MetaFilter posts tagged with videoGames and sega

Counting Roses

byanyothername — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:30:57 -0800

Iconclastic game designer Kenji Eno passed away last week. Kenji Eno, founder of highly idiosyncratic studio WARP, is most widely known for D, an interactive film/horror puzzle adventure game following a woman's pursuit of her homicidal father and subsequent unraveling of her own naturally unsettling lineage. The game featured at the time shocking content including cannibalism, something Eno pushed through by switching a slapped together "censored" version of the game with the original just before production. Eno shortly had a falling out with Sony (during which he punched a Sony representative) after a deal to produce 100,000 copies of Eno's Enemy Zero fell through to only 28,000, and signed an exclusive contract with competitor Sega to produce games for their Saturn system. During the production of Enemy Zero, the now Saturn exclusive thematic followup to D, Eno caught wind of a visit by minimalist composer Michael Nyman to Japan. Being a fan of Nyman's work and needing a soundtrack for his game, Eno allegedly harassed Nyman in his hotel room for six hours until Nyman finally caved and agreed to score the game. Still not satisfied, Eno pushed Nyman until he'd produced a score Eno found personally acceptable. Eno's commitment to the Saturn is legendary. Promotion of Enemy Zero took the form of a limited run deluxe edition, delievered personally by Eno himself, packaged in a crate and containing stickers, t-shirts, condoms and sundry other merchandise loot. Following Enemy Zero, Eno serendipitously discovered that games were enjoyed by a number of visually-disabled persons, and set out to make a game in which the experience of a sighted and blind person are identical, managing a deal with Sega to donate 1,000 Saturns packaged with the game to blind persons. Real Sound: Kaze no Regret (Wind of Regret) follows the separation and reunion of two lovers over the course of several years, and mechanically takes the form of an interactive radio play. A sequel to D had originally been planned for Panasonic's ill-fated M2 console. This version of the game had intended to be a Zeldalike adventure following the original protagonist's son as he explores a Transylvanian castle and bonds with his sinister father. A number of videos and screenshots detailing early footage have surfaced. An actual sequel materialized some time later for Sega's Dreamcast. Following another version of "digital actress" Laura (the shared protagonist of D and Enemy Zero) after a plane crash in northern Canada, this version takes the form of a light RPG with strong a horror/science fiction influence and wilderness survival elements. The plot is difficult to summarize, Dickian and deeply strange--angels, evolution, impending apocalypse, addiction, reality-warping drugs, God, doppelgangers and simulacra, sentient plants--and climaxes in one of the most memorable endings in videogame history. After D2, Eno left the industry for a decade, focusing instead on music. 2008 marked his return to the industry in a collaboration with Kenichi Nishi (Incredible Crisis, Chibi-Robo). Apart from his work in games, Eno was an accomplished musician in his own right, composing the hauntingly original scores for D and D2 along with several other games. Eno also produced music outside games, collaborating with The Cinematic Orchestra and beautifully covering Sakamoto. Musically, his typical style is electronica influenced minamalist classical. He died of heart failure on February 20, 2013. Japan's Wayward Son, the 2011 1Up interview (Eno's first in over a decade) is well worth reading in its entirety.

Tomorrow: NiGHTS into Dreams on the N64

griphus — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:43:52 -0800

Remember playing Super Mario World on your Sega Genesis? Probably not, considering it's a rather rare bootleg. Well, thanks to the efforts of some determined gamers, you can now play it at home, although only on the Gens Plus GX emulator on the Wii (or through the Gens core via RetroArch.) [via]

Grab yourself a snack and a glass of orange juice

Rory Marinich — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:28:43 -0800

The Top Ten Hottest Female Sonic [the Hedgehog] Characters: You might not have realized this but the Sonic universe might also be classified as "Hot Chick Heaven". Hotties include Cream the Rabbit, who is "attractive and the size of an average human mother"; Princess Sally Acorn, who not only didn't wear clothes in the comic but also "grew very long hair and married Sonic in the future"; and not one, but two echidnas: "What's better than having a female with cascading quills? How about a female with cascading quills and hair?" Curiously, the list ignores the beautiful Fiona Fox, who readers will remember was Tails' first (robotic) love, and whose rusting prompted the legendary 1995 Tails Miniseries.

