Planned MIII extension

[segadev No.5578396]

Hello. I was a hardware developer for Sega of Japan. We have had this story around the company for years, and i thought it would be time to ler the public know. It's 1986, and the Famicom disk drive has been released. Since the games for the Sega Mark III were less complex (example: we had stage-clear games while Nintendo had The Hyrule Fantasy.), we had to find a way to compete. After some ideas, we decided on a disk drive extension. It was planned to be released in 1987, and we were planning some games for it, but the only one I can remember is Phantasy star. Sega told me that the extention would not be revealed until the design was finished. I aggreed and we continued working until news came that the Famicom disk drive had a large piracy scene, which caused us to think if we should continue working. Eventually we figured out that we should not continue, and we moved on and Phantasy star was moved to cassette.

Cheers,

-segadev

[Anonymous No.5578415]

Very interesting, segadev!

[Anonymous No.5578426]

>Hello. I was a hardware developer for Sega of Japan.
Post proof, where do you work now

[Anonymous No.5578436]

>>5568426 I work at an undisclosed game studio today.

[segadev No.5578443]

Sorry, what do you mean by proof?

[Anonymous No.5578456]

>>5578443
Prove that you actually were a hardware developer for Sega and not just an 11 year old making up a story

By undisclosed developer do you mean a ghost developer like Tose, or that you can't reveal who you work for because of an nda

[segadev No.5578479]

-I can't rveal the developer's name because of an nda.,Also, Sega does not allow it's employees to show any internal documents, including any documents relating to employee status.

[Anonymous No.5578487]

>>5578479
日本語が話せますか

[segadev No.5578495]

はい

[segadev No.5578519]

Also, sorry for my bad english!

[Anonymous No.5578553]

>>5578396
I love those stories.

There is this story about the head of Nintendo Yamauchi authoritatively canceling at the last minute a deal between the Game Boy team and Citizen to manufacture their lcd screen, and giving the market to Sharp. Having to apologize for their boss breaking the deal, the Game Boy team is said to have concocted a new project for a color handheld and then shown it to Citizen with the promise that they would be the sceen manufacturer. But it's highly probable that Citizen and the Game Boy team both knew without saying it that Nintendo would never produce a new color handheld so soon after the Game Boy. And so, recently, some have theorized that Citizen soon after that may have talked Sega into producing a color handheld - and indeed shortly after the Game Gear was conceived with a Citizen screen.
Were you still working for Sega when they released the Game Gear ? do you know something about this ?

[Anonymous No.5578562]

>>5578396
>piracy scene
Good try

[segadev No.5578564]

>>5578562
I don't understand.

[Anonymous No.5578604]

>>5578396
0/LARP

[segadev No.5578619]

>>5578604
Can you clarify?

[Anonymous No.5578625]

>>5578396
Japanese don’t use this site. Nice try.

[segadev No.5578645]

Sorry, I forgot to clarify. I moved to America in 1989 shortly after the events of the disc drive. I learned about 4chan from a friend.

[Anonymous No.5578661]

>>5578645
Do you have any other stories to share? What's your favorite SG-1000 game?

[segadev No.5578679]

>>5578661
I was given an SG-1000 Mark 1 from Sega when I was hired in 1983. My favorite game was Girl's Garden. Wonder Boy for the SG was kusoge.

[segadev No.5578763]

Also, I never thought the SG cassettes looked like tombstones.

[Anonymous No.5578783]

What was Sega's company culture like at the time? Did you enjoy working there?

[segadev No.5578789]

They were very friendly, and I enjoyed working there. Despite the SG being inferior to the Famicom, we liked to joke about the FC.

[Anonymous No.5578794]

>>5578443
>>5578479
Can you post pics of anything interesting you have from that era? Like any old work coats, magazines or lanyards or something?

[Anonymous No.5578808]

is sonic really blue? or does he have a gun

[Anonymous No.5578809]

>>5578396
What the hell is going on with that D-pad?

[Anonymous No.5578820]

>>5578679
Great Taste; I've been enjoying the SG-1000 catalog lately. Monaco GP is really fun, and I like Wonder Boy, but it is definitely kusoge.

[segadev No.5578823]

>>5578809
That was just the D-pad we used. Nintendo used to have a patent for the D-pad and that was our version that did not infringe on the patent.

[Anonymous No.5578827]

>>5578809
It's missing the screw-in joystick add on.

[segadev No.5578850]

>>5578827
I actually was part of a conversation about the SG-1000 II controller, and someone brought up the screw-in joystick, and we all thought it was dumb, and he responded with something absolutely hilariu. He said, "It'll make the transition from the SJ-200 (the original SG joystick) to the SJ-150 (the SG-1000 II joystick) easier!" It was meant to be held like a Famicom controller, so you can see his "intelligence" there. But he was a trusted designer at Sega, so it was added anyway. It was also carried over to the Mark III's controller.

[Anonymous No.5578858]

>>5578396
What about the FM synth option? You couldn't make it standard in the us?

Sound was so disappointing

[segadev No.5578880]

There were plans, but it was cancelled due to the MS's extension port being a gender-inverted cassette port.

[Anonymous No.5578897]

>>5578850
thanks for sharing; definitely a bizarre line of thinking.

[segadev No.5578913]

Here's an image of the SJ-200 for reference.

[segadev No.5578943]

Here's another story. I also worked as a programmer before I worked at hardware at Sega.
To help learn how to program on the SG, I created a small paint program. Someone else at Sega saw it and created a drawing tablet for it, and it eventually became Terebi Oekaki.

[Anonymous No.5578967]

>>5578619
10/newfag

[Anonymous No.5578968]

>>5578487
The fact that he ignored this tells you everything you need to know.

[Anonymous No.5578973]

>>5578968
He responded in the next very next post, he hasn't quite mastered replying though.

[Anonymous No.5578976]

>>5578973
He responded in the most insignificant way possible.

[segadev No.5578985]

Sometimes the most simple responses are the most effective. Also, yes, I am new to 4chan.

[Anonymous No.5579024]

>>5578976
What more than はい do you want?

>Do you speak japanese
>Oh yes I do I'm Japanese you see and I worked for Sega yes yes yes

Fuck off retard

[segadev No.5579069]

I also think that the SG game Champion Soccer is kusoge.

[Anonymous No.5579075]

>>5579069
Please say something original in Japanese text and post unique photograph, so that we know you are telling the truth. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.5579084]

>>5579024
>I believe this guy because he said yes in moonrune
>retard

[segadev No.5579096]

My Japanese has not been good since I moved to America. Also, the nda also applies to employee posessions given from the company. Anyways, feel free to ask me any questions through the night, since I'm going to go to sleep soon.

[Anonymous No.5579105]

>>5578396
>Since the games for the Sega Mark III were less complex (example: we had stage-clear games while Nintendo had The Hyrule Fantasy.), we had to find a way to compete
That is rather too bad because it's mostly a more powerful machine than the Famicom. More RAM, better CPU, more colors, and less restrictions on how you can use them. Except it can't flip sprites in hardware so you waste memory with extra sprite patterns for every direction a character is facing.

[Anonymous No.5579174]

>>5578396
D-pad looking better than an M30.

[Anonymous No.5579531]

>>5579024
Exactly how new are you?

[Anonymous No.5579735]

>>5579105
>Except it can't flip sprites in hardware so you waste memory with extra sprite patterns for every direction a character is facing.
Sounds like an opportunity to make asymmetrical sprites. Got to turn the negatives into positives!

[segadev No.5579816]

Funny enough, the SG was actually weaker than the Famicom. The SG couldn't even do smooth scrolling!
https://segaretro.org/SG-1000#Technical_specifications

[Anonymous No.5579837]

>>5579816
b-but my 3.58MHz Z80 though

[segadev No.5579885]

That was the only category that the SG won ot over the Famicom.

[segadev No.5579928]

Here's another story for you. Since the early SJ-200 controllers would break frequently, some people just opened up the controllers and taped down the contacts so they could regain a good connection.

[Anonymous No.5579942]

Did you ever partake in any Mega Drive development? Was it internally known as mark IV?

[segadev No.5579953]

I did partake in some MD development, mostly testing prototype hardware.It was not known as the Mark IV, since the MS was labeled as the Mark IV In fact, if you look at the board for the MS, you'll see that it was labeled as the Mark 4.

