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!
[UPDATE – 12th May, 2013:] The saga continues! Vega has responded via Twitter to the utter disbelief of the price being rejected. According to him, the highest bidder got cold feet and backed out of the deal after it ended. A user on Reddit by the name of lordloss has uploaded a photo of a second chance offer from Vega to purchase the machine for $11,000. We’ll update as the Pluto’s saga continues to unfold. What a roller coaster!
After nine days on the auction block, the auction for a rare SEGA Pluto prototype unit amassed $15,500 over 89 bids, but no exchange will be declared as the auction failed to once again meet its reserve price.
This comes after the initial auction garnered only $7,600 and claims from owner Roger “kidvid666” Vega that he picked up the unit for only a dollar. Looks like 15,500 times profit isn’t quite enough to get yourself a SEGA Pluto prototype unit from him.
At this point, we don’t know if it’s straight up greed or if he wants people to start donating organs/first born children. But chances are, if this system is to join any game collection, it’ll take more than $16,000 at least to possibly make it happen.
Start saving.
[Image courtesy of Roger Vega]
Have a couple of grand you want to burn on a rare piece of SEGA hardware? Roger Vega, a.k.a. kidvid666, has put his rare SEGA Pluto system up on eBay after its initial auction ended at $7,600, failing to meet its reserve limit.
The SEGA Pluto is a sub-planet SEGA Saturn variant, of which only two knowingly exist in the world. The system, while much larger than its model 1 and 2 Saturn brethren (and roughly larger than a combined Model 2 Mega Drive and Mega CD), features a built-in NetLink modem, enabling the system to connect to the Internet for web browsing and playing certain online-enabled titles such as Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition, SEGA Rally, Saturn Bomberman, and Virtual On. Otherwise, the system is a typical U.S. NTSC Saturn.
Vega demonstrates in a YouTube video that the system, while fully functional, has a broken disc door that needs to have constant pressure weighing it down in order for the system to function properly. As of this posting, the auction is at $501 with over 21 bidders. It is set to end on May 10.
[Image courtesy of Roger Vega]
Eurogamer is running a pretty neat piece on Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of the Panzer Dragoon franchise. Like every great piece they go into detail on how he grew up, the schools he went to and how he ended up at SEGA. One of the neat pieces of information was that at age 23 he took over Team Andromeda. Think about it, this dude was in charge of many people older than him at the age of 23. He was 25 when Panzer Dragoon came out. Crazy!
“I handed in several proposals, one of which was Panzer Dragoon,” says Futatsugi. “I’d only been there about two years, but they accepted my proposal and put me in charge of the project. Just like that I was making Panzer Dragoon for the Saturn launch. It was a difficult project. All the programmers and designers were above me in the company but I had to tell them what to do, which was tricky. But I was young, so I could be stubborn.”– Yukio Futatsugi
The piece goes on and talks about his work after leaving SEGA, working at Microsoft Studios and releasing Phantom Dust (a great Xbox game, if you haven’t played it). He also confirms that Crimson Dragon is still in the works!
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!
Kenji Eno was always very anti-Sony and pro-SEGA back in the day. So much so that his franchises turned out to be exclusive and the man would go on a media rampage to put down Sony when he could. He is known for his horror SEGA Saturn titles like Enemy Zero and D (which later got a sequel on Dreamcast).
“I felt betrayed when Sony was treating me like that, so when I heard that the Sega vice president was a very interesting guy, he and I met and created this whole plot. My original conditions to make the game exclusive for Saturn involved my earlier story about supplying 1,000 Saturns for the blind people, and also to have Sega’s president appear onstage, personally, for the event. That was the original plot, and that was what was going to happen until the last minute, but he had a board meeting at Sega, and they were like, “OK, you’re actually appearing?” Like, Sega is a big, successful company, and a high-up management-level guy in that kind of company appearing in a situation like that isn’t good, so everybody stopped him. So he appeared in a video rather than in person.” – Kenji Eno tells 1up in a exclusive interview back in 2008.
