beep! megadrive

devilsblush

I’ve been slowly scrolling through old issues of beep! megadrive lately, and whenever a group of screenshots or a page layout catches my eye I snap a photo of it. I didn’t have anything in particular to do with them, so they’ve just been sitting on my phone. here’s a thread! I’ll keep it bite-sized for now and add more over time.

oh, and I should mention that segaretro is hosting pdf’s of most of their back catalog, check them out here: https://segaretro.org/Beep!_MegaDrive

devilsblush

exodus

This is all neat stuff! Here are my observations:

1) whoa, graphic design!

2) it’s clear they didn’t realize that “megadrive best five” rhymes, or they would’ve spelled out megadrive all the way. as it stands, if they wanted to use メガドラthey should’ve done メガドラベストフォア

3) to someone’s point… somewhere else… somewhere on the forum, it’s odd that they called it Super Shinobi not Mega Shinobi!? Though Super Shinobi is alliterative.

4) really pushing those cd intros and “3D” dungeons in comparison to the super famicom I see

5) leynos as a series is so hard to control for me, but I haven’t tried any of the newer, presumably twinstick-enabled versions, like the one on PS4. It’s just sitting there… I should try it

devilsblush

yeah, I’ve never mastered the controls in assault suit leynos either. I like that it’s a slow action game with small sprites where you’re juggling a bunch of enemies at the same time, but the controls aren’t awkward in the way that I’d like them to be. it’s cool that the newer versions still look like the same game.

i didn’t realise there was a mega cd version of smt until I saw this article. I really want to see bigger screenshots of the close up character portraits, although I feel like they might make the game lose some of its weird atmosphere.

exodus

Yeah, I keep meaning to pick that one up. It’s real weird! the 3D dungeons feel like they’re somewhere between doom and the games that were just completely hand drawn. I can’t quite tell how it was done.

devilsblush

exodus I just watched some video of it and it looks really cool, I’m sad the translation that was being worked on seems to have fizzled out.

anyway, here’s some more beep! megadrive

devilsblush

James-

The layout of these is absolutely stellar - the Quartz Quadrant and Curse pages in particular really catch my eye. I really miss this era of graphic design - it was busy in all the best ways.
I also really love the “we took photos of the screens and pasted them all together” look for the maps. It’s really charming.

devilsblush

James- yeah, the designs are dense in a way that make them fun to browse again and again. and yeah, I live for the stitched together maps.

Video Game King I guess I more just meant that I strongly associate the weird framing of the characters (looking like they’re standing on the other side of the room from you) with the way that game feels. so yeah, not trying to take anything away from the mega cd version, excited to have found out it exists.

◉◉maru thanks for the link! I was wondering if there were any good play throughs around, I’ll check it out for sure. that version of arcade is beautiful, it’s so chaotic compared to the original.

Video Game King

i didn’t realise there was a mega cd version of smt until I saw this article. I really want to see bigger screenshots of the close up character portraits, although I feel like they might make the game lose some of its weird atmosphere.

No, the Sega CD version of Shin Megami Tensei is more than able of holding onto its mystique even after knowing about it. There are so many design choices made to make the most of the Sega CD’s hardware - redbook audio music tracks, actual (albeit very basic) 3D effects in the dungeons, new cutscenes with narration and artwork - and those necessarily distinguish it from other ports of the game; CD-based ports included (the PC Engine version is essentially the same as the SNES version and the PS1 version is a straight-up remaster). What you get is this odd amalgam of a game that’s almost bursting at the seams. You can get a sense of what I mean here, although the 3D effect isn’t particularly clear in the dream introduction.

fortninety

If my apartment ever catches on fire, I’m grabbing one of my cats (whichever one my wife doesn’t nab first) and my two issues of Beep! that I bought from a Japanese bookstore that was going out of business in Chinatown (both for just a dollar), I think about 20 years ago at this point (plus my Metal Gear Rex toy).

◉◉maru

I strongly recommend Higemaru’s most excellent Youtube channel, in general and to pretty much anyone close enough to hear from me, but here more specifically because this Mega-CD version of Shin Megami Tensei was the focus of the channel just last week. As always, a playthrough recorded in top quality using a Framemeister and — whenever Higemaru runs Megadrive titles — this uncanny hardware mod. The notes are full of good stuff too, if you can handle a bit of Japanese.

Higemaru also produced a separate video which trolls through the demons’ directory / akumazensho.

This port has my favorite version of the arcade by the way.

devilsblush

exodus

Atomic Robo Kid is forever a PC Engine game for me, even though I know it was an arcade game originally. It’s the first import game I ever got (accidentally, too - I had to buy a weird turbo converter with it that some guys in the store carved up to make fit, and it barely did), so I guess it occupies a large spot in my mind.

What’s this Mazinger game? was it an arcade thing? I don’t know anything like this in the mega drive…

◉◉maru

Yeah that’s the Mazinger Z arcade game from Banpresto. Unmistakable to Mediterranean audiences as it is one of the few games in which Grendizer a.k.a. Goldorak a.k.a. Goldrake is playable. I don’t remember arcade pages being a thing but I guess Beep! Megadrive had them. The magazine started as a multiplatform outlet so it kinda was in their DNA. I know the SegaSaturn Magazine era better and such pages were strictly focused on Sega’s arcade games only, but I guess Sega had such a productive release schedule back then that it was more than enough to feed those pages.

The Gradius and Rabio Lepus scans are also evidently not from any MD-related project.

James-

Those Golden Axe SMS (at least, I’m pretty sure that’s what it is) screens look a lot more NES color palette than I remember it being. It also looks a lot better in stills than in motion, but I’m pretty spoiled by the MD/Arcade versions, so….

I’m really curious what the graph is about. The ramp up of something is abrupt and intense according to it…

◉◉maru

James- Those Golden Axe SMS (at least, I’m pretty sure that’s what it is)

I think that’s an early Megadrive ROM. The sprites for Tyris and the dragon magic fit the MD version much more than the SMS version. This would be pretty impressive work for the SMS, especially around the time of the first Golden Axe’s release.

James- I’m really curious what the graph is about. The ramp up of something is abrupt and intense according to it…

It’s describing the increase in magic power (y axis) relative to the number of potions collected (x axis) when using her Fire Magic. The text next to it advises that Tyris is a character for which it is necessary to get a lot of potions before her magic attacks become potent.