Cyberpunk Studios News

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) - Easter Eggs

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:04:44 GMT

VGMP: DO NOT WATCH THIS TRASH

Blue Streak, speeds by...

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) is Hollywood's first big blockbuster attempt to bring Sonic to the big screen. A much more popular effort than the 1996 anime movie, this one sees Sonic come into the "real world", but that doesn't mean that it isn't jam-packed full of Easter Eggs.

And some of them are references to other Sega franchises.

PARAMOUNT RINGS

Starting off the movie with a bit of fun, the usual stars that surround the Paramount logo are replaced with Sonic rings.

BETA SONIC

Before getting into the main movie, I thought I'd highlight some interesting tidbits from the deleted/alternate scenes. There was a rumour that the final Sonic design was always intended, and the grotesque and scary Sonic design in the initial teasers was faked to drum up attention. However in all the unfinished scenes, the Sonic model (while more basic) is a dead ringer for the original design. It's very unlikely they would have gone to this level of effort to fake outrage. The deleted/alternate scenes essentially prove the original design was intended for the final film before the backlash saw them change it.

BETA COMPARISONS

Just for a bit of interesting VFX stuff, here are shots from the deleted/alternate scenes and their final versions as a direct comparison. While mostly the same, there are some fascinating changes.

BETA ECHIDNAS

The shots of the echidnas goes by so fast in the movie that it's often hard to discern their designs. Thought it might be interesting to see how basic the beta versions of the echidnas were in one of the alternate scenes.

CRAZY TAXI

In a deleted scene, the crazy man sets up traps laced with batteries to try and attract and capture Sonic. His caravan has the numberplate 1-NOM155, a direct reference to Axel's cab in Crazy Taxi.

SANIC

In another deleted scene, the crazy guy goes into the local bar and tries to tell Donut Lord about the blue devil. He draws a picture of the beast and shows it to him. This drawing happens to be an infamous fanart known as Sanic in an absurd but fun reference to Sonic fandom.

SEGA LOGO

The Sega company logo is a large-scale collage of footage from Sega titles and behind the scenes videos. From top-to-bottom, left-to-right;

LINE 1 : Y akuza 0, Virtua Striker 3?, Golden Axe, Super Monkey Ball, unknown, Virtua Striker 3?, Gunstar Heroes, Columns, unknown,

Shining Resonance Refrain, Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Space Channel 5

LINE 2 : Yakuza 0, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, unknown sonic, Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka, unknown, Shenmue, Sakura Wars, Altered Beast, unknown,

Skies of Arcadia, Puyo Puyo, Puyo Puyo, unknown

LINE 3 : unknown, unknown sonic, Virtua Cop 3, Streets of Rage 2, Puyo Puyo, unknown, Virtua Fighter, unknown, Nights, Sega Saturn BIOS,

Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Virtua Fighter 2, unknown

LINE 4 : Space Channel 5, Shining Resonance Refrain, unknown stage, unknown, unknown, Space Harrier, unknown sonic, Golden Axe, Roommania #203,

Sega Bass Fishing, unknown, Streets of Rage 2, Jet Set Radio

LINE 5 : Shining Resonance Refrain, Space Channel 5 Part 2, unknown, unknown, Samba de Amigo, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Virtua Racing, unknown,

Fantasy Zone, Sakura Wars, unknown phantasy star, unknown

LINE 6 : Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes, Space Harrier, Dreamcast BIOS, Outrun, unknown, Panzer Dragoon, Shining Force, unknown, unknown,

unknown, unknown, unknown

LINE 7 : unknown, Puyo Pop, Puyo Pop, Virtua Fighter, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Nights, Puyo Pop, Revenge of Shinobi, unknown, Phantasy Star II,

Jet Set Radio , unknown, unknown

GREEN HILLS

A very obvious reference. The town that Sonic arrives in on Earth is called Green Hills. See our Knuckles Easter Eggs to see Ice Cap given a location on Earth too!

SONIC 2 SWEATBAND

Sonic's sweatband during his nunchuk swinging has the Sonic the Hedgehog logo adorning it. A cute and easily missable reference.

HILL TOP ROAD

As shown before, this takes place largely in Green Hills. The Knuckles series has Ice Cap as a location, too. Here we see that Hill Top (a level from Sonic 2) is also referenced.

SONIC'S MAP

Sonic's map is also laced with Easter Eggs. The topmost world is an early design drawing of the Sega Saturn logo. The checkerboard world is a clear reference to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles' special stages. The Master Emerald is in the bottom-right. There's a bumper at the bottom, and Mushroom Hill is clearly the inspiration behind the mushroom planet. I recognise the sun design, but I can't recall where from. The design of the island in the centre of the map is the South Island map from Sonic the Hedgehog 1 on the Master System.

ROBOTNIK'S PLAYLISTS

Dr Robotnik plays music as he does research, and selects from various playlists. These are often in-jokes themselves. They are as follows;

CRUSH 40: This is the rock band of Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli, they made the theme tunes for most Sonic games since Sonic Adventure.

OBSCURE 1970'S CANADIAN JAMS: Jim Carrey (Robotnik) is a Canadian actor.

HEAVY METAL BOMBING OVER BABYLON

DINNER FOR ONE

TUNES OF ANARCHY

ROBOTNIK RHYTHMS

EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD

TYRANNY

SOULFUL CHAMBER MUSIC OF OPPRESSION

BADNIKS

When the power goes out in Eggman's mobile lab, the breaker switch includes a switch for Badniks - the traditional enemies Robotnik made in the game series.

SONIC'S SHOES

A fairly obvious one, but the shoes given to Sonic by Donut Lord's niece are an adaptation of Sonic's iconic game sneakers.

SONIC'S BED

At the end, when Donut Lord moves Sonic into his attic, he has a sports car bed. This is very reminiscent of his sports car bed from the Archie comics. See our Knuckles Easter Eggs list to see how they adapted Tails and Knuckles' beds.

FERRARI F40

Sonic's bedside table has a Ferrari F40 decor. I'm fairly certain this image is actually a promotional render from Outrun 2, but I was unable to locate the exact image. However the F40 was the promotional car for all Outrun 2 artworks.

PIXEL ART CREDITS

The end credits start with this cool retro-style pixel art animatic. This references and includes several elements from the games.

TAILS' DEVICE

This may not be an exact reference, however Tails' tracker has a similar design/colour-scheme to the one Tails uses during Sonic Colors etc.

SONIC'S HIDEOUT TRUCK

This one is a mystery to try and solve. Knowing that the crazy guy's caravan has Axel's 1NOM155 numberplate from Crazy Taxi, I was fairly sure that the front-bumper of the truck inside Sonic's hideout (at the start of the film) includes a reference to Crazy Taxi too, however it doesn't match a numberplate for any driver from the first Crazy Taxi title.

Sadly there's no close-up on this, I've tried to clear the image up as much as possible. It looks a bit like MND4-SPD, which could be interpreted as Mind For Speed, but I have yet to find a Crazy Taxi or otherwise numberplate that matches. Please let us know if you know what this is referencing.

That's everything I could find in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)!

We hope you've enjoyed this group of Easter Eggs, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Kung-Fu Master (1988) - Easter Eggs

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:47:18 GMT

VGMP: DO NOT WATCH THIS TRASH

First things first - DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.

Kung-Fu Master may have the licence for the game, and it may include a few scenes at Arcades, but the story is nothing to do with gaming - and the story it represents is a literal crime. A vile, vile crime.

With that out of the way, there are some interesting arcade machines visible throughout this film - all of which are here. So you have been saved from having to watch this vile garbage - and saving you the criminal act of watching it.

KUNG-FU MASTER

There are a few instances of the game being played. In the end the main male character completes the game and shows off the ending, where Thomas rescues Silvia. It even shows off the Engrish error, calling Thomas a "Kanfu Master".

SVT and POPEYE

The first time we come across is Kung-Fu Master, always housed within this generic "SVT" cabinet. We never see a copy of the game in a Kung-Fu Master cabinet. We also see Popeye in the background.

SPECTRUM

Not strictly an arcade game, but this was a cool close-up on the Spectrum pinball machine.

SUPER BREAKOUT and KARATECO JUNGLE

During one brief sequence (again all these arcade segments are mega-brief as gaming is not the meaning of the movie, and they're being used for grooming a minor), we pass three arcade cabinets. Karateco Jungle on the right, Super Breakout is in the middle and a generic cabinet on the left.

SCORE and PUCMAN

During the arcade montage, we see two cabinets relatively clearly. There's SCORE on the left, which I couldn't find anything about online. The camera never goes higher than this, but I'm assuming Score the second half of a game name, or this is a generic cabinet for other games.

Of more interest is the cabinet behind the main actress. PucMan. That's not a spelling error, and it is what it sounds like. A very early Pac-Man cabinet that still bears the game's original title. I could not find any photos of this cabinet online, the closest was the original West-German release of the game which was named Puck-Man. Because this movie was made in 1988, and filmed in a generic French town, it appears one of these old French cabinets slipped through the net and remained in service - a piece of missing history recorded in this film by pure chance.

PANTHERA and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

A series of pinball machines, and a closeup of an unknown sci-fi game playing on a generic JVF cabinet.

UNKNOWN GAMES

Two arcade titles I am not knowledgeable enough to identify, playing on what appear to be generic arcade cabinets. If you can help us identify these cabinets, please let us know.

PUNCH-OUT, PAC-MAN

Nintendo legend Punch-Out and the much more recognisable Pac-Man cabinet are on display here.

ASTRO WARS, ROADBLASTERS and COLT 1986

We get a clearer view of this arcade selection. Astro Wars is a 1979 arcade machine, Roadblasters is a 1987 arcade machine - making it one of the most modern games visible in the movie.

Much more interesting is the arcade machine being played to camera right, with a man shooting the screen with a light gun. Zooming in on the marquee art shows either the name WOZ, WCZ or WGZ. I could not locate this cabinet - but this doesn't look like the sort of art you'd have on a generic cabinet. But there is another mystery connected to this cabinet. With a sharp eye you can spot the title screen saying COLT 1986. When you look this up, it is a light-gun game that has no known artwork online. However it is listed as a potential bootleg game, so perhaps it doesn't have one. Either way this small French arcade is housing a bootleg arcade game alongside a then-brand new Roadblasters cabinet.

OUTRUN FOOTAGE

We get a wonderfully clear shot of Outrun's attract mode. Outrun was only released in 1986 and would have been one of the most technologically advanced arcade machines available during the time of filming.

OUTRUN and KICK & RUN

We see the full sit-down Outrun cabinet being played - and the cabinet is in astonishingly good condition here. Likely a brand new purchase. There's also an alternate colour marquee for Karateco Jungle.

We also see a cabinet of Kick & Run just to the left of Outrun, and a generic arcade cabinet to the right called VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO.

BOMB JACK

We never see the full cabinet, but we do get this momentary close-up of a Game Over screen from arcade game Bomb Jack, released in 1984.

POPEYE

A better look at the Popeye arcade cabinet. Popeye was a 1982 Nintendo arcade game, however the keen-eyed of you might have noticed an issue. If you know arcade machines, you know that this appears to be a generic arcade brand with a few Popeye stickers slapped on - the cabinet is definitely not the original arcade machine.

Even more worryingly is it seems the world of Popeye has gotten a bit darker than first thought, as the screen clearly gives the instruction "Your Mission - Rescue Hostages". I don't know what game this is, but it's clearly not knockoff Popeye.

DIG DUG

Seen in the background of a few shots, this ending sequence shows the only near-close shot of the DigDug arcade machine - but not any ordinary DigDug machine. According to the below Youtube video at 13:30, this particular design is actually a very rare version of the cabinet made in Ireland. The regular cabinet looks slightly different to this (it includes a standard marquee artwork).

https://youtu.be/SQTvOcu3dO4

That's everything I could find in Kung-Fu Master!

Again, I cannot repeat this enough, please do not watch this movie. There is no need to seek it out as all of the cool gaming trivia is showcased clearly here, and the film itself is an immoral and disgusting movie that supports child abuse. 95% of the movie is that disgusting narrative, less than 5% are the screens shown here.

We hope you've enjoyed this group of Easter Eggs, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Knuckles (2024) - Easter Eggs

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:01:18 GMT

VGMP: Unlike Sonic he don't chuckle

Knuckles comes to streaming with Idris Elba reprising his voiceover of the titular character.

Now a comedy, where Knuckles has six half-hour episodes to train deputy-sheriff Wade Whipple into becoming a warrior. There is much to love in this series, as well as a few things to hate. However the series does bring in some interesting Easter Eggs for a keen audience.

Most of these are front-loaded in the series, and thankfully it avoids just being an Easter Egg series (avoiding the traps of Sega Hard Girls) even if the main story arc fails to deliver. Sadly Episodes 5 and 6 include literally no Easter Eggs to the games - which is a shame but is hardly surprising considering the worst written episodes also include the least Easter Eggs.

INTRO TITLES

The Intro Titles appear at the very end of Episode 1 and recur at the start of the following 5 episodes. The visuals are always the same, but the credits vary from episode to episode. Some of the more generic visuals include some mushrooms (nodding to Mushroom Hill zone and the mushroom universe from the movies), Knuckles doing a spin attack and Knuckles using his climbing ability.

THE FLOATING ISLAND

The intro credits also showcase the Floating Island and Master Emerald, neither of which make an appearance in the series. It's a wonderful Easter Egg to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

FLICKY

When Wade's animated character is falling, we see a Flicky fly past him. Flicky has been a character longer than Sonic the Hedgehog, starring in his own game way back in 1984. He was added as an animal to be saved in Sonic the Hedgehog on the Mega Drive, and has since become a series staple. Sonic 3D Flickies' Island (aka Sonic 3D Blast in America) features Flickies heavily in a Sonic title, as well as a type of Flicky powering E-102 Gamma in Sonic Adventure.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG BAND!!

One of the interesting nods in the Title Sequence was a nod to the Sonic the Hedgehog Band - a little known and deleted element of the very first Sonic game. Sonic Team were going to include a Sound Test screen where the band plays the music - and yes, that crocodile is Vector. He would make his debut appearance in Knuckles Chaotix. This was a very niche Easter Egg.

END OF LEVEL SIGNPOST

At the start of Episode 1, Knuckles runs past a self-made signpost to complete his warrior challenge. It spins like the classic games, and we get a cool homage to Knuckles' signpost artwork.

COOL SPOT

In the Attic where Sonic, Tails and Knuckles live, we can see two small statues of Cool Spot. Cool Spot was the early-90s USA mascot for pop drink 7Up (in the UK he was not the mascot). There were games made by Virgin Interactive for the Sega Mega Drive, Master System and Super Nintendo (among others) which were very popular, giving Cool Spot an international appeal where most American-only mascots do not.

SONIC, TAILS and KNUCKLES' BEDS

While these may be hold-overs from the feature films, each of the Sonic characters' beds is a reference to other media in the Sonic franchise. Sonic's bed is a red car, which is usually how Sonic's bed is represented in the long-running Archie comics series.

Tails' bed is a blue plane, representing the Tornado-2 plane from the first Sonic Adventure.

Knuckles' bed is a red and yellow truck, which is a reference to his monster truck from Sonic Boom.

DRILL CLAW

In the first episode, when Knuckles attacks the builders, he uses his Drill Claw move from Sonic Adventure 2.

HILL TOP ZONE ART

This might be a bit of a stretch, as there aren't any other references in the bowling alley, but this wall art seems to resemble Hill Top Zone in design and palette, however it could also be a generic art of an American woodland. Take this with a pinch of salt, but it definitely reminded me of the Sonic 2 zone.

16 BIT CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE

When Sonic is showing off music to Knuckles, there is a stack of magazines in front of the DJ Decks. One of which is labelled 16-Bit Cartridge in the same font as the Mega Drive artworks.

SONIC & FRIENDS

Sonic tries to show Knuckles that he can do TikTok videos to pass away the time while grounded. He dances to a Japanese cutesy dance track, swaying his fingers from side-to-side. This mimics the Sonic & Friends TikTok-exclusive series, which includes both micro-episodes (approx 40 seconds each) with dance videos of the cutesy styled characters. The series is for very small children, but it's cool to see it represented here.

KNUCKLES' CO-ORDINATES

The co-ordinates for Knuckles leaving Green Hill are quite accurate to several elements of the Sonic film universe. Mapping the co-ordinates to the real world showcases Interstate 90, which is referenced in Sonic's Attic bedroom as a road sign (see right of image). It's also a place called Nimrod, which also doubles as an old 80's insult - probably calling me a Nimrod for having bothered to check.

ARCADE CABINETS

These two are hidden in the very background of the first bowling alley, however they are given pride of place in the second bowling alley during the first fight with the GUN henchmen. These are (presumably mockups of) original Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade machines. I assume they're fakes because one of the henchmen smashes through them during the fight. If you're wondering why TMNT is here (and later in Wade's bedroom) it's because Paramount own the movie and streaming rights to that series too.

ICECAP SKI RESORT

Opening up Episode 2, we see this episode largely takes place at IceCap. I really liked the inclusion of this, though the location itself is otherwise completely devoid of Easter Eggs.

MOVIE REFERENCES

Episode 2 includes two very specific movie references. Harry Potter (the sequence really plays like Harry riding a broom) and ET's silhouette against the moon (also used for Amblin Entertainment's company logo). These are cool, but come off as cheaper references since they have nothing to do with gaming.

GOLDEN AXE and DOUBLE DRAGON

Now we're into some hardcore deep diving, but it's also completely inaccurate. In Wade's Room, there are a few shots of Wade's old DVD collection. On one of the lowest shelves we can see two games - Golden Axe on the Mega Drive and Double Dragon on the Master System. The weirdest part of these is that the Master System barely sold in America, and the copy of Golden Axe appears to be a European copy due to the shape of the logo on the spine.

MEGA DRIVE GAMES

Almost impossible to spot are more games on a lower shelf than Golden Axe and Double Dragon (SMS). These are, again, the European cover arts for these titles. I have identified most of them, but have fallen short on the one between Virtua Fighter 2 (using the European-only blue Mega Drive boxart quite distinctly) and the European-specific black/yellow boxart for James Pond at the Aquatic Games.

By the looks of the spine I'm fairly certain it's a Virgin Interactive box (red square logo at the top of the spine) but I was unable to say for certain. If anyone can find a 4K copy of Episode 3, it might help to identify it.

I think this is a consequence of the series shooting largely in the UK. When they went scouting for copies of classic Sega games they could only find PAL copies close to the studio, and I can only assume the set dresser didn't care enough to make sure Wade had American copies of the game. These wouldn't actually play on any American Genesis console.

NINTENDO SWITCH

Inside the Stretch-Hummer in episode 4, we can see Wade's rival, Susie, playing on the iconic Nintendo console.

ANGEL ISLAND ZONE

Episode 4 is the final episode to include any Easter Eggs, but it definitely throws them at you thick and fast during the mid-section of the episode. Here we can see Wade dressed as Knuckles, running through Angel Island zone and collecting rings.

LOOPS AND STARPOSTS

Continuing the sequence, we see Wade is assisted in completing a loop by the wire-work, and we see a starpost. I'm fairly certain this loop de loop (as well as the signpost) are from Sonic 2's Emerald Hill Zone, but the background is still Angel Island Zone, so perhaps it's from that zone instead.

RING BOXES

Knuckles breaks open a TV with 10 Rings inside. A cool Easter Egg.

SONIC 2's SPECIAL STAGE

Wade (as Knuckles) has to complete a very small section of a Sonic 2 special stage, complete with bombs and rings and a drop-down START logo. This was really cool, and a fantastic addition.

BUZZBOMBERS

Sadly inaccurate in colours, it was still cool to see this classic badnik represented in the live action series. Sadly, because of the real-life nature of Jim Carrey's Robotnik, we've not had any inventive looking enemies of this type appear in the movies or this series properly. At least they get a shout-out here,

IBLIS

For some reason the infamous Sonic 06 game gets a reference, with Iblis being portrayed as the main villain to Knuckles' backstory. A cool addition, but a bit weird they didn't go with Chaos. Maybe fire effects were easier to achieve than water effects for this sequence?

That's everything I could find in Knuckles' 2024 Paramount+ series!

We hope you've enjoyed this group of Easter Eggs, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA (1996) - Easter Eggs

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:41:38 GMT

VGMP: I never thought he'd stoop this low!

Also known as Sonic the Movie, the Japanese OVA was actually a run at a possible series that never materialised, instead leaving us with two episodes hastily stitched into a "feature". And boy, did they push taste and decency for some of this.

Other than Robotnik chasing underage skirt, it's largely inoffensive. But unfortunately that story angle wound up kick-starting a long running VGMP joke of Sonic adaptations having to reference breast milk (which the 2020 Sonic movie also references).

SOUTH ISLAND

South Island is referenced here by name, and was also the Island that both versions of Sonic 1 take place on (Mega Drive original and Master System version). The version seen in the movie is largely unexplored, with just Sonic's little island home being focussed on a few times.

Sonic 1 on the Master System included a map of what the island is supposed to look like, and an updated 3D model of this was included in Sonic Origins.

ROBOTNIK'S EGG MOBILE / EGG-O-MATIC

This movie is a bit strange in that it features two flying Robotnik Egg-Mobile's, but one of them is driven exclusively by "Old Man" the Owl. That version is the most akin to an Egg Mobile from the games (very close to the Sonic 2 design), but Robotnik's main ship is a totally new design unrelated to anything seen in the game series.

CRABMEAT

One of Green Hill's first enemies, the Crabmeat Badnik has a small cameo at the beginning of the film - oddly Sonic sets it on Old Man to pinch him out of crying. Interesting side note are the blue flowers that resemble those of Green Hill zone and also Sonic's head.

TAILS' ISLAND RUNWAY

Something that wouldn't find it's way into the games until Sonic Adventure in 1998, Tails has a hidden runway built into the side of a cliff for launching the Tornado from. In Sonic Adventure, this would appear in Mystic Ruins just outside of Tails' Workshop. The scenery even moves aside as it does in this movie.

It is unknown if the filmmakers were aware of this upcoming idea from Sonic Team, or if Sonic Team were inspired by this movie. But it's a cool addition.

SONIC'S HOME

Sonic's Home is made out of lots of real world and sci-fi parts - something we will come back to later in this blog. His home seems to consist of, from top to bottom;

Voyager Satellite
Saturn V Rocket
Earth Satellite
Metro Train Cars
Starship Enterprise (Star Trek)
Boeing 747

LAND OF THE SKY

I did a lot of searching to try and find game connections from the Land of the Sky. The closest I could find is that, due to the design of the islands, there is a mild resemblance to the Floating Island - but as we saw from South Island these aren't unique enough to be a clear reference.

The city is certainly not reminiscent of anything Sonic, though the White House building is another allusion to America. We'll have more of these later, but we've already seen some real world connections in Sonic's House materials.

TORNADO

A quick and easy one, Sonic's plane - The Tornado - makes an appearance in this film. Sadly it is destroyed in the course of the story, however this again mimics the plane's fate in Sonic Adventure (1998). Did Sonic Team take a lot of inspiration from this OVA, or did the film creators have inside information on potential story plans for the upcoming Sonic game?

SONIC VS SARA

While Sonic and Tails journey to The Land of Darkness, Robotnik and Sara battle against each other on a holographic videogame.

The names have not been visually adapted to the Western names, so Robotnik is named Dr Eggman, and Sara is named Seira. Another cool nod to the games is Robotnik's victory jumps, which imitate his Sonic ending animations if you grab all of the Chaos Emeralds.

VIDEO GAME CONSOLE

We get a good shot of the console Robotnik and Sara are competing on, and we can see they are playing with Mega Drive controllers. The only issue is the console doesn't resemble any that I am aware of. I looked at Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast prototype models, but none seemed to match. The closest was a 1998 South Korean exclusive release of the Mega Drive seen below, but it's not close enough to be a definite reference;

https://consolevariations.com/collectibles/sega-new-mega-drive-console

SONIC CD INTRO

On arriving in the Land of Darkness, Sonic proceeds to hop across a vast plain and rocky terrain - even bending his body in similar poses to the Sonic CD intro. The world is darker this time, Tails is with him, and the animation style is different - but the clear similarity in camera angles, movement and poses make this a very obvious allusion to that famous intro sequence.

