We open Read-Only Memory’s “Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works” live with project lead Darren Wall and “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation” author BLake J. Harris.
The event starts at 6PM EST (11PM GMT) and an archived video will be posted shortly after the live feed ends.
The archived video is embedded above!
SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis fans listen up – we have something very special planned for tomorrow! We will be unwrapping and paging through Read-Only Memory’s “Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works” book live with project lead Darren Wall providing page-by-page commentary.
If that wasn’t enough, we will also joined by Blake J. Harris, author of the book “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation” who is sure to have some stories of his own to share.
The live stream will appear at SEGAbits.com tomorrow at 6PM EST, so keep your eyes open for a dedicated article with the embedded live stream video and keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
SEGA Genesis Month continues as Darren Wall, the man behind the successfully funded and coming soon “SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works” book, returns to the Swingin’ Report Show to update Barry and George on his project’s progress! One exciting bit of news is the reveal that David Rosen, co-founder of SEGA, has been interviewed for the book. Learn what we can expect to hear from Mr. Rosen, as well as all the cool new art and articles the book will contain, in this week’s show.
Also, since it is Streets of Rage Week at SEGAbits, we spend a portion of the show talking about the game’s development including new details Darren has learned. We also share our nostalgic memories of the series, our favorite music tracks, and what we would like to see in the future from the series.
If you’re a fan of SEGA, and still think Genesis does what Nintendon’t, this is definitely the show for you.
In November of last year, Darren Wall, graphic designer and art director at Read-Only Memory, took to Kickstarter in an effort to fund a book that was to be “the ultimate retrospective of the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis”. Dubbed a “documentary art book”, Darren had the official license from SEGA, including access to the company’s archives and staff from both past and present. The only thing left to to obtain was the funds to make the project a reality.
This part was probably the easiest step of the project, as in less than 48 hours the team had met their £30,000 goal, and by the end of the campaign they earned £98,725! Prior to the end of the campaign, Darren joined George and I for a Swingin’ Report Show interview to discuss his plans for the book. It is now five months later, and Darren is nearing completion of the project with only SEGA’s approval and printing remaining. We caught up with Darren in a written interview, as well as another podcast which you can listen to tomorrow. Darren was even nice enough to give us some exclusive content from the upcoming book: design documents from the development of the original Streets of Rage!
After the break, check out the full interview as well as the cool exclusives from Read-Only Memory and SEGA.
Welcome to the Swingin’ Report Show! On this episode, George and Barry the Nomad interview Darren Wall from the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works Kickstarter! Listen to find out what you can expect in the full book (that has already been funded!).
You can check the Kickstarter here to grab your own copy
Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works, an upcoming book from Read-Only Memory, is the followup to SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Successfully backed on Kickstarter late last year, Read-Only Memory sent a new years update to backers and boy is it an exciting one! Read-Only Memory received a large amount of production materials from SEGA of Japan, including several never-before-seen pieces from popular Dreamcast games. Included in the haul are:
Read-Only Memory will spend the coming weeks sorting through all the materials and identifying pieces to include in the book, with the final cut of the book to be laid out in a few months. Also revealed is that photoshoots for the Hardware Showcase chapter of the book will be taking place in the next few weeks, featuring everything from consoles to the fishing controller to the Samba de Amigo maracas. If you’re the proud owner of a Dreamcast hardware rarity you think should make the final cut, please do drop Read-Only Memory a line!
We here at SEGAbits can’t wait to get our hands on the book, and in the meantime we’re working to get Darren Wall of Read-Only Memory back for another Swingin’ Report Show podcast.
The Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works Kickstarter ends today, with the current pledged amount sitting at £122,127 of a £68,000 goal. As the campaign nears its end, an update has been released announcing a new signed edition tier. SEGA legend Yu Suzuki will be signing 15 copies of the book with the new tier priced at £75, and he has been added to the growing list of interview subjects to appear in the book!
