here or by clicking on the little image link below.