You must play Sega Saturn, pt. 2 w/ DANTHRAX

David and Bo welcome Danthrax from SegaSaturnShiro.com to continue the conversation about SEGA's most famous 32-bit console.

For more Danthrax: Bluesky!

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Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Greetings and welcome to anotherepisode of Sonic Weekly.
My name is Bo at the controls again this week.
I promised that Grant would be back last week, but he called in
sick. But that's OK.
I'm happy to be talking about Sonic with friends once again.
And one of those friends is David.
David, are you OK? How are you feeling?
I'm, I'm feeling all right. I'm feeling pretty decent.

(00:39):
What, what have I been doing? I clean.
I was cleaning today. I cleaned the kitchen, I cleaned
the bathroom. Then it went out.
Had had some dinner, got something from the old Taco
truck. So now there's some, there's
some Mexican food sitting in my stomach.
We'll see what happens over the course of the recording.
Yeah, I'm going to cut you off right there.

(01:01):
The question was hello. Oh, hi, yes, hi, Bo.
Whoa, hi, Bo. Not Grant, right.
I didn't even open how I normally open.
I'm I'm clearly not a I'm off kilter because, right, I was
expecting grand, but instead there's somebody else sitting in
his seat. There's somebody else.
Dan, I hope you're feeling well.How are you?
Hi. I'm I am doing pretty well.

(01:23):
Thank you for having me on the show today.
It's Danthrax from the Sega Saturn Cherot show and the Sega
Saturn Cherot website. And what else, Dan?
What, what? What are your other venues?
That's those are the, the main ones, I guess where we're on
YouTube and blue sky and Twitterand whatnot as well.
I mean, I, I, I like fantasy star online too.

(01:44):
So I'm kind of involved in that community and just kind of
posting screenshots and liking other people's screenshots.
And I've actually made some connections with some Japanese
PSO two players through like through online through blue sky
and Twitter and stuff. So that's fun and making that
connection across cultures, you know, through a a mutual

(02:06):
enjoyment of a game, so. Yeah, we are connecting across
space and time with our love forSega and possibly our love for
Sonic. Before we get into the Sonic of
it all, we wanted to ask you what is your relationship with
Sonic? Have you felt positively towards
Sonic a lot recently? More in the past?

(02:29):
What's your thought? Yeah, I, I have thought
positively of Sonic in the past and, and in the present I guess.
So Sonic's actually the reason that I became a Sega fan in the
1st place. And I'm sure this story is not
completely unique to me, but when I was seven years old, my
mom was helping out a Co worker with a yard sale.

(02:52):
And so she brought me over to this Co worker's house and some
of the other Co workers brought their kids over.
So all of us were down in the basement of this house, and the
kid who lived there had a Sega Genesis.
I remember us playing two games that I'd never seen one before
in my life, by the way, I'd never played one.
It was my first time. We played Alien 3, which is

(03:13):
probably not super appropriate for a 7 year old to play, but we
played Alien 3 and we played Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic One. This would have been like fall,
maybe late summer of 1992. So Sonic one had been been out
for about a year, a little over a year.
Sonic 2 was not out yet. And I thought Sonic was just the

(03:33):
most amazing looking game. I'm like, this is crazy now.
Like until then we had had an Atari 2600 at home, you know,
and, and APC. So I played some PC games and
none of them looked or ran quitelike Sonic the Hedgehog, you
know? So I, I went home and I'm like,
mom, dad, I need a Sega Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog for
Christmas, right? Yeah, you've you've never seen

(03:55):
blast processing your mind. No, the blast processing blew my
mind, right? And and sure enough, they got me
Sonic packed in with the a Model1 Genesis for that Christmas.
So and and Sonic 2 had come out and I even know and I think I
saw an ad for it or something atsome point.
I'm like, I've already there's already a sequel out.

(04:15):
I don't even know. I had to get that following
Christmas and Sonic Spinball right after that.
And then six weeks later Sonic 3was out.
So it's like in the space of 14 months I had four Sonic games to
play, you know, and that was thesame year 1993 'cause I, I, it
was Christmas 92. I got my Genesis 93 is when the
Sonic cartoons, the, the first two cartoons started airing.

(04:38):
The Sonic comics started, which I stumbled upon the first issue
in a store and I'm like, whoa, there's a comic now, you know,
So I got that and I started buying each of one of those
issues I have. I still have them all to this
day. I actually was wondering when
did I stop subscribe because I eventually subscribe to Sonic
Comic and as the Genesis waned come 1997, I eventually I got an

(05:02):
N64, not a Saturn in 1997. Yeah, 'cause I just I had to
play Star Fox 64. I didn't know of anything I want
to play on the the Saturn. The only Sonic game I cared
about on there was also on the Genesis, which was 3D Blast.
So I looked it up. My last issue of the Archie
Sonic Hedgehog comic was 56 which I looked it up came out in

(05:24):
December of 1997, the same monthI got my N64 for Christmas.
So I guess my my Sega fandom wason hold for a few years till
Sonic came to the GameCube and Istarted playing the adventure
games and stuff. So.
That's an interesting place. So I was going to ask you about
like Sonic in other media, but you were you were right there
from the boom, right? Like 93 has been, you know,

(05:47):
Sonic really just took off. Took off.
Everywhere and I was it just felt like my new fandom was like
the new hot thing, you know, it was it was a lot of fun.
I just wish that they had all ofthe toys that they do now for
Sonic. Like I had a stuffed Sonic
because they had stuffed Sonic and stuffed Tails, but they
didn't have playsets or little action figures or anything.

(06:08):
Like now Jacks Pacific has all those little cool figures and I
have some of those and they put out those little playsets that
look like the different zones. You know, they're, they look
like Studio Opolis zone or or Greenhill or whatever, different
zones. Not to mention the Lego.
Yeah, which I was never like a big Lego person when I was a

(06:29):
kid. I really got into Legos, but I
like the action figures and stuff like that.
And man, I would have loved those playsets.
I, I would have just like that would have been my whole
Christmas list would have been just Sonic play sets for a few
years, you know, so it's like, even as an adult now, I have to
like really resist the temptation to buy up these
awesome looking places. So like, where would I put them
at my house? Like I'm not going to play with

(06:49):
these things. So the only one I have is the
little, it's like the little eggcarrier where you pop it open at
the end of a level and animals fall out.
It comes with some little animalfigures and you can actually
press a button, it opens up and you know, you can stir your
little animal like animal figures in there and there's
like a little goal post sign with it.
So that's something small that Ican just like have off to the

(07:11):
side, which I do. It's cool the kids have them
now, though. I'm I'm glad they're making
them. Right, you don't.
You don't want to be too jealousof the kids these days, but.
I know they have a good all these movies.
Right now I I feel, yeah, I was in the I was in the same place.
What, like wanting figures, wanting playsets because I, I, I
had a I also had a few action figures.

(07:33):
I was also in, but I was also into Lego, which you weren't.
But so it was like, yes, nowadays all, all things
intersecting in into one. But yeah, back then it felt,
even though the Genesis was big,sometimes it felt like a secret
club in the sense that like, well, you had a Genesis, you

(07:54):
didn't have other you didn't. Yeah, there wasn't like there
was the comic and there was the show, but there wasn't a ton of
merchandise, which, you know, itwasn't like the Ninja Turtles
where you you could cover your your room top to bottom.
Oh yeah, and that was. No way to consume all the turtle
stuff. In the 90s you could consume all
the Sonic stuff. You're right.

