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[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I definitely want to create a Sega Saturn book. We'll see what happens after my next wave of books are published.

The Genesis book will include detailed sections on select titles, so I'll be sure to put Panorama Cotton into that category. It's a great technical achievement for the system and has many fans. It's on the list and ranks very highly.

 

[Scotty W]

. I've heard that the Gameboy only really started to pull away from the GG in terms of sales after the first Pokemon released in 1996, and this seems to back this up.

I remember it, I can confirm.

The Game Gear looked amazing back in the day, but by 96 it seemed like ancient history. The 2 color gameboy was even older than that.

Then we started to hear about the sales figures for Pokemon in Japan. Then the reviews if the North American version came out, and the TV show, then the Gameboy Color, and soon every kid was playing Pokemon. And here we are, 25 years later.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Alright, everybody, I have some test pages to show off. Whaddya think?

The first photo shows a modern design, inspired by elegant magazines such as The Rake, which was used as a primary reference point. Design is clean and stylish while also using a lot of large photos and white space.

The second photo is clearly inspired by the classic video game magazines of the early '90s: EGM, GamePro, Sega Visions, VG&CE, Electronic Gaming, Game Players and Diehard Gamefan. It's a very trashy style that breaks every design rule in the book, but also captures the energy and excitement of the 16-bit era.

Earlier, I was trying to decide between these two designs for the Sega Genesis book, but now I have the crazy idea to use both. My main inspiration for this project, of course, is Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums issue, which devoted a lot of space to the top ten albums, then steadily shrunk down the capsule reviews as they worked down the list, beginning with 300-1,000 words, down to 200-270, then 100-125, and finally 50.

The idea is to keep most capsule reviews short, as it's a very long list, and highlight select titles for the "GamePro" two-page spread. I could also use this for related articles, depending on how big the book becomes.

These pages were created at 7x10, but the final book will be magazine size, around 8x11.

 

[Kazza]

which devoted a lot of space to the top ten albums, then steadily shrunk down the capsule reviews as they worked down the list, beginning with 300-1,000 words, down to 200-270, then 100-125, and finally 50.

I prefer the modern design, but I can see why a lot of people would like the 90s one. The idea quoted above is a good one. I'm not sure by which criteria you will be ranking the games, but giving more space to the higher rated ones makes sense.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

SEGA song of the week from myself. It is from Puyo Puyo and reminds me of 90s Anime Rock/Synth I guess, but it is amazing. I feel it suits nostalgia of the 90s very well.

 

[Kazza]

UK and US only:




I'm disappointed that they asked me so many questions about Sega Bass Fishing, but not one about Jet Set Radio or Shinobi

 

[Starlight Lotice]

UK and US only:




I'm disappointed that they asked me so many questions about Sega Bass Fishing, but not one about Jet Set Radio or Shinobi

It is randomised. Was never asked about Valkyria or VF but asked about SEGA Rally and Odin Sphere.

 

[Kazza]

It is randomised. Was never asked about Valkyria or VF but asked about SEGA Rally and Odin Sphere.

You got lucky. I got Puyo Puyo and Sega Bass Fishing . It was weird being asked how likely I was to buy story based DLC for a fishing and a puzzle game - I definitely picked "not interested at all" for those ones!

 

[Starlight Lotice]

You got lucky. I got Puyo Puyo and Sega Bass Fishing . It was weird being asked how likely I was to buy story based DLC for a fishing and a puzzle game - I definitely picked "not interested at all" for those ones!

DLC for Puyo Puyo is a thing for PP Tetris. That is how Schezo has those innuendo remarks on his storyline.

The best one I got was "Do you want a sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog Classic?"

I guess they missed the Mania memo.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Someone online created this excellent graph showing lifetime sales of the Sega Game Gear compared with the Nintendo Game Boy, and it's a fascinating look at how the portable videogame market looked in those days. To nobody's surprise, Nintendo completely ran away with a commanding lead, and despite Sega having a color handheld and a stable of hit titles like Sonic, Shinobi and Streets of Rage, they never managed to sustain enough momentum to survive.

