It's a Sega Sorta Christmas. Because I say so. How Sega was your Christmas
this year?

It's a good time to be a gamer, as there's a lot of good product and many interesting experiences to be had. Sadly, our favorite gaming company is
less and less of a presence in that world. As the Sega/Ssmmy conglomerate continues to find ways to make money without actually selling anything,
over the last five years they've done something by accident that Konami
did on purpose in the space of five months: Sega has made their games secondary, and alienated a lot of their most devoted fans. It's less Dylan going electric than it is Watterson no longer drawing Calvin and Hobbes.
The things we love about Sega simply aren't present in the world any more.

This is another year gone by that Phantasy Star Online 2 didn't show up in
the west. Yakuza 5 was released with absolutely no fanfare or advertising
to a market that's almost completely gone. The Aliens: Colonial Marines
debacle continued over the last twelve months with more lawsuits, finger-pointing and almost no resolution. The Sonic Boom media franchise
has made a little money but has otherwise had no impact on a children's
media culture that's now inundated with licensed multimedia properties
like Yokai Watch or anything from the Disney/Marvel/Lucas behemoth. At
risk of sounding petulant, Sega is one tiny fading and discordant voice in
an electronic world where they used to be a relevant and trend-setting
leader.

With that said, there's more than enough new and retro game content out
there to fill a hedgehog-shaped hat. This year my major purchase was a
pile of Game Gear games I didn't have before, all bought for under $5 each
at one of those big college-town chains that deals more in music and
movies. Pac Man, G-Loc, Land of Illusion, Mortal Kombat, and the Asterix
game were among the big gets there. Most of those titles I hadn't owned
before, largely because Game Gear games are so unusual (and sell so
rarely) that when I do find them they're priced absurdly, in the $20-$50
range for a cart with no box and no manual. There were a couple of other
gems along the way, most of which were only tertially related to Sega's product. I picked up the Dreamcast-era CD soundtracks for Dead or Alive 2
and Maken X, as well as a few third-party Genesis games I hadn't owned
before.

I suppose my biggest purchase during the holiday season was the
Playstation 4, in preparation for next year's release of Shenmue 3. Yes, I backed the Kickstarter, only my second crowdfunding contribution ever
because I don't trust anybody without a track record or a prior product to demonstrate that they know how to finish a job. I went for the support
level that includes a disk, because real media is important in a world
where you can't count on the Internet to be up all the time. Speaking of
which, I have pointedly not bought Yakuza 5 yet. Partly I'm holding out
hope that an Asian-region version comes out on disk in the future with all
the English localization included, but mostly it's because I don't have
enough disk space left on the PS3. I don't want to have to do data backup
and maintenance tasks before going through the four or five attempts it
will take to download the game, when I can just pick up any other game I
own out of the case and get it going straight from the media.

So how Sega was your Christmas this year? I really hope to hear from
people who might disagree with my negative assessment of the company and
its products this year. I'm really hoping that next year they find their
way and properly start to change the world again, rather than having to
change to fit it instead. Merry Christmas, everybody.

-KKC, who has a couple of unopened Saturn purchase to test out.
--
-- "I can't afford a Twitter account. You have to hire a research | kendrick
assistant, a proofreader, a focus tester. And if your copy writer | @
is union then you owe payroll tax and benefits too. If you want | io-nyc
to look stupid on the Internet it's cheaper to run for office." | .com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

It's a Sega Sorta Christmas. Because I say so. How Sega was your Christmas this year?

My wife bought me a Japanese Game Gear for Christmas (after I showed her
where to get it). Now I can finally play my copy of Pop Breaker!

--
sparcipx
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It's a Sega Sorta Christmas. Because I say so. How Sega was your Christmas this year?

Having some fun with the 3DS Sonic titles...debated getting Lost Wold
now that it's hit PC. Though not specifically Sega, but rather related
to them, I did pick up that Pier Solar HD for the PC. I actually play it
in the "Genesis" mode most of the time, switching between the PCM and
Redbook soundtracks. Really enjoying it.

