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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from How Stuff workstot coming. Hello again everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pouelette and

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Speaker 1: I'm an editor and sitting in front of me as

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Speaker 1: usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Gee, I'm really sorry

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Speaker 1: your mom blew up, Ricky. I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting

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Speaker 1: that one. That was That one has nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with what we're talking about. Awesome. Yeah, it's a great movie,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. Yes, if you have not seen that movie,

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Speaker 1: then you need to find out what that quote is

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Speaker 1: from and then go see that movie. He likes corn.

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Speaker 1: We could just quote that movie over this podcast, but

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Speaker 1: that would be finept it wouldn't cover the topic that

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Speaker 1: the title says true and it is one of our

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Speaker 1: favorite gaming companies that we're talking about the history of today. Sega. Yes. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Chris was the one who came up with the brilliant title,

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Speaker 1: the Sega Saga. Yes, it's an epic Sega saga, so

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Speaker 1: and and and it has nothing to do with Iceland, right,

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Speaker 1: completely different saga. No, No, there's no Bayowolf in the well,

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Speaker 1: they might have made a Baowolf game. I didn't go

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Speaker 1: through their entire arcade library anyway, and then it was

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Speaker 1: disgrendled anyway. Oh man, we're you can tell we've already

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Speaker 1: done one podcast this morning because we're really warmed up

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Speaker 1: with Lupi. Um. So, the funny thing is the Sega

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Speaker 1: still exists, so we are we are not burying a

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Speaker 1: company as we did with Midway so much, but it

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Speaker 1: exists in a radically different form than it did many

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Speaker 1: years ago. And uh, many people and I had no

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Speaker 1: idea when I started the research for this, but many

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Speaker 1: people think of Sega as another one of those Japanese

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Speaker 1: arcade game companies. Are game companies like Nintendo or Tito

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Speaker 1: or Sony and some of the others not so much. Well,

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Speaker 1: it is, but it began as an American company, Yes,

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Speaker 1: in Honolulu, Hawaii, which I guess technically in Honolulu still

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Speaker 1: was not in an American It was an American territory,

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Speaker 1: wasn't a statement. I think you'd probably still call it

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Speaker 1: an American company. And its name comes from Standard Games.

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Speaker 1: Actually it comes from the second name. Standard Games was

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Speaker 1: their original name. Yes, but they then changed the Service

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Speaker 1: games because they took they took the SE from service

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Speaker 1: and the g A from games and became Sega. Now

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Speaker 1: why was it called service Games because early on in

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Speaker 1: its history the company made coin operated amusements. Yes, right,

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Speaker 1: so these are the kind of the old style penny

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Speaker 1: arcade type games and they made them specifically, they would

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Speaker 1: they were making them for a very niche market, niche

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Speaker 1: military basis. Yes, And that's where you got the name

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Speaker 1: Service Games because they were in the service exactly. And

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Speaker 1: they the company had been around for a few years

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Speaker 1: when um, they kind of got this idea of relocating

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Speaker 1: to Japan. Yes, the company, originally as Standard Games, was

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Speaker 1: founded by Martin Bromily, Irvan Bromberg, and James Humpert. And

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Speaker 1: they started in um I, you know, oddly enough, right

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Speaker 1: before the United States entered World War two. Um with Japan.

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Speaker 1: Of course, um event that happened in Hawaii, yes, um,

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Speaker 1: but in one Bromiley was the one that said let's

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Speaker 1: move to Tokyo. And that actually, uh, you might say,

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Speaker 1: why did you bring that up right after the war thing?

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Speaker 1: It actually had a lot to do with the war,

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Speaker 1: not just because they were originally creating games for service locations,

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Speaker 1: but also because you know, Japan had been damaged pretty

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Speaker 1: heavily in the last days of the war, pretty heavily,

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Speaker 1: very heavily, and um the country. The country was rebuilding,

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Speaker 1: and they saw an opportunity to get in on the

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Speaker 1: ground floor of and and create an industry that that

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Speaker 1: really didn't exist in Japan like it did in the

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Speaker 1: United States. And the United States they had competition from

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Speaker 1: other game manufacturers, where in Japan they would have a

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Speaker 1: much more open market. Yeah, this was really amazing foresight, right,

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Speaker 1: because you have to remember at this time in history,

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Speaker 1: no one was really looking to Japan to become a

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Speaker 1: leader in electronics or or any any of those kind

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Speaker 1: of industries. I mean, Japan was a country that had

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Speaker 1: been devastated by war, and UM and the United States

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Speaker 1: of course invested quite heavily in in rebuilding Japan, as

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Speaker 1: did other nations, and Japan, for its part, didn't just

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Speaker 1: accept money and you know and coast the Japanese people,

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Speaker 1: the Japanese government really dedicated themselves to building a new Japan.

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Speaker 1: And and boy did they The electronics industry alone became

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Speaker 1: so important to Japan and they became so innovative that

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Speaker 1: it in Japan, you could argue, became the leader in

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Speaker 1: several electronics sub categories, to the point where you had

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Speaker 1: countries like America say, wow, what happened? We were we

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Speaker 1: were away in the lead there. What how did that happen?

