Friday 1 February 2008

Those Were The Days

Skip back to October 1994. The Saturn has already been anounced in Japan, but Informations are scarce. To what graphical prowess will the Saturn be up to? Hardly anyone knows yet and we can only dream about worlds, which we've never seen before. Then, new Daytona USA Screenshots appear in the german "Sega Magazin" Issue number 11. That must have been so exciting! And yes, it definitely was.

I recently bought a shitload of Sega Magazines from a mate and am now browsing them for Saturn informations. I wasn't there back then, when the Saturn arrived, so they are my only chance to get a glimpse of what was going on back then. And boy it must have been so exciting. When browsing Issue 11 I found those Daytona USA screens, which are obviously from a beta build. And I really do like the way, the Sega Magazin is writing about it. See for yourself:



I sadly never experienced that kind of thrill for a Saturn game, so it was quite a nice read for me. I especially like, how they rave about the mountain in the background, which "shows what the Saturn is graphically capable of". I mean, it is just a low-res picture, they must have thought it's completely in 3D? It's somewhat funny and somewhat sad at the same time. Back in 1994 I was playing with my Amiga and ignored consoles almost completely and when I played Daytona USA in around 2001 for the first time I thought (to be honest): "Wow, that looks crappy!". I think I would have thought different back then. But who knows. I'll never know. For everyone else: Check out the beta screens, read how amazing they were back then, close your eyes and savour it.

Here's the original german version, which shows that I didn't make that up. Hehe.

As always, click the pictures for a much bigger view.

6 comments:

gnome said...

An Amiga lover! YES!

elend said...

Of course! I have some (great) games for auction, if you are searching for some >:)
http://search.ebay.de/_W0QQsassZandersdenkend

fatherkrishna said...

I had a megadrive back in the day, and I can tell you that when the Saturn came out I marvelled at its graphical spleandour! Pre-rendered video (such as featured in Resident Evil)had been around since the Mega CD, but when I saw it on the Saturn! OMFG!!!

I had Saturn magazines at the time, but they are long gone.

So I too have been collecting and reading them in 2008, and imagining the excitement at the time... It's quite weird/fantastic!

I might reprint some of the letters that are written in those hallowed pages...

They are extremely entertaining!

Great post elend!

NebachadnezzaR said...

I almost soiled myself when I saw NiGHTS for the first time...that was fucking beautiful!

Sine I was a kid at the time I don't have any Saturn magazines, but I've been collecting them and right now I have over 1 GB of SS magazines on my hard-drive.

elend said...

I really would love to buy all these magazines. The german ones are not much of a problem, but the UK ones are scarce and often very pricey. :( Not to speak of japanese ones. Due to the amount of mags released in Japan it's quite an awful work to collect them all.

gnome said...

Why elend, you know you could easily blog about your (well, more interesting) auctions over at Retro Treasures, don't you?