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109-655: Elements from Dark Legacy were integrated into the Dreamcast port of Gauntlet Legends . A direct port to the PlayStation 2 was released in 2001, followed by versions for the Game Boy Advance , GameCube , and Xbox released in 2002. A Game Boy Color port was considered but never released by Midway. Gauntlet Dark Legacy , as an expansion to Gauntlet Legends , plays similarly, but with new levels, items, characters, and combat capabilities. The player has

218-543: A $ 60 to 80 million 24-hour period. What has ever sold $ 60 to 80 million in the first 24 hours? —Peter Moore, speaking to Electronic Gaming Monthly about the upcoming launch of the Dreamcast. Working closely with Midway Games (which developed four North American launch games for the system) and taking advantage of the ten months following the Dreamcast's release in Japan, Sega of America worked to ensure

327-514: A Motorola PowerPC 603e central processing unit (CPU), but Sega management later asked them to also use the SH-4 chip. Both processors have been described as " off-the-shelf " components. According to Charles Bellfield, the former Sega of America vice president of communications and former NEC brand manager, presentations of games using the NEC solution showcased the performance and low cost delivered by

436-511: A Pentium II 200 in mind would run on the console. According to Damien McFerran, "the motherboard was a masterpiece of clean, uncluttered design and compatibility". The Chinese economist and future Sega.com CEO Brad Huang convinced the Sega chairman, Isao Okawa , to include a modem with every Dreamcast under opposition from Okawa's staff over the additional US$ 15 cost per unit. To account for rapid changes in home data delivery, Sega designed

545-532: A branding agency called Interbrand created the logo for the console, with Kenji Eno volunteering to name the console. Eno was paid for his involvement and signed a NDA to prevent his involvement from going public. The Dreamcast's startup sound was composed by the Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto . Because the Saturn had tarnished its reputation, Sega planned to remove its name from the console and establish

654-855: A 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU core, can generate 64 voices with PCM or ADPCM , providing ten times the performance of the Saturn's sound system. The Dreamcast has 16 MB main RAM, along with an additional 8 MB of RAM for graphic textures and 2 MB of RAM for sound. It reads media using a 12× speed Yamaha GD-ROM drive. In addition to Windows CE, the Dreamcast supports several Sega and middleware application programming interfaces . The Dreamcast can supply video through several accessories including A/V cables , RF modulator connectors S-Video cables and SCART . A VGA adapter allows Dreamcast to connect on computer displays or enhanced-definition television sets in 480p . Sega constructed numerous Dreamcast models, most of which were exclusive to Japan. The R7,

763-609: A PS2, while the PSone , a remodeled version of the original PlayStation, became the bestselling console in the US at the start of the 2000 holiday season. According to Moore, "The PlayStation 2 effect that we were relying upon did not work for us... People will hang on for as long as possible... What effectively happened is the PlayStation 2 lack of availability froze the marketplace." Eventually, Sony and Nintendo held 50 and 35 percent of

872-554: A change in leadership, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast on March 31, 2001, withdrew from the console business, and restructured itself as a third-party developer . More than 10 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide and over 600 games were produced. Its bestselling game, Sonic Adventure (1998)—the first 3D game in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series—sold 2.5 million copies. The Dreamcast's commercial failure has been attributed to several factors, including competition from

981-579: A competent hardware company". Gordon also said that Sega could not afford to give them the "kind of license that EA has had over the last five years". According to Stolar, president of EA at the time, Larry Probst, wanted exclusive rights as the only sports brand on Dreamcast, which Stolar could not accept due to Sega's recent US$ 10 million purchase of the sports game developer Visual Concepts . While EA's Madden NFL series had established brand power, Stolar regarded Visual Concepts' NFL 2K as superior and would provide "a breakthrough experience" to launch

1090-476: A competition organized by GamePro . Okawa, who had previously loaned Sega $ 500 million in 1999, died on March 16, 2001; shortly before his death, he forgave Sega's debts to him and returned his $ 695 million worth of Sega and CSK stock, helping Sega survive the transition to third-party development. As part of this restructuring, nearly one third of Sega's Tokyo workforce was laid off in 2001. More than 10 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide. Despite

1199-518: A designated path, destroying enemies before they can kill the player. Like in Gauntlet and Gauntlet II , enemies spawn from generators. Only when the generator is destroyed will the enemies stop spawning. Some generators will take multiple hits to destroy; as the generator is weakened, it will spawn less powerful enemies, until it is destroyed completely. There are some levels that have a maze-like aspect and are harder to navigate. Generally, levels have

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1308-408: A different approach with the Dreamcast. Like previous Sega consoles, the Dreamcast was designed around intelligent subsystems working in parallel, but the selections of hardware were closer to personal computers than video game consoles, reducing cost. It also enabled software development to begin before any development kits had been completed, as Sega informed developers that any game developed with

1417-416: A fan of the attitude previously associated with Sega's brand, worked with Foote, Cone & Belding and Access Communications to develop the "It's Thinking" campaign of 15-second television commercials, which emphasized the Dreamcast's hardware power. According to Moore: "We needed to create something that would really intrigue consumers, somewhat apologize for the past, but invoke [ sic ] all