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Speaker 1: And the reason that happened was companies like Sega really

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Speaker 1: saw the opportunity and seized it. Um. Yeah, So in

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Speaker 1: Sega merged with another company, rosen Enterprises, again founded by

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Speaker 1: an American, David rosen In, and they that company had

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Speaker 1: been working on an instant photo booths and mechanical arcade games. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think of that being sort of like pinball machines

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Speaker 1: and those things with the cranes that never seem to work, yes,

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Speaker 1: or the games where you get the coins that are

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Speaker 1: right there on the edge and all it's gonna take

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Speaker 1: is one more coin and it'll knock all those coins

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Speaker 1: and you'll be rich. But somehow, despite the laws of

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Speaker 1: gravity and the conservation of energy, it just doesn't work,

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Speaker 1: which shows you that science is a lie. Okay, that

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Speaker 1: last part was a joke. I'm going to send in

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Speaker 1: the stuff to blow your mind staff and they can

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Speaker 1: they can have a talk with you about that. Explain

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Speaker 1: how this is scientifically possible, I dare you. But it

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Speaker 1: wasn't long after that that Sega released its first major hit,

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Speaker 1: at least that I saw a reference, and that's called Periscope.

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Speaker 1: It's a sub submarine simulator again with the war theme.

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Speaker 1: UM and UH in giving you the concise history here

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Speaker 1: and which is the one that's on the same A website.

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Speaker 1: In sixty nine, Sega, Rosenan and the other people who

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Speaker 1: were shareholders in Sega decided to sell out to Gulf

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Speaker 1: and Western, which, according to Britannica, was founded in ninety

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Speaker 1: eight uh and just became a It was a huge

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Speaker 1: conglomerate company. UM. It owned Paramount Pictures UM and then

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Speaker 1: it changed its name Gulf and Western. I remember seeing

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Speaker 1: that on the Paramount logo and wondering what the connection was. Well,

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Speaker 1: it changed its name to Paramount Communications UH in nine

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Speaker 1: and then Viacom gobbled it up in UM. But that

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Speaker 1: that's uh, you know, sort of sort of how it

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Speaker 1: became a worldwide entity, because first it had to hit

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Speaker 1: with with Periscope, and then it was you know, became

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Speaker 1: part of a very large media distribution company, right and UH,

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Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that just this's just kind

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Speaker 1: of an aside that I don't really have a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of de tail about this. But then in the seventies,

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Speaker 1: Sega really kind of tried to branch out beyond just

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Speaker 1: doing the amusements and the games and created its own

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Speaker 1: Sega branded television screen TV. Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's one of those just odd things. Obviously it was

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Speaker 1: not not the it what ended up not being the

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Speaker 1: direction the company moved in, but it was something that

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Speaker 1: they were, you know, they were trying out different things,

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Speaker 1: and UH, as the arcade game began to evolve, you know,

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Speaker 1: late seventies, that's when we started seeing arcade games up here.

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Speaker 1: As I began to involve, Sega got involved in that

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Speaker 1: because you know, that was sort of Sega's thing was

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Speaker 1: they were they were all about coin operated amusements. And

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Speaker 1: then after the coin operated UH games started to really

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Speaker 1: take off, that's when you started to see companies developed

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Speaker 1: the home game consoles. Now, um, I have to say

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Speaker 1: that as I was doing research for this, I started

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Speaker 1: of course with Sega, but ended up on a really

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Speaker 1: awesome lengthy history of Sega at I g N, done

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Speaker 1: by Travis Foss f h s and Uh. He really

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Speaker 1: gets into a lot of depth about the company UM.

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Speaker 1: According to his article, UM, it was Space Invaders release

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Speaker 1: in by Tito UM causing a coin shortage in Japan.

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Speaker 1: Uh that helped spur the industry, the video game industry

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Speaker 1: in in Japan and UM. Sega at that point picked

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Speaker 1: up an American company called Gremlin Industries to come up

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Speaker 1: with ideas for arcade games. Did they feed them after midnight?

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Speaker 1: It's always midnight somewhere, well, not always, but at the

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Speaker 1: top of the hour, um, and head On was the

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Speaker 1: result of that. Applied directly to forehead it was Amazed game. UM.

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Speaker 1: Amazing No uh not not completely dissimilar to another famous

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Speaker 1: May's game not created by Sega. Yes, UM. But I

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Speaker 1: remember some of the games that Mr Foss mentions in

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Speaker 1: his article, including Zaxon, which was a three D space

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Speaker 1: shooter that was a great game. I loved Zaxon, fantastic game. Um.

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Speaker 1: And he also mentioned Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom, which

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Speaker 1: I can't remember if it was in the corner of

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Speaker 1: Pizza Place where I used to spend all my parents quarters.

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Speaker 1: For me, it was skate country, but was the name

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Speaker 1: of the skating rink at my hometown. This was that's

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Speaker 1: a pizza. There's some free plugs for businesses that no

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Speaker 1: longer exist. Yeah, but as Jonathan mentioned, uh, they started

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Speaker 1: getting into home games with some They started out with

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Speaker 1: a very very very ugly console named SG one thousand. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now this was marketed only in Japan. Yes, it did

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Speaker 1: not get worldwide distribution, and it's probably a good thing.

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Speaker 1: It came out around and it was a card cartridge

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Speaker 1: based system, right, Yeah, that was That was during the

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Speaker 1: game crash that we talked about in an earlier podcast,

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Speaker 1: which is interesting because it came out. I would say

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Speaker 1: that was the second wave of home big wave of

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Speaker 1: home consoles and Sega. Sega had some amazing timing with

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Speaker 1: its console releases, of the first being that releasing a

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Speaker 1: console shortly after the massive home gaming crash that happened

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Speaker 1: if you remember from our podcast about that that that crash.