SPIKES

A very small reference, but only in one small clip from the montage across the Land of Darkness, Sonic has to hop over multiple small groups of spikes. They never recur in the rest of the movie, which is a bit of a shame. Could have added some peril to the second half of the movie.

SPRING

One solitary spring appears during the montage through The Land of Darkness. It's seemingly pointless since Sonic is later seen jumping up skyscrapers etc by himself, it would have been cool to have had more of these around to support Sonic's movements.

CRAWLTON

Sonic 2's Crawlton enemy enemy (from Mystic Caves) makes an appearance in this film - getting wrecked by Sonic in quick measure.

BUZZ BOMBERS

A battalion of Buzz Bombers from Sonic 1 appear to shoot at Sonic at the end of the Land of Darkness sequence.

NEW YORK CITY

When Sonic and Tails finally arrive in the abandoned city just outside of Robotnik's main lair, it's very clear that the city is New York. There is a building that looks akin to the Empire State Building, there are also a few potential candidates for the World Trade Center towers - a common feature in these movies prior to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 (They were also seen in Super Mario Bros 1993, and many other movies).

CADILLAC BROUGHAM

There are a few vehicles in New York/Land of Darkness, but the only one seen in much detail is the Cadillac Brougham seen above. The design of the trim and rear of the roof is a give away. The only thing not fully in line with the real car is the bonnet/hood - it's missing the large squared grill at the front.

METAL ROBOTNIK

While it's own unique version of the design, it is clear inspiration for Metal Robotnik came from the Death Egg Robot. The final boss in Sonic & Knuckles has a completely different aesthetic and there hadn't been many other mainline Sonic titles prior to 1996.

FLIPPING THE BIRD

Not a reference, but just putting an argument to bed. Sonic is very clearly flipping Robotnik the bird in this shot. Some of the US VHS copies of the movie had this slightly edited to change the finger being held up, but in the UK VHS and universal DVD releases it is clearly his middle finger.

Sonic has four fingers and a thumb on each hand in this anime, as can be seen in the prior image of Metal Robotnik among many. Count the knuckles either side - it's his middle digit that's extended.

EGGMANLAND

Not necessarily an Easter Egg, but the idea of a Robotropolis / Eggmanland etc has been in the series since it's inception.

SNAIL BLASTER

The last basic Badnik is the Snail Blaster from Sonic 3. These attack Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they enter Robotnik's base, forcing Knuckles to stay behind to deal with them. This was a cute inclusion in the film.

METAL SONIC

The main villain of the movie (other than Robotnik of course), this is Sonic CD's Metal Sonic design - clearly the Naoto Oshima title influenced a lot of this anime, as it seems to reference that title more than any other.

SONIC'S FAVOURITE CLOTHES

Okay, this isn't a reference. But Metal Sonic is supposed to have forced Old Man Owl to wear Sonic's favourite clothes. Tails even states that Sonic will be mad at him wearing his favourite outfit. But when has Sonic ever worn this getup? And how awful is this outfit? Contact us on the Discord and let us know if you would ever wear this!

EGGMAN CHIP

I'm not quite nerdy enough to know if this computer chip resembles the innards of a Sega machine (probably not). However the Eggman logo on the computer chip Tails removes is kinda cool.

KNUCKLES' HAT

Knuckles never had a hat before this anime, but the character Fang the Sniper / Nack the Weasel did. The hat designs are somewhat different, as the one worn by Knuckles here is an Australian style hat - fitting since Echidnas are Australian animals.

The hat has returned in various pieces of Sonic media, and personally I think it really suits him.

SONIC'S RECURRING SHOWCASE OF... BABY FEEDING

When we covered this on VGMP, Jamie and Rory were both shocked that this film dove into Robotnik chasing a underage girl, then disgusted when this still image appears - showing her actively breast feeding a baby Robotnik. We mocked it, we laughed at how absurd it was. Then breast feeding was referenced in the 2020 Hollywood movie... seriously why is this here?

SATURN

Final image of the set is this. I stitched this together from the vertical panning shot, showing Old Man Owl relaxing outside Sonic's Home (just before Metal Sonic attacks and forces him to wear Sonic's clothes). It's a beautiful artwork, and the large image of Saturn in the sky is a clear reference to the Sega Saturn console, which was Sega's main console in 1996 (certainly in Japan where it was surprisingly popular).

That's everything I could find for Sonic the Movie!

We hope you've enjoyed this look back through time, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

The Wizard (1989) - Easter Eggs

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 13:14:08 GMT

VGMP: AHH! He touched my refs!

I love The Wizard. It's so bad.

The first major disagreement between Rory and Jamie in VGMP, Rory fully recommended The Wizard as a movie, whereas Jamie fully rejected it. It's not hard to see why this movie caused such a rift of opinion - it genuinely tries to be a deeper and emotional story, but it's still a Nintendo marketing product (and an out of date one, at that).

One thing The Wizard does have, is a lot of videogame references.

DOUBLE DRAGON and PLAYCHOICE-10 ARCADES

As this film pre-dates the SNES, the story revolves around the NES instead. The issue is that this is an adventure movie - meaning the characters have to be travelling. The way around this was to use a lot of PlayChoice-10 arcade cabinets - Arcade exteriors that simply housed an NES inside. These were official, and included 10 selectable titles. Sega did much the same with the MegaTech Arcade cabinets (Housing Mega Drive/Genesis consoles).

The first game to appear in the movie isn't until about 15 minutes in - Double Dragon. There's some footage shown, too.

NINJA GAIDEN

At the beginning, we see a NES is built into a diner table, where we first see Jimmy play Ninja Gaiden. This game comes back throughout the film and is the penultimate challenge at the tournament.

VIDEO ARMAGEDDON ADVERT

This is an advert for the final tournament of the movie, with Nintendo's logo in the bottom left of the image. This is likely just made up for the movie, but it's an interesting visual nonetheless.

SUPER MARIO BROS 2

Super Mario Bros 2 gets shown across the film a few times, played by Christian Slater and Beau Bridges (whose journey is separate from the main three characters). In order to shoehorn this stuff in, apparently Christian Slater finds his brother's NES in the back of his father's truck.

UNKNOWN ARCADE GAME

At one point, early in the journey, Jimmy challenges these two salesmen to a game of whatever arcade title they're playing in order to win the trio some money. Sadly we never see this challenge unfold, and we never see what game they're playing on the machine either. Definitely doesn't help that there are no decals on the cabinet to help us identify it.

TOP SPEED - Wrong Cabinet

An oddity in this movie, we see the main trio getting bullied by older kids at a roadside cafe. Jimmy is playing on an arcade cabinet for F1 Dream, but oddly this isn't the game he is actually playing. The game on the screen (and we get game footage of) is actually Top Speed by Taito. The other oddity is that Top Speed was never put onto the NES, making this the official Taito arcade version. This makes it one of the few non-Nintendo titles showcased in this movie.

LUCAS' GAME STACK

When we're first introduced to rival player, Lucas, he shows off his large stack of NES games. Can you help us to identify them all?

Legend of Zelda (gold cart)
unknown
Duck Hunt
unknown
Metal Gear?
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
Super Mario Bros

NINTENDO POWER GLOVE

Cinema's most accurate quote, it's so bad. The Nintendo Power Glove was one of Nintendo's first attempts at motion controls on their home consoles. It was awful, barely ever worked and it's clear they faked the footage of Lucas playing with it in this movie. Nintendo would return to this idea with the Nintendo Wii which was much more popular, but not much better in practice.

RAD RACER

Square, later more famous for the Final Fantasy series, developed a racing game for the NES. The Wizard chooses this game for the first challenge against Lucas and his Power Glove accessory. We also see how bad the screen capture process was in this movie, as the full-screen capture is very washed out compared to the game footage visible on the screen when the camera is behind Lucas.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

This home version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was available on many home consoles of the time, at least in Europe. The Amiga version is undoubtedly a superior game. But in America, NES was pretty much the only game in town - as such it seems The Wizard were able to secure the rights to showcase the title in the movie.

NASTAR WARRIOR, FINAL ROUND

Halfway through the movie we get a one-off shot of this arcade/bar. It includes several arcade units, such as this unidentified pinball table. In the background we have three arcade cabinets. These were almost certainly brought by the film crew, as at least two of them appear in other scenes. The PlayChoice-10 arcade cabinet returns from the bus stop earlier in the movie (and will appear again in the Reno sequence), whereas Nastar Warrior (also known as Rastan Saga II) appears in the later Reno sequence too. I do not believe Final Round ever reappears, however.

NINTENDO HELPLINE

When we are first introduced to the Nintendo Helpline, we get a single passing shot of a few booths. This trio of screenshots doesn't include the guy the film focuses on, he'll be just below. The first guy here (in pink) is playing what appears to be TMNT, the second guy (in white) has an unknown title on his screen.

Between the second guy and the main Nintendo Helpline guy, we see two posters for Nintendo products tacked to the side of the office cubicles - one of which includes the famous "Now You're Playing With Power" slogan.

NINTENDO HELPLINE GUY

We get this yellow polo shirt wearing dude for a brief montage of this movie, but when we first meet him he has TMNT playing on his monitor, a Legend of Zelda hat (which he'll later be wearing) and a wall poster for NEX Game Magmax.

UNKNOWN GAME

I cannot identify the game playing on this guy's screen. This is supposed to be the same few seconds of conversation as the TMNT one above, but the game is clearly not TMNT. If you can help us identify the game I'd be grateful.

METROID JACKET

Only momentarily visible, but the Nintendo jacket this guy has on the back of his chair includes a large Samus artwork (from Metroid) on it.

NES STACK, PC

A few things happening in this shot. Firstly there is a sticker on the booth with the word BEER on it. I can't make out the rest.

Secondly there is a PC visible from this angle, but I cannot find any information on it. It has SEPCO written on the desktop base, but looking up SEPCO yields no results. Anyone know what computer this is?

Lastly there is a small stack of games on top of his NES monitor. I can't identify them all, anyone able to help?

unknown
Super Mario Bros
unknown
Legend of Zelda (gold cart)

GAME FOOTAGE

There's a montage sequence of Jimmy getting good at multiple NES titles. To save some time, I've bundled them into this one slider gallery. I can't figure out which game has the guy shooting into-the-screen, if anyone can let me know I'll update this blog.

Mega Man II
Metroid
RC Pro AM
unknown
Super Mario Bros 2
Contra

GHOULS N' GHOSTS

While hard to fully make out from the image, the arcade cabinet to the far left (behind Jimmy) is a Ghouls N Ghosts cabinet, I cannot make out the arcade machine in the background to the right. There is also another machine that seems to start with the title "NEW G" and could be NEW GAME? Sadly we never see the rest of the marquee to identify it.

CHINAGATE and TOP SPEED

That Top Speed arcade machine returns (on the right), which will be more obvious in the wide shot. The arcade machine on the left is a game called Chinagate, except it doesn't seem to be actually playing Chinagate, but some large-sprite beat-em-up. Chinagate is a smaller platform-fighter, and looks absolutely nothing like this game. Are you able to help us identify what game is being played on the left?

RENO ARCADE - CHINAGATE, PLAYCHOICE-10

Here's the wide shot, you can see ChinaGate at the front next to the F1 Dream cabinet (playing Top Speed). The oddity here is that ChinaGate is definitely the game in the ChinaGate cabinet in this shot.

You can see an unknown Data East cabinet to the far left, next to the Playchoice-10 arcade machine. In the background we can see the unknown arcade cabinet from earlier, an actual Top Speed arcade cabinet (with Jimmy playing it!) and the game Hippodrome just behind them.

Data East arcade game
Playchoice-10 cabinet
Top Speed (1987 - Taito)
Hippodrome (1989 - Data East)
Chinagate (1988 - Technos)
F1 Dream cabinet (1988 - Capcom) - playing Top Speed

BABY PAC-MAN, KAGEKI

Later in the Reno sequence we get some new angles of the arcade, where we can see a bit of the arcade cabinet for Baby Pac-Man to the left, and Taito game Kageki just behind Jimmy.

Baby Pac-Man
Playchoice-10 cabiner (Playing TMNT)
Kageki (1988 - Taito)
Nastar Warrior (1988 - Taito)

RENO ARCADE

The final shot of the Reno Arcade gives us a wealth of cabinets to look at. Some I can't make out, so please let us know if you are able to identify any of them.

From screen left to right;

Mehcanized Attack (1989 - SNK Corporation)
Arkanoid (1986 - Taito)
Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road (1989 - Leland Corporation)
Playchoice-10 cabinet
Baby Pac-Man (1982 - Midway)
Playchoice-10 cabinet (unknown game)
Kageki (1988 - Taito)
Nastar Warrior (1988 - Taito)
Robocop (1988 - Data East)
Unknown cabinet (next to girl in pink top)
Unknown cabinet (behind girl in yellow top)
Gondomania (1987 - Data East)
Punch-Out! (1983 - Nintendo)

VIDEO GAMES AND COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE

Does what it says on the tin, even if a shit name Magazine is seen in this movie - held here by Beau Bridges. He presumably takes it from Lucas from the preceding scene. Oddly, this copy of the magazine had a cover-story article about the Turbografx-16. In Japan the Turbografx-16 actually outsold the Famicom (The Japanese NES), making this an odd inclusion. I can only presume the filmmakers were so US-centric that they missed this glaring issue when making the film. Would have been akin to a movie glorifying the Sega Saturn including Playstation articles in it.

MAPPY

I could be wrong on this, and sadly it's on screen for all of half a second so there was little extra context, but I think this may be an intro to Mappy. If anyone can identify this NES game then please let me know.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS' MONSTERS

I'm not going to show every single one, but I've included four of Universal's references as they appear in this movie. Charlie Chaplin, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and King Kong. This is because the finale of the film takes place inside Universal Studios. Not shown here, but in the movie, are Woody Woodpecker and several others.

NINTENDO COMPETITION, NINJA GAIDEN ROUND

A selection of shots of the awesome competition location in the film, as well as the Ninja Gaiden round.

SUPER MARIO BROS 3

The big reveal of this movie was Super Mario Bros 3 - an excellently timed promotion piece that gave American viewers their first ever footage of the upcoming Mario title! A brilliant bit of marketing flair for both the movie and Nintendo themselves. It helps that the sets are also given more dramatic lighting to make this seem even more epic.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS PROMO

Not game related, but an oddity at the end of this movie are these two slides that are shown once the credits have rolled. I doubt anyone was still in the cinema this long after the credits began, but it's an interesting bit of history nonetheless. Oddly enough, no promo for Nintendo in this fashion. I guess the reveal of Super Mario Bros 3 was good enough.

That's a lot of references in such an old movie! I'll leave you with a screengrab of when one actor breaks the fourth wall and glares into the camera like a serial killer.

We hope you've enjoyed this look back through time, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

House of the Dead (2003) - Easter Eggs

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 21:11:36 GMT

VGMP: Why do I want eternal Life? To live forever!

The House of the Dead movie brings together two major events in film. It's the first foray by Uwe Boll into video game adaptations - the start of a terrible career. And it was the last ever movie to use the turn-table technique for 360 degree shots, as it was too dangerous to keep using - much like allowing Uwe Boll to have a film career.

This film doesn't have many proper references, instead lazily throwing in random micro-shorts from the first three House of the Dead games (in no particular order, for some reason).

SEGA BANNER

The only genuine reference, at the island rave there is a large SEGA banner above the DJ booth - SEGA is the company that made the House of the Dead games.

ZOMBIES

The zombies in this movie aren't very good. Thought I may as well show one so you can see they're not even remotely like the ones from the games.

INTRO CREDITS

The intro credits to this film are disgusting. They're essentially footage from House of the Dead games, but with a vile lineart style - which would be good if they didn't then smear them with a heavy motion blur effect. This is the best the intro ever looks, and yes this is from the HD Blu-Ray release.

HOUSE OF THE DEAD 1

House of the Dead 1 is shown several times, with Saturn-era graphics and the telltale tilted bullet design in the bottom left corner. This is just a selection of times the game is shown. There are more.

HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2

House of the Dead 2 is shown several times, with Dreamcast-era graphics. This is just a selection of times the game is shown. There are more.

HOUSE OF THE DEAD 3

House of the Dead 3 is shown several times, with Xbox-era graphics. This game only shows up at just before the 55 minute mark, and only very very briefly.

PRESS START BUTTON

There is one shot of House of the Dead 1 where they didn't even bother to record their own footage, just recorded the Attract Mode demo. I do not know why you'd keep footage in that displays this huge whopping demo mode text across the screen, but here it is.

And that's everything I caught in House of the Dead!

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie?

Are you a fan of the movie? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Joysticks (1983) - Easter Eggs

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 09:21:03 GMT

VGMP: I am half the reference you think I am!

The first appearance of Jon Gries in a video game culture movie, and he would return in Noobz (2012) to steal yet another movie. Joysticks is an awful comedy movie, attempting to cash in on cheap teen humour of the time with a big dose of objectifying women. But to it's credit, it does showcase a lot of great arcade cabinets from 1983, and all in fantastic condition too!

These screengrabs are ripped from the limited-run Blu-Ray release of the movie, which represents the best this film has ever looked. However this was a relatively low budget feature of it's time, so don't expect prestine visuals.

ARCADE GAME FOOTAGE

Joysticks generally sticks to footage of the two challenge games (seen later in this blog) and the live action shenanigans of the movie. However there are a few insert shots of games being played, and the intro sequence is a montage of a young girl playing arcade games (in an arcade we never see again) and the footage of multiple games being played. The only game in this list that is not from the intro is the original Pac-Man footage.

Worth noting, the game Jungle King was released in 1982 but had to be recalled for a name change to Jungle Hunt, due to litigation suggesting the main character was too close to the character Tarzan. This game was also later re-released with a pirate theme as Pirate Pete, with only minor graphical changes.

Pole Position (1982 - Namco) [There is a TV Series adapted from this game]
Moon Patrol (1982 - Williams Electronics/Irem)
Gorf (1981 - Midway)
Naughty Boy (1982 - Jaleco)
Ms Pac-Man (1982 - Namco/Midway)
Defender II Stargate (1981 - Atari)
Millipede (1982 - Atari)
Pooyan (1982 - Konami)
Scramble (1981 - Konami)
Jungle King / Jungle Hunt (1982 - Atari/Taito)
Frontline (1982 - Taito)
Pac-Man (1980 - Namco/Midway)

INTRO ARCADE

As mentioned above, the intro sequence is filmed in a completely different arcade to the rest of the movie, with a young woman playing the games who is never seen again. It is possible this footage was recorded as a proof-of-concept to gain funding for the full feature, which is why it never connects to the main narrative, and only serves as an intro point.

Behind the woman playing we can see a Pac-Man pinball machine to camera left, a Centipede machine to far camera-right and a Ms Pac-Man standee mounted to the wall behind her. When she whips her hair back (which she seems to do more than actually play the game) a pink ghost is seen behind her head.

INTRO ARCADE CABINETS

In a shot from behind the girl, we see four arcade cabinets - including the on she is playing. The intro montages footage of her gaming with game footage, she's clearly shown in live action to be playing Solar Fox - but Solar Fox's gameplay never makes an appearance on-screen.

Moon Patrol (1982 - Williams Electronics/Irem)
Solar Fox (1981 - Midway)
Burgertime (1982 - Data East)
Galaga (1981 - Namco/Sega/Majesco)

MAIN ARCADE

Now we arrive in the main location of the film - the Joysticks Arcade. On the platform is Pac-Man, Deluxe Space Invaders and (off-camera right) Qix.

On the main floor, in the background, we can see Defender and LeMans just behind that. To the left is Night Driver (more visible later) and Zarzon largely obscured by audiences.

Pac-Man (1980 - Namco/Midway)
Deluxe Space Invaders (1979 - Taito)
Qix (1981 - Taito)
Defender (1981 - Atari)
LeMans (1976 - Atari)
Night Driver (1976 - Atari)
Zarzon (1981 - Taito)

From another angle of the arcade, we see more machines. Battlezone to the far left, Wizard of Wor next to it. Then in the background we can see Bezerk, Defender (again) and Centipede. The machine to the right of Centipede is Night Driver, visible in the prior screengrab.

Battlezone (1980 - Atari)
Wizard of Wor (1980 - Midway)
Berzerk (1980 - Atari)
Defender (1981 - Atari)
Centipede (1981 - Atari)

When King Vidiot first arrives in the arcade, we can see a few more arcade cabinets closer to the main camera position. Galaga is to the far bottom-left, with an arcade cabinet of Carnival next to it (with the red and white cabinet). Behind Carnival is a cabinet I don't fully recognise. The artwork is similar to Battlezone's but the cabinet is sloped on the top (Battlezone isn't).

Battlezone (1980 - Atari)
Wizard of Wor (1980 - Midway)
Centipede (1981 - Atari)
Night Driver (1976 - Atari)
Zarzon (1981 - Taito)
LeMans (1976 - Atari)
Defender (1981 - Atari)
Pac-Man (1980 - Namco/Midway)
Deluxe Space Invaders (1979 - Taito)
Galaga (1981 - Namco/Sega)
Carnival (1980 - Sega)

An additional part of the arcade (not truly sure where this is in relation to the rest of it) with three additional arcade games. Gorf will play an integral part to the end of the story by convincing the Mayor to allow the arcade to remain open. Space Dungeon is the only one which never sees any screentime in the movie.

Ms Pac-Man (1981 - Namco/Atari/Midway)
Space Dungeon (1981 - Taito)
Gorf (1981 - Midway)

During the theft of the arcade machines, we get to see a game that never otherwise gets seen in the movie - Hustle. This was a 1977 arcade game by Gremlin Industries (Later Sega/Gremlin) and it is essentially the first ever version of the game Snake. Sadly we never get to see it in use.

Defender (1981 - Atari)
Hustle (1977 - Sega/Gremlin)

There is a section of the Arcade that is only ever shown twice, and includes a completely different array of arcade cabinets to the rest of the location. Sadly, most of these are obscured, with the only one that shows up clearly being StarCastle (the second from the left). It's possible the tallest cabinet to the camera-right is Battlezone, which would place these easily into the arcade. I was able to recognise Tempest and Missile Command from their cabinet decals.

Tempest (1981 - Atari)
StarCastle (1980 - Cinematronics)
Missile Command (1980 - Atari)
Battlezone (1981 - Atari)

The final shot of arcade machines is this flashback of the main character sleeping with his ex-girlfriend (nudity censored for obvious reasons). In the background of the shots you can see Pac-Man, Deluxe Space Invaders and Qix - a rare full shot of Qix's cabinet.

Pac-Man (1980 - Namco/Midway)
Deluxe Space Invaders (1979 - Taito)
Qix (1981 - Taito)

CLOSE UPS OF ARCADES

Just for additional fun, in some distance shots there are various arcades that are hard to make out, but are given close-ups to help us identify them. This is a small selection of photos to showcase the remaining arcades we see.

Defender (1981 - Atari)
Centipede (1981 - Atari)
Night Driver (1976 - Atari)
Zarzon (1981 - Taito)
Super Speed Race V (1978 - Taito)
LeMans (1976 - Atari)
Qix (1981 - Taito)

PAC-MAN SCENE TRANSITIONS

An interesting, but seldom used, scene transition occurs about 3 times in the movie. Pac-Man goes across the screen to wipe from one scene to another. There seems to be little rhyme of reason behind the transitions chosen, but it's a cool additional nonetheless.

AMERICANA ARCADE CABINET

An oddity in the movie, as I can't find evidence of this arcade cabinet existing. Americana is shown in action during the film - the main character uses it to strip girls he brings back to his bedroom (again, not a classy movie at all). It was impossible to snap a good shot of the cabinet that didn't also include nudity, but this is essentially a half-sized arcade unit, complete with unique decals. The gameplay itself appears to be a Pac-Man clone, however no such arcade seems to exist online. A 1958 physical arcade game shows up, but not this one.

Does anyone know if this cabinet was real, or was it invented for the movie?

SPRITE WALL ARTWORK

While a common feature on Etsy now, in 1983 having wallart in the style of pixels was not common. The Joysticks arcade appears to include several, including a Pac-Man one. These are just small background details, but definitely an interesting addition.

PAC-MAN - COLECO TABLETOP

The main character has to train for the finale battle using this portable copy of Pac-Man. It is seen in his bedroom, and briefly in this Mayor "court-room" scene. It is not used here, so it is an odd inclusion, but is used later.

