#Sega Mega Drive Games for Sale

[evaristoramos]

Hey, pal!

I've just created a store on Redbubble, there you'll find some prints for sale, as well as various products!

So take a look at the site, maybe you'll end up buying a print, notebook, shirt or mug, right?

Here are two pieces of art you'll find there!

[aortaplatinum]

Why Sonic sucked in the first half of the 2010s

One thing I constantly see brought up in the constant Sonic discourse is the concept of the "Meta Era": the period of time in the 2010s when Sonic stories and the series presentation was the lightest and most shallow it had ever been. This era starts with Sonic Colors and ends with Sonic Forces, but doesn't count the failed Sonic BOOM sub-franchise experiment since that was done by entirely different teams compared to those who usually work on Sonic games. The "Meta Era" term seems to have been coined by J's Reviews on YouTube, and is characterized by fourth-wall-breaking, Marvel movie esque English scripts written by Ken Pontac and Warren Graff of Happy Tree Friends and MadWorld fame, along with strange characterization of the Sonic cast. But no one ever tries to look at WHY this happened. I'm splitting this post into two parts because 2010-2015 is very different from 2015-2020 in terms of why the games' stories and then the game[s] themselves sucked. So, the year is 2009. Sonic and the Black Knight has just released following last year's console entry of Sonic World Adventure [titled Sonic Unleashed outside of Japan], and both are torn to shreds by millennial games journalists who grew up with the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis games, for having stories that are "too dark/edgy". That aspect paired with these games' mostly mediocre gameplay caused them to be branded as "shitty Sonic games" by journos and the general public for years, until they were re-examined by the Sonic community as a whole, who found the good in Unleashed and Black Knight's stories and stage design in the mid-late 2010s. But, SEGA had just recently financially recovered from the failure of the Saturn outside of Japan and the worldwide failure of the Dreamcast, having to be bought out by pachinko manufacturer Sammy Corporation in the early 2000s to avoid going bankrupt. And despite Sonic historically being the company's best-seller worldwide [with the exception of Japan, ironically], SEGA Sammy Holdings [referred to as SEGA] wanted Sonic to be as beloved as much as it could and to sell as much as it could. The series' lack of popularity in Japan has always caused it to be seen as a mascot cash cow by SEGA Japan, just a source of income. Meanwhile, the same publications who cringed at Sonic LAUDED SEGA's recently published PlatinumGames release, MadWorld, for its presentation and its comedy dialogue, and with this positive reception, SEGA had an idea; marry the praised daytime Sonic Unleashed gameplay, with the tone and comedy writing of MadWorld- complete with giving the English script those same writers. There's just one problem- MadWorld is an ultraviolent M-rated comic book style comedy, sharing similarities with the original The Mask comic series. So you can probably imagine what happened when these writers were tasked with creating English localized dialogue for kids' games.

It wasn't very good.

But, sales were up. REVIEW SCORES were up. And this lead to Sonic Generations, which refined the daytime boost gameplay of Unleashed and even used it's same game engine, while introducing the world to "Classic Sonic", a modern re-interpretation of what Sonic played and acted like in the Mega Drive games from the 90's. Gens went on to become one of the most beloved Sonic games of all time- and thankfully, since the game had nearly zero story, there wasn't much script there for Pontac and Graff to... alter.

But, seeing the praise Colors' tone was getting from the professional journalists who bashed the 2000s games, SEGA decided the next course of action was to reach out and work with more Western studios. End part 1.

[archoneddzs15]

Panasonic 3DO - Night Trap

Title: Night Trap / ナイトトラップ

Developer: Digital Pictures

Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment

Release date: 25 June 1994

Catalogue No.: FZ-SJ1951

Genre: FMV Action Adventure

32-bit Night Trap this time, and it's just as good if not cleaner-looking than the Mega CD original. By 1994, sales of the American Sega CD version of Night Trap were suspended despite past controversy from the Senate bringing Night Trap up from underground curiosity to cult classic status. There was also a PC version, a Macintosh version, a 1995 "Sega CD 32X" version, and a 1995 re-release of the US Sega CD original that cut out the Sega-specific cutscenes (you know, the one where Lieutenant Simms holds a Sega Genesis controller) in favor of the original clips from the Hasbro Nemo prototype which they originated from. In fact, I believe this is the exact version that the Sega CD 32X version is based on. The 3DO version is also dubbed in Japanese if you go for the Japanese version, though I swear the voiceover is different here compared to the Japanese Mega CD release.

The video quality seems to be a lot nicer, the audio cleaner, and ....... the game plays the exact same as the Mega CD original. In fact, the 3DO controller has three face buttons, just like the original Mega Drive controller. Would I recommend you play this version of Night Trap today? Absolutely not, considering Night Trap is now on the Nintendo Switch of all things. If you have a 3DO or whatever means to play this game though, go for it. You'll appreciate the boost in color and video resolution here.

Night Trap was originally going to be called, "Scene of the Crime," and would be released for a Hasbro-made console named the NEMO, using video cassettes. Because the reception for the NEMO in production was negative, the NEMO never saw the light of day, so Digital Pictures decided to bring back the footage used for Scene of the Crime and called it Night Trap. In fact, you can play the Scene of the Crime prototype in Night Trap 25th Anniversary Edition.

