Newsletter: Sega World Weekly issue 124
From Video Game Morgue File
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S E G A W O R L D W E E K L Y
M A G A Z I N E
~~ Issue No. 124 Mar 12th 2001 ~~
Proudly sponsored by http://www.levelsix.com/
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-- Editors Comments Page 1 --
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> This is best read in the Courier New font.
<<.>> NEW Dreamcast Console Colors!
- http://www.levelsix.com/L6news.shtml
Board of your white Dreamcast? Then replace that console
case with a colored one! Personally I have the blue case,
but now there is even more colors to choose from, with
eight others. See a picture of them all right here:
- http://www.levelsix.com/L6news.shtml
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-- Editors Comments Page 1 --
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Well this has been an interesting week, as I've applied to
be a US Camp Councilor for the summer. If anyone else from
New Zealand has signed up, drop me an e-mail sometime and
We can talk. Or if you've been a camp councilor from any
Other country for that matter :)
But back to the videogames now, and in particular our five
part history lesson. This week we take a look at the "dark
side" of gaming with titles like Night Trap. It's also the
time Sega brought out the 32X, and the Saturn went head to
head with Sony's Playstation. Other consoles include two
that never really took off, such as the Nintendo Virtual
Boy and the Sega Neptune.
Unfortunately we have bad news to announce, and that's on
The online aspects of Europe's Daytona USA, and the
Development of Soul Reaver 2. But the good news comes
forward as the Dreamcast is now the NUMBER ONE selling
console in Japan! Then in the Phantasy Star Online clan
we've got a list of helpful websites and how to get the
broadband adapter working with the game.
Recently some of our readers have contacted me about a
Unreal style shooter game they are developing, called
Project Triton. They are looking for ideas, and if you have
any original ideas for the 3rd person shooter genre, gun
designs, or concept art, they would like to you to e-mail
worldisnotenough007@hotmail.com thanks.
Finally look out for an extra large helping of Q&A this
week, and please don't forget to visit our sponsor who
helps Sega World Weekly continue, http://www.levelsix.com/
- Graham "Tails" Parker (Editor)
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|| C O N T E N T S ||
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|| 2 - Cover Story ||
|| 3 - Weekly News ||
|| 4 - Level Six Low-down ||
|| 5 - PSO Clan ||
|| 6 - Question & Answer ||
|| 7 - The Letter Box ||
|| 8 - Our Support Sites ||
|| 9 - Credits ||
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HOT QUOTE this issue: "There are some great MAG guides on
these pages for those of you who have been trying to get
your little MAG to do something cool."
-- Phantasy Star Online Clan Links - Page 6
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-- Cover Story Page 2 --
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<<.>> The History Of Videogames: Part 4
-- Written by Graham Parker
Now in this new Millennium, with our 128-bit polygon
pumping online DVD playing monster consoles, it's time to
take a look back at how video games began, and how they
grew into what we know and play today. Last week we
discovered how the industry moved from the 8-bit consoles
to the 16-bit SNES and Genesis, right up to where the
development of the Playstation began.
The time now being 1993, the latest console on the black,
3DO, was being marketed by Panasonic, and while powerful,
the $699 price tag put everyone off. The Jaguar was created
by Atari to succeed where the 3DO failed, and it was hyped
up as a 64-bit console. Gamers were lead to confusion by
Atari, because the Jaguar wasn't truly 64-bit, and
ultimately the console was clearly never going to break
into the mass market.
Now begun the "dark side" of video games, where interactive
movies and multi-media were the latest buzz words, and
developers were jumping all over the new technology without
thinking. Companies learnt the hard way that graphics over
gameplay doesn't equal success.
Most people will struggle to even remember the name of one
interactive movie game, but Night Trap will still come to
the minds of many. Sega caused a major stir in the public
with this game, as did Mortal Kombat released the year
before. The cover art of Night Trap showed girls in their
underwear being attacked, and you have to remember at this
time there were no rating systems on video games. Kids
around the world could walk into the local games store,
pick up Night Trap, and go home to put it in their
machines.