(08:14):
Yeah. And that was the Phantom I was
into before Sonic was Ninja Turtles.
It was kind of a concurrent fandom there for a little bit
too. But yeah, I had so many Ninja
Turtles action figures. Definitely.
And the Technodrome. I still have the Technodrome of
my basement. Oh, yeah.
It was at my parents basement and I bought my own house and
they were like, all right, get this out of our basement.
Put it in your basement. OK.
That's exciting right now I got I got to yeah, got to give some

(08:38):
love to the technodrome. You know, they're they're I
think they they re released it or they put it up for pre-order
and the pre-order is immediatelysold out because like yeah, I
mean as a kid I also had the technodrome because it that was
the playset. I it was probably very annoying
to my parents to get it, but youknow, they've been slowly like
re releasing the old turtle figures and some of the old play

(09:00):
sets and things. So if there's something you
missed, you could keep an eye out and pretend you bought it as
a child. Yeah, you could, you know,
justify it as fulfilling a long lost dream or something.
That's a. Good point.
I never got the van. I had the blimp in the
Technodrome, but no van. The van was the party wagon.
An essential thing. The party wagon, right?

(09:21):
Yeah. Yeah, I had the.
Party Wagon, but no Technodrome.If we were all friends together
in the 90s, we could have had the most awesome time.
That's right, because I always wanted the blimp.
I never got the blimp. So OK, so these these are the
other media. And so you fell off on Archie.
You fell off on the games until the GameCube era, and then were

(09:43):
you true blue from then or was there a foul period?
Like a lot of people, I don't want to say our age, but like in
our cohort who were there on theGenesis side, we kind of missed
the Sonic 06 of it all, the secret rings, the Sonic
Unleashed until later. And that that's where I am.
Yeah, so I, I played Sonic Adventure 2 and then Adventure

(10:05):
one as they came out on the GameCube and I got the Gems
collection, which is my first time playing like Sonic R And
you played on the Saturn first played it on the GameCube.
Well, I enjoyed all of those. I enjoyed the Sonic Adventure
games. I did recognize that they were a
little janky in the control, in the camera and, you know, a bit
of the, the collision detection on a very annoying to just be

(10:27):
jumping around and go flying offthe edge.
And it didn't feel like it was my fault.
And then I'm just down at a bottomless pit and then Sonic's
going no, you know, and then I'mdone.
But I'm like, you know what, what these were Dreamcast games.
They're kind of older. They're poor to the GameCube.
Maybe that's just how they were on the Dreamcast and it's
faithfully brought them to the GameCube.
So when like Sonic Heroes came out, the first like new Sonic

(10:50):
game in a few years, first one made just for the GameCube.
And you know, the, the current console, the PS2 and the Xbox, I
rented it. I'm like, let's see how this is.
And I remember I was in college playing my rental on the
GameCube and it was like a, a big silo that was the first or
second level, a big silo with a bunch of springs.

(11:11):
They're supposed to be bouncing you down the, the, the silo and
you have no control right It you're just, it's an auto spring
thing. And as I'm going down, my
character goes through the wall of the silo and out into the
abyss of death. And no, you know, I'm like, I
didn't do anything wrong. I did nothing.

(11:31):
It's the exact same crap that happened in the sock adventure
games. You've got to be kidding me.
So I never bought it. I was like, Nope, I'm not
getting it. It's the same crap.
I was so annoyed. So to this day, I've never
played past the first level or two of Sock Heroes.
I've never bought it. I did not get Shadow the
Hedgehog because that came out when I was in college and it was
so edge Lord that I was like, this is cringe, man.

(11:55):
I can't. It was like clearly targeting
like 13 year olds who thought that it would be awesome, you
know, to be shadow with a gun saying where's that damn 4th
chaos Emerald? He swore, you know, and I'm
like, I'm like 2021, man. This is, you know, it's only the
you know, you're still young, but it's like you feel like this

(12:15):
isn't the game for me. I, I can't do it and Sonico 6
came out and I don't think I hada console to play it on.
And of course your views very quickly came out with it being
just like a mess. So I did eventually buy Sonico 6
just to like try out the, the jankiness of it.
And yeah, it was good until I got to a snow level where I had

(12:38):
to go off a ramp and I couldn't hit the A button correctly or
something to time it right. And I just kept, instead of
launching off the ramp, I just kind of fall down to my death.
If you notice a pattern of what I get frustrated with with these
Sonic games in this era falling to my death.
So yeah, I kind of like skipped a few of those 3D Sonic games
shortly after getting back into it.

(12:59):
But I did play the handheld ones.
I got like Sonic Advance three. I got a Nintendo DS, so I played
like Sonic Rush. I played Sonic Chronicles, which
I actually really enjoyed despite the music being rough,
let's put it kindly. But yeah, I had so much fun with
that game because they took a lot of inspiration from the
Archie comics. You know, like they, they

(13:20):
clearly don't tell Ken Petter's this, but they clearly were
ripping off of a Knuckles girlfriend with that shade
character. That was that was totally her.
That was totally the idea they got from and I don't know, I
just, I thought it was neat being able to play a Sonic RPGII
thought it was really fun. I liked it.
So yeah, I, I kind of like got into the, the, the handheld

(13:41):
games with Sonic for a while. And then when I got a Wii, I I
played a couple of those games. I did play Sonic the Secret
Rings, which is a good game onceyou unlock the good controls.
Yeah, it is dingy that you have to unlock good controls.
It was an odd decision. It's like as part, but it does
get good once you finally were able to control your character.

(14:03):
Yeah, that was my issue with it.I was like, oh, when I try to to
move it, just it, it does the wrong thing and like, Oh no, no,
no, that's that's right. It's intended.
Oh. I thought I thought that was the
problem with my setup. Yeah, you have to get get better
like an RBGI guess. Right.
Yeah, so I, and nowadays, like Ido buy all the Sonic games, but
I, I don't know, I don't play them all the way through.

(14:25):
I kind of check them out, you know, and then I'm like, OK,
that's cool. And then I, I go back to play
VSO 2 every night. That's just the game I play.
But I think that's just how I amwith a lot of you games in
general, you know, I just like I, I try to, I'll get a new
game, I'll play it for like a little bit, but I won't get
through all the way through it because, you know, a lot, most
nights I'm so tired from work and running around or whatever

(14:48):
that I, I feel too lazy to play a game.
I just want to sit there and watch an anime or something on a
streaming service or whatever, watch the baseball game and get
all stressed out playing a videogame, you know?
So what can you do? All right, Well, yeah, you know,
I didn't know what the depth of your commitment to Sonic was
going to be going in, but you know, somebody who played and

(15:11):
enjoyed Chronicles, that's that's impressive that.
You made him. As a as a guest for us who's a A
Chronicles enjoyer? Yeah, right.
There's a, there's a handful of games where it seems, you know,
most people agree that's that's a bad 1 and in Chronicles and
ends up in that pile. And I, you know, maybe it's just
because they want a more traditional Sonic game.

(15:34):
Maybe the the music is enough tokill it, maybe they just don't
want to use the stylus, I don't know.
I'm with you. Like the RPG element.
They need to go back to that I. Want another?
RPG. Yeah, I I think maybe the trick
is, is figuring out how to do anRPG that still feels sonicky.

(15:55):
I don't know. I don't know what that what that
is, though, but that's why they don't pay me to do it.
So. But yeah, that is interesting.
And I so, so you are right. You are, you are a a true blue
Sonic fan in the early days. That's right.
That that's why you're painted blue right now.
The listeners at home can't see,but I, I think it's fair.

