Saturn

Swingin’ Report Show #62: Console Wars with Tom Kalinske – SEGA of America’s President (’90-’96)

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This is it! Our third Console Wars focused episode of the Swingin’ Report Show in which we speak with the man himself, SEGA of America’s former President Tom Kalinske! Tom has an amazing history with the toy and game industry. Before his years with SEGA, Tom served as President and CEO of Mattel, reviving the Barbie brand and creating the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line. During his time at SEGA, Tom reinvigorated the SEGA Genesis brand, helped in the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, and led the launch of many famous pieces of SEGA hardware including the Game Gear, Pico, 32X, Nomad, and Saturn.

Tom Kalinske’s career is chronicled in the book “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation” by Blake J. Harris, and if you haven’t purchased a copy yet, do so today. If you’ve read the book, are reading the book, are awaiting delivery of the book, or are simply a fan of SEGA during the 90’s, our latest show is a must listen!

Also, make sure to check out our other Console Wars interviews including our discussion of SEGA’s marketing efforts with SEGA’s former Director of Marketing Al Nilsen and our interview with the author of Console Wars, Blake J. Harris.

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This is Saturn goes Super Sonic Racing in Sonic R

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This is Saturn is back to talk about one of the few Sonic games on the Saturn, Sonic R, in which Sonic and company go Super Sonic Racing! Sonic R was a game I’ve played on many a system, and it was actually one of my first Sonic games – but does it hold up today? Or is it a blemish on the hedgehog’s wonderful 90s career?

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

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My Life with SEGA Season 2 ends with a SEGA Saturn classic – Die Hard: Arcade

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My Life with SEGA season 2 ends with punches, kicks, and several explosions as Mickey Mac and I take on the SEGA Saturn classic Die Hard: Arcade in a 2-Man Scramble! With season 2 over, what’s next for My Life with SEGA? I’ll be taking a break from the series as of now to concentrate on other projects. However, don’t think for a moment that My Life with SEGA is dead.

Next season is going to change things up where I’m sharing more single-player games with friends, like Mickey Mac, Lauren and others. I’ll do some straight reviews with big name titles (yes, Shenmue II), but this will be more freeform from Season 3 onward. Also, The Next Level/No Limits VCD: Special Edition is still in the works.

A big thanks to everyone – my family, friends, fans and SEGAbits – for keeping My Life with SEGA alive and well. It’s amazing to think that, come September 11th, it will be celebrating its 3rd birthday. I love you all, and I thank you from deep down in the cockles of my heart…. maybe below the cockles. Maybe even in the sub-cockle area. Maybe in the liver. Maybe in the kidneys. Maybe even in the colon. I don’t know.

STICK IT IN YOUR GENESIS, FUCKERS!

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My Life with SEGA battles it out in Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On for the SEGA Saturn

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My Life with SEGA is back! A.J. is back! Mickey Mac is back! In our first episode since our team up in Rambo for SEGA’s Master System, it’s time to get our mech on in SEGA’s critically acclaimed arcade smash, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On for the SEGA Saturn! Released in 1995 to arcade’s by Sega AM3, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On is a versus fighting game featuring robots known as the “virtuaroids”, appropriately powered by Sega Saturns. Yes, sticking consoles on your protagonists was a thing even before The Typing of the Dead. The game was later ported to the Saturn, which is the version we’re putting to the test in this 2-Man Scramble. Who will come out on top? Watch and find out!

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Classic SEGA Ads: Segata Sanshiro is in love

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The internet has made much ado about Chuck Norris as the manliest man who has ever lived, but that’s only because they are too afraid to admit that Segata Sanshiro will one day beat them all up for not diligently playing their SEGA Saturns.

Segata Sanshiro is the definition of an unstoppable force, the embodiment of an unmovable object, but even he is susceptible to love, as this Sakura Taisen 2 commercial shows. That said, it takes a true to be willing to gleefully play in a pile of Sakura pedals with his beloved. Do not be comforted by this ad though, non-Saturn owners. After Sakura Taisen Week is over, he will come for you all…with a vengeance.