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Speaker 1: What happened was that the market became glutted with various

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Speaker 1: consoles and games, many of which were of a poor quality,

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Speaker 1: and so the home market enthusiasts became disenchanted with video

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Speaker 1: games in general, and a lot of people were making

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Speaker 1: the move towards looking at personal computers, which really had

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Speaker 1: not hit big time yet, but we're starting to gain

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Speaker 1: a lot of traction. So home consoles were hurting at

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Speaker 1: this time now. And the the this console that Sega released,

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Speaker 1: the s G one thousand, it had some problems. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it only had RF connection, so if you were to

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Speaker 1: buy one today, you would actually have to probably find

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Speaker 1: an adapter in order to play it. I have one

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Speaker 1: and r F adapter, yeah, yeah, somewhere, and you haven't. No,

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Speaker 1: I don't have an S one. You know, they were

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Speaker 1: pretty affordable. They only cost fifteen thousand yen, which you

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Speaker 1: know was about hundred thirty dollars according to I haven't.

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Speaker 1: I didn't need the pricing for today. I can look

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Speaker 1: it up on That's all right. I didn't do I

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Speaker 1: got I got messages last time. How irritating it was

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Speaker 1: do the full conversion. But it did launch on July

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Speaker 1: fifte at the same day as you know the fan Colm, Yes,

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Speaker 1: the famicom, which was known to those of us in

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Speaker 1: the United States as entertainment system. So yes, right out

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Speaker 1: of the gate, Sega released this on the same day

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Speaker 1: as a an icon in the video game industry. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, then Nintendo Entertainment System would make its way

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Speaker 1: to the United States a little later, yes, but the

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Speaker 1: does not. And let me tell a little bit more.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a little more detail about this this console. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It also had a hardwired, permanently attached joystick, so it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a joystick that you would unplug and pack up,

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Speaker 1: and the reason for that was that it made it

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Speaker 1: less expensive to produce. But apparently the joystick had problems.

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Speaker 1: It was had poor response time. You had to really

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Speaker 1: press on it to get things done. And it was rectangular,

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Speaker 1: kind of like the shape of a remote control, with

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Speaker 1: a joystick towards the top end in the center and

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Speaker 1: buttons on either side. Not the most comfortable thing in

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Speaker 1: the world to hold. Actually, read an article in Wired

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Speaker 1: where one of the Wired writers found one while attending

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Speaker 1: a game conference in Japan and purchased it for about

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Speaker 1: fifty eight dollars to bring it back and try it out,

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Speaker 1: because hardly anyone bought this thing. That then Tendo beat

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Speaker 1: the pants off of it in Japan, and of course

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Speaker 1: never saw worldwide distribution. Yes, so his review was that

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Speaker 1: you could see why never saw worldwide distribution the games.

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Speaker 1: He said, we're pretty much not that great, and the

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Speaker 1: controls were really difficult, and the Nintendo was just a

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Speaker 1: superior system. Yep, yep, and in fact, it scared away

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Speaker 1: the corporate parent. Now, lest you have paused the podcast

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Speaker 1: and corrected me on Viacom owning Sega, UM Golf and

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Speaker 1: Western before Paramount even entered the picture, before they changed

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Speaker 1: their name, they said okay, no, Mr Rosen, you want

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Speaker 1: your company back. Um. And they were asking thirty eight

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Speaker 1: million dollars for Sega, which you know I would have

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Speaker 1: considered a bargain in today's terms, probably right. Um. So basically, uh,

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Speaker 1: David Rosen found some other willing partners and uh uh

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Speaker 1: including a company named c s K Holdings UM, a

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Speaker 1: Japanese company. UM. And basically they bought it back from

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Speaker 1: Gulf and Western headquartered in Japan, and uh Rosen stayed

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Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, California to manage the United States operation. UM. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the ST one thousand not a hit, and Gulf and

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Speaker 1: Western says, no, no, no, you go ahead, you can

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Speaker 1: have it back. And a couple of years later, Sega

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Speaker 1: launches a new console, the Sega Master System. So we're

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Speaker 1: skipping the SG one two. Yeah, I'm skipping all the twos.

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Speaker 1: Most of the several of the consoles will be talking

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Speaker 1: about had follow up consoles and Sega Mark three, let's

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Speaker 1: let's just talk about the ones that are important. It's

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Speaker 1: funny if you if you go back to the if

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Speaker 1: you go back to the um list of if you

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Speaker 1: go find this article and find these boxes, they are

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Speaker 1: the most depressing looking beige chunks of plastic kind of

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Speaker 1: kind of reflects their their their eventual fate, yes, however,

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Speaker 1: but not their eventual successes, which looked far cooler. So

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Speaker 1: the Master System, the Sega Master System you have thought,

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Speaker 1: it came out in Japan around and then it got

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Speaker 1: worldwide release the next year, and that was another eight

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Speaker 1: bit based video game console system. So this is the

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Speaker 1: same same general processing level as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

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Speaker 1: It was a thirty two color system as opposed to

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Speaker 1: the sixteen from the previous UH console, and again cartridge based,

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Speaker 1: but it also had a slot for a card system.

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Speaker 1: The cards would actually hold games that were not as complicated,

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Speaker 1: that didn't need the full capacity that a cartridge could hold.

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Speaker 1: But you could like walk around with the whole pocket

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Speaker 1: full of games and and trade them with your friends. Right,

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Speaker 1: these would be the it's like pog now, these were them.