It's interesting how so many Sega systems end up selling 10 million: Master System, Game Gear, Saturn, Dreamcast. That seems to be the hard number of diehard fans, and only the Genesis/MD was able to crack that ceiling.

Oh, and just for the record, Atari Lynx topped out at three million units, and NEC Turbo Express sold 1.5 million. Ouch. Never discount the power of universal mindshare among parents, third-party software monopoly and Tetris to sell your handheld.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Not all of those 10 million Sales were hard-core fans to be fair.

It seems to shift depending on Market demand. The Saturn had more JP sales than NA and EU for instance and Master System had more EU/BR sales than NA and JP.

It seems to me that SEGA just has a limited range of appeal overall that is dependant on their output.

I think without Sonic, the Mega Drive may have only one 10/12 million itself.

 

[Scotty W]

Alright, everybody, I have some test pages to show off. Whaddya think?

The first photo shows a modern design, inspired by elegant magazines such as The Rake, which was used as a primary reference point. Design is clean and stylish while also using a lot of large photos and white space.

The second photo is clearly inspired by the classic video game magazines of the early '90s: EGM, GamePro, Sega Visions, VG&CE, Electronic Gaming, Game Players and Diehard Gamefan. It's a very trashy style that breaks every design rule in the book, but also captures the energy and excitement of the 16-bit era.

Earlier, I was trying to decide between these two designs for the Sega Genesis book, but now I have the crazy idea to use both. My main inspiration for this project, of course, is Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums issue, which devoted a lot of space to the top ten albums, then steadily shrunk down the capsule reviews as they worked down the list, beginning with 300-1,000 words, down to 200-270, then 100-125, and finally 50.

The idea is to keep most capsule reviews short, as it's a very long list, and highlight select titles for the "GamePro" two-page spread. I could also use this for related articles, depending on how big the book becomes.

These pages were created at 7x10, but the final book will be magazine size, around 8x11.

It looks good.

In terms of gaming magazines, I always thought Gamefan looked the best. That aesthetic might have sailed though.

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[Starlight Lotice]

SEGA Song of the week:

 

[Kazza]

Kim Justice covers the ST-V board:




There were more good games for this than I remembered. Lots of good shooters and fighters.

 

[Alexios]

Last day you can send a message to SEGA for their 60th Anniversary. I dunno if there's a restriction in eligibility for the prize though. Hopefully not and I win one.

[Archive] SEGA 60th Anniversary

[Archive Site] Welcome to the SEGA 60th Anniversary Site. SEGA Group will be celebrating its 60th anniversary on June 3rd, 2020. This site aims to provide content introducing various events that celebrate our 60th anniversary, a lookback at the last 60 years.

60th.sega.com

I guess mine has not gone up yet, I included a photo of my boxed Shenmue 1 & 2 DC copies & I wrote

I adore SEGA! SEGA Saturn is the best console ever! Panzer Dragoon, Dragon Force, Shining Force, such engrossing worlds! But also Dreamcast & arcade, Model 2, Model 3! From Virtua Cop to Shenmue, timeless gameplay and artistic visuals! Please, publish all your oldies on PC!

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Just found this, which is so weird.

Sonic Mania Plus is being replaced by....Sonic Mania (non Plus)

Not seen this in EU/UK but the US seems to have changed this. All to save $5? Why SEGA why?

 

[Komatsu]

Just found this, which is so weird.

Sonic Mania Plus is being replaced by....Sonic Mania (non Plus)

Not seen this in EU/UK but the US seems to have changed this. All to save $5? Why SEGA why?

Huh? Makes no sense.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Huh? Makes no sense.

SEGA cutting corners on their best Sonic game I guess?

$5 cheaper but none of the DLC added.

Sometimes I question whether SEGA's Senior Management take Retardation Tests just to piss off fans.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Astro City Mini

Done a thread in gaming about this.

Very exciting!