SATAN'S HOLLOW

The filmmakers asked Midway for an as-yet unreleased Arcade game to showcase in this film. They were given Satan's Hollow. This is used in the first competition between King Vidiot and the grossout character of McDorfus. Unfortunately, by the time released in 1983, Satan's Hollow had already been released in 1982.

Satan's Hollow (1982 - Midway)

SUPER PAC-MAN

The final battle between King Vidiot and main character Jeff is on Super Pac-Man, an update to the classic Pac-Man formula with locked doorways, keys and scaling of Pac-Man's sprite between different sizes. Here's a few stills of that game in action.

Super Pac-Man (1982 - Namco)

And that's everything I caught in Joysticks!

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie?

Are you a fan of the movie? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Tron (1982) - Easter Eggs

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 20:11:14 GMT

VGMP: These go Tron and on and on and on...

Tron is an undisputed 1982 classic that had a major impact on 80's culture and gaming aesthetics as a whole. And yet, when we reviewed it, it turns out the movie itself is a big bag of style over substance. The main videogame the movie revolves around is Space Paranoids, and it is not a real game.

Several videogames were later made of Tron, but none of those appear in this movie.

FLYNN'S ARCADE

There's only one location that is full of video game references, and it is Flynn's Arcade at the beginning of the film.

The arcade machines I can spot include;

Battlezone (top middle)
Space Invaders (middle to left of white pillar)
Space Wars (to right of white pillar, where you can only see SPA)
Space War (mid-right)

More Arcade Cabinets;

Battlezone (top left) [IMG 1 only]
Super Bug (middle) [IMG 2 only, concealed by people in IMG 1]
Sprint 2 (right side above the man in the white shirt)

More Arcade Cabinets;

unknown game - seems to be called TART but nothing can be found online for it (left) [IMG 1]
M-79 Ambush (left) [IMG 2]
Scramble (second left) [IMG 2]
Zero Hour (left) [IMG 3]
Battlezone (middle) [IMG 3]
Asteroids Deluxe (left) [IMG 4]
Atari Basketball (mid-left) [IMG 5]
Bezerk (right) [IMG 5]

TRON ARCADE CABINETS

While these aren't real games, here's a few shots of the Lightcycle and Space Paranoia arcade cabinets.

And that's everything I caught in Tron (1982)! And as a final bit of fun, the words Gort Klaatu Barada Niktu are emblazoned on an office cubicle, which are the words from the alien "Gort" in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951).

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie? Are you a fan of the movie? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Video Game Earth Force (2006) - Easter Eggs

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 19:17:15 GMT

VGMP: They're references from the olden days.

The Controller / Video Game Earth Force, is a terrible film from 2006 with graphics that make the PS1 look like Advent Children.

Starring Bob Rue as William Fence, this film has become infamous within VGMP as it is the film that nearly caused Jamie to leave the show.

XBOX CONTROLLER

This movie is akin to Gamebox 1.0 and the later Noobz in that it has Microsoft support, so it is chock-full of Xbox references. The irony being that the Xbox 360 was already out by 2006, making all the game footage obsolete before the movie came out. As you can see above, the actor is using an original Xbox Controller S rather than anything Xbox 360 related.

XBOX HEADSET

The original Xbox headset is shown throughout the movie.

XBOX CONSOLE and FAKE XBOX GAME

While the game is fake, the boxart design is akin to authentic games of the period, and the original Xbox is on show underneath the TV.

KNARF37's BASEMENT

There are several non-gaming related media in the basement, including;

Jay and Silent Bob figurines on the table.
Buzz Lightyear figurine
Yoda figurine
Transformers Figurines, in box, below the TV.

ULTIMATE GAMER CHAIR

Never heard of this brand before, but with how low effort everything else is in this movie, I don't believe it's a made-up brand. However it doesn't seem to be going anymore, and it's hard to find any information on it as the brand name is so generic that it just brings up more contemporary gaming chairs.

KNARF'S DRINKS MACHINE

Okay, not necessarily gaming related. But, like Noobz (2012) this movie has managed a promo deal with PepsiCo and their Mountain Dew range of drinks. How are these low budget movies always securing this stuff with big brands?

SOUTH PARK PLUSHIES

A variety of late 90's South Park plushies from Seasons 1 and 2 are visible in a few shots of Knarf37's basement. Not gaming related per se, but an interesting inclusion.

XBOX 360 WEBSITE

As stated, the film constantly shows off original Xbox hardware despite being released in 2006. The Xbox 360 was released in the US in November 2005. The only reference to this comes from an over-the-shoulder view of the official Xbox 360 website of the era in this one scene. Because all of the "main cast" were filmed in separate locations, it is possible there was a large span of time between recorded sequences. This would make the Athena scenes among the last to be filmed.

And that's everything I caught in the Controller / Video Game Earth Force! As a final good gesture, check out Bob Rue's awful socks in the screengrab below.

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie? Do you own any socks worse than these? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Gamebox 1.0 (2004) - Easter Eggs

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:49:38 GMT

VGMP: Cops don't even stop for references 'round here.

Gamebox 1.0 is an odd 2004 movie starring the guy who played Harvey in Sabrina the Teenage Witch. You could technically call it a dramatic horror, if any of it was dramatic or a horror. As you can see from the shot above, the details were so vital to this film that there's a guy at "work" just staring at a blank screen.

Regardless of the low budget nature of the film, there are still a surprising number of references hidden in this movie.

XBOX CONTROLLER & GAMES

Like a strange homage to the TV Series "24", which started in 2001, the intro of the film does this 4-way split of gaming and intro credits.

We'll go into the games a bit more later, but the top right of the screen first showcases footage from the original Halo game, then Riddle of the Sphinx, while Test Drive plays in the bottom right. All of these are original Xbox games - with an OG Xbox Controller S shown in the top left.

MIDTOWN MADNESS 3, NFL FEVER 2003, RALLISPORT CHALLENGE

Advertising Posters for Xbox games;

A poster is seen in a young man's bedroom at the start of the movie, advertising Midtown Madness 3. This poster is seen at other times of the movie, and it is never particularly clear. However comparing it to the original boxart makes it clear that it is this title.
We also see that he has a poster for NFL Fever 2003 - a popular American Football game of the time.
On his bedside is the box and manual for Rallisport Challenge on the original Xbox.

LIVING ROOM REFERENCES

There's quite a lot of gaming references visible in the main character's flat. They're littered around and obscured by other items such as VHS tapes and picture frames, but each picture includes the following;

As he sits playing an OG Xbox with an XBox Controller S, we can see a box for an OG Xbox to the right of the screen, and an unknown Xbox game atop the TV.
From behind him, we can see a slimline Playstation One console, the boxart for Test Drive (Platinum Hits version) under and Xbox controller and another unknown Xbox game under the PS1 controller.
There's a poster on his front door that says High Speed Gaming Arena and shows what appears to be American Football players armed with lightsabers. I do not know what game this could be.
Finally, as we look from a top-down view from the TV we can see a large sized PC Box for a LucasArts game.

BRUTE FORCE and UNKNOWN PAUSE SCREEN

Gamebox 1.0 frequently showcases a pause screen across multiple games the main character is shown to be playing. I have tried for a long while, as I feel I recognise it, but cannot seem to find a match. Any ideas?

There's also a poster in his room for Brute Force of the OG Xbox.

HALO POSTER

A poster for the original Halo is seen on the wall of the main character's workplace (on the right). This looks like a special render, not often used in promotional art of the era.

CONCEPT ART

The main character is shown to work for a video game company, and there's loads of concept art strewn across the kitchen. These are all quite high quality and in various different styles, which would suggest they are legitimate concept art from different games. Can you guys recognise any?

XBOX NEON SIGN, CONTROLLERS

In his workplace, we can see an array of TVs (usually playing original Halo, and other video clips that are repeated throughout the movie). There are multiple posters here, including repeats of the Midtown Madness 3 poster, NFL Fever 2003 and also a new one for Blinx. There are also Playstation and Xbox controllers visible in these shots.

SNOWBOARDING AND ATARI

Behind this guy is a screen that appears to show a snowboarding game? Below that TV are two stacks of Atari 2600 games. I can't make all of them out but the ones I can discern are;

Asteroids
Sea Battle
Horse Racing
NFL Football

STAR WARS - REBEL ASSAULT

A stack of PC games are on this desk, including a copy of Star Wars Rebel Assault. There's several Star Wars games in the pile, but most are hard to make out.

SHADOWDOME WARRIOR

The top right corner of this shot includes the title on a poster for Shadowdome Warrior. I looked up this game online but could find no evidence of it. Is this a game that was cancelled? It could be invented for the movie, but considering everything else is legitimate, it seems unlikely.

GAMEBOY ADVANCE SP and MARIO KART SP

The main character is seen playing Mario Kart on a Gameboy Advance SP at the diner. This is the only time Nintendo products make an appearance in this movie.

HALO MULTIPLAYER

The time before Halo had online gaming, the original Halo had a split-screen multiplayer mode. It was also a little unfair in 3 player, as Player 1 would have twice the screen width to play in.

MEGA DRIVE / GENESIS CONTROLLER

Only visible in this shot, a Mega Drive controller is on the top shelf of this metal racking. This is an oddity as there is no other Sega paraphanlia in the entire movie.

BOSS' OFFICE

Across this boss' office includes a book on PGA Golf, a copy of PC Gamer on his desk (by his laptop) and what appears to be Tekken artwork on the unit by the door. As the camera moves around, an Xbox Controller S is still in it's blister packaging near the PGA Golf. Then behind the boss, we can see the legs of a large scale Halo standee.

BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

Among the artworks in the Boss' office includes an image from the Ubisoft title Beyond Good and Evil in the bottom left. We also get a closer look at the Brute Force poster above.

RAINBOW SIX 3

A poster for Rainbow Six 3 is visible in the work kitchen late into the movie.

MEGAMAN X2, METROID and MORE

The kitchen has a lot of artwork from various games, including Megaman X2 behind the main character's head, and Samus from Metroid Prime to the right. There are also other character artworks to the left and above Megaman X2 which I was unable to identify.

TEST DRIVE

Because I'm insane, I got frustrated at not being able to identify the driving game on the Xbox - considering there were so few. Eventually I was able to get a close approximation in Test Drive, but the image stretching and cut off of information still made it difficult. I took a screengrab and used Photoshop to match the discolouration with the clip from the movie.

And that's everything I caught in Gamebox 1.0!

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie? Are you a fan of the movie? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Noobz (2012) - Easter Eggs

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:14:29 GMT

VGMP: Thank you for riding DeezRefs.

Noobz is an attempt to create an edgy comedy akin to Adam Sandler in his prime. Sadly it lacks the comedic timing, the writing and the production values to pull off such a feat. In the screenshot above you can see the pathetic attempt to add sex appeal to a movie by hastily taking a pair of scissors to the poor actress' tanktop. It's not even a clean line!

Released for a limited blu-ray run in Germany (of all places), Noobz still somehow manages to pack in references from (and sponsorship by) the following video game (and video game related) companies;

CBS Interactive
Microsoft Corporation
Epic Games Inc
Triforce Sales LLC
Apple Inc
GAEMS
CompuExpert
Game Informer
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc
Play N Trade
Majesco Entertainment Company
Square Enix
Penny Arcade
Lucasfilm Ltd
Digital Interactive Systems Corp.
Konami
Midway
Mortal Kombat
Warner Bros Entertainment Inc
Final Fantasy
Tomb Raider

Let's go through all the references shown visually in Noobz!

XBOX 360 Console and Controllers

Because of the Microsoft and Epic Games connections, this film is almost stacked with Xbox hardware and peripherals. From the off we are given a little demo of the gamer guy posture. We are also shown multiple variations of Xbox 360, including the 2006 Emergence Day special edition for Gears of War, Gears of War replacement fascias (only possible on the original 360 designs) and even a few shots of the later Xbox 360 Slim models.

There are also several closeups of controllers in various colours, which also seem to include thumbstick covers - possibly given by one of the many sponsors.

GEARS OF WAR

Another benefit of Microsoft and Epic Games sponsorship is the heavy inclusion of Gears of War. This series is referenced everywhere throughout the movie.

There are wall posters across the film, the CogTag Medallion is used as a magnet on a wall-calendar. Large scale standees adorn the backgrounds of game stores and the tournament venue. We see characters in Gears of War T-Shirts, Beanie Hats, Laptop/Gaming Cases - even a wallet in a store.

There's also someone holding a sealed copy of the Platinum Hits version of the game.

OG XBOX, WII and FORZA

One of the main characters works in a gaming store (a surprisingly popular location in these kinds of movies), which includes a large scale Forza standee, and several shelves of used original Xbox, Gamecube and Nintendo Wii titles. Visible games include;

Ben 10 (Wii)
Sega GT 2002 (Xbox)
Rollercoaster Tycoon (Xbox)
Simpsons Hit and Run (Xbox - Platinum Hits)
unknown poker game (Xbox)
unknown driving game (Xbox)
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Xbox)
Bruce Lee - Quest of the Dragon (Xbox)
Onechanbara (Wii) [FILM ADAPTATIONS EXIST]
Playground (Wii)
MX Unleashed (Xbox)
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (Xbox)
unknown Wii game (Wii)
4x4 Evo 2 (Xbox)
Metal Slug 4 (Xbox)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Xbox)
The Warriors (Xbox)
Fantastic 4 (Xbox)

BLOODRAYNE 2

Bloodrayne 2's poster makes several appearances throughout the film, but it is very difficult to grab cleanly in one full screengrab. This was one of the closest I could get, even though it is out of focus here.

Bloodrayne has 3 feature film adaptations - keep an eye on VGMP for our coverage on them.

FINAL FANTASY

The Final Fantasy series sees several blink-and-you'll-miss-it references throughout the film. A couple of Game Guides are on display in the video store, as well as a couple of hard-to-see posters throughout the movie.

There are several Final Fantasy adaptations we've covered on VGMP, with even more to come.

WAKFU

Wakfu is an MMORPG series released on Microsoft platforms, but it seems a niche choice compared to the other prominent series on display here. Wakfu also has two animated series based on it, keep an eye out for when VGMP get round to covering them.

You can also just see part of the Bloodrayne 2 poster, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3 and what appears to be a Halo Legend poster - we covered Halo Legend on VGMP back in 2022.

MORTAL KOMBAT, FINAL FANTASY, TOMB RAIDER

In one of the main character's rooms, we can see two Mortal Kombat standees (Kitana and Sonya, in fact the Sonya one was slightly visible in the game store too), a poster with a red haired girl which appears to be a Final Fantasy poster, and another poster for the reboot of the Tomb Raider series.

Also, there are Halo Reach character models on his desk.

MASTER CHIEF'S HELMET

In one shot of the gaming store, we can see Master Chief's helmet atop a display cabinet. This helmet was part of a limited edition collector's edition of Halo 3, and the helmet houses space for 3 or 4 Halo games inside.

FORZA MOTORSPORT 2

The irate customer returning a "broken game", is returning a copy of Forza 2. This would suggest the standee from earlier is for the original title, as the artwork doesn't match this case and booklet design.

ARMAGREGGON'S TATTOO

This may be a reach, but above you can see the back of a character who calls himself Armagreggon - we quote him all the time on VGMP (and is basically the only gift the film has to offer). He is an original 80's Frogger champion, however he has this very interesting tramp-stamp tattoo. This doesn't seem to resemble anything Frogger related (which is a shame) but it's hard to tell if it's referencing any other arcade game. Any ideas?

GEARS OF WAR COSPLAY

There's a lot of larger scale Gears of War merch around the movie.

When the main characters arrive at the competition, there is a Carmine cosplay outside in the carpark, as well as inside the venue for some cutaway shots.

There's also a head bust of a Locust by the entrance elevator to the venue.

Full scale Lancer gun models are also visible in a few shots, including a golden Lancer behind the show's host in one shot.

There's also a large Gears of War cheque for the winning team, and a larger-than-life scale Marcus Phoenix kneeling sculpture at the tournmament.

HALO REACH

Halo Reach is not only shown by figurines on someone's desk (see earlier) but it also makes an appearance with this insane promotional wall featuring the main Halo Reach characters.

ARCADE CABINETS

Four arcade cabinets are seen at the gaming tournament. Unfortunately it seems like this was the place where money was scrimped, even with an Arcade machine hiring company and Konami both named in the credits.

To the furthest left is Missile Command, an official looking cabinet but the game never plays, always showing an Out of Order sign on the machine.
Next to it is Frogger, which sadly appears to be a custom/unofficial cabinet. No decals on the sides, the main banner looks fake - considering it's the main retro arcade cabinet of the movie it would have been nice to see a real cabinet.
Galaga stands beside it, and from certain angles we can see it is working. Unfortunately it is given no screen time, so is essentially just a prop.
Finally there's Centipede to the furthest right, however we barely get to see it and the screen is never shown on-screen.

FROGGER PROPS AND VFX

There is one screen transition that uses an oversized Frogger sprite. There is also a tournament scoreboard that uses the same image as the sprite to represent the players in the tournament.

And that's everything I caught in Noobz!

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie? Are you a fan of the movie? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Pixels (2010) - Easter Eggs

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:44:46 GMT

VGMP: 3D Pixels are actually called Voxels

Before Adam Sandler got his pizza-cheese encrusted fingers on the property, PIXELS existed as an experimental French independent film.

While set in Manhattan, this movie stars some very European-centric videogame references.

For those who wish to watch the short, you can do so for free here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB7iK-BZ7iM&pp=ygULcGl4ZWxzIDIwMTA%3D

BASIC (Coding Language)

The short begins with a coding reference. BASIC was a coding language common in the early to mid 80s, and was even available on SEGA's first home computer - the Sega SC3000. While this names the language as BASIC, the blue background with yellow font reminds me more of MS DOS.

ATARI BOMB

An interesting reference, the Atari Bomb is a reference to the Atari ST. The number of bombs on screen indicated the severity of an error on the computer.

One Atari Bomb would indicate a need to reset.

We see this bomb twice. Just before the story begins, appearing on the dumped CRT TV. And a 3D Voxel/Pixel model that leads to the film's conclusion.

SPACE INVADERS

The classic Arcade shoot-em-up, Space Invaders, is one of the first video games directly referenced in the film. We see these guys several times, including in an added scene of them shooting the Hollywood Sign.

COMMODORE

This is the first reference that reveals the European origins of this movie. While Commodore did have an American presence, they were much more popular in Europe - with the Commodore Amiga series of home computers leading the breakbeat, techno and rave music scenes of the late 80s.

The logo above the subway is the official logo of the company itself.

PAC-MAN

Pac-Man gets some strong representation in this film. He has a Subway Traffic video, which has been modified to show Pacman eating the "pellets" that make up each subway stop. He also appears physically in the subway with a small sticker on the wall (to camera right) with his logo referencing Rodenticide.

Finally, one of the Subway stairwells has a poster of Pacman's Cherry collectable.

OCEAN

Another European-centric gaming reference, again on a Subway billboard. Ocean Software were a British (Manchester based) company that were known for licenced-titles such as Rambo III. At the time, they were one of the biggest developers and publishers of the late 80s/early 90s.

They were folded into part of Infogrames in 1998, which itself has been folded into Bandai Namco.

PSYGNOSIS

Another British developer, famous for it's unique artwork, Shadow of the Beast and Lemmings (to name a few). Psygnosis were known as one of the most artistic companies making games for the Commodore Amiga, and were eventually bought out and absorbed into Sony in 1993.

They continued on as Sony Studio Liverpool, making the Wipeout and Formula One franchises, until they were merged into the rest of Sony in 2012.

TETRIS

The Soviet classic makes a well deserved appearance, matching up lines and deleting floors of apartment building across the Manhattan skyline. This was copied verbatim in the 2015 Adam Sandler remake.

ARKANOID and ATARI

Arkanoid put in an appearance, delting bricks from the Brooklyn Bridge until it begins to collapse under it's own weight. A version of this scene was remade in the 2015 movie, with Arkanoid deleting the Taj Mahal instead of the New York bridge.

In the background you can also see the Atari logo emblazoned atop another skyscraper building.

DONKEY KONG

Towards the end of the movie, we see Donkey Kong throwing barrels onto the street from the Empire State Building. This is one of the few shots where you can see the building is CGI, due to the low resolution textures.

FROGGER

Akin to the road section of the original game, we catch a glimpse of Frogger jumping across the road in front of pixelated cars. Sadly we don't get to see more than this.

ASTEROIDS

The final reveal is that the now perfectly cubed Earth is just a pixel in the background of a game of Asteroids - a game that didn't use pixels to generate it's graphics and instead uses Vector lines to draw the game (This is the reason it has no colours).

And that's everything visible in the 2 minute short film. They really managed to pack a lot in to such a short timeframe.

What do you think of these? Did you spot these when you watched the movie? Where do you think this movie could have gone, if fleshed out as a feature, other than the Sandler version? Join our Discord on the link below and let us know!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

Super Mario Bros (1993) - Easter Eggs

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 19:35:00 GMT

VGMP: Come on it's time to go! Reference Mario!

You'll be hooked on the brothers! UH!

Super Mario Bros 93 was the first major Hollywood production based on a single existing game franchise, and it gained a reputation that tainted video game adaptations for the next 30 years!

Many negatives thrown at the film were the tech-noir aesthetic, adapting the cutesy games into such a hardened sci-fi (and even not sticking the landing with that) and - largely - the lack of game references the film includes. Many took the film at face value and failed to notice just how SMB 93 is dripping in references to the Mario franchise.

So join us on a journey, as we showcase all the confirmed connections to the game series. If you want to see more connections, you can visit the official fansite for the movie here; https://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/specials/references.htm

MARIO MARIO

Let's start with the basics, the main man himself - Mario!

Played beautifully by Bob Hoskins (who infamously hated this movie), Mario's first big-screen adventure comes with a slice of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in Hoskin's eccentric performance. This is also the movie that canonised the name Mario Mario for the first time (since confirmed by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto).

LUIGI MARIO

Played by emerging lead, John Leguizamo, Luigi Mario is played as an adopted brother to Mario in this movie. Much younger, more hot-headed and brash.

This film, as with Mario, established Luigi's full name as Luigi Mario. Very different to modern portrayals of Luigi as a coward, because that element to his character didn't materialise until several years after this film was released, the only downside is he is lacking his iconic moustache.

KING KOOPA

King Koopa is a strange redesign in this movie. Played by the legendary Dennis Hopper, the infamous turtle-dragon is missing his reptilian features for most of the film and acts as more of a President Trump figure (decades prior to that infamous Presidential term). His hair is slicked back into bleached-blonde spikes and his outfit is black lizard-skin in design. This was because the costume and set designers bore in mind that mammals didn't exist in this universe, so there are no mammal skins anywhere across Dinohattan.

This odd design for Dennis Hopper's Koopa is not completely without merit, however. The first several artworks for Koopa/Bowser for the original Super Mario Bros game included a grey skin and blonde mohawk look for the character. This was soon changed to the more recognisable Bowser design we know of today, but it's likely Hopper's Koopa is based more akin to this early design.

PRINCESS DAISY

Well excuuuuse me, Princess! Daisy's character design in this is an amalgamation of the Princess Peach and Princess Daisy designs. In the West, Peach was still known only as Princess Toadstool - so it's possible that this name was considered either too on-the-nose or ridiculous for the leading lady. Super Mario Land on the Gameboy was released in 1989 and included Princess Daisy.

There are multiple other references to Super Mario Land in this film, including some locations name-dropped in the film itself. Could we have potentially seen a Princess Peach in the sequel that the film hinted at, but never got made?

TOAD

Toad is an oddity in this film, as he has two forms. Firstly he appears as a guitar-playing musician, singing for Koopa's overthrow. The second he is transformed into a Goomba - assumedly representing his "mushroom" form akin to Goomba's. This might have worked if the Goomba's in this film actually looked anything like the original characters. Still, his pre-devolved form looks pretty awesome and even includes his blue waistcoat!

As a bonus reference, in early drafts of the script this character was named Lemmy - likely a dual-reference to the Motorhead vocalist and Lemmy the Koopaling from Super Mario Bros 3.

