Hi, To introduce myself quickly: I'm a person who's about to write an article on a site about the obscure 1998 Sega game, "Spikeout: Digital Battle Online", a Sega Model 3 3D beat em' up. It eventually became a part of a few series of Spikeout games that never really saw a console release until the 2005 Xbox game "Spikeout: Battle Street" (which is basically a semi-port of the 1999 upgrade to the first game, Final Edition). As an avid fan of the game, while doing some research on the game's development, I came across some info regarding a cancelled Dreamcast port. It was from two articles regarding the Spikeout series' creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi: http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/sega_av_interview_july04.asp http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/news/200401/021.asp I began to look for any information regarding the Dreamcast port on other gaming news sites to no avail -- all I found regarding the port on any news site at all was this, but that was for Battle Street! However, I noticed this while searching for info on DC Spikeout, from the hobby gaming forum DCEmulation: http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=80263&sid=a25a9b52e66c16714abd86657556d461#p80263 I spoke to someone on DCEmulation's chatroom and found out that the user who wrote this, The Kron, was an old admin of the site from 15 years ago who "had media connections and prototype/review builds of games", but has since vanished from any online activity. With that said, I attempted to look into finding any articles of the tech demo/prototype of DC Spikeout that was supposedly shown at TGS '99 (both Spring and Autumn) -- even going so far as to look into scans of a certain Japan-only game magazine to find info, but to no avail. (I'm presuming that it was a "behind-closed-doors" gaming insiders-only thing, but it's odd that people were this hush-hush about it...) However, what's interesting is that I did find some online Japanese info regarding DC Spikeout: There was this short article (ctrl+f "DC版『スパイクアウト』移植検討中") dating October 10th, 1999 -- but all it was, from what I gathered, was Nagoshi saying "maybe we will, maybe we won't". This is a bit more "substantial": Rent-A-Hero No. 1, the Dreamcast remake/semi-sequel of the Japan-only Mega Drive/Genesis game "Rent-A-Hero", utilized a somewhat heavily-modified version of the Spikeout engine for the whole thing, as noted by this Dreamcast Magazine Japan article, and explicitly, flat-out admitted in an interview with the devs of RAH No.1. Now here's where things get interesting: Supposedly, the Spikeout engine used was not of the original Model 3 game -- which would've then been ported (and modified) for the DC -- but of the rumored Dreamcast port of Spikeout itself. At least, according to this article in some Japanese hobby gaming wiki -- apparently, if this is at all true, the RAH No. 1 devs had difficulties utilizing the DC Spikeout engine for their needs (which would lend credibility to Nagoshi's later statements of the DC not being powerful enough for a Spikeout port). Now, while I understand that the words of the creator hold weight in being proper sources, and that there probably isn't any good reason to go on this wild goose chase for "credible information" because of that, I just... really wanna find some off-hand info on this, y'know? Like I wanna see some screenshots of the DC Spikeout prototype/tech demo, if there are any of course! Which is why I come to you all now. Do you know of any game magazine issues, articles or whatever during the late-90s and early-2000s that talked of a Dreamcast port of Spikeout at all? I know that Yakumo, one of the mods on the forum, hinted on it's existence as well... - U10
Well, even if you aren't able to remember the specific issue (or even year) it was featured, was it this magazine or this one?
I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get in touch with the @Kron overhere good luck with the progress of your research, everything Dreamcast always gets my attention
The Official one. I had all the issues, even the Preview issue tape. All demos went to Mazonemayu, unfortunately, I dropped the magazines off at the corner for paper collectors. Was before I guessed any UK buyers would pay for shipping... SO there's no way for me to check back.