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Speaker 1: You could play Pog with the cards if you really

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Speaker 1: wanted to. Now that the cards were for the games

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Speaker 1: that were much less complicated, So you might have uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, You're You're a title games. Those would all

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Speaker 1: be on cartridges because they needed that space. But then

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Speaker 1: you would have these very simple games that were not

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Speaker 1: that uh demanding as far as um storage space goes,

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Speaker 1: and so those would be used on the cards. The

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Speaker 1: card thing did not last very long. The later versions

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Speaker 1: of the Sega Master System just did away with it

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Speaker 1: because hardly anyone was purchasing these card games, and then

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Speaker 1: they would just they would release like batches of these

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Speaker 1: card games all contained to one cartridge instead. So it's

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Speaker 1: kind of like if you've ever played a more modern

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Speaker 1: console where they release the classic games, where you'll get

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Speaker 1: like maybe thirty or forty classic games on one desk.

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Speaker 1: It was kind of the equivalent to that, uh and

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Speaker 1: that one was around two hundred dollars when it launched.

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Speaker 1: Now at this point, UH I believe a man named

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Speaker 1: Hayao naka Yama was in charge of Sega in in

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Speaker 1: Japan and Rosen was handling things here in the United States.

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Speaker 1: They didn't always so much get along. Um. And that

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Speaker 1: that's important because that story is going on behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes here. We don't really see that. Those of us

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Speaker 1: who are are Sega fans, Um, we don't really see

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Speaker 1: all that stuff because you know, this is not the

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Speaker 1: kind of thing where you know, you would typically know

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Speaker 1: about that. What you're looking at is you know whether

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Speaker 1: or not uh, Space Harrier and out Run and Zaxon

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Speaker 1: are coming into your house. Um. But the thing is

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Speaker 1: that the decisions made by Sega in Japan and Sega

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Speaker 1: in America had a great deal to do with the

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Speaker 1: successes and failures of the companies we're gonna see coming

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Speaker 1: up shortly because at this point, this is when uh,

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Speaker 1: Nintendo was launching Super Mario Brothers. Yeah, around that time,

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Speaker 1: the Sega Master System was seeing some success in Europe.

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Speaker 1: They were they were actually selling fairly well in Europe,

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Speaker 1: but in the United States and Japan they were trailing

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Speaker 1: sales of the in s and uh. Really the Sega's

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Speaker 1: strong suit at this point was their intellectual property for

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Speaker 1: their arcade games, like you were saying, right, and they

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Speaker 1: had that leverage, and Nintendo had Mario. Right, Nintendo had

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Speaker 1: an identifiable mascot, yes, right, and and Sega needed something

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Speaker 1: like that because I mean you could say that Atari

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Speaker 1: had pac Man. True, yeah, Atari had licensed pac Man

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Speaker 1: from Namco for you or for worse that that was

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Speaker 1: another podcast. Um, but yeah, it's uh um. They were

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Speaker 1: really looking for some character that they could use, they

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Speaker 1: could leverage, and I know who you're thinking of, but

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Speaker 1: it wasn't him yet. It was Alex Kidd that they

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Speaker 1: settled on. If you haven't heard of him, that shows

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Speaker 1: that it was not a huge success, right. Um. No,

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Speaker 1: They tried to make him into a franchiseable character that

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Speaker 1: they could parlay at home, but he just didn't. Alex

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Speaker 1: Kidd in Miracle World just didn't take off like they

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Speaker 1: hoped it would. Well, who would have thought that jump

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Speaker 1: Man would eventually become an iconic character. I mean, a

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Speaker 1: shortish plumber and overalls Mario started off as jump Man.

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Speaker 1: No one would have thought this guy is going to

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Speaker 1: become the icon for a company. Yeah, and he did

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Speaker 1: showed us. So at this time, we're getting into the

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Speaker 1: late eighties, Saga starts to plan its next big console.

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Speaker 1: How do you follow up? Name the mass your system,

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Speaker 1: especially one that didn't do so well in the United States.

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Speaker 1: In Japan, well, you could call it the Mega Drive

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Speaker 1: if you want to do, but why would you do that.

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Speaker 1: Well it did do that for some countries, but in

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Speaker 1: the United States it was called Genesis. Yes, not that Genesis.

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Speaker 1: What it was This thing didn't like make dead planets

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Speaker 1: turn alive. This is I never bought one. Then the

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Speaker 1: Master system was was had changed from that really boring

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Speaker 1: beige color to black, but it still looked like a

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Speaker 1: box with ports on it. The Genesis was black and

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Speaker 1: shiny and round, round dish, It had curves, and it

340
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Speaker 1: was a lot cooler looking than it's previous. Not that

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00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 1: that sells, however, altered beast being packaged with the system

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Speaker 1: that helps. And I'll keep in mind the Sega Genesis

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Speaker 1: was still a cartridge based system. We haven't moved away

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Speaker 1: from cartridges yet, but it was superior to the NES.