(16:18):
We let them know. OK my my avatar online is
usually a Sonic. So, OK, that is what led me to
think like, oh, I should ask youto come on the show.
I mean, Sonic is your picture. You're probably willing to talk
about it. Yeah.
So so you said like, right, you,you buy the the current Sonic
games, do you engage with any ofthe auxiliary expanded material

(16:41):
like the new shows or do you watch the movies, read the
comics now? Like are you just for games?
Yeah, so I have been to every Sonic movie on opening night in
the theater. That was very cool.
They're making movies. And so I've been there for all
of them day one. And even though they're, they're
very geared toward kids, especially the first one, but

(17:04):
you know what? I'm fine with that because Sonic
should be for kids first. You know, that's how they're
creating a new wave of Sonic fans.
You know, when I saw the first Sonic movie on opening night, I
remember when the credits were rolling, there were these two
little kids who were probably 2 little boys who were probably
like 8 years old, seven years old.

(17:26):
And they were like running around like they were Sonic all
around the theater, all over theplace.
I'm like, oh, there's two new Sonic fans right there.
That's awesome. You know, I loved it.
So yeah, I'm it clearly the movie worked.
It did its job. So yeah, I don't mind that
they're, they're made for kids. Like, kids should have their own
media too. And they still have a lot of

(17:47):
like love for the Sonic over, ifyou will, the Sonic Canon.
They, they had some good callbacks that you know, only
old timers would get. So there there's stuff for for
our people our age to enjoy in there too.
So yeah, I really like the movies.

(18:08):
I do not watch or read the, the comics, the IDW comics, I'm
aware of them. Sometimes I see stuff on on my
timeline about what's going on with them.
I know they have some new characters like Tangle and
Whisper, but I, I don't activelybuy those.
Like I said, I do get a couple of figures, like the Jack

(18:28):
specific ones. I had to get like Ray and
Mighty. Like I could not believe there's
a Ray figure, you know, like, oh, it's so cool.
Like I, I got to get get one of those.
Yeah, if you're the uncle. From another world who wakes up
like 20 years later and there's Ray and mighty figures like like
I'm still in some alternate dimension.
How did this happen? Yeah, really now, now we need
Super Sonic the Hedgehog, the arcade game to somehow release

(18:50):
on something. We'd get that trackball support
working. I did the the thought has
crossed my mind to like buy one of those arcade one up things
that because one or two of them has a trackball and like just
somehow get Super Sonic the Hedgehog on there just to play
with a trackball. I've not gone to those legs yet
though. Well.

(19:11):
You could. You could make a make it a
video, get people to pay you to make it.
And yeah, that's, that's the wayto do it.
That's how that's how the Internet works.
You got to monetize every littlething you do.
That's why, yeah. We do live in that kind of a
hellscape. Well, OK, so we're at the 20
minute mark for the show. By recording time, I think that

(19:34):
means it's time to check in on the new Sonic stuff, although it
is a bit of a light week if I recall correctly.
David, what do you see that stands out to you?
Yeah. There's that.
There's not much like you look at it and you go, OK, hey, Cross
Worlds is still coming yesterdayas of recording.

(19:54):
So a few days ago for whoever's listening, or a year ago, I
don't know when you're listeningto the show.
Episode 2 of Crosstalk came out where that that, like visual
novel esque Sonic, entails goingback and forth talking about the
Babylon Rogues. Speaking of like you woke up
from a coma and the Babylon Rogues are in another game.

(20:16):
That's that's another one where you're like, oh boy, I'm still,
I'm still under. Yeah, so I mean, it's if you
know who they are, you know who they are.
It's just, it's, I guess it's just a primer for you have no
idea what the Riders games are. You have no idea who these
people are. And and there are there are
Sonic fans who aren't going to know.

(20:37):
So it it's helpful for them or it's a nice little refresher,
it's fine. There's not much really to say
about it. There's some gameplay footage in
there. They also uploaded a a video of
another track, Urban Canyon. So they're just continuing, I
think. That one looked pretty good that
and the reason why I thought it looked good is it looked like

(20:59):
Sonic razing transformed and that was good so.
Yeah, I know. I.
Wanna play the urban Canyon? Bring you into the urban Canyon.
Yeah, no, I look, you know, there's nothing in the game that
I think has looked bad yet. I think, you know, it all looks,
it all looks fine to good. It's it's all at at least the
like the newer stuff. I, I know maybe there were a

(21:20):
couple rough things when they did the open test, but I, I have
faith that they've ironed that out.
No opinion on the lack of dialogue from the DLC
characters, including and especially Hatsune Miku, whose
whole thing is she's a a voice bank.
I mean, that is a little bit of fun.
Yeah. I guess I just mean, I meant
like the tracks look fine, the driving looks fine.

(21:44):
Not. I mean, there's, there's
probably always something to to nitpick, you know, like the like
the music and the fake choir in the third lap.
Unless that's not going to be there anymore.
I don't know. Wasn't there a track where it's
like it sounded like they replaced the singing with a
guitar or something? I don't know, maybe I misread
something or I'm misremembering something, so don't quote me if

(22:06):
I'm wrong or if I'm right, just don't forget I said anything.
I hope the ad campaign is working for them.
I'm glad the voice actors are getting getting some work.
I mean, this does seem to be like Sega's main holiday game
this year, along with Football Manager.
I guess if Sports Interactive actually manages to get one of

(22:26):
those out the door for once, because they haven't announced
anything else coming out this fall aside from they just
announced the other day. You know, some switch to ports
of like Persona 3 Reload and Yakuza Kiwami one and two that
were coming in the fall. But I mean, besides that,
they're only like new games. They're coming out after like

(22:46):
Shinobi is. It's pretty much Sonic cross
worlds, you know, Sonic Racing and and then like I said, maybe
Football Manager if we're lucky,if we're.
Yeah, I I've, I've never been a football manager type of guy,
so. I mean, me neither, but I, I
recognize that when that game does come out, it prints money

(23:07):
for Sega and it had been a reliable franchise just making
money for them primarily over inEurope for years and years.
So I mean, for Sega's financial health to keep the lights on, I,
I hope for their sakes that theyget that game out the door as
they were trying to switch over to like Unreal 5 engine and

(23:28):
that's what the issue was with not getting it out last year.
So maybe they finally just they.Just punted on it.
Similar to Rumble I guess. Oh.
Yeah. God, Oh yeah, that.
I guess that could be the other holiday title here because it
keeps getting delayed closer andclose to the holidays.
What One day? One day.
They did just put out a message saying, oh, yeah, this is still

(23:49):
on track for 2025, but we have nothing else to announce now.
Isn't it, like, playable in other parts of the world?
It's just like the United States.
Yeah, that the big. Launches are certainly delayed,
but I think Brazil's the place Iremember is being able to access
it. Right, Yeah.
So who who knows when it's worldwide, but it is in pockets
including Canada so you can pretend to be Canadian.

(24:12):
I'm just across the lake here inOhio.
IO Yeah, I see, I see. I'm I'm originally from
Michigan, so I know. I know what's going on down
there. You can't hide it.
You can't hide it. We've got the body.
Stash somewhere here in Ohio, right?
I I. Floating down the Cuyahoga.
River, right? I was about to be like, oh.
We're in Ohio, but let's not doxyou on on the podcast.

(24:36):
I'll I'll dox you later off camera.
What? What else has happened?
This week. Oh well, I don't think either of
you have read it, but I'll just say it anyway.
Hey, the final issue of of DCX Sonic the Hedgehog came out.
So I'm sure when Grant comes back, we'll have a couple things
to say about that. And you know, it's Sonic and

(24:58):
Superman, so I got I got to mention it won't spoil anything,
but I think people should read it if they haven't just because
it's fun. And hey, there's there's a tease
at the end for maybe something coming for something else may be
coming, which would be fun, but who knows?
Yeah, so there was that. I saw there's some toys.

