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October 1, 1999 Sega has announced that 500,000 units of the Dreamcast hardware were sold in the system's first two weeks of availability. It took the PlayStation four months to sell 500,000 units back in 1995. In other Dreamcast news, Sega and Iomega have delayed the release of the Dreamcast's Zip drive until early 2000. The Zip drive is one of many Dreamcast peripherals in development, along with a digital camera, printer, and more. At first, the Zip drive will act as a really big memory card, a web browser cache, and a way to store your e-mail. Eventually, you could also be able to download new levels and characters for your favorite games. Several schools in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Washington have banned the Pokemon card game from school grounds (now they can put a sign right next to the "Drug-Free School Zone" sign that says "Pokemon-Free School Zone"). The principal of a school in New Hampshire (I'd tell you what her name is, but IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT HER NAME IS) recently told ABC News, "A little boy was practically in tears because he had traded two of his cards for one card he thought was worth more than his two cards. When he found out it wasn't worth more, we wanted a trade-back, but the other student wouldn't give the card back... The cards are creating problems which we have to deal with. Kids have been taking the cards from the desks of other students." In other news, the same school in New Hampshire has banned the use of pencils on school grounds because kids have been taking pencils from the desks of other students... A San Diego law firm is suing Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast, and 4 Kids Entertainment because they believe that the Pokemon card game is teaching kids to illegally gamble. They claim that when a child buys a deck of cards, they are gambling on the possibility that they will get one of the more valuable and rare cards. The same firm has filed similar lawsuits against Major League Baseball, Topps, Upper Deck, the NFL, and Disney in the past. The name of the law firm is Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes, and Lerach, which is almost as catchy as Smith, Donohue, McNamara, Russo, Marcure, Williams, Keller, Powell, Mitchell, and Brady. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit said that the Pokemon card game is "nothing more than a lottery disguised as a kids' game." He went on to say, "Nintendo can take their Pokemon trading cards, pour some Aunt Jemima on them, turn them sideways, and stick them straight up..." well, you know the rest... When playing any of Nintendo's many Pokemon products, have you ever felt a strong hate for any of the Pokemon and wanted to break them up into hundreds of tiny pieces? Have you ever had... special feelings for any of the Pokemon and wanted to suck them until your tongue turned blue? Well, you're in luck, because this fall Toymax is going to release Gummy Pokemon, as well as Pokemon gum and Pokemon candy. DMA Design, best known for Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings, has been purchased by Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two had already signed an agreement with DMA to publish Grand Theft Auto 2 in the US under their Rockstar Games label, and GTA 2 is still on target to be released in the US for the PlayStation and PC sometime in October. Under the new ownership, DMA will focus on PlayStation 2 and PC games, starting with Grand Theft Auto 3D and Grand Theft Auto Crime World Online. The Scotland-based DMA Design used to be owned by Gremlin, and then it became part of Infogrames when Infogrames bought Gremlin, only to be sold to Take-Two. Shortly after Nintendo announced the Game Boy Advance, SNK retaliated by announcing that they are developing a 32-bit successor to the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which was released under two months ago. SNK may as well have said, "So if you're thinking about buying a Neo Geo Pocket Color, don't! It will be in obsolete in a year!" Not so coincidentally, the Neo Geo Pocket Color is a miserable failure in Japan because SNK released a black and white version of the system and then announced the color version shortly thereafter, making no one want to buy either version. I will always have a special place in my heart for SNK because they made Baseball Stars, but what they've done (twice) is the equivalent of Sony announcing the PlayStation 2 in 1996. Nintendo of America's chairman Howard Lincoln has been appointed the chairman and CEO of the Seattle Mariners. Lincoln still plans to retire from Nintendo on his 60th birthday in February, but he will remain on the company's board of directors. On the day he was appointed chairman