Looking Back With Virtual Boy Tinted Glasses

The Whelk — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:50:47 -0800

Do Go On - A tumblr celebration of totally rad 90s video game magazines [via mefi projects]

Classic Video Game Ads

Effigy2000 — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:47:39 -0800

This great Flickr album of classic video game advertisements is a nostalgia overdose for those of us who read video-game magazines in the 80s and 90s. From classic ads like the "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" ad to ads for Pac Man, The Simpsons, Super Mario Brothers 2 and ye olde Atari Lynx, this helps you relive the glory days of the medium, when even the ads were entertaining. And for those of you who never got to experience gaming magazines in their heyday, check out this entire copy of the first issue on Nintendo Power (PDF) from way back in 1988. And then get off my lawn.

NOW IT IS BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY

JHarris — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:41:43 -0800

Here are fan-translated Game Center CX (previously) Episodes on YouTube: #1: Atlantis No Nazo, #2: Challenger, #3: Ghosts 'N Goblins, #4: Konami Wai Wai World, #5: Metroid, #6: Solomon's Key, #7 & #8: Prince of Persia: Part 1 - Part 2, #9: Mega Man II, #10: Super Mario 3. Much more after the break.... #13: Tokimeki Memorial #19: Milon's Secret Castle #20: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past #21: Ultraman #22: Final Fight #23: Hudson's Adventure Island #24: Actraiser #25: Quiz: The Feudal Lords' Ambition #26: Doraemon #27 & #28: Super Mario 64: Part 1 - Part 2 #30: Kid Icarus #31: Umihara Kawase (THIS GAME IS AWESOME) #32: Contra #36: Shadow Lands #37: Street Fighter 2 #38: Castlevania III #40: Gargoyle's Quest (in three videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 #41: Mighty Bomb Jack (second attempt, live) #42: Adventure Quiz Hatena's Quest (in four videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #43: S.O.S. #44: Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (in four parts): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #45: Ultra Seven #48: Out Of This World #49: Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Ganbare Goemon) #50: Arino in Korea #53: Clock Tower #54 & #55: Ki no Bouken: Part 1 - Part 2 #60: Bonk's Adventure #61: The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido #64: Sonic the Hedgehog #65: Trip to Cannes #66: Arino Gets Out of the Hospital #67: Zombie Nation #69: Legacy of the Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV) #73: Lemmings #80: Kirby's Adventure #82 & #83: Mega Man 3: Part 1 - Part 2 #86: Punch-Out!! #96 & #97: Ninja Gaiden II: Part 1 - Part 2 #101: Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode #105: Hokkaido Serial Murders (in four videos): Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 #132: Battletoads (untranslated, but pain is a universal language) Special: Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels: First - Later Extra challenges: Kunio-Kun Samurai (The best-known U.S. Kunio games are Super Dodgeball and River City Ransom) Super Mario Kart Super Metroid (untranslated) Transformers: Mystery of Convoy Door Door Galaga Star Force Roommania AstroRobo SASA Arino in the USA (2 hour special)

Segaga... ga?