[Anonymous No.5579961]

>>5579953
Sorry, I meant Mark V, I knew about the Mark IV SMS but according to your answer I can extrapolate it was just known as the Mega Drive.

Was "Mega" in Mega Drive meant to signify the one in Megabit? Were 128kb of VRAM originally planned? Did you test the the semi-transparency registers of the VDP? And the undocumented registers inside the YM2612 that let you have stereo panning on the DAC channel?

[Anonymous No.5579968]

>>5579953

I've never owned a Mark III/MS (I have a Mega Drive) but I do have a question: what was the logic behind putting the Pause button on the console itself as opposed to on the controller?

[segadev No.5579969]

The Mega in Mega Drive did mean Megabit, but the upper 56k was very buggy, so we ended up just only adding the 72k in the final revision. Somebody else tested the DAC panning and the semi transpaency of the VDP.

[segadev No.5579973]

>>5579968
People in Japan prefered the console near them with a long RF cord to the TV. That also explains the short hardwired controllers on the SG and the Famicom.

[Anonymous No.5579979]

>>5579968
Segadev can correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK that is a full-on hardware pause, it is not an input the game looks for. It literally pauses the console's program counter and mutes audio.

[segadev No.5579987]

.>>5579979
It's not. It acts as a programmable input IIRC. It's just it acts as a full hardware pause in most games.>>5579979

[Anonymous No.5580006]

>>5579969
Cool, thanks. I hope you can answer another very specific question I have:

The fact that the composite/RF output of the Mega Drive in H40 mode blends the pixels together by averaging them, is it an intended behavior planned by Sega, likely using a specific low-pass filter to also make the image be less noisy, or was it just engineering luck? Because the the H32 dot clock used in SMS games does not seem to feature any blending at all. Plus with certain RGB cables it looks like the composite output does not properly blend, revealing that there must be a secondary output method for composite video that disables that low-pass filter?

>>5579987
Oh wow, cool. I wonder how many games used the pause button to do silly 4th wall breaking stuff.

[segadev No.5580020]

>>5580006
The LPF pixel blending was engineering luck.

[Anonymous No.5580024]

>>5580020
u-uso da...

[segadev No.5580025]

>>5580024
Are you sure?

[Anonymous No.5580036]

>>5580025
I didn't mean you were actually lying, I'm just saying I can't believe it. I don't know how to explain that RGB cable behavior I told you about, if you're telling me there is not a way to get a non-LPF composite output out of the console. I feel very defeated right now.

[segadev No.5580047]

>>5580036
I may be wrong, My memory about the MD development is not that good.

[Anonymous No.5580054]

>>5580047
It's alright, thank you for trying to remember, and sorry for earlier.

[segadev No.5580060]

>>5580054
大丈夫です。

[segadev No.5580074]

That was It's ok in japanese.

[Anonymous No.5580080]

>>5580074
I know, it's ok ^^ I can understand a small amount of Japanese. Even then, there is google translator to help me.

[Anonymous No.5580087]

I can ask another question though, would the disk drive that was supposed to be released help spawn a programmer toolkit with BASIC and similar stuff? Like, you could put the OS on a cartridge and turn the Mark III into a computer, kinda like the SG-1000 was supposed to be if I remember well.

[segadev No.5580089]

Thanks! I also worked on a small test program for the SG.

[segadev No.5580093]

>>5580087
It was supposed to make a gateway for larger games and saving. like the Famicom disk drive. You couldn't even add a SK-1100 if you wanted to, since there was no expansion pass-through on the MIII disk drive.

[Anonymous No.5580115]

>>5580093
I see. One cool thing about the Famicom disk drive is that it also added functionality that wasn't there like direct VRAM writing and one extra wavetable channel. Was there something similar planned for the Mark III?

Also, I asked about the Mega Drive earlier, but could you tell us why the Mark IV was called the Master System? I have my theories, like the "Master" part signifying "Main" System.

There is actually an internet troll wondering around this board that is really fixated with calling the Mark IV "Sega System" because it was written once on some promotional material, did the that Master-less name ever come up during your time at Sega?

[Anonymous No.5580120]

why is there NDA for products from 35 years ago

[Anonymous No.5580127]

>>5579816
Um...yeah. It was based on a 1979 chipset.

[segadev No.5580130]

We planned on embedding an FM synthesizer, into the disk drive, but after the disk drive was cancelled, we released it as a standalone accesory. I've never heard the name Sega System. We always called it the Sega Mark IV or the Master System. I believe it came about because there were two bundles. One called the Base System, and the other called the Master System. They just used the term Sega System to describe both systems.

[Anonymous No.5580132]

>>5580120
It's just a bad look and an embarrassment from the company, I would suppose.

[segadev No.5580135]

>>5580120
I have no idea. Sega cam be weird sometimes.

[Anonymous No.5580139]

>>5580130
So the FM synthesizer was the left-over from the disk drive? Now that is a super interesting detail to know. Thank you once again

[segadev No.5580143]

>>5580139
You're welcome!

[Anonymous No.5580146]

>>5579105
Instead it can flip tiles, which is a somewhat less useful ability.

[Anonymous No.5580150]

Eventually Sega did produce a memory mapper for the Master System to get around the ROM space limit and have bigger games. I believe it is correct that the very early releases from 1985-ish were 32k and had no banking. They were already behind Nintendo at that point because the first games with banking hardware appeared in the second half of 85.

[segadev No.5580152]

>>5580146
Might be useful fora top-down racing game.

[Anonymous No.5580154]

>>5579973
I suppose it didn't occur to them to redesign the machine to accommodate American aesthetic tastes like with the US NES (Americans would have thought the Famicom was too cutesy and toy-like).

[Anonymous No.5580162]

>>5580146
Master System games often have symmetrical background graphics to conserve tiles.

[Anonymous No.5580172]

With the Famicom, Nintendo very cleverly set it up so the console itself has only 2k of onboard video RAM, the graphics data instead being in a ROM on the cartridge itself and this made the console extremely cheap to manufacture. On the SG-1000 and Master System, the console has 16k of onboard VRAM and your graphics data is in the main program ROM and copied into VRAM with a code loop. This means you're wasting valuable program ROM space with graphics data and every time you need a different graphics table, you have to slowly copy it in.

Though on the Master System you could sort of get away with it because Z80 code takes less space than 6502 code so it left a little room in the program ROM to put graphics data in. On the Famicom you'd be more pressed for space due to the greater memory footprint of 6502 code, so the design (having the graphics data in a separate ROM) makes sense.

I should still add though that Famicom games that store graphics data in the PRG ROM and copy it over aren't unusual--a lot of games had a CHR RAM instead of ROM and copied the graphics data over, usually when they wanted animated tiles. You can usually tell because these games have a noticeable pause when you switch screens as it's copying the next graphics table.

[segadev No.5580184]

Given that the SG can only do tile-by-tile scrolling, Flicky for the SG is very impressive.

[segadev No.5580206]

Here's a third story. During the MD's development in 1987, when we were working on the chipset, I wanted the z80 in the MD for MIII backwards compatibility. It was not included at first, byut after some convincing, it was added.

[Anonymous No.5580215]

Did you continue to work at Sega during your time in America? If so, what were you assigned to? It's okay if you don't want to tell.

Can you describe the sort of passion that drove 80s Japan into designing video games and their hardware? I realize Sega mainly specialized in fast-paced arcade style games, but was it merely the passion to drive entertainment or also to show off what technology would do? I also always thought of Sega as the company that was too much ahead of its time and wanted to show it off by testing new ideas, but didn't quite plan things the right way to be "understood" by most audiences. Or worse, wasted all that effort with less than ideal decisions, like what happened with the Super 32X.

I think they should have scrapped the 32X and made two Sega Saturn models, one with cartidge+CD-ROM drive and one with just the cartridge slot (aptly named Neptune) that could be expanded with a CD-ROM drive like the Mega CD. Having backwards compatibility would have helped I believe.

[Anonymous No.5580221]

>>5580206
Cool, so they originally planned for the M68K to do all the sound driver work? Did the pre-Z80 MD even include the PSG channels or maybe it didn't need to because it had a better sound chip like something closer to the YM2608?