and CEO of the Mariners, Lincoln was shown on Fox Sports Prime Time saying that he wants to make Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriguez the two highest-paid players in baseball history. The Fox Sports anchor jokingly added, "He also wants you to buy the newest Mario game!" While we're talking about mainstream Nintendo references, references to Pokemon were recently made on Saturday Night Live's 25th Anniversary Special on NBC, and on ESPN's SportsCenter. On the SNL Special, Billy Crystal told Danny DeVito, "You're like a Pokemon. I'd like to find you in a Happy Meal and trade you with my friends!" The line got a good laugh from the crowd. On SportsCenter, the hosts frequency say goofy things when players hit home runs in the highlight reels, things like "BOO-YAH!" and "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!" When Pokey Reese recently hit a home run, one of the anchors said, "Pokey Reese... POKEMON!" Sega has moved up the release of Sega Rally 2 from "sometime in 2000" to November 9, but the ability to play the game over the Internet with up to three other people will probably be removed from the game. Officially, Sega won't comment on whether or not the Internet features will be removed, but it seems likely considering that they previously said that no online games will be out for the Dreamcast this year. If Sega does end up removing the Internet features from the game, it would be a puzzling move given that the technology for such features already exists, and it has been up and running in Japan since the game was released there in December 1998. Nintendo has released some interesting sales figures for several old Nintendo 64 games. All the sales figures below are the total units sold since each game's release: Super Mario 64: 4.4 million Goldeneye 007: 4.0 million Mario Kart 64: 3.5 million Zelda 64: 3.5 million Diddy Kong Racing: 2.7 million Star Fox 64: 1.8 million Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire: 1.6 million Four of those seven games were still among the best-selling N64 games on the market in the week of September 5 to 11. In that week, Zelda 64 was #4 on the N64 charts, Goldeneye was #8, Mario 64 was #9, and Mario Kart 64 was #10. This could mean that Nintendo's games have a lot of staying power, or it could just mean that N64 owners don't have many hot new games to choose from... In order to promote WCW Mayhem (which was recently released for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64), WCW has agreed to name their November 21 pay-per-view WCW Mayhem. Apparently, WCW then decided that WCW Mayhem wasn't a good enough name, so they decided to name it WCW Mayhem: Night of Champions. Then WCW decided that they wanted to "present" the pay-per-view, so they named it World Championship Wrestling Presents WCW Mayhem: Night of Champions. They EA decided they wanted to "present" it as well, so now the full name for the pay-per-view is World Championship Wrestling Presents WCW Mayhem: Night of Champions Presented by Electronic Arts (no joke). WCW itself is a company in mayhem, with its president Eric Bischoff having recently been fired (excuse me... "re-assigned"), its business going down drastically in every revenue category over the past year, and the company having lost over $8 million in the last two months alone. Other than Sega, Midway is probably the company who has had the most head-aches as a result of the problems surrounding the Dreamcast's launch. A percentage of all four of Midway's Dreamcast launch titles (Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Hydro Thunder, NFL Blitz 2000 and Mortal Kombat Gold) were defective, and needless to say, this upset a lot of video game consumers. If you purchased a defective Midway game for the Dreamcast and would like a free replacement, call Midway toll-free at 1-877-213-0579. For the record, Sega still says that all of the Dreamcast's technical problems are based in the software, not the hardware, but that doesn't explain why thousands of gamers have found that some of their games won't run on some Dreamcasts, but run flawlessly on other Dreamcasts. Origin has announced that Ultima Online 2 is in development, and they hope to finish it by the end of 2000. Unlike the original Ultima Online, the sequel will be fully polygonal, and many of its creatures will be designed by Todd McFarlane, the Spawn creator who seems to be concentrating on everything these days except the actual Spawn comic book that started it all for him. Fortunately for the 130,000 people who are currently paying $10 to play Ultima Online, Origin says that they plan to fully support the original game long after the sequel is released. Ion Storm claims that their frequently-delayed first-person shooter Daikatana will REALLY be released for the PC and Nintendo 