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Speaker 1: It was a sixteen bit system, yes it was. The

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Speaker 1: NES was an eight bit system, and when it came

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Speaker 1: out in Japan that was before the Supernintendo. Yes, not

348
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Speaker 1: a whole lot longer before the Supernintendo, but but long

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Speaker 1: enough so that Sega had a jump on the sixteen

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Speaker 1: bit market. Yes. Now, the the I g N article

351
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Speaker 1: points out that it didn't take off right out of

352
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Speaker 1: the gate in Japan, maybe partially due to and I

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Speaker 1: didn't know this either, that Super Mario Brothers three had

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Speaker 1: been released the week before, great timing Sega, so everybody

355
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Speaker 1: was still kind of invested in Well, yeah, Nintendo had

356
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Speaker 1: an amazing market penetration to so you get to some

357
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Speaker 1: point it's just like, you know, the to to jump

358
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Speaker 1: over to another company for a second PlayStation had such

359
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:56,199
Speaker 1: a great depth of games that the the original PlayStation

360
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Speaker 1: was going strong well after the PlayStation two came out,

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Speaker 1: and then when the play stay and three came out,

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Speaker 1: the PlayStation two did the same thing. In fact, they

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Speaker 1: were still making PlayStation two games long after the PS

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Speaker 1: three came out, So there's a there's a level of

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Speaker 1: loyalty among gamers. Also. I mean, let's face it, it

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Speaker 1: costs a lot of money to upgrade from one system

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Speaker 1: to another. So if you are a gamer and you

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Speaker 1: have a console and they're still getting new games coming

369
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Speaker 1: out for that console, there's not a whole lot of

370
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Speaker 1: reason for you to jump ship to another system unless

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Speaker 1: the games are just phenomenally better. Now, you could argue

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Speaker 1: that the Genesis games were at least phenomenally better from

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Speaker 1: a graphical standpoint or or even sound effects standpoint. The

374
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: specs on the Genesis were superior to the nes. But again,

375
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Speaker 1: the market penetration that Nintendo had, particularly in Japan, was

376
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Speaker 1: hard to to to just dismiss. Yeah, the Genesis only

377
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: sold four hundred thousand units in its first year, which

378
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,959
Speaker 1: is not I mean, especially by today's standard, where gaming

379
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 1: is far more um entrenched in the market than it

380
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: used to be. That's that's nothing. But in the United

381
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: States they got a guy named Michael Kat's to take

382
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 1: over UM and um. Basically, they named Hi president of

383
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Speaker 1: Sega of America one month after the Genesis launched. And uh,

384
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:24,119
Speaker 1: the company was really trying to push selling a million systems,

385
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 1: which again in today's standards, seems tiny. Um. But Nintendo

386
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: had the licensees locked up as well, um to use uh,

387
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: to use reference and uh yeah, I mean they had

388
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: contracts with them, they were binding that said, you know,

389
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:49,720
Speaker 1: if you developed for other systems, you can, And because

390
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Speaker 1: Nintendo had such a huge customer base, everyone wanted to

391
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,200
Speaker 1: develop for Nintendo. Now, for some of you this might

392
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,680
Speaker 1: sound familiar because we're seeing similar things in today's market,

393
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,120
Speaker 1: not necessarily with the video game consoles, but let's talk

394
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 1: about developing apps for various platforms. This might sound very

395
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,120
Speaker 1: familiar to you. Yes, so that's not an old idea

396
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:14,320
Speaker 1: or am I Rather, it is an old idea, it's

397
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: not a new idea. So this was around the time

398
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Speaker 1: where Sega finally did come up with a mascot that

399
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: actually stuck. Yes, is in that we saw a certain

400
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: blue rodent that can move really really fast. Actually, I

401
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 1: don't even know if that they're rodents, but um, I

402
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: think they are, but but I can look. Uh. Foss

403
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: actually pointed out that this was the point at which

404
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: Sega got into the sports genre pretty heavily. Um, they

405
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: got people like Tommy Lasorda, Evander Holyfield, Joe Montana, and

406
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: a non you'll probably WinCE when I mentioned this, and

407
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: non sports person but was big on the Genesis, Michael Jackson.

408
00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 1: I would just like to point out that none of

409
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 1: those are the blue I had mentioned, No exactly, but no.

410
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 1: I just the reason the reason I remember this is

411
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,879
Speaker 1: because all my friends who had Genesis is is the

412
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: geneses liked the sports games they were big on the shore. Um.

413
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: So yeah, they really had gotten that, and they helped

414
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: out a then struggling company named you probably never heard

415
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: this company, Electronic Arts, helped them what were the e something, Yes, well,

416
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: they had the Madden franchise. That was one of the

417
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: Madden franchise was just starting. But they developed the Joe

418
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: Joe Montana football game for Sega as well. And then

419
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: on top of it, you're right that that blue Hedgehog

420
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: Sonic finally showed up and he was. This really went

421
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: into their marketing thing because Sonic was a sassy little guy,

422
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,199
Speaker 1: sort of like Mickey Mouse when he made his debut

423
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Speaker 1: on the scene before he got kind of watered down

424
00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, so Sonic was, you know, right

425
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 1: there he was. He had in your face. It was

426
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 1: the Pucci of video game system Um. But his the

427
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: gameplay really started to sell these consoles because people were

428
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: looking at how fast Sonic the Hedgehog played and the

429
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 1: the graphic quality, the fact that you could have these

430
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:24,639
Speaker 1: fast moving, clean graphics with vibrant colors that really began

431
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: to catch the attention of the public, and the Genesis

432
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: started to actually make better sales. Unfortunately, right around the

433
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: same time the Jestice was starting to to UH to

434
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 1: pick up some steam, the Nintendo company came out with

435
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. So once again Justice Genesis

436
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: is catching a lucky break. Nintendo comes out and fires

437
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 1: a massive cannon across the bowl. Well, it probably didn't

438
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:56,159
Speaker 1: help that at that time, the graphics capabilities of the

439
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: Genesis led them to market their their marketing slogan genis

440
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: just does what an intended don't write. Um. We should

441
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: also point out that Sega had a bright idea to

442
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 1: make the Genesis backwards compatible. Yes, now, this was something

443
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: that becomes very important in consoles later down the line,

444
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: and some companies, mainly Nintendo, didn't really take it to

445
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: heart for a really long time. The idea that you

446
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: would be able to play your old games on your

447
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: new system now within the case of the Genesis. In

448
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: order to do it, you had to have an adapter

449
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 1: because the cartridges for the Sega Genesis were a different

450
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,879
Speaker 1: size than the cartridges for the UH for the Sega

451
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: master System. So but you could get an adapter for

452
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 1: your Sega Genesis and then you could play all your

453
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: old Sega Mastery games on your Genesis now. Granted, that's

454
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: not gonna mean that they're gonna look better or play

455
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: better than they did on the older system, but it

456
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: means you'll have access to them. Yep, yep, and um uh.