IGGY and SPIKE

This villainous duo are based on two unconnected characters from Super Mario Bros 3. Iggy is one of the Koopa Kids/Koopalings and Spike is just a random enemy from that game. I don't know why these two in particular were chosen to be paired up, especially as their character designs never resemble the original characters. Iggy never gets the multicoloured mohawk or the swirly eyes. Spike is a little closer, only insofar as his hair (shaven at the sides) sometimes resembles that of the original character.

Two cool references, even if the pairing itself makes relatively little sense. Why not two Koopa Kids?

BIG BERTHA

She's a man-eater! Based on the big fish from Super Mario Bros 3, the game character returns multiple times in the games (Including Super Mario 64 after this). In the film, her man-eater credentials are played in a very different way, with Mario having to use his mouth to untangle a meteorite necklace from betwixt her bosom.

Like Iggy and Spike, she eventually turns good and helps the Mario Brothers when they need to escape the Boom Boom Bar.

YOSHI

The dinosaur of legend appears in SMB 93 as an absolutely incredible animatronic puppet. SMB 93 would have won awards for it's effects if it weren't for the unfortunate arrival of Jurassic Park that same year. However, Yoshi is an entire puppet - far more complex than any of the dinosaur props seen in Jurassic Park.

Is he much like the game character? Well, he's the same shape. But he's smaller than the game character, and while he uses his extending tongue on villain Lena, he never converts anything into an egg.

DANIELLA / PAULINE and SCAPELLI / DONKEY KONG

Pauline was Mario's kidnapped girlfriend in the original Donkey Kong arcade game. In early versions of SMB 93's script, Mario's film girlfriend Daniella's middle name was Pauline. This was because she was intended to be kidnapped by Scapelli once he had been de-evolved into a huge monkey - Mario would then have to save her by scaling a construction site.

Where this scene now sits in the movie, adding a Donkey Kong re-enactment would delay the main narrative. Scapelli's construction site remains, as does his de-evolution into an ape - but this time he's a small monkey. Both a shame for the loss of the original plan, but also an understandable one.

THE MUSHROOM KING

Trust the Fungus! Yes, Lance Henrickson appears for all of twenty seconds in this film, apparently a favour to the producer. The fungus of the city magically transforms back into the Mushroom King, not dissimilar to transforming the Mushroom King back to humanoid form in Super Mario Bros 3.

LARRY LAZARD

Koopa again? Yes, but also a bit no. The first time Koopa meets the Mario Brothers in SMB 93, he conceals his identity and pretends to be their lawyer - naming himself Larry Lazard. Larry was the name of another Koopa Kid/Koopaling from Super Mario Bros 3.

BOB-OMB

The most famous/infamous character in the film, due to the blatant product placement from it's Reebok shoes. The Bob-Omb in this is a massive explosive bomb, that moves based on a platic toy walking mechanism. Despite the short length of it's fuse, it takes about 5 minutes for it to actually go off!

BANZAI BILL

Named as a Bullet Bill in the movie, the open mouth design actually lines up more with the shape of a Banzai Bill. Bullet Bill's often include arms in their designs, whereas both this bullet and the Banzai Bill's do not.

These are used to fuel the Thwomper Stomper boots, allowing the wearer to jump large distances.

FAKE MARIO

Just an odd aside - only when Mario, Luigi, Iggy and Spike enter the Boom Boom Bar together, you can spot a fake Mario standing at the bottom-right of the frame for just a few seconds. Kind of funny there's a more game-accurate Mario costume in the movie, even if Hoskins isn't the one to wear it.

FIRE SNAKE and BULLET BILL

When the Brothers first enter Dinohattan, we get this beautiful panning up shot of the city. We see the entrance to a place called Bullet Bills (shame we never get to see it's interior) and a neon sign for FireSnake. To the left of the image I have overlaid images of the two enemies these reference. Firesnake was a jumping "snake" of fireballs in Super Mario Bros 3, whereas Bullet Bill's have been seen across the Mario series. As mentioned in the Banzai Bill section, they have always included arms in their design.

HAMMER BROS

Another long-time staple of the Mario series, the Hammer Bros are immortalised in this movie as a tattoo parlour on the main promenade.

SHYGUY

Barely visible until the Blu-Ray release, the word ShyGuy (as well as Toad) appears.

There has been an argument made previously that the fungus cleaners at the police station also resemble Shyguy's somewhat - although their faces more resemble gas masks. But this graffiti is an undeniable connection.

WART / FROG MARIO

This could be either, or neither. Across Dinohattan there is this green neon frog symbol. It is never connected to anything specific. This could either be a reference to Wart from Super Mario Bros 2 (he was a known character, as he had a cameo appearance in an earlier draft of the script), or to the Frog Suit worn by Mario in Super Mario Bros 3.

FRY GUY FLAMETHROWERS

Based on the living flame enemy in Super Mario Bros 2. It is uncertain if these refer to the flamethrower guns we see Koopa using throughout the film, or different weapons - but it's a cool easter egg nonetheless.

REX / REXX

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it neon sign from the police car chase. This sign could be a typo, considering the enemy is actually called Rex, however it is cool to see this Super Mario World enemy appear in the movie in some small capacity.

OSTRO

The Shyguy's of Super Mario 2 didn't just come after you on foot, sometimes they came in riding a big bird. What was the name of that bird? Ostro.

As you can see in the background of this shot (and visible in the main area of the film sometimes too) Ostro is immortalised as a red neon sign in the movie.

BIRDO

This includes a confirmed reference, and a theoretical one.

The mother who shouts at a punk "Don't touch my baby!" is theoretically considered to be a reference to Birdo. She has facial markings and carries an egg.

The confirmed reference wasn't seen until the Blu-Ray and 4K Theatrical Trailer remasters, where we can just make out that the taxi service across Dinohattan is called BIRDO TAXI's. Interestingly, the bird head that is just barely visible in the bottom left is more akin to the original Ostro art than Birdo.

SNIFIT

Snifit was seen in Super Mario Bros 2, and seems to have heavily inspired the design of the sludge-gulper crews working around Dinohattan. The one above was subdued with a toilet plunger, and finished off with a wrench to the back of the head by Mario - pretty sure that would have killed him.

WIGGLER and BOWSER'S CAVE

Wiggler Malt Liquor is seen across this film, including advertised atop a taxi and on a big sign as the Mario Bros escape the Boom Boom Bar (just before jumping in the sludge gulper). Wiggler was an enemy caterpillar first seen in Super Mario World and just after this film in Super Mario 64.

Another cool reference is the projected dance videos behind the dancers. For this brief scene, it plays an animated sequence of growing and shrinking Bowser's Cave sprites from Super Mario World. It's a great visual effect and an oft-missed reference to the game series.

FISHBONE

An enemy fish skeleton first seen in Super Mario World. This is most visible just after Mario and Luigi exit the sludge gulper (just after the Boom Boom Bar escape) and look up at the Koopa Tower.

THWOMP

Thwomp gets a lot of references in this film, not least because of the Thwomp Stomper shoes that allow characters to jump large distances.

These shoes are immortalised across the film in signage too, including a marble-effect wall art and a large yellow & red neon sign in the main shopping district of Dinohattan.

The best reference is briefly visible when Lena enters the train station with the rock (to betray Koopa). We get a close-up shot of this large Thwomp sign (which looks like paper or cardboard in HD). This artwork also shows that the film designers used the official Thwomp artwork from Super Mario World in the heel of the sole. A wonderful additional touch.

GOOMBA, KOOPA TROOPA and COBRAT

The only clear shot of all three, and the Koopa Troopa head is still a bit concealed by the first Goomba. In the film these are all collectively called Goomba's.

It's also worth noting that Koopa knocks all these guys over in one-punch, similar to how you can kill multiple enemies with one shell in Mario games.

Famously Goomba's have huge heads and tiny bodies. In this film, they have huge bodies and tiny heads.

The Koopa Troopa design includes a snout, more akin to the Koopa Troopa design.

Cobrat was a single-headed red snake from Super Mario Bros 2 and usually appeared in sand levels, likely inspiring the snake-headed "Goomba's" seen here.

SPARK

Various sources call the black electronic orb Spark, Sparks or Sparky. Either way, it's clear which one the production designers went with in this film. Clearly visible above Lena as she crosses Dinohattan in search of the meteorite piece. The red sign next to SPARKY was impossible to make out before. Using Photoshop to increase contrast and decrease brightness reveals that this text simply is stylish font for the word Lil'

ROTO-DISC

Even this Super Mario Bros 3 enemy made an appearance in the movie - it doesn't even have a face!

According to production designer David L. Snyder, the Roto-Discs are reimagined as the energy-conversion engines used in Dinohattan's cars.

BOO DIDLEY

Sometimes called Boo Diddley, or Boo Diddly - this was one of the first Boo appearances from Super Mario Bros 3.

This was a reference to the rock star Bo Diddley. It is only really visible in the HD release from this one shot - also gives us an alternative sign for Ostro.

BOOM BOOM

The famous Boom Boom Bar from the movie, there aren't many shots where the entire sign is visible - also none of the big neon text inside the bar. While trying to capture it for this, I realised that they turn the big pink bar sign of BOOM BOOM BAR off when the Mario Bros' are throwing the rock to one another (likely to make it easier to see the rock in motion).

Boom Boom was a villain introduced in Super Mario Bros 3.

CLOWN COPTER

A clear Clown Copter reference is seen with this industrial machine in Dinohattan. The first part of Mario and Koopa's fight sequence takes place on here, and it is also the place Koopa eventually fully de-evolves into a dinosaur and then into slime.

BRIDGE BOSS FIGHT

Following the first fight on the Clown Copter, Mario and Koopa showdown on a bridge in the middle of Dinohattan. This is a very clear reference to the boss fights seen in the first Super Mario Bros game. If only there had been a moment Mario jumped over him and used an axe to drop Koopa into lava.

TITLE LOGO

This may be coincidental, however the title logo for in-movie TV Show "Our Miraculous World" bears a striking resemblance to the Super Mario Bros logo from the first game. Though the basic nature of the design could make this coincidence instead of intended.

KOOPA SPIKED WALLS

The iconic spiked walls of Bowser's castles in Super Mario Bros 3 were brought into the set design for SMB 93, and they look fantastic!

QUESTION MARK BLOCK

The question mark block gets a small cameo appearance inside the police car, when Luigi tries to hack the internal computer.

SNES SUPER SCOPE

The SNES' main lightgun was a large rocket-launcher shaped device, called the Super Scope.

SMB 93 took several Super Scopes and modified them to make them longer, darker in colour and added a sniper scope. This is a really cool redesign of the original peripheral! These are used as portable de-evolution guns later in the film.

MARIO'S CEMENT FACTORY

I concede that this is purely coincidental. SMB 93 was filmed at a location called Ideal Cement Factory, a disused cement plant. This is why the sets look so good, they're all real! By chance, Mario had released a portable Game & Watch game called Mario's Cement Factory in the 80's.

SARASA LAND

Sarasa Land was the country Mario visits in Super Mario Land, when he first meets Princess Daisy. It's fitting, then, that we should be in Sarasa Land during the events of SMB 93, although it is slightly altered to SaurasaLand because of Dinosaurs in the film's scripts.

KOOPAHARI DESERT

Further adding to the Sarasa Land roots of the film, during the police car chase we see several road signs leading to Koopahari Desert - the second world of Super Mario Land. I'm not sure if Koopa River Parkway is a reference, but I couldn't find anything when I looked.

That's a rundown of the over 40 main references I could find in SMB 93 that relate to the video games. We hope you've enjoyed this look back through time, and please join our Discord to let us know if there's anything we missed!

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

[VGMP] Stay Alive - Easter Eggs

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 21:07:28 GMT

VGMP: Stay Alive - To Find the Game References

The other Alice Krige video-game horror movie of 2006!

Stay Alive was an ill-conceived combination of gaming and goth cultures, which should have been far sexier than it wound up being. It only had two stars, Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) and Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact, Silent Hill) - and they cut Krige out of the movie entirely until the Director's Cut came out!

There are many verbal references during the film. An older cop states he was Q*Bert champion a while ago (though this is likely to mock the nerd he's talking to), the Konami code makes a verbal appearance, Fatal Frame is mentioned at the beginning - Silent Hill 4 is mentioned early on too. Despite these nice little tidbits, Stay Alive is a little lacking in strong gaming references - and what there is finds itself concealed by being largely out of focus.

Early on we see most of the equipment the main characters are using to play the game. It's a rather uninspired array of PC controllers, though the old-school joystick to the right of the frame is a fun addition. Sadly we never see anyone playing it.

Just a side-note, you may notice a black bar on the left hand side of the images, that is inherent to the source. The Director's Cut DVD was obviously sourced from a poor master.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference appears when the main characters are searching their dead friend's room. I can't make out the title, but there's a gaming magazine here that promises some juicy details on Legacy of Kain 2 and Castlevania 64.

Oddly, Legacy of Kain 2 came out in 2001, with Castlevania 64 released in 1999. It was unusual for games to take longer than 2 years in production at this point in time, and according to Wikipedia Legacy of Kain 2 didn't enter production until late 1999 - whereas Castlevania released in January 1999.

It looks like their friend bought a lot of magazines. This time we can discern that it is Nintendo Power magazine, with the one on top including a 3D CGI render of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Not gaming related, but there's a very prominent wall-art for Katsuhiro Otomo's anime movie Steamboy on the main character's wall. It's never mentioned, it's just there across multiple scenes.

ALIENWARE

A three-image gallery of the most blatant product promotion I've seen in a movie for a long while. Stay Alive uses quite a few Alienware related computers and laptops throughout the film - which is obvious but not egregious. Where the cross-promotion goes too far is the frequent showing of the reflective laptop, which is used in the finale to reflect Elizabeth Bathory's image back to herself - with Alienware badge taking up almost the entire frame.

THE GAME STORE

The Game Store includes the vast majority of gaming references, for obvious reasons. Here we can see a floor-standing Unreal Championship standee, a ceiling-hanging Area-51 promo, in the very back-right you can just make out the Halo 2 standee which is (sadly) never fully caught in the frame.

To the left you'll also see several boxed Dreamcast consoles, which is a surprise for a film released in 2006, as well as an array of what appear to be PC parts.

NARC also gets several appearances on screen, with this being the most prominent - the ceiling-hanging promo.

More Dreamcasts, but also the appearance of boxes that look like Nintendo 64's for sale. The one to the right of the Cop's head is definitely an N64.

An array of video game controllers. The Xbox DVD Remote Controller, a third party Gamecube controller is to the left of it. To the top right you can see an array of official Sega Dreamcast controllers.

Spyro the Dragon artwork is visible behind the store clerk, however it is heavily out of focus.

A Playstation 2, with Dreamcast controllers either side of it (There's a blue one off-camera left). While the orange one appears to have two more buttons than a Dreamcast controller, which might suggest the black & white buttons for Xbox Original, the lack of a secondary stick means the two extra buttons are alternative L & R Triggers. These were commonly added by third party controllers for 2D Fighting Games.

Game Informer Guidebooks (Similar to the Prima Guides in the UK). In our episode, we incorrectly stated this company was purchased by IGN, but according to Wikipedia it is still going under the GameStop brand in America.

Final shot of the movie includes two more third-party Dreamcast controllers, a Playstation controller of some kind and a Justifier Light Gun. The appearance of this particular light gun is odd, because it was only ever released for Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and the original Sony Playstation. It's wildly out of time here.

Another copy of ATV Road Fury 3 is blurred in centre-frame, and what appears to be some kind of rhythm game - however a quick internet search wielded no results. If you know the title of this game, please let us know on our VGMP Discord.

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

[VGMP] PSO2 The Animation - Easter Eggs

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 10:56:06 GMT

VGMP: Find all Sega Easter Eggs in PSO2: The Animation

BRAND NEW GATE! PHANTASY STAR!

After covering PSO 2: The Animation on VGMP, we decided to deep-dive to find all the visual Easter Eggs we could within the show itself.

For those not aware, PSO 2: The Animation is a strange anime, in that it is by Sega themselves but acts more like a culture series than a franchise one. Within the show, PSO 2 is just a video game, and we follow High School academy students as they navigate the game and school life.

Before we start, we will not be covering references to Phantasy Star Online 2 - there are a plethora of references to that series, which is obvious by the show's title. I'll only be referencing other Sega properties.

There are also a couple of dialogue references that should be acknowledged;

Suzuki's first name is Aika, her school friends decide to call her " AiAi ", which is also the name of the main character in Super Monkey Ball .
The academy is called Seiga Academy in dialogue, and Seigasai in visuals. This is not unlike the SehaGaga academy seen in Sega Hard Girls , or the name of the failing game company you are trying to save in Sega's Japan-exclusive Dreamcast game " SegaGaga ".

Now for the visual references. We will do these in Episode order, however some episodes have more than one reference and later episodes have none (that we have found so far).

- EPISODE 1 -

When we are being introduced to Seiga Academy, we are granted the aerial shot seen above. The Sonic Team logo of Sonic's head is clearly visible in the academy grounds, seemingly the shape of the pool in the internal gardens. Unfortunately we don't seem to see this location up-close.

- EPISODE 2 -

When Itsuki Tachibana is explaining the Dorm facilities to newcomer Aika Suzuki, we get still-frames of the different locations (most of which we never see again). One of those one-off shots is of the baths, which includes a statue of Alex Kidd in the middle of the bath itself.

- EPISODE 3 -

When Itsuki Tachibana "outs" Yu-Chan's real identity in PSO2 (after identifying him as the troll player), we see a darkened desk with Yu-Chan at his laptop. To the right of the frames, we can see small pictures of the Sega Hard Girls characters. From highest elevation to lowest;

Dreamcast
Saturn
Mega Drive

Later in the episode, Tachibana visits Yu-Chan's room with the lights on, and we see more Sega references on the walls. Firstly we see two large posters for Virtua Fighter and House of the Dead III , then on the far left we can see six of the Sega Hard Girls in frames, similar to the ones to the right of his desk. From highest elevation to lowest;

Dreamcast
Mark III
Saturn (Hard to see)
Master System
Mega Drive
Game Gear

- EPISODE 4 -

When Rina takes Itsuki to the Phantasy Star Online 2 convention, she winds up shooting at targets (and missing). We get one shot of the entire gallery, and we see 9 dolls lined up to shoot. 7 of them are Phantasy Star characters, but to the top left we see Sonic the Hedgehog , and the top right we see Carbuncle from the game series Puyo Puyo (he is also known as Hasbeen in the Mega Drive Western adaptation of Puyo Puyo, known as Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine).

- EPISODE 5 -

Rina and Itsuki stalk Suzuki to a mall, and they wind up shopping and doing various other things together. In the stills above, Suzuki wins the UFO Catcher game, however we can see the distinctive horns of Reala from NiGHTS into Dreams amongst the plushies. There is also what appears to be the purple of NiGHTS himself within the shots, but we don't get a clear enough image of this plushie to see if it is him or not.

- EPISODE 6 -

When the Student Council all go to a Hot Springs to relax and do some work, we get a brief shot of Yu-Chan's mobile phone. His phone case bears the face of Tails the Fox/Miles Prower from the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Only 2 minutes later, we find the Student Council twins (more on these two later) playing table tennis/ping pong at the Hot Springs. When we are introduced to this scene we get a close up of another UFO Catcher machine, with a different assortment of toys. I have listed the characters below in no particular order;

Sonic the Hedgehog
Tails the Fox/Miles Prower (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Carbuncle/Hasbeen (Puyo Puyo)
Red Puyo
Purple Puyo
Green Puyo
Yellow Puyo
Blue Puyo
Clear Puyo

- EPISODE 7 -

In this episode, one of the student council members goes missing - Konoe. While her room is largely decorated with the pink bear character from PSO 2, hanging on her wall are two tokens in green and yellow. These are the item boxes from the first Phantasy Star Online, which is technically set in an alternate dimension from the story of PSO 2.

- EPISODE 8 -

Another Sonic reference from Yu-chan. When Itsuki is about to follow Suzuki, Yu-chan tries to talk to him and is left behind. Throughout the exchange Yu-chan is seen wearing a set of Sonic the Hedgehog pajamas. It looks like Sonic is swallowing him!

When Itsuki catches up to Suzuki at the mall, we see these hanging banners with the Sega Dreamcast swirl displayed backwards. This might be considered a coincidence (this swirl design is seen frequently for things other than the Dreamcast), however the name TowerView DreamTown seems to suggest it is a less-than-subtle nod at the classic console. Due to the differing colours, we also see the swirl in blue in the background to match the PAL Dreamcast swirl design - though because there are green and purple banners in front of it, I believe this PAL colouration is merely coincidence.

- EPISODE 10 -

This first one is weird. As Rina and Itsuki make up at the festival, we see some artwork painted on the sides of the stairs. Most of it is bland and generic, but this one shows what looks like a blue knock-off of Tails the Fox, mixed with the words Dream Land. I tried looking this up online but found no mention of a Sega DreamLand, nor an iteration of a blue fox. Could just be a mock-up of Arcade knock-o ff art that was prevalent in the 90s?

That appears to be where the references end, however there is one theory I would like to throw out there on two of the characters in the series being allegories for Sega characters.

- THE TWINS -

This table is where we see the Student Council at the heart of PSO 2: The Animation. The empty chair is usually occupied by Konoe, and she was actually my first context clue into this theory. She is slowly introduced to be a lesbian character however, on her desk, we see a visual clue in her being the only character with rainbow coloured folders. This is a standard visual detail, and was also seen in Captain Holt's office in the US sitcom Brooklyn 99.

Next to her is Yu-chan, the Sonic-pajama wearing nerd. Then Itsuki, then Rina in t he centre, then Masaya. We can ignore these characters for this theory.

The ones we want to focus on are Seiya (the blue-black haired twin) and Mayu Urisaka (the red-brown haired twin). Their gimmick is they do and say things simultaneously.

However, from this angle, there is something of a NiGHTs and Reala look to the two of them. The hairstyles, specifically. Which matches in with Reala and NiGHTs being two-sides of the same coin to each other. There are also the purple streetlamps they both have on their desks, and the odd doilies they have under their laptops suggesting an ethereal theme.

Join the VGMP Discord server - https://discord.gg/t5Jmv6cx

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls - TRANSLATED Final Episode

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 23:29:12 GMT

VGMP: Sega Hard Girls TRANSLATED for the first time!

One, two - Pon, pon, pon!

The very final chapter of our foray into Sega Hard Girls is our fully translated episode of the show's Japan-exclusive OVA episode - aka Episode 14.

This episode was made two years after the main series had finished and was created for the Japanese DVD boxset release. The USA's Discotek Media blu-ray does not include this episode, and no HD version of the video is known to exist. As such this is upscaled DVD video, with subtitles hard-coded into the video.

To keep the episode consistent with what fans may already own, we ensured that our subtitles were identical to those on the Discotek Media blu-ray release. This will make the viewing experience as seamless as possible for fans watching the show from start to finish.

CREDITS;

LEAD TRANSLATOR: Rory Joscelyne (Cyberpunk Studios, Video Game Movie Podcast)

ACCURACY SUPPORT: Benjamin (Video Game Movie Podcast Discord channel)

ACCURACY SUPPORT: Devolan (Jayden's United Sega Hard Girls Server Discord channel)

We do not own the copyright to the episode itself, just the subtitle translation.

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 8 - OVA Movie References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 10:57:11 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References from Bonus Episode 14

We've finished the series proper but WAIT... there's just one more...

Sega Hard Girls returns in a one-off special called (among other things) Hang-On. You'll have to forgive the image quality on this episode, the full series was released on Blu-Ray by Diskotek Media but it didn't include the final episode. The Bonus Episode was only on the Japanese DVD release in 2016 (after the release of the Blu-Rays in Japan) and as such there is no HD version (or translated copy) available officially yet. Having said that, we've been translating the episode and will release it when it's ready.

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

In the meantime, enjoy finding out what all the references are below (with some details coming from our in-development translation!).

The show opens (and regularly returns to) two actual Sega Saturn consoles who commentate and argue over the competition (among many other things).

Everything about these two characters stands out from the rest of the show. The most obvious is that they are still actual games consoles, not a humanoid reinterpretation. Second is that they both have male voices (With V-Saturn's voice being particularly deep at times). The disc drives flap open and closed as they talk, and they glide along the floor whenever they "walk" from one place to another. They are only ever seen in front of the Sehagaga Academy, and they never interact with anyone in the show (Except Hercules Ricky Blue from Mushiking, but we'll get to that).

