“For the first time on a home console, you can take the awesome multiplayer fun of Doom online. We'll give you the tips and tricks you'll need to compete in Doom NetLink.”
-from the introduction to an article on Doom II's online mode in the July 1997 issue of GamePro
“We would've liked to port Doom II to the SNES-CD, but we put all of our efforts instead toward making the best port possible for the Sega Saturn. We hope our SNES-CD fans aren't disappointed, but we've got plenty coming up for the Ultra. I've been designing Daikatana with the Ultra in mind, so expect that to be pretty amazing.”
-John Romero, in an interview in the June 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“I squeezed every drop I could out of the Super Nintendo CD for Frederico II, using games like NiGHTS as inspiration. I think the results turned out pretty amazing.”
-Silver Sail's Carlos Delgado, talking about Frederico II in the August 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“Namco's been doing incredible work with us and Time Crisis is just the latest example of synergy between our companies. We have Fighters Megamix coming to the Saturn very soon, so look out for that!”
-Tom Kalinske, in an interview in the June 1997 issue of Official Saturn Magazine
“I am absolutely dedicated to keeping HAL at the forefront of game design innovation as we prepare to launch the Ultra Nintendo. We are working on many games, it is difficult work but I think anyone who plays the Ultra will enjoy the results.”
-Satoru Iwata
-
Alundra:
Dan: 8.0
Shoe: 7.5
Crispin: 7.5 (quote: “It's a great action-RPG that will challenge and reward the player.”)
Sushi-X: 7.5
ESPN: X-Games:
Dan: 6.0
Shoe: 5.0
Crispin: 7.0
Sushi-X: 5.0 (quote: “The somewhat outdated graphics and simple gameplay keep this collection of extreme sports from being everything it could have been.”)
Gungriffon:
Dan: 6.0
Shoe: 7.0 (quote: “This first-person mech piloting games shows lots of promise, but the SNES-CD does struggle to keep the game moving at a playable pace. The Saturn version runs much smoother.”)
Crispin: 4.0
Sushi-X: 4.0
MLB '98:
Dan: 7.5
Shoe: 9.0
Crispin: 7.0
Sushi-X: 7.0 (quote: “It's the best looking baseball game on the SNES-CD, even better than Ken Griffey's Winning Run from last year, and the presentation is quite good.”)
Romancing SaGA 2+3:
Dan: 8.5 (quote: “A very well put-together collection of classic Super Nintendo RPGs, it doesn't add much in the way of graphics but it's the only way to play these excellent games on Western shores.”)
Shoe: 8.5
Crispin: 8.0
Sushi-X: 8.0
Frederico 2: Garcia's Revenge!
Dan: 8.5
Shoe: 8.0
Crispin: 8.0 (quote: “It's just as fun as the original, though some of the 3-D segments are a bit dull. You'll prefer the 2-D platforming which thankfully makes up a majority of the game's content.”)
Sushi-X: 8.0
Empire: The Steel Kingdom:
Dan: 9.0
Shoe: 9.0
Crispin: 9.0
Sushi-X: 9.0 (quote: “Move over, Civilization! This title takes the best aspects of nation sims and RTS games to make for the best hybrid-sim game since Actraiser.”)
-Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of May 1997's SNES-CD games in the June and July 1997 issues
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May 5, 1997
Satoru Iwata was seated in his office at HAL Laboratory. Across from him sat Masahiro Sakurai, and the two gentlemen were discussing HAL's upcoming plans for the Ultra Nintendo. The company had just released Kirby's Adventure 3 in Japan to positive reviews, which left Sakurai free to work on his next project, while Iwata had been asked to help with another matter...
“Sony has asked me to help them with something pertaining to the Pocket Monsters games,” said Iwata.
“Are they already thinking about the next one?” asked Sakurai. A sequel was inevitable due to the success of Red and Green, but he didn't think it would be coming so quickly.
“Yes, but that is not what they asked for my help with,” Iwata replied. “They want me to help them with a proof-of-concept for a Pocket Monsters game utilizing technology more advanced than what exists on the Game Boy.”
Sakurai thought that could only mean work on that battling game for the Ultra Nintendo, the one scheduled for release sometime at the beginning of 1998. Iwata had mentioned working on that game, but it too wasn't what he meant.
“You're talking about Pocket Monsters Stadium?”
“No. They want me to help create something for the Super Famicom CD, something that can form the base of the sequel to Red and Green. Sony and Nintendo are considering work on a new handheld Game Boy, far more powerful than the Game Boy Color.”
Sakurai looked to be in shock. He knew Gunpei Yokoi was starting to become more receptive to advances in handheld tech, but he didn't think Yokoi would let them go THAT far.
“How powerful are we talking about exactly?”