[segadev No.5580224]

I worked shortly at Sega of America from 89-96.

[segadev No.5580228]

>>5580221
It was closer to the FM chip in the Mark III FM extension.

[Anonymous No.5580234]

>>5580228
Wow, so even worse than the YM2612? Because I believe the one in the Mark III FM extension was very limited, and also used in one very expensive Famicom game (Lagrange Point).

[segadev No.5580237]

The sound coprocessor in the pre-z80 MD was a custom Sega chip. The Sega chip being very unstable helped with the switch to the Z80.

[segadev No.5580254]

Also, early development tools were aggravating to navigate, and also very buggy.

[Anonymous No.5580261]

Was there a motto or internal motivational slogan inside Sega back then?

[segadev No.5580265]

>>5580261
There was, although I can't remember it.

[Anonymous No.5580276]

>>5580234
>and also used in one very expensive Famicom game (Lagrange Point)

Lagrange Point is a better tech demo than it is a game.

[segadev No.5580280]

I've heard that the SG-1000 is almost identical to the american ColecoVison. Is this true?

[Anonymous No.5580289]

>>5580280
The core chipset is identical, the controllers and memory map are different. One of the biggest differences is that Coleco implemented the NMI line in a weird, annoying way.

[Anonymous No.5580294]

[segadev No.5580297]

I also hear the SG has slightly faster VRAM tha the Colecovision.

[Anonymous No.5580312]

They both use 16x1 DRAMs for the video, the SG-1000 might have used faster ones, I dunno. Those were outdated 70s chips with triple voltage power that get hot and die easily and by the time the SG-1000 had come out were already superseded by newer DRAM types with single voltage power.

[segadev No.5580326]

During my time in SOA, when SOA execs said that we should push the launch to E3 1995, we rolled our eues, then quickly rushed to finish the translations in time for the tighter deadline.

[Anonymous No.5580328]

>>5580312
The SG-1000 uses 8118 chips though. These are a newer single rail 16x1 DRAM.

[segadev No.5580330]

I was talking about the Saturn. Sorry for not clarifying.

[Anonymous No.5580357]

Dear segadev,

I believe you and your story.
Thank you.

Can you please tell us about working in the video game industry in Japan in the year 1980-1996.

What was it like to work for Sega?
Do you have some interesting office stories?
Can you please share some emotions?

Just please tell us everything because I think this was an exciting time.

Thank you.

[Anonymous No.5580384]

and one time, i spilled blue paint on my pet hedgehog, and one of the guys in the office saw it, that's where sonic came from. ALL THANKS TO ME.

[Anonymous No.5580391]

...and one time, i was telling my co-workers about all the women i had bedded, 32 of them, i had thirty two exes... 32x! IT WAS ALL DOWN TO ME.

[segadev No.5580398]

>>5580384
>>5580391
Thanks for your stories. They were quite insightful. /s

[Anonymous No.5580401]

How do you guys back int he 80's imagined games in the future? And what kind of games you guys wanted to create in the future?

[segadev No.5580403]

>>5580384
>>5580391
I laughed at these. Thank you.

[segadev No.5580412]

>>5580401
I imagined that 2d games would only get better and better, I thought that 3d games would just be a fad. I was not the best at foresight.

[segadev No.5580420]

>>5580357
>What was it like to work for Sega?
It was great! I liked my coworkers, and the people there were very friendly!
>Do you have some interesting office stories?
I have this story where someone threw a spare Mark III devkit across the office. He was promptly fired.
>Can you please share some emotions?
Please clarify.

[Anonymous No.5580449]

>I have this story where someone threw a spare Mark III devkit across the office. He was promptly fired.
Why did he/she do that?

[Anonymous No.5580451]

>>5580449
It was in a fit of rage.

[Anonymous No.5580452]

>>5578396
>the Famicom disk drive has been released. Since the games for the Sega Mark III were less complex (example: we had stage-clear games while Nintendo had The Hyrule Fantasy.), we had to find a way to compete

As many people probably know, the FDS was an attempt to get around ROM size limits since it could store 128k while ROMs in 1985 maxed out at 32k, and also reduce costs. The problem was that 64k ROMs became available within a year and then better mapper chips so the FDS soon became obsolete..

[segadev No.5580453]

>>5580449
It occured in a fit of rage. He had a quick temper.

[Anonymous No.5580458]

That's nothing. Shigeru Miyamoto is known to have thrown chairs around a room when people did something he didn't like.

[segadev No.5580468]

>>5580458
Miyamoto just threw a chair. The guy from earlier THREW A DEVKIT.

[Anonymous No.5580471]

in your personal opinion, are you disappointed evety time you see the SEGA logo in a game without a voice saying "SE-GA!" like in the Sonic games?

[segadev No.5580476]

>>5580471
No.

[Anonymous No.5580483]

How about all those horrible computer ports of Sega arcade games on the Amiga, ZX Spectrum, etc? Most Japanese never knew about them, but they were usually all done in Britain by a publisher who would take some teenager and tell them to port Outrun or Strider in six weeks. They had no access to the arcade source code or art assets and had to just play an arcade cab and memorize how everything worked. The publishers didn't really care because they just wanted some quick money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucTL8AZkPFI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybtCLti5RoU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psRJHOx1MDU

Literally why.

[Anonymous No.5580502]

Supposedly the arrival of the Mega Drive in 88 really scared Nintendo because they were peddling a console that was half a decade old at that point.

[segadev No.5580531]

>>5580502
We thought we finally crushed Nintendo after two failed consoles once we heard about Nintendo's fear of the MD.

[Anonymous No.5580537]

Nintendo were _very_ slow to the 16-bit party and the SFC was really a glorified 8-bit console. They'd originally wanted to use a 68000 but ultimately went with the 65816 because it was cheap.

The SFC still dominated Japan in the end because it had RPGs and the Mega Drive didn't except for Phantasy Star.

[Anonymous No.5580541]

>>5580254
All 80s-era dev tools were awful to use and very primitive. Usually they'd use a cross-compiler on a minicomputer. In the early days art assets would just be done by hand on graph paper, by the early 90s they had computer tools for it.

[segadev No.5580543]

>>5580537
I also hear the 65816 was chosen for FC backwards compatibility.

[Anonymous No.5580558]

Original plans included backward compatibility, also dropped for cost reasons.

[Anonymous No.5580562]

>>5580537
>The SFC still dominated Japan in the end because it had RPGs
The slower, weaker CPU wasn't a big deal here because RPGs don't need speed and performance anyway.

[Anonymous No.5580572]

>>5579961
The Mega Drive basically used a cost-cut version of the Sega System 16 arcade hardware with fewer colors, weaker sound, and no sprite scaling (the last one was planned but left out when they couldn't fit it on the VDP chip die).

[Anonymous No.5580593]

1/ Can you confirm how many Japanese language versions of Master System games were cancelled besides Wonder Boy 3? I found some Japanese graphics for a font in Golden Axe Warrior.
2/ Some say a more complete version of Osomatsu on the MD existed, but they had to cut the retail version to fit on a smaller cart because of shortage. How true is that?
3/ Was the story about the Osomatsu mangaka throwing an ashtray on the developers true?
4/ How cut down from the original sega cd version of Phantasy Star IV, was the final version we got?
5/ What was Sega of Japan's opinion about Bernie Stolar vs handling of Sega Saturn overseas titles and intentionally withholding sales of accessories (RAM packs, etc)? Kalinske apparently didn't like Working Designs working on Phantasy Star 4 as it made SoA look bad, but Bernie didn't seem to care as much.
6/ The porn games allowed on Saturn (Japan), then reversed. What was up with that?
7/ How many games do you know of were developed for the X32?
8/ Hudson was basically a first party developer on the PC Engine yet Lords of Thunder also appeared on the Sega CD. What was up with that?
9/ Is there any versions left of recordings of Sega Channel and Xband (Saturn, Genesis) data? Garfield Lost Levels is a Sega of America game but it's lost.

[Anonymous No.5580610]

>>5580593
>6/ The porn games allowed on Saturn (Japan), then reversed. What was up with that?