1526-455: A few editorial sections like "The Way Games Ought To Be" (originally written every month by game designer Chris Crawford ) that would attempt to provide constructive criticism on standard practices in the video game industry . The magazine's construction and design was decidedly simple and clean, its back cover having no advertising on it initially, a departure from most other gaming magazines. The first several years of Next Generation had

1635-535: A filled-out reply paid card included with the console. The poor launch, combined with a lack of advertising and a high price point, produced lackluster sales in Australia; two large retail chains reported a combined total of 13 console sales over the first few days after launch. Though the Dreamcast launch was successful, Sony held 60 percent of the overall video game market share in North America with

1744-520: A lot of force (and draining half of the turbo gauge of the player that initiated the combination turbo). The player can gather items from within levels or purchase them in the shop. Items are activated upon pickup on the arcade and Playstation 2 versions, however, on the GameCube and Xbox versions, item pickups can be disabled using the item menu. Items provide benefits and disappear within a set time or set number of uses. Dark Legacy has more items than

1853-478: A microphone, enabling voice control and player communication. Various third-party cards provide storage, and some contain the LCD screen addition. Iomega announced a Dreamcast-compatible zip drive storing up to 100 MB on removable discs, but it was never released. Next Generation (magazine) Next Generation was a US video game magazine that was published by Imagine Media (now Future US ). It

1962-408: A more successful US launch with a minimum of 15 launch games. With lingering bitterness over the Saturn's early release, Stolar repaired relations with major US retailers, with whom Sega presold 300,000 Dreamcast units. In addition, a pre-launch promotion enabled consumers to rent Dreamcasts from Hollywood Video starting on July 14. Sega of America's senior vice president of marketing Peter Moore ,

2071-598: A new advertising campaign to promote SegaNet, including advertising on the MTV Video Music Awards that day, which Sega sponsored for the second consecutive year. Sega employed aggressive pricing strategies around online gaming; in Japan, every Dreamcast sold included a free year of internet access, which Okawa personally paid for. Prior to the launch of SegaNet, Sega had already offered a $ 200 rebate to any Dreamcast owner who purchased two years of internet access from Sega.com. To increase SegaNet's appeal in

2180-542: A new console. In 1997, he enlisted IBM 's Tatsuo Yamamoto to lead an eleven-person team to work on a secret project in the United States with the codename Blackbelt. Accounts vary on how an internal team led by Hideki Sato also began development on Dreamcast hardware; one account specifies that Sega tasked both teams, and another suggests that Sato was bothered by Irimajiri's choice to begin development externally and had his team start work. Sato and his group chose

2289-448: A new gaming brand similar to Sony's PlayStation , but Irimajiri's management team decided to retain it. Sega spent US$ 50–80 million on hardware development, $ 150–200 million on software development, and US$ 300 million on worldwide promotion—a sum which Irimajiri, a former Honda executive, humorously likened to the investments required to design new automobiles. Despite a 75 percent drop in half-year profits just before

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2398-563: A number of game developers. The Dreamcast was finally revealed on May 21, 1998 in Tokyo. Sega held a public competition to name its new system and considered over 5,000 different entries before choosing "Dreamcast"—a portmanteau of "dream" and "broadcast". According to Katsutoshi Eguchi, Japanese game developer Kenji Eno submitted the name and created the Dreamcast's spiral logo, but this has not been officially confirmed by Sega. Former Sega executive Kunihisa Ueno confirmed in his biography that

2507-562: A one-channel PWM sound source, non-volatile memory , a D-pad and four buttons. The VMU can present game information, be used as a minimal handheld gaming device, and connect to certain Sega arcade machines. For example, players use the VMU to call plays in NFL 2K or raise virtual pets in Sonic Adventure . Sega officials noted that the VMU could be used "as a private viewing area,

2616-427: A perfect position to start a new life as a developer/publisher." Former Working Designs president Victor Ireland wrote, "It's actually a good thing ... because now Sega will survive, doing what they do best: software." The staff of Newsweek wrote that "from Sonic to Shenmue , Sega's programmers have produced some of the most engaging experiences in the history of interactive media ... Unshackled by

2725-465: A price reduction to $ 99 to eliminate its unsold inventory, which was estimated at 930,000 units as of April 2001. After a further reduction to $ 79, the Dreamcast was cleared out of stores at $ 49.95 . The final Dreamcast unit manufactured was autographed by the heads of all nine of Sega's internal game development studios, plus the heads of Visual Concepts and Sega's sound studio Wave Master, and given away with all 55 first-party Dreamcast games through

2834-491: A problem. Losses on the Saturn contributed to financial problems for Sega, whose revenue had declined between 1992 and 1995 as part of an industry-wide slowdown. Sega announced that Shoichiro Irimajiri would replace Tom Kalinske as chairman and CEO of Sega of America, while Bernie Stolar , a former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, became Sega of America's executive vice president in charge of product development and third-party relations. After

2943-493: A refurbished Dreamcast, was originally used as a network console in Japanese pachinko parlors. Another model, the Divers 2000 CX-1, is shaped similarly to Sonic's head and includes a television and software for teleconferencing. A Hello Kitty version, limited to 2000 units, was targeted at female gamers in Japan. Special editions were created for Seaman and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica . Color variations were sold through