The game it's self however was a far cry from the "evil"
images on the cover, but many journalists used the title to
simply make shocking headlines. Here's just a few quotes
from the era, thanks to the Sega Zone magazine.
"Police and psychologists believe we are spawning a nation
of monsters through the fantasy world created by violent
video games"
"The manufacturers are evil"
"Parents should be forced to give their name and address if
they buy it"
As a result of the bad press, the ESRB (Entertainment
Software Rating Board) was formed in 1994, to alert buyers
of how violent certain video games could be. While Joseph
Lieberman wanted to have these dangerous games banned, he
settled for the ESRB in the end.
Despite all the outrage about videogames, the year of 1993
was far from bad overall, with games like FIFA
International Soccer and Micro Machines making their first
of many appearances. The year also brought out the first
polygon fighting game, Sega's Virtua Fighter, a series
which we're now awaited the 4th instalment of in the
arcades, Playstation 2, and highly likely the X-Box.
As the industry moved on, Sega tried to fix the problems
they had with the Sega CD, with another add-on for the
Genesis. The 32X was launched, at $179.95, along with
impressive titles like Doom, Virtua Racing and Star Wars.
Despite a great start, the system doesn't receive enough
from support from developers, including Sega, and never
takes off. The system was seen as a stop-gap before the
real 32-bit 3D consoles made it out, and even though some
did buy the 32X, it didn't help Sega because those gamers
became bitter and anti-Sega when support for their latest
investment was dropped.
In brighter news, Japan saw the Sega Saturn and Sony
Playstation being released in 1994, followed by the US and
European launches in 1995. In and effort to beat Sony to
the starting line, Sega quickly pushed the release date for
the Saturn up four months, taking everyone, including
developers, by surprise. What might have seemed like a
reasonable business move at first, turned out to be the
start of the end for Sega's 32-bit console.
While games like Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA were solid
gameplay wise, bugs due to the rush release plagued them
and both titles were later re-released. A beautiful 3D
shooter named Panzer Dragoon impressed, but failed to draw
too much attention from the upcoming Playstation, and
endless dollars of Sony's advertising money.
Come the fall of '95 the Playstation was released for the
price of $299, and with titles such as Ridge Racer and
Wipeout. The later in particular, brought many previously
non-gamers into the industry with it's fast action, techno-
music, and futuristic gameplay.
Those still clinging onto the 16-bit generation weren't put
to rest yet, but very slowly development for the older
consoles died down. Publishers were putting most of their
efforts into the future, and hence more new consoles were
announced.
The Virtual Boy is a stop-gap while people wait for the
much delayed Project Reality, Ultra 64, or as it was
finally named, the N64. A failure for Nintendo, who quickly
pull the plug and stop all development in 1996, with only
fourteen titles in the consoles American library.
In the mean time Sega R&D continued to work overtime, and
produced a proto-type of a new console, known as the
Neptune. The plan was to combine the Genesis, 32X, and Mega
CD all into one, but the machine was never released except
for internally at Sega. With the scrapping of the Neptune
however it was a crystal clear message to many gamers and
retailers and Sega wasn't going to support their older
consoles anymore, and would instead concentrate on bringing
out more games for the Saturn.
With the all of the delays of the N64, Square decided to
drop Nintendo and bring their next title, Final Fantasy 7
over to the Playstation. But after countless delays, on
June 23rd of 1996, the N64 was released upon Japan. The
console has a brilliant launch, selling over 500,000
machines in the first day. But despite it's huge
introduction, the N64 never achieved the mass market
success of the Playstation, most likely due to having too
few games. The software, even though of good quality, was
released too far apart, while Sony gamers were receiving
hordes of games one after another.
So with all the next generation consoles out, the games
industry is buzzing with excitement no matter what system
you support. Playstation fans were playing their wide range
of games thanks to the systems mass market appeal, Nintendo
gamers were taking Mario into the 3rd dimension with one of
the greatest games ever, and Sega's loyal crowd were
enjoying the systems cult games and original titles. But
next week as we look at the final part of videogame
history, we see just how much things changed over the past
few years, how the 128-bit consoles were born, and of
course, look back on the craze that was virtual pets.
