In need for information about Sega Development teams As I am planning on writing a massive Sega development team feature, I am currently looking for information about just about any development team Sega ever had (1st/2nd party)/ever worked together with as a close partner (like Red Entertainment). This is the information I still need for the moment: - The foundation year of the AM4, AM5, AM6, AM8 (1991?), Sega Digital Media (1994?) and Team Andromeda (1994?) teams. It would be very nice if anyone would have the logo's of the old AM teams (+ Team Andromeda), at least if there were logo's in the first place back then. - Every extra information on every Japanese Sega development team would be much appreciated, I am talking mainly about the AM teams here since starting from the year 2000 I've got about all the information I need about the internal teams. Also, there are a certain number of Japanse developers that worked closly with Sega in the past, such as Red Entertainment (didn't it almost belong to Sega at a certain point?). - As for Sega's American teams, can anyone explain/document the complete history of the following teams? STi Sega Interactive Development Division Sega Midwest Development Division (in Chicago?) Sega Interactive Development Division SegaSoft Visual Concepts Sonic Team USA Sega Mobile ... (please add/correct! ) Many, many thanks in advance! ps: My article will be written in Dutch first, but I hope to have an English translation ready shortly after that to share.
Here's one for you I'm interested in contacting. CRI Middleware, for the audio stuff used in most games for the Dreamcast.
If you could, it would be great (assuming you are saying you want to contact them that is ) Maybe you could ask about CSK Research Institute/CRI as well (they made the Aero Dancing titles)? On their website there isn't much on corporate history.
In late 1993, Sega of Japan founded three CS teams dedicated to producing launch titles for the Saturn. Each named after heavenly bodies, they were known as Andromeda (Panzer Dragoon), Aquila (Clockwork Knight) and Ara (Victory Goal). I believe that SegaSoft and STi were very closely linked, possibly even working from the same address at one point. I always thought of CRI as being rather new to Sega's many divisions, having first seen their logo at the beginning of many Dreamcast titles. However, their ADX format was used for some later 32-bit games, and I've since learned that CRI programmed the Saturn conversions of Virtual On and Sega Touring Car, so they've existed from at least 1996. Also, wasn't Visual Concepts originally known as Grey Matter? This name was used for the original NBA Action on the Saturn in 1995, though by the '98 edition credits featured Visual Concepts only, so I'm presuming that either both updates were made by separate teams or the developer changed its name within this three-year margin. Personally, I think the latter option seems the most likely as the two games do look rather similar. Then again, if a new company was using the original engine then the former option could be a possibility as well. P.S. As far as I know, the only Team Andromeda logo can be found in the opening sequences for their games. Look carefully on the sides of certain books during the video cutscenes in Clockwork Knight 2 and you'll also find Ara and Aquila mentioned, though I don't think either of these teams had a proper logo - or at least ones that were used, that is.
Visual Concepts only became a Sega subsidiary in 1999, it remained Visual Concepts from 1988 untill the Take Two buy-out. Thanks for the info.
CRI have been with Sega since the Meag Drive days. They did from memory the Mega Drive version of Galaxy Force II and the Mega CD After Burner III. Both of which are crap. They also did a few other 16bit Sega games and many on the Saturn which were mostly Sega's own games conveted to Saturn. CRI's MPEG Softdec is also used in quite a fair few Saturn games as well as their ADX sound format. CRI are also know as or part of CSK. Yakumo
How could I forget about CRI being responsible for the MegaDrive conversion of Galaxy Force II? I've never seen any Saturn games that used the MPEG Softdec, but since ADX was only available later on in the console's life I have a feeling that it was probably limited to a few import-only titles. Finally, isn't the full name of CRI actually CSK Research Institute?
I've seen that CRI MPEG Softdec stuff on some PS2 games as well, like Devil May Cry 2. What the hell is it about? I thought the PS2 had hardware MPEG2 decoding.. or am i imagining things again?
Here's some stuff on the CRI for the Dreamcast: http://www.segatech.com/technical/critools/index.html
Did Working Designs have anything to do with Sega? Also, does anyone remember the 'Tiger Teams' Sega of America assembled to develop for Saturn? Was Traveller's Tales (Sonic 3D, Sonic R...) a Tiger Team?
The PS2 indeed has hardware MPEG2 decoding. Perhaps using MPEG2 in a game requires a license fee to be paid? I'm not sure. But there's another thing, closer to home: [quote="Street Fighter Zero 3 Saturn boxset] IMA ADPCM Algorithm Copyright 1992 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands All Rights Reserved [/quote] Supposedly, this also appeared on later Sega games by Capcom, on Dreamcast.
I'm not really sure if Working Designs ever made their own Saturn games, but the company was contracted to SOA for a series of RPG translations. However, there was a fallout with Bernie Stolar and further titles were cancelled. There's probably someone here able to explain this whole episode in more detail than I ever could... As for the "Tiger" teams, weren't these the US equivalent of the three CS groups founded in Japan with the specific purpose of creating Saturn launch titles? I know that Sega Away Team and RealTime Associates worked together on BUG!, while Grey Matter handled at least one sports title (NBA Action). Another of these so-called units was probably responsible for NHL All Star Hockey and World Series Baseball as well, though Cyber Speedway - another "first generation" release - was only translated into English by SOA. In fact, this particular game was originally developed by Nextech, and owners of the Japanese version will probably know it better by its more sinister title of Gran Chaser. Does anyone know if Mansion Of Hidden Souls or Digital Pinball were results of the Tiger teams? Surely there must have been more than one known game to have come from the creation of these departments? In response to the possibility of Travellers' Tales being a Tiger team, this is highly unlikely since the group was only given its first Saturn project - upgrading Sonic 3D for the 32-bit console - once it was established that STi would probably not be able to complete (or even finish at all) Sonic X-Treme in time for the Christmas '96 wave of releases. As mentioned before in another thread, even this simple task faced many problems, with Sonic Team's bonus stage designs edging out those of ex-STi programmer Peter Morawiec. Pleased with how the updated Sonic 3D turned out, Yuji Naka personally asked Travellers' Tales to develop a new racing concept under the "Project Sonic" banner. For anyone unfamiliar with Project Sonic, this was the name of a three-part campaign by Sonic Team to prepare a new generation of players for the proper 3D debut of Sega's mascot (naturally, this idea was only created after X-Treme's collapse). Part one was to be a compilation of classic 16-bit titles, including a sampler of things to come - this, of course, was Sonic Jam. Next was the racing game (Sonic R) and finally there was to be a more realised version of the "Sonic World" section of Jam, which ultimately ended up being carried over to the Dreamcast and turned into Adventure. Many still believe that Sonic World's original working title was Sonic X-Treme, though I personally think this is just the result of confusion regarding the many different phases of STi's ill-fated project, which at one point was linked to Sonic Team through its use of the NiGHTS engine.