3052-608: A struggling console platform, this platoon of world-class software developers can do what they do best for any machine on the market." Game Informer , commenting on Sega's tendency to produce under-appreciated cult classics , wrote: "Let us rejoice in the fact that Sega is making games equally among the current console crop, so that history will not repeat itself." The Dreamcast measures 190 mm × 195.8 mm × 75.5 mm (7.48 in × 7.71 in × 2.97 in) and weighs 1.5 kg (3.3 lb). Its main CPU

3161-445: A turbo gauge that refills slowly and automatically. This turbo gauge allows the player to use turbo attacks, which do damage in a wide area or over a long distance, and can pierce through multiple enemies and walls. When the turbo gauge is empty, no turbo attacks can be used until it filled up again. Dark Legacy adds the ability for two players standing adjacent to each other to perform a combination turbo attack together, usually packing

3270-495: A year. The brand was resurrected in 2005 by Future Publishing USA as an industry-led website, Next-Gen.biz. It carried much the same articles and editorial as the print magazine, and reprinted many articles from Edge , the UK-based sister magazine to Next-Gen. In July 2008, Next-Gen.biz was rebranded as Edge-Online.com. Next Generation ' s content did not focus on screenshots , walkthroughs , and cheat codes . Instead

3379-460: Is a two-way 360 MIPS superscalar Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC , clocked at 200 MHz with an 8 kB instruction cache and 16 kB data cache and a 128-bit graphics-oriented floating-point unit delivering 1.4 GFLOPS . Its 100 MHz NEC PowerVR2 rendering engine, integrated with the ASIC , can draw more than 3 million polygons per second and use deferred shading . Sega estimated

Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-499: Is based on the Saturn 3D controller and includes an analog stick, a D-pad , four action buttons, start button and two analog triggers. It received mostly negative reviews from critics; Edge described it as "an ugly evolution of Saturn's 3D controller", and was called "[not] that great" by 1Up.com ' s Sam Kennedy and "lame" by Game Informer ' s Andy McNamara. IGN wrote that "unlike most controllers, Sega's pad forces

3597-400: Is divided up into worlds, each containing a number of levels, all accessible from Sumner's tower. The player's first objective is to beat all the levels, vanquishing the bosses of the eight originally available worlds. The player must collect crystals scattered about the levels to deactivate Sumner's protective shielding and gain access to new worlds and more levels. Upon defeating the bosses,

3706-492: Is leaving hardware. We were selling 50,000 units a day, then 60,000, then 100,000, but it was just not going to be enough to get the critical mass to take on the launch of PS2. It was a big stakes game. Sega had the option of pouring in more money and going bankrupt and they decided they wanted to live to fight another day. —Peter Moore, on the Dreamcast's discontinuation On May 22, 2000, Okawa replaced Irimajiri as president of Sega. Okawa had long advocated that Sega abandon

3815-429: Is modular for future upgrades. In Brazil, due to the high price of the console, the modem was sold separately. The original Japanese model and all PAL models have a transfer rate of 33.6 kbit/s, and consoles sold in the US and in Japan after September 9, 1999, feature a 56 kbit/s dial-up modem. Broadband service was enabled through the later release of a broadband accessory in 2000 in Japan, and early 2001 in

3924-445: Is revealed in the tower. This portal takes the player to Garm's Citadel, where the final battle of the game takes place. Daniel Erickson reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation , rating it three stars out of five: "It's not brain surgery, but it's good multi-player fun, and that's rare enough these days". Gauntlet Dark Legacy was met with good to mediocre reviews. Gerald Villoria of GameSpot stated of

4033-517: The GameCube , would meet or exceed anything on the market, and Microsoft began development of its own console, the Xbox . US Dreamcast sales—which exceeded 1.5 million by the end of 1999 —began to decline as early as January 2000. Poor Japanese sales contributed to Sega's ¥42.88 billion ($ 404 million) consolidated net loss in the fiscal year ending March 2000, which followed a loss of ¥42.881 billion

4142-534: The Hitachi SH-4 processor architecture and the VideoLogic PowerVR2 graphics processor, manufactured by NEC , in the production of the mainboard . Initially known as Whitebelt, the project was later codenamed Dural, after the metallic female fighter from Sega's Virtua Fighter series. Yamamoto's group opted to use 3dfx Voodoo 2 and Voodoo Banshee graphics processors alongside

4251-543: The Tokyo Stock Exchange , reporting a consolidated net loss of ¥ 35.6 billion ( US$ 269.8 million ). Shortly before announcing its financial losses, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Saturn in North America to prepare for the launch of its successor. This effectively left the Western market without Sega games for more than a year. Rumors about the upcoming Dreamcast—spread mainly by Sega—leaked to

4360-546: The Wii Remote . The Japanese Dreamcast port of Sega's Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram supported a "Twin Sticks" peripheral, but its American publisher, Activision , opted not to release it in the US. The Dreamcast can connect to SNK 's Neo Geo Pocket Color , predating Nintendo's GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable . In most regions, the Dreamcast includes a removable modem for online connectivity, which

