Tiger's R-Zone, and the terrible Sega ports it brought.

Now we all remember how bad the Virtual Boy by Nintendo was right? It couldn't really be played in any practical manner, didn't have a lot of games and worse of all: made your eyes bleed after a couple minutes due to the horrific bright red on black graphics. Tiger Electronics, well known for their dodgy LCD handheld games (many of which were based on Sega games) during the same year of 1995 also had a crack at making horrid bright red games for a system they christened the R-Zone (and the later model the XPG). Horror continues after the jump.

This was the first time Tiger had made a system that takes multiple games rather than separate game handhelds, but we are still dealing with the same rubbish LCD tech with beeping music only now with the odd higher quality sound effect and now even harder to stare at. Now lets take a gander at a commercial for it:

False advertising at it's finest. They use clips from the Sega Saturn versions of Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2 and Daytona USA. There was even releases based on Panzer Dragoon and NiGHTS on this thing apparently, though judging by the game list thats as far as the Sega "ports" go, the rest of the library consisting of Midway franchises and movie licenses. So let's see how these games actually look and sound on the thing shall we? Prepare your senses, they're about to be violated.

Daytona USA:

Virtua Fighter (2:40 into this review by the ever hilarious Ashens):

So there you have it. Sega games weren't free from being soaked in blood and shoved into your retina via fake "virtual reality" for a blief moment. You know, as if there wasn't already enough violations of Sega's games by Tiger already such as the infamous game.com system that came out soon after this. The funniest part of this whole story? The R-Zone was around for longer than the Virtual Boy by about a year or so. Whoopie.

Now here's a slightly related bonus video also from Ashens (from years ago, so you've probably already seen it if you've ever been to his channel) of a "deluxe" outrun LCD game complete with a gear stick, steering wheel and a huge lump of vaguely Ferrari shaped plastic on the front. As you can probably guess it's rubbish too, and it's rendition of magical Sound Shower is nothing short of baffling...

Introducing Kevin Kerinert: the most SEGA dad ever?

So how Sega is your father? Mine used to play a lot of Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 on the Saturn and Virtua Striker on the Dreamcast and is also quite the fan of the House of the Dead games. So what if I was to tell you about Kevin Kerinert, a 49 year old Californian who buys Sega R-360's and restores them as a hobby, and also has his kids try out his modified 2 player set up? No, yours neither? Read on after the jump about a truly awesome individual who has been long overdue a mention here at Sega Memories..

For those not in the know about the R-360, it was one of Sega's most elaborate arcade machines made between 1991-1994 for flight combat games like G-LOC and WingWar. What made this machine so special is it was essentially a seat, joystick and screen in a sphere that could rotate in full 360 degree movement meaning it would spin you upside down and all around. It needed a proper seat belt to play, and needed an attendant to start up the machine on a separate base covered in buttons, and there was even a big red button you could hit in case it started to make you feel sick. They are not common by any means most likely due to their size and expense. Micheal Jackson had one in his Neverland arcade (see page 27 of the auction catalog) and Taro flies a modified R-360 called a R-720 in Segagaga's finale.

My personal but sadly singular experience of one of these machines was at Segaworld the first time I went there in 1996, which I believe was set up to G-LOC but I could be wrong. Next time I went there a year later it was gone. When I found out what the machine was called a while back I googled it and one of the first results was Kevin's restoration project website.

This man loves the R-360: he brought his first one in Cal in 2001 and currently owns THREE of them, which he went out to Las Vegas and Disneyland Anaheim for. He knows the ins and outs of this machine, even able to modify a regular sit down version of Wingwar so it can play in 2-player with the R-360, which he experiments on Batman and Stormtrooper with in the video below!

If you go to his Youtube account you will find videos of him explaining how the machine works. If you were to end up somehow buying one of these, this is the man you wanna talk to about anything to do with it. He also buys up any he can get his hands on (within reason I'd imagine!) and restores them to sell on again (sometimes to countries like Estonia!).

Oh, and also I can't not mention his personal collection in his massive gameroom full of pinball, slot machines, a Jukebox and countless other classics. Just pointing out the Sega stuff, he has the After Burner Deluxe machine (one of my absolute favorites as a kid and one of the games that got me into Sega in the first place), a Deluxe Virtua Racing machine and even a Sega arcade machine from 1973 called Moto Champ which uses miniature bikes moving around on a magnetic road of sorts which just has to be seen if you dig Sega's earlier history and not-video game machines:

 

So that's Kevin Kerinert, No.1 fan of the R-360. Ever since I discovered his site I wanted to do a write up about him here, he's doing a great service for preserving a piece of Sega's arcade history.

Sonic and the most uncomfortable bike ever (and other hot wheels toys)

Title almost sounds like the next Wii exclusive Sonic game.

Man, I have truck loads of sonic junk that is stored in the loft that I have never got around to posting about, best at least have a go at showing some of it.

So let's start off with this one off oddity of a toy. Hot Wheels did this set of 'Crash & Smash' toys and amongst the Sewer Sharks and whatever other franchises represented was this Sonic figure on a motorbike. More after the jump..