(25:20):
Based on this now too, that was another bit on the news.
DCX Sonic. Yeah, I guess they they've
announced. They they had announced some
figures before, but maybe these are just.
These are new. Ones yeah.
So this is yeah, I guess what are these?
It's it's Superman and Batman with knuckles and shadow.

(25:41):
So it it's I got well, that's funny.
I'm looking at the picture because the figure of Superman,
he doesn't have the red trunks, but in the comic he does have
the red trunks. So that means the action figure
is inaccurate to the comic. So they messed up.
Sorry, Jax, go back to the drawing board.
I do have a little bit of Sonic news that has not been mentioned

(26:03):
yet. This was put.
Out just today, several hours ago by the Sonic the Hedgehog
account, there is some new SonicDash and Sonic Forces mobile
merchandise on the Sega shop on Amazon.
They've got phone cases and T-shirts and cups like tumblers

(26:27):
that we can get, you know, Shadow in a a night's costume
and Amy looking like she's in like a Valentine's outfit or
something. You know some of the different
skins that they've had in those mobile games you had.
Me at shadow. In a night's costume.
Take my money. OK?
No, not. Knights.
No, I'm sorry, not Knights in the dreams.
A knight with armor. It actually looks more like a

(26:48):
samurai now that I look at them.I think it's like samurai armor.
I see and. Is it from?
Is it from Black Knight? Is that what it is?
I don't know. I mean it says.
Sonic Forces at the bottom. So I think it's some kind of a
skin that's in that game. I don't know if it was a direct
reference to Sonic in The Black Knight, or if it was just they
needed something to sell microtransactions on SO.

(27:10):
Here's Shadow. In yeah, Samurai armor, right?
Well. I.
Mean, you know, if anybody listening is a a Sonic mobile
player, then there's some cool merch on the Amazon shop now,
all right. Yeah, I'm looking at it.
It's a warrior shadow, OK, who'sdefinitely not from Black

(27:32):
Knight, because he he is. He is one of the Knights of the
Round Table in that game. Right.
I guess this is more like a samurai, yeah?
I guess it's safe to say I mean for anyone for for for
listeners, long time listeners of the show, they know we are
not plugged into the into the Mobile World.

(27:53):
Things that happen in dash and forces speed battle, which is
just called forces now. There was no other forces before
forces. They're constantly adding skins
and costumes and it's it's too much.
I presume people are. Playing it I, I, I hope they're
getting that money. They're Yeah, I.
Mean there there has to be if they're making.

(28:14):
You can get this Tumblr with Dulce Amy currently unavailable.
Does that mean it's sold out? Oh, see.
Fans already jumped on it. That's right.
And. This in warrior shadow, the
stainless steel, yeah, that's that's also gone The the cup.
Wait, are all the cups gone? Or maybe the cups just aren't

(28:35):
for sale yet. I don't know.
Well, we're going to report it as.
They sold out within a few hours.
I think that's a better story. I, I, I keep looking at that
Stega shop on Amazon like I'd like a, like a tasteful Sonic
shirt. It's just like if somebody, if
somebody see that they're going to know they, they all seem a
little, a little loud. I I.

(28:57):
Bought I made one order off of that earlier this year.
I think I I had to get the Fantasy Star Online 2 merch they
had on there because it's like the first time they've ever sold
any PSO 2 merch here in the US that wasn't that like some Expo
in California that I'm, you know, thousands of miles away
from. So I got a T-shirt and I got a

(29:18):
pop socket for back of my cell phone.
There it is. Sorry listeners, you can't see
it, but just pretend it's a pop socket.
Yeah, it's very cute. And and then I also got a Sega
Saturn T-shirt because I had to get an official Saturn T-shirt
from Sega 2. You know, I, I couldn't resist
that. And it's kind of cool.

(29:38):
It's like a circuit board type of a design.
I've I've worn it on the Shiro show before.
Oh, it's Gray. So yeah, and and they were fine.
They're they're good, good little pieces of merch.
So I I recommend them. But are you?
Going to buy the Sonic Dash Valentine Rouge T-shirt for
1999. I'm so tempted.
However, I may pass this time. You may.

(30:00):
Oh. Right, because you're going to
get the long sleeve. Wait, right, that's what I.
Was leaning toward of course. Wait, why?
Why? On Amazon do they call it a long
sleeve T-shirt? Isn't that just a shirt?
Isn't isn't the whole thing the T-shirt?
I would, I would. I would distinguish you would.
Wow, yeah, it's more of a A. Formality level than a a

(30:21):
description of the cut I I see. But oh, there's AV neck T-shirt
as well. So if you want to show off your
V, wait, it doesn't sound right.Yeah.
All right, moving swiftly along.That's why we don't you are our
grant. You're you have to direct away

(30:41):
from the tangents that I, I go on.
So this is the point. In the show where we check in
with our friend Barry, he's going to run an ad right here.
Hey, Sonic Weekly listeners, Barry from Sega Bits here to
tell you about a podcast that you might enjoy.
On the latest Sega Talk, we return to the Gameboy Advance
with the second installment of Sonic's Advance Adventures.

(31:04):
We talk about the other Essay 2,the addition of Cream the
Rabbit, and the changes the gamemakes to the previous Advance
formula. Watch or listen at
youtube.com/sega Bits or search Sega Bits on your pod catcher of
choice. Hey, we're back from the break.
Thank you Barry for that wonderful ad.
That was a great ad. That's OK, now we're.

(31:24):
Going to get into our Sega focused portion of the show.
Not that we ever really strayed too far from Sega stuff so far
yet. But Dan, you're here from Sega
Saturn, Giro, and we always talkabout Saturn stuff because I'm
over in the the cheat cone mineshacking on stuff.

(31:46):
And, you know, this week I put out an article on Siga Saturn
Churro and on my site about one game I know you like is Sky
Target. Yeah.
And so David, I don't know if you've seen this, but Sky
Target, this is in the Afterburner extended universe.
It's a shooty airplane game. So it is aim one, not AM two.

(32:08):
Yeah, it's. Kind of like if.
Afterburner were a 3D polygonal game and they just not called
Afterburner but they it plays just like it pretty much.
Maybe a little slower soundtrack?
Isn't as rock and I think but I I used to.
Work the soundtrack. Now here's the thing.
Well, that's one of the things Ilike about Sky Target is the

(32:29):
soundtrack because it was composed by David Leitzy was the
same guy who did the soundtrack for Fighting Vipers, and I love
that soundtrack. I I just, I don't know man.
I got some for Rock Organs whileplaying a Sega game, A Sega
arcade game. They're just, they're awesome.
Those are always. Good for me to work, too.
It's like, all right, I'm going to plow through a bunch of tasks

(32:52):
that work if I get that spiny Viper soundtrack going.
Yeah, there you. Go so.
The the premise of this game is that this super fighter jet has
been stolen by this evil arms corporation, the Del Dine
Corporation. Whoa.
And it's the X FA-49 plane, the white sword.

(33:15):
White sword, yes, Yeah. So you got, you got.
To fight the white sword, you got to chase it.
Down play. Through the game and clear the
campaign, you can play the whitesword, you can play the Super
jet. And so I took a couple of runs
at this game. It's like I would be great if I
could cheat at this because I'm not great at shooters, but I
couldn't find anything, couldn'tfind anything.
But then I found if you press X 49 times on the plain select

(33:39):
screen and you wait for like dances was like 10 seconds.
Yeah, actually pressed. With with like my actual like
retail disk copy of the game because you said in your
article, oh, just wait a moment and then a yellow down arrow
will appear. So I did my I'm like counting 49
times sitting this button and I,I wait and seconds are going by.