[megamangx]

TALES OF SPOOK 2023

happy holloween mega fgans time for 3 dark storys to making youmr blood blow up.

PIPPA BECOMES TRAP IN WIFE WORLD

pepkin pippa was vtube and knowed govments where bad "listan chat the cia might be to kill me soon be safe" she smid and went to bed but then mask tatcal swat man comed in with machine guns "get here shes sleeping" they said and took her into an area 51 helcopter.

sher woke up and was drugs and there was color houses like edwardscisor hand and everyone was stepford and she was wering a housewife outside "i feel drugs what did they do to me what is this place" poippa asked and her husband george come "you are wife now you can not leave cia stepfordvile now come give me kiss" he said and she tryed to run but then a big bubble like prisoner one flyed after her "noooooo" she said and it gotted her.

afgter the lobotomy she was a happy wife and loved george "i love stepford ville and the cia" she smiled not without soul becuse she knowed too much and if you know too much the cia might send you to stepfordvile BEWARE!

the end

GARFIELD DARK BOAT

it was a boring day as jon ahd takened a holday to greek "look garfald i buyed a boat now we can get away from america and have a holday at sea" jon said and garfield sighed "i hate the sea" and they got on the boat and it went to sea

but odie notced something was wrong as boat was a water boat "this is not right" said garfield and jon screamed "GARFIELD I CAN NOT DRIVE THE BOAT ITS DRIVING ITSELF" and they found out IT WAS A DEMON BOAT IT WAS A POSSAED BOAT "we are trapped get us out" said garfield but the dark boat laughed "no you will be at seat forever" the boat said

"no" said garfield "yes" said the boat

jon got an axe and tryed to smashed the engijin ",fucking boat die" said jon and he axed the boat but it was driving without engins "we have to fight" and garfeld gotted into the vents to find the boats heart and punched it and the boat drived them back to shore and left them but out there the dark boat was waiting for new victims "well that was a day i'm hungry lets get lasgane" said garfield.

EGMAN.EXE STRAVING

my name is billy kevin and i lived with my mum and loved sonic the hedgehog so i went to car boot sale and finded game with eggman called straved "i not do know what this sonic game is" i said and the man smiled "it is not rare game you have never seen from sega 1999 witch was company that got shutted down in cut backs in 1999 you need to buy this gaje" and i buyed the game and takened it home.

i played it but eggman was there but he had red face and was eatring sonic "i love sonics face" said eggman and he ated more FLESH and the flesh eated good "thuis is scary i do don't lkike it" and i turned it off but it did not turn off "I CAN NOT BE TURNING IT ON!!" i saw words on screen YOU ARE MY NEXT DINNER

i runned down stars to find mum "MUM THE GAME IS EVIL WE NEED TO STOP IT" but i saw a smell and MUM WAS IN THE OVEN BEING COOKED TO DEAD "no MY MUM NO!!!!" i cryed and then straved eggman was there your mum is decious hahaha and you will be delious too" said straved and he takened out a knif and fork and i tryed to run away

i locked myself in my room as straved bang door "i need to stop him" so i read the wikipedia and it said UNLIKE SONIC.EXE STRAVED IS JUST HUMAN and I got idea as I takened out my shotgun and he kicked the door down "DINNER TIME" and then i got him in the face and he die of shotgun becuse he was human "SO HUMAN CAN DIE FROM GUN!" i was happy becuse now i knowed some horrors and .exes can be kill but i was sad too becuse mum was dead.

the end

[nightopia-s]

✧ visitor from another world ✧

. . -`★´- . .

a repost of my introduction entry on dreamwidth, but for tumblr this time!

my name is jay, but i also go by the nickname "nights" online! 👽 also my pronouns are he/him!

(huge wall of text behind the read more button below)

. . . . .

i am a 25 year old artist and cosplayer from england! i've been drawing ever since i learnt how to walk and i was always very fond of dressing up in costumes as i was growing up, but i officially got into cosplaying and attending conventions in 2009. i have worked at conventions a few times as a sales assistant, but i have always really wanted to start tabling at cons with my own art and handmade accessories someday! at the moment i make art prints, stickers, badges, and accessories and jewellery with pony beads, but i would love to branch out in future and make even more things with other materials and methods. i'm super into fashion, particularly styles such as y2k futurism and decora to name a few, and prefer to create casual cosplay looks for characters rather than fully cosplay nowadays (then i can represent my favourite characters on an almost daily basis instead of only wearing a costume to events a couple times a year heheee)

i'm also a lifelong gamer and collector! the first game i ever played was the original sonic the hedgehog on the mega drive back when i was a microbe of a child... i still have the covers from my old sonic 1 and 2 mega drive copies! ever since then i've been super obsessed with sonic and many other sega titles, particularly nights, space channel 5 and samba de amigo. other than sega IPs, i really love third person action games, social mmos/mmorpgs, rhythm and arcade games. i'm especially drawn to games that have character customisation.

i love to collect merch of all my favourite things, both official and fan made! i'm always hunting for merch new and old that i do not own yet, and i love to support other artists and small businesses by buying fan merch or commissions! ✧･:₊·

lastly, i am a huge fan of vocal synths! discovering vocaloid and hatsune miku back in 2007 rewired my brain permanently, which led me to create my own mikumikudance and figma stop motion videos; and then my own utau in 2010 named bobbi navine! they are one of my many many many ocs. also despite mostly owning several pieces of merch of miku, my actual favourite vocaloid is sf-a2 miki LOL