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Quick update on the Sega Genesis book project. I've been working on finding the right graphics filter for OpenEmu for screenshots, and after a number of attempts, I may have finally found one that works. This is a new shader newly released that includes a number of CRT filters. I'm using "CRT Caligari" with a number of tweaks to the settings.

The challenge is to create screenshots on emulator and modern displays that can mimic the style of CRT televisions as closely as possible. Because of the differences in the way both display images, this is a great challenge and has yet to be fully mastered. For this project, I wanted to have deep blacks and lights that glow with just a touch of bleed. Too much bleed and you've bleached everything in gamma and contrast. Too little and the image becomes crushed.

Pixelation is another major issue, especially with emulators. I can't do anything about the pixel separation that exposes the dithering effect (something widely used in later Genesis games) but it can be minimized, and hopefully if the pictures are small enough, there will be some blending. I've seen this happen after taking some screenshots with an iPad, so I'm hopeful the photos can look good in print.

I have also been using my model one Genesis with the Sony Trinitron as a reference to try and get the lighting just right. Again, with CRT there will be greater contrast and a glowing or bleeding around pixels, not overwhelming but just enough to be noticeable.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Okay, I had to tweak the picture settings just a little. The lighting was just a tad too bright. I think this looks more balanced now. Here's Gunstar Heroes in all its glory.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Here are some new screenshots of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, one of the most beloved classics on Sega Genesis and the beginning of a long and successful partnership between Sega and Disney. The stage designs are highly inventive and solid, the music and audio is sublime, and everything has that classic cartoon feel. It's a superb platformer that also sets the stage for Sonic the Hedgehog later that year.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

And here are some screenshots of Contra: Hard Corps in action, including a couple photos from the Japanese version, which features three hit-points instead of only one. Thanks a lot, video rental stores!

This videogame was clearly made as a response to Treasure's Gunstar Heroes, which blew the doors off the Genesis and raised the bar for the run-n-gun genre. Konami clearly felt wounded and needed to prove that they could still deliver the goods. They succeeded admirably.

The only problem, with the US version, is that the difficulty is off the charts. You really need those three hit-points to survive more than a couple minutes, and it's unfortunate that it was removed from the Stateside release. Again, you can thank rental stores, who were seriously cutting into sales. It's very hard to justify a $70 cartridge videogame when you can rent it for three bucks and play through to the ending over a single weekend. Thankfully, today's players can simply use a modded version of the US ROM that restores the original hit-points from the JP release.

In any case, Hard Corps lives up to its name and is the best entry in the series since the original NES Contra. The action is blazing, the boss battles are sensational and the special effects never fail to amaze. It lacks a little polish and shine of Contra 3 on the Super NES, but it's far more fluid, dynamic and exciting.

 

[Kazza]

And here are some screenshots of Contra: Hard Corps in action, including a couple photos from the Japanese version, which features three hit-points instead of only one. Thanks a lot, video rental stores!

This videogame was clearly made as a response to Treasure's Gunstar Heroes, which blew the doors off the Genesis and raised the bar for the run-n-gun genre. Konami clearly felt wounded and needed to prove that they could still deliver the goods. They succeeded admirably.

The only problem, with the US version, is that the difficulty is off the charts. You really need those three hit-points to survive more than a couple minutes, and it's unfortunate that it was removed from the Stateside release. Again, you can thank rental stores, who were seriously cutting into sales. It's very hard to justify a $70 cartridge videogame when you can rent it for three bucks and play through to the ending over a single weekend. Thankfully, today's players can simply use a modded version of the US ROM that restores the original hit-points from the JP release.

In any case, Hard Corps lives up to its name and is the best entry in the series since the original NES Contra. The action is blazing, the boss battles are sensational and the special effects never fail to amaze. It lacks a little polish and shine of Contra 3 on the Super NES, but it's far more fluid, dynamic and exciting.

I'm having a lot of fun playing this for the first time (Asian version, with the 3 hitpoints). I was playing Hard Corps: Uprising just before, and the Megadrive game is definitely easier. I'm not sure which one I prefer at this point. I love the dancing robots in the original Hard Cores, they always make me laugh!

