139 replies to this topic

[PlayerOneStewy]

Might as well turn this first post into an episode guide.

Episode 001 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
History of Sega, Japanese launch of the Mega Drive, Games: Space Harrier II, Super Thunder Blade, Altered Beast, Osomatsu-kun: Hachamecha Gekijo, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle. (Oct. 1988 - Feb. 1989)

Episode 002 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
Featuring the first third-party game on the Mega Drive! Games: Phantasy Star II, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Super Daisenryaku, Thunder Force II, Last Battle. (Mar. 1989 - Jul. 1989)

Episode 003 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
Featuring the North American launch of the Genesis. Games: World Championship Soccer, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf, Super Hang-On, Super Hydlide. (Jul. 1989 - Oct. 1989)

Episode 004 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
The Mega Drive turns one! Movie games! Yuzo Koshiro! Germans! Hardcore nudity! Games: Rambo III, Zoom!, Forgotten Worlds, Mystic Defender, The Revenge of Shinobi (Oct. 1989 - Dec. 1989)

Episode 005 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
The biggest month in the Mega Drive's history continues with AM2's first console game and the birth of the modern RTS! Games: Truxton, Mahjong Cop Ryuu: Shiro Ookami no Yabou, Herzog Zwei, Sword of Vermilion, Golden Axe (Dec. 1989)

Episode 006 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
Party like it's 1989 with the first Genesis games of 1990, as well as one of the rarest games in history! Games: Curse, Tetris, Shove It!...The Warehouse Game, Sorcerian, Pat Riley Basketball (Dec. 1989 - Mar. 1990)

Episode 007 (YouTube)(Archive.org)
Taito and Asmik join the Mega Drive family, and the first (?) analog game pad for consoles is released! Games: The NewZealand Story, Air Diver, Target Earth, After Burner II, James "Buster" Douglas Knockout Boxing (Mar. 1990)

 

Episode 008 (YouTube)(Archive.org)

Kaneko and Renovation arrive on the scene, while Project Million Seller is born! Games: Darwin 4081, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Psy-O-Blade, DJ Boy, Whip Rush (Apr. 1990 - May 1990)

[Kirbutashi]

Needs less Sega

[momerath]

Just finished watching. Awesome video! Back in those days I was pretty much only a Nintendo person so I missed out on a lot of the Sega goodness until later. It's great to get all the history and other tidbits about some of these classic games.

Looking forward to future episodes!

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I love this and everything about this. It's informative, visually appealing, and historically accurate. You're giving your opinions in a way that isn't combative and its hard to argue with your points. Altered Beast is generally slammed as a bad game on the Genesis, but its both historically significant and fun to play to boot. It can be finished quickly, but generally speaking, that's all I'm looking for in most retro games these days.

Hell, I frequently pick up Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and NES games that can be completed in even less time than it takes to go from start to finish in Altered Beast and think its money well spent. Game length isn't an important aspect to me when it comes to retro gaming. I can see how some may disagree though so take my comments with a grain of salt.

You really did an excellent job here. By all means, please do more of these. I'll watch everything you do as long as you keep up this quality.

I knew some things about the Megadrive's early days I didn't realize the Alex Kidd differences. I've always been more of a Nintendo guy than a Sega, but I had a Genesis growing up and quickly bought into the Sega CD hype, and enjoyed the GameArts games like Lunar, Silpheed and even Popful Mail all in their prime. I wish I had've been more careful with my discs though, as almost all my Sega CD games are now horribly scratched up and impossible to play ever again. I still have my CDX, but I only ever play CD games in emulation these days.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I really love this Greg. I'm going to recommend it on some other forums if you don't mind.

Edited by Satoshi_Matrix, 03 December 2011 - 01:40 AM.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Absolutely. Recommend away!

And thanks for the kind words.

[Indifference]

That was great. I didn't know most of what you presented. I look forward to the next installment. As for suggestions I'd like to see a video all about the Ngage QD.

[outtatime88]

Great job Greg! Keep 'em coming.

[nasero]

Fantastic Greg, I've always been more of a Sega arcade lover than their home ports or original titles but you showed off some good stuff here. Damn Altered Beast looks rough compared to its arcade version (which is expected, obviously).

I look forward to the next edition!

[drunkmessiah]

Oh, this is a fuckin magic idea man. I'l give it a watch tonight with a few drinks in me, get myself a good ole one man saturnalia going. This could possibly replace chrontendo as the video's I wash my genitals to in the bath!