“Possibly more powerful than the Super Nintendo CD,” said Iwata. “They're worried that the Saturn's success might drive Sega to try a new handheld and they'd like to beat Sega to market. A new Game Boy could be finished as soon as the end of next year and Sony wants Game Freak to have a new Pokemon game ready for its release.”
Sakurai allowed himself a hearty laugh. The prospect of designing games for a new, more powerful Game Boy was exciting, and Iwata seemed pleased about the development as well. If Nintendo was really ready to take handheld technology into the new generation, the men wanted HAL Laboratory to be at the forefront. A new Kirby game for the new handheld would be quite successful, if that's what Nintendo was planning to do.
“Well, if you need any ideas on the game, feel free to let me know, you know I'm full of them,” said Sakurai. Iwata responded with a smile and a nod.
“Absolutely, I'm sure I'll hit a road block sooner or later. Now....let's discuss that project you were talking with me about earlier.”
Sakurai had been considering a Nintendo fighting game for quite some time. With Sega having recently launched Fighters Megamix in Japan to considerable success, the concept of a video-game fighting mashup was proven, and the technology the Ultra Nintendo offered could easily make for a quality game.
“Well, you know that game Dragon King we thought up together? I think that could form a good framework for what I'd like to do,” Sakurai began.
-
Matt Lauer: And certainly Windows has been a major success.
Katie Couric: Now, I'd like to get your opinion on the recent chess match between Garry Kasparov and the computer Deep Blue. Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a world chess champion yesterday, what's your take on this historic event?
Bill Gates: Well, certainly it proves that computer technology has advanced so much in the past decade. The idea of a computer chess champion, it seems to the outside observer that something like that would have limited applications, but in reality it opens the door to a whole host of possibilities. Artificial intelligence provides the backbone of modern computing, it allows the computer to do more of the work so that the end user is free to focus on the tasks that they want to perform. The more work the computer can do, the less work the individual using the computer has to do and ultimately you can accomplish a lot more tasks. I've been working everyday to make computing easier for the average person. Windows has helped bring the personal computer into so many more homes, and it's allowing ordinary people to accomplish more things which ultimately is going to enrich the world.
Matt Lauer: And are there any other advancements in computing technology that have piqued your interest?
Bill Gates: Well, I've seen the most recent video gaming device from Nintendo, set to launch next month in Japan. It's called the Ultra Nintendo, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming months, but it's got the most advanced graphics processor of any dedicated gaming device. It's even comparable to some of the processors in a lot of the computers using Windows these days, which is really quite impressive.
Katie Couric: Is that a field in which you'd like to take Microsoft someday, into video games?
Bill Gates: Well, I get asked that from time to time, and the thing is this. Unless we can create a device that does a lot of what the personal computer can do, a device that has a lot of onboard memory to store applications, a device that allows the user to create their own content, a device that allows for an easy connection to the Internet, I still think that the PC is the best platform for gaming. Everything you can do on a home console, you can accomplish with a PC. Maybe in the future, when technology's come a bit farther along, we'll see.
Katie Couric: Well, we've all learned that we can never say never when it comes to Bill Gates.
Bill Gates: *laughs*
Katie Couric: A man who's accomplished, I think, so much in the realm of technology.
Bill Gates: I had a lot of help along the way, but thank you.
Matt Lauer: Bill Gates, thank you for coming on the show today. *shaking his hand*
Katie Couric: *shaking Bill Gates' hand* And you'll be speaking at the New Horizons Technology Conference right here in New York later today.
Bill Gates: Yes, it's going to be a very exciting afternoon.
Katie Couric: We'll take a commercial break, and be right back, here on Today.
*a series of commercials airs, then the show comes back on*
Katie Couric: Before we continue, we have... some rather sad news to pass along. This news involves one of the great....one of the great legends of American music. Bob Dylan, a legend, and, the voice of a generation, really...um, has died, at the age of 55. We're being told that he died of a heart attack earlier this morning, and...and it's just shocking news because he's right up there with some of the most influential voices in music history.
-excerpted from the May 12, 1997 episode of Today
-
“Hell comes to the Sega Saturn!”- the tagline for the Saturn release of Doom II
Doom II: The Basics
On May 15, 1997, Doom II is released for the Sega Saturn. The game is in reality a compilation pack containing both the original Doom (in its Ultimate Doom version) and Doom II. While the Saturn is technically capable of a 3-D Doom (as seen in OTL's Doom 64), the game remains largely in its original sprite style in order to enable the game to fit lots of content across both games (with over 50 playable levels between them). The game also contains a first for a console version of Doom: a multiplayer mode that enables up to four people to engage in a deathmatch at once. The multiplayer mode is fairly spartan (only deathmatches and a handful of maps), but it allows some of the popular PC multiplayer aspects of the game to be enjoyed by console players for the first time. It's even enabled for NetLink, allowing Saturn players to connect with one another across the Internet to compete in deathmatches (and also to download a handful of WADs handpicked and uploaded by Id software). Doom II quickly becomes the most popular NetLink game and it also spurs an uptick in Saturn modem sales (especially after Doom II becomes a pack-in game for it), but it doesn't become the killer app that would have put millions of modems in Saturn owners' homes. The technology is still too crude and unreliable (many players report lag with their 26K connections while playing) for Doom II to take off majorly. The game itself is a decent hit, though it doesn't quite match up to the sales of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Still, the game largely makes up for the disaster that was Doom on the Mega Charger, and becomes one of the best-selling Sega Saturn games of 1997.
