Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: sega

The Direction of Sega

Posted on by Viljami

There has been a lot of discussion lately about Sega and the statement that they made about not looking so much back. It has also been said that Sega is not a retro game company. They are going to focus more on modern video games. This makes me think about all the classic titles of the past. There is also a question about what new games we are going to see and will Sega bring back their most classic intellectual property like for example Sonic, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and so on.

Nintendo was the first game company to release a mini console. This happened with the release of mini NES that was followed by mini SNES console. This happened in between 2016 and 2017. It is not needed to say that these consoles were very popular. Sega released a bit later a Mega Drive mini console. We have also seen a PlayStation console of this kind among with some Atari, Amiga and Commodore 64 consoles.

Game consumers have been waiting and hoping for something from Sega like a mini Dreamcast or mini Saturn. It has now been stated that this is not going to happen. It is stated that Sega has no interest in bringing new mini consoles that would include some retro games. Instead it was said that the company wants to identify as a modern game company. Fans have also hoped to see something related to Sega CD and/or Sega 32X. This makes me think that we are probably going to see some new game titles that are going to be released in the near future.

I actually have this Sega Mega Drive classic/mini console that I bought for a cheap price, as always, some years back. If I remember correctly it cost me 60 euros. That is a cheap price for a retro game console that comes with several tens of games installed. It is very easy to hook up to your television screen as it has an HDMI connectivity included. It came with two controllers and they were very nice and of a good quality. Sega also released a bit later a second Mega Drive mini console that included some more games including some Sega CD games. There were a total of 53 games included. The first mini console had 40 games included.

For me, personally and as a video game enthusiast, Sega has been very important since the beginning of my interest in video games. I did play some PC games and tried out NES but Mega Drive was the first actual video game console that I owned back in the beginning of 1990s. The system was not so expensive at that time and it had many great games. I also had some friends that had a Mega Drive also so we could swap some games. My favorite games were Sonic 1 and 2, Streets of Rage 2 and Golden Axe just to give you some idea. Later I continued in this path and got my second gaming console and that was PlayStation 1.

As we are waiting for some news about new video games that are going to be released by Sega we also have to think that there probably will never exist a mini console made out of some classic game consoles or games. We just have to accept that and start to look in to the future. Will it be a bright one? We have to wait some more and just see how things start to shape up. What will we see when it comes to the future of Sega? What will we see in the future of video gaming? With these thoughts deep in our minds, or something clever like that I am now ending this blog post. I also wish you a very merry Christmas!

About Sega Dreamcast

Posted on by Viljami

Sega Dreamcast was released 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and Europe. Its game library consists of about 600 games. This is considerably lower than all games that were released to PS2, a console of the same era and console generation, that had several thousands of games in its game library.

Some other gaming consoles of this generation were Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2. So, Dreamcast was competing with these giants. This was an era in which we saw definitely more games released than we have in todays world of gaming. It has to said that the competition was tough. PS2 sold most consoles and had the most games in its library while Xbox and GameCube sold well but not as much as PS2. In 2001 Dreamcast was discontinued. It didn’t sell well.

Today Dreamcast is considered to be a definite gem as a retro gaming console. You can get the original console for about 200 euros. It is also possible to play it by emulating Dreamcast on a system like Recalbox that you can run on a Raspberry Pi 5 or PC. Raspberry Pi 5 has enough power to run Dreamcast emulation while some older Rasbperry Pi models might lack this power. We have to consider if this way of playing Dreamcast is actually legit or not. After all every Dreamcast game isn’t available.

I have solved this problem with buying this Dreamcast Collection for PC. I bought it a long time ago but it seems to be totally legal. This collection has four Dreamcast titles in it. While Sega quit manufacturing gaming consoles they still make video games for other systems. There are lots of good quality games still getting released by Sega. This tells something about their position as one of the most legendary game companies in the history of video games.

Sega’s history includes classic consoles like Mega Drive / Genesis, Master System and Saturn. However some of its products weren’t so successful. They did take a wrong direction with releasing 32X and Mega CD. They weren’t commercially successful which evidently lead to some financial problems that lead to discontinuation of Dreamcast.

What are some good games for Dreamcast? There are some role-playing-games like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II, a boxing game, Ready 2 Rumble, many 2D fighting games, some 3D fighting games, like Virtua Fighter 3tb, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Resident Evil – Code Veronica and many others. The game library is in its entirety a very solid and of good quality. I think that finding a bad game for Dreamcast is a difficult task to complete.

I do have some critic also about Dreamcast. The fact that the controller only has one analog stick makes playing first-person-shooters a bit clumsy. You have to map movement and aiming differently than you would with a better gamepad. Also when compared to some newer consoles Dreamcast lacks some power. But it has to be said that when considering it to be a retro console it handles its business very nicely.

It would be great to get something from Sega today that would be legit and also of good quality when it comes to retro gems like this one. There would definitely be many gamers that would like to buy a mini console, a remake or a completely new game from some of these classic titles. We have to see and wait for what the future holds for Sega fans.

Why Would You Buy a Loose Game?

Posted on by Viljami

Now why would you choose to buy a loose game instead of a complete-in-box or only boxed game that comes without a manual? With a loose game I of course mean a game that doesn’t have a case, manual or cover at all. Considering games that are delivered on disc this can also mean in some cases that the disc is damaged.

We can go through some of these reasons. First thing that comes to mind is that the loose game is way cheaper. How the game looks or its condition might not also be an obstacle if you just want to play the game. Its better to own a damaged but working copy than just downloading that game, right?

You can also buy a case for a game. This is however not so popular as an option. I have to mention this, without any direct links, there are places on-line that you can find good quality covers for games. So, if you have an access to a good quality printer you can even buy an empty case for the game and print your cover. Then you just have to cut the cover out of the paper with scissors. I have to mention that empty covers can be hard to find. You can also swap maybe a sports games case and use that with your loose game.

I do have some Mega Drive games as loose copies. It was some time ago that I also bought some empty cases for these games. Right now I have my gaming shelf almost full. There is no room for new Mega Drive games. I would have to remove a row of PC games and also do some other things to better display my collection. There is some work to do in this matter. Maybe in some blog post I could share you a picture of my gaming room or living room.

Also all my NES games are loose games. I don’t find these NES cases so appealing. I do collect and have some PC games that are displayed in so called big boxes. Loose PC games that come only with the plastic case are very lame. I do have some copies of loose games likee these but I don’t actually collect them. This can of course be a matter of taste.

Digital copies of games have many advantages. They don’t actually run out if they become popular like physical copies do and they don’t take any space in your home. PC games have already seen a change towards digital distribution. The biggest sellers of digital PC games must be Steam, GOG and Epic. I currently don’t have a disc drive in my default PC. I do have a secondary PC that still holds a DVD drive inside it.