4469-456: The 1996 launch of the Nintendo 64 , sales of the Saturn and its software fell sharply. As of August 1997, Sony controlled 47 percent of the console market, Nintendo controlled 40 percent, and Sega controlled only 12 percent; neither price cuts nor high-profile games helped the Saturn. I thought the Saturn was a mistake as far as hardware was concerned. The games were obviously terrific, but

Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-467: The Dreamcast Direct service in Japan. Toyota also offered special Dreamcast units at 160 of its dealers in Japan. In North America, a limited edition black Dreamcast was released with a Sega Sports logo on the lid, which included matching Sega Sports-branded black controllers and two games. The Dreamcast has four ports for controller inputs, and was sold with one controller. The controller

4687-517: The Dreamcast after the arrival of competition from other manufacturers. There were reports of disappointed Japanese consumers returning their Dreamcasts and using the refund to purchase additional PlayStation software. Seaman , released in July 1999, became the Dreamcast's first major hit in Japan. Prior to the Western launch, Sega reduced the price of the Dreamcast to ¥19,900 , effectively making it unprofitable but increasing sales. The reduction and

4796-506: The Dreamcast in Europe on October 14, 1999, at a price of £200. By November 24, 400,000 consoles had been sold in Europe. By Christmas of 1999, Sega of Europe had sold 500,000 units, six months ahead of schedule. The price was dropped to £149.99 from September 8, 2000, with sales at around 800,000 in Europe at this point. Announcing the drop, Jean-François Cecillon, CEO of Sega Europe, commented: "There are 'X' amount of core gamers in Europe;

4905-479: The Dreamcast launched in Japan at a price of ¥ 29,000 , and the stock sold out by the end of the day. However, of the four games available at launch, only one—a port of Virtua Fighter 3 , the most successful arcade game Sega ever released in Japan—sold well. Sega estimated that an additional 200,000–300,000 Dreamcast units could have been sold with sufficient supply. Sega had announced that Sonic Adventure ,

5014-535: The Dreamcast's internet gaming service, at a subscription price of $ 21.95 per month. Although Sega had previously released only one Dreamcast game in the US that featured online multiplayer, ChuChu Rocket! , the launch of SegaNet combined with the release of NFL 2K1 , with a robust online component, was intended to increase demand for the Dreamcast in the US market. The service later supported games including Bomberman Online , Quake III Arena , and Unreal Tournament . The September 7 launch coincided with

5123-424: The Dreamcast's high demand in other markets had reduced the number of peripherals allotted to the region. Further complicating matters was the lack of an internet disc due to localization problems, and delays in securing an ISP contract, which was done through Telstra the day before launch. The online component was not ready until March 2000, at which point Ozisoft sent the necessary software to users who had sent in

5232-603: The Dreamcast's theoretical rendering capability at 7 million raw polygons per second, or 6 million with textures and lighting, but noted that "game logic and physics reduce peak graphic performance". Graphical hardware effects include trilinear filtering , gouraud shading , z-buffering , spatial anti-aliasing , per-pixel translucency sorting and bump mapping . The Dreamcast can output approximately 16.77 million colors simultaneously and displays interlaced or progressive scan video at 640 × 480 video resolution . Its 67 MHz Yamaha AICA sound processor, with

5341-512: The Dreamcast, and discussed with Motorola the development of an internet-enabled cell phone that would use technology from the console to enable quick downloads of games and other data. In contrast to the Sega CD and Sega Saturn, which included internal backup memory, the Dreamcast uses a 128 kbyte memory card , the VMU , for data storage. The VMU features a small LCD screen, audio output from

5450-573: The Dreamcast. The PS2 would also use the DVD-ROM format, which could hold substantially more data than the Dreamcast's GD-ROM, and would be backwards-compatible with hundreds of popular PlayStation games. Sony's specifications appeared to render the Dreamcast obsolete months before its US launch, although reports later emerged that the PS2 was not as powerful as expected and difficult to develop on. The same year, Nintendo announced that its next console,

5559-519: The Dreamcast. While the Dreamcast would have none of EA's popular sports games, "Sega Sports" games developed mainly by Visual Concepts helped to fill that void. Let's take the conservative estimate of 250,000 Dreamcast units at presage—that's a quarter of a million units at $ 200 . We'll have a ratio of 1.5 or two games for every Dreamcast unit sold. That's half a million units of software. We think we'll be .5 to one on VMUs and peripheral items such as extra controllers and what have you. This could be

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5668-484: The Japanese launch, Sega was confident about the Dreamcast. It drew significant interest and many pre-orders. However, Sega could not achieve its shipping goals for the Japanese Dreamcast launch due to a shortage of PowerVR chipsets caused by a high failure rate in the manufacturing process. As more than half of its limited stock had been pre-ordered, Sega stopped pre-orders in Japan. On November 27, 1998,

5777-465: The North American video game market share. Significant launch games included Sonic Adventure , the arcade fighting game Soulcalibur , and Visual Concepts ' football simulation NFL 2K . On November 4, Sega announced it had sold over one million Dreamcast units. The launch was marred by a glitch at one of Sega's manufacturing plants, which produced defective GD-ROMs. Sega released

5886-538: The PAL version). Game Chronicles in contrast favored the Xbox version: "This is my third time playing this game, and the Xbox has easily been the most enjoyable of all three experiences. The power of the Xbox is fully exploited to deliver great graphics, and all those cool innovations that the GameCube version got a few months ago are included making this the ultimate Gauntlet experience". The Game Boy Advance version's reception