JHarris — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:59:48 -0800

The video game SEGAGAGA, a Japan-only release for the Dreamcast, is an incredibly odd bit of gaming history. A business sim (of sorts) it tasks the player to lead Sega to victory over its rival the evil DOGMA Corporation (a thinly veiled analog for Sony). Loaded with in-jokes obvious and obscure, it is a love letter to Sega fans, and it was one of the last Dreamcast games made before Sega went third party. After a four-year hiatus, the Segagaga fan translation project has resumed work on localizing this most unusual game. Intro video. Edge Magazine interviews the director. The gameplay is mostly split between dungeon exploration sections and business sim sections. The "dungeons," however, are Sega's development labs, where all kinds of strange monsters and people attack. When you defeat one, sometimes he'll (it'll?) hang around and ask for a job! What follows is a ten-second rapid-fire dialog game where you answer questions and determine his salary. (This bit is the bane of English speakers, since all the text is Japanese.) In this game: * Alex Kidd (currently working as a clerk in a local game store) has a speech about getting surplanted by Sonic the Hedgehog. * Your assistant is Alis, from Phantasy Star, in a business suit. * The intro video has the sledgehammmer-wielding "Bad Brothers" from Golden Axe emerging up out of a building Evangelion-style. * So many more jokes it's amazing. Hardcore Gaming 101 has an excellent post on the game (from which comes many of the facts in this post). Some of the visual jokes are cataloged on page 2, such as the late-game shooter sequence that uses Sega consoles as bosses. Singing,

Sega, Sega–Oota-ku, Tokyo,                     Sega, Sega–near the Tama River.
Keikyu Haneda Airport line, Ohtorii station.   Take the Haneda-guchi exit off Shuto Highway, then head to Kanpachi.
Game creation is our sanctuary in life,        Arrows and bullets spent, without friends,
Yet victory is still far away.                 Yet our minds and spirits soar higher.
We stumble and get depressed, but we move on.  Jump for joy! Let’s help each other and stand together!
Sega, Sega–oh, move on to tomorrow.            Sega, Sega–oh, move on to tomorrow.

Sega, Sega–oh, move on to tomorrow!

The Game Preservation Crisis

timshel — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:04:59 -0800

Trash cans, landfills, and incinerators. Erasure, deletion, and obsolescence. These words could describe what has happened to the various building blocks of the video game industry in countries around the world. These building blocks consist of video game source code, the actual computer hardware used to create a particular video game, level layout diagrams, character designs, production documents, marketing material, and more.

These are just some elements of game creation that are gone -- never to be seen again. These elements make up the home console, handheld, PC and arcade games we've played. The only remnant of a particular game may be its name, or its final published version, since the possibility exists that no other physical copy of its creation remains.

As a community of video game developers, publishers, and players, we must begin asking ourselves some difficult but inevitable questions. Some believe there is no point in preserving a video game, arguing that games are short-term entertainment, while others disagree with this statement entirely, believing the industry is in a preservation crisis.

Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis See also: Keeping the Game Alive: Evaluating Strategies for the Preservation of Console Video Games [pdf] The National Videogame Archive Save the Videogame! - An essay on the National Videogame Archive & the state of preservation Before It's Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper [pdf] Pac Rat - The Atlantic, March 2010 Is That Just Some Game? No, It’s a Cultural Artifact - NY Times, March 2007

LOOKIT ME IM DANCIN

JHarris — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:40:56 -0800

In Aliens, what was the primary danger Ellen Ripley faced? Was it A. the machinations of the officials of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, B. the attacks and acid blood of the aliens themselves, or C. the bizarre, space-warping doors of the space colony dumping her into pits of death? According to a recently-surfaced prototype of a Famicom (Japanese NES) port of Aliens, produced by Squaresoft, the answer is C!
Sardius of gaming blog Dream And Friends tells us all about it: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 A little secret for everyone who clicked through, most screenshots on the site have funny hover text. More from Sardius: How to Make an iPhone Game starring Pikachu and "The Mighty Cat", M. Night Shyamalan Presents: Alf, A comprehensive listing of player death angels from Sega Master System games - "Super Pitfall II" a.k.a. unreleased U.S. port of Japanese hair-tearer Atlantis no Nazo, The horror of 3D Bomberman, The beginning of (Beat) Takeshi's Challenge, All the depressing details of arcade Golden Axe's scoring system, and Japanese Golden Axe was hardcore. And more!