Cause of death is said to be heart failure brought on by hypertension. Its funny how ahead of his time he was, one of his conditions to make his games exclusive to Saturn was for SEGA to give a 1,000 Saturn’s to blind people. He even created a game for them called ‘Real Sounds: Kaze No Regret‘ for the Saturn that was later re-released on Dreamcast.
Import Month continues with my review of the SEGA Saturn expansion cartridges from two arcade masters; Capcom and SNK. In addition, we’ll be looking at several arcade classics that utilize these carts, such as X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Amakusa’s Revenge: Samurai Showdown IV and King of Fighters ’95.
The Saturn was a capable 2D machine upon release. Is it even possible to improve on it without resorting to a more power console? See for yourself.
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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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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Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) is a Strategy RPG adventure series that features a unique sim-based story system developed by AM7 Team Shinobi (Overworks) from SEGA along with Red Entertainment. The series first began in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and spawned several sequels, including OVA adaptations, TV anime series, a movie, and other merchandises. While the game was a successful Sega IP in Japan, it never had a release in the West until the release of the fifth game, which was released and published by NIS America. However, the series has had a cult following within the Sega & anime community fan base with english releases of anime videos. Want to know what I think about the game and how awesome it is? Read on to find out.
Halloween month continues with another creepy video review from AJ, this time he dives into the Saturn classic Deep Fear.
You wanna’ see something really scary? Watch The Shinning, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Problem Child 3. Now, if you want something dark, moody and interactive, look no further….
This is Deep Fear for Sega Saturn. Sega’s answer to Capcom’s popular Resident Evil/Bio Hazard franchise. You may be saying to yourself, “I had a Saturn back in the day. Why haven’t I heard of it?” That’s easy; it was only released in Japan, England and Europe. There ya’ have it.
Did we miss out? The answer to that question lies in this video.
Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel. As a video bonus, after the break check out the Japanese commercial for the game starring Segata Sanshiro!
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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Red Entertainment will be bringing you Sakura Wars socially through the mobile game Sakura Wars: Allstar Collection. The game will be released through GREE later this month and feature “LIPS” (Live & Interactive Picture System) conversation system that has made the series famous since the SEGA Saturn era.
The system will work the same as it did in the Saturn era, during conversations you have choices that effect the path of the story and moods of the characters. Hit the jump to see the other photos.
Ah yes, that age old question: does an awful movie yield an awful video game? Find out in this week’s My Life With SEGA episode, as AJ suffers though (blast! I already gave it away) the SEGA Saturn game The Crow: City of Angels.
“Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful….well, AWFULNESS is!”
Yeah, I know that’s not the line, but it’s so much more appropriate. Why, you ask? How can the one and only game based on the craptacular sequel to one of the greatest comic-to-film adaptations be anything less than incredible?
Watch it and know my pain.
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Jeff Beckham, Digital Brand Manager at Sega of America, stopped by Gamespot’s live show to present 12 minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD gameplay. Ignore the dumb host, who seems to know next to nothing about SEGA’s Saturn classic, and soak up the lovely HD visuals. Take note that the menu screen mentions “Presents” and has a few blanked out menu options. Looks like we’ll be getting Christmas NiGHTS integrated into the rerelease. Hooray! No price is set yet, but Mr. Beckham makes it sound like fans will be pleased with the price point. If it’s anything like other SEGA Heritage releases, it’ll be $10. Thanks to reader celsowm for the heads up!
Another week and another video for My Life with SEGA posted on the SEGAbits YouTube channel. This week Die Hard Arcade is up for review.
“In this ‘classic’ episode, I review Die Hard Arcade (a.k.a. Dynamite Deka) for the SEGA Saturn. As a bonus, I manage to critique the cross-platform hit, Die Hard Trilogy….
Now, which one’s gonna’ find out what a TV dinner feels like?”
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