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Contest: Win a SEGA Tommo iPhone 5/5S Genesis, Saturn, or Mega Drive case

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Today marks our four year anniversary, and it just so happens that we also have a contest to win a Tommo iPhone 5/5S case from our friends at SEGA and Tommo! What more, these SEGA iPhone cases come in SEGA Genesis, Mega Drive, and Saturn styles – consoles that celebrate milestone anniversaries this year, which we’ve aptly dubbed The Year of the SEGA Console! We have four cases (2X Genesis, 1X Mega Drive, and 1X Saturn) to give away to four lucky SEGA fans.

To enter, all you have to do is follow SEGAbits on Twitter and/or Instagram, take photos of your SEGA collection or your favorite SEGA hardware (be creative, it helps your chances) and share them with us, tagging your entry with #SEGAbitsContest. While you can submit more than one photo, we will only award one case per person and we advise you keep the number of entries minimal – think “quality over quantity”. We’re excited to see what our potential winners come up with!

Deadline for entries is February 28th. Winners will receive a randomly selected case, though a winning photo’s content may dictate which case we award. Contest not open to SEGAbits staff or staff of SEGA fan sites.

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2014: The Year of the SEGA Console – join us as we celebrate SEGA hardware all year long!

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Twenty-five years ago, the SEGA Genesis graced American shores, where it would come to dominate the console market for years and make SEGA a household name. Twenty years ago, the Saturn was released in Japan and went on to become SEGA’s biggest success in their home country, though success that would unfortunately not be repeated abroad. That same year, the SEGA Pico and 32X left some US gamers scratching their heads as they introduced weird concepts of what gaming hardware could be. Finally, fifteen years ago on 9.9.99, SEGA released their swan song, the Dreamcast.

We at SEGAbits love a good anniversary, and 2014 is full of them. Throughout 2014, we intend to honor these core pillars of SEGA’s hardware legacy with 2014: The Year of the SEGA Console. We’ll be devoting entire weeks to certain games, entire months to certain consoles, and we have several special guests planned for the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show. We’ll write about the Genesis and how it introduced many of us to SEGA. We’ll look back at SEGA’s quirky art house console, the Saturn, and the many ups and downs the console experienced. We’ll remember the Dreamcast for the good times and unique and innovative experiences it delivered in the twilight years of SEGA’s time as a platform maker. We’ll give the 32x some overdue respect. Finally, we’ll all get SEGA Picos so that we can tell you about games like Tails and the Music Maker and The Great Counting Caper With the 3 Blind Mice!

Hope you’re looking forward to 2014 as much as we are, it’s gonna be a blast!

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My Life with SEGA battles it out in Marvel Super Heroes for the SEGA Saturn

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Marvel Super Heroes was Capcom’s follow-up to their equally successful X-Men: Children of the Atom fighting game.

Like its predecessor, Marvel Super Heroes shares much in common with Capcom’s prolific Street Fighter series with over-the-top anime-style action, combo system and so on. While the arcade game was first released in 1995, console gamers wouldn’t receive a home port until late 1997 on Sony PlayStation and, of course, SEGA Saturn.

The Saturn version is fantastic. The animation is like an explosion of color that’s very faithful to the arcade original, with an energetic soundtrack and kick-ass sound effects. Now that Lauren’s joined the League of Extraordinary Dorks, I feel it’s high-time I make her suffer for NHL ’94.

FUN FACT: The American version is the one and only game outside of Japan that supports the RAM cartridge. To learn more about this delightful peripheral, check out the episode of My Life with SEGA dedicated to it!

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Yu Suzuki to deliver a postmortem for Shenmue at GDC

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[SEGAbits at the GDC 14 event]

SEGA legendary developer Yu Suzuki is set to deliver a postmortem on Shenmue at this upcoming year’s GDC. GDC says that the creator will be talking about the classic game for the first times, starting from its origins as a Virtua Fighter based RPG for the SEGA Saturn all the way till its release in 1999. But that isn’t all, Playstation 4 lead system architect and game designer Mark Cerny will be translating the presentation! I guess that was what talked about last year?