Most importantly, these are two Japanese-exclusive variations of the original Sega Saturn. To help build the Saturn's userbase, Sega decided to allow different companies (with the appropriate licencing) to release their own version of the Saturn. The V-Saturn was released by Victor (known internationally as JVC - literally Japan Victor Company) but the only real differences were the smoky grey colour and BIOS startup logo - now showing a V-Saturn logo. Something that isn't visible on the Sega Hard Girls model is the His Master's Voice dog next to a gramophone, which is printed just above the black window to the CD Tray. This was placed on here to sell more music within the music side of Victor's business, and Victor own the rights to the logo in Japan.

The Hi-Saturn has a very similar story to the V-Saturn - it's a licenced co-branding agreement with Japanese company Hitachi. However it had one upgrade - it had the MPEG Video CD Card built in as standard. Essentially the Saturn could play very low-resolution (about 240p) digital video well enough, however with the additional MPEG Video CD Card it was able to decode and play 480p/higher resolution video signals and it could play VCD (Video CDs) flawlessly.

Video CD's were the true precursor to DVDs, and were released internationally - however because of their pixelated nature (due to file size limitations) they never beat out VHS in the West. In Asia, this was a completely different story, with VCD becoming the video standard for at least a decade. This is because VHS tapes tended to decay very fast in Asia, due to the high humidity - an issue that never affected CDs.

The final part to mention on these two is that Hi-Saturn says at one point;

"I wonder if I can use a car navi to play Outrun..."

Outside of the nod to 1986 Sega arcade game Outrun, there's definitely another reference here since this is suggested by Hi-Saturn. You see, Hitachi actually made two completely different Sega Saturn systems in Japan - just a year apart from one another. The Hi-Saturn Navi was their second attempt, but this time it looks quite different - it includes a flip-up LCD screen and a GPS Antenna Port. The Hi-Saturn Navi was a home games console designed to be twinned as an in-car GPS/Satellite Navigation System. The whole idea is bonkers, but Japan have always been an experimental country.

You can read more about it here .

For the first time in the anime, we are introduced to four other girls (as well as Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive) who will be competing in the Hang-On Competition. I'm a little disappointed that there's no Game Gear here as her design is quite inventive but here's the rundown;

IMAGE 1: Sega Mark III - A girl with bunny ears and a top-hat, she's got clear design elements that are similar to Professor Asobin (see our previous articles), which in turn share a similarity to Center-Sensei - even her pose here is identical. She's played as something of a magician.

IMAGE 2: Robo-Pitcher - An odd choice for inclusion, Robo-Pitcher was a Japan-exclusive toy by Sega. You loaded it with small balls which it would spit out, and then you had a small racket/bat to hit the balls. Basically a baseball trainer for children. It has absolutely nothing to do with the games consoles by Sega at all. An image of the real Robo Pitcher is next to the character in the gallery above.

IMAGE 3: Master System - A young musical maestro in black and red. You can see elements of the Master System's exterior design on her skirt and versions of the controller are blended into the design of her gloves. In reality the Master System is actually just a Sega Mark III with a different exterior and a couple of additions built in. The Mark III had an optional FM Sound Unit that you could add, the Master System (in Japan) included this as standard - this meant that games programmed to use it wound up having far superior sound more akin to 16 bit machines than it's competition (the NES). The other addition (in Japan only ) was a 3D Glasses port that allowed compatibility with 3D titles using the official glasses.

IMAGE 4: Mega Drive 2 - The younger sister to Mega Drive, she's dressed very similarly but the clothing is oversized, she wears a blue tie and her hair is different. She acts like a stereotypical younger sister, always calling on her older sibling. I've always found this particular design disappointing, as it's not different enough from Mega Drive whereas the visual differences between the hardware were much clearer. Considering a chibi 3D character had already been made for Game Gear (it's briefly visible in Episode 8) I think she would have been a more visually interesting character to include instead.

We get a brief shot of the girls all together, and then the three leads move further into the foreground so we can get a clearer shot of the new character designs joining us for this episode.

Of note is the world they are currently in - that of Hang-On, a Yu Suzuki super-scaler game. In Episode 12 we get a still shot of the girls actually riding motorcycles here (Which I'd still love to see as an official game or even a mod) but sadly this is as much of the Hang-On world as we get to see in this episode.

While it's not visually interesting, Sega Mark III does suggest (before the race is fully explained) that she might borrow one of the Sega Rally cars. Sega Rally Championship was a 1994 Sega racing game that was hugely successful. It had two main selectable vehicles - the Toyota Celica GT-Four or the Lancia Delta HF Integrale, with the Lancia Stratos HF unlockable in the Saturn port (or an easter egg in the arcade version). This is the only mention of Sega Rally anywhere in the series - yet if you go back to our first article you'll note the American Blu-Ray includes the Lancia Delta HF Integrale in the main atrium. I can only assume this is where they plucked that reference from.

One final thing before we get started with the main episode, is that this is almost impossible to place into the timeline due to either mistakes by the animation department, or an intent to make it not fit in. To be clear, the Japanese culture generally doesn't care about "canon" - this has been seen across multiple series from Resident Evil to Sonic the hedgehog. If it happens on screen, it's canon regardless of what came before or after it. Because of this apathetic approach to story canon, it's likely the following mistake was done on purpose to keep the timeline nebulous.

In image 1, you can see the SC-3000 poster on the wall behind Saturn. This image showed up in the first episode and remained in the room until about Episode 6, when we see it has been replaced with a Quartet/Double Target poster. This Quartet poster remains throughout the series - specifically still being visible in Episode 10 when the girls went to Jet Set Radio.

However Sega Mark III has a present for Mega Drive - the training wheels she was given (and humiliated by) during the girls' adventures in Jet Set Radio. That would place this episode (if we were establishing a canon) between either Episode 10 and 11, or between Episode 11 and 12 (Episodes 12 and 13 run into one another). It is possible someone switched the poster back to the SC-3000 one after the Jet Set Radio adventure, but it's just a piece of trivia worth mentioning.

The first leg of the race includes the girls having to get past a 100 Man Kumite in Virtua Fighter. The girls push Saturn into fighting Akira while they run past everyone. Saturn reaches the end first anyway because Akira punches her across the arena.

The second leg sees the girls return to Space Channel 5. Sadly (likely because they didn't have adult forms made) the 4 new girls don't appear in this sequence. Ulala asks the girls a True or False question on whether she is hungry for Yakisoba noodles. Dreamcast believes Ulala wants the noodles (and guesses correctly), whereas Saturn and Mega Drive believe Yakisoba noodles are too bland for Ulala and choose False.

The third leg of the race sees the results of the girls' quiz answers, materialising in Puyo Puyo Waterslide. Dreamcast gets a smooth ride all the way down, while Saturn and Mega Drive get stuck in the pipe due to a grey Puyo. They're eventually popped into motion by other characters choosing wrong and hitting them from behind.

The fourth leg is in Border Break. Mega Drive and Saturn appear (before Dreamcast, oddly) to find the 4 new girls in a crumpled mess. We never find out what happened to them after choosing an alternate door from the main trio during the Virtua Fighter Kumite.

Center-Sensei tells them that he's going to change things up a bit, and give the girls a "vehicle" to help them reach the end of the race.

The image displayed while he explains this is actually of Sonic in his car from the game Sega and All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012) The full artwork is seen on the game's front cover art.

The "vehicles" come in the form of Sega franchises (sadly nothing new, all characters we've met before - likely to save on cost).

Mega Drive gets Sonic the Hedgehog as her ride. Oddly the last time the girls were chibi around Sonic all three could fit in his quills, now she's not much shorter than him.

Sega Mark III, Master System, Robo-Pitcher and Mega Drive 2 all get Eggman as their ride, his Egg-o-Matic still carrying the Wrecking Ball (he'd probably go faster if he dropped it).

Dreamcast gets Sakura from Sakura Wars as her ride, leaping above Eggman's vehicle and racing to catch up to Sonic.

Saturn is given a range of vehicles, all of them terrible. First off she is offered a bug from Mushiking, which flies onto her forehead.

Then she is carried on a platform by Akira, Jeffry, Wolf and Lau-Chan from Virtua Fighter - but they can't travel very fast.

Finally she is offered a piggyback ride by Gillius Thunderhead from Golden Axe. She turns him down but then takes up his offer of being thrown to the finish line on his axe.

They all make it to Jet Set Radio's Shibuya-cho, aiming for the finish line at the Shibuya Bus Terminal.

As you can see from the image, the race gets very close.

All the girls are thrown from their vehicles like missiles, all stretching out to claim the victory.

The problem is that all seem to pass at the same time, requiring Center-Sensei to have to rewind for an instant replay. On zoom-in, it becomes clear who the winner is.

Hercules Ricky Blue! He flew off of Saturn's head as she was travelling towards the goal at speed, and hit the finish line before everyone else.

The final moment just has a giant Hercules Ricky Blue fly down on V-Saturn and Hi-Saturn, ending with the text "To Be Continued...?"

And that's... everything. The series is done, complete - a chapter closed in the reference materials of history. The only update we might have from this point onwards for Sega Hard Girls will be when our Translation of Episode 14/the OVA Movie is completed - and we can release it in English for the very first time.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we hope you'll keep an eye on our other articles, tune in to Video Game Movie Podcast and join the Discord ( www.vgmovie.co.uk ) as well follow our other works.

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 7 - Final Episode References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 18:09:26 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References from Episodes 12 and 13

You've returned to see how this crazy ride ends, huh?

How many more references can they shoehorn into a single production? Is there anything we've been unable to recognise hiding in the series?

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

Well hold on to your seats, because Episode 12 is crammed with references, and the entrance to Black Asobin World has me stumped on several .

When the girls enter Black Asobin World this barrage of references is there to greet you. It's like a full-on assault of the senses, and as I've said above some of these have me completely stumped. We're going to ignore all the stuff you can see through the gate, as we have a closeup for that where the camera pans in. So we're just going to talk about all the references in front of the gate and towering above it.

Starting from Left to Right;

TOP-LEFT: Green Giant (unknown), Alien Ship (unknown), Blackbeard Ship ( Skies of Arcadia )

MID-LEFT: Souther ( Streets of Rage ), Abedede ( Streets of Rage ), Bongo ( Streets of Rage ), Red Dragon ( Golden Axe ), Floating Snowman (unknown)

BOTTOM-LEFT: Death Adder ( Golden Axe )

TOP-RIGHT: Wood Block ( Fantasy Zone ), Angry Sun (unknown), Blue Ninja ( Shinobi - Mark III ), Onihime & Yasha/Mona & Lisa ( Streets of Rage ), Ship (unknown)

MID-RIGHT: Coin (unknown), Green Giant (unknown), Blue Dragon ( Golden Axe ), Valuan Battleship ( Skies of Arcadia ), Red Alien Tank (unknown)

BOTTOM-RIGHT: Knight (Golden Axe III)

And so the camera enters the gate and we get a closer snapshot of things in here. Any help identifying these references would be much appreciated.

TOP-LEFT : Red Dragon ( Golden Axe ), Purple Creature (unknown), Bahn ( Fighting Vipers ), Yellow Thing with Hands ( Fantasy Zone ), Yatsurao ( Shinobi [2002] )

MID-LEFT : Kizami ( Shinobi [2002] ), Fantasy Zone ( Space Harrier ), Yellow and Blue Ship ( Fantasy Zone )

BOTTOM-LEFT : Green Dwarf (Golden Axe)

TOP-RIGHT : Blue & Pink Enemy ( Fantasy Zone ), Coin (unknown), Valuan Spaceship ( Skies of Arcadia )

MID-RIGHT : Fantasy Zone ( Space Harrier ), Pink & Yellow Enemy ( Fantasy Zone ), Moritsune ( Shinobi [2002] )

BOTTOM-RIGHT : Blue Dwarf ( Golden Axe ), Aztec Device (unknown)

Once they enter Black Asobin World and begin to climb the tower, they come face to face with Neji from Roommania #203 (I've covered the game in a previous article). However he's been corrupted by Black Asobin and as such is preparing to fight them in Virtua Fighter as Black Neji.

And this is where the show decides to use dramatic tension to bring in some of the humour - and several new game references!

The action freezes in a dramatic action pose and then that tune kicks in - SOR Super Mix from Streets of Rage 2. The image cuts to a still of the tower as a text scroll explains the battle ahead, reminiscent of the intro to Streets of Rage 2. However the text (as you can read here) is full of jokes of its own, and then there's the visual references in images 1 to 3 of games not covered in Sega Hard Girls before!

Image 1 is of Virtua Cop, from the first level at WHARF AM2 - albeit these images are higher resolution renders of that environment as the text is cleaner and more legible than it is in the original game. Virtua Cop (1994) is an arcade light gun game, as such you don't usually see a player character on the screen outside of cutscenes. Here they've superimposed Saturn aiming a pistol at the villain in the game. The pistol she's using is the Sega Saturn Stunner light gun, which was black with yellow trigger and side button. This light gun was only released in Japan, when it came out overseas it was either a bright red or blue.

Image 2 is of the Sega Hard Girls racing in either Hang-On (1985) or Super Hang-On (1987). I have to say the sprites made for this look excellent and I would absolutely love to have a version of Hang On with cool character designs like this (you usually just look at the back of a generic motorcycle racer).

Image 3 shows the girls in Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986), and they absolutely dwarf the poor guy! I don't know what the girls would do to help in this game, but it's a cool crossover nonetheless.

The narrative certainly wouldn't make it past Western censors, with Saturn again being the butt of the joke - mentioning one of her boobs falling out during a fight. A bit unnecessary, but the extremity of it (and Dreamcast's breakdown) add to the comic payoff of Mega Drive's personal story being boring.

When the girls reach the top, they are confronted by an empty limitless room with a Tron-like grid for a floor and a starfield visible through it. This environment is actually a common advert design Sega used during their Master System era of the mid-80s - we saw one in a previous article that was used as a poster in the Sehagaga Academy atrium.

The only object in this void is a Space Harrier arcade cabinet. The girls have to play it to defeat Black Asobin, but the only one left with a coin is Saturn - meaning she has to enter the game and hope Dreamcast and Mega Drive can fly her safely. There's not much more to say about the arcade cabinet other than how amazingly well detailed it is.

Here are four images of Saturn running through Space Harrier. I have to say the spritework here is also very well done (on Saturn). It's not long before the game starts throwing previously seen random enemies from other franchises into the game - as you can see by the B.Bros being in Image 3.

The final image of this set shows Saturn shouting at the girls for her already having lost a life, and how well the "screen" is pulled off in the Sega Hard Girls engine.

Towards the end we get more of the CGI Saturn appearing in the game world. Many of these shots are horrid, as an effect has been applied that makes it look like there's a framerate mismatch - so you end up with a ghostly trail behind anything that animates.

However they do turn this effect off once Black Asobin has been caught (and he promptly turns back into Center-Sensei).

So we now begin Episode 13, the actual last episode (besides the bonus Hang-On special). The girls have all passed their trials and it's graduation day. The first thing the girls must do is sing the company's anthem - the famous Sega choir.

"SEGA!"

Center Sensei then takes the girls through all the worlds and adventures they have been through over the course of the series. However the filmmakers couldn't help but add in a joke here - half of the adventures Dreamcast and Mega Drive are recalling never happened in the show! When Saturn calls it out, the others tell her to just go along with it to graduate.

I can't tell if this joke was put in for anything other than humour. It's possible episodes on these franchises were planned but weren't affordable in the budget, or that they serve as a form of teaser for fans if the series ever came back for a Season 2. Sadly it did not.

So the first false adventure is Crazy Taxi, accompanied by a really cool artwork of the Sega Hard Girls escaping the cops in a yellow cab. While this is cool, at no point in Crazy Taxi do you need to outrun the cops - you get away with driving like a lunatic all day long. It does add to the sensation of speed in the image though.

The next franchise is a Japanese exclusive arcade game from 2004 - Love and Berry: Dress Up and Dance!

Another collectible card game, you swipe your cards and build your own customisable outfits (180 different cards existed in 2006) and get rated (and given new cards) depending on the success rate of your new outfit.

This was an insanely popular Arcade game for girls, being outfitted across department stores and children's play areas. It was so popular that a CGI movie was produced in 2007 called "Love and Berry: Dress Up and Dance - Magic of Happiness". It also saw a port to the Nintendo DS called "Love and Berry DS", with a peripheral that could read the barcodes on the playing cards.

I've included an official soundtrack cover art for the game so you can see how closely the SHG's outfits resemble those of the characters in the game. Dreamcast's outfit is a reproduction of Love's, Mega Drive takes the role of Berry. While it's more unique, Saturn's outfit (and the drawing of her face) more closely match that of Miesha - a character that joined the main cast in the DS games in 2008.

I Would Die For You (aka Feel The Magic XY/XX or Project Rub) makes a last minute return here. The only suspect part of this is that Mega Drive's face has been "blacked up", and not in the stylistic silhouette way in fitting with the game series. A shiny dark brown appearance isn't something I recall ever coming up in the game, so it's a bit of a suspect choice. Perhaps there was a plotline to the "episode" (that doesn't exist) which would have explained this.

I've included a screenshot of Project Rub so you can see how well Dreamcast and Saturn fit the art style.

A load of hints in Episode 1 - where Saturn's description of her perfect man was essentially describing Segata Sanshiro - has something of a pay off here. Sadly it's not an appearance or even animated return of the legend himself, but at least we get a visual acknowledgement of the man.

For those not clued in, Segata Sanshiro is a hero of video game marketing and a major reason for the success of the Sega Saturn in Japan. While the console came in dead last against the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation internationally, the Saturn sat a very comfortable second in Japan (not so far behind Playstation). Part of this was because Sega of Japan continued to release stellar titles on the system that never got released abroad, but also partly due to the commercial powerhouse of Segata Sanshiro.

First of all his name is a parody of judo fighter Sugata Sanshiro from Akira Kurosawa's 1943 movie "Sanshiro Sugata" (Bear in mind the Japanese language often places the family name first). However Segata Sanshiro, said slightly differently as "Sega Saturn Shiro", literally translates to "Play Sega Saturn". When you combine this with the CD single release of Segata Sanshiro's theme song "Sega Satan, shiro!" He eventually got a Sega Saturn game "Segata Sanshiro Shinken Yugi" made about him.

His "narrative" across the adverts was as a lone martial artist who assaults children who aren't playing Sega Saturn - including wrecking nightclubs, making other judo fighters explode and throwing football players like missiles from the stands to headbutt a ball and prevent a goal. I've included a video below that goes through all of the man's exploits and you'll soon see why this marketing campaign rocked Japan so hard.

His final advert for Sega was around the Dreamcast launch, where he bravely sacrificed his life to save Sega from a rocket sent over by an evil villain (which looks a little like a cartoonish stand in for Sony). Though it appeared at the time of the Dreamcast, it was actually a promotional advert for his Sega Saturn game.

Center-Sensei reveals to the girls that graduation means leaving the world of Sehagaga and becoming the new Sega hardware - bringing joy to millions. This is meant to be a beautiful ending, but it does give the impression of a cult. With Center-Sensei as leader, the girls essentially end their lives to go forth and do good in the next life.

It also puts a very final end to the series, which would be an odd thing to do if they were hoping for a second season at any point. This lack of foresight does affect the placement of the bonus episode too, put we'll come to that in the next article.

The girls then each go into the void and are transported into the world of their specific gaming generations, becoming the real hardware from the previous image.

Some artwork for the consoles once the girls finish their transformations. Sadly we don't get a closeup on the Dreamcast.

We get a last look at some of the cast we've had along the way.

IMAGE 1: Akira (Virtua Fighter), Ulala (Space Channel 5), Neji (Roommania #203), Jeffry (Virtua Fighter)

IMAGE 2: Puyos (Puyo Pop), Kage (Virtua Fighter), Lau Chan (Virtua Fighter), Wolf (Virtua Fighter)

IMAGE 3: Spaceman, Dancers, Morolians (Space Channel 5), Rappy (Phantasy Star Online 2), Eggman (Sonic the Hedgehog), Sakura (Sakura Wars)

And that's everything in the main series! We finally got there.

But it's not quite Game Over yet. There's the special Hang-On episode (Episode 14/The OVA) yet to come.

Thank you for tuning in thus far, we have way more to come across many different series too!

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 6 - Episodes 9 to 11 References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 14:13:29 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References from Episodes 9 to 11

We return to the vast well of references that is Sega Hard Girls. We've already seen so much, Episode 8 was basically a cheap showcase of 29 female Sega characters (and I omitted the Sega Hard Girls characters, as they had their own article at the beginning of this).

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

But we've made it here now, from here we'll be diving into the worlds of Chain Chronicle (a mobile game), where we'll meet some rare Sega characters in a pub (including Mint-kun. Remember him? No, me neither...), before swinging into the world of Jet Set Radio and finishing in a crossover of Phantasy Star Online 2 and Shining Force Cross Exlesia Zenith ("And the award for the longest, most tongue twisty title goes to...").

Episode 9 opens with the girls being introduced to a tower-defence RPG game called Chain Chronicle, which was largely released in Asia (and had a short-lived North American release) as a free-to-play mobile phone game. It was released across iOS (Apple's phones), Android (Google's phones) and on the Playstation Vita handheld console.

I'll include a shot of the girls in-game in a bit, however I felt it was interesting that there's a play on words that only works in Japanese in this introduction. The title Chain Chronicle should translate to Japanese as "Chein kuronikuru", however Saturn is apparently pronouncing it "Chien Kurou" which would translate to "Trouble with Lag".

When the girls first materialise in Chain Chronicle, they're given a playing card that explains their roles in the game. Dreamcast is the Valkyrie role (a power/attack soldier), Mega Drive is a Wise Woman role (later explained to mean she's the group's Healer) and Saturn is a Mage which allows her to utilise offensive magic spells.

The girls appear in Chain Chronicles' cutscenes, and here we get some nice resolution artwork of each of them.

There's not much for me to note here, other than showing off another crossover between the Sega Hard Girls and the Chain Chronicle universe.

In the first shot we see the Sega Hard Girls chibi forms inside the Chain Chronicle world. This is also one of the few times we see Saturn's Twin Stick weapons in her chibi form.

The second image shows the gameplay screen for Chain Chronicle, and it appears special 3D models of the girls were designed for this particular game, as they match the artwork for the game perfectly. While clearly based on their chibi forms, you can tell they aren't the same models. Considering the game came out in mid-2013 (the same year Sega Hard Girls was released) it's likely that the animation team actually had access to the game in development and were able to get their characters specially modelled by the game developers.

The final image gives us a closer view on these unique models, and reveals what a victory screen looks like in the original game. Because of the gap between Dreamcast and Saturn, my guess is that most games usually have you using 4 characters.

After the battle, the girls enter a Tavern to relax. The longer they stay here, the more Sega characters begin to pile in.

Robo and Mobo appear first. These two characters come from the Sega arcade game Bonanza Bros (1990). The game was a side-scrolling stealth game for two players, where you'd have to rob banks together without being caught. Even if played in single player, the screen always plays in split-screen with the other half of the screen covered.

Bruno Delinger (Dynamite Cop/Die Hard Arcade) makes another appearance here as a student of Sehagaga Academy who has forgotten his books and is late for an exam.

One of the oddest appearances is that of Sherlock Holmes, yes that Sherlock Holmes. Because, while it's a reference to a Sega game, it would be a vast stretch of the term to consider him a Sega character. As a Brit, I'm still thoroughly convinced he's by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Either way his appearance here is a reference to the 1987 Sega SG-1000 game "Loretta no Shouzou: Sherlock Holmes", or "Sherlock Holmes: The Portrait of Loretta. This game was a Japanese exclusive, but also wound up being the final cartridge release for the SG-1000. It also ended up being the largest SG-1000 title ever made, at 128kb (or 1 Megabit) in size. Because of it's ludicrous size, it was placed into the packaging design usually reserved for Sega Mark III/Master System titles.

I've added a screenshot of the game as evidence and to give an impression of what sort of game the SG-1000 was capable of building on such a large cartridge.

This one took me ages to source. Named as Mint-kun by the show, his name is actually Minto (which does translate to Mint to be fair), in the 1984 Japanese exclusive SG-1000 title "Girl's Garden" (which is a suspect name in English as it is). The game was a very early title by Yuji Naka - the man who would later go on to program Sonic the Hedgehog and run Sonic Team. I've added the cover art for the game, and there you can see Minto waving at the back.