It's a good time to be a gamer, as there's a lot of good product and many interesting experiences to be had. Sadly, our favorite gaming company is
less and less of a presence in that world. As the Sega/Ssmmy conglomerate continues to find ways to make money without actually selling anything,
over the last five years they've done something by accident that Konami
did on purpose in the space of five months: Sega has made their games secondary, and alienated a lot of their most devoted fans. It's less Dylan going electric than it is Watterson no longer drawing Calvin and Hobbes.
The things we love about Sega simply aren't present in the world any more.

You got that right...including the forums. Man, you want to talk about hostility, go to any given Sega-based form and try saying something
positive about *any* aspect of the company and watch as they tear your
ass apart. I mean, you can say something like "Streets of Rage 2 is a
great game!" and you'll get comments like "Yeah, too bad it's on the
Genesis" *on a Sega-based forum*. Blows my mind.

This is another year gone by that Phantasy Star Online 2 didn't show up in the west.

I still need to look in to this one. I'm just thrilled that PSO BB can
still be played online on the PC.

Yakuza 5 was released with absolutely no fanfare or advertising
to a market that's almost completely gone. The Aliens: Colonial Marines debacle continued over the last twelve months with more lawsuits, finger-pointing and almost no resolution.

What's weird about that whole Aliens thing is how they seem to ignore
the nearly *9 gigs* of patches that game has received on the PC version. Honestly, it's not a bad game...in single player mode at least. I never
got a chance to play it pre-patch, but it looks and plays fine with said patches.

The Sonic Boom media franchise
has made a little money but has otherwise had no impact on a children's
media culture that's now inundated with licensed multimedia properties
like Yokai Watch or anything from the Disney/Marvel/Lucas behemoth. At
risk of sounding petulant, Sega is one tiny fading and discordant voice in
an electronic world where they used to be a relevant and trend-setting leader.

What kills me is that Generations was the most talked about, and highest
rated of the Sonic games last year...and yet Sega seems happy to just
leave that as a one-off. To me, that's something they should have built
on. Not that Sonic: Lost World isn't awesome, but it's just so different
and not what people were wanting.

With that said, there's more than enough new and retro game content out
there to fill a hedgehog-shaped hat. This year my major purchase was a
pile of Game Gear games I didn't have before, all bought for under $5 each
at one of those big college-town chains that deals more in music and
movies.

Those kinds of places are about the only way to get said games so cheap nowadays. Seems like there are just TONS of gaming stores all over any
given city, and they ALL want to charge some outrageous price for even
the most common of titles.

Pac Man, G-Loc, Land of Illusion, Mortal Kombat, and the Asterix
game were among the big gets there. Most of those titles I hadn't owned before, largely because Game Gear games are so unusual (and sell so
rarely) that when I do find them they're priced absurdly, in the $20-$50 range for a cart with no box and no manual.

Yup...it's almost impossible to find a complete GG title. I've actually
been buying a few of them via the 3DS Virtual Console service. It's
interesting how much work Sega is putting in to those...with options to
turn off blur, use the GG processor or not and other thoughtful stuff.
The Genesis 3D titles are also very good in that respect, not to mention
how amazing even something like Altered Beast looks in 3D.

There were a couple of other
gems along the way, most of which were only tertially related to Sega's product. I picked up the Dreamcast-era CD soundtracks for Dead or Alive 2
and Maken X, as well as a few third-party Genesis games I hadn't owned before.

Man, I haven't bought a Genesis game in I-don't-even-know-how-long.
About the only thing I've got on my list is The Punisher...just trying
to find a cart-only version for around $40(not even interested in these
$150+ complete copies).