Also Nintendo didn't allow porn games on the Famicom. They had relatively few content restrictions compared with NOA, but Hiroshi Yamauchi wouldn't approve eroge because he wanted to maintain their image as a family company. Adult Famicom games were all unlicensed and usually for the FDS because it was cheaper than cartridges.

[Anonymous No.5580630]

>>5580537
>The SFC still dominated Japan in the end because it had RPGs and the Mega Drive didn't except for Phantasy Star.
JRPGs were a hard sell to Americans and expensive to localize. Since most NES RPGs outside of DQ1 were a relative failure, everyone other than Square gave up and didn't bother localizing RPGs for the SNES.

[segadev No.5580632]

1/: Those were the only ones.
2/: I was not part of the devteam for that game, so I do not know.
3/ Maybe.
4/ A little cut-down.
5/ They hated Bernie Stolar's treatment of the Saturn. One Sega employee once said to me, "Bernie's trying to sabotage Sega as we speak!"
6/ Sega had more lax policies about what games could be on their platforms back then.
7/ About 20 games were planned, but cancelled for the Super 32X.
8/ I don't know.
9/ We don't have any recordings of Sega Channel software. Ask a SOA emplyee.

[Anonymous No.5580645]

The typical Master System game was made on a lower budget than the typical Famicom game and it was more common to use small ROMs.

[segadev No.5580651]

>>5580630
I bet people were confused when FF7 was called Final Fantasy VII worldwode.

[Anonymous No.5580673]

>>5580632
Thanks a lot for the answers! I really appreciate it.
Can you share any, really any stories you can remember about Bernie Stolar?

[segadev No.5580678]

>>5580673
I don't really remember any stories about Bernie. he was just the butt of a lot of jokes in mid-90s Sega.

[Anonymous No.5580694]

What's the story behind Sega's expansion into the Korean market? It was so impenetrable for Japanese companies, Nintendo included.

[segadev No.5580698]

He also tried to sabotage Sega internally. Don't even get me started.

[Anonymous No.5580706]

Sonic was not a high priority for SOJ because the franchise wasn't all that popular there.

[Anonymous No.5580709]

>>5580698
>He also tried to sabotage Sega internally.
The Sega of Japan too? Not just the low DreamCast price on purpose, or the Windows OS?

Please get started. Anything would be good to know, no matter how minor. It's not like it will burn bridges with him worth keeping, he napalm bombed every gaming company in his wake.

[segadev No.5580715]

>>5580709
He purposely manufactured less than the demand for memory cards, controllers, etc. Think the NES Classic, but worse.

[Anonymous No.5580725]

Saint Bernie also rejected localizing Saturn RPGs as he thought it wouldn't fit with SOA's macho/dudebro image.

[segadev No.5580727]

One word. Jesus.

[Anonymous No.5580732]

Sonic X-Treme has been effectively airbrushed from history. Sega just pretends now like it never happened.

[Anonymous No.5580749]

>>5580630
>Since most NES RPGs outside of DQ1 were a relative failure

You got DQ1 free with a Nintendo Power subscription and since the ROM was only 80k, it was an inexpensive game to manufacture.

[segadev No.5580751]

Around 1998-2007, I thought of returning to Sega, however, I settled on not returning after Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

[Anonymous No.5580763]

>>5580651
FF2 was in the pipeline for a US release, but NOA pulled the plug because the projected release date was in the second half of 1991 and they didn't want any AAA NES games coming out at that time to draw attention away from the SNES's launch. FF3 wasn't localized because it was too late for an NES release and they'd already moved on to localizing FF4.

[segadev No.5580767]

>>5580763
Why didn't they just post II and IV to the SNES?

[Anonymous No.5580772]

>>5580763
You have to remember that FF1 was almost three years old when it got to the US.

[segadev No.5580774]

>>5580772
FF1 didn't even have a proper title screen.

[Anonymous No.5580776]

It was a buggy mess anyway, some spells don't even work.

[segadev No.5580778]

One spell even did exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to do. You had one job, Nasir!

[Anonymous No.5580780]

>>5580645
Master System games only came in five ROM sizes--32k, 64k, 128k, 256k, and 512k unlike the huge number of Famicom ROM sizes--16k to 1MB and everything in between.

[Anonymous No.5580781]

Square's programmers were either incompetents or else they just didn't understand Nasir's code.

[segadev No.5580784]

We actually reworked a few SG games into MIII games, one of them being a port of My Hero.

[Anonymous No.5580786]

>>5580537
The Famicom also used a 6502 derivative because it was cheap, but another reason was that Commodore were active in the Japanese market until withdrawing in 1983 and Satoro Iwata had first learned 6502 programming on a VIC-20.

[segadev No.5580789]

>>5580786
It was actually a PET.

[segadev No.5580802]

Still, Iwata was an influential man at Nintendo.

[Anonymous No.5580804]

I think Jupiter Lander on the C64 was also programmed in Japan.

[segadev No.5580816]

Welp, you learn something nw every day!

[Anonymous No.5580817]

>>5580120
>why is the LARPlet using an NDA as an excuse

[segadev No.5580846]

What's LARP?

[segadev No.5580868]

Anyways, does anybody have anything to ask bout work at Sega?

[segadev No.5580893]

Anyways, does anybody have anything to ask about work at Sega?

[Anonymous No.5580908]

>>5580893
How did you and your colleagues feel about the PlayStation leading up to the Saturn's launch and during its early days?

[segadev No.5580931]

>>5580908
We laughed off the threat of Sony. once the PS1 started to sell faster than the Saturn, we tried to combat the threat.

[Anonymous No.5580941]

>>5580931
Is it true that the Saturn was originally designed to be a 2D console, then repurposed for 3D later in its development?

[segadev No.5580951]

No, The 3d hardware was just confusing to program for.

[Anonymous No.5580958]

>>5580951
That's interesting. Was the complexity of the system thanks to it being inspired by arcade hardware that was also pretty complex at the time?

[segadev No.5580968]

>>5580958
Yes.

[Anonymous No.5580983]

>>5578943
Neat

[Anonymous No.5580993]

>>5580968
That's a very Sega approach to things, which is honestly what I love their old hardware for.
I'm from Scotland so you probably haven't thought too much about this, but I'm still curious to know.
How much was the impact of the 50hz refresh rate on European TVs considered when developing hardware and games? Even the Saturn BIOS runs slower on my 50Hz PAL unit compared to my early Japanese one.

[Anonymous No.5580997]

>>5580958
>>5580968
I’m no expert but SEGAs arcade hardware at the time seems to have little in common with the Saturn. Almost completely unrelated.

[Anonymous No.5581001]

How about the Gear Gear? Another dud that never stood a chance against Nintendo.

[segadev No.5581006]

i demand you post nude selfies if you want me to reveal more info

[Anonymous No.5581009]

>>5580997
That's why I said "inspired" instead of based on actual hardware, like the whole design philosophy of using lots of different CPUs to handle different processes. I know that was common back then in general but the Saturn does it in the kind of excess you'd usually only see in something like an arcade board.

[segadev No.5581016]

>>5581006
That guy's an imposter. I would never say something that unprofessinal.
>>5580997
It was based on unreleased arcade hardware. Sorry for not clarifying further.

[segadev No.5581041]

Also, the System E was literally a Mark III in the form of an arcade board at first. We eventually decided to upgrade the System E into what it is today.

[Anonymous No.5581053]

cringe

[segadev No.5581059]

>>5581053
Please explain further.

[segadev No.5581062]

waiting for one of you to post those nudes this other guy is hurting my good name need to finna bust a nut

[segadev No.5581068]

>>5581062
This guy isn't even using capital letters.

[segadev No.5581069]

Anyways, I have to go soon. see ya for nw!

[segadev No.5581081]

Now I'm really going. In the meantime, don't listen to my imposter.

[Anonymous No.5581090]

>>5581069
>>5581081
Thanks for answering our questions, it's been super interesting hearing from you.

[Anonymous No.5581165]

>>5580120
The Yakuza never forgets

[Anonymous No.5581178]

LARP thread, but eh.

>>5579816
the SG was pretty much just an MSX1 with worse audio and like fuck-all RAM

>>5580572
>(the last one was planned but left out when they couldn't fit it on the VDP chip die).
why do we live in this awful timeline
Sega's biggest, coolest games all depended on sprite scaling, and they can't bring any of them home properly.