For those interested in the back of the box and what the other toys were (probably nobody).

I have two of these toys, one boxed up all new because I'm sad like that and one not which is a little bit wreaked from *shock* being played as a toy when I was a kid. They were bought back when they were released sometime in...1995, I think? All I can remember is being surprised finding this in a shop as it was a little while after everyone had moved on from making Sonic toys. Time for some photos!

It's a rather angry attitude-y looking Sonic holding two rings (and the arms can rotate for some reason) and the motorbike has a seat that can spring up to launch the poor hedgehog flying as well as a road the bike clips to that you can pull it back and shoot forward. This thing chucks itself across the room bloody fast, so at it's definitely Sonic fast. In fact the only way I could show you how fast it is I took a quick video.








..and while we're at it here's another vid of Sonic being flung back into the loft box of doom (hitting the mug in there by the sounds of it) via the seat chucking button which just so happens to be the front wheel. Good times!







While we're having a good chuckle at the hogs' misery: just have a look at how the Sonic sits on the bike..

..via a rather nasty and deep looking butt plug. Ouch.

I've also got photos of a much more recent and non-Sonic related set of Hot Wheels cars, released around 2002 when Sega was making that at-first-very-promising-but-still-heart-breaking move to making games for every console out there. These are standard hot Wheels cars except for one obvious motif: they have sega games scribbled all over them!

To be exact the set of five features Shinobi (the PS2 game), Space Channel 5, Super Monkey Ball, The House of the Dead III and Jet Set Radio Future. Rather spiffy! I thought I had the Shinobi one but I seem to have mis placed it. These pop up on ebay from time to time and can be picked up quite cheap. The older Sonic toy however is a bit more elusive though.

EDIT: Found the Shinobi one, so here's a photo of it!

Forklift Number 5 of 1000

It's here! The major award has arrived: the 'Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing' Ryo Hazuki forklift statue. The short version of how I came about the figure: I entered a Sega contest a few months back and last week I won the figure. The figure was limited run of 1,000 was was only available via the online contest with a handful making it over to Europe and distributed via Sega Europe's Free Stuff Friday giveaway. Now enough chatter, let's take a look at the figure!



Ryo arrived in a simple cardboard box. Inside was the black box wrapped in bright green paper. Perhaps to reference the jade mine seen in the conclusion of 'Shenmue II'... or not.

The back of the box sports a huge Sega logo as well as the statue number out of 1,000. Oddly, the box did not give the individual statue a number. Instead, they left a black space for where the number should have been written and the same is true for other forklift statues I've seen. While I have no clue what number I had, I'm going to assume number 5 of 1,000 because it's the forklift's number and would probably boost the resale value.

It's important for me to note that the Ryo Hazuki forklift statue is just that: it's a statue. It is NOT an action figure so don't expect spinning wheels and a lift that rises up and down. While I was a little annoyed at first, I quickly found that a statue is much much better than a plastic action figure.


The statue is made of heavy duty vinyl, with the frame being made of metal. The lights are strung up with a tiny fake electrical cable and is fastened on with little bits of wire. The cage on top is the one piece made of plastic.

The paint job is not amazingly done, but it is much better than, say, a Jazwares 'SASASR' figure. The forklift itself has lots of wear and tear to is while Ryo looks like Ryo, for the most part.

You can see in the photo above that they gave Ryo a little swipe of white for his cheek bandage. Impressive! They even painted his zipper, belt, lips and eyes. It might look a little messy up close, but for the size you really don't notice it.

The ONE sin that the statue commits is the back. The tiger is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there is this odd eagle shape. I'd rather they just left it blank or had given the figure a pack-in sticker of the back of the jacket to stick on. Despite this goof, it is small in the grand scheme of things. With the statue up on the shelf facing outwards, one doesn't even see the back. And if an owner of one of these is reading this and still regrets the loss of the tiger, feel free to print out and tape the image below to Ryo's back:

Now that the messy part of the article is out of the way, let's have some fun with ol' Hazuki! I'll bet you're wondering if the forklift can carry Shenmue. Well guess what:

"Toss 'Shenmue II' on while you're at it!"

I also bet you'd like to know if the forklift is ideal for picking up chicks. Well of course it can:

"Hey baby, ever play 'Virtua Forklift'?"

Ah! The figure also came with this plastic circle which was meant for use as a base. one side is shiny black, while the other features the logos as well as another blank space for me to write in the number "zero" and scam a guy out of thousands claiming this to be a super special "zero edition" figure.

Please submit all "Ryo carrying _____ with the forklift" requests to the comments section.


Return to SEGAbits, if that's how you got here

This Crazy Taxi is Huuuuge!

Apologizes for being so lax in posting lately in general for that matter, especially to Barry who has been keeping this blog alive all on his own for quite a while! I have quite the backlog of things to snap photos of and write dribble about! For example, this rather beefy Sega toy I picked up about a month ago..