. . . . .

as for my future on tumblr and dreamwidth, i would like to somewhat consistently post updates about things! (<- very forgetful) i hope to at least post some art and craft updates when i have something new finished and ready to post, some fashion things, travel diaries and vlogs, and a lot of gushing about my ocs and all time favourite franchises and media. i would actually really love to use these sites as some sort of an archive for my merch collections? just a bit of everything and anything to look back on in the future someday, and for anyone else who stumbles across my blogs ( ´ ω ` )... given that these websites don't ever go down or anything and lose everything to the void, since we all know how much of a nightmare internet archiving has been lately LMAOOOO,, i also really want to customise my dreamwidth blog's layout and make it look nice eventually too :D i know i have a lot of ideas constantly bouncing around in my skull i have issues and problems

but yeah! if you got this far, thank you so much for reading! ♡ i know it was a lot of words but it's nice to have the freedom to write as much as i want in a single post without being held back by a character limit, it's been a long time since i've been able to write something at length like this even if it was just an introduction <:3c stay tuned for plenty more word vomit

have a gif, honk 🛸✨

ps. if you’d like to know where else on the internet you can find me, i’ll try to finish my ABOUT page on this blog with all of my links to other sites and such soon!

[semi-sketchy]

I know this is a follow-up that y'all were absolutely begging for, but yeah I didn't buy it.

The sale's over, and I said I'd be nice and allow myself to spend a bit more than usual this autumn sale, considering I kinda worked myself into a miserable mess these past couple months. This was on my list of games I was 100% sure I was going to buy, along with Little Kitty Big City and the Sega Mega Drive collection. I didn't buy any of them.

I spent like $16 getting Webfishing, Terror of the Hemasaurus and Endling. Almost bought Pizza Tower, but I have so much to play still, I figured I'd wait until winter sale and see if I'm ready to start another game.

And that's what ultimately took my Steam cart from being $140 down to $16: I took out the games I didn't see myself reasonably playing in the next few months, especially if they were over $10. SXSG, while one I would hop into relatively soon, would be out of obligation. I'm frankly just not excited to play it, top that with being the most expensive game on my wishlist, it got axed. Terror of the Hemasaurus though, oh honey I've been eyeing that game for like a year.

I don't know. I sound like such a teenager, but Sonic is kinda...complicated for me right now. I keep getting disappointed and coming back, hearing "you're a Sonic fan, you'll buy anything" over and over again.

I wish I could go back to being that kid who was happy to be Tails in Sonic 2, excitedly brought her Gamecube on vacation because she just had to play SA2, or grabbing a used copy of Colors when she finally was able to get a Wii, even picking Lost World off the shelf when she finally got a console the latest Sonic game was on. But then...she kinda hated Lost World and secretly agreed with the disliked IGN review. Still ended up preordering the Boom games, though. Preordered Forces. Cancelled the Colors Ultimate preorder. Got Frontiers at launch and just got drained from the toxic positivity trying desperately to drown out any criticism. Mania was fun, people were a bit too hard on TSR, TMoSTH was a blast, but does that really outweigh how much the series has disappointed me over the last decade?

Yet everyone says this is the best game since Generations, (although it IS also Generations) so maybe I'm skipping out on the one that would make things feel better, but...I don't trust it. Not after all these years and IDW and Prime. Not after everything that came with Frontiers.

I love SA2 and can go back to it with ease, same with Colors and Sonic 2. It's not just nostalgia blinding me, I still find those games very enjoyable. I want the Rush titles brought to PC so badly and had the time of my life doing an LP of SA1DC. Hell, I'll defend the Boom show 'till my dying days, that fell so hard into parody humor and I love it.

I like Sonic, but I don't think I like the Sonic SEGA has wanted me to for the last decade. My favorites all came out before I even knew who Sonic was. I don't trust this new stuff is for me just because I'm "a Sonic fan who will buy anything".

I'll probably play SXSG at some point. Maybe not, who knows. I could go homeless or some shit.

This is such a long ramble for what ultimately is just me saying I didn't buy a video game, a question which absolutely no one asked. But I guess I just wanted to say it.

Honestly...I'm debating if I should even pick this up.

I know, for the whole package, $38 is a good price, especially since it's such a new release, but...I've owned half the package for years. It's called Sonic Generations. (Espio's Classic mission was a bitch to S rank, I don't know how y'all perfectly execute swings like that.)

Shadow's levels look cool and have neat concepts, like being able to take alternate paths if you use Chaos Control at certain points, although I really don't know if it'll be another "yeah the game is alright, but..." I'm willing to be surprised, though after Frontiers and seeing the Gens rewrite, I'm pretty sure I'll end up frustrated again.

I don't know if I want to pay almost $40 just to feel frustrated.