[Anonymous No.5581186]

Can you answer the age old question "what the developers intended" ?

[Anonymous No.5581207]

>>5581178
>the SG was pretty much just an MSX1 with worse audio
It was the same TMS9919 sound chip as far as I know.

[Anonymous No.5581227]

>>5580289
It was in of itself a clone of the Creativision, which was only sold in some parts of Europe, but had the same general hardware setup except for using a 6502 instead of a Z80.

[Anonymous No.5581238]

The Master System used a clone of the TMS9919 with a longer duty cycle so sounds are pitched down half an octave. Which is nice because the TMS9919 sounds rather awful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcoxH4QLcLo

[Anonymous No.5581329]

>>5581207
The MSX uses a YM2491 chip, a clone of the AY-3-8910.
3 channels of square or noise, actual bass notes (without "periodic noise" fuckery like on SG/SMS), and western developers on machines with said chips did all kind of envelope abuse fuckery to get wild synthy sounds out of it.

The SN76489 used in the SG-1000's lowest note is obnoxiously high and doesn't really have much to abuse in terms of features.

>>5580184
I wish the first level of Flicky on SG wasn't so obnoxious. The scrolling is super impressive, but it's so easy to bounce off the sides of the platforms over and over.
If you do manage to pass the first stage, the later levels have much more manageable platform margins and are much easier.

[segadev No.5581343]

OK, I'm back, just had to go somewhere.

[Anonymous No.5581357]

>>5581329
>The SN76489 used in the SG-1000's lowest note is obnoxiously high and doesn't really have much to abuse in terms of features.
It's not even as good as the Atari POKEY which came out at the same time.

[segadev No.5581369]

>>5581329
Was the SN76489 compatible with the TMS9919?

[Anonymous No.5581371]

>>5581369
Same chip. SN76489 was just the name TI used on chips sold to outside customers instead of for their internal use.

[segadev No.5581373]

>>5581357
The SN76489 really shines with simpler songs, like this: https://youtu.be/a9C_DH-ZTSE

[Anonymous No.5581374]

>>5581357
The POKEY has a bunch of features to abuse, but it's also a pile of shit with awful sounding bass notes and is absurdly out of tune. The SN was made by someone who wasn't tonedeaf (or at the absolute least, someone who expected the chip to be used for music at all).

[segadev No.5581383]

I know it wasn't used in any game consoles, aside from the uber-obscure C64 GS, but I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the SID yet.

[Anonymous No.5581384]

In the immortal words of Bob Yannes--"Back at the time, most computer sound chips seemed like they were designed by people who didn't know anything about music."

[segadev No.5581387]

>>5581384
That was a very apt statement.

[Funcoland Clown No.5581403]

>>5581387
If the developers could have removed scanlines from the CRTs, would they have?

[segadev No.5581408]

>>5581403
With the doubled vertical resolution, it would be an obvious yes.

[Anonymous No.5581415]

>>5581373
I love this song, it gets stuck in my head all the time. The first 2 bars are really neat musically.

[Anonymous No.5581421]

>>5581408
Thank you based sensei *bows*

[Anonymous No.5581430]

>>5581408
Do you know if this trade-magazine article from the 80s is accurate? It says that SEGA was planning on marketing the Colecovision in Japan. I've generally assumed they based the SG-1000 on it from this, but it's the only reference to this supposed deal between SEGA and Coleco.

[Anonymous No.5581441]

>>5580698
still dunno why Sega picked him up off the rebound after Sony let him go for his poor policy decisions (choices which he brought to Sega)

[Anonymous No.5581449]

The Colecovision Arctic Adventure is a conversion of the MSX port. At the same time however, Coleco did their own ports of Sega arcade games which were completely different from Sega's in-house conversions on the SG-1000.

[segadev No.5581459]

>>5581430
This is false. Maybe they heard that Sega's home console in Japan had the same specs as the ColecoVision, and bended the truth to make it look more interesting? That's my best guess.

[Funcoland Clown No.5581468]

>>5581459
Do you smoke weed? What percent of your Sega coworkers did?

[segadev No.5581526]

>>5581468
No. Also, why did you ask? Because 70s Atari allowed their employees to smoke bud?

[Anonymous No.5581541]

@5581468
>Japan
>drugs
You're already known as the worst troll on /vr/, Funcoland Clown aka Babbage's Gramps. This isn't helping your case.

[Anonymous No.5581542]

Happen to have any insight on why DPCM percussion was a rarity on SMS game soundtracks? (Compared to the NES, Game Boy, etc)

[Anonymous No.5581548]

>>5581542
Like I said, the Master System's sound chip was a TMS9919 clone with a shorter duty cycle, otherwise it added no new features--still just three voice square wave+white noise. There was no dedicated PCM channel.

[Anonymous No.5581553]

>>5581542
Like I said, the Master System's sound chip was a TMS9919 clone with a longer duty cycle, otherwise it added no new features--still just three voice square wave+white noise. There was no dedicated PCM channel and the chip was really limited in what you could get out of it.

[segadev No.5581578]

Any other questions?

[segadev No.5581605]

Here's YET ANOTHER story, Once Sega was bought out by CSK, we worked on the SG-1000 II, and I was the person to bring up Famicom like controller ports. Then the same dimwit who thought screw-in joystick nubs were useful decided to put the controller ports on the back because it would "mimic the Fami better." They were added to the back anyway because he was trusted at Sega, blah blah blah. Idiot.

[Anonymous No.5581637]

Apparently Sega didn't want to risk marketing the SMS in North America so they trusted the job to Tonka (big mistake).

[Anonymous No.5581653]

>>5580115
>One cool thing about the Famicom disk drive is that it also added functionality that wasn't there like direct VRAM writing
Isn't that just the same thing as cartridges that have RAM in place of the CHR ROM and copy the graphics from the PRG?

[segadev No.5581675]

>>5581637
Somehow SOA thought it was a good idea to let a toy truck company maket and sell the SMS.

[Anonymous No.5581692]

Metroid password thread

[Funcoland Clown No.5581707]

>>5581541
I'm not him just using the same name. People still smoke weed in Japan.

[Anonymous No.5581713]

>>5581707
Classic Funcoland Clown.

[Anonymous No.5581721]

Tonka approved trash like Alf and Monopoly while denying Americans many good SMS games.

[Anonymous No.5581726]

>>5581721
*cough cough* Psycho Fox *cough cough*

[Anonymous No.5581735]

Why did Alex Kidd have to die?
Why didn't they redesign Magic Hat on the MD as an Alex Kidd like on the Master System?

What was the deal with Sega and Nintendo allowing games on each other's system, near the DreamCast?

[Anonymous No.5581740]

>>5581735
>he never heard of the Famicom ports of Space Harrier and Altered Beast

[Anonymous No.5581749]

>>5581541
I'll bet you a dollar you can add namefag OP to that list

[Anonymous No.5581752]

>>5581740
>and the Tengen Fantasy Zone port

[Anonymous No.5581754]

>>5581752
wtf?

[segadev No.5581760]

>>5581749
Why is using a username a bad thing?

[segadev No.5581780]

Anyways, any more questions?

[Anonymous No.5581801]

bump

[Anonymous No.5581832]

M2 developers said that they only found the Virtua Racing source code because one of the developers took it as a "souvenir".
Do you have idea if Sega still have the original code for some of their old games, like the Model 1 games?

[Anonymous No.5581887]

>>5581832
No. Also, I have to go to sleep now.

[Anonymous No.5581956]

Why did SEGA trash all their source code?

[Funcoland Clown No.5581958]

What is the biggest hidden gem game in your opinion?

[Anonymous No.5582238]

What are the old Sega artists doing now? Woking with animation, like Akiman and the other Capcom guys?

[Anonymous No.5582317]

Thank you for doing this! This is all so fascinating to read. Did you have anything to do with any of the virtual on games? any stories about those?

[Anonymous No.5582812]

>>5581956
Some of it was saved, mostly AM2 & R&D2/Sonic Team games were saved because Yu Suzuki & Yuji Naka respectably kept it themselves.

[Anonymous No.5582845]

>>5581956
There was someone at Sega who really hated his job and released his anger by deleting the source code to their games.

[Anonymous No.5582905]

>>5581958
Probably Girl's Garden on the SG.