“The Doom II port to the Saturn was a real treat, especially since it included the original game for those of us who had a Genesis and missed out on getting a good Doom port. The frame rate was excellent even if the graphics were somewhat primitive compared to games like Turok. What I liked most was the multiplayer. I never went online with it, but I loved getting three of my friends together and spending the whole night hunting down and killing each other in the spooky levels. The music was some of the best of any of the Doom ports, especially since the game let you choose between a hard rock track (called “classic” Doom) and a spookier more atmospheric track (called “terror” Doom). I would sometimes play through the game during the day with the classic track and then at night I'd crank up the terror track and play through the game on the hardest mode. Taken together, the two games made for one of the most epic first-person shooters of all time, and even for seasoned players you could easily fill up a whole night playing through all the levels. While I waited for Quake to finally get released, I passed the time with Doom II, one of the best FPSes ever on the Sega Saturn.”
-a comment on a Talk Amongst Yourselves article at Kotaku.com
“Porting both Doom games to the Saturn was a real cinch since the system was so powerful. It wasn't any problem getting a smooth frame rate and I was just as proud of the Doom II port as I was with what we did with Doom on the SNES-CD. There was just too much content in Doom II to get it to run nearly as well on that system. We really did try, the first game sold something like three million copies on there so if we could've gotten Doom II on there, we would've. We just didn't want to half-ass it.”
-John Carmack, in an interview in the June 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
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One of the last great SNES-CD sequels, Frederico 2: Garcia's Revenge! was released in 1997, and the anticipation was quite high considering what a popular sleeper hit the first game had been. Frederico 2 saw the sombrero-wearing hero return to action after Generalissimo Garcia begins to once again terrorize the land, this time by building a giant mech to smash up everything. He leaves Frederico's girlfriend, the vivacious (and rather busty) Madelina alone this time, instead simply gathering up as many robot parts as he can to build his machines. The game has largely the same exploratory platforming gameplay as the first, but adds in a few 3-D sequences that are somewhat awkward considering the SNES-CD's capabilities at rendering such sequences. The Ultra Nintendo would've handled them perfectly, but in Frederico 2 they're fairly mundane, short, and largely extraneous. The boss fights, all of them thankfully in 2-D, are much better than in the first game, with massive monstrosities for Frederico (and his friends) to fight. Madelina will show up from time to time with a silly comment or some items for Frederico to use, and on one occasion she even beats up a boss herself after it stirs back to life following a fight and attacks Frederico. She's much better in this game than in the last game when she spent most of it as Garcia's captive, and it's in this sequel that she became the fan-favorite she is to this day (and not just because of the fan service either). Familiar characters like Nacho the cat and Frederico's buddy Maloney also return to lend help as they always do. Overall, the game received a reception that was a bit muted from the first game (which itself had been such a surprise), but it still sold really well. In fact, it was one of the SNES-CD's best selling new titles of the year. The future of the series clearly looked bright, and fans eagerly waited to see what the next title, which was released on the Ultra Nintendo in 2000, would bring.
-excerpted from “A History Of Frederico” on Nintendomemories.com
Interviewer: Now, we hear the new game has a special theme song, is that true?
Carlos Delgado: It IS true! But you'll have to beat the game to hear it. It was performed by Selena, who of course is pretty much the hottest music star in the world right now.
Interviewer: And how did you ever get Selena?!
Delgado: Well, being friends with her husband helps! *laughs* She was really excited to do the theme song for this game and our music director was excited to write something up. It's a little Latin-styled James Bond kind of thing, not very long but it's pretty funny. You'll enjoy hearing it as a nice little reward for beating the game.
Interview: Well, Frederico 2 comes out on May 19 for the Super Nintendo CD! Don't miss it!
-excerpted from an interview with Carlos Delgado in the May 1997 issue of Hispanic Tech News magazine
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“Alundra isn't quite The Legend Of Zelda, but it's still an excellent action-RPG for the Super Nintendo CD, its second great such title in a year after Terranigma. The system might be entering the last phase of its lifespan, but if you're a fan of hack and slash dungeon crawlers, it's still pumping out the hits.”