[fmhiphop]

Sega Game Footage Discovered Featuring The 'King of Pop' ; Michael Jackson

A Sega game featuring the late iconic 'King of Pop', Michael Jackson, is uncovered at a car boot sale in the United Kingdom, according to Games Radar. Scramble Training The Michael Jackson Scramble Training 1993 game, brings aboard pilots, and players who are training for their mission. The interactive game features 'Commander Jackson' guiding his pilots in an eight-man spacecraft.  The game not only features an arcade shooter, but also has an interactive ride for the Sega World amusement park.  However, following the 1993 scandal in connection to Michael Jackson led to a rebranded name for the game, ‘Scramble Training’.   Other Features of Michael Jackson The Moonwalker icon did form a long-time connection with Sega which led him in many directions. Former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka confirms Jackson composed music for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’.    Rumors began to swarm over the video game in light of the music creation. Complaints flooded in because of the title of the soundtrack and how it must change due to a compilation of ‘Sonic Origins’.   "Oh my god, the music for Sonic 3 has changed, even though SEGA Official uses Michael Jackson's music," tweets Yuji Naka. @nakayuji   In an interview with a Sonic Twitter account, Sega's social media manager, Katie Chrzanowski, says the original music must change.    "While unfortunately we can’t use the original sounds from the Mega Drive version of the game, Jun Senoue has been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for 'Sonic Origins'.” Rumors surface questioning if Jackson’s involvement in the game’s creation is due to his reputation. In 2006, YouTuber Qjimbo, brought to light similarities between the music in the game and the icon himself.  Ex-Sega Technical Institute director Robert Hector confirms Jackson's removal will not receive a commission. The original tape, ‘Sega AS-1 (Michael Jackson Vers)’ but sold by a relative of a former Sega Amusement Europe employee. The Oxford Duplication Centre and a Sega fan group have synced the tape to an archive and YouTube - accessible in English and Japanese.   Written by: Abbi-Rae De La Rosa| @justabbi_ Read the full article

[transparenttriumphzombie]

Danielle Bunten Berry (February 19, 1949 – July 3, 1998), formerly known as Dan Bunten, was an American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E., one of the first influential multiplayer video games, and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold.

In 1998, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association. In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose Bunten as the 10th inductee into its Hall of Fame.

Bunten was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas as a junior in high school. She was the oldest of six siblings. While growing up in Little Rock, Bunten's family didn't always have enough money to make ends meet, so Bunten took a job at a pharmacy. She also held a leadership role with the Boy Scouts.

According to Bunten, one of her fondest childhood memories involved playing games with her family. She was quoted saying, “When I was a kid, the only times my family spent together that weren’t totally dysfunctional were when we were playing games. Consequently, I believe games are a wonderful way to socialize.”

While attending the University of Arkansas, she opened up her own bike shop called Highroller Cyclerie. Bunten acquired a degree in industrial engineering in 1974 and started programming text-based video games as a hobby. After she graduated from college, she was employed by the National Science Foundation, where she created urban models before starting a job at a video game company.

In 1978, Bunten sold a real-time auction game for the Apple II titled Wheeler Dealers to a Canadian software company, Speakeasy Software. This early multiplayer game required a custom controller, raising its price to USD$35 in an era of $15 games sold in plastic bags. It sold only 50 copies.

After producing three titles for SSI, Bunten, who by then had founded a software company called Ozark Softscape, caught the attention of Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. M.U.L.E. was Bunten's first game for EA, originally published for the Atari 8-bit family because the Atari 800 had four controller ports. Bunten later ported it to the Commodore 64. While its sales - 30,000 units - were not high, the game developed a cult following and was widely pirated. The game setting was inspired by the novel Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.

Along with the success of M.U.L.E., Berry also had close ties with the games Robot Rascals, Heart of Africa, and Cartels & Cutthroat$. Throughout her career, she was involved in the creation of 12 games, 10 of which revolved around multiplayer compatibility. The only two which didn't have a multiplayer focus were Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa.

Bunten wanted to follow up M.U.L.E. with a game that would have been similar to the later game Civilization, but after fellow Ozark Softscape partners balked at the idea, Bunten followed with The Seven Cities of Gold, which proved popular because of its simplicity. By the time the continent data were stored in the computer's memory, there was little left for fancy graphics or complex gameplay - the game had only five resources. It was a hit, selling more than 150,000 copies.

The follow-up game, Heart of Africa, appeared in 1985 and was followed by Robot Rascals, a combination computer/card game that had no single-player mode and sold only 9,000 copies, and 1988's Modem Wars, one of the early games played by two players over a dial-up modem.  Modem Wars was ahead of its time, as few people in the late 1980s had modems in their homes.

Bunten departed EA for MicroProse. Allegedly, Trip Hawkins, CEO of EA, did not feel that pushing production of games onto a cartridge based system was a good idea. The shift was important to Bunten, as computer games had previously been distributed on floppy discs, and a changeover to a cartridge system would allow games to be played on Nintendo systems. This was a significant factor in her decision to leave. She then developed a computer version of the board game Axis and Allies, which became 1990's Command HQ, a modem/network grand strategy wargame. Bunten's second and last game for MicroProse was 1992's Global Conquest, a 4-player network/modem war game. It was the first 4-player network game from a major publisher. Bunten was a strong advocate of multi-player online games, observing that, "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'"

A port of M.U.L.E. to the Mega Drive/Genesis was cancelled after Bunten refused to put guns and bombs in the game, feeling it would alter the game too much from its original concept. In 1997, Bunten shifted focus to multiplayer games over the Internet with Warsport, a remake of Modem Wars that debuted on the MPlayer.com game network.

Less than a year after the release of Warsport, Bunten was diagnosed with lung cancer presumably related to years of heavy smoking. She died on July 3, 1998. At the time, she was working on the design of an Internet version of M.U.L.E..