The signed tier will release at 6 p.m. GMT, just a few hours before the campaign ends. So if you want Yu Suzuki’s autograph and a great looking book, you can sit at your computer refreshing like crazy. For comparison, the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter had Yu’s autograph at the $300 tier, whereas here it’s around $99. We’ll have more information about the Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works book, including a Swingin’ Report Show interview with Read-Only Memory’s Darren Wall, in the coming months. So stay tuned!
Readers of our site probably know that we are huge fans of the work of Darren Wall and Read-Only Memory, who was behind the excellent “Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works” book. Now, Darren and Read-Only Memory are returning to the world of SEGA books with “Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works”, a new book described as an “illustrated history of the cult games console, produced in collaboration with Sega”. The project is being funded by Kickstarter, and is already 30% funded with a £68,000 goal at the time of this article being posted. Given the project just launched today, that is impressive!
The campaign offers up several tiers, from the book itself to special slipcovers featuring Jet Set Radio, Shenmue and Phantasy Star Online logos. Already sold out are early bird editions at a reduced price and a Naoto Ohshima signed edition. There is also a Kickstarter exclusive Shenmue bookmark available for all backers. The campaign page has a LOT of information, from what the book will contain to who you can expect to be interviewed. Rather than copy and paste all that here, we urge you to check out the campaign page for yourself and consider supporting the project.
Released back in 2014, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works fast became one of our favorite SEGA art books of all time. Created by Darren Wall of Read-Only Memory, the book covers SEGA’s famous 16-bit console, featuring development and concept illustrations for the console’s most popular franchises, original developer interviews and previously unseen hardware production plans. Much of the materials – drawn from the Sega of Japan archives – has never been released before. The book also features dozens of interviews with the people who made our favorite Mega Drive/Genesis games.
Now, Read-Only Memory plans to put the book back into production with a reprint. To do this, they’ve returned to Kickstarter with a new campaign which offers copies of the book as backer rewards, as well as some cool new items including a Mega Drive branded bookmark and a stylish tote bag. Worth noting for those who backed the first time, the tote bag is available in a tier of its own, and it is also bundled with a copy of the book and the bookmark.
If you missed out the first time, or if you want to support Read-Only Memory again, we highly suggest checking out their campaign. A lot of hard work and fan-driven passion went into the project, as evidenced by our interview with Darren Wall. After the break, check out our unboxing video featuring Darren and the writer of “Console Wars” Blake J. Harris.
While we’re in the midst of 32X Month here at SEGAbits, we’re momentarily removing the black plastic mushroom to pay tribute to the console that changed how SEGA was perceived in North America – the SEGA Genesis. While the Master System failed to make a dent in the US market, SEGA’s Genesis (known as the Mega Drive outside of North America) hit the scene with jaw dropping graphics and impressive stereo sound capabilities. In the early days before Sonic the Hedgehog, marketing highlighted all the things Genesis did that Nintendo did not – more eloquently phrased as “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t!”. Rather than focus on their stable of characters, early Genesis ads featured celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Pat Riley, Buster Douglas, and Joe Montana – all who appeared in their own Genesis games.
When SEGA of America leadership made the transition from Michael Katz to Tom Kalinske, emphasis returned to in-house characters with the establishment of Sonic the Hedgehog as the company mascot, relaunching the Genesis with a new campaign and video game star. From there the console wars heated up, and thanks to the efforts of SEGA employees, SEGA attained 65% of the market in North America for period of time, making Nintendo number two. If you’d like to hear the story of the console wars from the men and women themselves, we urge you to watch the Console Wars panel that we had the honor of attending and recording at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.
Darren Wall of Read-Only Memory has officially announced that SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works has been approved by SEGA and will go to print this upcoming Monday! In a detailed Kickstarter update, Darren shows off the book’s sexy cover, and details the exhaustive (but necessary) process in receiving approval from SEGA. The book will be 352 pages long, with 8 fold-out pages featuring hardware design drawings and jumbo versions of box art from Space Harrier 2, Alien Storm, Super Thunderblade and The Super Shinobi II/Shinobi III. The book will contain 80 pages of developer interviews, a guide to SEGA logotypes, and a chapter devoted to game art totaling 60 pages. The one downside, which is really not that bad, is that the approval process has delayed the expected shipping date. Darren promises “a firm delivery date from the printer very shortly”. To see hear and see more from Darren, check out the latest update.