-excerpted from Alundra's 4.375/5 review in the June 1997 issue of GamePro magazine
“We were spending a lot of time working on Starseekers of Exion at the time, that was our big project, but Alundra was a labor of love for the people who worked on localizing it. We didn't want to take it lightly even though it wasn't our big thing at the time, so I spent a lot of time micromanaging that game and making sure that our team was putting in the necessary work. The result is a game that I think was one of our best pieces of work, and once again showed the thought and effort we put into all of our games.”
-Victor Ireland
Alundra is the newest RPG for the Super Nintendo CD! It's full of mysterious dungeons and lovable characters, in one of the most epic quests you'll ever undertake! The game disc also contains an exclusive demo of Starseekers of Exion, which we'll be covering extensively in next month's issue.
-introduction to Nintendo Power's article on Alundra in the May 1997 Epic Center
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And what Empire: The Steel Kingdom lacks in graphics, it makes up for in terms of sheer depth and variety of gameplay. It's very reminiscent of the game ActRaiser back in 1992, that required you to micro-manage a town and then go out and battle bad guys in various platforming levels. Here, you have to micromanage your kingdom while expanding into other territories to build your empire. If you keep too tight or tyrannical a reign on your people, expect rebellions and defections. If you allow too much freedom, you might get overthrown or your kingdom could be infiltrated by spies. Of course, you also have to decide which nations to slaughter and which to absorb into your empire. A particularly strong band of soldiers could form a valuable division of your army, or they could become unruly and make trouble from within. It's one of the deepest strategy games in a long time, with an excellent combat system that's even more advanced than some of Koei's RTS titles, and it's a sim with all the smarts and strategy of Sid Meier's Civilization. It's among the very best strategy titles on the Super Nintendo CD, and if you can look past the somewhat archaic visuals, you have a very deep and fun nation-sim on your hands.
Graphics: 3.0
Sound: 4.0
Play Control: 4.5
Fun Factor: 5.0
Challenge: Advanced
-excerpted from the review of Empire: The Steel Kingdom in the June 1997 issue of GamePro magazine
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Namco Brings The Big Guns To Saturn
Time Crisis is just the latest Namco arcade hit to come to the Sega Saturn in recent months, but it won't be the last. A console version of Point Blank is in the works, and the company says that it hopes to bring more such games to the Saturn in the future. Of course, the Namco/Saturn partnership has largely hinged on the company's fighting games, and next month, North America will finally see the long anticipated Fighters Megamix, a collaboration between the two companies that will bring characters from some of their biggest fighting game franchises together at last. It's the most pre-ordered Sega Saturn game since Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and fans hope the game can deliver on everything the two companies have promised.
In addition to the shooting and fighting games, Namco is publishing a game that they say will counter the Ultra Nintendo's Final Fantasy VII, set to release some time in the launch window of the Ultra Nintendo. Titled Windborn, the game is an old-school fantasy RPG with highly stylized graphics and a quest that Namco says will require over 60 hours to complete. Reviews of the game in Japan have been highly positive, including a 39/40 in Famitsu magazine and rave reviews from a hit Japanese television show that reviews popular video games. Namco, who once considered purchasing Telenet Japan's Wolf Team divison (which created the hit Tale Phantasia for the Super Nintendo CD, intends to push Windborn hard in the West, to avoid the niche label that most Japanese RPGs not called some variant of Final Fantasy seem to bear. A number of RPGs are scheduled to be released for the Saturn in the coming months, including an RPG starring the mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, but Namco is hoping that Windborn surpasses them all and further cements the lucrative relationship between Sega and itself.
May 20, 1997
Sega and Namco executives had gathered at Sega of Japan's headquarters to discuss the latest business pertaining to both their companies. Sega president Hayao Nakayama had recently approved a venture to improve the Saturn's technological prowess in the wake of the impending Ultra Nintendo release, and he knew that Namco would need to be involved every step of the way.
“Gentlemen, today I would like to discuss a new endeavor,” said Nakayama, “one that will bring our companies' games to the forefront of technology. As you all know, the Saturn is technologically inferior to the Ultra Nintendo, despite our best efforts to futureproof the system. It is clear that we will need to enhance the Saturn to have a better chance at maintaining our market share once Nintendo's system is released. Therefore, I present to you the prototype for the “Ring” of Saturn, a device that will provide a memory boost to the Saturn to make it significantly closer to Nintendo's system in terms of capability.”
A schematic for the prototype appeared on a projection screen. The executives from both companies studied it carefully as Nakayama continued to speak.
“The Ring will expand the Saturn's memory and perhaps even provide increased processing capabilities, similar to the Mega Charger device for the Sega Genesis. We will announce the Ring sometime next year, once all of the technical specifics are in place. We hope that Namco will contribute some ideas or certainly some games that will utilize this device.”
One of the men from Namco, a high-ranking technician within the company, raised his hand to speak. Nakayama nodded.