The game's primary premise consisted of players playing with and against one another to establish total control over a planet. The name of the game stands for Multiple Use Labor Element. The game was originally made for the Atari 400 and Atari 800 but was later developed to be compatible with the Commodore 64, NES, and IBM pcjr. The game has a maximum of four players. Players are given different options and choices, and are allowed to create their colony the way they see fit. This can be done by changing races and giving respective colonies different advantages that will impact the way the game is played and determined later on down the line.

Ultimately there are two ways in which players can win the game. The first way is by having the most amount of money out of all four players, and the second way is by being able to survive the colony itself. The game focuses heavily on going out and retrieving resources that can be used to benefit their character. Items such as food, energy, and crystite are some of a number of in-game items that players are able to retrieve and use to better themselves. In order for a player to be able to access these items, they will first have to have access to a M.U.L.E. The acquisition of these items has a direct reflection on what the player will be allowed to do. For example, if a player doesn't have enough food, they will have less time during their turn.

The Seven Cities of Gold was originally intended to be another multiplayer game. It was originally a single player format, focused heavily on having the players travel around the map and collect items to help them strengthen their colony. Once they felt as though they had a solid colony, the players could battle each other to see who could overtake who After much consideration, Ozark Software came to the conclusion that this would not be doable. Instead, they went with a formula that had the game focus solely on developing a colony.

Ozark Softscape was a computer game development team consisting initially of Danielle Bunten, her brother Bill Bunten, Jim Rushing, and Alan Watson. Ozark was run out of Bunten's basement. The company was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas and had profound success with a few of their early titles. Ozark Softscape had a publishing deal with Electronic Arts for several of its groundbreaking games. In the early 1990s, Ozark Softscape left its partnership with Electronic Arts over a dispute to port some games to cartridge format for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It began a partnership with MicroProse to produce two more titles: Command HQ and Global Conquest. A dispute occurred over creating a follow-up to M.U.L.E. with Sega in 1993, and the company dissolved. The employees of Ozark Softscape moved to different areas of the software industry. 

Bunten was married three times. Bunten had three children, one daughter and two sons. After a third divorce, Bunten, who had until then been living as male, transitioned to living as a woman. Bunten underwent sex reassignment surgery in November 1992 and afterward kept a lower profile in the games industry. Bunten later regretted having surgery, finding that for her, the drawbacks of surgical transition outweighed the benefits, and wishing she had considered alternative approaches. She joked that the surgery was to improve the video game industry's male/female ratio and aesthetics, but advised others considering a sex change not to proceed unless there was no alternative and warned them of the cost, saying "Being my 'real self' could have included having a penis and including more femininity in whatever forms made sense. I didn't know that until too late and now I have to make the best of the life I've stumbled into. I just wish I would have tried more options before I jumped off the precipice."

After her transition in fall 1992, Bunten stayed out of the video game spotlight, mostly keeping to herself. She felt as though that after transitioning she was not as good at video game development as she had previously been, stating "So, I'm a little more than three years into my new life role as Ms. Danielle Berry, and her career looks to be somewhat different from old Mr. Dan Bunten's. For one thing, I'm not as good a programmer as he was." On July 3, 1998, Berry died of lung cancer.

Wheeler Dealers (1978)

Cartels & Cutthroats (1981)

Computer Quarterback (1981)

Cytron Masters (1982)

M.U.L.E. (1983)

The Seven Cities of Gold (1984)

Heart of Africa (1985)

Robot Rascals (1986)

Modem Wars (1988)

Command HQ (1990)

Global Conquest (1992)

Warsport (1997)

Although many of Bunten's titles were not commercially successful, they were widely recognized by the industry as being ahead of their time. On May 7, 1998, less than two months before her death, Berry was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Computer Game Developers Association.

In 2000, Will Wright dedicated his blockbuster hit The Sims to Bunten's memory. In 2007, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose Bunten to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. Sid Meier, the mastermind behind the video game series Civilization, inducted her at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

Bunten was a true pioneer for the video game industry, especially its multiplayer aspect of it. She is regarded by many as one of the best designers to ever grace the video game industry. Her success has even led people to make the claim that the work she did with games like M.U.L.E and Seven Cities of Gold was the inspiration behind highly successful modern multiplayer games like World of Warcraft.

Bunten was known as someone who was very easy to talk to. If someone recognized her in public, she would be more than delighted to have a conversation with them.

[geekynerfherder]

'Maximum Carnage' by Bill Sienkiewicz., originally used as box art for the 'Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage' SNES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis video game. Officially licensed 16" x 24" giclee print on Hot Press Bright paper, in a numbered limited edition of 125 for $45. On sale Thursday November 19 at 1pm ET through Grey Matter Art.

[archoneddzs15]

Sega Mega Drive - Ecco the Dolphin II: The Tides of Time

Title: Ecco the Dolphin II: The Tides of Time / エコー・ザ・ドルフィン２

Developer/Publisher: Novotrade (Appaloosa Interactive) / Sega

Release date: 26 August 1994

Catalogue No.: G-4123

Genre: Action

More of the same dull slog that the original Ecco the Dolphin was, except with nicer graphics, bigger levels, and stronger audio, but that's not the main thing that is interesting about this game. Just like the original Ecco the Dolphin, part of the profit of the sales of Ecco the Dolphin 2 was donated to Europe Conservation (European Organization for the Conservation of Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage) to help them in the acquisition of high-performance scientific equipment for their marine research boat, most precisely, a "Dual-Beam Echo Integration Sonar". Sega also donated a portion of the profit generated by sales of the original Ecco the Dolphin to the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals which is a special marine protected area extending about 90,000 km² in the north-western Mediterranean Sea between Italy, France, and the Island of Sardinia, encompassing Corsica and the Archipelago Toscano.