457
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 1: They recruited a guy named Tom Kalinski from Mattel who

458
00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 1: had overseen or worked with the the in television. Um,

459
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: your favorite game system, and uh it's not. I had one,

460
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: but it's not my favorite. They pushed him into the

461
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: CEO of Sega of America Slide and he made a

462
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 1: lot of important decisions. He decided that Sonic should be

463
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: in the box and not altered Beast, So Genesis started

464
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 1: shipping with UH with that and uh. Sega in Japan

465
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 1: didn't like the idea. They thought it was a bad

466
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: idea to include Sonic in the box. And Kolinsky, not

467
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: for the last time, proved that he knew what was

468
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: gonna work and what wasn't and lo and behold it's

469
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 1: It sold a lot of units, so welcome to the

470
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: next level. Yeah, let's talk about let's talk about some

471
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: of the other stuff that Sega dead. They also began

472
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: to introduce expansions from the Genesis, so not just the

473
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 1: adapter that would allow you to play old games, but

474
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: some expansions that unfortunately did not see a lot of success.

475
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 1: One was the Mega c D, which was allowing you

476
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 1: to play because here's the thing, compact us could hold

477
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 1: a lot more information than a cartridge. So the idea was,

478
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: how about for these games that are going to be

479
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 1: really uh pushing the envelope as far as what the

480
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 1: console can do. The consoles capable of doing more than

481
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,640
Speaker 1: what a cartridge based game can provide. So therefore we

482
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 1: need to create a system that will allow a new

483
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: media to be used, new form of media. In that case,

484
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: it was the Compact disc. So the Mega cy D

485
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: was produced and a few games came out, including a

486
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 1: Sonic CD, and uh, they did all right, but they

487
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,959
Speaker 1: never really took off. No one really adapted to it.

488
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: And then there was the thirty two X, which was

489
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: another expansion for the Genesis. Originally it was going to

490
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: be an update to the whole Genesis console, but there

491
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: an argument was made that it should be instead an

492
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: expansion pack rather than a brand new console. And the

493
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: idea here was that was going to give you a

494
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: jump on getting to the thirty two bit based game systems.

495
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: Keep in mind the Genesis is a sixteen bit system, yes,

496
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: and then Sega was already looking forward to the next system. Yeah,

497
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 1: it was planning on calling the Saturn. This was the

498
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: big problem with the thirty two X because they come

499
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: out with the expansion pack of the thirty two X,

500
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: but they also say that they're working on the next

501
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: generation console. Well, if you're a developer, a game developer,

502
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: you might think, well, why should I develop for in

503
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: a game system that's going to be obsolete in just

504
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: two years? Why should I develop a game for that? Instead,

505
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: I should be developing for the next generation of video

506
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: game consoles. So not a lot of content was produced

507
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 1: that could take advantage of the thirty two X. So

508
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: that's why that was a failed adaptation. But the Saturn

509
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: came out a little bit later and then hit the

510
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: US and it started to have a lot of the

511
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: things that you saw as expansion packs for the Genesis. Yeah.

512
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: It's an interesting story that apparently Sega had met with

513
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 1: Silicon Graphics UM back in the day and had a

514
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 1: meet a meeting with Jim Clark, who was the chairman

515
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: of Silicon Graphics, and they were trying to sell Saga

516
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: this new chip set that would allow them to run

517
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: new high powered games and UH. Basically Sega in Japan

518
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: was committed to going with the chip set that they

519
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: had already picked out for it. So even though this

520
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: UH system was going to be really, really cool, they

521
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 1: had to say no. And they said, well, there's another

522
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: company up in Seattle that might be interested in that,

523
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: and so they took it to that company and it

524
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 1: became the chip set for the Nintendo sixty four. Yeah. Painful. Yeah.

525
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: So the Saturn had three thirty two bit processors, but

526
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: it came out and it had a CD ROM drive,

527
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 1: it had to video processors. I mean, this was a

528
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: machine that had some decent firepower for the time, right.

529
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,800
Speaker 1: But here's another problem. It came out very close to

530
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 1: the same time that another major play or in video

531
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 1: game consoles came out, which was the debut of the

532
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: Sony PlayStation. Yes, this is another missed opportunity on Sega's

533
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: park because Sega had talked to Sony UM and Sony

534
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 1: had talked to Nintendo, both of them about the possibility

535
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,719
Speaker 1: of doing some kind of partnership, and Sony basically and

536
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: and Sega couldn't work out their differences. So the thing

537
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: is uh, you know, Sony went out on their own

538
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: and you know, delivered delivered a severe beating to both

539
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: of them. Right. Yeah, So you've got You've got the

540
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: Sony PlayStation, which was another CD based system. You also

541
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: had the Nintendo sixty four. This at this point, Nintendo

542
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: was still holding onto the cartridge based systems. Um. Although

543
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: some of my favorite video games of all time were

544
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: made for the Nintendo sixty four. Yes, Golden Eye Anyone,

545
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 1: or WrestleMania two thousand or WWF no mercy, oh man,

546
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: I love the wrestling games. Um. If you guys are

547
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: fans of wrestling games, let me know, because I'm always

548
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: on the lookout for really good wrestling games. So that, honestly,

549
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:07,120
Speaker 1: if you know of good ones, let me know. I

550
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: love them. Anyway, back to the back to the matter

551
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 1: at hand, So you've got the Saturn coming out. It

552
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: is not it does not do well against the PlayStation.