Sadly for people like us that aren’t invited or can’t make it to the the event, good old GameSpot will be live streaming the event, so we don’t miss on any ‘surprise announcements’. So, who’s excited?

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SEGA Memories: A look back at Toys ‘R’ Us’ 1996 holiday video game catalog

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Its almost that time of season where most kids are waiting to tell their parents what modern day war shooter they want under their Christmas tree. Its also the time where older folks, like ourselves on the site, think about our previous holidays and how we used to make our parents waste hoards of cash to buy our affection. Wasn’t that great? Well this week on Monday Memories we will look at the 1996 holiday Toy ‘R’ Us video game catalog. I remember these where awesome as a kid, it was like window shopping for games in my underwear.

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SEGA Memories: The incredible artwork of Panzer Dragoon

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If you guys didn’t know, one of my favorite aspects about the video game Panzer Dragoon is the incredible artstyle. The art in the game is a mixture of one of my favorite comicbook artists, Mœbius and Studio Ghibli (especially the movie Nausicaa). On this week’s Monday Memories we will look at the art that inspired the great video game known as Panzer Dragoon!

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My Life with SEGA celebrates Kenji Eno with D for SEGA Saturn

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In honor of Kenji Eno, I’m reviewing the survival horror/puzzle classic; D for SEGA Saturn. This game was his first major success and helped pave the way for Enemy Zero, the SEGA Saturn exclusive, and D2 for Dreamcast. D has been subjected to a great deal of mockery and derision due in large part to it’s heavy use of FMV and slow pace….

Is it deserving of such ridicule, or has it been treated unfairly? Turn out the lights and see for yourself.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel! My Life with SEGA will be taking a short break, but will return on May 2nd with two zombie classics. Continue reading to check out the awesome teaser video!

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Import Month: My Life with SEGA sinks his teeth into Dracula X

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a sleeper hit in North America when it landed on the Sony PlayStation way back in 1997. Beautifully drawn 2D sprites with dazzling 3D effects, and a brilliant score. There’s a very good reason why many fans consider it the very best of the franchise. As incredible as the game already is, Konami released an expanded version for the SEGA Saturn….only in Japan.

That’s right; it’s import month on My Life with SEGA. This week, I’m reviewing Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight for SEGA Saturn. If you’re a fan of the American version, as well as the Saturn, you’re probably thinking, “Holy shit! The Saturn is one of the best 2D gaming machines ever created. This is gonna’ blow the PlayStation outta’ the water!”

Also, a reminder that the SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest is going on now – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

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Capcom asks fans what digital titles they want – survey includes Power Stone and Project Justice

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Don’t freak out, we’re not turning into CAPCOMbits. However, this story may be of interest to some SEGA fans. Capcom wants to know what sorts of digital titles fans want to see, and to let them know all you need to do is take a survey. Of interest to SEGA fans is that the survey asks “From which Capcom franchises are you most interested in seeing digital games?” followed by a number of franchises that were popular on SEGA consoles, including Power Stone and Project Justice (aka Rival Schools). Once you select the games you wish to see digitally rereleased, you get to answer more detailed questions including your levels of interest for HD ports of Power Stone 1, HD ports of Power Stone 2, and an HD port of a Power Stone Collection.

So if you’ve ever wanted to see some classic Capcom titles that appeared on SEGA consoles rereleased, head on over to the survey and make sure Capcom hears you!

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My Life With SEGA gets face hugged in Alien Trilogy

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AJ celebrates Halloween month by showing off creepy games all through October!

Okay, it’s October. It’s high-time My Life with SEGA got down with some thrills and chills.

First up; Alien Trilogy for the SEGA Saturn, based on the Alien film franchise. It doesn’t matter how many shitty sequels or spin-offs this bitch lays, nothing can tarnish Ridley Scott’s original or it’s amazing action-heavy follow-up written and directed by James Cameron….

But what about this game? Can I honestly recommend this one to fellow gamers without regrets, or will I be shouting GET AWAY FROM IT, YOU BITCH?! Let’s find out.

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