 

[Kazza]

Here are some new screenshots of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, one of the most beloved classics on Sega Genesis and the beginning of a long and successful partnership between Sega and Disney. The stage designs are highly inventive and solid, the music and audio is sublime, and everything has that classic cartoon feel. It's a superb platformer that also sets the stage for Sonic the Hedgehog later that year.

Will you need Disney's permission to include this in your book. I seem to remember Wonderboy being left off a Master System book due to not getting the legal stuff in order. The game still looks and plays great today, and was an important title in the early years of the console.

 

[Kazza]

Nice retrogamer cover this month:

I'm still not in the UK, so Starlight Lotice , be sure to let me know what they say about the Alex Kidd remake. With Sonic absent, this is the kid's year!

 

[Alexios]

Yay, SEGA posted my cheesy message on the SEGA 60 site, 4th one on page 93 of 94, obvs everyone will see its glorious cheese. Also they updated the site to show the coming astro city mini and stuff.

【アーカイブ】セガ設立60周年特設サイト

セガ設立60周年特設ページです。わたしたちセガグループは2020年6月3日に設立60周年を迎えました。当コンテンツでは60周年を記念して販売される製品や物販の紹介、セガ60年の歴史、また皆様からいただいたメッセージを紹介しています。

60th.sega.com

Edited because apparently my post shifted places, it was the last one on page 92 before the edit. Weird... Edit again: oh, I guess I double posted, it's also on page 94, around the middle, with a PDS pic

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Nice retrogamer cover this month:

I'm still not in the UK, so Starlight Lotice , be sure to let me know what they say about the Alex Kidd remake. With Sonic absent, this is the kid's year!

It is a meaty book about how the original plays, a secret final level not many people played in the west, references to Dragon Ball and an Interview with the Spanish developers. It seems to have been made since 2014 and they know the ins and outs of the franchise so it is in good hands.

A really great Volume if you ask me!

If you are the one with the Greek name in that message. We have two things in common! Although mine is more Latin.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

How do you find your name on the Website? Trying to find Starlight on there and I think I used the Alex Kidd Avatar.

Edit: Found myself! Page 41 in the messages! cireza You are on the same page as me! (and Row)

【アーカイブ】セガ設立60周年特設サイト

セガ設立60周年特設ページです。わたしたちセガグループは2020年6月3日に設立60周年を迎えました。当コンテンツでは60周年を記念して販売される製品や物販の紹介、セガ60年の歴史、また皆様からいただいたメッセージを紹介しています。

60th.sega.com

 

[cireza]

How do you find your name on the Website? Trying to find Starlight on there and I think I used the Alex Kidd Avatar.

Edit: Found myself! Page 41 in the messages! cireza You are on the same page as me! (and Row)

【アーカイブ】セガ設立60周年特設サイト

セガ設立60周年特設ページです。わたしたちセガグループは2020年6月3日に設立60周年を迎えました。当コンテンツでは60周年を記念して販売される製品や物販の紹介、セガ60年の歴史、また皆様からいただいたメッセージを紹介しています。

60th.sega.com

Glad they got my message to stop this exclusive bullshit.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Glad they got my message to stop this exclusive bullshit.

Haha. I don't think they listened but at least they put up your message.

I wonder who else on GAF have left messages? It'd be interesting to see just how many did one.

Edit: Nintendo fans: WHERE ARE THE GAMES!?! SEGA Fans who like ATLUS games: At least we got something for once!

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Will you need Disney's permission to include this in your book. I seem to remember Wonderboy being left off a Master System book due to not getting the legal stuff in order. The game still looks and plays great today, and was an important title in the early years of the console.

As long as it's not featured on the front cover, you're fine. Screenshots in books are covered under fair use. I collected a number of legal documents and studied the issue quite thoroughly when I founded my indie label three years ago.

Besides, let's be honest, my book won't sell enough copies for anybody at Disney to care.