553
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: It doesn't even do well against the Nintendo sixty four.

554
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,600
Speaker 1: It is it's in third place. Sadly that that system,

555
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,359
Speaker 1: I think is is pretty widely considered a dog, which

556
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 1: is it's had some interesting features and actually had had

557
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 1: a slot, Yes, it had a slot for additional memory.

558
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,359
Speaker 1: So some of the games on the Saturn were so

559
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:38,839
Speaker 1: advanced that the system didn't have enough RAM to run

560
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,800
Speaker 1: the game. Well, okay, you know Saga developed, Um, we

561
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: we skipped over it and I can just throw it

562
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: in there real quick since we're running low on time. Uh.

563
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,320
Speaker 1: Saga developed active three D glasses years before this. Yes,

564
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 1: and they didn't take off, and the consoles supported three

565
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: D playback. So yeah, again easily they were really ahead

566
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,839
Speaker 1: of their time. And a lot of these these developments. Um,

567
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 1: so here's another problem. Again they did not learn the

568
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:08,080
Speaker 1: lesson that they should have learned with the release of

569
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 1: the thirty two X where they said, oh, by the way,

570
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: we're also working on a thirty two bit system. Just

571
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 1: two years after the Saturn debut, they talked about how

572
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 1: they were working on the next generation of consoles. So

573
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:22,359
Speaker 1: again you had all these developers say, well, why should

574
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,319
Speaker 1: I develop for a console that has a two year

575
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 1: shelf life left? Maybe um and you might be thinking, wow,

576
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:32,879
Speaker 1: this is really fast because of course, now right now

577
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: we're with Xbox three, SIXDPS three and the Nintendo we

578
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,359
Speaker 1: none of which have been we haven't heard any announcements

579
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: of any kind of successor to any of those three consoles,

580
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:45,280
Speaker 1: and they've been out for much longer than four years.

581
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 1: So Kolinski got fed up and and bolted in, said

582
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:52,319
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to do it anymore. And they brought

583
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: in a guy named Bernie Stoller Um and he was

584
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:59,200
Speaker 1: really apparently uh uh, you know, go get him kind

585
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: of guy. He's just, you know, let's not even talk

586
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,360
Speaker 1: about it, let's just go do it, you know, really

587
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 1: really active person um. But he he was really pushing

588
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,240
Speaker 1: for the you know, the success of the new system,

589
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: which went down in game console history. Um. I would

590
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: I would argue that it's probably Sega's best loved system,

591
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 1: even more so than the Genesis. It didn't sell that

592
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: well necessarily, yeah, but it's got a reputation. I own

593
00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 1: one and I still love the system. Originally called the Katana,

594
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:36,920
Speaker 1: it came out as the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was

595
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: a uh I love this video game system. The controls

596
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 1: were really responsive, the graphics were amazing, the sound was phenomenal.

597
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: It had a great video game library. It hit the

598
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:51,839
Speaker 1: market in uh it had a D eight bit graphics.

599
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: It was it was way ahead of its competitors as

600
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 1: far again. I mean that was the story of Sega

601
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: the whole time, right, Whenever the consoles came out, they

602
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: tended to be ahead of whatever their competitors were offering

603
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 1: on the market at the time. At sixteen megabytes of memory,

604
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,560
Speaker 1: which to us today sounds really tiny, but at the

605
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 1: time was really significant and uh it was. It actually

606
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: had a built in modem. It was the first video

607
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 1: game console to have a built in modem fifty sits

608
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 1: per second modem, but it was the first one to

609
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: have one. So it was actually designed to allow you

610
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 1: to have online capability and play online games they had,

611
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 1: and have a web browser as well. Yeah, I didn't

612
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 1: realize they had a web browser. Ye, well it was

613
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,920
Speaker 1: what wasn't native, It wasn't hardwired into it. You had

614
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,720
Speaker 1: to have the disc. Oh, they did have developers, uh

615
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,880
Speaker 1: you know, they had Capcom, Midway, Namco that you know

616
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: that the usual arcade suspects. They didn't have Electronic Arts,

617
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: who I think got very frustrated with having to do that.

618
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 1: They having to deal with Sony's up and now Sega's

619
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: up and downs us mostly downs. Um, So they actually

620
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:08,720
Speaker 1: went out and purchased another company to develop sports games. Um.

621
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 1: And from what I understand, Virtual Concepts, which was the

622
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,360
Speaker 1: name of the company, did pretty well with sports and

623
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: Church with Tennis was amazing. That was one of the

624
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: games I owned, and it is still own. I still

625
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 1: have this console. It was also kind of neat because

626
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,359
Speaker 1: you could want. One of the ways you could hook

627
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 1: up the console to your system was through co x

628
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: cable cable, so you would actually use you know, co

629
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 1: x cable into the the Dreamcast and co x cable

630
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: out from the Dreamcast to your television. So it wasn't

631
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 1: using like the the composite cables that a lot of

632
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 1: other systems were using. Uh. And it also meant that

633
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: I could hook up more video game systems to my

634
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: television because it was one less port that would be

635
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 1: taken up by the machine. Now I understand too that

636
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: this was a very, um a very productive time in

637
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: the company's history for coming up with new franchises. UM.

