How much is a super rare piece of Sega history worth to you?
As we reported just yesterday, one of the only two Pluto (the Saturn/Netlink hybrid) prototypes was picked up a few years ago by Destructoid reader kidvid666 for only $1. That protoype, designated Pluto-01 is now up for sale over at gamegavel.com As of this writing, the current bid is $7,600. Imagine, picking up some game system you’re unfamiliar with from a yard sale for $1 and having it worth near eight thousand if not more! Hurry up. Bidding ends April 26th.
Via the Tokyo Joypolis website and The Sonic Stadium comes news of a new Sonic arcade game set to release at the Japanese arcade on April 25th. Dubbed Sonic Athletics, the game features a line of eight treadmills set in front of vertical screens depicting a track stadium. Players choose from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Metal Sonic, Silver, and Blaze and begin running. The faster you run, the faster your character runs. First to the finish wins. Pretty simple game, but quite a slick looking setup. I wonder if the arcade staff allows boosting? After the break, check out a few more images of the new game.
Yesterday we shared the news that a SEGA Pluto console existed, at least in prototype form, and that according to the source only two existed. Well, thanks to Destructoid reader, we now know where the second one is. The second console, which is designated as the first of two, is owned by kidvid666 who bought the Pluto around five or six years ago at a flea market for… $1. I’m sure many game collectors have their own awesome stories of flea market finds, but this one takes the cake. According to kidvid666, the system works, but the lid is broken and won’t stay shut.
kidvid666 has considered selling the SEGA Pluto on eBay, though given its historical significance, perhaps he should keep it safe and perserved? I’m sure SEGA Retro would take very good care of it.
Thanks to the Assembler Games forums, we can now check another item off our list of “SEGA hardware with planetary code names”. While Pluto is no longer classed as a planet, Assembler Games forum member Super Magnetic has revealed that it was in fact a proposed SEGA console! Don’t get too excited, however. Super Magnetic revealed that the SEGA Pluto was a SEGA Saturn with the Netlink Adapter built in. As Super Magnetic explains:
After a good 14 years or so of sitting on this, I’ve decided it’s time to share a little bit of Sega lore with those who would appreciate it most.
First, a little background info — I was introduced to this site by Monkfish (a great friend who recently passed away, RIP), who provided everyone with the Geist build, if memory serves. We worked together at Sega back in the day, and a bout of reminiscence over my old friend led me to remember this site, which leads us to today.
I’m here to reveal a piece of unreleased Sega hardware — the Pluto. And no, it’s not that Nomad wannabe — it’s a Saturn with a Netlink built in.
Above is SEGA’s extended look at 7th Dragon 2020-II, showing you over 17 minutes of gameplay footage.The video has Director Dai Oba playing the game with legendary SEGA producer Rieko Kodama.
Check out that dragon fight in the end, gets me excited. The game comes out in Japan tomorrow, April 18th. No western date announced for the game, but don’t expect it coming over, since both 7th Dragon and 7th Dragon 2020 didn’t make it over.
SEGA has made Yakuza series one of the biggest Playstation only series’ this generation and seems the franchise is getting a bit deeper ties with Sony. Kazuma Kiryu is set to be a paid downloadable character in Sony Computer Entertainment Japan’s latest Hot Shots Golf game.
You will be able to download the infamous, 7 foot tall gangster for a overpriced 500 yen ($5). This isn’t the first time Kazuma has golfed, since the Yakuza series has featured Golf mini-games in their past titles. Hey Sony, how about adding him in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?
SEGA teased their next Hatsune Miku game the other day, now it has been revealed to be Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai 2 (rolls right off the tongue, right?). Instead of being on a Sony plateform, where this franchise sells best at, this one is also being released on the Nintendo 3DS.
[Left to right: Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Gear, and Master System]
Dengeki Bunko has announced that they will be collaborating with SEGA for a couple of projects to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The first project is ‘Sega Hard Girls Story’, a SEGA-themed novel serial that will be published in Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The novel is set to re-imagine SEGA game systems as goddesses, who go all over modern Japan doing goddess business.
Hatsune Miku is on fire over there in Japan, with her latest cameos and now a new teaser site for a new game. All we know is that the game is set to be revealed in 3 days via Famitsu, which usually leaks information earlier than publishers intend to.
An insanely awesome bit of news dropped earlier this month, though we’ve just learned of it this weekend. The British Library has begun to digitally archive all of the UK web, meaning just about everything on the internet originating from the UK will be stored for future generations. Very cool stuff, but it gets even cooler. SEGA Network partner site The Dreamcast Junkyard, one of the first SEGA blogs I wrote for and continue to write for, was selected by curators and other experts from all the participating libraries to be essential reading for future generations researching our life and times in 2013. How many sites did these experts put on the list? A mere 100 websites. That’s right, amongst the likes of Ebay, Twitter, Facebook and UK sites like Daily Mash, Moonpig, the official website of Stephen Hawking, the BBC and lots of political and official government websites, sits a SEGA fansite. How awesome is that? The BBC even noted The Dreamcast Junkyard by saying:
Some other lesser known ones include the Anarchist Federation, the Dracula Society and The Dreamcast Junkyard – a blog dedicated to the community of gamers who continue to play Dreamcast games online, despite the fact they were officially discontinued in 2002.
A big congrats to The Dreamcast Junkyard writing team including the site’s founder Tomleecee and writers fatherkrishna, The GagaMan(n), Barry the Nomad, Caleb, and NebachadnezzaR.
Segakawaii, SEGA’s clothing line for young woman has been teasing a couple of designs. The two above are the ones in question. This is all the shots released, just the concept. The descirption says that they will show more on April 25th.
In my opinion the Mega Drive top is pretty cool, but the Dreamcast shirt is way too plain. Needs more work on that one.
Its crazy how popular Hatsune Miku is in Japan. The vocaloid goddess herself will ‘guest star’ in Capcom’s Monster Hunter Frontier G and will do the opening music for the intro to 7th Dragon 2020-II from SEGA. She also did the for the last 7th Dragon game, properly titled 7th Dragon 2020. One thing that always excited me about the 7th Dragon franchise was that they are being produced by SEGA’s legendary Rieko Kodama.
As for the Monster Hunter cameo, she isn’t really in the game. What they do have is a costume so you can dress your character up like Hatsune Miku herself. If you didn’t know, Monster Hunter Frontier G is a online enabled Monster Hunter game for 360 and PC that requires a monthly payment to play.
Project X Zone is being published by Namco-Bandai, but will cross over with Capcom and SEGA. As you can see from the trailer they didn’t add any new characters. You’d think them sneaking Sonic the Hedgehog would have sold a few more copies, right?
So what does everyone think of this game? Looking good? Excited?
Marza Animation Planet, a SEGA-Sammy owned CGI animation studio has trademarked the title ‘Luna’s Arc’.
This could be the title to their next film, which they chose the script from their online competition: Story Circus. They have done the competition two years in a row and have picked up two full scripts to do an animated film on. Who knows, maybe next year us SEGAbit people will submit some scripts.
As for what this could be, who knows. Luna is Italian/Spanish for moon, which could me a space sort of film. What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments.