To be continued...
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-- Weekly News Page 3 --
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<<.>> Good News: Sega Dreamcast #1 Seller
After Japan's Dreamcast price drop on the first of March,
the sales of Sega's console have shot sky high. The
Dreamcast is now in number one place, having sold 40,497
units between the 26th of February and the 4th of March
2001. That's huge compared to the 38,586 Playstation 2's
sold, 21,628 Gameboys, 4,413 PSone's, and 2,118 Nintendo
64's. Perhaps this will make 3rd parties think twice before
canning their games.
<<.>> Daytona Offline for Europe
To European gamers, this week confirmed something they had
feared since the big Sega announcements of 2001, Daytona
USA 2001 will be offline only. After losing around 70% of
their staff, Sega's European operation has fell apart. Now
after Phantasy Star Online, starting with Daytona, the
future of any online title coming to Europe remains to be
seen, and the outlook isn't good.
<<.>> Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain 2 Canned
Hating to be the bringer of more bad news, but Edios's
sequel to Soul Reaver, the Legacy of Kain 2 has officially
been canned for the Dreamcast. Development of the
Playstation 2 version will continue, which might mean those
who really want to see the final ending to the game need
to start saving.
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-- Level Six Lowdown Page 4 --
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<<.>> NEW Dreamcast Console Colors!
- http://www.levelsix.com/L6news.shtml
Board of your white Dreamcast? Then replace that console
case with a colored one! Personally I have the blue case,
but now there is even more colors to choose from, with
eight others. See a picture of them all right here:
http://www.levelsix.com/L6news.shtml
<<.>> No more switching cords with your VGA Box!
- http://www.levelsix.com/
Forget the hassles of switching cables every time you want
to play your Dreamcast games at the extra high VGA
resolution! Now you can have your PC and Dreamcast
connected both at the same time - and the box switches
between these two automatically.
<<.>> PC Mouse or Keyboard on your Dreamcast?
- http://www.levelsix.com/
Forget aiming with a controller in Quake 3 Arena, now you
can use your PC mouse! The Total Control 5 lets you use a
normal scroll wheel mouse, an optical mouse, or a keyboard.
Full details on the website here, http://www.levelsix.com/
<<.>> Light Gun - Small Size, Big Rumble
- http://www.levelsix.com/
This small light gun is the perfect solution for tired
arms, but that doesn't mean it's small on features. Packing
a built-in rumble feature, including recoil rumble (which
can be turned on/off with a switch), Auto-fire and
Auto-reload modes, a flashing LED light and four buttons
along with the D-pad. More details and pictures online.
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-- Phantasy Star Online Clan Page 5 --
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<<.>> Sega World Weekly - The Phantasy Star Online Clan
-- Weekly Update #5
After a short one week break the PSO Clan update is back! I
promised you guys some websites that have cool PSO info, so
here they are...
http://www.phantasystar.net/ -PSO Network
http://tomeeboy.com/pso/ - PSO World
Both of these are great place to go for PSO tricks and
tips. There are some great MAG guides on these pages for
those of you who have been trying to get your little MAG to
do something cool.
Finally, it took a little bit of looking but I found a
place that runs through step by step how to get PSO to work
with the BBA adaptor! BROADBAND with PSO! There are other
ways, but they involve burning GDs and that's not something
I want to promote.
http://dreamcast.ign.com/news/31027.html
Not to much more to say this week. Once the Sega World
Weekly website goes up then the Clan should have a homepage
and more! So stick with us, things are looking up!
Stick to the Ariel ship on block 5. Show your support! All
games with a DCW or SWW in the name will be havens for
members looking for fun and experience.
DCW_ZOndaro
zondaro@usa.net
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-- Question and Answer Page 6 --
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Do you have a question for your Sega know-it-all? Simply
e-mail in your questions to Ross at zondaro@usa.net and
look for the answers soon in an issue of Sega World Weekly.
We are unable to personally reply to all emails.