“Will this device enable the Saturn to match the capabilities of our next generation arcade technology?”
“The next generation of arcade games will still likely need to be pared down somewhat to be playable on the Saturn,” said Nakayama. “However, the Ring device will allow them to run in a form that will be nearly indistinguishable from their original counterparts.”
The men from Namco exchanged whispers, but seemed pleased with the announcement regardless. Internally at Namco, there had been some recent consideration of revising the company's agreement with Sega to allow the company to make Nintendo games starting in 1999. Certain arcade titles would remain exclusive to the Saturn, but the company could make games that would take advantage of the increased capabilities of the Ultra Nintendo. With the announcement that Sega was taking steps to close the gap between the two consoles, the men could take the news back to Namco, and could hopefully head off talks of re-negotiating their contract with Sega, at least for the moment. It was clear that Sega had begun taking pre-emptive moves to counter Nintendo's impressive new console.
“The Soul Edge sequel, it will likely only be possible on the Saturn with this new Ring device. We're looking to create the most advanced arcade game ever. Having it exclusive to the Saturn would be a major benefit, but only if it truly looks comparable to what it will look like in the arcades,” said Hiroaki Yotoriyama, whose Project Soul group was already hard at work on what would come to be known as Soul Calibur. “Can the Saturn provide the graphical fidelity we'll need?”
“Absolutely,” said Nakayama confidently. “We're looking to make Soul Calibur one of the biggest Saturn releases ever. It'll blow Nintendo and their Killer Instinct sequel right out of the water. That's why we need your help to make the Ring a reality.”
“We'll do whatever is needed,” said one of the Namco executives. “We believe the Sega Saturn is the console of the present and the future.”
“Then let's get to work,” said Nakayama.
-
Ted Crosley: Doom II, is it better on the Saturn than it is on the PC? Yes? No?
Alex Stansfield: Yes, with some caveats. The PC does provide a level of customization that you just can't get on the Saturn, and of course the online play is superior on a PC.
Ted: You know, I tried Sega's online service for this game and it was actually pretty fun. If you've got a decent 28K connection, there's really not much lag at all, it's just like playing with your friends at home. Which, by the way....THANK YOU, Sega, for finally bringing us multiplayer console Doom!
Alex: Right, the multiplayer is a really nice addition to what's already an outstanding single player campaign. Combining Doom and Doom II into one makes for a truly epic marathon game that any Doom fan will want to spend a whole weekend just plowing through.
Ted: And the multiplayer?
Alex: Coulda been better. They could've had more levels, bigger ones, and a capture the flag mode would've been nice.
Ted: Capture the flag is for kids at summer camp.
Alex: Capture the flag is fun as hell in an FPS!
Ted: Deathmatches are where it's at, and Doom II has some of the best deathmatch action ever.
Alex: I won't disagree with that, I did have a lot of fun even with the paltry stage selection. Honestly, you can't really go wrong with this game. I had some quibbles but they're mostly minor, Doom II is one of the best shooters out there for the Sega Saturn.
Ted: Agreed, I give Doom II for the Saturn a 4.5 out of 5.
Alex: A 4.5 from me too.
-excerpted from the May 13, 1997 episode of GameTV
(…)
Brittany Saldita: So in the end, Frederico 2: Garcia's Revenge won't win any awards for innovation, but it's still a great action game and one of the best looking games on the Super Nintendo CD.
Lyssa Fielding: Right, it doesn't really build on the first but it does everything that the first game did right, AND it introduced a lot of quirky new characters.
Brittany: Like Salazar the blacksmith, he cracks some pretty funny jokes when you visit his shop.
Lyssa: And don't forget that we see a LOT more of Frederico's sassy girlfriend Madelina.
Brittany: You'd think she'd be just another damsel in distress, but this time she actually gets to stretch her legs and help Frederico out.
Lyssa: Oh? You had doubts about her?
Brittany: Well, she does seem to attract a lot of the male gaze.
Lyssa: Hey now, just because a girl has big boobs- *she puts her hands on her own chest* doesn't mean she can't be fun and interesting.
Brittany: Well of course YOU'RE fun and interesting! *laughing* No, no, I like what they did with Madelina in this game. She kind of reminds me of those wacky talk show hosts on the Spanish language channels. Very energetic and vivacious.
Lyssa: Oh yeah, you can understand those weird soap operas, can't you?
Brittany: Yeah, why, wanna watch 'em together and have me explain what's going on?
Lyssa: Are you sure you can tear yourself away from Tale Phantasia long enough to watch them with me?
Brittany: Ay dios mio, they told you about that?!
Lyssa: It's okay, I used to be obsessed with Super Mario Bros. like that too. ...*smirks* When I was 12.