[Anonymous No.5582937]

>>5582317
I had nothing to do with Virtual On.

[Anonymous No.5582963]

>>5581735
I think it had to do with Sega trying to rebrand themselves. Alex Kidd was too tied into the SMS and had a loser image so he got replaced by Sonic.

[Anonymous No.5582964]

Most of the SG-1000's library has been converted for the Colecovision aside from a few shitty games like sports titles. It was annoying to do because of how the NMI on the Colecovision works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WuaCANKa4M

[segadev No.5583048]

I don't know if you noticed this, but Girl's Garden did parallax scrolling in 1984.

[Anonymous No.5583082]

>>5578396
Pretty sure this was mentioned in a few magazine articles back in the day.

[segadev No.5583101]

I always thought it was a company secret. Maybe Sega lied to me about the reveal policy?

[Anonymous No.5583105]

>>5583101
Well, it was shown in the U.S. during one of the CES shows.
https://segaretro.org/Master_System_Floppy_Disk_Drive/Magazine_articles

[Anonymous No.5583280]

There's also that canceled floppy disk add on for the Mega Drive, was that built off the development made on the Mark III/SMS version?

[segadev No.5583295]

>>5583280
Yes, it used a lot of hardware from the MIII drive.

[Anonymous No.5583324]

>>5583295
Was the Mega CD planned from the start of the Mega Drive's development, or was it made in response to the floppy drive being cancelled and/or the PC Engine CD-ROM?

[segadev No.5583824]

>>5583324
The MD floppy drive was cancelled for piracy reasons, and when we were looking for another way to allow for more space on MD games, we looked at the PC Engine CD-ROM, and it was obvious, so we started work on the MDCD (as it was originally called.)

[segadev No.5583962]

We actually went very far with the name MDCD. It was only just before it's reveal that we changed the name to Mega CD.

[Anonymous No.5584336]

>>5581752
And the Hudson Fantasy Zone port

[Anonymous No.5584614]

Something that you always wanted to tell but no one asked? Any weird trivia?

>>5584336
And Columns SuFami port.

[Anonymous No.5584649]

I'll humor this anon. What's the deal between Sega and Konami and the rights for Frogger?

[Anonymous No.5584651]

>>5584614
and Sakura Wars on Game Boy Color

[Anonymous No.5584653]

>>5578396
Funnily enough I just found out about this earlier today:
https://segaretro.org/Master_System_Floppy_Disk_Drive
I take it that was a planned western version of the system.
Oh and btw speaking of hardware, were there any plans to release the FM module in the west?

[Anonymous No.5585528]

>>5584651
This was after Sega killed the Dreamcast.

[Anonymous No.5585596]

>>5584614
I had no idea they made Columns for the the sufami turbo

[Anonymous No.5585796]

>>5585528
The first one came before that but Sakura Wars was collaboration between Red Entertainment and Sega and not a fully Sega owned IP (until now).

[segadev No.5585918]

>>5584653
The FM module was planned for the West, but after the MS design was finalized and the expansion port was moved to the back, we just couldn't find a place to put
the FM module.
>>5584614
During my time in SOA, someone created a Super 32X test program codenamed "Hairy Back". Don't know what the story is there.

[Anonymous No.5585920]

@segadev:

1) what are the hardware differences between SG-1000 and SG-1000 II consoles ?
2) why export Master System models are so different from Japanese Master System (not Mark III but later one) model (different IO chip, no FM sound chip, no autofire,...) ? It looks almost like the latter is an enhanced version of the export MS and was designed after.
3) why no FM sound chip in export MS models but some western exclusive games have support for it ? Was it originally planned then canceled ?

[Anonymous No.5585935]

>>5585918
>we just couldn't find a place to put
the FM module.

That doesn't sound very logical. If it would have used expansion port, it would have remain an external module like on Mark III and there would not be any 'place' issue as it is connected outside the console. Most likely they didn't want to bundle (or sell) an external FM module in the west for some marketing reasons and had trouble integrating the FM chip inside the console (but surprisingly did it with the Japanese Master System).

[Anonymous No.5585956]

Why didn't they use any BIOS in Mark III console but added one in Master Systems?

[segadev No.5586023]

>>5585920
1) They are identical hardware-wise.
2) It was after we figured out those technologies needed to be built in.
3) Western devs were told that an Fm module would be released for the MS, bedut it was cancell

[segadev No.5586026]

>>5585956
Region locking.

[segadev No.5586039]

>>5585935
We thought it would look too bulky if mounted on the bottom.

[segadev No.5586085]

So, any other questions?

[segadev No.5586186]

I'm going to go on a trip for the weekend later today. I will be back on Monday.

[Anonymous No.5586231]

See ya!

[Anonymous No.5586659]

Did Sega ever planned an enhanced model of the SC-3000 with the same upgrades that the Mark III/Master System got?

[Anonymous No.5586692]

>>5580651
We were

[Anonymous No.5586705]

>>5586023
> They are identical hardware-wise.
Actually they are not, SG-1000 II used a Sega ASIC that integrated the TI VDP and PSG discrete chips (first Sega integrated chip before Mark III / Master System 315-5124 VDP). It also has twice the RAM of the first model (2KB instead of 1KB) although no SG games take benefit of this.

>>5586026
>region-locking
Well, that would what anyone would answer but it's not that simple actually:
first, there is no region locking in Japanese Master System BIOS and second, the different cartridge connectors between Japanese and Export models already provided physical region lock so there must be another reason.

Sorry, 'segadev' ;-)

[Anonymous No.5586785]

>>5580846
Live Action Role-Play. Basically saying you're pretending now

[Anonymous No.5586873]

>>5586705
Sorry, my memory isn't that great.

[Anonymous No.5586874]

Anyways, I'm gonna go soon. See ya monday!

[segadev No.5586882]

>>5586705
>>5586785
Sorry, my memory's kinda bad.

[segadev No.5586915]

I suck radioactive hiroshima dick for a living, btw

[Anonymous No.5586929]

>>5586915
Don't worry, that's an imposter. See ya sunday. In the meantime, don't listen to my imposter.

[Anonymous No.5587471]

>>5586085
Did you enjoy trolling the newfriends from /v/?

[Anonymous No.5587779]

>>5586705
>first, there is no region locking in Japanese Master System BIOS and second, the different cartridge connectors between Japanese and Export models already provided physical region lock so there must be another reason.

The Mega Drive has no region locking in its BIOS either, instead the cartridge slot on Japanese and US models is shaped slightly differently.

[Anonymous No.5587792]

>>5580060
>punctuation
Big no-no

[Anonymous No.5587859]

>>5586882
>Sorry, my LARPings kinda bad
Indeed

[Anonymous No.5587913]

>>5578396
>>5580115
>>5580130
>I've never heard the name Sega System.
YOU ARE A FAKE AND A FRAUD.

[Anonymous No.5587928]

>>5580130
MASTER SYSTEM IS JUST A MEME NAME FOR ONE OF THE BUNDLES.
THE TRUE NAME IS "SEGA SYSTEM"

[Anonymous No.5587943]

>>5580130
>>5578396
"SEGA SYSTEM" IS TRADEMARKED.
"MASTER SYSTEM" IS NON-SENSIBLE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATIVE LABEL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnsV6VEQ7mQ&T=471
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoU9_owDjw8&T=23

[Anonymous No.5587960]

>>5578396
>>5580130
>One called the Base System, and the other called the Master System. They just used the term Sega System to describe both systems.
THAT'S BECAUSE "SEGA SYSTEM" IS THE TRUE MARKET NAME.
NEVER HEARD OF IT?
EVER HEAR OF SPACE HARRIER?
AFTER BURNER??
EVER HEAR OF SEGA?????

[Anonymous No.5587970]

>>5578396
>>5580130
THE NAME IS "SEGA SYSTEM".
END OF CONVERSATION.

[Anonymous No.5588129]

>>5586659
>Master System
Please stop.

[Anonymous No.5588481]

>>5587779
TMSS boot ROM was added to prevent publishing of unlicensed games (it requires SEGA string in cartridge header and game software to write same string to unlock the hardware... and they thought doing this without a license would be enough to be sued for trademark violation).