Strangely, Minto isn't the main character of the game. You play as Papri, the young girl on the cover who is Minto's girlfriend. Papri must collect a bouquet of flowers for Minto, and if she doesn't get him what he wants in time he will leave her for another girl. Gonna be honest, the dude sounds like a douchebag. You collect the flowers in a field full of bees and bears, with the bees dropping bonus points, lives and pre-made bouquets of flowers while the bears attack you unless you distract them with honey.

Papri essentially has to risk her own life to try and placate a two-timing scumbag (Minto) otherwise he'll ditch her for his mistress. That was more than I expected to find for a one-shot character reference in Sega Hard Girls.

The last screen in the Tavern with references is when a crowd bursts in - all made up of character artwork across multiple Sega titles. I've had to try and stitch them together here as characters wind up behind others (to the point of not being visible) and bits of scenery.

I'm going to name the characters in 3 rows, starting with the back row and moving to the front;

BACK : Harrier ( Space Harrier ), King Leon ( Dragon Force ), BD Joe ( Crazy Taxi ), Gus ( Crazy Taxi ), Axel ( Crazy Taxi )

MIDDLE : Enemy ( Shinobi - Mark III ), Axel Stone ( Streets of Rage 2 ), Max Thunder ( Streets of Rage 2 ), Skate/Sammy Hunter ( Streets of Rage 2 ),

Yusako Kudo ( Last Bronx ), Wren ( Phantasy Star III ), Rhys/Kein Sa Riik ( Phantasy Star III )

FRONT : Joe Musashi ( Shinobi - Mark III ), Lord Gongos ( Dragon Force ), Bahn ( Fighting Vipers )

It's worth mentioning that the Dragon Force artwork for King Leon and Lord Gongos actually comes from the Playstation 2 version of the game, not the Saturn original. And while Streets of Rage has included Axel from the start, the actual artwork used for his character here is from the second game in the series, likely to match the art style used for Max and Skate..

The final series of images from Episode 9 come from the Sega Hard Girls pulling off special moves. Some of these are actually references to other pieces of Sega history.

Mega Drive uses a move called Mega Adaptor. The Mega Adaptor was the Japanese name for the Master System converter, an addition you stuck in the cartridge slot that allowed you to play Master System games on it. Oddly the Mega Adaptor was just a chunk of plastic with no real electronic parts included. The Mega Drive itself contains a full Master System (which is why it's 100% backwards compatible), so all the converter does is allows the different sized cartridge to fit into the Mega Drive's slot. Some later iterations of the Mega Drive (such as the Genesis 3) that were made as cheaply as possible removed the built-in Master System and as such don't work with the adapter.

It's also worth noting that the Mega Adaptor can't make the Mega Drive play SG-1000 games despite the fact the Master System can play them. This is, again, because the Master System hardware includes a full SG-1000 in the unit itself for full backwards compatibility. The Mega Drive never had the SG-1000 parts built into it so could only go back as far as the Master System/Mark III.

Saturn's attack makes use of her Twin Sticks again - a reference to the Twin Stick controller - and Dreamcast uses the Dream Blade sword weapon. This is an odd weapon in that it is created wholecloth for the character in Sega Hard Girls. However a genuine reference might have been if she'd carried a Dreamcast Fishing Rod (with a blade attached at the end) instead - since the Fishing Rod controller could be used as a motion controller for the swords in Soul Calibur.

Episode 10 opens by introducing us to the world of Jet Set Radio! This is a beloved skating/graffiti game from the Dreamcast in 2000.

Center-Sensei opens with "Let's Get Scratchin'..." which is a phrase commonly heard during broadcasts by pirate radio station Jet Set Radio, the girls don rollerskates (with Mega Drive having to be given extra stabilising wheels) and we get several billboards and signs that are clearly legible across Shibuya.

While some signs are different (The yellow sign behind Mega Drive that says "Loft" says "gair" in the original game), most of the signage is intact.

The girls decide to go into a photo booth to immortalise their time together, and part of the fun of taking a comedy photo is choosing the right frame. These frames are all artworks to Sega titles, and there are nine of them. I'll do them in sets of three to keep things clear.

The first image here is from The House Of The Dead 2, a light-gun shooter that first appeared in arcades in 1998 and ported to the Dreamcast in 1999. I mentioned the legal issue this game saw in America in the previous article, so check that out if you're interested.

The second image is from Get Bass/Sega Bass Fishing, a fishing arcade game that first saw an arcade release in 1997 and ported to the Dreamcast in 1999. This was the game the Dreamcast's Fishing Rod controller was initially designed for, though as mentioned it found several other uses throughout it's short lifespan.

The third image is artwork from the first Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage game, released on the Mega Drive in 1991. It was later ported to the Game Gear in 1992, and the Master System in 1993 (in a unique PAL exclusive release). Strangely, while most Game Gear and Master System games are almost direct ports of each other, the two versions of Streets of Rage are completely different titles. While the artwork of Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding is commonly seen (in the game's title screen too), the additional art of Nora (the dominatrix in red) and Hakuyo (the kung-fu fighter to the right) aren't as common.

The first image in this set is from Space Harrier, a game that will be seen a lot more in the series' finale.

The second image is from Power Drift, a very advanced super-scaler (ala Outrun) that also allowed the screen to rotate as you drove around sharp turns and inclines. Released in 1988, the game saw several technically inferior ports to home computer systems, but didn't appear on a Sega console for nearly a decade. It had been planned for the Mega Drive, and then again for the 32X add-on but both were cancelled. There was a third party attempt to port it to the Mega CD which also didn't see release. It finally saw release on the Saturn in 1998 as part of the Sega Ages series, and on the Dreamcast in 2001 as part of the Yu Suzuki Game Works Vol 1 disc (that remained Japanese exclusive).

The third image is a frame from Altered Beast. This is seen several times throughout the show, including during the opening credits where pixel art versions of the girls transform into different beasts. Here they only used the fire element from the transformation screen.

The final series of frames starts off with the Game Gear. The girls don't seem to fit into the screen of the handheld console, though.

The second image shows the girls each getting a separate Visual Memory Unit (memory card for the Dreamcast) to look through. The VMU's not only stored save files for the Dreamcast, but could be removed from the controller and used as a portable games machine.

The final image is from Shinobi on the SG-1000 Mark III. Surprisingly the show must have had access to the original materials (despite them being from 1987) as the arrangement of the characters is very different to that seen on the front cover of the game - with previously covered elements now clearly visible.

Some shots of the girls racing through Shibuya-cho. They start off at the bus station but they travel across into the area with the kids playground. They don't go into the area with the high hills, instead returning to the bus station afterwards.

Because of Mega Drive's handicap (her inability to skate) she's given training wheels for the race, but because that doesn't even out the race enough she's given a special ability.

"...but it looks like they gave me Blast Processing!"

Blast Processing was an advertising term Sega used to say why the Mega Drive was faster (and suggesting it was therefore better) than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). In reality Blast Processing did exist, it just wasn't really used. The Mega Drive was faster due to it's better processing speeds, however Sega marketed that this was why Sega games were faster (when in reality much of that was due to game design).

Blast Processing was a talent the Mega Drive could perform that the SNES couldn't, but it never appeared in any retail games. Essentially the Mega Drive's video processor is 'blasted' with data at high speed which would force it to switch colours on the screen faster than the screen interrupt/refresh of the CRT TV it would be outputting to. This meant that one part of a picture would have one full-range of Mega Drive colours, while another part had a completely different palette of colours - effectively meaning the Mega Drive could show off way more colours than the SNES ever could.

The problem with Blast Processing is that it is very CPU and GPU intensive, meaning that actual gameplay elements couldn't be displayed properly while the Blast Processing was going on - as such it wound up only being used in tech demos by developers to display higher resolution still images. If it could be implemented in a retail game, it would have been in cutscenes (which weren't common on the Mega Drive to begin with) as such it was a fantastic party trick that fell on it's arse at the first hurdle - much like Mega Drive does when she activates it here.

There's this pull-out shot at the very end when the girls realise they really have become genuinely good friends. Here we can see several elements of Shibuya that would normally be covered in graffiti tags (such as the beverage advert to the left, and crime billboards with the woman in red and man in blue in the top right).

The main poster of interest, in regards to references, is the "Watch .beat" poster next to the beverage advert. I don't believe this appeared in the original game, however I'm certain it's an added reference of two things. First the Jet Set Radio character of Beat, who we never see but would otherwise be here. However the "Watch" text with the red and white cross beside it is very reminiscent of the Swiss watch company "Swatch".

Sega Dreamcast exclusive game, Metropolis Street Racer (2000) had the online time trials officially sponsored by Swatch. It's possible they also had a hand in time trial sponsorships for other Dreamcast titles too. While I haven't heard of a connection between Jet Set Radio and Swatch, it's possible there was some crossover at a Japanese exclusive event or competition.

The final image from Episode 10 is the appearance of Gum on a corner in Shibuya. This is a terribly done shot, where it's obvious the character is actually a still cutout standing there. She has no animation and comes across very flat, whereas Adam Hunk (the guy next to her - don't ask, you won't like the answer) is an animated 3D model beside her.

Adam Hunk has no real equivalent or reference as far as I can tell. The closest I can see is that he slightly matches Adam Hunter's title screen image in Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, but it's neither a perfect match and the characterisation doesn't fit.

We open Episode 11 with the introduction of Phantasy Star Online 2 and Shining Force Cross Exlesia Zenith. Center-Sensei decides (for some unknown reason) to blend the two franchises together for the day's challenge. Essentially this winds up with the girls dressing as Rappys (cute bird enemies from the Phantasy Star Online series) in the world of Shining Force CEZ (and yes, I'm going to shorten that title wherever possible).

Here we see the title screens and parts of each games opening cinematics.

In what is a very odd reference, and in English feels very forced, Mega Drive states;

"This is a bigger shock than corn potage flavoured shaved ice."

If it's a common phrase in Japan, so be it. But it really doesn't translate well. Either way we get a thought bubble showing us the packaging of said food, and I was surprised to see it was the penguin from Doki Doki Penguin Land on the SG-1000! I've shared the original game art so you can see the connection for yourselves.

Not a Sega reference, but it's clear that when Dreamcast starts taking photos of them all that she's using a Canon 50D digital SLR to do the job. This is an interesting choice they only get away with as they don't show any brand naming. However the shape of the camera is an exact match. Considering there was a Sega Dreamcast camera accessory, I think it would have been better to go with that instead.

The girls have to work together to take down a massive dragon despite being dressed as Rappys.

Eventually they defeat the dragon but Dreamcast is thrown into the atmosphere by it before they can win. At the end they wonder where she's gone, and it turns out she's having to battle the final boss of the Shining Force CEZ game all by herself.

The final images for Episode 11 are these random "commercials" for Beast King Financial. The artwork comes from Altered Beast, and the term Beast King is a clear reference to the game too. However I never fully understand why this joke was placed in the episode at all.

Either way, if you're in need of a loan, perhaps you could consider Beast King Financial?

We're down to the last leg of the show's story. The next article will be Episodes 12 and 13, the finales of the entire show. We'll do another one for Episode 14 (which is a bonus episode, and not part of the main story) too. But for now, stay tuned for more.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 5 - Episodes 5 to 8 References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:38:10 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References from Episodes 5 to 8

So we return to continue delving into all the references within Sega Hard Girls (2013). This will certainly be packed with a lot of references, especially Episode 8 which goes through a smorgasbord of female Sega characters from throughout their history.

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

So without further ado, put on your best Father Ted impression and get yourself prepped for episode 8 where you'll have the opportunity to say "Look at those Loverly Gals".

Episode 5 again sees Mega Drive opening her 16 BIT Encyclopaedia, and we get some in-game shots of two Sega titles.

The first shot shows the title screen for Space Harrier (1985), one of the first arcade super-scalers that gave the impression of the player flying into the screen. This is where legendary director Yu Suzuki started to build a name for himself. Despite never getting a true sequel, Space Harrier has reappeared across multiple other Sega titles and has been re-released multiple times.

The second and third shots show screens from the game Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, which we've seen earlier in the series mentioned by Mega Drive.

The goal of Episode 5 is for the girls to invent a new game by putting the series "Puyo Puyo" into other existing Sega franchises.

We can see in the second shot an example with Fantasy Zone, "Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Puyo Puyo". They do the same with the first Fantasy Zone, but essentially they just place Puyo Puyo sprites over the OpaOpa ship and several enemies.

Saturn suggests crossing Puyo Puyo with Virtua Fighter, and the result is simply having the Puyos blend with each other and ending the fight in a tie.

You can see in the above images that the regular puyos are rendered in the Sega Hard Girls engine, but when they are blended together they become hand drawn artwork.

The next suggestion is to blend Puyos into the world of Phantasy Star Online 2, as "Phantasy Puyo Puyo Online".

Phantasy Star is a turn-based RPG series that started on the Master System in 1987, with three sequels ending in Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium" on the Mega Drive in 1993. The series lay dormant until Phantasy Star Online was released on the Dreamcast in 2000, bringing the series online and being the first online RPG on home consoles. This was followed with an additional Episode II in 2001, which released on Gamecube and ported to Xbox in 2003. A final chapter to the game was released as a Gamecube exclusive in 2003 (internationally in 2004) called "Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution - as the title suggests it threw away the gameplay of the previous two titles and incorporated card based game mechanics instead.

A sequel, Phantasy Star 2, was released on PC in 2012 and later on PS4 in 2016 - both Japan exclusives. Western fan outcry saw it finally get ported to the PC and Xbox One in 2020, however the 2018 Switch port and the PS4 port both remain Japanese exclusive. Considering Sega Hard Girls was made in 2013, Phantasy Star Online 2 would have been a relatively brand new title.

It is then suggested by Dreamcast to stick Puyos into the "life simulator" title Roommania #203 (released in 2000 on the Sega Dreamcast).

This is a very weird game, and an odd choice to see several references throughout Sega Hard Girls. Essentially the man in purple is Neji Taihei, an average Japanese guy who smokes, is alone and considered a loser. You play the role of a spirit in his apartment whose job is to mess with Neji's apartment in order to force him into making positive changes in his life. Failure will see Neji remain a loser for the rest of his life. This was a Japanese exclusive title, and it's not hard to see why.

The first image is just placing Puyos in Neji's apartment. You can, again, see the resolution difference between the Dreamcast recordings and the Puyo's rendered in the Sega Hard Girls engine.

The second image is for a modification one of the girls suggests, which is Puyo Balance Ball to help Neji get in shape. However Neji simply uses the ball to relax on, with a badly photoshopped in bag of crisps and booklet (And hey, there's Professor Asobin on the cover!).

Now this might be a bit of a stretch, but the Potato Chips bag might also be a reference. I can't find any direct references to the brand "Callme" online, nor the man on the cover. However, as you can see in Image 3, the Sega Dreamcast VMU memory cards included a chip on the inside that were printed with the word "POTATO" for some odd reason. So they're either a reference to real world potato chips, or the VMU's potato chip.

The final suggestion is from Saturn and it's for Puyo Puyo Waterslide. While there's not much here but more Puyos, this area comes back later in the series and in the Episode 14 "Hang On" special but this is likely the only place I can really reference it.

On to episode 6.

Episode 6 sees the Sega Hard Girls transported into the world of Border Break: Sega Network Robot Wars (2010) - an online mech shooter only in Arcades and on the Playstation 4. The game never made it to the West, only appearing in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The first two images show clips explaining the gameplay of Border Break, the first of which I assume is from the in-game art style as the cow-man is not animated and doesn't match anything else in the episode.

The final image is a character select screen for one of the characters of Border Break, Fiona. Because we never see any pure gameplay, I am unsure as to whether or not this character would appear on screen in-game at any point.

Here we see the in-game graphics up close, note the Mega Drive avatar on the mech's shoulder. It's possible custom patches could be done in the original game, as these render in the game footage just fine. Because of the low budget nature of the series, super-imposing it across multiple shots would likely have been too expensive or time-consuming.

The second image shows the cockpit artwork that Mega Drive and Dreamcast both occupy throughout their time in the mechs. Saturn doesn't get a mech, which is part of the story. I'm pretty sure this background is part of the show and not from the game, however I don't know that as a fact.

To throw a spanner into the works, Eggman appears and zaps the girls so that they lose their mechs and shrink back down to their chibi forms.

His appearance includes one of the girls shouting "That bald bastard...", which would normally seem too severe for a seemingly child-friendly cartoon. However we have to remember that Japan didn't materialise from Latin, and that certain swear words don't really apply as curses in the Japanese language. Another example of this I've seen is in the Japanese version of Sonic X when someone calls Rouge the Bat a "Bitch".

Things like this are the reason we have localisation in media, and not just straight translations.

An odd frame of reference is brought up by Saturn when she realises they've all been chibified again (and as such are physically helpless). To get across just how big they are, she mentions that they are the size of a Sega My Card - the SG-1000 Mark III credit-card sized games mentioned in a previous article.

The game itself (despite not being important in the reference itsef) is Woody Pop (1987), a ball-and-paddle title similar to Breakout or Arkanoid. It was the last game released in Japan under the Mark III branding (everything following would be under the Master System brand) and was designed to work exclusively with the Paddle Controller. It saw an international release on the Game Gear, no longer requiring a unique controller.

While this makes for an excellent reference, it's a strange one because you would have to know the size of a Sega My Card in order to understand what she means. For anyone not aware, they are literally the size of a credit or debit card, which means the girls aren't very tall in this form at all.

The very last thing to happen in Episode 6 is the arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog. It has to be said that the appearances of Sonic and Robotnik, while they should have been the standout cameos of the show, were thoroughly ruined by the fact both were completely mute. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the mute characterisations of Sonic's characters in Sonic Mania Adventures (2018), those animations were purposely designed to express thought and emotion through facial expression and strong animation. Sega Hard Girls doesn't have this going for it, instead having the main three girls narrating every single thing we're seeing on screen. Episodes 6 and 7 are definitely where the show takes a dip, but it does manage to rebuild it's absurd and intriguing quality from Episode 8 onwards.

Episode 7 is largely the battle between Sonic and Robotnik, with very little else going on and few references. That being said, there's still several worthy of mention. The chibified girls all hang on to Sonic as he chases Robotnik through some kind of warp zone, and we get some brief shots of Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and the heads of the girls spinning whenever he hits loops or spins around.

The first image is the SEGA logo first seen in Sonic the Hedgehog, and also includes the first in-game use of the now famous Sega Choir (singing "SEGA!").

The second shows the girls struggling as Sonic hits a loop in Green Hill Zone. the third shows Mega Drive's happy reaction to realising where they are. The fourth shows the girls as they're bewildered by the trippy appearance of the Special Stages in the game.

The final image shows Sonic in the world of Sonic Adventure (1999), with Eggman in the distance. Compared to Eggman's earlier appearance in Border Break, this is far better made. He's been slapped on in Photoshop on both occassions, but in this image there's no massive black border and he just blends into the environment a little better.

As the fight between Sonic and Eggman continues, Eggman brings out a Wrecking Ball on a chain. This is the same weapon he used in the Green Hill Zone boss of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). This is a great reference and fits the scene as well.

After the characters are knocked back into Border Break, Mega Drive uses her 16 BIT Encyclopaedia to conjure up an invincibility item box to help Sonic defeat Eggman.

As the episode closes, we see a mysterious figure appear on the screen, which is supposedly a sneak peak at the real identity of Center-Sensei. The design is quite clearly meant to hint at Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team and programmer for the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

The art style isn't just random either. It's a very clear reference to another Sonic Team game - this time for the Nintendo DS and released in 2004. The game has three different titles, depending on region;

I Would Die For You - Japan

Feel The Magic: XY/XX - America

Project Rub - Europe

This was a hugely stylised dating simulation game where the characters were almost pure silhouettes, with clothing portrayed by a different coloured silhouette. The concept of the game was to use the Nintendo DS touch screen to complete minigames and then use your skills to impress a young woman... by rubbing her. It's not quite as pervy as it sounds but... yeah. It also spawned a sequel called The Rub Rabbits in 2005/2006, and it also inspired the 2020 Nintendo 3DS title The Queen TV-Game 2 with it's visual design.

Finally, the episode ends with a preview for Episode 8 (though it's a bit of a false preview) by showing the title screen for House of the Dead 2, an arcade and Dreamcast light gun game. The second image is from Episode 8 itself, but essentially all that happens is they throw a costume party (which goes nowhere) and then they have a Lovely Girls competition.

In America, due to the Columbine Shootings, Sega decided not to release the light guns in that region - but they also coded the US releases specifically to not recognise any official light gun, meaning that they wouldn't work even if you imported the guns from Japan or Europe. Fans have since modded the game code to remove this lockout, however as Dreamcasts are easy to break region lockouts on Americans can just play the Japanese or European versions instead.

I'm going to jump to the final reference of the episode, which is the reveal of Bongo the Ape from Congo Bongo, apparently female according to the Sega Hard Girls show (though this isn't explicitly stated in the game). Congo Bongo (also known as Tip Top) was released in Arcades in 1983, and soon saw a Sega SG-1000 port that same year.

The arcade version is an isometric game, in an attempt to improve visually on the popular Donkey Kong franchise, whereas the SG-1000 is a flat 2D platformer. It also saw home releases on the Apple II, MSX, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, VIC-20, IBM PC, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit and the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A.

So we now start the long list of women mentioned in the Lovely Girls competition. If you were ever curious as to how many female characters Sega had, then buckle in - and this isn't even every female character they have! Bear in mind the series as a whole focusses strongly on franchises popular in Japan, so there's going to be a large chunk of popular characters missing.

So we open with Maria Tachibana, a pin-stipe suited woman with a blonde bob hairstyle. She's from Sakura Wars and appeared all the way up to the fourth entry in the series. She's supposedly from the Ukraine (mixed Japanese-Ukranian parentage), and is stated by Ogami to be a rather strict person, but also added "I finally feel as though I've met someone who actually seems like military personnel."

In the middle we have a woman who couldn't be more opposite. Gina is one of the four taxi drivers in the original Crazy Taxi, and while she sounds like a mixture of relaxed and baked, the aim of her game is drive as crazily through the streets to reach her destination is as little time as possible. The last complete release of Crazy Taxi was on the Sega Dreamcast, as it still included references to Pizza Hut, KFC, FILA and Tower Records - as well as including a banging soundtrack from The Offspring and Bad Religion. While the game has been re-released on Gamecube, Playstation 2, PC and Xbox 360, these versions lack the brand references and include a generic rock soundtrack that in no way measures up to the MTV vibe of the original.

On the right we have Aika from the game Skies of Arcadia (known as Eternal Arcadia in Japan) which came out on the Dreamcast as a turn-based RPG with a heavy focus on exploration. The game was released to critical acclaim but sadly suffered poor sales. It was re-released on the Gamecube as Skies of Arcadia Legends but sadly that didn't sell well either. Despite this the game has a strong fanbase and holds as one of the best RPGs of its era.

Cindy Holiday is the Player 2 character in Dynamite Deka/Die Hard Arcade. While she isn't initially available in the sequel on Dreamcast (Dynamite Deka 2/Dynamite Cop), she can be accessed by downloading the Detonator Pack DLC. This was available in Europe via the DreamOn official demo discs that came with the official magazine, however it can easily be found online and downloaded. Just press Start when hovering over Jean Ivy on the character selection screen.

Kohran Li and Sumire Kanzaki are two additional characters in the Sakura Wars series.

Because there are a total of 11 Sakura Wars characters in this lineup, I decided to put them all in one gallery above.