(34:02):
I'm like, oh, did, did I not press enough?
Did I miscount what happened? I'm about ready to like turn off
the console, you know, and and try it again or like pause and
do ABC, you know, like reset it and all of a sudden yellow arrow
pops up. It was like a a full 10 seconds.
I'm like, oh, there it is. All right.
So yeah, I don't know. I don't know why it was so much
shorter for you when you're testing it out, Bo, but.

(34:22):
This has been the emulator speedup, but yeah X 49 times to play
the XFA 49. See what they did there.
Oh, and. You too can.
Cheat its guy target. Yeah, it's.
Cool, though. I mean, at least it's some kind
of a secret in there, you know? I mean, the game doesn't have a
ton of content, So what are you going to do, you know, let you

(34:42):
fly as the secret unlockable boss plane?
OK, it's the thing. You would want to be able to do
with the cheat code. I I was very pleased to to have
something for that yeah. So in the game is called the XF
slash A-49 but in the so so thenthere's other planes that are

(35:03):
just AAM 1:42 AM one 48 are those secret Sega studios that
they're revealing in this game. I presume that they're real
planes that plane geeks would know about, but I, I.
Myself, I'm not the normal playable planes are are actual
planes that exist. Like if I recall off the top of

(35:25):
my head, I know there's an F16 in there because that's the one
I usually fly is the Falcon. And I think there's an F15 Eagle
and there should be a Raphael. I'm not sure if I'm impressed at
it's definitely one of those, but it's it's the the French air
security fighter. So yeah, those actually exist in

(35:48):
real life. It's just the white sword they
made-up. It's the mythical one.
Yeah. So in the game, are you trying
to recover it or are you just trying to blow it up?
You're blowing. It up to keep it out of bad guy
hands yeah I mean it's the boss it's the last boss as you fight
this plane yeah. How much do you?
Think it cost the the to to build that plane in in universe.

(36:12):
Oh, I mean, surely millions, 10sof millions of dollars, but
keeping it out of terrorist hands?
Priceless. That's that's true.
I mean, really. Money is no object in that game
when you're firing a missile every second, you know, And
those things all cost 1,000,000 bucks each.

(36:32):
So that's true. I guess right when you're when
you're watching Top Gun, they'renot they're not shooting,
they're not shooting 100 missiles a second.
So, but this was this was a. Model 2 game, is that right?
In the arcades, yes, it was a. Model 2A.
So that was the first revision of the Model 2.
There were three revisions of the Model 2, so 4 total

(36:55):
different kinds of model twos. They kept adding on more better
sound or or little beefier graphics or more VRAM or
whatever. So I think Model 2A, they just
kind of increased the size of the ROM that it could use and
then increased the sound a little bit.
So it's pretty much got the samegraphics as the base Model 2,

(37:16):
which like Daytona USA ran on and Desert Tank.
Those are really the only two games.
Or maybe the original Model 2? Never got that home.
Port on desert tank, did we? No, sadly.
I I heard they were working on it for a little bit for like the
32X or maybe it was the Saturn. No, I think it was the Saturn.
But they they, you know, they never released anything like

(37:38):
that, unfortunately, Yeah. So.
Do you like the rest of the Afterburner games?
I know you enjoy a shooting, flying game like a stellar
assault. Yeah, yeah.
I I do, I do like Afterburner. Now what?
Here's what's funny. So Afterburner, the original
Afterburner is a super scaler game, right?
And it's very similar to anothersuper scaler game, Space

(38:02):
Harrier, right? You're basically doing the same
thing. You're going straight on a rail
and moving your playable whatever around the screen, a
plane or, or guy on a jet and and shooting things and trying
to stay alive. But for some reason, I have
never really liked Space Harrier, but I love Afterburner.

(38:22):
And I mean, I, I guess it's justI like the theme better, the
theming of it. You know, you're flying a plane
and it's just like kind of ridiculous moving some guy
floating around the screen. It's weird.
But I don't know, maybe the afterburner's a little bit
faster or something too. And you can fire you.
Well, I guess I do like the, thebeing able to now this is a, a
sky target thing. I, I don't think you could do

(38:43):
this in the original afterburnerwhere you can actually like kind
of paint the target and then fire missiles at it, kind of
like Panzer Dragoon. And that's fun too.
That's cool, Sky Spacer can't dothat sort of thing, so I don't
like every flying game where youshoot, I guess.
But I do have a a penchant for liking that sort of thing 'cause

(39:04):
I do love Stellar Assault on theSaturn and I helped with making
a fan translation patch for that.
And before that, I helped out onthe bulk slash patch, which in
that you can either be a mech running around the ground or you
can transform into a fighter andflying around.
And usually when I play that game, I am a flying jet form.

(39:27):
95% of the time I'm just flying everywhere.
Even in the level where it's alllike tight corridors in a
weapons facility that's underground.
You have to keep going down intodeeper floors and deeper floors.
I still fly through it because it's faster.
Because to test the game, I had to play through it, you know,
every time to like get to a particular navigator who we had

(39:47):
just dubbed over her voice and Ihad to make sure it was sounding
right and we hadn't missed any clips.
Nothing came through as Japaneserandomly.
And so to get there, I had to speed run through the rest of
the game where there were no cheat codes or bulk slash right.
You, you looked unfortunately, that would have been awesome if
you found it. And so I got very good at going

(40:08):
very fast in that game. And the fastest way to go is
just turn into the jet and turn the throttle to 100%.
But I mean, even if I, that wasn't like the most efficient
way, like that is just the most fun way to, to play it for me,
'cause I had mentioned at the beginning that I, I originally,
we had APC before I got a Sega Genesis.
And I grew up on playing Wing Commander and after that X Wing

(40:34):
and TIE Fighter. They're all space Sims for the
PC. And, you know, watching Star
Trek and Star Wars, you know, the sci-fi stuff where there's a
lot of flying around. So it just kind of been my my
bag. David, what's your?
Favorite shooty airplane game? My favorite show.
I mean, it might I, I, I haven'tplayed a ton of, of afterburner

(40:57):
myself. I mean, I like a lot like so my
connection to Afterburner. Is All Stars racing transformed?
Dude, that's one of the courses,yes.
So. I guess yeah, I'm, I'm just like
I, I I think I I've played a little bit of afterburner like
in an, in an arcade setting, like maybe at a mag fest or or
something where like it's there.I play around with it a bit, a

(41:20):
bit, but I never, I never saw itin the wild as a kid and I
certainly never had it like on the Genesis.
I know there's there's a is it just Afterburner 2 on the
Genesis or was the first one also?
No, they called. It afterburner 2, but I mean it
is just kind of afterburner, right?
Right. It's called it 2 for whatever
reason, right I because. I don't know what is different,

(41:41):
if there's something special that makes it too, or if it's
simply because it's it's the, it's blast processing.
That's what it is, right? The Six.
CD1's. The one I'm most familiar with
primarily through the soundtrack, right I.
Don't know, I mean, I'm all I'm I guess like when it came to
shooters or, or flying around shooters, like I I played a lot

(42:01):
of Panzer Dragon 2, which is nota plane, but like, yeah.
Yeah. So I think.
That, that was the one that I, I, I really enjoyed as a kid or
yeah, kiddish, maybe it I wasn'ta teen yet.
I was in youth in my youth. That's that's the word to use.
So, yeah, I was more a Panzer Dragoon kid than a, than a, than

(42:26):
a flying around playing guy. But I I won't I won't sneeze at
a as at A at a plane, you know, in Sonic Adventure, sky chase
act one and two. That's that's pretty much
depends your dragon, I guess. Yeah, so and your honor was.
Definitely. That was my pitch to the kids in
my middle school. Like you guys got to get a

(42:48):
Dreamcast Sonic Adventure, one in one game.
You're gonna have an action game, you're gonna have a flying
game, you're gonna have a fishing simulator, if that's
what you like. Racer Twinkle Park.
Yeah, it's it's all. In there that's.
True 'cause. I, I remember I, I would hold
the disc in my hand and I felt like I could feel the weight of

(43:09):
all those different games and play styles in my hand.
And no, no other Dreamcast disc felt the same.
Like in the case Sonic Adventure.
It's it was cram packed. They should have stopped making
games after that. Where else could you go?
And Chow, you had a little creature raising.
That's right. That's right.