My point was that saying MS BIOS was added for region-lockout is proof OP is no SEGA 'insider' as he pretends he is.

[Anonymous No.5588556]

>>5587943
>>5587928
>MASTER SYSTEM IS JUST A MEME NAME FOR ONE OF THE BUNDLES
>"MASTER SYSTEM" IS NON-SENSIBLE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATIVE LABEL.

>END OF CONVERSATION
Yes... please

[Anonymous No.5588561]

>>5588556
proofs it was not the name of 'one of the bundle'

[Anonymous No.5588571]

>>5588556
>>5588561

[Anonymous No.5588728]

>>5587970
>END OF CONVERSATION
MAYBE NOT

[Anonymous No.5588751]

>>5587970
>>5588728
http://www.smspower.org/forums/16060-ModelSerialNumberRequest

Looks like the 'Sega System' thing is an US denomination only. Probably has something to do with the limited IQ of average US kids where things had to be 'simplified' for US market (pretty much like the NES was called 'a Nintendo' back then) but apparently it catched up in the most damaged brains that stopped growing up in the 80's

[segadev No.5589120]

I'm back.

[segadev No.5589124]

>>5588481
To repeat, it's been about 20-something years since I worked at Sega, so my memory isn't the best sometimes.

[Anonymous No.5589137]

>>5589120
did you developed games for other system than the SG? (mega drive, mega cd, saturn, dreamcast)

[segadev No.5589171]

>>5589137
I didn't do much other than basic test programs.

[segadev No.5589202]

For example, I helped with the SG-1000 Mark II test program.

[Anonymous No.5589726]

>>5578562
There's no copy protection on FDS disks beyond the physical shape of the media.

[segadev No.5590036]

>>5589726
I hear that some games had software-based copy protection, but the FDS's copy protection was still laughable.

[Anonymous No.5590116]

>>5579979
this is correct, segadev is a faggot
he'd be posting info like this on 2ch, not an english board

[Anonymous No.5590121]

>>5590116
>P.S.
This is one of the differences between the MkIII/SMS and the Mega Drive. And why you needed a MkIII/SMS controller for some games to work properly in the power base converter.

[Anonymous No.5590134]

>>5590121
>>5590116
Ignore me, I am wrong.
The pause button does trigger an NMI (non maskable interrupt), but all that does is make the program counter go to a fixed offset and do whatever is specified there.

[segadev No.5590434]

>>5590134
It's okay. :)

[Anonymous No.5590479]

bump

[segadev No.5590587]

Any new questions?

[Anonymous No.5590762]

>>5578396
Oh this was a fucking youtuber checking to see if anyone could contradict his bullshit before he posted his video.

[Anonymous No.5590832]

>>5590762
My fucking sides

[segadev No.5591598]

>>5590762
>Oh this was a fucking youtuber checking to see if anyone could contradict my bullshit before he posted his video.

[segadev No.5591603]

>>5590762
Remember, IT HAS BEEN 20+ YEARS SINCE I WORKED AT SEGA.

[Anonymous No.5591636]

>>5578396
Hello, I was frozen today.

[segadev No.5591647]

>>5591636
What?

[Anonymous No.5591839]

bump

[segadev No.5592293]

Any more questions?

[Anonymous No.5592339]

>>5592293
Any idea why the model 1 Mega Drive had a round circular protuberance that looked like a CD lid?

Do you remember other scrapped designs for that console, or ones prior?

[Anonymous No.5592351]

>>5588481
The Model 1 Genesis didn't check for a copyright string, that was added in the Model 2 to prevent you from running unlicensed games (eg. the early EA stuff from 89-90).

[segadev No.5592371]

>>5592339
It was so it would resemble a CD player.

IThere was a MD design that resembled the MIII with cassettes that was shaped the same as the MIII cassette.

[Anonymous No.5592495]

>>5592351
Late Model 1s did have TMSS, and also the crappy sound, which made them glorified Model 2s.

[Anonymous No.5592571]

That was after EA cucked Sega since they wanted to manufacture their own cartridges. It was early games like Populous and Marble Madness that don't work except on earlier Model 1s.

[Anonymous No.5592576]

I suppose nowadays you could just use an Everdrive with patched ROMs to add the copyright string so those games would run on any Genesis.

[Anonymous No.5592589]

>>5592571
Populous is really a PC game and trying to play MM with a D-pad is next to impossible. I'm not sure I'd miss anything by not playing those games.

[Anonymous No.5592607]

>>5592576
Nope that's not enough. Game has to write that string in a specific hardware register to unlock it and otherwise the system crashes as soon as you try to access the GPU.

[Anonymous No.5592614]

>>5592607
Mod the ROM to write the appropriate data to the register, whatever.

[Anonymous No.5592617]

>>5592351
Never said the contrary. I was simply answering to that guy implying TMSS Boot ROM in Genesis (and similar TMS Boot ROMs in Master Systems) was for region lockout.

[Anonymous No.5593169]

bump

[segadev No.5593252]

Any more questions?

[Anonymous No.5593421]

>>5581760
People who have nothing to offer a thread beyond another Anon shouldn't use a name and/or tripcode. Site culture

[segadev No.5593441]

>>5593421
Thanks for clarifying! I just used a name so I could stand out from the other comments in this thread.

[Anonymous No.5593530]

big if true

[Anonymous No.5593546]

>>5592495
The Mega Amp mod can make them sound great, though.

I sort of like the distortion from the YM2612 DAC, though.

[Anonymous No.5593724]

>>5593421
Namefag offered more LARPing and shitposting than all the other people ITT combined

[segadev No.5594241]

>>5593724
Please just go back to /b/.

[Anonymous No.5594243]

>>5593724
Just go to /b/.

[Anonymous No.5594358]

bump

[Anonymous No.5594437]

Since namefag OP is probably gonna ask, I'm gonna ask for him.
Are there any other questions you have?

[segadev No.5594678]

I think that the MIII MyCard games have some charm to them.

[Anonymous No.5594965]

>>5594437(giganticfaggot)
Why are you such a gigantic fucking faggot, you gigantic fucking faggot?

[segadev No.5595063]

>>5594965
I'm wondering that too.

[Anonymous No.5595413]

>>5594243
Why bother? OP has brought /b/ here.

[Anonymous No.5595429]

Segadev,
I know you aren't affiliated with Nintendo, but you are a source of wisdom so I want to ask a question that involves a Nintendo title but is more about game categorization in general. I'm sure you know of the popular series Zelda. My question is, would you categorize this game as an "Action-RPG" or an "Action-adventure"? Also keep in mind Miyamoto/Nintendo themselves say it's an Action-RPG, in case that influences your answer. Thank you

[segadev No.5595796]

>>5595429
'Scotion-RPG
Like a sc*tformer, but for action-RPG games.

[segadev No.5596095]

>>5595429
From what I've played, The Hyrule Fantasy is more of an action rpg.

[Anonymous No.5596098]

>>5596095
Thank you segadev. I agree. Thank you again.

[Anonymous No.5596240]

>>5591603
本当に日本人ならば、日本語書いてください。

[segadev No.5596901]

>>5596240
私はもう日本語が苦手です。

[Anonymous No.5596923]

>>5596901
>i am excellent at google translate

[segadev No.5596939]

>>5596923
It just looks like Google Translate because my Japanese skills were bad since I moved to the US.

[Anonymous No.5596964]

>>5596939
Sorry, but you must at least have some regular contacts with your home country, and unless you were working with Sega since you were 10 and you moved at like 14 you don't forget how to speak your home language to this degree, the least you could do is take some interest to what's currently happening over there every once in a while from national sources. This is all sounds the least bit disingenuous, you would agree.

From some of your earlier English posts, you don't seem the kind of guy who would use 私 for example, especially given you were asked to show off your Japanese (which, I know, it's not as good as it used to be), but you could have tried a bit more, so as to meet his kind request.

Also, you'll have to admit the timing for the release of this video is pretty astounding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ6yM0YLyrQ

[segadev No.5596972]

>>5596964
I know enough Japanese to get around.
Also, that timing is incredible.

