From: bel@whipassgaming.com   
      
   > It's a Sega Sorta Christmas, where every year I (and perhaps only one or   
   > two other people) talk about the Sega qualities of their winter holidays.   
   > How Sega was your Christmas this year?   
      
   With the majority of my stuff still in storage, about the only Sega   
   stuff I could lock down were PC and 3DS items...   
      
   > On the up side, Sega purchased Atlus this year, so now the venerable RPG   
   > development house is part of the Sega/Sammy conglomerate. It's a good fit,   
   > since Atlus produces niche JRPGs with controversial content, and some of   
   > their best games ended up on the Saturn. That Sega is wisely staying out   
   > of the day-to-day operation of their game production is also a good sign.   
   > But the best part for us is that we can now count Atlus games among the   
   > Sega titles when we do this every year.   
      
   Yeah, I've gotta agree...it's one of the more intelligent decisions I've   
   seen them make.   
      
   > That brings us to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Soul Hackers, a   
   > Nintendo 3DS game originally seen on the Saturn. It's dated in a number of   
   > critical ways, most hilariously that it predicted a lot of the details of   
   > MMO games wrong. But it's still an excellent narrative, made better by   
   > English voice acting that's somehow not thoroughly annoying. It's   
   > ridiculous how cheap the game is on the western market, and something of a   
   > shame that it's been overshadowed by SMT IV on the same platform.   
      
   I've played a little bit of Persona(the first one)...isn't that Shin   
   Megami Tensei, or is it something entirely different? At any rate, I   
   haven't much looked in to this on 3DS, or pretty much any other RPG on   
   the console(I don't know why, it's probably the only thing, other than   
   my phone, where I'd actually be able to make time to play them).   
      
   > My only other non-retro Sega game purchase this year would be Phantasy   
   > Star Portable 2 Infinity on the Playstation Portable. Playa'. It's   
   > JPN-region only obviously, since the first two games didn't do enough   
   > business in the west for Sega to justify localizing it. And really, nobody   
   > could blame them since the bottom fell out of the PSP market long before   
   > the Vita was set up as any kind of worthwhile successor. What little I'm   
   > able to plan shows great promise, and a lot of improvements in both the   
   > interface and the narrative. But it's not a satisfying stopgap while we   
   > all wait for Phantasy Star Online 2, which may never come out in the west.   
      
   I really miss the PSO days. Though I had a Mac, PSO was still my first   
   real online gaming experience. It was like crack, I just couldn't get   
   enough. I remember every night after work we'd all rush home to dial   
   up(ugh) and jump on.   
      
   I still feel like the Xbox version was probably the best one, just due   
   to voice chat. I keep wanting to install the PC version(Blue Burst), but   
   I just never get around to it.   
      
   > On to retro releases then? That would start with the Dungeons and Dragons   
   > Anthology, the Playstation 3 release of the two arcade games Capcom   
   > licensed from the western RPG publisher back in the day and famously   
   > released on the Saturn. The side-scrolling brawlers are just as   
   > distracting and fun as they've ever been, made better by online   
   > multiplayer. But the way the games were released is completely baffling.   
   > If you wanted a disk, you had to buy the JPN-region version, which   
   > bizarrely doesn't include the English text (even though that was a   
   > built-in part of every arcade system.) In the EU and the States, the game   
   > was available only as downloaded content, which is unacceptable for a   
   > retro release. It's a situation made more complicated by the fact that the   
   > eastern and western releases are technically different titles, developed   
   > and published by different teams within Capcom. As a result, I haven't   
   > played it nearly as much as I wanted to, because there's no reason not   
   > just to play on the Saturn.   
      
   Due to bullshit like that from any given developer, when it comes to   
   porting arcade titles whatever format, I just stick with MAME. That way   
   you get real arcade version, and can choose from whatever rom version   
   you want. I do miss some of the console-only exclusives like art   
   galleries, practice modes, etc, but you can't beat it for the price(or   
   lack there of). Trust me, it's worth every retro-gamer's time to set up   
   a quality HTPC and grab the full MAME rom set.   
      
   > Speaking of which, more cheap JPN-region Saturn games have hit the market   
   > this year. In particular, National Console Support in Manhattan is doing   
   > their usual clearout of old games, and a good number of them are for Sega   
   > systems. NCS would be the first to admit that nobody really wants old 2K   
   > game bundles or piles of Dreamcast dating games, but occasionally there's   
   > gold in there. What I picked up was a two-pack of Quo Vadis II and one of   
   > the Tengai Makyo games, holes in my Saturn collection I can't believe I   
   > hadn't yet filled. One is an SRPG with giant robots, the other a   
   > traditional JRPG with pretty good art.   
      
   Well, not exactly what you're going to want to hear, but after buying a   
   modded Saturn a while back, I've actually just been clearing out my   
   library. I copy the discs and then just sell them off...unfortunately I   
   don't want to sell most of them, but the situation I'm in pretty much   
   has forced me to do so. Honestly, with the whole library pretty much   
   being abandonware anyway, I don't really have issues with it. Plus, it's   
   really nice to be able to just grab and ISO of some ludicrously priced   
   game, burn it and just play it. The first game I burned when I got it   
   was Burning Rangers and Panzer Dragoon Saga. Fuck Sega for printing six   
   whole copies of each back in the day...   
      
   > Another game bears mentioning, US Gold's World Cup USA '94, on the Sega   
   > CD. It had Genesis and Game Gear ports, as well as a pretty bad one on the   
   > Super Nintendo, but the Sega CD version is definitive for all the extra   
   > content in it that nobody cared about. And it's not as if it's a   
   > particularly noteworthy sports games. But I find myself drawn to these old   
   > titles now, partly because I never bothered when the systems were new and   
   > partly because they're so cheap. The few remaining independent game stores   
   > are always astonished to find me coming to the counter with a sports game   
   > box, and probably for good reason.   
      
   I find myself buying sports games as well, on the Genesis, 32X and SCD   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)