Sega On The Wire

griphus — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:47:12 -0800

OVer a decade before PSN and XBLA there was Sega Channel. Debuting at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show and active between 1994 and 1998, Sega Channel streamed games over a cable network and into a Sega Genesis/MegaDrive console. In its time, Sega Channel was covered by Advertisement Age, Popular Science and the New York Times. You can watch television promos and gameplay footage.

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start

reenum — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:18:56 -0800

Retro video games have come back into the public consciousness. (See previously) There are several blogs where the authors set out to play every game on a particular retro system, including one by MeFi's own theichibun. There are also sites that resurrect games labeled as abandonware for the amusement of future generations.

July 15, 1983 - June 24, 1994

griphus — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:46:06 -0800

Doctor Sparkle is in the midst of a noble endeavor: he's playing every single Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom and Famicom Disk System game in chronological order. Not only that, he's recording himself doing it for hour-long episodes of gameplay and genuinely enlightened and erudite commentary. You can start with his recent re-recording of Episode 1 (Donkey Kong through Hogan's Alley) or the latest, Episode 30 (Battle of Olympus through Fuuun Shaolin Kyo - Ankoku no Maou). Want to find his review of your (least) favorite game? Here's a convenient episode guide (WIP). Doctor Sparkle isn't done yet, though. He's also chronicling the Sega Master System and PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 as well in his parallel projects Chronsega and Chronturbo, respectively.

"Bio Force Ape" Meets "Bean Ball Benny"

Servo5678 — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:12:05 -0800

Sure, you've played Final Fantasy VII, but what about Final Fantasy Extreme? You've played EarthBound, but what about Earth Bound (two words). You know all about Dragon Quest VIII, but are you familiar with Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon? There's a whole world of forgotten, canceled games out there just waiting to be discovered. Let 1UP's Jeremy Parish and Frank Cifaldi be your guides in an exploration of The Best Games That Never Were. (Previously)

Not pictured: line of five other kids

Pope Guilty — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:52:40 -0800

Pictures of toy store video game console kiosks! via

Play 5,000+ classic video games in your browser

Rhaomi — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:12:22 -0800

TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally thousands of old-school video games: 517 Atari titles, 148 for DOS, 636 Game Boy games (and 410 for Game Boy Color), 2,019 (!) NES titles, 238 GameGear games, 802 Sega Genesis titles, and 284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include Space Invaders, Frogger, Galaga, Pitfall!, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, SimCity, Zero Wing, Duke Nukem, Sonic the Hedgehog, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, Pokemon, and Metal Gear Solid. Use the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.

Sonic Adventures

feelinglistless — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:48:12 -0800

Sonic Adventures An astonishingly thorough history of Sonic The Hedgehog taking in the games, animated series and more. There are games mentioned here I'd never even heard of, on long forgotten platforms, and the overall impression I have is that like most things, the essence of what originally made it brilliant has been degraded over time.

"It's a Secret to Everybody"

empath — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:26:00 -0800

"It's a secret to everybody" -- an unbelievably comprehensive blog post about the etymologies of the names of famous (and not-so-famous) video game characters.

Modern video games covers as classic books

ColdChef — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:13:30 -0800

Modern video game covers reimagined as Classic Books.

Bible video games

bigmusic — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:18:29 -0800

Should you make video games from Bible stories? Or can you have fun with with video games made from bible stories?

sega penn teller

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:13:18 -0800

sega cd emulator with the penn and teller and stuff

M82 beats a DS any day.

setanor — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:24:08 -0800

Assembler is a compilation of exclusively foreign, obscure and unreleased video game consoles, as well as strange hybrids, developer units and something you might have found in the Sears catalog ten years ago.

dreamcast dead!?

o2b — Tue, 23 Jan 2001 17:42:40 -0800

dreamcast dead!?

ah sega... we had such hopes.

red cell — Wed, 27 Dec 2000 07:39:00 -0800

As one whose gaming never advanced beyond PONG, I know this must mean something. What that something is, I'm not sure.

Ninga?

john — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 13:35:31 -0800

Ninga? Nintendo and Sega to form joint company. With Sony and M$ to contend with, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.