5995-535: The PS2 version and released a year later, received less favorable score averages of 61.43% and 52.65% (GameRankings) and 60 and 54 out of 100 (Metacritic) on the same two sites. Even though these versions added new features to the game, such as the ability to save power-ups for later use, their number of glitches was reportedly greater. The GameCube version is especially notable in this aspect, as it suffered major slowdown in large or highly detailed areas, and did not show life bars for golems, gargoyles, and bosses (except in

6104-544: The PlayStation 2, limited third-party support, and the earlier failures of the 32X and Saturn having tarnished Sega's reputation. In retrospect, reviewers have celebrated the Dreamcast as one of the greatest consoles. It is considered ahead of its time for pioneering concepts such as online play and downloadable content . Many Dreamcast games are regarded as innovative, including Sonic Adventure , Crazy Taxi (1999), Shenmue (1999), Jet Set Radio (2000), and Phantasy Star Online (2000). The Dreamcast remains popular in

6213-424: The PlayStation at the end of 1999. On March 2, 1999, Sony revealed the first details of the PlayStation 2 (PS2), which Ken Kutaragi said would allow video games to convey unprecedented emotions. Sony estimated the PS2 could render 7.5 million to 16 million polygons per second, whereas independent estimates ranged from 3 million to 20 million, compared to Sega's estimates of more than 3 million to 6 million for

6322-467: The SH-4 and PowerVR architecture. He said that Sega's relationship with NEC, a Japanese company, likely also influenced the decision to use its hardware rather than the architecture developed in America. Stolar felt the US 3dfx version should have been used, but that "Japan wanted the Japanese version, and Japan won". As a result, 3dfx filed a lawsuit against Sega and NEC claiming breach of contract, which

6431-521: The SH-4 was chosen while still in development, following lengthy deliberation, as the only processor that "could adapt to deliver the 3D geometry calculation performance necessary". By February 1998, Sega had renamed the project Katana, after the Japanese sword , although certain hardware specifications such as random access memory (RAM) were not finalized. Knowing the Saturn had been set back by its high production costs and complex hardware, Sega took

6540-401: The US video game market, while Sega held only 15 percent. According to Bellfield, Dreamcast software sold at an 8-to-1 ratio with the hardware, but the small install base meant this did not produce enough revenue to keep it viable. During the course of 2000, the PlayStation had sold five times more than Dreamcast despite being five year old hardware. We had a tremendous 18 months. Dreamcast

6649-406: The US, but some third party light guns were available. The Dreamcast supports a Sega fishing "reel and rod" motion controller and a keyboard for text entry. Although it was designed for fishing games such as Sega Bass Fishing , Soulcalibur is playable with the fishing controller, which translates vertical and horizontal movements into on-screen swordplay; IGN cited it as a predecessor to

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6758-606: The US, Sega dropped the price of the Dreamcast to $ 149 (compared to the PS2's US launch price of $ 299 ) and offered a rebate for the full $ 149 price of a Dreamcast, and a free Dreamcast keyboard, with every 18-month SegaNet subscription. Moore said that the Dreamcast would need to sell 5 million units in the US by the end of 2000 to remain a viable platform; Sega fell short of this goal, with some 3 million units sold. Moreover, Sega's attempts to spur increased Dreamcast sales through lower prices and cash rebates caused escalating financial losses. Instead of an expected profit, for

6867-465: The US. Sega also produced the Dreameye, a digital camera that could be connected to the Dreamcast and used to exchange pictures and participate in video chat over the internet. Sega hoped developers would use the Dreameye for future software, as some later did with Sony's similar EyeToy peripheral. In addition, Sega investigated systems that would have allowed users to make telephone calls with

6976-475: The Underworld. The player must then collect 12 Runestones from the previous 8 worlds. Once that is accomplished, their power reveals another special portal in the tower, leading the player into the 10th world, the Underworld. There, after beating a single level, the player is automatically transported to the battle with True Skorne. The player defeats True Skorne, banishing him from the eight realms forever. But

7085-457: The Xbox and GameCube versions that "the game's extremely dated appearance and poor performance keep it from competing with other popular four-player games" at the time. Of all the console versions of the game, the PlayStation 2 version was the most well-received, with a score of 31 out of 40 from Famitsu , and an average score of 70.77% on GameRankings and 73 out of 100 from Metacritic . The GameCube and Xbox versions, which were both built off

7194-410: The absence of which has prevented effective implementation of many types of games in the past". After a VMU slot was incorporated into the controller's design, Sega's engineers found many additional uses for it, so a second slot was added. It is generally for vibration packs providing force feedback , such as Sega's "Jump Pack" and Performance's "Tremor Pack"; it can be used for peripherals including

7303-499: The console business. His sentiments were not unique; Sega co-founder David Rosen had "always felt it was a bit of a folly for them to be limiting their potential to Sega hardware", and Stolar had suggested Sega should have sold their company to Microsoft. In September 2000, in a meeting with Sega's Japanese executives and the heads of the company's major Japanese game development studios, Moore and Bellfield recommended that Sega abandon its console business and focus on software, prompting

