THE OBSCURE SEGA OF THE WEEK (2)

#21.Where's Sonic? book

*What is it?!
A book in which you search for Sonic, Tails and various other Sonic objects on each page.
Indeed, just like the 'Where's Wally?' books, but with Sonic 'zones' and objects instead.
A second book (called 'Where Sonic now?') was released as well, so that'll be another
thing to look for.

*What's the purpose?
'I can find the little blue bugger before you do!'. 'Oh yeah? Bring it on! I've already found
them Starposts!'. Hours of fun etc. etc.

*I want one! Where can I buy them? How much?
Shouldn't be too expensive, but finding them is another matter. These books where released
in 1994 and can be pretty tough to find these days. Try Ebay.co.uk (these books were released
by Ladybird in U.K. and that's where I bought them in the first place).

#22.Megadrive promotion tapes

*What are they?
Promotion video tapes of various Megadrive games. In this case Sonic 3 & Virtua Racing.

*What's the purpose?
They were probably used in shops to give people an idea of the actual gameplay. On the back
of these tapes there's the release date plus price and some more information, which could mean
that these tapes were also for rent.

*I want some! Where can I buy them? How much?
As you can see, the tapes above are Japanese ones. You'd say American and European tapes should be easier to find, but they're not. These Japanese tapes are fairly common and can be found with relative ease on Yahoo Auctions. However, don't expect to find a wealth of different tapes; Virtua Racing is one of the easiest tapes to find. They shouldn't cost too much, unless
you're looking for exotic titles.

#23.Chu Chu Rocket! plushes

*What are they?
Toy plushes/dolls of the KapuKapu's & ChuChu's from Chu Chu Rocket! The KapuKapu
is around 15cm/7 inches tall, the ChuChu is (naturally) slightly smaller. These dolls came in
a series of seven (the complete series also features Rentahero, Ulala, a Space Channel 5
alien, the Let's make a pro baseball team mascot and an unknown female Rentahero(?) .
They were used as UFO Catcher / lucky game prizes as a promotion of the Dreamcast games.

*What's the purpose?
Buy 200 ChuChu's and letta rip; mouse mania!

*I want them! Where can I buy them? How much?
Another 'good luck finding this outside of Japan' item? 'Fraid so. I got mine from Japanese
auction site bidders. Keep an eye on either that or Yahoo auctions; that's your best bet.
They shouldn't be too expensive, even while they kick serious ass! (well, that's my opinion).

#24.Sega Saturn Shade III light development toolkit

*What is it?
The box describes it best: 'Three dimensional geometric modeling, rendering and animation software for Sega Saturn. Released in 1994(!) by Expression Tools (a company that still exists,
I think). The kit consists of: 4 HD floppies with the program on it, 2 floppies with the 1.2 upgrade it, a dongle for your keyboard, multiple (THICK) manuals and a user guide. Every item (including the dongle and the outer box) includes the serial id of the package! Judging from the pictures in the (Japanese) manuals, it seems like a very sophisticated bundle (well, for the time anyway). Oh it's for Macintosh, but that didn't stop me from buying it, obviously.

*What's the purpose?
It was probably used by quite some developers back in the day. These days you could use it if you're into Saturn homebrew developments.

*I want it! Where can I buy it? How much?
The kit set me back roughly 7000 yen. I suppose that's roughly a tenth of what the kit would've cost a developer! Two of these kits were sold in two weeks time, and both went for 6-7k yen.
I didn't see them before, so I think they're fairly rare. There's little chance of finding the kit outside Japan, so Yahoo auctions or the like is your best bet.

#25.I Miss You magazine

*What is it?
A Japanese dating magazine? No, far from it, really. It's a magazine released by Compile in 1997
to promote Japanese music such as 'Noaki' (uh?), the 'Flying Kids' (who?) but in particular -
Tanaka Katsumi
with his single 'I Miss you'. 'All fine and dandy' you might think, 'but why would I
care'? Plain and simple; it comes with a Saturn disc. Now this has a story for me and I am going
to tell you if you like it or not.
I bought the 'I miss you' labeled disc back in 2006, as I never heart of it before and it seemed like
a nice goodie. When I got it in (together with roughly 25 other sampler discs) I tossed it in the closet,
because if there's one thing I dislike it's these Japanese girl adventures. One day I had nothing
better to do and popped it into my Saturn. And..it turned to out to be something rather different than
I expected it to be!

The disc contains the music video of 'I Miss you', some mini games, a karaoke version of
'I Miss you', a rather funky alternate version of 'I Miss you' and a virtual version of Tanaka Katsumi's
studio (full of gags and items you can play around with). The first time you watch the video you think
'Hmm, not too bad'. But then it starts to grow on you and the next moment you can't get it out of
your head! Tanaka might not be the the type you'd expect to star in a music video but it really makes
a nice change from the plastic boobed bimbos and 'tough guys' starring in todays videos.

*What's the purpose?
The magazine is forgettable (although the 'Making of I Miss you' feature was rather welcome)
featuring mostly 'has been' Japanese bands and pages full of Hello Kitty / Miffy / Doraemon
merchandise (eh?) but the disc is pretty good, actually. (that said, a friend of mine totally failed to see
the point of it and laughed at the crappy 3D models used in the studio bit... maybe it's just me then?)

*I want it! Where can I buy it? How much?
A bunch of them landed on Yahoo auctions recently, so I was finally able to get the magazine that
came with the disc. Some fool sold the loose disc on Ebay for something like $99 a while ago.
While it's a fun disc, it's not exactly worth that insane amount of money. If you like obscure Saturn
stuff this one's a must. I challenge you to find all the hidden animations in the studio (and there's a
lot
of them!).

#26.SEGA Electronic Slot Machine Toy

*What is it?
An electronic slot machine toy. It does not take coins or pays out, instead you press the button to stop the LEDs. If you match either three bells, sevens or BAR's you -uh- win. Silly people might argue 'this toy will turn our children into gambling addicts!' but then again perhaps not.
It's hardly one of the best toys SEGA did, but because it comes from waaay back in time (1991) it's old enough to turn us nostalgic, if only slightly so.

*What's the purpose?
Like said above, match the symbols and listen to the sounds. SEGA could've done a little more with the concept and it's not exactly on par with the Jet Set Radio slot machine they did some years back, but it should entertain you for -oooh, at least five minutes-.

*I want it! Where can I buy it? How much?
It came Yahoo Auctions Japan (no surprises there) and wasn't that expensive. Considering how well Japanese people take care of their stuff, you might even find a complete one, like me. Just don't pay much more than 1.000 yen for it..


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