Update: Bad Systems
I had the same problem with resetting, I found an
to look at my system. He said it was fairly common with
PlayStations too. He checked all the circuits, resoldered
the dry joints and cleaned the laser and now it's working
perfectly. It cost me $40 NZ which is less than $20 US.
- Richard.
Next week: Games, games and then...some more Game Q's!
>>>> Napster and Sega Rule the World!
Q) I was just wondering if Sega still plans on releasing
their MP3 playing VMU. This is an add-on that I've been
looking forward to for quite some time and it would be a
shame if it was lost in oblivion. Thanks.
- Trevor Verhelst
A) I'm not too sure about the MP3-VMU anymore. I too was
looking forward to it. The chances of ever seeing it
are slim now, but at e3 we should know for sure.
>>>> Arcade Wonders
Q) Hi! In March Sega's contest for an Emergency Call
Ambulance arcade stand will come to a close. Do you know
whether that arcade game will come out on Dreamcast?
- Angelina from Canada
A) Yes...maybe. Its one of three rumored games that may be
on a 3-in-1 pack released this summer. The other two
games being Brave Firefighter and the Safari game. If
it is coming then we should hear all about it at e3.
>>>> Bad GD-Rom! No Cookie!
Q) Recently I purchased a copy of Skies of Arcadia, but
when I tried to play it, the game wouldn't boot up, the
Dreamcast continually returns to the menu screen. I then
returned this copy and got another, same story. When I
returned this copy I overheard a sales person saying
that they had been getting a lot of returns of the game
due to them not working. So I assume the problem isn't
my Dreamcast, but has Sega said anything about faulty
disks? Any suggestions, I really wanna get this game!
- Jason Perfect.
A) I've been getting letters about faulty PSO disks as
well. Personally I would call Sega up and ask them for
a new copy. Most companies have a bad CD replacement
policy. I'm not to clear on Sega's, but they should
send you a new copy. 1-800-USA-SEGA
>>>> Virtua Station
Q) Only one question, is Sega bringing VF4 to Dreamcast as
well as PS2, or are they selling us out completely!?
- Johnny Maynor III
A) There is still a chance that the Dreamcast may get a
"port" of VF4. I'm not convinced that PS2 is the only
system the game will be released on.
>>>> Smashing The World Away
Q) Is the Sega Smash Pack coming out in Japan? Thanks!
- Alessandro Dimauro
A) It should be. No idea when though.
Lets play "Guess what ZOndaro is up to!" - zondaro@usa.net
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-- The Letter Box Page 7 --
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[Q&A Editorial Note: Last week I received these first 2
letters about Sega's choice to leave the hardware
business. I decided to run both of them. Note that both
have been edited for length. Feel free to write in your
response to either one for next week. - zondaro@usa.net ]
>>>> Gamer Point of View One
I love my Dreamcast. I don't have a lot of money usually,
so when I was finally able to save up the 300 bucks, I
live in Canada, my new DrC was the greatest thing. At the
time, I considered myself a true gamer. But when I heard
that Sega was dropping the DC next year, I felt sad. It
took me a very long time to finally get it in the first
place, only to have it's support withdrawn a few months
after purchase. I was disturbed, and so i did what I
always do when I'm disturbed about some gaming aspect,
I went to DC.IGN.com. An article talked about the true
meaning of a Gamer. It stated that a true gamer was
someone who would play on any system, and play most any
game. They are passionate about playing, and passionate
about their time with their games. They love games. So
I've also changed my way of thinking. I've changed into
someone who plays games for fun. I'm not in this anymore
just to support one company. A true gamer plays the game
for the game, not for the system.
- Jeremy Bezooyen
>>>> Gamer Point of View Two
Oh yeah now Sega is on other consoles that we have to
buy. For those of us that spent $200 that sucks. There
had better be new console that is a DC, SegaCD, and a
Saturn all in one. Yes there are good games for Dreamcast,
but I expected it to last for three to five years, not a
year and a half. You people talk to us like we have all
the money in the world, oh Sega will be on other consoles.