7412-705: The consoles, only six of the thirty planned launch games were available for purchase on day one with no first-party software included, and additional peripherals were not available in stores. The Ozisoft representative Steve O'Leary, in a statement released the day of launch, explained that the Australian Customs Service had impounded virtually all the supplied launch software, including demo discs, due to insufficient labeling of their country of origin ; Ozisoft had received them only two days before launch, resulting in few games that were catalogued and prepared for shipment in time. O'Leary also said that

7521-458: The content was more focused on game development from an artistic perspective. Interviews with people in the video game industry often featured questions about gaming in general rather than about the details of the latest game or game system they were working on. Next Generation was first published prior to the North American launch of the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation , and much of

7630-552: The discontinuation of Dreamcast hardware, Sega continued to support the system and had stated that more than 30 new titles were confirmed for release for the remainder of 2001. In the United States, official game releases continued until the end of the first half of 2002. Sega continued to repair Dreamcast units until 2007. Many hardware developers that worked on the Dreamcast also joined pachinko and pachislot company Sammy Corporation , who soon merged with Sega. Hideki Sato pushed for leftover Dreamcast parts being used as displays in

7739-513: The early adopters. We have reached 80 or 90 per cent of them now and the market is screaming for a price reduction. We have to acknowledge these things and go with the market". Sales did not continue at this pace, and by October 2000, Sega had sold only about one million units in Europe. As part of Sega's promotions of the Dreamcast in Europe, it sponsored four European football clubs: Arsenal (England), Saint-Étienne (France), Sampdoria (Italy), and Deportivo de La Coruña (Spain). Through

7848-492: The early content was in anticipation of those consoles. Apart from the regular columns , the magazine did not use bylines . The editors explained that they felt the magazine's entire staff should share the credit or responsibility for each article and review, even those written by individuals. The review ranking system was based on a number of stars (1 through 5) that ranked games based on their merits overall compared to what games were already out there. Next Generation had

7957-629: The expensive hardware of the unsuccessful Saturn , the Dreamcast was designed to reduce costs with off-the-shelf components, including a Hitachi SH-4 CPU and an NEC PowerVR2 GPU . Sega used the GD-ROM media format to avoid the expenses of DVD-ROM technology. Developers were able to include a custom version of the Windows CE operating system on game discs to make porting PC games easy, and Sega's NAOMI arcade system board allowed nearly identical conversions of arcade games . The Dreamcast

8066-605: The final levels of the game. In an ancient time, the evil mage Garm, using the power of the Runestones, released a great evil upon the land. This demon, Skorne, broke free of Garm's control, crushing him and imprisoning his soul in the underworld. Skorne then released his minions upon the land, and scattered the Runestones across the Eight Realms, so that they might never again be assembled and used against him. No one has dared try ... Until now. The manual included with

8175-455: The game elaborates on the story further, stating that Sumner is the good king of the eight realms and presides over them from his tower. The tower contained portals to all the realms for his easy access to them. It also stated that Garm, his younger brother, jealous of his power and status, searched for years for the 13 Runestones. Upon finding 12 after much toil of searching, he became impatient, and released Skorne then and there. Unfortunately, he

8284-556: The hardware just wasn't there. —Bernie Stolar, former president of Sega of America, in 2009 As a result of Sega's deteriorating financial situation, Hayao Nakayama resigned as president of Sega in January 1998 in favor of Irimajiri, and Stolar acceded to become CEO and president of Sega of America. Following five years of generally declining profits, in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, Sega suffered its first parent and consolidated financial losses since its 1988 listing on

8393-531: The machines that Sammy develops, including the very successful Fist of the North Star pachinko machines. After five consecutive years of financial losses, Sega finally posted a profit for the fiscal year ending March 2003. The announcement of Sega's exit from hardware was met with enthusiasm. According to IGN ' s Travis Fahs, "Sega was a creatively fertile company with a rapidly expanding stable of properties to draw from. It seemed like they were in

8502-547: The magazine was directed towards a different readership by focusing on the industry itself rather than individual games. The magazine was first published by GP Publications up until May 1995 when the publisher rebranded as Imagine Media . In September 1999, Next Generation was redesigned, and its cover name shortened NextGen . A year later, in September 2000, the magazine's width was increased from its standard 8 inches to 9 inches. This wider format lasted less than

8611-473: The manual, and he retreated into a deserted temple through Sumner's tower. Skorne shattered the enchanted stained glass window that was the only gateway to the temple, and gave one shard to each of his most powerful minions (the bosses of the game). He also scattered the 12 assembled Runestones across the various worlds. The temple from that point on is referred to as the Desecrated Temple. The game

8720-456: The modem to be modular . Sega selected the GD-ROM media format. Jointly developed by Sega and Yamaha , the GD-ROM could be mass-produced at a similar price to a normal CD-ROM, avoiding the greater expense of newer DVD-ROM technology. Microsoft developed a custom Dreamcast version of Windows CE with DirectX API and dynamic-link libraries , making it easy to port PC games to