[attract-mode-collective]

“This is a NES compatible machine that has been erased from history”

Once upon a time, I basically acquired every single book on the subject of video games that went to print. Which wasn’t all that very often, so it was easy to keep up. Well, not so much these days, though the primary reason why I don’t feel compelled to maintain a complete library is due to the fact that most cover the same ground, generally speaking.

Obviously the best ones distinguishable via the amount and quality of research that’s put forth, as well as their points of interest… there’s a lot to say about the Famicom, for example. But what about Famiclones? There’s no such tome, but there might be one day! And courtesy of… a chiptuner? Yet not just any chiptuner, but one of the founders of the modern Japanese movement, Haruhisa Tanaka, aka Hally!

For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to his Twitter account as of late, Hally’s been posting various photos, and asking various questions, regarding the wild world of bootleg consoles, specifically the ones that hail from Taiwan between 1977 and 1990. Which will be covered in Volume 1…

Some of what Hally has been sharing may be familiar… or perhaps only feels that way… whereas some is new to a seasoned vet such as myself. The most important thing is his attempt to connect the dots and fill in the blanks, which there are a lot of. This involves Hally asking out loud, on Twitter, if anyone out there is familiar with such and such, like the Creator 75/IQ-801...

Guiding his way, to a certain degree, is some kind of “Taiwan Exclusive Database” (according to Google Translate). Which is where this mystery machine is listed. Hally initially notes: “it is strange for NES compatible machines. Rather, as of 1987, the streamlined design so far is too futuristic. Even somewhere like a mega drive.”

Later, Hally would come to realize that the assumed Sega connection has merit: “the company that registered this is called Seika Electric, a company that has been manufacturing Sega subcontractors since the Mark III era… Moreover, there are cases where this company actually registered client designs.”

Alas, some are a total mystery, like Famicone from clone from 1988; other than knowing that it’s from some outfit known as Dar Yar Electronics, it would appear nothing else is known, at least not yet…

In certain cases, maybe most, the info is out there. The problem is, “the model number, time series, and the relationship between the sales company and the development company are quite confusing.” Like with these Famiclones that simply go by Konami; this first one also goes by Seniton System-1 and was created by Fujian Seniton Electronics Technology in Taiwan, but initially for mainland China…

Whereas this second one goes by the Seniton Super Mode-3, the HiTex HT-767. the Game World JA-003, or Game Soldier 007, depending on where in the world it appeared. Including China, Korea, Russia, and Taiwan…

FYI/BTW: even though it was designed in Taiwan, it wasn’t until someone chimed in and confirmed that it was indeed also released there, hence why Hally is using Twitter as a primary source.

Here we see some joysticks that was developed between 1989 and 1990…

And after asking if anyone knew anything, one person pointed out the top right’s resemblance to the official TG16 Turbo Stick…

Whereas the one below it is the 929 Fighter, “a Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo-compatible arcade stick with turbo features, created by a currently unknown manufacturer. It is a reasonably common peripheral in South America."

Hally’s also using digging into official patents; apparently Nintendo filed these supposed re-designs of the Game Boy, circa 1992…

“Interestingly, in Taiwan, two types of designs that are slightly different from these are registered at about the same time.”

BTW, my favorite one (thus far) would have to be this one that’s apparently by just one person, Chen Fengyì, and apparently was never produced, yet Hally will surely find out for sure…

Like many others, including now you maybe, I’ll be keeping close tabs on Hally’s Twitter to see what other questions are posed and answered. Was gonna say that I’d take this time, as The Picture Book of Intellectual Properties In The History Of Taiwanse Video Games is being put together, to check out his first one, on the subject of chiptunes, but it’s apparently only in Japanese. Oh well.

I’ll still get the new book anyway, especially if the author’s pic is this one by Marjorie Becker...

[EDIT] Alternatively, he could use this pic of him and I, from Blip Fest ‘09...

[derenger]

Growing up, parenting and gaming - Longread on life, computer games and finding yourself

This longread is dedicated to and written for all those current and former kids, who had or have troubles growing up, taking decisions, finding themselves in the world they live in, who play games independently of age and – perhaps – have not lost their love for a good game, good times and good buddies.

Perhaps it will help someone in their life. If that happens – I shall think of this writing as useful and my time writing it as not completely wasted.

The ideas have been on my mind for over 2 years now (they started getting very clear when I started doing therapy) and I have to put them on paper now.

Here it goes.

I grew up in the 90s in Eastern Europe. After the USSR collapsed millions of people found themselves without work, perspectives and means of existence. We were lucky that my dad had a good job that was paid in hard currency, however he was barely home – and by that I mean like seeing him 2 or 3 times a month.

We had good living conditions compared to others and my mom did the best she could too take care of my younger bro and me.

