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Sega retailer-focused promotional material
Post Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:33 pm
I've just posted some scans that are quite interesting...

http://www.smspower.org/Scans/Sega-Catalogue-LetTheGamesBegin-US

"Let The Games Begin": promotional material from Tonka. Featuring:

- Many models holding controllers with the cables missing
- Placeholder artwork for many games
- Sports Pad labelled as "Power Ball"
- Arcade stick that I've never seen before
- Mega Phaser - likewise
- Self Shipper item for collectors to look for
- Amusing photo of a model failing to use the Product Display
- Timetable of planned advertising in 1988

http://www.smspower.org/Scans/Sega-Catalogue-SegaForThe90s-US

"Sega For The 90's: The New Generation": promotional material from Sega of America, featuring:

- Some nice (if not 100% trustable) insider articles
- SMSII launch (?)
- A new(ish) screenshot of "Shinobi Kidd"
- Lots of games with non-final titles
- Sega Visions launch
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Post Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:15 pm
IM 2, I wonder what game that turned out to be?
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Post Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:10 pm
Possibly Impossible Mission 2?
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:11 am
I've never seen a mega phaser. Was that actually release in America?
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:01 pm
Awesome scans, it was a delight to go through them. Takes me back to the time me and friends/little brother went into the local Tandy (Radio Shack) and asked if we could play a particular game. Usually: Not now, beat it!
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:15 pm
god damn! the first booklet is a true source of ecstasy! I never had so much fun with my Sega stuff as the dorks on the cover. I had the same jeans and sneakers, but unfortunately I didn't have Brad Pitt and an asian kid as my friends. I think there lies the problem.

it's amazing that, in this day and age, new vestiges of new unreleased stuff are still popping up every now and then. Mega Phaser, wow. Do you really need the ability to fire two thousand bullets a second, in a fucking blaze of fury, in order to play Trap Shooting? Or any Light Phaser game for that matter? No wonder it got canned.

Arcade Command Stick! Now this one looks nice, if only for the fact that this time they positioned the joystick right, not like in that unplayable mess called Control Stick. One of my friends from high school is now an alcoholic doing time in jail, and he used to have a Control Stick. You do the math. The Arcade Command Stick has multi-position firing buttons, which would have erradicated once and for all the usual alienation of gamers with deformed hands. Too bad this thing was never produced either.

I love the Double Dragon screenshot, it's so true to the arcade version. Must have been taken from a very early proto/beta, and I wonder why did we get such a shitty final product, when compared to the beautiful sprites this beta had.

And finally, am I the only one who likes more that Phantasy Star cover art than the one that finally got released? Dunno why but, besides Alis' legs being sexier here, I think it would have looked awesome on an actual SMS cover, with the grid and all. I was never too fond of the actual cover art's drawing style. Makes me wonder what other possible cover images were discarded and replaced when the games went into production. I'm sure there were cooler Alex Kidd cover art than the horrors we got.
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:33 pm
Good catch on the PS art. I'd guess the cartoon art came first and they made the lame airbrushed gradient-fest later. But notice also how Myau changed from a cute happy cat to some kind of nightmarish monster (well, Silver Fang is a weapon in the game, but he looked happier without).

As for the rapid-fire gun, I guess you can achieve that anyway with the phaser and rapid0fire unit, plus most shooting games penalise you for misses so it'd be useless. On top of that, I expect making the screen flash 30 times a second would be lawsuit-bait even in the 80s.
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:41 pm
Maxim wrote
On top of that, I expect making the screen flash 30 times a second would be lawsuit-bait even in the 80s.


now that's something I hadn't thought about. I'm sure that making the screen flash 30 times a second, while wearing your SegaScope 3-D Glasses, would allow you to see the future. or the depths of Hell.

I seem to remember there was an old commercial for the SMS which showed at the end a huge picture with lots of side-by-side SMS boxes, and many of them had artwork that wasn't featured in the final packagings. maybe this version of the Phantasy Star cover was there too? of course, I can't find that commercial now that I need it.
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:34 pm


Via http://www.smspower.org/Videos/

They look like final, early artwork to me - before Phantasy Star.
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:57 pm
no, this is the one I was talking about. took me a while to remember where I had seen it but found this screenshot:



could that game in the second row starting from the bottom, right above Lord of the Sword, be Phantasy Star with the "cartoon version" art? I've already lost 4 diopters trying to make it out, and I need the rest of my sight tomorrow for a business meeting.
advertart.png (210.63 KB)
advertart.png

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Post Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:22 pm
This is an epic find!
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:14 am
That cartoon art is just an awful version of this gorgeous piece of promotional art from the hint book.


Phantasy Star promotional artwork by Lost Levels, on Flickr
6887635694_787c2054f1_z.jpg (335.35 KB)
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6887635694_787c2054f1_z.jpg

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Post Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:40 am
It's a lot closer to the cover art, although they are all pretty similar.
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USA Peripherals
Post Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 5:43 am
I was looking at http://alt.smspower.org/Scans/Sega-Catalogue-LetTheGamesBegin-US?gallerypage=8 and I'm wondering if the Arcade Command Stick and the Mega Phaser were ever released? This is the first time I've seen that stuff. If so, any comments on their performance would be welcome.
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Post Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 6:03 am
The guy in the picture looks hilarious lol.

I owned the control stick but it wasn't that great because the buttons are on the left instead of on the right like a control pad.
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Post Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 8:50 am
Those were never released and never heard of as far as I know. But, like the SMS drawing pad, maybe a prototype still exists somewhere...
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Post Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:10 pm
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19880625&id=gGgaAAAAIBAJ&...


Mega Phaser.jpg (426.09 KB)
Mega Phaser.jpg

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