8829-596: The next game starring its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog , would launch with the Dreamcast and promoted it with a large-scale public demonstration at the Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall , but it and Sega Rally Championship 2 were delayed. They arrived within the following weeks, but sales continued to be slower than expected. Irimajiri hoped to sell over one million Dreamcast units in Japan by February 1999, but sold fewer than 900,000, undermining Sega's attempts to build an installed base sufficient to protect

8938-475: The option of performing a slow, strong attack, or a quick, weaker attack, as opposed to Legends , where there is only one type of attack. In Gauntlet Dark Legacy , the player can perform combos by using slow attacks and quick attacks in sequence while engaged in melee combat. Combos are much stronger than normal attacks, and are usually capable of taking out several enemies at once. As in Legends , each player has

9047-421: The original, though are generally more expensive. This places more emphasis on the decision of which items to buy. In Dark Legacy , the player has the added abilities of blocking, charging, and strafing. Strafing allows the player to constantly face one direction and fire medium-speed attacks. Blocking causes the player's character to stand still in a defensive position for a brief moment. Any attacks made against

9156-403: The path to the end easily in sight, with separate side paths that are harder to access. These side paths usually lead to important items, such as treasure, legendary weapons (which are used to weaken bosses), or runestones (which are required to progress through the game). Some levels will have a short movie before the level loads, serving to introduce the player to new types of enemies, or alerting

9265-655: The platform, although programmers would ultimately favor Sega's development tools over those from Microsoft. A member of the Project Katana team speaking anonymously predicted this would be the case, speculating developers would prefer the greater performance possibilities offered by the Sega OS to the more user-friendly interface of the Microsoft OS. In late 1997, there were reports about the rumored system, then codenamed Dural, and that it had been demonstrated to

9374-418: The player are negated or do significantly less damage. When charging, players run forward with their weapons functioning like a lance while simultaneously blocking. Players can kill the enemies ahead of them while blocking their attacks. However, charging does consume a bit of the turbo gauge each time it is used. The gameplay has roots in the original Gauntlet games. Most levels involve simply running along

9483-486: The player that a legendary weapon is hidden somewhere in the level. Runestones are not hinted at in movies, though if a level that has a runestone is exited without the runestone being found, an evil laugh sound is played. Food still recovers health in Dark Legacy as it does in all other Gauntlet , with each type of food restoring a different amount of health. Treasure is rarer in Dark Legacy than in previous games in

9592-427: The previous year and marked Sega's third consecutive annual loss. Although Sega's overall sales for the term increased 27.4%, and Dreamcast sales in North America and Europe greatly exceeded expectations, this coincided with a decrease in profitability due to the investments required to launch the Dreamcast in Western markets and poor software sales in Japan. At the same time, increasingly poor market conditions reduced

9701-445: The profitability of Sega's Japanese arcade business, prompting Sega to close 246 locations. Moore became the president and chief operating officer of Sega of America on May 8, 2000. He and Sega's developers focused on the US market to prepare for the upcoming launch of the PS2. To that end, Sega of America launched its own internet service provider, Sega.com, led by CEO Brad Huang. On September 7, 2000, Sega.com launched SegaNet ,

9810-508: The public before the last Saturn games were released. As early as 1995, reports surfaced that Sega would collaborate with Lockheed Martin , The 3DO Company , Matsushita or Alliance Semiconductor to create a new graphics processing unit , which conflicting accounts said would be used for a 64-bit "Saturn 2" or an add-on peripheral. Dreamcast development was unrelated. Considering the Saturn's poor performance, Irimajiri looked beyond Sega's internal hardware development division to create

9919-413: The regional distributor Ozisoft , the Dreamcast went on sale in Australia and New Zealand on November 30, 1999, at a price of A$ 499 . The launch was planned for September, but was delayed due to problems with Internet compatibility and launch game availability, then delayed again from the revised date of October 25 for various reasons. There were severe problems at launch; besides a severe shortage of

10028-456: The release of Namco 's Soulcalibur helped Sega gain 17 percent on its shares. Before the Dreamcast's release, Sega was dealt a blow when Electronic Arts , the largest third-party video game publisher at the time, announced it would not develop games for it. EA's chief creative officer Bing Gordon said that Sega had "flip-flopped" on the hardware configuration, that EA developers did not want to work on it, and that Sega "was not acting like

10137-427: The series. As in Legends , treasure is used to purchase items in the shop. In earlier games in the series, treasure merely added to a player's score. Each character has unmatched abilities in certain areas: In addition, each set of characters has a special power they can use when they use magic potions at a certain level of experience. The wizard Sumner is also available to be played after being unlocked in one of

10246-501: The six months ending September 2000, Sega posted a ¥17.98 billion ( $ 163.11 million ) loss, with a projected year-end loss of ¥23.6 billion . This estimate more than doubled to ¥58.3 billion , and in March 2001, Sega posted a consolidated net loss of ¥51.7 billion ( $ 417.5 million ). While the PS2's October 26 US launch was marred by shortages, this did not benefit the Dreamcast as much as expected; many consumers continued to wait for

10355-407: The stained-glass window is slowly restored, and the light pouring from it reveals a special portal in the tower. This portal takes the player to the 9th world, the Desecrated Temple. The player must fight through a single level packed with enemies. Upon exiting, the player is automatically transported to Skorne's chamber. Here the player has to defeat the demon Skorne. After his defeat, he retreats into

