SEGA’s Hideki Sato talks about creating the Mega Drive to beat Nintendo

It seems that SEGA Japan’s former President (2001-2003) and hardware designer Hideki Sato is getting quite a bit of attention from the media lately. A few months ago he discussed what it was like going against Sony and the PlayStation brand, now he is talking about the creation of the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, which he reveals was created to beat Nintendo (no, duh?). If you didn’t know Hideki Sato was behind the creation of the SEGA SG-1000, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, SEGA Saturn, and the SEGA Dreamcast.

The Famitsu interview seems to be exclusive to its magazine but Siliconera translated some important bits where he discusses the SEGA SG-1000’s rough launch and how it helped the Mega Drive’s early development.

Swingin’ Report Show #82: Interview with Brian Silva of Visual Concepts, Midway, Accolade and more!

Video game designer and voice actor Brain Silva joins us on our latest episode to discuss his work on Bubsy and Bubsy II, Floigan Bros., Hydro Thunder, and H2Overdrive as well as many other games created during his time at Accolade, Visual Concepts, Midway, Blizzard Entertainment and Specular Interactive. Brian also discusses several unreleased games including Hydro Thunder 2 for arcades, Congo: The Secret of Zinj for Genesis and SNES, and Floigan Bros. for the original Playstation!

Brian currently works at Specular Interactive, having helped create the arcade titles H2Overdrive (Hydro Thunder‘s spiritual successor), Project HADES, Dirty Drivin’, and Batman. Learn more about Specular Interactive by checking out their website.

Also, make sure to check out Brian’s website where you’ll find some excellent design docs for Floigan Bros. and Crank the Weasel.

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

Cool art print: The Genesis and SNES as giant fighting robots

The internet is never short of crazy fan made SEGA goodies. From Daniel Dussault comes an awesome piece of fan art which depicts the 90’s console war as two console-inspired robots in battle. The piece originated at the Fangamer VERSUS Attract Mode Art Show during PAX Prime 2012. Now, SEGA (or Nintendo) fans fans can own their very own print of the piece by hitting up the Fangamer site. The print is $20 and measures 24″ x 16″. Hit up the link for more images of the print and make sure to share it with your friends!

Thanks to SEGAbits reader and forum member Randroid for the heads up!

The conclusion to the James Rolfe SNES vs. Genesis royal rumble

Earlier this week we shared a video from James Rolfe of Cinemassacre in which James, also known as the guy who plays the Angry Video Game Nerd, shared his memories of the days when the SNES took on the SEGA Genesis. At the end of the first part, James promised to return with a deciding battle between the two 16-bit consoles, and that deciding video has arrived. James makes it clear that this is HIS OPINION, and while we won’t spoil the ending James doesn’t exactly declare a winner though anybody with basic math skills can add up each round and find the results. So check it out and once you’re done share your thoughts in the comments below.

James Rolfe looks back on the SNES vs. Genesis war

Cinemassacre’s James Rolfe, also known as The Angry Video Game Nerd, has posted up part one of a multi-part retrospective of the SEGA vs. Nintendo wars of the 90’s. It’s really a great watch, with James looking back on his childhood self and having a laugh at his Nintendo fanboy arguments against SEGA. Now, an older and wiser James reminisces about the classic “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t” campaign, gives SEGA a lot of love and promises a proper console vs. console video in part two. Check it out!

SNES vs. Genesis: Which had tougher cartridges?


If you were a kid like me, your parents would have probably needed information like this. Trust me, I was a destructible child. Thank God for my parents that ‘CD based games’ really didn’t take off when I was so young or i’d go through games faster than I went through diapers (So what? I liked to poop).

Here is an informative video on cartridges, both for Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. If you are a SEGA fan (if you are on this site you should, unless you googled Nintendo amazing Zelda rom and ended up here) you probably guessed the winner.

[Source: BlisteredThumbs]