(43:29):
Yeah. Yeah, your own.
Tamagotchi or or Digimon if you were cool, right?
I'm I'm. Pretty sure the Chow and before
that with Knights, the Knight Topians, I think all that a life
stuff was just there was one guyat Sega who was just really into
artificial intelligence. And so they were just like, he

(43:51):
was just sitting on his own in aroom and Sega was like, you know
what, do whatever you want, we'll put it in the game, you
know, it'll be a value add That's fine.
And so they ended up with this extremely complicated, you know,
Ciao raising thing and the extremely obscure and
complicated Nightopians, you know, And then after that, you
don't see that anymore. After Sock Adventure too, I

(44:13):
think he probably left Sega and went into like, actual
artificial intelligence. I would not surprise me.
I don't know who it was. I'm sure the name's in the
manual somewhere, but I'll bet it was all because of one guy.
After he left, no one at Sega even felt like diving into that
sort of thing, let alone had theknow how.
And so that's why they've never been able to recreate the Chow
Gardens for new soccer games, despite the overwhelming outcry

(44:36):
for it is because there's just no one there who knows how to do
it. It's a recurring theme on this.
Show please take the money of the people who want a stand
alone chow garden game. Yeah, yeah, it.
It makes sense. Like, I know, I know the credit.
It's a life programmer, but I can't think of the name off.
Yeah, I can't think. Of them either, but I I mean I
feel like not not to ruin your theory, but I think they did

(44:59):
stick around past Sonic Adventure too, whoever that I
know it. Wasn't in Sonic Heroes.
Did everything I. Needed to do.
Got that out of my system and well.
I'd love to look it up on. Sonic Retro, but the server is
down. Oh yeah, surprised.
No, I'm not. It's not my fault, somebody

(45:20):
else's fault, right? I was just about to do the same
thing and I'm like, it's not, it's not, it's not loading.
It's not loading. I'm just happy when I click on
it and it works. A life system programmer Yoshi
Yoshihi. Oh geez, Hashimoto.

(45:41):
Yeah OK, now I'm just going to look up that person right the
the person who programmed a lifedirected Sonic Unleashed.
That's where I was like, I know they did something.
That's what they did. They direct, yes.
So you think they've. They've channeled that energy
into the NPCS maybe? Maybe like, yeah, I see a life
programming. Yeah, Yoshihisa Hashimoto.

(46:03):
Yes. So if yeah, so they they they
also programmer on advance one and two and pinball party.
Their first director job was Sega superstars, the the I toy
game that's someone played, I'm sure got a special thanks for
O6, which means they they said please make it better and they

(46:27):
would thanks for that help. We won't, but we'll thank you
for that. And then Sonic Unleashed
director, League game designer, Hedgehog engine, technical
director. I guess that's a pretty big.
Promotion from a life programmerto directing mainline game?
Yeah, no. That is, that is a big one.
But then they after that left and they worked.

(46:47):
They went to Square. Square Enix.
Yeah, looks. Like they got.
Credits on Final Fantasy 15 and Last guardian.
So eventually they left. I am surprised that that
Hashimoto San didn't keep shoving a life stuff into into
the other games he worked on. But maybe the director, The
director's chair was too big. He had too many responsibilities

(47:09):
to be sitting there doing his passion.
That is possible. I mean, because he's he's
credited on Advance 1-2 and pinball those games have those
the tiny chow gardens so shoved in there.
Yeah. I mean I wonder if maybe there
is a game design document for for Unleashed that has a bunch

(47:30):
of a life stuff in it and they just didn't get the time to
figure it out. Sonic World.
Adventure there was. It was supposed to be an
adventure. Game, Yeah.
It is an adventure game, Yeah. So you.
Know what I wouldn't be surprised if that was the intent
and they just didn't have the time and or money to do it.
So when they re release Unleashed which Sega won't do

(47:52):
because now it's been ported by fans to the PC.
But when Sega Re releases Unleashed, they'll they'll
include the World Chow Garden. That's what will get people to
buy it, even though there is a perfect PC port out there.
There you go. You'll know the stuff.
And are are all the advanced games dimps or did Sonic Team
handle one or more of them? The Advanced.

(48:15):
Games are done by Dimps but theyall had Sonic Team oversight so
yeah. However.
Much is pinball party dimps. Also I think.
So. I feel like it is Pinball Party
has like a lot of dense references to Sonic Sonic Team
games. Like they have like all the
moves from the night's game as like things that will pop up on.

(48:39):
The pinball table they've. Got burning Rangers songs and
characters. No, I'm wrong.
It's not dense, it's Jupiter is the other group.
Oh boy. So I don't know, don't know
Jupiter, I don't know who they. Are and on the wiki zone?
Because right now, like we said,retro doesn't want to work.
There is no hyperlink for Jupiter.

(49:00):
I'm sure Sega Retro has something about Jupiter.
Only the. Server.
Was that we were talking before we hit record about how the
studios, Yeah. Divided up.
In Sega, and you know, there's your AM ones doing your Sky
Targets in your Houses of the Dead, there's AM 2 doing your

(49:24):
fighting games and your racing games, and then Sonic Teams AM 8
classically, right? Or research division #8I.
Mean sort of. It's sort of be, but it gets
weird there. Like they they did?
How many reorgs did Sega do fromthinking a time they were AM?
8 or a time, right? It is one of those weird things
because right when Sonic one wasmade they definitely weren't AM

(49:47):
8 because they're also wasn't a Sonic Team proper.
It was just CS2 like consumer and and then eventually they
became AMA when Sonic Team became an entity with with
Knights. Now you said AM.
Two does fighting and racing games, but I mean they did
Daytona USA but like AM 2 didn'tdo Sega Rally Championship.

(50:10):
I believe that was AM three. Yeah, no, I.
Think you're right? That sounds right.
Yeah, and touring car is also not AM two.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I think the. Conclusion there is I attribute
some things to AM 2 that aren't really AM two games.
Yeah, it's just like. Oh, it's a say, arcade game.
It must be AM 2. You know, AM 2 is just the and I
mean at the end there before it got absorbed recently into their

(50:34):
their two consumer divisions, AM2 was basically their arcade
division. You know, it was it was pretty
much just AM 2 and really just in name only putting out new
song packs for my my or whatever.
Yeah, so. So AM 2 is the big one.
Yeah, but how? How?
Right? And so if Sonic Team was AM 8,

(50:56):
that means there's a four through 7, right?
Correct. What they do?
Who are they? That's a That's a great.
Question that we could answer ifSega Retro If Sega Retro was
was. Working right now, so one.
Of those was Team Andromeda for a time, so they were making the
Panzer ego games. Another one was Team Akila,

(51:20):
which was doing the soccer gamesor football for everyone outside
of America. The football games, the on on
the Saturn, like worldwide soccer and such, right?
Yeah, worldwide soccer. I think they also worked on
clockwork night one and two. I think that's right.
Yes, it was also team. Akilah they they may have been

(51:43):
AM 5 but I also might be talkingout of my ass on that.
I don't know. I feel like CS1.
Is involved in in that as well. Yeah, yeah, like.
At that time they did have like a couple of like CS divisions
that were just trying to make software directly for home
consoles for the Saturn I am. Using archive.org to sneak a

(52:04):
peek, Sega AM 4 was responsible for the creation of arcade
cabinet hardware and thus, outside of an advisory role, had
no influence in the development of video game software.
So there they didn't they? So they're making the.
Crazy Taxi cabinets, yes, yeah, they're.
They're making cabinets and. Sonic Patrol Car.