Brittany: Okay, things are about to get VERY Mexican soap opera up in here... *fuming*
Lyssa: *snickering* Settle down, what's your score for Frederico 2?
Brittany: I'm giving it a 4, because while it's a really fun game to play, it doesn't improve significantly on the first game other than a graphical bump and an increased role for the best side characters.
Lyssa: A 4 sounds about right. Okay, so in the show with the two heiresses fighting over their dad's fortune, what's the old guy with one tooth saying when the younger girl goes to see him about mixing up a batch of poison?
Brittany: Oh, I have no idea.
Lyssa: Don't you know Spanish?
Brittany: Well yeah, but the guy only has one tooth, so...
Lyssa: Oh, yeah. Maybe he's saying, “I should have flossed more often?” *walking off the stage with Brittany as the show goes to commercial*
-excerpted from the May 20, 1997 episode of GameTV
(…)
*The six hosts of GameTV are standing outside of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.*
Ted: I'm Ted Crosley!
Alex: And I'm Alex Stansfield!
Ted: And we're here at the LA Coliseum, because it's Sports Week on GameTV!
Alex: That's right, we're going to be holding the GameTV Games where us six hosts will compete in a series of athletic events to decide which one of us is the best at sports!
Ted: And while we're doing that, we'll be reviewing some of this month's sports themed games! We'll be taking a look at MLB '98 for the Super Nintendo CD and the Sega Saturn! Plus, we'll check out ESPN: X-Games for the SNES-CD. We're also gonna review the new arcade game NFL Blitz, where the games are short but the hits are brutal!
John Walden: And we'll also show you how to kick ass at the NBA arcade game NBA Hangtime, with some tips from the pros right here on GameTV.
Lyssa: Hey guys, don't forget, we took an exclusive tour at EA Sports, where we got to see a sneak peek at some of the upcoming games for this year, including NBA Live 98, Madden 98, and NHL '98!
Brittany: So get off that couch! Oh, wait....get ON the couch and watch us do the exercising for you!
Ted: We're bringing you previews, reviews, and news to help you choose. This is Sports Week on GameTV!
-the intro sequence to the May 27, 1997 episode of GameTV
(…)
Alex: We're back, and this game of HORSE is about to enter its final stage. Ted and Brittany are the last two left standing and they're both at S, so whoever can put a letter on the other person next will win the game.
Ted: *is standing about 18 feet back from the hoop, his back is turned and he's going to try a behind the back shot*
Brittany: You're not gonna make that in a million years.
Ted: *takes a few dribbles*
Lyssa: Miss it!
John: If this goes in, this is gonna be...
*Ted flings the ball back over his head and it goes in the hoop, nothing but net. Everyone cheers, even Brittany who has a bewildered and dismayed look on her face as Ted hands her the ball.*
Alex: I can't believe that went in!
Gary: Oh man. Oh man, Brittany...
Brittany: I'll make this. *stands where Ted stood and turns her back to the hoop* Everybody cheer me on!
Ted: Boooooooo!
Lyssa: Come on, Brittany!
Alex: I think she can hit it.
Ted: I don't think so.
Brittany: *takes the shot, the ball actually bounces around the rim a couple times but slides off*
Ted: Yeah!
Lyssa: Awwwww!
Brittany: *bleep*!
Lyssa: That was close though!
Brittany: That was close, it almost went in!
Ted: I win! I win the first event! I'm the HORSE master! *doing a silly dance*
Brittany: Don't rub it in.
Alex: All right, we're gonna review MLB '98 while we set up for the next event.
(…)
Ted: So when it comes right down to it, MLB '98 is a solid game, I thought it really improved on last year's with a lot more options and way better presentation. The Saturn version especially I thought was way better. You've got a much better home run derby mode, a lot more customization options...
Alex: Yeah, the SNES-CD version is all right but obviously the Saturn version is significantly better.
Ted: The hitting in both games I thought was better, the new swing system works great on both consoles and I thought it was a lot easier to take the kinds of swings I wanted to take.
Alex: The SNES-CD is still a great system for sports games, though. It's not the kind of cutting-edge TV like stuff you get on the Saturn but still some really good games and MLB '98 is no exception. I give the SNES-CD version a 3.5 and the Saturn version a 4.
Ted: I'm giving a 3 to the SNES-CD version and a 4 to the Saturn version.
(…)
*Ted, Alex, Brittany, John, Lyssa, and Gary are totally soaked after a water gun fight that Brittany won, she's only slightly less soaked than the others*
Alex: You play NASTY!
Brittany: I play for keeps, bitches! *she swings her hips around and raises her water gun up and down*
Lyssa: I'm sore all over.
Gary: Why did you guys all come after me? Honestly!
Ted: Well, Brittany won the water gun fight, I still don't see how water gun fights are a sport but she won fair and square....sort of. We want to thank Larami for donating these awesome new Super Soaker CPS-2000, Constant Pressure System water guns for us to use...