Image 1: Reni Milchstrasse, Glycine Bleumer, Orihime Soletta

Image 2: Kanna Kirishima, Lobelia Carlini, Erica Fontaine

Image 3: Coquelicot, Hanabi Kitaoji

You can find a great resource for more information on these characters at www.sakurawars.fandom.com

The rest of the girls (that aren't from Sakura Wars) are in this gallery. I won't delve too deep into each title, as you can look that up if you are unaware of a title, however the following characters are shown;

IMAGE 1: Fina - Skies of Arcadia (2000), Mary - Quartet (1986), Queen Teiris - Dragon Force (1996)

IMAGE 2: Pudding - Space Channel 5 (2000), Honey - Fighting Vipers (1995), Rika - Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (1993)

IMAGE 3: Tyris Flare - Golden Axe (1989), Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan - Virtua Fighter (1993)

IMAGE 4: Ulala - Space Channel 5 (2000), Amy Rose - Sonic the Hedgehog series (1993), Gilius Thunderhead - Golden Axe (1989)

IMAGE 5: Lisa Rogan - House of the Dead III (2002), Powell - Dynamite Deka/Die Hard Arcade (1996) , Gum - Jet Set Radio (2000)

That sums up the references in episodes 5 to 8. We've come a long way, but there's still more to come. The next article will be Episodes 9 to 11. The reason I'll be doing 3 instead of 4 that article is because 12 and 13 are the series finale, and the references work better as one article (and there is a LOT to cover). However Episodes 9 to 11 are no slouches - with the Girls not only having to play the latest Sega games, but simultaneously run into Sega characters from as far back as the early 80s.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 4 - Episodes 1 to 4 References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 20:52:20 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References from Episodes 1 to 4

It is absolutely no exagguration to say this is the most reference packed sho w I have ever seen. As such, I'm only going to go over the first four episodes of the series, but don't worry there is more than enough here to whet your appetite for more.

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

I won't be referring to anything about Sehagaga Academy itself, as this has already been covered in two of the previous articles giving a deep dive into the many references in these rooms. The references in this article will only be episode-specific references.

We begin with Episode 1 and Dreamcast's attempt to dial up to the internet to get some answers for Saturn. The camera zooms into her face, her eyes dullen, and we are shown the connection screen in a thought cloud. This screen is directly from Dream Passport 2, the Dreamcast web browser in Japan. They even play the sound effect of a dial-up modem scrambling audibly to connect.

The three images above show some of the references Mega Drive gives from her 16 BIT encyclopaedia as the girls try to find Saturn a fitting boyfriend. While it's only stated in dialogue, Saturn's description of her perfect husband is actually a description of Segata Sanshiro (we'll cover him in a later episode as he has a single visual reference at the end) but the girls twist the description to apply to almost any guy.

The first screen is from Golden Axe, and starts with the suggestion of Gillius Thunderhead (the green-dressed dwarf), which Saturn reacts to with disgust as he's so old. Mega Drive then suggests Ax Battler (the man in blue pants).

When Saturn rejects Ax Battler, Dreamcast suggests the main man from Outrun (the driver/player character). Saturn begins complaining that she can't even see his face, so they wait for him to crash to finally give Saturn a good look at the man's face.

The final reference for this episode (since episode 1 mostly introduces us to the characters and Academy) is the info panels Center-Sensei uses to describe their first challenge inside of Virtua Fighter. He shows footage of Pai defeating Jacky in a fight.

In the smaller right hand panels are the following;

The Japanese Sega Saturn startup screen (The stylised S is the evidence for it being the Japanese version).

The original Japanese Saturn. Unlike in the West (where it was black) the Saturn released in a dull military grey in Japan.

The Japanese cover art for the original Virtua Fighter release on Sega Saturn.

Entering Episode 2, we begin in the world of Virtua Fighter at the character selection screen - the Sega Hard Girls versus Akira. The text at the top of the screen translates to 100 Matches, so it appears the girls have to do the 100 Man Kumite. Here we can see that the version they're playing is the first release of Virtua Fighter as Akira appears with almost no textures.

The second image is a custom loading screen from Virtua Fighter - outside of the LOADING... PLEASE WAIT text, I'm pretty sure the rest of it is new for the show. The top (white) text seems to translate to "Hundred Hands". The Japanese text below the two characters seems to translate to;

"Hundred friends can make 100 people, food and drink, Futo mountaintop." - I'm pretty sure this translation is wrong

The third image is when Jeffry fights the Sega Hard Girls. Jeffry is another character from Virtua Fighter, so it's right that he appear in this game. The next set of appearances, however, aren't from Virtua Fighter.

The Sega Hard Girls start to come up against increasingly bizarre character choices from other SEGA games (which are luckily all defeated in one hit by Dreamcast's overpowered headbutt attack).

These are the B.Bros from Golden Axe, two hammer wielding mini-bosses. Later in the episode they start to do recolours of the B.Bros as additional enemies for the SHGs too.

The next opponent is Bruno Delinger from Dynamite Deka (aka Die Hard Arcade internationally), which was a side-scrolling beat-em-up released in arcades and on the Sega Saturn. The sequel, Dynamite Deka 2, was released internationally as Dynamite Cop on the Sega Dreamcast.

Next up is Alex Kidd, who was something of a mascot for Sega during the 1980s and on their Master System hardware (He didn't make an appearance on the SG-1000). Every game release was a Master System exclusive with the exception of Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (which saw an Arcade release too) and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle which was a Mega Drive exclusive. His first game, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, was remastered and released on all modern games machines in 2021.

Alex Kidd has continued to appear in Sega titles, including Sega Superstars Tennis (2008), Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012) and a cameo in Sonic Colors Ultimate (2021).

We then jump to Altered Beast, with one of the main character transformations - the Werebear.

We then finish on Flicky - the oldest of all the Sega franchises seen in these episodes. While most Sega fans will likely remember the blue bird from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Flicky starred in his own title in May 1984. Flicky was released in Arcades, on the SG-1000, Mega Drive (in 1991), FM-7, MSX, PC-8801 and Sharp X1 home systems. The character continued to appear across many Sega releases during the mid-80s, becoming something of a mascot for their arcade division. Camero appearances of Flicky include;

Teddy Boy Blues (1985) as a shooting target. Bloxeed (1988) as a special weapon. SDI (1987) as a code-activated playable character. Flash Point (1989) as a cameo, wishing players Good Luck before each round. Super Monaco GP (1989) on race track banners and on the Game Over screen. Sonic the Hedgehog series (1991 - present) as a trapped animal in badniks. Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (1996) which is an isometric Sonic title with the same gameplay as the original flicky arcade game - this time Sonic collects Flickies who follow him to safety. He has continued to make cameos in Shenmue (1999), Gunstar Super Heroes (2005) and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007).

The second to last opponent is Hercules Ricky Blue (I think this is a mistranslation from Blue Hercules Beetle) from the Japan exclusive Arcade title Mushiking (2003). Mushiking was an arcade title where you needed special collectible cards (akin to Pokemon cards) and then had to scan each card into the Mushiking machine, which will initiate a battle and (if won) dispense new cards. The game made it into the Guinness World Records with the highest number of tournaments held for an Arcade title.

Yakuza Kiwami (2016) actually includes a parody of this game, called "MesuKing", where the different bugs are represented by various bikini-clad women. You collect the women via the cards, select the "insect" to play as and give her a variety of wrestling moves. The match is then a Rock, Paper, Scissors match with different stats given to different moves. The third image shows a similar type of beetle (An Atlas Beetle) as represented in MesuKing.

The final opponent is Sakura Shinguji from the Japanese exclusive steampunk series, Sakura Wars (1996 - present), where groups of women with magical abilities control steam-powered mechs to fight demons. It is a rare example of a dating simulation/visual novel including genuine tactical RPG battle elements.

Originally a Sega Saturn title, Sakura Wars has been remade numerous times including a full remake for the Playstation 2 (called Sakura Wars: In Hot Blood). "Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die" was also released on the Sega Saturn, with "Sakura Wars 3: Paris is Burning" and "Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens" following on the Sega Dreamcast.

Episode 3 is largely a filler episode, with the girls continuing to try and score Saturn a husband and train her up as a weathergirl. It isn't until we get towards the end of the episode that the Sega references start to appear.

After unsuccessfully trying to train Saturn as a Weathergirl, Mega Drive gives it a go. On the screen behind her is the artwork of Professor Asobin, an anthropomorphic rabbit who stands as the first unofficial mascot of Sega. He appearing in almost every SG-1000 game manual from the console's launch on July 15th 1983, going so far as to make an appearance on some early Mark III (Japanese Master System) game manuals, and those of several Sega My Card titles. He would appear towards the back of the booklet and give out hints and tips for each title - however Mega Drive does speak about this later in the series and states some of the "advice" was horrifyingly useless.

It's worth noting that the design of Center-Sensei in Sega Hard Girls is essentially that of Professor Asobin, albeit in a blocky Minecraft style. Later in the series we're introduced to an evil form of Center-Sensei who calls himself Black Asobin - clearly harkening back to this character. It's also worth mentioning that the character of Sega Mark III in Sega Hard Girls also takes visual cues from Professor Asobin, with the magic, top-hat and rabbit ears.

Towards the end, we enter the world of Space Channel 5 (A Dreamcast dance game, based on an idealised 1960's fashion). In this particular episode, the entire scenery is a rebuild of the one from the game (there's a few differences), however the footage would be blended with game captures in the next episode (notable by a drop in visual quality whenever it does).

The final reference in the episode is by Mega Drive. When they realise she dances like a robot, Dreamcast and Saturn mockingly dress her in a box. After a certain amount of shame, Mega Drive hides herself inside the box and states;

"My processing speed is fundamentally way lower than yours!"

This is a reference to the difference in processor speeds between the consoles. The Mega Drive had 7.6Mhz and an additional 3.58Mhz processor (At best totalling 11.18Mhz) , the Saturn had two processors at 28.6Mhz each (totalling 57.2Mhz), and the Dreamcast had 200Mhz.

Episode 4 starts where Episode 3 left off - with the introduction of Ulala from Space Channel 5. This includes the title card for Ulala's Swingin' Report Show!

The second image I included here because the show creators made a spelling mistake that I couldn't unsee from every shot once I'd spotted it - especially visible on the Blu-Ray. In the background you can see text pointing out directions to key parts of the spacestation. One is supposed to read Shuttle Platform, but instead reads Shattle Platform. I don't know how backwards the future is gonna be, but I hope we keep toilets instead of crapping on an open platform.

The third image shows the image quality when the girls are superimposed over recorded game footage. The Dreamcast only output 480p, whereas the Sega Hard Girls are rendered in at least 1080p. The mismatch in detail and cleanliness of the borderlines is obvious.

The fourth image is a similar pose, but this time the entire scene is rendered in the Sega Hard Girls engine. This time Ulala and the two civilians render clean and crisp, and the background loses some of it's blur (though I think a bokeh effect here would have helped match the shots more).

You'll also note Jeffry is out of his game and has wandered into Space Channel 5 for some inexplicable reason.

The final new references here are the appearances of some new characters and objects.

Image one shows Gillius Thunderhead, the green coloured dwarf from Golden Axe, fully rendered in the Sega Hard Girls engine. He spends the rest of the series perving over Saturn, Ulala and any other women in short skirts/bikinis. He's also added to the Lovely Girls competition in Episode 8 for some unknown reason.

The second shows a group of Spacemen and Morolians. Morolians are the "evil" aliens from Space Channel 5, whose rayguns force people to dance uncontrollably (until Ulala's amazing dancing can break them free from the effects). As you can see, they come in all sorts of colours. The spacemen were a type of civilian you'd have to save from the Morolians during the game.

The third picture shows Saturn with her "Twin Stick" wands. I really like the design of these sticks, and it's a cool visual adaptation of the Saturn Twin Stick controllers that were used for various titles.

That's enough for one article, join us for Episodes 5 to 8 in the next article. And go back through the previous Sega Hard Girls articles if you're hungry for more. If you're looking for a series filled with references, you won't get much more in-depth than Sega Hard Girls.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] The Tune, the Kart and the Saatchi

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 17:00:00 GMT

VGMP: EXCLUSIVE on Sega Saturn's Hidden Song

Formula Karts was a 1997 go-karting "simulator" released on the Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation and PC. It was produced by UK-based Manic Media Productions Ltd, whose only other games were two 1995 releases - Super Karts and Manic Karts. On the Saturn and PC, it was published by SEGA themselves.

So far, so bland. Some generic Karting game, released in only one region and has been lost to the annals of time. Why are we talking about this now?

Well, Formula Karts on the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation (named Formula Karts: Special Edition) has a unique song on the disc - one never utilised in game and can only be heard by sticking the disc into a generic CD player - a song titled "Timebomb". This song is not an official part of the soundtrack, and doesn't fit into the audio scored (and licenced for) the game - but it has a unique legacy.

To showcase why it doesn't fit in with the game, let's start off with a sample of Formula Karts' actual soundtrack.

As you can hear, Formula Karts' soundtrack has a distinctly mid-90s Trance vibe throughout. This soundtrack is credited to Martin Simpson, Jon Stuart and J. Philips with the sole exception being the then-popular trance track "36 Weeks" by The Thrillseekers, which was licenced for the Japan course in the soundtrack.

However Timebomb isn't a Trance song. It has an almost country-rock vibe to the sound. Listen to it below to hear just how misplaced it sounds.

So what's going on here? Why is there a random song pressed on an old video game CD, who made it and has the song ever seen a proper retail release? Well, we can now exclusively reveal the answers to all of those questions!

Let's discuss a retail release first - does Timebomb exist in an official, purchasable format? Yes. Yes it does.

A female musician, Sam Brown, released the track as part of her ReBoot album . I'll include a link to her Spotify track here , but for expediency I'll also have a playable version below. If you like the song, please support the artist.

But Sam Brown's release isn't the origin of this song. Not only is she clearly not the vocalist on the Formula Karts iteration, but she also released her album three years after the release of Formula Karts. You can search and search, from discogs to wikipedia, you'll find no earlier release of this song - yet here it is. Clear as day. The enigma that is "Track 11" - Timebomb.

Before we move on to my investigation, I will note that there are some lyrical changes between the Formula Karts and Sam Brown iterations of Timebomb. The main structure and chorus are largely intact, as is the first verse, but the second verse sees the lyrics deviate quite heavily and the third verse is missing in the Formula Karts version - showing that the track was improved upon in the missing three years.

Here are the lyrics for each version for comparison.

So what's going on? Is this proof of time travel (now that would be a real timebomb)?

To try and get some clarity I contacted Martin Simpson, one of the credited musicians on Formula Karts. I was unable to locate a contact for Jon Stuart and I couldn't determine exactly who J. Philips was as I was unable to verify their first name. This immediately hit a dead end when Martin Simpson simply responded by saying he had no connection to the track whatsoever. So I had to dig deeper. I went on the Wikipedia page for Sam Brown's album and found something interesting. While most of the album was written by Sam Brown, it was revealed she had no hand in writing Timebomb. The credited writers were Ian Sugar and Phil Saatchi.

Phil Saatchi is the fourth of the Saatchi brothers, with the more renowned two being Charles Saatchi (the owner of the Saatchi Art Gallery in London, England) and Maurice Saatchi (who, along with Charles, co-founded the famous advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi). Phil has no direct involvement in his brothers' businesses and instead has a storied career as a music producer in Brighton, England.

Phil was kind enough to respond to my emails asking about this elusive song, and was even able to namecheck those involved in the recording.

NOTE: That Youtube link is now dead, however I'll link to his new upload at the end of the article.

He mentions Jon Stuart ran a media games company (as well as being a musician). Looking over the credits for Formula Karts again shows Jon Stuart is credited as the Producer and Director of the game - so it's likely the company he ran was Manic Media Productions itself. The track was written by Phil Saatchi and Ian Sugar and was performed by Saatchi, Stuart and a vocalist called Annie Moss.

There is an album release in 1997 that verifies Phil Saatchi and Annie Moss working together, seen here on discogs - Virginia MacNaughton's album "The Music". Phil Saatchi seems to have been heavily involved in the production of this album, with Annie Moss providing Backing Vocals on the track "'Til Hell Freezes Over" and both Flute and Piano on the track "Senseless Thing".

I responded to Phil, asking if he could give me any more information on the song's age, previous releases or if it had been performed at live gigs prior to Sam Brown's release. I also asked him to confirm any potential involvement from Martin Simpson or J Philips on the track.

He verifies that the only official release was Sam Brown's album release, however the song was played by Phil and a band at various live gigs prior to this. This is likely where Jon Stuart first heard it, and requested to record a cover of it himself. Phil also verified that he didn't know J Philips so we can remove them from the production of the song entirely.

According to Phil's recollection, Martin Simpson worked as the engineer on the recording session and potentially contributed musically to it - despite this running contrary to Martin Simpson's own response. This isn't unusual as there could be a case of misremembering going on. Either Phil Saatchi is misremembering the engineer who worked on the track, or Martin Simpson doesn't recall working on the session - not unusual, as the session would have been less than a day's work decades ago.

As to why the track is included on the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation discs? We couldn't get any verification on this. It's likely that Jon Stuart wanted to release the track, or show it to his friends, and the only route to release available to him was on a game disc (since that was his company's focus). But this is all speculation. Without contacting Jon Stuart, we'll never get the answer to that elusive question.

Before you go, please give a watch/listen to Phil Saatchi's own video release of this track to support the artist. I really love this version he recorded with Jet Cohen and the Aerials . Lyrics are almost identical to the Sam Brown version, although the performance and vocalisation are very different.

CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST AT www.vgmovie.co.uk

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 3 - Class Room References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 12:34:32 GMT

VGMP: What are all the items in the Academy's Classroom?

How, how, how high does your high score go?

Sega Hard Girls' classroom is an incredible vault of Sega references, from the obvious to the very niche. This is further expanded when you realise the room not only changes over time, but also that the whiteboard contains unique drawings and references every episode. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's have a look at the general room layout.

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

Already, from this one angle, you can already find a wealth of references. Let's start from the foreground-left and go clockwise.

There are arcade machines in most of the corners of this room. The most obvious are the Astro City arcade cabinets nearest the camera - these were Sega built multi-purpose arcade cabinets that housed a lot of arcade games that didn't require specialised hardware. The one closest to the camera permanently displays the SEGA logo that you see when booting up a Mega Drive title. The one furthest into the room has a piece of paper on the screen saying "Out of Order". You'll get to see these in more detail when I show you the reverse shot.

Next is the whiteboard. I'm going to give this whiteboard its own section, as each episode includes different artwork drawn on it. Here (Episode 1) you can just about make out the House of the Dead 2 zombies, but you'll get a clearer view of this on the appropriate close up.

In the top-left corner are two other arcade machines. The R360 arcade cabinet (Which was only used on G-LOC: Air Battle, Rad Mobile and Wing War) is suspended near the ceiling. Underneath it is the Hang On ride-on arcade cabinet. There are high resolution photos of the real cabinets below.

Hidden behind the door in this image is a poster - that is detailed below as it changes mid-season.

In the top-right corner we have a camera with speakers hanging from the ceiling and below it is an OpaOpa machine facing a monitor displaying Fantasy Zone. This "arcade" setup is purely fictional, which is obvious by it's overly small size and trailing tubing.

On the right wall you can find a Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast mounted to a glowing panel. Below are three monitors displaying a game from each (These change mid-way through the season). At the beginning they show Golden Axe (Mega Drive), Virtua Fighter (Saturn), Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast). The chairs are also branded by console, and you can just make out a red Puyo at the end of the desk.

The other end of the room houses the big widescreen TV the girls use to travel into each game world. Underneath the TV are small versions of each console with floor standing speakers each side.

The Dreamcast has nothing plugged into it. The Sega Saturn is connected to the Twin Stick controller, while the Mega Drive has a standard 3 button controller connected. Beside these is a large weight with 16t written on it in yellow - and believe it or not this is an actual game reference.

16t was a Mega Drive title that was only ever available in Japan, and only via online download services. In Japan, there were a few specialised modems released for the Mega Drive, one of which being the Sega Game Toshokan - this is where 16t could be found initially.

Years later, the Dreamcast would revive the title (but again, only in Japan). Dream Passport Premier was a web browser disc with a built in Mega Drive emulator (Called Dream Library) that could download rented titles from the internet. 16t was a free to play download release on Dream Library, primarily used as a way to test your connection strength.

As this is a screenshot from a later episode, this is the room in it's second configuration. Not much changes, however we have a pink Morolian plushie sat in front of the whiteboard, and the games on the consoles to the left have changed. They are now;

Alex Kidd for the Mega Drive, Dynamite Deka on the Saturn (Known as Die Hard Arcade internationally) and Roommania #203 for the Dreamcast.

Nothing else changes in this configuration other than the poster behind the door.

The posters behind the door are hard to spot. Having gone through the series, these are the clearest, and closest, screenshots I could get.

The first is an advertisement for the Sega SC-3000 on a desk filled with other items - most frighteningly two pistols haphazardly tied to a wire wall - lucky this didn't come out in the mid-90s when Congress was desperate to connect gaming and violence. The second is an advertisement for Quartet (known as Double Target in Japan) on the SG-1000 (with the Mark II shown on the poster).

When Center-Sensei speaks, he usually appears on the PC style desktop on the big TV (though he does infrequently appear in other ways). There's not really anything of interest here, but adding this for completion's sake.

The filenames are largely gibberish and sometimes use file extensions as the filename instead;

png is an image file.

fla is a Macromedia Flash file, commonly used on Dreamcast browsers.

fotoso sounds like a Japanese play on Photoshop.

irare is perhaps a play on iTunes or Adobe Illustrator.

mfai and ffai file names don't seem to mean anything, if you can think of a reference then let us know.

Finally the Japanese text on the right side of the screen - I was unable to translate it. Google Translate seemed to think it was a mathematical sum, but the mixture of Kanji with the sum threw off any cohesive answer.

The final item of note is the white board. This is often altered in every single episode, with unique artworks in epsiodes 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10,11, 12 and 14 (the special). Episodes 2 and 4 both give tiny glimpses of the whiteboard, but after comparing them with the other screenshots it turns out they both use the Episode 12 white board artwork.

The screenshot above shows the references from the first episode. Currently I don't have a translation for the text on the left hand side, but I can explain the visual references.

House of the Dead 2 : The three zombies in the centre are the three main zombies from House of the Dead 2, given away by the appearance of the axe throwing zombie from that game.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World : First of all, there's a doodle of Alex Kidd in the bottom right corner of the white board, just his head and hand (with the attacking visual effect). There is also a poster for Alex Kidd in Miracle World twinned with Ashura (Known as Secret Commando in Europe and Rambo: First Blood Part II in America). However I couldn't find the variant actually used in the show. The version I found seems to use the same layout, but things have been shifted and the images shrunk to make way for screenshots and descriptions. I'm not sure where the version in the show comes from, if you know where I could get a higher resolution copy of that version please let me know.

Get Bass / Sega Bass Fishing : A fishing arcade game by Sega, Get Bass also saw a port to the Dreamcast with it's own unique fishing rod controller. The fishing rod controller was a motion-controller that was assigned to the Dreamcast's second control stick function (never utilised in the official pad). By tilting the rod back and then throwing it forward, the DC would read this as you throwing the line out into the water. This controller even saw use with Soul Calibur as you could use it as a motion-controlled sword!

In Episode 3, the white board is only seen in two close-ups on Mega Drive - only giving us small pieces of what is on there. Sadly, we never get an overview of it. However the pieces on there include what appears to be an eyeball driving a golf cart telling you to limit your gaming to 5 hours a day. Mega Drive is drawn in chibi form next to this, with a shocked expression on her face.

In the second appearance of the board, we see a really very impressive artwork of a man playing inside of the R360 cabinet mentioned earlier in this article. I can't tell if he's supposed to represent anyone in particular, however due to his bandana and shades it's possible he's based off of one of the pirates from Dynamite Deka 2 (known as Dynamite Cop in the West) on the Dreamcast.

Episode 6 has a series of cheat codes written down the left side, with a drawing of a boy with screws in his head crying. If anyone can translate the text around the boy's artwork I'll update the article with it.

The cheat codes are for Sonic the Hedgehog on the Mega Drive (Japanese edition only), and they do the following;

HEAVY CHANGE!!

Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right, A+Start

Up, C, Down, C, Down, C, Down, C, Left, C, Right, A+Start

C x6, Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right

C x6, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right

SOUND -> reset

A+Start - 9E: Staff Roll

9F: Ending

Code 1 on the Title Screen activates the Zone Select

Code 2 on the Title Screen activates Debug Mode

Code 3 (made up of the third and fourth line) work in two places. On the Title Screen they activate both Zone Select and Debug Mode together. Inside the Zone Select is a Sound Select. Input Code 3 into the Zone Select screen then add the following inputs;

Sound 9E , Press A or B or C to go straight to the Staff Roll/Credits screen

Sound 9F , Press A or B or C to go straight to the Ending Sequence followed by the Staff Roll/Credits screens

Episode 8 has the Tower of Power - A Mega Drive Mk1, atop a Mega CD Mk1, with a 32X mushrooming out of the top and finished with a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge (I was able to translate that part).