[levitynyc]

Until about 5 years ago or so, I thought the Genesis was released in 1991 in the USA when Sonic came out. I thought Sonic was a launch title. My best friend got one that Christmas. I was the poor sap that asked for a TG16 in 1991. There were some awesome games for it though.

[Chairman Steve]

I'm very impressed, Greg (and Kirbutashi, and everyone else who contributed)! The level of polish on the first episode is fantastic, and I liked the unique selection of games that were covered. I had never even heard of Osomatsu-kun, so it was especially fun to see that game in action. You were a tad too easy on Alex Kidd, though. That game is terrible!

Watching that made me want to play Space Harrier II again, if only to hear more of that awesome first stage music.

Edited by Chairman Steve, 04 December 2011 - 01:44 PM.

[Kirbutashi]

So, Greg, what's the timeline on Episode 2?

[PlayerOneStewy]

It's already underway. This time I don't need to research release dates or publisher/developer data, or relearn how to use things like After Effects and Premiere Pro.

[Wenny]

Too long, didn't watch.

[SaitoH]

Very nice, Sewart.

[juanster]

http://sega-addicts....ic.com/?p=23771

Already a positive write-up.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Neato!

[TheKurichan]

http://sega-addicts....ic.com/?p=23771

Who the fuck is Greg Stewart?

Oh, and great video, that history shit is pretty informative.

[dammitmattt]

I liked the first few minutes and look forward to finishing it up when I have more time. Keep it up, Greg!

[lactose]

great job Greg

[PlayerOneStewy]

Thanks guys.

Work is moving along pretty quickly for episode 2. Hopefully I'll get it out before Christmas.

[Kirbutashi]

2012

[Wenny]

I finally got the opportunity to watch the full video - good stuff!

If I could offer a bit of advice - it's clear from the podcast that you LOVE the Sega that was but that doesn't come across in the video.

[Kirbutashi]

I'd like to think I was somehow responsible for that, then.

[PlayerOneStewy]

The first game of Episode 2 has been roughed out. And the next four shouldn't take nearly as long.

[Wenny]

The first game of Episode 2 has been roughed out. And the next four shouldn't take nearly as long.

Awesome. As I think I've mentioned in before I mostly missed the 16-bit generation. While I've played some titles here and there it's still mostly a series of names that mean nothing to me. Nice to have these videos fill in some details.

[PlayerOneStewy]

The second game of ep 2 is done. Three to go.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Game 3 of the new ep is in the can. Looks like I won't make the "before christmas" deadline I wanted, but episode 2 should release soon after.

[lactose]

cool - looking forward to it

[PlayerOneStewy]

Episode 002 is live!

[Knurek]

Episode 002 is live!

Greg, no offense meant, because I seriously enjoy what you're doing here, and would wish that you keep doing it, but your encoding process sucks.

Audio is uncompressed PCM, resulting in the movie file being about 60 MB larger than needed.

The video side is running in half the framerate, and hasn't been de-interlaced to boot, which means pretty much every moving object moves choppily and all sprites have jagged edges (and since Genesis is, well, a sprite-based system, this hurts much more than it would with PSX or the likes).

Here's an example file of how it could look like, 1st level from USA version of Hokuto no Ken - you have the JPN one in the video, so you can see how it does stack up against your version.

I didn't play much with encoding settings, so it's still XVID, and not H264, but anyways, 60 fps, smooth motion, no interlace, and about 40% smaller proportionally than your movie (and ought to be able to shrink the filesize some more with no hit to quality by going with H264).



http://www.multiupload.com/0BAUPAVM33

Not sure what your recording/encoding setup is, but if you're interested I can make a tutorial on my method.

[PlayerOneStewy]

If you would make a tutorial on it I would really appreciate it. This is definitely a learning process for me.

[PlayerOneStewy]

One of the problems is definitely my capture software. I'm using iShowUHD, and if there's a way to capture at anything higher than 30fps in there, I can't figure it out.

Need a better alternative for the mac.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Already one dislike on youtube. Awesome.

[Wenny]

Already one dislike on youtube. Awesome.

SNES fanboy, no doubt.

[PlayerOneStewy]

It's probably kirbutashi.

[Kirbutashi]

[PlayerOneStewy]

d'awwwwwww

[Wenny]

d'awwwwwww

He has two YouTube accounts.

Edited by Wenny, 03 January 2012 - 10:58 AM.

[nasero]

Great job on another one Greg. I'm loving these!