64 this December. Even if they really do release the game in December, who cares? It might have meant something two years ago, but now the game is old and as 90% of the people who've played the multi-player demo on Mplayer will tell you, it sucks. Ion Storm claims that the game is in the final stages of development, but then again, they've been saying that since late 1997. Ion Storm is truly the laughing stock of the video game industry. The video game industry trade publication MCV recently stated that reports on Microsoft's X-Box are "misleading" and "have been blown well out of proportion." MCV says that the X-Box is not a video game console, but a low-cost PC that uses a VGA signal (which is meant for PC monitors, not TV screens). MCV also said that the X-Box "is little more than a Microsoft reference design" and concluded their article by saying, "When customers ask you about the Microsoft X-Box, you might want to direct them toward something that actually will come to market." MCV may not believe that the X-Box is real, but others in the industry disagree with them. Sega's Charles Bellfield told MCV's competitor Games Business, "We've known about this (the X-Box) for ages. The way we're going (with the Dreamcast) is very different. We are not a digital, home- network, entertainment-center company. The X-Box is aimed at a different market, at a higher cost. It's targeting the PlayStation 2." Also, Square's Yoshihiro Maruyama recently said, "The biggest player (Microsoft) cannot ignore this market anymore. If they decide to come in, their commitment will be very firm. They could potentially be the biggest competitor to Sony." Sega has released a free mini-game for the Dreamcast's Virtual Memory Unit called VMU Football. Dreamcast owners can download the mini-game for free by getting online with their Dreamcast, going to dreamcast.com, clicking on Games, and then clicking on Downloads. Unfortunately, the mini-game takes up 111 of the VMU's 200 blocks of memory. Square has vaguely revealed that the Final Fantasy game currently in development for the PlayStation 2 will be fully compatible with the system's online network. Considering that Sony has already said that no modem will be available for the PlayStation 2 until 2001, that would seem to imply that gamers will also have to wait until 2001 for the system's first FF game. In the meantime, rumors are flying that the PlayStation 2 game in question is Final Fantasy 10, and that Final Fantasy 9 will be for the original PlayStation. In an effort to promote the Duke Nukem game series, "Duke Nukem" recently made personal appearances at several Toys R Us and Blockbuster Video locations in Toronto, Canada. I fail to see the point in all of this given that Duke Nukem isn't a real person. What are you going to do if you meet "Duke"? You could show your friends a picture of the two of you and say "Look! It's me standing next to a man who was paid to portray Duke Nukem!" NEWS BRIEFS Sega previously said that anyone who pre-ordered the Dreamcast from sega.com and didn't get their system on September 9 would get a free gift, but they didn't reveal what the gift would be. Now they have: It will be a free copy of Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle as soon as it is released. Capcom has programmed Dino Crisis for the PlayStation so that it won't run on PlayStations with mod chips in them. Rob Zombie (no relation to Resident Evil 2's Cop Zombie) recently said on his web site that he will be a playable character in Twisted Metal 4. The game will also feature several music tracks by Zombie. Outcast was recently released for the PC, but the Dreamcast version of the game has been cancelled. On the bright side, Outcast 2 is already in development for the PC, Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2. Electronic Arts has signed some fairly big names for NBA Live 2000's soundtrack, namely Run-DMC, Naughty by Nature, and George Clinton. The console versions of the PC hit Rainbow Six have been delayed. The Dreamcast version, which was previously scheduled to be released along with the system on September 9, will now be released sometime in October or November, and that time-frame is still very tentative. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of the game are scheduled to be released in November. Electronic Arts has revealed that they hope to have ten games ready at the PlayStation 2's launch or shortly thereafter. A new 2,900-foot exhibit has opened in Disney World's Epcot Center featuring the Sega Dreamcast. The exhibit will remain there as part of the Innoventions display for the next two years, and it features 34 interactive Dreamcast stations (including some with video clips of Shenmue). Nintendo has announced that S3 is its newest partner in the development of the Dolphin's hardware. S3 will provide its patented texture compression technology to the Dolphin's graphics chip, which is being designed by ArtX. S3's technology allows for textures to take up less memory and take less time to load while still being of the same graphical quality. Mpath, Mplayer.com's parent company, has changed its name to HearMe and is now focusing on online voice chat technology. Mplayer.com is still thriving with over four million members. Sega has announced a new game in the Phantasy Star series: Phantasy Star Online. Sega has not disclosed any details on the game or a US release date, but it seems likely that Phantasy Star Online will be a persistent online world like Ultima Online and EverQuest, and it's also safe to assume that it will be released in the US in late 2000 or 2001. A 30-year-old man named Phil Hall was struck by a bolt of lightning while playing Star Wars Episode I: Racer last week. Hall was playing the game in his Manchester, England home with the window open, and fortunately, he survived the lightning bolt. Columbia Pictures has purchased the rights to make a movie based on Redneck Rampage. Of all the games you could base a movie on, Columbia chose Redneck Rampage?!? NOTABLE QUOTES Electronic Arts' president John Riccitiello on video game companies like GT Interactive striving to be like EA: "I personally think that's misguided. All the companies gunning for us... go for ill-advised acquisitions and ill-advised licensing deals in order to get big. Now, Michael Jordan's bigger than I am. He weights 50 pounds more than I do. But if I gained 50 pounds, I wouldn't be Michael Jordan. There's a lot of difference between tall and strong as opposed to big and fat." John Riccitiello on the Sega Dreamcast: "We have enormous respect for Sega. We've worked very closely with them in the past, and we'd like to work very closely with them in the future. We'd like to see them be successful, but so far, we don't have enough evidence to suggest that they will be." John Riccitiello on what Sega would have to do in order for EA to be a Dreamcast developer: "They could start by selling five million units. That would work." This one has nothing to do with video games, but here's basketball star Scottie Pippen: "I wouldn't give Charles Barkley an apology at gunpoint. He can never expect an apology from me. If anything, he owes me an apology for coming to play with his sorry, fat butt." Ouch! Nintendo of America's chairman Howard Lincoln on Sony and Sega: "Sony is one of the best things to ever happen to the industry. Fighting against a world-class competitor like Sony that isn't going to run out of money or do crazy things like Sega, is very stimulating. It's good for the industry. In Sega's case, they seem to have a propensity for shooting themselves in the foot at the wrong times, and until they stop doing that, I think they have some very difficult challenges." Howard Lincoln on the Dolphin's chances of being released next year: "I think it's as realistic for us as it is for Sony. I think time will tell (if that's the reality)." Howard Lincoln on the Dolphin's Internet aspects: "We continue to screw around with it. We've spent a lot of money in research and development on it. I think it's pretty clear that there's going to have to be some sort of Internet component for online gaming." SALES CHARTS The top ten selling video games (for all systems) from September 12 to 18 were: 1. Final Fantasy 8 for PlayStation (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game) 2. Madden NFL 2000 for PlayStation 3. NFL 2K for Dreamcast 4. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for PlayStation 5. Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast 6. Soul Calibur for Dreamcast 7. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing for Dreamcast 8. Pokemon Blue for Game Boy 9. Pokemon Red for Game Boy 10. Pokemon Pinball for Game Boy Color On a points basis (with the first-place game earning its system ten points, the second-place game earning its system nine points, and so on), the PlayStation won with 26 points, followed by the Dreamcast with 23 points, the Game Boy with five points, and the Game Boy Color with one point. There were no Nintendo 64 or PC games on the list. The best-selling N64 games were WWF Attitude, Pokemon Snap, and Madden NFL 2000, while the best- selling PC games were Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Madden NFL 2000, and Rainbow Six Gold Pack. Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News, GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Happy Puppy, PSX 2 Online, IGNPSX, IGN 64, Nintendorks, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku, Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.hamsterdance.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com