The first time we were exposed to computer games was when I was like 7 and my bro was 5 – in the office where the boyfriend of our aunt has been working. We played Dangerous Dave, Scorched Earth, Socoban, Digger, Civilization, The Incredible Machine and some others I do not recall the names. And of course, we liked it and it did not take long for our dad to install them on his PC at home. 2 years later my best buddy got Doom 2 installed on his PC and that was the absolute blast. We spent weeks trying to figure out how to get through level 2 and it was a big holiday when our buddy finally did.

My dad tried to restrict TV and computer time per week, so we always opted for the PC. Over time I learned to turn it on by myself and play when there was no one at home. My dad did not know.

A couple of our friends had 8bit consoles - soviet bootlegs of Super Nintendoes, with TMNT and Chip n Dale, but that was probably it. After all, we were living in a small village with not that many possibilities to make money.

When I was 10 we moved to a bigger city into a 1 room apartment. All 4 of us. This was 1996. 2 other very important things:

We started going to a far bigger school than before, where the mood was totally different from what we were used to. We were bullied and beaten, could not get along with other pupils and teachers and no one actually cared.

Father was home every day.

We started going to a far bigger school than before, where the mood was totally different from what we were used to. We were bullied and beaten, could not get along with other pupils and teachers and no one actually cared.

Father was home every day.

I mean, father was present home every day. It is not like he spent time with us doing sports or whatever. He just had any idea what to do with us as this was his first long time exposure to kids in the 11 years we were a family.

He was more of an authoritarian guy – we were not supposed to waste time in gaming clubs, listen to stupid music (Prodigy, Beastie Boys), we should have studied well, read books, have been doing sports and in general act like good kids.

We were doing some martial arts sports cause mom brought us there. We were taking music classes cause “everyone has to”. We were supposed to help out at home. We were not supposed to hang out with “bad” kid or stay outside till late hours. We were not supposed to smoke, swear and simulate illness to miss classes. We were not supposed to get into trouble.

It is not like we were putting a lot of thought into it. We just moved to the city from rural area and frankly speaking were absolutely not happy about. I guess we just went with the flow.

This was also the time when the first “gaming spot” in town opened – they had 2 Sega Mega Drives II and 1 Sony PlayStation. MK3, MK3 Ultimate, Contra Hard Cops, Golden Axe, some samurai fighting games for the Sega. SPS – Red Alert, Twisted Metal, Duke Nukem, Doom and of course – an incredible breakthrough for its time – Quake 2. And that was a revelation. I recall mom giving us money from time to time. To go play. Sega cost like 1 buck and hour, SPS – 1,5 bucks – far more expensive, so we played mainly on Sega.

At the same time we did have some games at home – Doom, Power Formula 1, Lines, the same Civilization, Lion King, Alladin, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Gods and Dune 2000. Dad did not want to allow us play games. Like, at all. Don’t ask me why he never deleted the games. The PC was mainly used for him to work. So when he left home, he took the power cable of the monitor and closed it in his spare suitcase. What we did was to unplug the cable from the printer and use for the monitor. Later on he hid both cables – from the monitor and the PC in the suitcase. I found a way to open the suitcase with a very fine flat screwdriver. Mom hid the fact from our dad for a while until he noticed the suitcase was “broken”. I believe they did not speak with each other for a week. But I am still proud of the fact of cracking that suitcase! Fuck yeah!

Things started getting worse when I transferred to a lyceum - 1998. I was 12. This was like a gymnasium for hardcore science-kids, where they went deep into math and natural sciences. I was hysterical the first 2 years as I was barely making the program. Even my dad had troubles solving the math they gave us. Music classes turned to shits. I had no time nor mood for sport. But I had to keep doing it all. Just because. There were a couple of bullies in class, whose parents bribed the management of the school so that their kids would have fancy graduation papers at the end and frankly speaking no one could get a grip on them. That had me very depressed.

Around 13 I started stealing money from my parents and missing classes to go to computer clubs – their number was getting bigger every week, consoles started to disappear. Half Life, CS 1.6, Age of Empires 2, Q3, D2 1.07, Black and White, SimCity 2000, NOX, StarCraft Brood War and many other games had our full attention. The biggest part of it was the fact you could play with or against your friends! That was so fucking awesome! At the same time I started discovering sci-fi and rock music, but that is a different story.

We stole a lot of money from our parents in those times and missed a lot of classes and of course after 3 or 4 months it all got revealed. Boy oh boy our dad smoked us. That was very very tough for a kid when all the things he actually liked were taken from him. Dark times when we were seriously asking ourselves what the hell our parents wanted from us as aside from the stuff they told us to do they never really told us what was it for. Everything else was useless, stupid or waste of time.

Somehow my marks at school got better closer to graduation and I graduated almost with a medal, went to university. I remember they had this PC club with like 200 PCs and from time to time we skipped one or the other lecture to play Starcraft or CS, but very quickly boozing with buddies became the major leisure activity and pushed gaming to the back. I did pretty well at the university, made my master with excellence and that was it – 6 years flew by in a blink of an eye.

I got my own PC during the first year at the uni, played a bit of Warcraft 3, HOMM 3, Quake 3, Lineage II but it was not like I was deep into that. I remember after defending my master I spent like 3 days playing Crysis without anyone saying a word. I mean, I was through with the university. I was free!

Soon after that I went on to work abroad as a project engineer in the chemical industry.