Now I have to spend $300 on another system because mine
is dead. This may sound like an extremely angry letter,
but it needed to be said. Sorry to cause you any trouble.
- AlienPredator
>>>> Dang You Guys a Smooth
Let me start off be saying that I completely love your mag.
It's not everyday that the editor of a widely read magazine
will take time out of his day to reply to an email that one
of his readers has written, not to mention multiple times.
So there's a big cool point for ya. I can't express how much
you mag has helped me out in deciding which games to rent
or even buy. You guys introduced me to the phenomenon that
is Shenmue, and now I am addicted til the end (and probably
then some).
I have been a subscriber of DC Weekly since issue number 2
and I still look forward to it every week. How you guys get
all the big wig interviews and inside information, I will
never know. But a big "dang you guys a smooth" goes out to
ya'll. Keep the great stuff coming and I can't wait until
the new and improved HTML Version comes out. If you guys
push the potential that I know you have, then this mag will
be bigger than ever. Just look at what the IGN Newsletter
has done, and they only put headlines in their letter.
S.W.W. has the potential to even knock out IGN!! All I can
say is....GO FOR IT!! Keep up the great work and until Sega
tells everyone that Sonic was just a creative out burst for
Yuji Naka's experimental homosexuality, then make mine Sega
World Weekly!! - James M.
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-- Support Sites Page 8 --
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Sega World Weekly goes out to 40,000 gamers every week. How
did we get so many people signed up? With the help of these
websites, that's how.
<<.>> DC-United - http://dc-united.com
The Premiere Dreamcast Community, DC-United.com gives you
the ability to view members online, build your own
homepage, send messages, read in-depth reviews, and much
more. DCU Network Members are also eligible for various
monthly prizes.
<<.>> Absolute Sega - http://www.absolutesega.com
One of the first Sega sites out there with the most up to
date news every 24 hours, 7 days a week. Absolute Sega is
not jus famous for it's news, but also it's reviews and
previews. Want to talk about games, then go to our forums
or you can talk in our IRC chat room.
<<.>> PSY Online - http://www.consolereviews.net
PSY Online is a multiformat reviews website specialising in
the Sega Dreamcast console. With 24/7 updated news, forums
and chat, its a great place to hang out for Sega fans.
<<.>> System Zero - http://system-zero.com
As game music goes well beyond the beeps and bleeps of the
past and into the soundtrack quality tracks we hear today,
Perfect Zero becomes one of THE most important sites for
game fans. Hosting hundreds of MP3s from different games,
turn up those speakers and click that link.
<<.>> Future Gamez - http://www.futuregamez.net
What ever console your looking for, Future Gamez have them
all. From Dreamcast to GameCube, and X-Box to Playstation
2. So get your news, reviews, previews, and more at Future
Gamez, and stay on top of all systems.
<<.>> The Sonic Zone - http://www.suneet.com/soniczone/
Updated daily with a HUGE amount of Sonic content that is
sure to blow you away! From Fan Fiction to Chatting, and
even Fan Created Games, this is your one stop Sonic site.
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-- Credits Page 9 --
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O Editor: Graham "Tails" Parker - Madcow@ihug.co.nz
O Question & Answer: Ross Fisher - Zondaro@usa.net
O Staff Writer: Michael Monahan - Mikelad1@aol.com
O Staff Writer: Paulo Santos - Paulo@sega2000.net
<<.>> http://www.LevelSix.com - Our Sponsor
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>>>> LEVELSIX: No more switching cords with your VGA Box!
- http://www.levelsix.com/
Forget the hassles of switching cables every time you want
to play your Dreamcast games at the extra high VGA
resolution! Now you can have your PC and Dreamcast
connected both at the same time - and the box switches
between these two automatically.
- http://www.levelsix.com/
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Copyright 1998-2001 Graham Parker - Madcow@ihug.co.nz
No parts may be copied without prior permission or correct
credit where due. There should probably be a pile of other
legal lines here, but please just play nice and don't
steal, lol! Thanks for reading Sega World Weekly!
You know I'm probably one of the only people left to think
it's cool I got a Mega Drive II for my birthday last week!
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