ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth

Developer Retrospective: From the Gridiron to the Basketball court, these are the games of SEGA’s Visual Concepts

by

Visualconceptsfeat

This month we will be celebrating the games of Visual Concepts, a western developer that is best known for the creation of the 2K Sports franchise of games. Not only did they have a long history battling EA on the Dreamcast; but they continue to battle against the EA Sports brand video games even after leaving our favorite publisher. What better month than July to focus on this largely overlooked and talented US-based development team. After the break, let’s look back at the games and history of Visual Concepts!

Continue Reading ➜

No Comments

Swingin’ Report Show #77: Interview with Greg Johnson, co-creator of Toejam and Earl

by

Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove is a Kickstarter campaign from Greg Johnson, video game designer and co-founder of ToeJam & Earl Productions. On this week’s Swingin’ Report Show podcast, Greg joins us to talk about how he plans to bring the funky aliens back in a new game, and how he and Mark Voorsanger pitched and developed the original three games of the series for SEGA.

Learn how Toejam and Earl made the transition from Greg’s subconscious to video games, what it was like working with SEGA throughout the 90s, his thoughts on the sequels Panic on Funkotron and Mission to Earth, and how Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove is set to reimagine and build upon the famous first game. If you’re a game developer, or simply want to know more about how games are made, this episode is a must listen!

Show your support for Greg and his team, check out the Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove Kickstarter today!

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

No Comments

5 SEGA Games Only on XBOX

by

Before I kick off  “The Weekly Five”, I want to say that my thoughts and support go out to our friends in Japan and other countries who were affected by the recent natural disasters. While they might be half a world away, there are still ways to help. Seek out charities or check out relief organizations like the Red Cross to donate. Every little bit helps.

When it came time for me to transition from the sixth to the seventh and current generation of consoles, I made up a list of pluses and minuses. PS3 offered blu-ray, 360 offered a strong achievement and avatar system. PS3 lacked PS2 backwards compatibility (with one exception), 360 lacked Yakuza. In the end, the 360 won out, mainly due to price but also due to the fact that the console could play a number of original XBOX games. I gained shelf space AND could still play JSRF and Panzer Dragoon Orta. Despite this, some XBOX exclusives were left in the dust when it came to 360 backwards compatibility, either due to technical reasons or lack of interest on Microsoft’s part. Today we’re looking at five of the SEGA games only found and only playable on the original XBOX. These cannot be played on a 360, thus excluding Panzer Dragoon Orta and JSRF. You dig?

Continue Reading ➜

16 Comments