 
More after the jump!

When I heard about this remote controlled Crazy Taxi a few years back I just had to hunt it down. Every time I've spotted one however they have been located in America and would cost the average Crazy taxi fare (read: lotsa money) to ship over. Finally though one popped up that was located on the same lump of land and I managed to get it for the starting bid which was a bonus. It wasn't the cheapest purchase in the world but for what it is I'd say it was worth it.

It was brand new in it's box, which meant I had to fart about with those wire things they curl and wrap around every inch of the toy to get it out and have a good look at it. But first off here's a look at the box waffle. Most remote controlled car toys like this simply go back and forth, left and right (at least from my limited experience) but this one supposedly does all sorts of KER-RAZY stuff like flips and cornering on two wheels, ooh!

I say supposedly because I still haven't actually taken this thing for a spin yet and that's because it requires a 6 Volt NiCd battery which I have yet to go out and find. I reckon they've missed a trick by not modeling the controller on the Dreamcast controller though I think this cab was a bit too late for that fare: it's copyrighted 2003 so long after the DC was off the market. Probably made to promote the many ports to other consoles, but moving on here's what it's like out of the packaging.

As the title gives away, this taxi is a beast! For comparison I stuck the other Crazy Taxi toy I own (of the same character and cab, none the less) beside it though I guess I could of put the game beside it for a better size judgment, oh well! It's not necessarily heavy but quite a decent build, though I'm not sure how much bashing about it could take.

The attention to detail in places is rather neat. Axel actually has a sort of dolls' shirt dressed onto him and they haven't forgot his '1N0M155' license plate out. The taxi even has some suspension in it's wheels so it can tilt to the sides, and the passenger at the back wobbles about with it.

It's always nice to see some Sega toys that are not based on the blue hog once in a while, and Crazy Taxi is one of the only games i recall playing so much it actually gave me blisters (though that could be something to do with the Dreamcast analog stick) so I'm glad I picked this up though it really is one of the biggest toys I own so it certainly has a presence, currently sitting atop my Mega Drive stand.

I've actually bought another smaller Crazy taxi toy since, one of the second games' character Angel, so now I'm only short of one of the cabs (a Crazy taxi 3 one) which someone outbid me on just the other day, haha.

Free Mario and Sonic games to download

MarioSonicGames.com now has 9 free fantastic Flash games that have been made specially for the site. You can download them and use them in your own web space or site if you wish, or download them and play them on your computer without the further need of an internet connection (.zip compressed files):

Newest game:

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Super Sonic Pinball

(View it and play it online here: Super Sonic Pinball Online)


Other games:

  Super Mario Bros.: Mario Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Mario Matchit Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Paper Mario World

(View it and play it online here: Paper Mario World Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Matchit Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Sky Chase

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase Online)


  Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version)

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version) Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's Whack-A-Nik

(View it and play it online here: Amy's Whack-A-Nik Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Abstracta

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Abstracta Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Super Shy Guy Universe

(View it and play it online here: Super Shy Guy Universe PSP Online)


To use the downloads and play the games, click on any of the links above, then select "Save" for the .zip compressed file that will be downloaded, and select a folder on your computer to save the .zip file into. Once the .zip file has downloaded successfully, unzip it and then you can play the game by double-clicking on the .htm file that was unzipped. (Note that the .htm file is an offline webpage that runs the .swf file which is the actual Flash game - you don't need an active internet connection to run it.)

To use the games in your own website, simply upload the .htm webpage files (which you may want to modify to your own site's style first) and the .swf Flash game files to your webspace, link to the .htm files from you site's home page, and you and your visitors can then play the games in your site. Enjoy! :-)

Free Mario and Sonic games to download

MarioSonicGames.com now has 9 free fantastic Flash games that have been made specially for the site. You can download them and use them in your own web space or site if you wish, or download them and play them on your computer without the further need of an internet connection (.zip compressed files):

Newest game:

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Super Sonic Pinball

(View it and play it online here: Super Sonic Pinball Online)


Other games:

  Super Mario Bros.: Mario Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Mario Matchit Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Paper Mario World

(View it and play it online here: Paper Mario World Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Matchit Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Sky Chase

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase Online)


  Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version)

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version) Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's Whack-A-Nik

(View it and play it online here: Amy's Whack-A-Nik Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Abstracta

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Abstracta Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Super Shy Guy Universe

(View it and play it online here: Super Shy Guy Universe PSP Online)


To use the downloads and play the games, click on any of the links above, then select "Save" for the .zip compressed file that will be downloaded, and select a folder on your computer to save the .zip file into. Once the .zip file has downloaded successfully, unzip it and then you can play the game by double-clicking on the .htm file that was unzipped. (Note that the .htm file is an offline webpage that runs the .swf file which is the actual Flash game - you don't need an active internet connection to run it.)

To use the games in your own website, simply upload the .htm webpage files (which you may want to modify to your own site's style first) and the .swf Flash game files to your webspace, link to the .htm files from you site's home page, and you and your visitors can then play the games in your site. Enjoy! :-)