Another Beta Dreamcast pad

I was looking through the Japanese 2000 edition of the Guiness Book of World Records today in work (I was bored) when I noticed that the Dreamcast was in there as being the fastest selling console to date. The picture that went with the passage was the one posted below. I've seen orange pads like this but never a red one. Notice the lack of Dreamcast logo too. Could this have been a Katana pad originally. The VMU also has no markings or top but that could be because Mr. Smilie lost it



Yakumo

 

Nice find.
Thestart button is also a circle rather then the normal triangle.

 

Wonder what the chances of it being this one are.

 

Stolar looks like a heroin addict in that picture, lol.

 

It could well be. They probably only made the one The thing is, why is he holding it in a Japanese book about the Japanese launch ?

Yakumo

 

they probably only could get him for the shoot... Japanese are very busy so give it to the white dude he hasn't done anything lately.

 

No picture :-(

 

Isnt this guy from sega from somewhere or another... ive seem him before cant remember where thought...

 

There was a biography on Sega on TechTV, inwhich that guy was fired by Sega for a bad marketing move(I think).

 

:smt043 :smt043

 

His name is Bernard (Bernie) Stolar, and I believe he was President of Sega of America for awhile, just as the Saturn was starting to get phased out and the Dreamcast was coming in.

He's the one who made the relatively well-known "The Saturn is not our future. There will be another platform!" remark in EGM, back when people thought the ailing Saturn might be Sega's last home system.

I think he actually came to Sega from Sony, and then, if I'm not terribly mistaken, either went back there or went to Microsoft. I don't recall whether he was actually fired from SOA or if he just left, but I'm sure someone here knows.

 

He is an idiot.

He worked for Atari, in charge of the Lynx team. And look what happened to that!! Then he went to SCEA, Executive Vice President. They fired him, he went to Sega, who ended up promoting him! He then decided to kill off the Saturn in 1997, announcing it would be dead the next year... even though Dreamcast wasn't ready. Oh, and look at the Lynx and Saturn, and the string of high quality advertising... oh wait, there hardly was any!! Because of their financial situation, he ordered all TV advertising to be cancelled (I believe late '96).

If you wanna read more on him, try here.

 

I wish that pad were the real one. That circle button looks cool.

 

Many are quick to place the blame on Stolar for all that went wrong, but keep in mind that corporations work with many levels of management and employees, not to mention direction from Japan. People also don't seem to realize that Stolar came on board when Sega was already in its state of decline with consistent unprofitable quarters, too many hardware platforms, lack of resources, and whatnot. It's easy to knock the guy for cancelling all "high quality advertising" but remember that this costs big $$$ and when a company is dying the funds can be put to better use such as, oh, paying employee salaries, funding R&D, and basically keeping the company afloat.

 

I remember that pic from the guiness book of records, but the beta controller ive seen in many magazines, it seems sega switched it to a triangle at the last minute. I can still remember the days when the dreamcast still seemed alive, ah the memories.

 

Yeah, lately I've been buying and reading back issues of the various JPN DC magazines and it's amazing how much more "alive" the console was in it's home country. They had weekly mags, contests and events seemingly all the time, and just plenty of love for the system. Those were truly memorable days!

 

True, though sales in japan was one of the major factors in its death, yet their is still a shooter released here or there, the system was really sega at its best. In fact I rember reading in an interview that Shigeru Miyamoto had one himself, amazing.

 

Is it just me or does the thumbstick also look a bit bigger in that picture?

 

Didn't Stolar come up w/ the "5-star games only" plan, by which he effectively blocked a shitload of good Saturn games from coming to the states?

 

I just looked at my DC controller and the proto one does look bigger.