---

---

Current News

News Archive

1999:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

1998:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

1997:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

---

Misc News: NL In Europe, E0 Pushed Back 2 Weeks, etc... - 11/26/97 - 9:19:05 AM
Sega Stages Global Touring Car Competition - 11/26/97 - 9:12:41 AM
Hitachi Reveals SH4 Chip - 11/14/97 - 2:39:07 PM
Sega Announces Upcoming Titles - 11/5/97 - 2:45:19 PM

Misc News: NL In Europe, E0 Pushed Back 2 Weeks

Top

These are two things that I forgot to include in the dEX Newsletter (See Sidebar) last Sunday. First off, Sega has announced the testing of the Netlink in Finland. The country was chosen due to the fact that telephone calls are relatively cheap there when compared to other European nations (such as Britain and Germany.)

Also, Enemy Zero was supposed to ship last week, and it is on the "Nowout" list. However, Sega of America has decided to wait another two weeks to spread out the release of games. This is probably linked to the delay of two major titles: First there was Panzer Dragoon Saga (April in US), and now Burning Rangers (Early '98 in Japan.).

Fry's Electronics, an american electronics and games retailer has begun clearing out their Saturn titles. At this time I have not received confirmation that its a chain wide action. However, at the local Fry's they are selling all Saturn games for $20 US and when you buy one, you get another title free. Pickings are rather slim as here there were no games newer than six months old. I did pick up WWS '97 and Tempest 2k though. Good deal for only $20 total.

In other news, Sonic R is being extremely well received and as one plays further more secret characters are revealed (and the game gets harder.)

Sega Stages Global Touring Car Competition

Top

Two weeks ago I read a little about this competition but did not have any details. Now that it has been formally announced, I am posting a copy of the PR:

WHAT: Worldwide competition to see who can post the best time in one 24-hour period playing the upcoming Sega Saturn® video game Sega Touring Car Championship™
WHO: Sega(R) of America, Sega of Japan, and Sega of Europe.
WHEN: 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time December 24 to 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time December 25.
WHY: A chance to gloat! Fastest drivers from around the world will be posted on Sega World Wide Web sites.

Sega of America, in conjunction with Sega of Japan and Sega of Europe, is about to make video game and racing history. For the first time, individuals from all over the globe will be competing in a single video game for one 24-hour period, racing to see who is the fastest driver in the world. On December 24, 1997, at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, owners of the Sega Touring Car Championship auto racing game for Sega Saturn will be able to access a secret track. They then get just 24 hours to record their best time on that track and receive a special password, which they upload from their PC or Sega Saturn Net Link to the Sega of Japan World Wide Web site at http://www.sega.co.jp/stc/ to be registered for the competition. The players with the best times in the world will have their results posted on the Sega of America, Sega of Japan and Sega of Europe Web sites. "Sega Touring Car Championship" will be available in stores in November.

Note to Editors: Prizes will be awarded to participants in some countries. Due to legal restrictions, Sega is not allowed to award prizes in the United States.

Hitachi Reveals SH4 Chip

Top

The SH-4 chip is the latest chip in Hitachi's SuperH RISC chip series. As you know, the SH4 is rumoured to be the CPU in Sega's upcoming Dural system. The initial version of the chip will run at about 200MHz costing $40 a chip in quantities of 10,000. Performance? The chip can calculate about 5,000,000 polygons per second..however due to obvious memory limitations in a console, performance will probably be around 1-2 million polygons per second...at 30 to 60 frames per second. The chip design is a combination of 64bit and 128 bit computation and a high speed bus (64Bit, 800MB/s peak.) Its also designed with the use of WindowsCE in mind on portables which means, if Microsoft is indeed developing a special WindowsCE based OS for the Dural, this chip will work quite well in the overall design. You can read all the obscure techno babble as well from the press release.

Sega Announces Upcoming Titles

Top

This morning, Sega of America has broken their silence and finally officially announced several upcoming Saturn titles. The games announced include: Steep Slope Sliders (December), Winter Heat (January), Panzer Dragoon Saga & Burning Raners (March), and House of the Dead (April).