Alex: Water guns which will soon be banned by the Geneva Convention....
Brittany: *pumps up her water gun and sprays Alex in the shoulder*
Alex: Aaaahhh! *bleep*! *bleep*!
Ted: *laughing at Alex's misfortune* We'll do the final event soon but first, check out our review of ESPN: X-Games.
(…)
Gary: The variety of events in this game is nice, but the presentation leaves a lot to be desired.
John: I gotta agree, the commentary, which is pretty limited, doesn't really sync up with the events on the screen...
Gary: Right, I don't want to hear “Right on! Killer!” every time I wipe out trying to pull a 540 bike jump.
John: It gets annoying REALLY fast.
Gary: I think ESPN could've waited for the Ultra to release this because the technical limitations of the SNES-CD really come to light here. The controls are decent but again, a more advanced controller might've helped, it's hard to pull off advanced tricks on some of the events.
John: ESPN: X-Games is like half of a game. If you're a fan of the X-Games on TV, I mean, REALLY a huge fan....I still can't recommend this, watching them on TV is a lot more fun. Hell, going to the skate park and scraping up your knees is debateably more fun than this game.
Gary: When I was a kid, scraping up your knees at the skate park was a badge of honor. “Hey, look at this cool kid, he's bleeding, he must be totally awesome!”
John: Yeah, I remember when I got a cast back when I was 10 and all the cute girls were signing it.
Gary: Lyssa, if I got hurt skateboarding, would you sign my cast?
Lyssa: Yeah sure, I'd sign it, “nice compound fracture, moron!”
John: Man, that's harsh! And I'm gonna be just as harsh on this game. 2 outta 5.
Gary: 2.5 from me. It's at least got the base of a decent game there. Maybe next year on the next-gen systems it'll be better.
(…)
Alex: And the winner of the first ever GameTV Games is Ted Crosley! His team beat Brittany's team in Ultimate Frisbee, 7 to 4.
Ted: Yeah, thanks to your awesome skills, buddy. *wraps his arm around Alex's shoulder*
Brittany: *groaning* All right, well, I win the silver medal and I'm keeping the water gun in case Ted tries bragging about it too much.
Ted: It'll be worth it!
Brittany: *lowers her Super Soaker toward his groin*
Ted: *laughs nervously* On second thought I think I'll be a gracious champion...
Alex: Well, next week on GameTV we've got the awesome new role playing game Starseekers Of Exion, we'll be reviewing it AND we'll be taking you right up to the first boss so if you're a fan of epic role playing adventures like all the good people are, you won't wanna miss it!
Ted: From the beautiful Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, this has been GameTV!
*The credits roll as the hosts playfully point their water guns at each other, Brittany blasts Ted a few times in the back making him yelp.*
-excerpted from the May 27, 1997 episode of GameTV
-
SNES-CD Power Charts: May 1997
1. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams
2. Rage 2: The Rage Returns
3. Elements Of Mana
4. Terranigma
5. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
6. Tale Phantasia
7. Days Of The Hunt
8. Chrono Trigger
9. Squad Four: Eclipse
10. Klepto: Thief In The Night
11. Super Mario RPG
12. World Championship Boxing
13. Super Mario World 2
14. Dog Dash
15. Chocopop!
16. Donkey Kong Country
17. Policenauts
18. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
19. Sam and Max: Freelance Police
20. Kirby Super Deluxe
The Official Saturn Magazine Buzz Chart – May 1997
1. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 4
3. Doom II
4. Tekken 2
5. Fighters Megamix
6. Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain
7. Tomb Raider
8. Time Crisis
9. Resident Evil
10. Boom Island
-
May 27, 1997
Michael Burns had spent a fun afternoon playing Doom II on the Saturn with his friends, but the day had taken a somewhat frightening turn. Now he was crouched in a closet with one of his friends as sirens blared outside.
“Tornado emergency...?” said Michael somewhat nervously, referring to the extremely frantic nature of the warnings that were flashing on their television. “I've never heard anything like that before.”
“They're saying on the news it totally wiped out a neighborhood a half an hour from here,” said Michael's friend, an equally nervous tone in his voice. The two didn't have a basement, but the house they were in was really sturdy and the closet they were taking shelter in was far from any windows or from the sides of the house. “Like every house, clean off the map.”
“Shit...” Michael muttered under his breath. Outside, the wind was blowing and the sky was an ugly green, while on the news, the weather man had a dire tone as he continued to discuss the huge tornado slowly churning its way through the suburbs north of Austin, demolishing nearly every building it hit. “Should we have tried to get out? Like drive away?”
“Dude, you never drive away from a fucking tornado, didn't you see what happened up on I-35?”
