In celebration of the SEGA Dreamcast turning 20 years old in America on September 9th, SEGAbits is talking about the console itself on this milestone episode of SEGA Talk! What went on behind the scenes during the development of the hardware? What were the best launch games? How early did SEGA plan to discontinue the Dreamcast? Find out all that and more on this episode!
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Over at SEGAbits.com, I've been hard at work for the past six months compiling a Top 100 SEGA Games list. The list was a reaction to IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time, which was complete BS. Not because I disagreed with the order, but because it did not include a single SEGA game. What began as a hate-fueled reaction transformed into a very interesting experiment in finding what SEGA fans deemed their favorite games.
Unlike the Dreamcast Junkyard Top 200, I couldn't list every SEGA game ever made in a tick box survey, so instead the SEGAbits list was assembled from over fifty top twenty-five lists that were then weighted with a points system favoring games that were closer to number one. Sure most people will include, for example, a game like Sonic the Hedgehog. But of those people, most rank it lower in their top twenty-five compared to a game like Shenmue II. The end result was a top 100 that brought both the number of votes and how much those voters enjoyed the games into account.
Seeing as how the DCJY has their own list, I thought it would be fun to compare the top 10 games from each list to see how they compare. Since the Top 100 SEGA Games list does not include non-SEGA titles, I'll remove those from consideration in the DCJY list. The top ten, seen below, will show the placement on SEGAbits and DCJY lists, and in parenthesis where that game is found on the other's list.
This past weekend was the culmination of SEGA Week at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL. The week consisted of ten tournaments on new (well, new to the arcade) SEGA arcade machines as well as other special events which were held on SEGAbits Saturday. One big happening on the big final day was the reveal of Strike Harbinger, a very early look at an upcoming indie title from HitSparks Games which is led by competitive gamer and developer Chris Tang.
In the past, Chris took part in the historic 1990 Nintendo World Championships and was the winner of SEGA's Sonic & Knuckles Rock the Rock competition in 1994. Since then, Chris has worked on games at Atari and Capcom, including Gauntlet IV, Primal Rage, Street Fighter III, Rival Schools, Tech Romancer and Power Stone. Now, Chris is hard at work on a new game inspired by classic SEGA titles like Space Harrier and Phantasy Star. The game, titled Strike Harbinger, combines the fast paced forward flying gameplay of Space Harrier with the RPG and combat elements of Phantasy Star while utilizing a unique control structure that evokes Virtual On.
I had the pleasure to meet Chris and the game’s Senior Artist Kiyoshi Okuma, whose past work includes Gauntlet: Legends, World Series Baseball 2K2, The Sims 2 and Darkspore. I also had the honor to be the first member of the public to play the game, and following that experience I chatted with Chris about his life as a tournament gamer, his career, and his plans for Strike Harbinger.
I wanted to share this episode on the 'Yard as I thought fans of Capcom's Dreamcast titles would enjoy some of the stories Chris shared. So give it a listen and enjoy!
The Dreamcast Junkyard writers Tomleecee and The Gagaman joined me (Barry the Nomad) and my co-host George on the SEGAbits Swingin' Report Show podcast to discuss the SEGA Dreamcast from a European fan's perspective. Topics include UK marketing, the delayed launch, games exclusive to the region, the official and unofficial magazines, the collecting scene, and Tom and Aaron’s thoughts on the US release. We also have a discussion on SEGA’s decision to change the red swirl to blue, and which region had the best box art. Believe it or not, this is the first time Tom, Aaron, and myself have all talked to each other outside of comment sections and emails.
Back in June, Patrick aka Kori-Maru (Website of the Dead), David the Lurker (Sonic Retro), A.J. Rosa (My Life with SEGA), and I - Barry the Nomad - held a panel discussing the life and death of SEGA’s swan song, the Dreamcast. The same panel also included a presentation from Sonic Retro, covering the history of Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s Hidden Palace Zone – with rarely seen footage of Sonic 2‘s release and early efforts to remake the lost zone. We also met with several fellow SEGA fans, and gave away a pile of rare SEGA swag to an audience that packed the house to standing room only.
The full panel has been online since July, and I fully intended to post it here at the 'Yard, but doing so slipped my mind until today. To rectify that mistake, you can see the full panel above and stay tuned to SEGAbits all month long as we celebrate Dreamcast Month! Who knows, you just might see some DCJY legends on an upcoming Swingin' Report Show podcast...
To celebrate the 50th episode of our Swingin' Report Show podcast, SEGAbits admin George and I invited three legends of video game journalism to join us for a celebration of the Dreamcast's 14th anniversary in the United States. Not to get too deep into fanboy waters, but Francesca Reyes has been a personal hero of mine when it comes to covering video games. Francesca served as a writer for the United States Official Dreamcast Magazine (ODCM for short) throughout the magazine's thirteen issue run (issue zero through twelve) and went on to become editor-in-chief for the Official Xbox Magazine.
Simon Cox is a video game magazine veteran, serving as editor-in-chief for the first seven issues of ODCM. Simon's career also includes working on EDGE, GMR, Xbox Nation (a personal favorite of mine), 1UP.com, GameQ, and NVision.
Also joining us was Ricardo Torres, who worked for CNET Gamecenter throughout the Dreamcast's lifespan and went on to be editor-in-chief of Gamespot until 2011. Ricardo had some awesome stories from the Dreamcast days and had, as Francesca points out, an amazing memory of events that occurred 14 years ago.
A few tidbits to get you excited: Simon reveals that he named the game Rez and there is a very funny story featuring Bernie Stolar (President of SEGA of America at the time).