(52:28):
Sonic Popcorn. Shop Yeah, yeah.
So they. They've got like credits on
Virtua, like it says Virtual Cop, but isn't that an AM/2
game? So they did, right?
And then second Rally Championship, it was just the
cabinet I. Bet they, I bet they worked on
the Indy 500 cabinets, which I was watching a like walkthrough

(52:49):
of an arcade that opened recently in my area.
Sorry, random aside, but most ofthe games were, you know, like
just coin games, ticket games orwhatever.
You know, they, they did like Scarlet Dawn, House of the dead,
the new House of the dead that was there.
That was cool. But what really caught my eye
was they had a four cabinet Indy500, which I think was some

(53:11):
19951996 Indy 500. And it's like you sat down in a
recreation of a Formula One car and there was four of them all,
all side by side with the screens.
It was so cool. Like I'm like oh man, I got to
go to this arcade just to play Indy 500 and sit in these things
that look awesome. So I'm sure making those it has

(53:32):
a pretty. Cool arcade physical presence.
If I recall correctly, that's anAM/2 game, right?
What? Which one?
F-350. Five challenge.
I'm not sure if. That's an AM 2.
I could be misremembering. This.
And who knows if rk.org is goingto come through for us.
That's right. We'll never know we were talking

(53:52):
about that. That.
Period in the Dreamcast time when they were spinning out the
studios and I was like really excited for that.
I was like, OK, we know Sega is not the most, you know,
competent of business people, but like, once Smile bit and
Overworks and Sonic Team are like out on their own, they're
going to conquer the world. And I was like, pretty excited

(54:14):
when it's like, oh, we're getting Jet Set Radio, we're
getting Space Channel 5. That wasn't quite in that same
system, but Crazy Taxi. I was like, yes, this, this is
working. And then they all got absorbed
again. Yeah.
It was. It was the.
It was a short brief, but they burned bright and I think that's

(54:38):
they they all made good games during that time, didn't they?
I'll assume every studio, maybe.I think each one of them had.
Like 1. Really pretty.
Cool game, yeah. Yeah, so.
As we we discussed, Sky Target is an AM One game, not an AM/2
game and and the other franchisethat's well attributed to AM One

(55:01):
is House of the Dead. Do you know what other AM One
games are on the Sega Saturn? I would have gotten House.
Of the dead and sky or no I would have not had gotten sky
target. I just said house.
It did No. Tell us.
Tell us another. AM 1.
So they. Did golden axe the duel?
Oh, OK, it's. The two.

(55:21):
D Fighting game that is only on the Saturn now.
I have this up in a Sega retro tab that I prepared before the
show so that's why I'm able to look at it.
Get this one screen they attribute Virtual Fighter Remix
to AM one really, so that's interesting.
I now I mean. Virtual Fighter Remix did

(55:41):
originally come out in arcades on the Sega Titan which is the
like arcade version of Saturn. So I wonder if that's why like
AM 2 was so busy working on Virtual Fighter 2 at the time
for the Saturn and you know, in the background slowly working on
Virtual Fighter three for arcades and Virtual Cop as well
for the Saturn. Maybe they didn't have time to

(56:02):
do remix so AM One did that instead.
I don't know, two other games, Die Hard Arcade.
Oh, that's a good. 10 Is that a name 1?
That's the name 1. And they did work on that with
Sega Technical Institute, which was the last, the last, you
know, STI game well. Game the last one that ever came

(56:23):
out? Yeah, sure.
Last one they worked. On they probably cancelled more
than. They put out.
Oh, I I, Yeah. I I think for every one game
released about 10 were cancelled.
I think this. Sounds about right.
Yeah, what did they? Do.
Dynamite Cop on Dreamcast too? Or is that?
Oh yeah. Probably if they did Die Hard

(56:44):
Arcade, which of course is originally Dynamite Detective.
Wasn't it in in Japan? I think that's my decade
usually, yeah. Yeah, so.
Yes, Dynamite Cop is an AM one game.
OK. Yeah.
And. So the last and one game on the
Saturn is Zen Nihon Pro Res featuring Virtua.

(57:07):
So All Japan Pro Wrestling. I should have known that.
One, yeah. I didn't know you were so big
into Japanese wrestling. I I'm.
Not, but I did find a Yeah recently.
You were. Looking at sort of like by
accident, you found something. In it.
I just tossed it. Off on social media, like maybe
last year sometime, like, oh, hey, there's a cool debug menu

(57:27):
in this game. And I didn't think anything of
it, but somebody on the Internet, this is like their
special interest, that game. And they're like, oh man, did
you know there's another character in this game?
That's this Japanese wrestler that.
Yeah, The Patriot. Should have been in.
Yeah, should have been in the game but wasn't.
And oh man, I didn't. I didn't even notice.
Yeah, so they were so. Excited on the Sega extreme for

(57:49):
and they're like, oh, I I dreamed of being able to see the
patriot in this game because he was in like pre release
screenshots and and here he is. You found him and you're just
like, what? You never know.
Yeah, well, it's like when you. Found the the far how to access
the farm stage in fighting Vipers and and the the pie

(58:13):
version of Honey. You know pie from from fighting
from virtual fighter. She's hidden in fighting Vipers,
but with like honey's head and the rest of her body is Pie's
like outfit. And I mean, I never knew that
stuff was in there. And being a huge Fighting Vipers
fan, I was like, Oh my God, there was new Fighting Vipers
content in the 2024. This is amazing.

(58:36):
Yeah, I. I loved fighting Vipers, but I
kind of assumed like, oh, they cut a ton of stuff out of the US
release this everybody must knowabout this.
I I was like, is this anything? But Oh no, people didn't like
that I and I was just so disappointed.
There's no remnants of Sonic, noor.
Tales. In the whole version just very
thoroughly excised them. They should have they.

(58:57):
Should have brought them over from the arcade.
That would have been so cool. Yeah.
Like I wonder how, when when when did Sonic the fighters come
out in relation to fighting Vipers on the Saturn?
I think it was the same. Year and I feel like Sonic
fighters is. 95 in the arcades and then was it Vipers is 96 in
the on the Saturn. Yeah, well, fighting.

(59:18):
Vipers did come out in 96, rightSo.
I I wonder if maybe they were completely removed, not not
maliciously, but Lord or becausethey they thought maybe Sonic,
the fighters might come out in Saturn and they didn't want So I
mean that that's. There's a wild.
Theory, supposedly. That they did consider doing

(59:42):
Sonic the fighters Sonic championship on the Saturn and
and I guess the the rumor is oh,they cancelled because they
didn't like the idea of having Sonic fighters beating each
other up. They didn't think that would be
a good look or something. It's like, well, you put it out
in arcades, even the United States, like you're already it's
cartoony. You know, it's not even like
that violent like they they squish and and smash, you know,

(01:00:04):
like Looney tunes character. So you get stars over there.
It's two that. The Virtue Fighter 2 engine
didn't support those kind of animations, which was a
challenge and then that is the reason why the only characters
that may get into Megabix are Bark and Bean that don't have
that. I don't know if that's like an
after the fact right justification.