 

[MadeManG74]

I've been playing a lot of Saturn/Dreamcast lately. I discovered this fantastic game called Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru on Saturn. Anyone here play it? The game is WILD.
The enemies and bosses are mad and gorgeous in equal measure, and the 2D foreground, 3D background looks fantastic.

I'll have to stream it eventually, it's a lot of fun.

 

[Kazza]

I've been playing a lot of Saturn/Dreamcast lately. I discovered this fantastic game called Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru on Saturn. Anyone here play it? The game is WILD.
The enemies and bosses are mad and gorgeous in equal measure, and the 2D foreground, 3D background looks fantastic.

I'll have to stream it eventually, it's a lot of fun.

Do you own a physical copy? I hear it's super expensive now. It looks pretty good. I have a soft spot for those early 2.5D games, they used the hardware in interesting ways. You might want to post about it in the Saturn Community thread as well:

NeoGAF Official SEGA SATURN Community

Retro-bit have finally produced a white Saturn pad: https://castlemaniagames.com/collections/pre-order/products/sega-saturn%C2%AE-8-button-arcade-pad-2-4-ghz-wireless-white?fbclid=IwAR2BHOcaaZbRZwQAh2OitFh5Nj-5cupM91LWRe9qR7bPbvBJLSDrhLtn4Qs They are the best looking ones, imo (although I...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Starlight Lotice]

I've been playing a lot of Saturn/Dreamcast lately. I discovered this fantastic game called Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru on Saturn. Anyone here play it? The game is WILD.
The enemies and bosses are mad and gorgeous in equal measure, and the 2D foreground, 3D background looks fantastic.

I'll have to stream it eventually, it's a lot of fun.

I would but it costs the same price as a half ounce of GOLD now.

Blame Time Warner and closing down the Japanese branch before it released.

 

[hariseldon]

Nice retrogamer cover this month:

I'm still not in the UK, so Starlight Lotice , be sure to let me know what they say about the Alex Kidd remake. With Sonic absent, this is the kid's year!

Retrogamer is absolutely brilliant. It really is the last bastion of quality games journalism, and I mean actual journalism. They spend time looking for people who were involved in making old games, often people who are hard to find and not keen to talk, and they do a cracking job of interviewing them. Anyone here who hasn't subscribed absolutely should.

 

[Kazza]

Retrogamer is absolutely brilliant. It really is the last bastion of quality games journalism, and I mean actual journalism. They spend time looking for people who were involved in making old games, often people who are hard to find and not keen to talk, and they do a cracking job of interviewing them. Anyone here who hasn't subscribed absolutely should.

Sounds great. I've held off subscribing as I've been away from the UK, but I should finally be back next month (covid-19 permitting), so I might start a subscription now so that there is a copy waiting for me when I get home.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Sounds great. I've held off subscribing as I've been away from the UK, but I should finally be back next month (covid-19 permitting), so I might start a subscription now so that there is a copy waiting for me when I get home.

We're locked down at the moment in Manchester (and the surrounding Areas), so don't come to Manchester, Blackburn, Sheffield or Leicester if you know what's good for you.

It also sadly means that you can't do activities with friends once more (only friends), but this Gym in my town are saying "Screw that, come by next Wednesday!"

Me and @hariseldon got our Letters published by RetroGamer during COVID as well (mine on the month it happens and his last month I believe). What a time to be alive.

On topic, I pre-ordered the Amamiya Sakura Nendoroid from AmiAmi, which would complete my Sakura Wars Nendo collection. I also own both Imca and Riela from Valkyria Chronicles 3 but disappointed that there is none for Alicia, Welkin or Isara.

There are TWO Sonic Nendoroids, a Joker and a Morgana Nendo and the MC from SMT: Devil Survivor, which isn't exactly a lot when you consider SEGA/ATLUS's history, and you have that chick from 13 Sentinels having one too, and you compare this to Nintendo's line up and it is pretty embarrassing.

