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Top Story: Sega's Dreamcast is unveiled at E3!
Other news: Sonic Anime may be dubbed for the U.S. Sonic fans
Other news: Is syndication really the best way for "Sonic Underground"?

In case you missed it:
(Archive) Top News Store: SEGA joining forces with Bill Gates--a done deal or a doomed deal?
(Archive) Other News: New Sonic cartoon "Sonic Underground"--a hit or a bomb?

The wait we have been waiting for is over--we have finally seen the Dreamcast!  In case you don't know what the Dreamcast is, it's the Katana; but the "Katana" was a code name for the machine, as well as the earlier codename "Dural" (after the boss in the Virtua Fighter series).  "Dreamcast", as far as we know, is the official name for the machine (at least in Japan; the name still has a possibility of being changed for the North American and European versions).

At E3 (that's the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where most or all the big computer- and video-game makers come out to show off the game hardware and software for the future), the gaming equivalment of a car show, Sega took the wraps off the new system, which would be known as Dreamcast.  The Dreamcast, according to photos provided by Sega, is a grayish-colored machine (this color, in Sega tradition, will most likely be changed for everyone else but Japan), with a red controller with both a regular 4-way digital, directional pad, and an analog stick. Strangely, the controller layout is somewhat (eerily) similar to the Nintendo64's contol pad.

Here's what Sega said about the Dreamcast, in a nutshell:

"Dreamcast, the new ultimate video game machine with the power to outperform all in-home gaming platforms and most arcade systems. With 128-bit performance from a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) central processor, an independent 3D graphics engine and a dedicated 3D sound chip, Dreamcast achieves a level of total system performance unrivaled by any consumer entertainment product."

In layman's words, this is one machine that can seriously take on the console, the arcade, and even the home computer market, in terms of hardware features!  For example, the game has a sophisticated periphreal that plugs in the controller, and stores game stats, change game options, even change big sports football plays; a modem for multiplayer/deathmatch connections--standard, a video hardware setup from NEC and Videologic that allows the Dreamcast to push a high 1,000,000 polygons per second, and an audio chip from Yamaha that allows 3D sound!

But, as we know, hardware isn't what sells, it's the software that sells the most.  Sega learned this the hard way with their Genesis 32X system; it had reasonably good technology (though, IMHO, the machine's games didn't really look 32 bit), but, with a very small library of games, it didn't sell well, and Sega pulled the plug on it in less than a year.  However, Sega didn't forget about that; even though there will be less than 10 games availible so far for launch in Japan, count on at least 20-30 games that will be availible for launch in the U.S. market.

Speaking of launch dates, here's a shocker: The Japanese fans will get the Dreamcast almost a year before the U.S. fans do!  The official launch date of the Dreamcast in Japan (as of this writing) is November 20, 1998; for the U.S., the Fall of 1999.  Why did Sega do this?!  Because of three important things: They want to get all of their software, their 3rd party developers (like Konami, Capcom, and Midway) producing an agreement, and they want to wait for the right time to attack newbie Sony and longtime arch-rival Nintendo.  However, they know that import distrubution channels will be clogged with everybody clawing at the chance to get the Japanese version of the system.  Before you join in the clawing, remember this: unless you have a TV system converter, the system isn't compatible with the NTSC (North American) TVs; sorry. :(

And they want their fans to start coughing up some money for the system; no pricing has been established yet, and Sega wants a price below $300 for the Dreamcast; but with the features this machine has, don't expect this machine to come cheap at first launch.

But when this machine comes to U.S. shores, I--and other Sonic fans--will be waiting at Toys 'R' Us, Babbage's, or Electronics Boutique to reserve or snag our hands on one...

For more info, click on these links or go to Sega's site at www.sega.com
To see the Sega PR article, go to http://www.sega.com/central/press_releases/may98/newconsole_pr.html
To see the Dreamcast pictures, go to http://www.sega.com/spotlight/features/e3_98/

Here's an interesting tidbit: The Sonic Anime is probably (to us) the best thing since...well, the Sonic games, but for almost 2 years, we in the U.S. have been in a battle to get the two volume set of the video of the Sonic Anime.  For two years, we had to get the Japanese language version. For two years, we have been fighting with import companies to bring the videos over.  For two years, we have been waiting for a English-dubbed or more quanities of the English-subtitled version (which have been, literally, next to none).

Well, prepare for a change: From a friend on the Sonic PowerZone mailing list, [email protected], gave us this promising message by e-mail: (Thanx, Vette90, for the news.)

At 07:25 6/18/98, Kulock wrote:
>At 11:42 AM 6/18/98 -0500, [email protected] wrote:
>>"A-kon-9 (that's an anime convention for those who don't know) is over and
>>done with, but it didn't go out without leaving its mark. ADV Films, that
>>big-name company that imports and sells Anime in North America with titles
>>like "The Bubblegum Crisis", "Devil Hunter Yohko", and "Neon Genesis
>>Evangelion", announced at A-kon-9 a bunch of new titles in the works,
>>including Tekken, Panzer Dragoon... Sonic the Hedgehog...
>
>Well, I know Panzer Dragoon is a japanese anime, and Gamefan didn't think
>too highly of it. I'd drop $20 to $30 to get a subtitled copy of the Sonic
>anime, sure, although they better not release it on TWO videos like they
>did in Japan. That, or I would LOVE a new Sonic anime (hopefully a followup
>to the one copied so often, but not likely). I assume this is the one we
>all know about..
>

Yes, since ADV doesn't make their own Animes, just imports and translates
them. *slap* Duh, Jaye...