[Anonymous No.5597093]

>>5596901
Yeah, I know losers want to roleplay and play pretend for attention because you have no other way of getting it, but the fact that you spent all this time begging for attention but couldn't put together a single Japanese sentence just goes to show why you are here pretending instead of living your life. Nobody is stupid enough to believe you completely forgot how to speak Japanese and can't even put together a sentence on the level of a four year old, as well as completely forgetting Japanese culture. But I am sure other people desperate for someone to talk to will disregard that and play pretend with you anyway.

[segadev No.5597107]

>>5597093
I didn't say that I forgot Japanese outright, I just said I wasn't that good at Japanese anymore. Next time, actually analyze what people are saying before responding.

[segadev No.5597124]

Anyways, do you guys have any more questions?

[Anonymous No.5597128]

>>5597093
If anything, you're the loser here.

[Anonymous No.5597159]

>>5578396
thta looks sweet. i loved the original master system too. not the later ones

[Anonymous No.5597183]

>>5597124
>>5597128
No samefag. I'm saving all my objections for my own video and you're gonna be butt blasted.

[Anonymous No.5597191]

>>5597183
How popular are you?

[Anonymous No.5597216]

>>5597107
I'm Japanese, you can't speak Japanese, plain and simple. If you are asking me to break down why you are not only lying but terrible at keeping up the lie:
私は is never said in this context, actual Japanese people don't use subjects, especially for themselves in these kinds of sentences, you simply omit it. Second, it makes no grammatical sense to say 'もう下手' How are you 'already unskillful'? Heta or unskillful in this case is a state of not learning a skill. If you wanted to say you became bad, you would need to say it differently. Also, the sentence you made can't be ended with です, again it makes no sense and no Japanese would ever say that, only a foreigner who tried to learn the language. You would say something like なってしまった or わすれちゃった。
You can't even speak Japanese at the level of a child who hasn't yet entered primary school. If you want to play pretend online that's fine, just let people know instead of lying to them, trying to deceive them, and posing as a Japanese person, which you are not.

[segadev No.5597217]

>>5597191
I'm asking that too.

[segadev No.5597221]

>>5597216
Can you prove that you are Japanese?

[segadev No.5597237]

>>5597216
Also, I understand that you are correct. That is unnatural for a native Japanese speaker. I just used Google Translate because I didn't know how to structure the sentence correctly. Silly me!

[Anonymous No.5597394]

>>5596939
It looks like google translate because it is google translate. You're not Japanese, you're larpanese.

[segadev No.5597413]

>>5597394
Please just read my other post: >>5597237.

[Anonymous No.5597460]

>>5597237
>I just used Google Translate because I'm LARPing

[segadev No.5597476]

>>5597394
>I'm not Japanese, I'm larpanese.

[Anonymous No.5597601]

>>5579531
go back to /v/ your wasting replies being retarded.
>>5578396
what can you tell us about the sega saturn? why exactly is there no documentation? why did it suck so bad?

[segadev No.5597913]

>>5597601
The hardware was extremely confusing. Because of it's confusing architecture, people decided not to create documents for fear of being factually incorrect.

[segadev No.5597968]

Also, The Saturn was pretty powerful at the time, but the potential couldn't be tapped because of the architecture.

[Anonymous No.5598124]

bump

[Anonymous No.5598130]

>>5578968
>はい
He didn't ignore it you fucking moron

[segadev No.5598150]

>>5598130
That guy has his Int stat maxed out. /s

[Anonymous No.5598183]

>>5598130
Intelligence 100

[segadev No.5598291]

Any new questions?

[Anonymous No.5598369]

bump

[Anonymous No.5598470]

ITT: Whole lotta samefaggin going on

[segadev No.5598512]

>>5598470
Sorry!

[Anonymous No.5598551]

Did you really move on because of piracy, and not because RAM chips were getting cheaper? The Famicom Disk System was made obsolete with bigger cartridges like one month after it came out. The piracy excuse was used for the reason why the FDS was never brought to the US, by the way.

[Anonymous No.5598552]

Also, did you see what Sega of America or whatever it was called was doing with the Master System?

[segadev No.5598591]

>>5598552
Yes, I already saw that.

[segadev No.5599460]

Any more questions?

[Anonymous No.5599485]

>>5599460
I'm not sure if you were involved in the arcade section of the business, but I might as well ask.

Do you have any info on the Sega City cabinets?(Aero, Astro, Blast, etc.)
Like why Sanwa joysticks became the standard instead Seimitsu?(Thus making it a pain to mount Seimitsu joysticks properly.)
Why Sega stuck a tri-sync monitor in a Blast City and never made any games in 31khz until the Net City came out?

I think the Sega City line of arcade cabinets are some of the finest arcade cabinets made. They're very popular even now among arcade enthusiasts.
Any info you have on them would be greatly appreciated, even if it's minor.

[segadev No.5599489]

>>5599485
I had little to do with the arcade side of the business . I did program some service menus though!

[Anonymous No.5599497]

>>5599489
You had nothing to do with the business, go LARP on Reddit or something.

[segadev No.5599683]

>>5599497
I worked with the console part of the business, not the arcade part.

[segadev No.5599815]

Also, I did some help with a MIII prototype.

[segadev No.5599907]

Any new questions?

[Anonymous No.5599983]

>>5599683
>I LARPed about the console part of the business, not the arcade part.

[segadev No.5600034]

>>5599983
Can you please just go back to /v/? Thanks!

[playstation dev No.5600070]

>>5600034
Helli I am honorable playstation developer. I know many easily searched things, and can make unverifiable claims. Watch for my youtube video on playstation next

Remember to comment like subscribe and ring that bell.

Buy razor blades and get a free book on audible with promo code cpoole.

[segadev No.5600297]

>>5600070
How much of an idiot are you?

[Anonymous No.5600385]

>>5600034
>I learned about 4chan from a friend.
>Can you please just go back to /v/? Thanks!

big think... gears... turning...

[segadev No.5600532]

>>5600385
Hmm...

[segadev No.5600563]

Trolled! Sorry for the joke everyone. Did you at least have fun?

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5600572]

>>5600563
That was not me.

[segadev No.5600584]

>>5600572
Too late to tripfag now.

[Anonymous No.5600592]

>>5596964
Lol, it's Kieren Hawken aka The Lair, a wellknown scam artist in retrogaming communities
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?33170-Looking-for-programmers-to-work-on-exciting-new-projects!&p=808647&viewfull=1#post808647

Wouldn't actually surprise me if "segadev" was just Kieren trying to get attention once again by pretending he is some 'real' dev...

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5600625]

>>5600592
I'm honestly not The Lair.
>>5600584
Just wanted to prevent any more imposters.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5600631]

Also, thanks for posting that funny Doraemon comic.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5600817]

I also pretty much have to watch Doraemon with my niece.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5601026]

I'm gonna go to an event soon.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5601274]

I'm back.

[Anonymous No.5601359]

>>5600034
Is there a LARPing fool there that needs to be laughed at?

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5601413]

>>5601359
No.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5601534]

I just lurked on 4chan for a while, so I know some of the lingo.

[Anonymous No.5601616]

>>5601413
Then that would be no fun

>>5601534
>I just LARPed on 4chan for a while
FTFY

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5602304]

>>5601616
Can you please not edit quotes? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5602318]

>>5601616
Wow! What an insightful opinion! /s

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5602320]

Also, can you not edit quotes?

[Anonymous No.5602382]

>>5602320
I used to be a quote editor for Sega of Japan. Everyone at Sega of Japan knew how to edit quotes. If you don't know how to edit quotes you're lying about working for Sega of Japan.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5602414]

>>5602382
>I used to be a LARPer for Sega of Japan

[Anonymous No.5602429]

>>5602414
Dude, we just want to discuss Retro Games, go lie about shit somewhere else, you were already exposed for not knowing Japanese, and you claiming you 'forgot' is the dumbest shit ever. Fuck off and stop bumping your own thread, loser.

[segadev !!a7Six4EVOK+ No.5602502]

>>5602429
Jeez, you didn't have to be that harsh.

[Anonymous No.5603634]

>>5602502
Looks like he does. You just keep on shitposting and really need to go back.

[Anonymous No.5604417]

Segadev,
Who made a better contribution to video games: USA or Europe?

[Anonymous No.5604603]

>>5601274
Was the relationship between Sega of Japan and Sega of America already tense back then or did it only escalate around the Saturn/32X?