“Yeah, but....those people had no idea the thing was coming...” said Michael, his voice trembling a bit as he remembered what he'd seen on the television just before he and his friend had decided to take shelter. The tornado engulfed the highway, packed with cars, and after it passed, it left a wide section of scoured asphalt...and no cars. “I just....maybe we oughta go next door or something, they got a basement, maybe...”
His voice trailed off. The loud rumbling outside was getting louder and louder. The tornado was bearing down.
“Burnie, help me get this mattress over us!” screamed Michael's friend over the rapidly loudening roaring of the tornado. “Oh shit, here it comes....!”
The two young men huddled in the closet with the mattress over them, listening to the tornado as it got closer and closer. Michael could feel his ears popping as the pressure suddenly dropped...then he could hear the outer walls of the house ripping away.
“FUCK!” he shouted, his voice unable to be heard over the ferocity of the tornado. The closet began to shake. “Oh fuck! OH FUCK!”
The last thing Michael Burns and his friend ever saw was a black wall of death engulfing them as the wall of the closet was torn away.
May 28, 1997
By the time it was all over, the Central Texas Tornado Outbreak of 1997 (known in some circles, particularly in Texas, as “Super Outbreak II”) had claimed 496 lives. The steepest butcher's bill by far had been exacted by the tornado that had started in a field in Jarrell, wiped a neighborhood off the map, then remained on the ground as it moved, somewhat slowly at 20 miles per hour, toward the northern suburbs of Austin. Though the tornado would kill 471 and injure thousands, its relatively slow forward speed undoubtedly saved thousands of lives, giving people in the crowded urban area the time they needed to either take adequate shelter (which in the case of this particular tornado was either deep underground or in a reinforced concrete storm bunker) or flee the tornado's path in their vehicles. While this seemed to defy all conventional knowledge about what one should do in a tornado, the long lead time made this a strategy that actually saved many lives... though it did kill many who attempted to flee too late: nearly half the deaths from the tornado occurred when it passed directly over a packed Interstate 35, shredding over a hundred cars and leaving only five survivors among those whose cars were destroyed in the winds. The tornado, the strongest ever recorded, left a scar in the Earth nearly a mile wide and 40 miles long. A mobile Doppler radar van measured the tornado's wind speed at 347 miles per hour, a figure that would be debated and disputed for years to come, but led many in the media to dub the tornado an F6, previously thought “inconceivable” (officially, meteorologists awarded the tornado an F5 rating based on the actual damage reports, which included hundreds of houses completely removed from their foundations, and an entire shopping mall erased, leaving only a few twisted steel beams standing, in a miraculous occurrence, no one died at the mall, the people inside having all been ushered into an underground area of the building that had once been designated as a Cold War fallout shelter). The tornado prompted the first ever “tornado emergency”, issued as the storm seemed on an inexorable course to slam into downtown Austin, but mercifully roped out and lifted up just two miles from downtown.
The day after the outbreak, President Bill Clinton came to Texas, flying over the areas worst hit by the storm before making a speech to a packed audience in Austin.
“And though this disaster has tested the resolve of those who have lost friends, loved ones, homes... the people of Texas are strong and they will rebuild. We will rebuild from this storm. We will clean up the damage and these homes that were destroyed, these businesses that were damaged, they will be rebuilt and we will come out of this stronger. The people of Texas have come together in this time of great need and great suffering, and I have already seen the spirits of these people. I have heard the stories of lives saved by the courage and quick thinking of those caught in this storm's path. And as you rebuild from the storm, America is with you. Our hearts are with you, our thoughts are with you, our prayers are with you and America stands with you!”
The gathered crowd cheered and applauded, and President Clinton continued his speech.
“There is no storm furious enough to break the will of the American people. God bless the people of Texas, and God bless the United States of America.”
The crowd cheered again, and President Clinton turned to embrace a woman who had lost all seven of her kids when the house her children had been sheltering in was shredded by the tornado. The woman still had tears streaking down her face as Clinton embraced her, trying as best he could to reassure her.
“These were the kinds of days I was grateful I had Monica for...” thought the president, thinking back to his affair with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky, whom he'd turned to for comfort when the stresses of the job began to weigh heavily on him. The two had stopped meeting about two months before, but the job hadn't gotten any easier for Clinton, even after being elected to another term. Now, he faced the worst tragedy of his administration, and though his skills at comforting the American people were proving useful once again, the pain he felt when he listened to the stories of the tornadoes' victims was something he couldn't heal.
“There was nothing you could've done...” he remembered his wife Hillary telling him before he'd left to go to Texas. And she was right, of course, even a president couldn't stop Mother Nature. He had to keep repeating those words in his head as he toured the damage sites. There are things even a president can't prevent, and a tornado was just about at the top of the list.
He longed to get back to Washington as soon as he could. He'd have to deal with a hostile Republican Congress, but that he at least had some measure of control over.