(01:00:26):
Yeah, I mean they. They do have that squash and
squish in Sonic the fighters, but yeah, they just didn't
reproduce it. Now I'm.
Imagining like, yeah, you can definitely smash Bean with Amy's
hammer. Yeah, that's just something.
That everybody, it's just a partof the engine.
Like they have to have that. I mean, they they couldn't have
just done it without that. I don't know, whatever I.

(01:00:47):
I was, it was probably a mixtureof things, one being fake of
America, not too hot on the gamebecause it's a fighter and
Sonic. And two, like, oh, they have to
overcome the technical challenge.
Like I'm sure they could have figured something out or just
not had it there. And, and I think it was also
they're they're busy making other games and the Saturn is on

(01:01:09):
life support at that moment. Like they didn't, they didn't
even release virtual fighter 3 on the Saturn.
They're like we're we're saving 3 for the Dreamcast even though
like weren't they originally planning on releasing 3 on the
Saturn and they've been promising it for.
Like 2 years like people just holding on for it.
I think people in Japan especially were like angry that

(01:01:31):
they had had their Saturns for years.
They've been waiting since 1995's first Fighter Two
released for VF3 to come out, and nothing.
You have to buy this new, this new hardware.
You have to buy a Dreamcast. You want to play virtual Fighter
Three at home? I think that made people mad,
right? Yeah, like they could have just
released like a paired down 3 and then three TB could have

(01:01:54):
just been Dreamcast that right, Like that's yeah.
I mean, they do. That stuff all the time.
Now, Yeah, yeah, I mean. Not sick out that every other
right, I mean, cause hack virtual fighter, right, it's out
on Saturn, but then they releasea version on the 32X Virtual
fighter 2 has that weird, you know, Sprite version on the
Genesis. Like, Oh yeah, they were

(01:02:15):
thinking about it and I guess itwas just the Saturn is and we
know there's like some work. Done for it.
Like some of the Mega Mix characters have virtual fighter
three move sets. Yeah, and there's some.
VF3 music in that game. And there's the VF3 sidestep
move. Every character has that and a
couple of VF3 stages in some form or in the like the desert

(01:02:38):
stage and the ice stage I believe as well.
So yeah, like they, they kind ofuse Mega Mix as sort of like a
stepping stone and like Virtual Fighter Kids was supposedly kind
of a stepping stone as well because they're experimenting
with all the facial animations because it's very expressive in
Virtual Fighter Kids. It's one of the fun things about

(01:02:58):
that one. And I do like that game,
although. I am a little creeped out by
like, Shun is an old man, but also a kid.
Yeah, it's too amusing for me. He's young in heart.
Like shouldn't he be like? 30 old at heart I don't they're.
Not DE. Aged, they're just, you know,
it's a it's a, an art style, Although they do have like

(01:03:18):
little pitched up kids voices though, don't they?
Which is funny. Well, maybe they were.
Hit by a a laser beam by an evilcorporation?
Whatever. There's plenty of evil
corporations running around in in in the world of AIM too.
The Duke Nukem 3. D Shrink ray.
All right, well, we are approaching finishing hour for

(01:03:40):
this podcast. Danthrax, thank you for joining
us to talk about Sonic and Sega,and you're welcome to come back
and do more of it. And we should do a whole episode
about Sonic Chronicles, which I think means he's a grand and I
should play through it again. Crush my beverage.
It's been a. Long time but this.
Was a lot of fun. I am going to play the outro

(01:04:03):
music and David is going to telleverybody what to do, what, what
you can do right, what we would like you to do.
There's so many things you can do, like you can treat each
other with respect, you can sendout some love, Sonic says.
Yeah, Sonic. Says all those things and more.
And what's the last thing on hislist?

(01:04:25):
Oh, that's right. Hey, he said you've gotten to
the end of another episode of Sonic Weekly.
And if you've enjoyed what you've heard so far so far so
far, and you haven't done so yet, you should subscribe to
this podcast using your pod catcher of Joyous.
That's right. That was from episode 60 seven
of AOSTH, which I think didn't didn't get played that much.

(01:04:48):
That's right. You can subscribe.
You know, there there. What is there out there?
It's Apple podcast, it's Spotify, it's for the Android
faithful podcast addict that andand many other pod catchers
floating around on the Internet on your smart device.
When you do that, Hey, you know what, you could leave us a
review. You could do a what is it stars

(01:05:09):
thumbs up. I don't I don't know.
It depends, and I'm what it is, but either way, we appreciate
it. And hey, if you reject all pod
catchers, we are also over on YouTube at Sonic Dash Weekly
where you can like, comment and subscribe.
And our voices are joined, as always, with video game footage
played by friend of the show Jack of Old Games.

(01:05:31):
You want to reach out to the show?
You know you do. You want to tell us something,
but the only way to do that we had an e-mail address
[e-mail]'s the most direct way.
I guess you could say things to us in other places, but then you
know it's directly in front of our face and that's how you get
the link to our Discord server. That's right, you can talk to
other like minded. What do I say?

(01:05:55):
Like minded? Right, like Sonic T Hedgehog,
you know what to do. I know what I say, right?
You talk to other like minded people about many things, up to
including Sonic T Hedgehog. Yeah, yeah, that's what it is.
If you continue to enjoy what wedo and you're able to help
support the show financially, weare also over on Kofi.
We're just Sonic weekly there. Throw something in the tip jar

(01:06:16):
or you can become one of our executive producers for 5 bucks
a month, just like Big Dan Habsy, Sonicu, Saving throws,
Kalbajarian, Altsinth and brand new this week, Rat Liker 60.
I almost said rat killer. Rat Liker 63.
That's right. They don't kill rats.
They like rats, like the rat. He doesn't kill rats.

(01:06:38):
You, of course, got to thank once more the guests of today's
podcast, Dan T Racks. Dan, the racks.
That's that's your full name, right?
Catch them. Every.
Week on this. Having the Saturn chiro.
Show you can catch all. The latest Saturn news on Sega

(01:06:58):
Saturn chiro.com and check out our our live YouTube show every
Friday night at six eastern Whoaand if I may before you do your
last sign off you must play SegaSaturn that.
Makes sense I I will do it I. All right, I don't want.
To get beaten up. OK, good.
I see he's that's a violent man if you don't play your Saturn.

(01:07:22):
We got to thanks movies for the edit, you know, piercing this
together and making it all soundcrystal clear in hi-fi
stereosonic. And thanks, Grant we.
We hope you. Yeah, we got to thank.
Grant for he was, he was out there in the trenches and I
think what happened, right? He didn't tell me this, but I
saw it. I, I snuck in, I snuck into
Comic Con when no one was looking and I saw Grant walk

(01:07:44):
over to, to Ken Pender's table and he, he opened up copy of of
the Knuckles omnibus. And when he did that, Ken
Penders got into his face and just coughed.
And when he coughed it, it, it the, the, the mist formed the
face of Lara Sue and it went right up Grant's nose.

(01:08:05):
And I think that's not the pendersitis.
Yeah, yeah. And I think.
That's what happened. So so godspeed, Grant.
We'll hopefully see you next week in tip top shape.
And hey, thank you, Bo for avoiding Ken Pender.
So I guess do it every day.