At the moment I am doing sales engineer for a good salary in Berlin, I am married and except for the Corona and all the restrictions it brought life seems ok.

During the last 10 years of my “adult” life I have been in many different situations. I have been very sick a couple of times, running on the edge of life and death. I have been in some useless relations that only drained energy and nerves from me. I also have been diagnosed with depression and burnout at some point, did therapy and consider myself fully recovered from both. I’ll be summarizing it all below.

When I look at my life it did occur to me that gaming was far more important than just the sheer desire to shoot buddies and skip school.

Growing up under the conditions where everything is predetermined one does not really get the chance to expose your own wish. After all, my parents both come from very unhappy families and did not have the exactly best examples of parenting.

It occurred to me that they never really cared about anything we achieved – whether in school, music or sports. I recall a couple of times when I did really good, like winning the City-contest in English language or getting my first “good” in algebra in 7th grade as that shit was extremely tough. I do not recall any reaction. In fact, mom and dad put their close attention to us only when things started getting really bad, like when we were skipping classes or got arrested for setting up fireworks in a crowded place. We never really got any positive feedback for anything we did because our parents just had no idea how to do that. I do not blame them – they were trying their best from their own experience.

And gaming was the absolute opposite to all of that.

Going to computer clubs we knew exactly that we were surrounded by like-minded lads. We made some good friends along the way – lads, who were always ready to jam on de_dust or bring their D2 chars to share some loot. One of the owners of the club had a daughter who was really good in Q3 – I remember everyone has been looking at her like she was some sort of demigod. The games gave us the space and playground we needed so much – clear even rules for everyone. If you frag – you win. If you don’t – you lose. If you suck – the older guys would always help with a couple of tips. Games also gave us control. I really liked the games where you went on an adventure, like NOX or Will Rock or serious Sam. Gaming also gave us the space to take our own decisions and suffer the full consequences if these were wrong – getting overrun by zerglings or getting fragged with rocket launcher with QUAD DAMAGE.

Gaming clubs were our safe space. At some point our dad did raid the computer clubs and did bust us a couple of times. Sure we got beaten on those occasions.

I recall my bro being very proud on getting 1st in the national 2v2 ladder in SC:BW later in the uni. He also used to game the whole night long at my parents place. This was over 10 years ago and they still do not know. He is still very good in SC though he does not play anymore.

I do play sometimes – currently grinding D2 and refreshing my knowledge in chess. I do not have more time for any other more or less serious game.

I am slowly approaching the point where I should write a conclusion – it is going to be quite simple. Gaming was the first opportunity to take my life into my own hands. It took me 32 years of my own life to find the power in me to take responsibility for myself and not to rely on someone else. My decision – my choice – my consequences. It took a lot of trouble and turmoil for me to get to this point and finally embracing the power within feels great. It was also the first surrounding of dudes just like me, which was a very good feeling back then.

During the last 6 months I switched to a job that pays almost the double of my previous one, my wife moved in with me from abroad, we have a nice apartment and are looking forward to vacations in the Alps. I still have to find a way to approach my parents though I am not sure the old hive is worth disturbing. I guess time will tell.

Whenever I am down or things do no go according to play – I do turn to gaming occasionally, just to get back into the world where I am in full control. It gives me power and I guess hope that everything will work out. If not now – then over time. You just have to keep practicing. And ask for help when it is needed.

I hope you found this read interesting.

[sonicfax]

FACT #25

At one point in Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic says “Guess that means... welcome to the next level!” This is a reference to one of SEGA’s slogans during the 16-bit era, intended to boost the sales of the SEGA Genesis (Mega Drive), SEGA Game Gear, and the SEGA CD (Mega CD).

[kylemorgan7]

Best Retro Games UK

Retro Adventure is committed to providing you with best retro games UK, hard to access anywhere else. A diverse collection of old popular video games and game consoles is available. Admirers of retro games will find the stock hard to resist.

[robotsplayinggames]

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@RobotsPlayingGames 🤖💜🕹️ Playing Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis Classics bundle (Steam version). I had some of the games but I've recently completed my collection. I'm playing around with settings and this time, scanlines are on, no stretching so there are black side bars (you can pick other side bar options) and a bit of curved borders. Also no pixel scaling. I've shared this Bundle recently and It's still on sale with a 85% discount, priced at $12.30. It comes with 59 games, including Sonic games, three Streets of Rage games, Shinobi, and Golden Axe games as well as Gunstar Heroes and more. It offers some cool features, a virtual '90s living room with a crt TV, online multiplayer, 2 players online co-op, local co-op, special challenge modes, and visual filters. You can also play Sega Genesis games in VR and it's awesome! But it's a fun way to play Mega Drive even without VR. It's also available for other platforms. Check amazing gaming accounts tagged. Follow me 🤗: @RobotsPlayingGames 🤖💜🕹️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ----------------------------------- RPG: Robots Playing Games #streetsofrage2 #streetsofrage #sega #classics #megadrive #90s #16bit #segamegadrive #segagenesis #sonic #sonicthehedgehog #retrocollective #retrogamer #retrogames #retrogaming #gamergirlsofinstagram #girlgamersupport #girlgamer #gamergirl #gamergirls #gaminglife #videogames #playinggames #gamestagram #gamerlife #games #gaming #videogame #DigitalArt #Designer https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTbBmqn6RX/?igshid=1xmht5ex3ylj8