A big congratulations from all of us at SEGAbits to Darren Wall! We can’t wait to hold the book in our hands.
As Streets of Rage Week comes to an end, the SEGAbits writer’s round table has us reflecting on our fond memories of the franchise, and where we would like to see the franchise headed in the future. SEGA has always been hit or miss when it comes to reviving and remaking older franchises. For every SEGA 3DS 3D Classics remake, Castle of Illusion and Shinobi 3DS there are a slew of stinkers – Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Altered Beast (PS2), several of the Sega Ages 2500 releases. Point is, a remake or reboot of Streets of Rage could go either way. What direction would be like to see the franchise headed? Follow the flashing “GO!” and read on!
This website was once a happy, peaceful place… until today, when an awesome SEGA franchise took over. This memorable series soon had control of our featured articles and even the Swingin’ Report Show. Welcome 16-bit brothers and sisters to Streets of Rage week at SEGAbits!
As we reach the halfway point of SEGA Genesis Month, we wanted to shine the spotlight on SEGA’s popular side-scrolling beat ’em up series of games. Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle in Japan) was a franchise that spanned most of the lifespan of the the Genesis/Mega Drive, and like Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, and Golden Axe, the series came to be one of the console’s defining franchises. To celebrate these titles, we have a slew of features planned this week including an interview with Darren Wall, creator of the official book “SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works”, exclusive never before seen design documents from the development of the original game, a special podcast looking back on the franchise, part three of My Life with SEGA’s Streets of Rage retrospective (watch part 1 and part 2), and more!
So put on your favorite fingerless gloves, tie on a headband, and hit the streets with us as we fight our way through Streets of Rage Week! After the break, a SEGA Retro rundown of all the games the franchise has to offer, including rereleases and cancelled titles!
2013 appears to be the year of SEGA Kickstarter campaigns. We’ve had Not Enough Rings, Redux: Dark Matters, and now we have SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Darren Wall, the UK man behind the campaign, is attempting to create what he describes as the “definitive volume” of the SEGA Mega Drive. The end product will be a book, officially licensed by SEGA, containing “an unparalleled treasury of production artwork, interviews, development sketches and hardware manufacturing plans”. The project also promises:
It will also include over 20 exclusive interviews with original SEGA team members – many of whom have never been interviewed before – a foreword by industry legend Dave Perry and an insightful 10,000-word piece by Keith Stuart (Games Editor for the Guardian and regular contributor to Edge) on the machine that changed the landscape of gaming forever.
The book will showcase a wealth of SEGA’s 16-bit titles, from blockbuster games such as Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Gunstar Heroes, The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe through to cult gems such as Rent-a-Hero, Vectorman and DecapAttack.
Darren Wall shouldn’t have any problem with meeting his £30,000 goal, as at the time of writing this there is 27 days remaining and he is only £10 away from completion. Head on over to the campaign page and show your support! We’ll keep you updated on the project as it progresses.
Last month we shared the news that Read-Only Memory, creators of the awesome SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Collected Works and the upcoming SEGA Dreamcast Collected Works books, revealed a new SEGA focused book: SEGA Arcade: Pop-Up History. The book will feature an interview with Yu Suzuki and pop-up sculptures of Hang-On, Space Harrier, Thunder Blade, After Burner, and Out Run as well as information about each game. Now that the project has hit the funding goals, a stretch goal has been added with, if reached, will add another pop-up sculpture – the super scaler kart racing game Power Drift!
As of this article, the stretch goal has another £4,000 to go to reach £50,000 and 6 more days remain. We urge you to check the campaign out and if you like what you see to show your support!