The double-tape part, however, depends on ADV's mood at the time, I'm
guessing. They did it to Gunsmith Cats, sticking every thirty-minute part
onto a different tape because it was divided into chapters. But then again,
they put two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion on one tape, making each
tape 60 minutes long. But then AGAIN, even with the combination technique,
Evangelion is still a 13-tape series, so they probably did that solely to
cut it down. Only die-hard anime fans are gonna buy 26 tapes for $20 or
above each, no matter how good or controversial it may be.

The conclusion: ADV without a doubt WILL stick both parts of the Sonic
Anime on different tapes because there's only two of them and two tapes
makes more money than one. Let's just hope they do something later on like
Gunsmith Cats- Bulletproof!, where they jammed all the parts onto one
tape... but that won't happen until after all the parts are translated and
subtitled and dubbed to their satisfaction, so we have awhile to wait..."

So, if ADV knows what it's doing, and brings a English subtitled/and or dubbed version of the Sonic Anime, we shall be happy when we pop the tape (hopefully not plural) in our VCRs...
But it shall only be a matter of time: stay tuned to this page for more details on this later!

Flashback to Fall season, 1993:

It's fall in the U.S.: school's back in session, leaves are falling from the trees, and, for most networks, the start of the new season of cartoons.

With a bumper crop of cartoons that are lucky enough to go on to another season (i.e. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and all-new cartoons (i.e. ReBoot), there were two more cartoons that probably made us fans now, or reinforced that: Sonic the Hedgehog on ABC and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, in syndication.  The ABC cartoon (a.k.a. SatAM Sonic) ran on Saturday mornings, while AoStH ran on weekdays or on Saturdays and/or Sundays, depending on how your local network works its schedule.  We set our alarms to get up on Saturday morning (the SatAM Sonic came on kinda early) just to watch what Sonic & the Freedom Fighters are doing this week.  And we were laughing of how AoStH, although geared toward younger fans, was--well, funny!  We praised DiC for bringing those cartoons to TV.

Back to present:

After going through major disappointments with the SatAM Sonic (the cartoon suffering from ABC's "two seasons and you're out" rule, the famous cliffhanger in 1994 that was never answered on TV, and DiC pulling the show after seeing the ratings for Power Rangers on Fox network), flicking from every channel, from USA (a cable network notorious for showing cancelled DiC cartoons) to our local syndicated station, to getting bored from endless reruns of AoStH, and starting our own war against DiC, ABC, and Fox for destroying the great cartoon, we have heard the latest: There's a new Sonic cartoon coming to town--Sonic Underground--made by <dum-dum-dum!> DiC!

They gave us few details, but one that they DID give us is that Sonic Underground will be syndicated.  But the big question is: After a lot of networks bought AoStH to show, will they cough up more dollars out of the programming budget to get Sonic Underground?

Which is why we suggested different free networks, but this idea looked bleak: hardly anybody watches CBS cartoons, NBC doesn't even show cartoons, we still hate ABC for what it did with SatAM Sonic (and it still follows the "two seasons and you're out" rule even when they're now have been taken over by Disney), and we still hate Fox (although it does show some good cartoons).  Which leaves only one major free network: the WB (a.k.a. Kid's WB!).  However, with every cartoon belonging to Warner Bros., that didn't seem like such a good idea at the time.

There are other networks we could try: Disney (although they now own ABC, who we hate), Nickelodeon (it doesn't seem like they want a DiC cartoon in our lifetime, even after having showed the DiC cartoons Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff), USA (they DID show both of the Sonic cartoons, but only for about a 1 1/2 years), the Turner networks (Cartoon Network may seem like the best bet), or some other network.  Remind you though, that all of the above networks are usually on cable only, except for maybe some of
the Turner networks.

By looking at these, DiC looks like it's trying to go the easy way out by using syndication.  But is this going to be a long-running cartoon, or will it be axed halfway thru the season?

And the cartoon may end up on USA again: Some anime fans in the United States (me included) may remember Sailor Moon coming to the U.S.  It was syndicated, but ownership of the TV broadcasting of the show went to DiC eventually.  It was syndicated under DiC for about 2 months, before going to the cartoon wasteland, USA Network.  It was booted off USA Network back to local syndication (and now Cartoon Network) about the same time that Sonic did because of the recent Universal Studios tkeover of USA network.

Will history repeat itself like this with Sonic Underground?  All we can do is stay tuned...
 

1) Sorry, Knuckles fans; you won't see him in this cartoon.
2) Ditto for the Freedom Fighters.
3) Probably the biggest absence of all--No Tails!!
4) The only two known characters to us are Sonic and Dr. (ahem-SHERIFF) Robotnik.
5) Sonic will have a brother & sister--Manic and Sonia, respectively.
6) Sonic and his siblings will be forming their own music band, and will be hiding out from Sheriff Robotnik.

Not many are pleased with this setup, mostly because of the absence of Tails.  I agree, it's just not the same without Sonic's sidekick.  More details soon, keep an eye on the Sonic HotNewsTicker for this...