We need more from Streets of Rage, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and Skies of Arcadia!

Actually....where is an Arle Nadja one? Not seen one of those yet!!! That's the perfect Nendo to create!

Funnily enough, Freedom Wars got one (I own it), and that's pretty niche in itself!

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Starlight Lotice

 

[Hudo]

As someone who has never played a Shining Force game, how do they differ from Fire Emblem?

 

[Starlight Lotice]

As someone who has never played a Shining Force game, how do they differ from Fire Emblem?

No permadeath for one.

Very snappy Turns from the CPU so not much waiting.

You get most if not all characters via Story but 1 or 2 are hidden or unavailable until later on.

You can choose to use Magic, Items or Attack with your Mages/Healers. I think FE did this later and weapons do not break.

The second game at least has an area where you can grind with zero consequences. Certain items promote Characters in a different way.

Story is pretty simple but fun.

If you lose, you have to revive everyone bar a few important characters. Losing a lot of money but money is easily gained by foes


Overall I recommend it but don't expect it to be ground-breaking. It is a very good game for its time but feels dated in a few areas.

 

[Alexios]

As someone who has never played a Shining Force game, how do they differ from Fire Emblem?

The biggest difference is they feel more like JRPG with SRPG battles than pure SRPG (not just story, battle, story, battle, rinse, repeat). A couple Fire Emblem games also let you explore around areas but SF has that stuff and an overworld by default. Great games, wish we got the whole III trilogy.

 

[MetalSlug]

There is a Kickstarter going on for a UK focused Dreamcast book.

Dreamcast: Year Two

I hope it turns out as good as Year One.

 

[MadeManG74]

Do you own a physical copy? I hear it's super expensive now. It looks pretty good. I have a soft spot for those early 2.5D games, they used the hardware in interesting ways. You might want to post about it in the Saturn Community thread as well:

NeoGAF Official SEGA SATURN Community

Retro-bit have finally produced a white Saturn pad: https://castlemaniagames.com/collections/pre-order/products/sega-saturn%C2%AE-8-button-arcade-pad-2-4-ghz-wireless-white?fbclid=IwAR2BHOcaaZbRZwQAh2OitFh5Nj-5cupM91LWRe9qR7bPbvBJLSDrhLtn4Qs They are the best looking ones, imo (although I...

www.neogaf.com

I would but it costs the same price as a half ounce of GOLD now.

Blame Time Warner and closing down the Japanese branch before it released.

I wasn't aware of a Saturn community thread! Maybe I'll check that out. I just finished Shining Force III trilogy in English again too, so could post that there.

And no, this isn't an original copy, it's through PseudoSaturn. I have given up on buying Saturn games, I've got the ones I really cherished way back before the prices went mad thankfully.

Retrogamer is absolutely brilliant. It really is the last bastion of quality games journalism, and I mean actual journalism. They spend time looking for people who were involved in making old games, often people who are hard to find and not keen to talk, and they do a cracking job of interviewing them. Anyone here who hasn't subscribed absolutely should.

Fantastic magazine, and I'm enjoying this issue a lot! I agree they do a good job of actually doing interviews, research etc and finding new information. I love their big showcase articles on old franchises.

 

[Kazza]

Looks like more Sega/Atlus stuff will be heading to PC:

Sega Emphasizes PC (Steam) and Console Ports After Persona 4 Golden Success, Talking With Platform Holders for New Games - Persona Central

In a Sega Sammy investors Q&A presentation, they emphasize the importance of porting older games to PC via Steam, as well as to new consoles.

personacentral.com

Q: "Persona 4 the Golden" has been selling well on Steam, but do you have any plans to sell newly released games on Steam as well?

A: We remastered "Persona 4 the Golden", a title previously sold on the PlayStation Vita, and released it for sale on Steam this fiscal year. Because of the game's critical acclaim and its low selling price, sales were much stronger than expected. We will continue to actively promote porting previously released titles to Steam and new platforms. We are also negotiating with platform holders for new games in the future, and we're considering ways to sell under favorable conditions for each title. Among them are measures such as preparing PC versions of the titles from the beginning, with multi-platform releases in mind.