10464-425: The studio heads to walk out. Amid speculation and rumors, Sega executives denied to the media that it would leave the console hardware business. Nevertheless, on January 31, 2001, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast after March 31 and the restructuring of the company as a "platform-agnostic" third-party developer, although with continued Dreamcast software support for some time. Sega also announced

10573-754: The things we loved about Sega, primarily from the Genesis days." On August 11, Sega of America confirmed that Stolar had been fired, leaving Moore to direct the launch. The Dreamcast launched in North America on September 9, 1999, at a price of $ 199 , which Sega's marketing dubbed "9/9/99 for $ 199 ". Eighteen launch games were available in the US Sega set a new sales record by selling more than 225,132 Dreamcast units in 24 hours, earning $ 98.4 million in what Moore called "the biggest 24 hours in entertainment retail history". Within two weeks, US Dreamcast sales exceeded 500,000. By Christmas, Sega held 31 percent of

10682-590: The user's hands into an uncomfortable parallel position". Both the analog joystick and triggers uniquely used Hall effect sensors, which requires less calibration and leads to fewer issues with joystick drift . Various third-party controllers, from companies such as Mad Catz , include additional buttons and other features; third parties also manufactured arcade-style joysticks for fighting games, such as Agetech's Arcade Stick and Interact's Alloy Arcade Stick. Mad Catz and Agetec created racing wheels for racing games. Sega did not release its official light guns in

10791-523: The video game homebrew community, which has developed private servers to preserve its online functions and unofficial Dreamcast software . In 1988, Sega released the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive in most countries outside North America), in the fourth generation of video game consoles . It became the most successful Sega console ever, at 30.75 million units sold. Its successor, the Saturn ,

10900-472: The war is not over. Garm absorbs the fading remnants of Skorne's power, becoming a huge, immensely powerful statue of Skorne. He forms an army and unleashes an assault upon Sumner's tower. The player's final goal is to beat the 11th and final world, the Battlegrounds. After beating the third level of this world and collecting the 13th Runestone that is hidden within it, the fourth and final special portal

11009-537: Was affiliated to and shared content with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West. Other editors included Chris Charla, Tom Russo, and Blake Fischer. Next Generation initially covered the 32-bit consoles including 3DO , Atari Jaguar , and the then-still unreleased Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn . Unlike competitors GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly ,

11118-432: Was not able to control the demon without the 13th Runestone. Skorne summoned his minions and sent them through the portals in the tower to conquer the realms. Sumner, who was away at the time, returned to the tower, only to see the demon Skorne using it for his own evil gain. This infuriated Sumner, and he angrily engaged in battle with Skorne after sealing all the portals. Skorne was "no match" for Sumner's power, according to

11227-410: Was on fire - we really thought that we could do it. But then we had a target from Japan that said we had to make x hundreds of millions of dollars by the holiday season and shift x millions of units of hardware, otherwise, we just couldn't sustain the business. Somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people; it was not a pleasant day. So on January 31st 2001 we said Sega

11336-483: Was released in Japan in 1994. The Saturn is CD-ROM -based and has 2D and 3D graphics, but its complex dual- CPU architecture was more difficult to program than its chief competitor, the Sony PlayStation . Although the Saturn debuted before the PlayStation in Japan and the United States, its surprise US launch, four months earlier than scheduled, was marred by a lack of distribution, which remained

11445-424: Was released on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console , preceding Sony 's PlayStation 2 , Nintendo 's GameCube , and Microsoft 's Xbox . The Dreamcast's 2001 discontinuation ended Sega's 18 years in the console market. A team led by Hideki Sato began developing the Dreamcast in 1997. In contrast to

11554-466: Was settled out of court. The choice to use the PowerVR architecture concerned Electronic Arts (EA), a longtime developer for Sega consoles. EA had invested in 3dfx but was unfamiliar with the selected architecture, which was reportedly less powerful. According to Shiro Hagiwara (a general manager at Sega's hardware division) and Ian Oliver (the managing director of the Sega subsidiary Cross Products),

11663-463: Was the first console to include a built-in modular modem for internet access and online play . Though its Japanese release was beset by supply problems, the Dreamcast had a successful US launch backed by a large marketing campaign. However, sales steadily declined as Sony built anticipation for the PlayStation 2. Dreamcast sales did not meet Sega's expectations, and attempts to renew interest through price cuts caused significant financial losses. After

11772-542: Was very negative, with an average score of only 35.25% on GameRankings and 37 out of 100 from Metacritic. One of the worst aspects of this particular version, according to GameSpot , was the absence of multi-player, which is a vital part of the Gauntlet franchise. In 2004, publisher iBooks (an imprint of Simon & Schuster ) released a novel based upon the video game titled Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Book 1: Paths Of Evil by Richard C. White ( ISBN   0-74349-305-2 ). The sequel Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Book 2: Paths Of Fear

11881-507: Was written and was planned for a 2005 release, but due to the demise of both Byron Preiss Visual Productions and the licensor, this never came to pass. As of 2007, the license for these stories had reverted to Midway , and unless a new licensor commissions White to finish his tale, Book 1 will likely be the last of the Gauntlet series. Dreamcast The Dreamcast is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega . It

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