638
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 1: I believe sol Caliber is about the time another great game.

639
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: Oh I've got that one too, crazy taxi game exactly.

640
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: And And the thing is though that you know, even

641
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:19,920
Speaker 1: after the nine debut and the you know, the big

642
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 1: launch in the Great Games, um, it just it just

643
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: didn't it just didn't go. Um, and I'm not sure why.

644
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the marketing strategy of the company. They Sega,

645
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: see I keep doing that game. Companies that start with

646
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: US for two, Sega of Japan and Sega of America

647
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: did not necessarily agree on marketing strategy or how to

648
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,920
Speaker 1: bundle things, or the kinds of chips should be in

649
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 1: the machines. They had to compete against PlayStation coming out

650
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: with the PS two and Microsoft making the debut with

651
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: the Xbox. And Microsoft did approached Sega as well with

652
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,640
Speaker 1: the idea of including Windows see E on the Dreamcast,

653
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 1: and they said no. But why were they so interested

654
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: in the game? Mark ye kind of shots off in

655
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,359
Speaker 1: the foot on that one. The and and let me

656
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:14,359
Speaker 1: let me close off. Let me talk a little bit

657
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:16,880
Speaker 1: about something else that you could tell where other companies

658
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 1: took some inspiration from Sega. If you look at the

659
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 1: old Dreamcast controller there's it bears a resemblance to the

660
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,359
Speaker 1: modern Xbox controllers and had the triggers. Um, it had

661
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 1: a pretty wide uh controller form factor. Um, there was

662
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 1: an analog joystick on there. Um. It also had a

663
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 1: slot for memory cards. In fact, the memory cards had

664
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:43,479
Speaker 1: little screens on them, and you could actually have many

665
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,279
Speaker 1: games that would have pop up on the screen on

666
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: your card that would be part of the bigger video

667
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 1: game you're playing on the screen. And each game would

668
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:55,719
Speaker 1: have its own little individual special graphics that would pop

669
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,920
Speaker 1: up on your memory card. I love that. It was

670
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: just such a neat thing, was added value for your games. Um.

671
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 1: But yeah, it uh it. Ultimately, this system also did

672
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: not last the test of time, and in two thousand

673
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,200
Speaker 1: one January two thousand one, Sega made the decision to

674
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:18,839
Speaker 1: get out of the console market entirely and just concentrate

675
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 1: on game development. Ye have stopped stopped actually producing Dreamcast

676
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,759
Speaker 1: in March of that year, and um, you know they've

677
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 1: they've done pretty well releasing some games since then. U

678
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,240
Speaker 1: super Monkey Ball Anyone. Um, yeah, it's a great game. Um,

679
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: and it's you know, it's made its way to mobile

680
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 1: gaming devices. Uh. You know, we didn't even talk about

681
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: Sega's mobile gaming devices at all, but um, you know

682
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,759
Speaker 1: they it's available for mobile phones and other uh other

683
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:52,279
Speaker 1: things and uh platforms, I should say. And yeah, I

684
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 1: mean they're known now as as a software developer. There

685
00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 1: they re emerged all their developing strategies into one unit.

686
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: So it's it's a much leaner company than it was before. Um,

687
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 1: a lot of the Sonic games, you know, even uh

688
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,680
Speaker 1: Sega's biggest star. I've heard mixed reviews on the Sega

689
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 1: Sonic games that have come out in the last few years.

690
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 1: So it's just um sort of it sort of reminds

691
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: us of Sega's glory days without giving us the great

692
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 1: uh speed and action that we've all come to know

693
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:30,200
Speaker 1: and love. So if you guys have any Sega stories

694
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:32,880
Speaker 1: you want to share, or perhaps there's another game company

695
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: you would like us to cover. You know, we've talked

696
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,120
Speaker 1: about Atari, we talked about Sega. We have a couple

697
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: of others on the list already. But yeah, we plan

698
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: we'll probably have we'll have to do an episode about Sony.

699
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:44,359
Speaker 1: We'll have to do an episode. We have to do

700
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 1: one on Nintendo. We might have to do one on

701
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 1: the Dreamcast itself, because we kind of got that short. Yeah, yeah,

702
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 1: it's it's it's this podcast has gone really long, but um,

703
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,439
Speaker 1: the Dreamcast was a pretty phenomenal system. If you ever

704
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 1: do have a chance to maybe pick one up at

705
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,319
Speaker 1: a used game store and you know what's gonna work.

706
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 1: Go ahead and give it a try. It's a I

707
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 1: was really impressed with it that The graphics, of course

708
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 1: don't hold up to PS three or or Xbox three

709
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:13,840
Speaker 1: six quality, but they're they're pretty impressive even when you

710
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 1: consider what their big competitors were. So anyway, you can

711
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: let us know on Facebook or Twitter are handled. There

712
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 1: is tech Stuff hs W, or you can shoot us email.

713
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:27,120
Speaker 1: That address is tech stuff at how stuff works dot

714
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 1: com and Chris and I will talk to you again

715
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

716
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:37,160
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. To learn more about

717
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper

718
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:43,760
Speaker 1: right corner of our homepage. The house Stuff Works iPhone

719
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 1: app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to

720
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:54,840
Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

721
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:55,479
Speaker 1: are you