I would personally be most excited about some Vanillaware ports. It would be great to have the Vita "trilogy" (Odin Sphere, Muramasa and Dragon's Crown) on Steam.

 

[MadeManG74]

I'm hoping for a few lost classics to make their way to PC, Anarchy Reigns, Mad World, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown...

 

[Kazza]

I'm hoping for a few lost classics to make their way to PC, Anarchy Reigns, Mad World, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown...

I imagine the Persona and Yakuza games are taking top priority right now, but Sega so much they could port. At least a version of VF5 will be including in Yakuza: Like a Dragon

 

[Kazza]

He got the Yakuza thing spot on. I was a little disappointed that it didn't end with him getting jumped by a group of thugs though:

 

[Kazza]

Interesting interview with a producer and designer (and programmer, by the sounds of it) at EA during the 90s. Some highlights (talking about Madden and the Strike series):

Sega-16: Why do you think the series became so popular on the Genesis even though it was released on the SNES as well? Do you think it was a hardware issue or something else?

Tony Barnes: I think part of it was the market that Sega captured. They immediately went after an older market than Nintendo. A market that were into sports, much more than Nintendo's market. Additionally, EA didn't do many Nintendo carts back in those days and many of the SNES versions of games were ports. Some were done "in-house", like the Madden and College Football I worked on, which helped with quality control.

Sega-16: Jungle Strike was a major improvement over the original, changing the location and increasing the amount of vehicles and weapons. Could you give some detail about how the plans for the sequel came about?

Tony Barnes: Really, all we did was change the color palette from orange to green and said, "GO!" (laughs). But seriously, our plan all along was not only to out-do the previous game but to make each game a companion to the others. So, we picked a location that had bad guys (fictitious South American drug lord, instead of fictitious Middle Eastern dictator) and then listened to what players said, which was a LOT harder to find out back then! We kept a list of "likes" and "dislikes" and set out to address those in the core of the design and play mechanics. Additionally, about half-way through development, the execs came and let us know that we'd be getting twice the cart size for the sequel… with NO additional time… Oh joy. That was a tough crunch. Basically living at the office, going to sleep around 1 a.m., sleeping in conference rooms, then waking up at 7 a.m. and starting the entire thing over.

Sega-16: Were you involved with any SNES game development? If so, how did the process compare to making games for the Genesis?

Tony Barnes: I worked on several SNES games over the years. The hardware has its ups and downs, just like anything. I love the color palette and sprites, but I prefer the resolution, higher CPU speed and the sound chip(s) on the Genesis. The SNES always seemed to run slower unless you were building something specifically for the 65C81 vs. the 68000 chipset in the Genesis. EA had proprietary tools for art and debug kits, so interfacing from your Mac was the same… but what you could do with the pixels, how many of them and how fast, were rather different.

Sega-16: Based on your work on both the Genesis and SNES hardware, do you think the Genesis offered any hardware advantages for Madden over the SNES?

Tony Barnes: Well, on paper, the the SNES would actually be better suited for something like Madden, with its ability to display more sprites and Mode 7 for the playfield. Ultimately, the Genesis' vastly faster CPU and the fact that the engine was made initially for the Genesis and its 68000, is in my opinion, better. Also, the resolution on the Genesis allowed for crisper and a better aspect ratio, for the graphics. If you look at the SNES ports of Madden and The Strike Series, you'll notice they run slower (the CPU issue) and the graphics look "fatter" (the resolution issue). Also, while the SNES had a superior sound chip for certain types of music, like "orchestral" music, any music that was percussion-based or was meant to have a "gritty" sound, was better on the Genesis. Again, check out something like the Desert Strike port. The music on the Genesis sounds like a 16-bit rockin' guitar approximation. The music on the SNES sounds like an elevator music version.

Sega-16 – Interview: Tony Barnes (EA Designer & Producer)

www.sega-16.com