I suppose my biggest purchase during the holiday season was the
Playstation 4, in preparation for next year's release of Shenmue 3. Yes, I backed the Kickstarter, only my second crowdfunding contribution ever
because I don't trust anybody without a track record or a prior product to demonstrate that they know how to finish a job. I went for the support
level that includes a disk, because real media is important in a world
where you can't count on the Internet to be up all the time. Speaking of which, I have pointedly not bought Yakuza 5 yet. Partly I'm holding out
hope that an Asian-region version comes out on disk in the future with all the English localization included, but mostly it's because I don't have enough disk space left on the PS3. I don't want to have to do data backup
and maintenance tasks before going through the four or five attempts it
will take to download the game, when I can just pick up any other game I
own out of the case and get it going straight from the media.

With the Blu-Ray media now the standard, even these terrabyte hard
drives aren't going to last long, even if you're just installing the
game rather than purchasing it digitally. I guess there's no transfer
cable or USB Flash Drive option to move data across an old and new PS3
HDD, like there is for the 360? I used to have horrible fucking 14GB HDD
for the 360(you know, the one they call a 20GB drive, yet even
completely empty is only 14GB), but managed to luck out and get an
official MS-brand 120GB. Using just a 32GB Flash Drive, I was about to
do that whole data transfer thing and it worked out well(just took a while).

So how Sega was your Christmas this year? I really hope to hear from
people who might disagree with my negative assessment of the company and
its products this year.

Good luck with that...it's almost impossible to find anyone who has
anything other than negative comments for them nowadays. You want a real challenge, go around saying positive stuff about them and see if you can
find someone to agree with you. ;)

I'm really hoping that next year they find their
way and properly start to change the world again, rather than having to change to fit it instead. Merry Christmas, everybody.

Merry Christmas to you, good to hear from you again.

Bel
--
Whip Ass Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/

"Stacy's mom has got it going on..."
- Fountains of Wayne, Stacy's Mom

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It's a Sega Sorta Christmas. Because I say so. How Sega was your Christmas >> this year?

My wife bought me a Japanese Game Gear for Christmas (after I showed her where to get it). Now I can finally play my copy of Pop Breaker!

I think I'd be more thrilled with the prospect of Panzer Dragoon Mini...assuming you could find it for less than the $150/$200+ it always
seems to go for...;)

Bel
--
Whip Ass Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/
"The publisher tried to justify itself by saying that Wii footage would
not be of "broadcast quality..."
- EA Marketing Dept.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I bought a Sega Sports Dreamcast with four controllers, three or four VMUs, and a slurry of about twenty games for $40 off a local yard sale Facebook page, which I'd recommend people follow those types of groups because you never know what turns up.

Some of the games included were white labels Soul Calibur, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and The House of the Dead 2, and black labels of Shenmue and Jet Grind Radio. What interested me a lot though was a a CD wallet of various demo discs, which if I had the time
to go through might unearth some interesting beta/demo content that would be fun to put on sites like Unseen64.

I'm not a collector (nor have an abundance of money) so obliging myself of this was a stretch, since I already had packed away a first generation DC that I saved up and bought when I was 12 or so. When I was especially broke as a university student I did
stud out some of my rarer PSX games but most of it remains intact in tubs in my storage. I couldn't hesitate to lift this guy of his games, since the DC was an era of gaming I tend to remember a bit better than when I was supremely young with a Genesis
and SNES (by the way, I threw out a shit load of old game boxes and manuals for Genesis, SNES, and mostly N64 which until the day I die will forever kick myself for)

*talks self down from ledge*


Any who, there were humble bundle packages of Sega games released via Steam a month or so back with free releases of stuff like Golden Axe and Jet Set Radio that was cool to see that I got. The little emulator and added stuff they did to make the games
have a modern (almost 'mobile' gaming marketing feel) was about the only grace I had from Sega that seemed like they gave a crap about their fans.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about Sega. Seems like they've managed to nuance and niche themselves into nothing but memories these days. I can't imagine a day they could sit harder on the possibility of goldening their brand at any given moment, but
alas, we must stomach more and more Sonic titles on Nintendo handhelds

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)