To the right appear to be technical specs of the units together, though translation would be needed for this.

Underneath the Tower of Power is a chibi version of the tower. Google Translate suggests he's saying "This month, it's nine!!"

Any more accurate translations would be greatly appreciated and I can update the article.

Episode 9 was only partially visible in 3 different spots (one showed the left, one showed the middle and one showed the right), so I managed to photoshop the three elements into one complete picture.

The left hand side has some kind of list, if you can help with translating this then I can update the article with what it says.

The middle of the picture shows Bruno Delinger from the title screen image of Dynamite Deka (known as Die Hard Arcade internationally).

The right side of the picture shows a man with a hammer? And it also shows a spaceman, however that was the clearest shot I could get and he's missing his head.

Episode 10 shows us Shinobi (either Joe Musashi or his son Hayate Musashi, depending on region) and his dog Yamato from the game Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi.

There's a list on the left hand side with 5 bullet points.

On the right we have a chibified woman saying something about the USA. I tried to translate it but it came out as "Be Dry USA", which I doubt is correct.

Help with translating these would be much appreciated, we'll update the article and give you credit.

Episode 11 shows us this strange wrestling match, with a robot whose head looks like OpaOpa from Fantasy Zone. I don't recognise the characters, and couldn't find any reference for the robot character. He appears to have a Sega Saturn on his back, a Mega Drive controller on his wrist, and an SG-1000 controller on his thigh.

I attempted to translate this, but I'm not very confident in the accuracy of the translation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The title translated to "In the Takashi Room".

The other line translated to "Real face prohibited!!"

Episode 12 shows is the last storyline appearance of the white board (though this version does slightly appear in episodes 2 and 4). This shows the shree main Sega Hard Girls in the following order: Saturn, Mega Drive and Dreamcast.

Help with translating this image would be much appreciated too.

Episode 14 (The Hang On special) was only ever released on DVD and not Blu-Ray, as such these images are lower resolution and pixelated. However you can see the white board was uniquely decorated for this appearance with chibi heads of all the girls.

From top left, going clockwise;

SG-1000 Mark III, Center Sensei, Robo Pitcher, Master System, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Saturn, Mega Drive II.

There are some quotes written next to characters, however due to resolution they are very hard to make out. Any help translating would be great, but I'm not expecting it to be very possible in this episode due to the pixelation.

Thank you for reading this article, I hope it was another great look into the references of Sega Hard Girls. Our next article will be the start of our Episodic breakdowns (references within episodes of the show). However to close off the article, I've left a gallery of other (sometimes closer) images of various parts of the classroom for you to peruse, click on each one to open up the full image.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 2 - Academy Atrium References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:38:22 GMT

VGMP: What are all the items in the Academy's Atrium?

Power On! Let's get started! In Part 1 of this article series, we looked at how all of the characters reference various Sega franchises and console designs, now let's continue with the Sehagaga Academy Atrium - quite possibly the smallest of references occur here and it's still jam-packed.

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

Already so much to unpack here. First of all, there are the posters on the back wall and near the front-right of the image. I'm actually going to save these for a bit later, as I have closer and clearer shots of them.

On the ceiling is a star in a red circle - very reminiscent of the springs from Sonic the Hedgehog. There are three ceiling mobiles rotating below it, NiGHTS from NiGHTS into Dreams, OpaOpa from Fantasy Zone and an enemy from Fantasy Zone. On the wall above the consoles is a large TV (The centre part changes in several episodes) designed like objects from Space Channel 5, and even includes the logo on the screen.

At ground level there is a grandfather clock with a Puyo (a coloured bean from the Puyo Puyo series), a rotating Sonic the Hedgehog statue in the middle of the seats, and a large-scale reproduction of a Dreamcast, Saturn (Japanese Mk 1) and Mega Drive (3 Button) controller. We have closeups of these controllers below;

In Episode 8, there is a Lovely Girls competition. The notice board on the back wall is changed for this episode to include a low resolution version of the poster. I have the high resolution copy of this poster (screen-grabbed from the Blu-Ray and stitched together in Photoshop) later in this article. However from this angle you can better see the SEGA Logo in the top right corner of the room, and you can see where the Sonic statue is connected to the base via a strip of metal.

The opposite side of the room is really quite boring in comparison. There's a bookcase and some desks, but they're almost completely empty. The books don't seem to hold any special meaning either. The only things of note here are the Chao (Sonic Adventure) plushie sat on the desk, and the clock above the door which I believe is from Puyo Puyo.

The two posters at the back of the room are two 80's Sega adverts for the SG-1000 Mark II and the Master System rebranding of the SG-1000 Mark III.

More specifically, the left hand image appears to be selling the Master System (at a price of 18,800 Yen) as part of a Special JoyJoy poster range (they did several posters with this at the top left).

The right hand image is actually a promotion for the Sega My Card - a credit card sized game cartridge with a lower storage capacity that allows games to be sold at a cheaper price. Sadly I couldn't find a high resolution image for this poster.

The My Card port is still visible (and usable) on the Master System - you can see the slot in roughly the same location on that machine - and this was a feature they also ported to the West.

The image on the right hand wall (beside the oversize Mega Drive controller) is a promotional poster for the Sega SC-3000 home computer from 1983. It was essentially a Sega SG-1000 games console with a built-in keyboard, which could be given expanded RAM. Most copies of the machine came with SEGA BASIC, a cartridge and book that taught you how to code in the programming language BASIC. A later revision with an improved keyboard was released called the SC-3000H, however the Sega branded variant of these are very rare. These machines were also released in mainland Europe and Australia.

Despite a lot of searching, I couldn't find a higher resolution copy of this image despite having seen it before. If I can find it, I'll update the article to include it.

The last canonical appearance of the Atrium is in the series' final episode (Episode 13, the special/Episode 14 is set prior to this). However the room has less Sega paraphernalia if anything. The SC-3000 poster is completely concealed by the wall drapes, and the only addition is the Japanese symbol on the wall above the oversized Mega Drive controller.

However there is one final art of this room that doesn't match any episode. The American Blu-Ray (by Diskotek) includes an interior artwork printed on the back of the cover art. This showcases the girls in the atrium with two massive SHGG coins covering up a lot of the room detail.

Firstly there's a round table with chairs next to the oversized game controllers - not Sega related but an odd set of objects to put in where they never existed in the show.

Secondly the Sonic the Hedgehog statue is clearly a drawn artwork instead of an in-game model, which suggests the artwork is a knockup by Diskotek using custom-drawn assets. However this would be a strange length to go to for a niche disc release, which they already had to translate from scratch. I can't imagine adding new custom artwork would have helped give a return on investment.

The SC-3000 poster beside the Mega Drive controller has been replaced by the Japanese poster art for Shenmue (1999) on the Dreamcast.

There are several different coloured Puyos sat on the floor in front of the desks, and the Chao is missing. Instead we get unique miniature versions of Axel's taxi from Crazy Taxi, and the Lancia Delta HF Integrale car (A real life world Rally championship vehicle) which was one of the two main vehicles in the Sega Rally Championship series since the first title.

The final aspect I want to mention in this article is one of the rarest forms of Mega Drive making an appearance in the first episode. At one point in the episode, Mega Drive asks Saturn and Dreamcast if they would like to hear Sehagaga Academy's anthem. She pulls out a blue Aiwa boombox (An Aiwa CSD-G1M) and plays the legendary "SEGA!" choir first heard in Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991.

What's interesting about this boombox is that it is, in fact, a Sega Mega Drive and Mega CD unit as well. And it's super rare. Very few exist anymore, they were a limited run in Japan only. And I know this for precisely one reason - I actually own one. You can see it in our Cyber Razor Cut restoration video, which is where the screengrab of me with the unit comes from.

It's not in great condition, the previous Japanese owner hadn't treated it well (which is unusual for the Japanese). They scratched their name into the front, dented one of the speaker grills - but the unit itself is perfectly working - though the Mega CD drive's belt and laser will likely need replacing.

As you can see the black area at the very bottom of the Sega Hard Girls render is actually the cartridge slot of the machine. The CD Player doubles as the Mega CD when you connect it to the Mega Drive module using a special cable. Two controller ports sit either side of the cartridge slot alongside the Mega Drive's own buttons.

The thing is, like Sega Hard Girls itself, this is such a niche reference that most Sega fans aren't aware it exists. It's clear that some love went into this show for just how many long-dead and rare references the animators and writers decided to put in but I can't for the life of me figure out why in 2013.

Just part of the fun if you're a SEGA fan, I guess. The next article will deal with the classroom, which has a whiteboard that changes every episode to reference different game titles (Including some as niche as Wing War). In the meantime, though, please enjoy the high resolution version of the Sehagaga Academy Culture Festival poster.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Sega Hard Girls 1 - Character Art References

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 21:34:20 GMT

VGMP: SEGA References in SHG's Character Art

One, two - Pon, pon, pon!

Sega Hard Girls was a very niche TV Japanese TV Series from Japan, which we reviewed in Season 1, Episode 3 of Video Game Movie Podcast. In fact the series is so niche, that I have yet to meet a Sega fan who has even heard of it! It's a series where we follow three girls through High School - each one based on a different SEGA Games console. Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive. Along the way we meet other girls (especially in the one-off special 14th episode) but for the most part it's these three versus Sega's historic library of games.

Captain N is essentially Nintendo's 1989 equivalent of this, however that show followed a known Western formula for kids cartoons, and the references were usually pretty obvious - Tetrisland anybody? Sega Hard Girls goes above and beyond any adaptation I have ever seen to bring out some truly rare - and truly bonkers - references. Sure there's the obvious ones - such as jumping into the world of Virtua Fighter - but there are so many other choices that even the most hardcore of Sega fans would struggle to get.

Each character has taken multiple visual cues in colours and accessories, with several characters hiding extra references within their designs. Because of how many characters there are, I'm going to mostly do this in console release order with the exception of characters (such as Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast) that have more than one or two images so that we can get through the one-shot characters quickly.

To view full images, click on one and you can use the left/right arrows at the side of the screen to compare images.

So we start with the earliest of Sega's console efforts - the SG-1000. She appears in the Lovely Girls competition (in fact all the girls do) but we don't see anything else of her throughout the show.

She took me a while to identify as it looks as if she's strapped to a camera, which threw me off. But it's actually an oversized version of the SG-1000 controller, with the circle at the top being the top of the control stick. The red, white and blue colouration matching the colours of the console. You can see the red hold/pause button at the bottom of her skirt.

The reason why she's strapped to her controller is a reference to the controller cable itself. The Player One controller was actually built into the console, so you couldn't unplug it or swap it for a different one.

SG-1000 Mark II gets an appearance in the Lovely Girls competition too. The Mark II was an upgrade on the original hardware by looking less like a toy, including controller ports so you can swap out the controllers at leisure, and there's an expansion port at the front-left.

The SHG version of her includes the black and white cartridge slot design on the right side (her left) of her dress. In the middle of her chest, and at the bottom left of her dress, are black lines approximating the writing quote written atop the original hardware. This quote is in American-English, and not Japanese. This text reads;

"A fun-packed console designed for simple operation. This computer video game with its distinct images allows you to enjoy the maximum in playing satisfaction. Its colorful game play is sure to test your skills, sharpen your reflexes and greatly enlarge your imagination."

The Sega Mark III takes many of its visual cues from the Mark II. The yellow Pause button, the black on white contrast styling, the position of the expansion slot (used in the Mark III for the exterior FM Sound Chip attachment) and the additional Sega My Card slot in front of the main cartridge slot.

Due to the close nature of the hardware designs, it appears the SHG team designed Sega Mark III's character around Professor Asobin - the unofficial mascot for the Mark III for a few years who appeared in the back of game manuals to dispense tips and hints. I've added an image of Professor Asobin as a third image. Bear in mind Center-Sensei is also based on Professor Asobin and his evil variant is called Black Asobin, meaning this character got a lot of mileage in this series.

Sega's first home computer, based entirely on the SG-1000 architecture. The original release came in black with soft keys on the keyboard that were known for suffering from wear. There was an upgrade to the keyboard to plastic keys and it was repackaged as the SC-3000H - with both a black and a red option.

The SHG team have done a wonderful job of combining the two elements in this character design, with long black hair and a flowing red kimono. You can see the SC-3000H keys as a pattern on the sleeves of her kimono, with subtle yellow touches to reference the colours of the keys on the original SC-3000.

The Master System appears as a musical prodigy in this series, with that being a reference to the Japanese console coming with an FM Sound Unit built in as standard.

The look of the front fascia has been transferred to the character by being printed on her skirt, with the controllers printed across the chest and gloves. The iconic red and black is very evident, with the triangular artwork replicated in multiple places including her knees.

While Mega Drive is a character in her own right (as is Mega Drive 2 and each of the Mega CD and 32X attachments), the SHG Team decided to bring in Genesis - the American rebranded Mega Drive - as a character in the show. She's referenced as still being Japanese, but has spent so long studying in America that she's acclimatised to their ways. This results in every cliche'd stereotype being applied to her.

We get the customary cowboy hat (with Genesis controller button accessory), cowgirl neckerchief (in red to match the red patch below the console's cartridge slot) and American Stars and Stripes flag bikini top. Yeehaw pardner.

More interesting details come from the D-Pad accessories on her shoulders, the cartridge slot circle as a belt buckle and the front section of the console printed on her skirt. The tops of her boots also include the Genesis logo with the red power light section detailing underneath.

The first Mega CD is the only iteration of the console that was a front-loading console. Because of this, it has become one of the less reliable drive trays in the range (though the drives weren't intended to be run for over 30 years, to be fair) - these issues are easily fixable. The Mega CD included flashing lights on the front to make it look flashy, and it sat underneath the Mega Drive as the base of the Tower of Power.

The Mega CD Mark I has an amazing design, dressed up as some kind of medieval/fantasy knight. The character has the Japanese Mega CD logo on her collar, CDs on her scabbard and a Mega Drive controller as the crossguard to her sword. Her shield, breastplates and print on the front flap of her skirt are all based on the circular design of the first Mega Drive - likely as a nod to the fact that the Mega CD doesn't work without the Mega Drive attached.

The Mega Drive 2 was a cost-saving new version of the original Mega Drive. It lost the volume slider, it lost stereo sound output completely and it was smaller - which means it is too thin if paired with an original Mega CD. In Japan they coloured the cartridge slot red, with a grey power slider and a blue reset button. By the time the console made it's way to Europe (and even later production runs of the Japanese model) the power slider was replaced with another button akin to the reset button. In Europe both buttons were red while the cartridge port was black.

The character design incorporates the blue reset button in the addition of a blue tie, with more oversized grey elements to match the power slider. Mega Drive 2 is very similar to Mega Drive in every other way, so there's not much unique to discuss here.

The Mega CD 2, like the Mega Drive 2, was a pared down version of it's original. The Mega CD 2 at least doesn't lose any hardware features, but the array of lights have been reduced to one single Access light. The more expensive drive tray was replaced with a simple spring mechanism instead and the unit was slimmed down to match the Mega Drive 2. It came with an extender so you could extend the base if you wanted to pair it with a Mega Drive Mark I.

The character has one of my favourite designs, as it's both cool (in a 90s way) and the hoverboard is a nice addition. She carries a CD and CD player, and she has small versions of the Mega CD 2 as armbands. When I first saw this design I thought it was the Multimega/CDX console because that unit could be used as a portable CD player on AA Batteries.

This is the 32X, known in Japan as the Super 32X. The 32X was a mushroom shaped addition to the Mega Drive which technically doubled the console's "power" from 16 bits to 32 bits. In the 90s, console quality was compared in theoretical "bits" which did little to explain the actual differences in hardware - but as marketing it was geared to suggest that a Mega Drive and 32X system (being 32 bit) could compete with a Sega Saturn or a Sony Playstation. It really couldn't. That's not to say it didn't have some impressive abilities, but most of this add-on was pointless marketing guff.

This design is an oddity, with the only real hint at the hardware coming from the numerous X symbols built into the character's outfit - including all the criss-cross patterns on her sandals and armbands. The black and yellow design is one that could only be a Japanese 32X, as the gold design was missing internationally (the boxart even got a purple palette in Europe), however the character pulls on this design. It might have been more interesting to build her as a hippie-type character rather than a meaningless fairy - due to the connection with magic mushrooms - but I can see why Japan wouldn't have gone for that (they're very conservative in their views towards drugs).

The Sega TeraDrive was another Sega Mega Drive variant, and similar to the SC-3000 it was an attempt to make a PC out of the hardware. It was built in the shape of a PC unit of it's era (before they became upstanding towers) and included a Mega Drive cartridge slot to the top left, a floppy disk drive to the top right and various hidden ports in the bottom left and right corners (for controllers, keyboards and mice).

The character incorporates the keyboard into her collar, with the Mega Drive 3 button controls as a hairpin and floppy drives at her knees. The bottom of her top has all the various lights and ports from the computer, and she includes a mouse as a hip ornament. For some reason she's also designed with cat ears.

The Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU) was a memory card accessory for the Sega Dreamcast that was designed to slot into the top of the controller. The controller included a hole for the screen so that the VMU could relay unique information to you via the controller, as well as make a beeping sound when saves have completed. However they also included a battery slot in the back that allowed you to take them out of the controller and play them as their own separate handheld games console (though the games were incredibly basic).

Some Dreamcast games really require the VMU to properly play (and as such make little sense when emulated). Sonic Shuffle is one such game - a party board game where you have to select numbered cards to move across the board. In single player your cards will show on screen, but the AI opponents' cards will be ghosted so you can't see what to you're going to steal (if you steal their cards). In multiplayer the only way to know what cards you'd got was to look at the cards on your VMU, which kept your cards safe from your friends. Several online Let's Play channels (such as Game Grumps) have emulated the game for multiplayer and then were confused at how they were supposed to guess their own cards because they weren't playing with the VMU - meaning everybody's cards are ghosted and essentially random.

The character design includes the Dreamcast's swirl logo in her hair, her dress is a very clear print of the VMU's screen and buttons and she even has a tiny VMU in the choker around her neck. Because she doesn't appear in the show outside of this one image, there's not much else to gleam on her character here.

Robo Pitcher is the odd one out on this list, as she isn't anything to do with video games. She was a toy built by SEGA. You'd load balls into the ball-loader at the back, and the pitcher would hold the next ball at the end. The blue arm would then rotate round fast to hit/throw the ball, and you'd have to try and hit it with your racket. Like a cross between tennis and baseball.

The character design incorporates the spaceman-esque visor ontoher forehead as a pair of shades, with the ball-loader strapped to her back with balls ready to access. Her colours match the white of the unit and the colours on the front sticker. She got three pre-posed images in Episode 8 as the girls discuss her chances in the Lovely Girl competition.

The Sega Game Gear was a portable handheld console from Sega that ran largely on Master System/Mark III hardware, albeit with a couple of minor upgrades to colour palette. It was the first mainstream handheld console with a full colour screen, and that screen was an LCD screen way back in 1990 (they wouldn't become a standard until the mid-2000s, and would eventually be phased out by the mid 2020s).

One of the best designs out of all of the girls, Game Gear's chest is a literal print of the console's front. The three colour logo, power light and white naming on the left side of her chest, the blue start button and green text on the right with the screen in the middle. Add to that the two buttons and D-Pad at the bottom of the hoodie, including the speaker holes and we have a pretty nice design. But then you add to that her hood includes a print of the Game Gear's Japanese TV Tuner (which included a VHF/UHF switch, a Call Button and two Tune buttons - up and down). her tri-coloured hair matching the RGB logo, and the emo Game Gear bear and this is a truly inventive piece of work.

There are several jokes made in the show at the expense of the Game Gear. The girls state that she tires easily and often goes home early - a clear comment on the Game Gear's infamously terrible battery life (6 AA batteries would often last only about an hour at best, versus the Game Boy's 6 hours on 4 AA batteries). They also mention her fascination with TV, another clear reference to the TV Tuner add-on.

Now we hit the main three characters, starting with Mega Drive. The Mega Drive was Sega's most successful console, taking Nintendo's 90% market share in America and stealing it away to near-parity, decimating Nintendo in Europe and fighting back the gaming mega-giant in Japan too. The Mega Drive came out a good 2 years before the SNES, so it had time to build a decent library for itself (before Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 launched the company into super-stardom) and as such included some innovative features for it's time.

Sega always built their systems with Hi-Fi technology and design in mind, which is visible here by the headphone socket, volume dial and a power switch reminiscent of Hi-Fi and mixing desks of the period. In fact the headphone socket offered Sega fans the first console experience in true stereo sound (with mono sound coming out of the back). Cables have since been made to accommodate both video and stereo from this port as stereo sound on TVs in much more common now than in the late 80s. The circular design of the cartridge slot and the large 16-BIT text in gold were a bold statement by Sega that they were here to take the multimedia entertainment market.

The character design incorporates the 16-BIT text by adding them onto an encyclopaedia the character uses. She has the three button controller as a hairpin, with the Japanese logo on a badge on her outfit (giving it the appearance of a uniform - fitting for a character so studious). This three button motif is also visible on her shoes and the sleeves of her jacket.

There are a couple of unique artworks made for Mega Drive over the series. When the girls are discussing going to a talent competition as a rock band in Episode 8, Mega Drive explains that she can't actually play drums musically, but can catch timpani (a food) in her mouth as she makes them jump by hitting the drums.

The other images are from the girls suggestion of doing a Haunted House for the Talent competition. We then see the Haunted House theme they actually wind up doing and Mega Drive is the only one to actually dress up, the others just add a bit of blood or vampire teeth.

The Sega Saturn was the true follow up to the Mega Drive and wound up doing horribly in the West due to it's advancements making it a pain to program for. It was the first home console to include two GPU's, it also ran with dual CPUs - another first for console gaming. It also stands as the only console designed to render 3D graphics as quads (four sided shapes) instead of triangles/trilaterals like the Playstation and every other system since. This has made emulation very difficult (though it is starting to catch up).

The Saturn was designed as the ultimate 2D games machine, and ultimately achieves that goal - blowing the Playstation and other contemporaries out of the water in 2D gaming. However this was in an era where 3D gaming was in demand, especially in the West. This caused the Saturn to fail in Europe and in America - but in Japan this was considered a key strength and the system thrived.

The first release of the console was a military grey. However it seems the character took her design cues from the second release, seen above. The clean white design matches her dress, the pink Open, trigger and Start buttons match the trim of her outfit, and she has the controller's main 6 buttons on the right side of her chest. The Japan-only stylised S used on the top logo appear on Saturn's shoes and collar - which in itself seems based on the CD Tray window. Finally her eyes are green and blue - a nod to the A and C buttons on the controller.

In Episode 3, Dreamcast decides that Saturn should become a TV Reporter so that she can have adoring fans, gain access to a professional baseball player and marry into wealth. These are the stills that run up to that premise.

There are also unique artworks made of Saturn as a Ninja (Episode 5) and as a Maid (Episode 11). Those images are shared here for completions sake.

Lastly we have Dreamcast - quite possibly the best games console ever made, fighting the impossible odds to be truly revolutionary. The Dreamcast was the first games console to be released with a modem for internet connectivity (other consoles could go online, but only with additional hardware), which could also be swapped with a Broadband Adapter later in the console's life - making it truly a step ahead of even some home PCs at the time. Sega changed their development structure to allow game directors to develop and design their own concepts - leading to some of the best franchises in the industry such as Jet Set Radio, ChuChu Rocket, Samba De Amigo, Space Channel 5 and Rez.

The console had extensive browser support (unique to each region), a karaoke add-on, online play, the first online RPG on a console, online leaderboards, webcam chat (with the right software), microphone chat (with specific games), free Downloadable Content (DLC), retro game loan service (via Dream Library, exclusive to Japan) and much much more.

The character design incorporates the orange and white colours to the console and logo (the logo was blue in Europe due to a copyright issue), includes a print of the top of the console on her top, the swirl logo as a belt buckle and on her collar and she has VMU screens on her knees. She also wears a Dreamcast controller headband and a VMU for a hip ornament.

There are a few unique artworks of Dreamcast in the show, and one of them is a very direct game reference.

The first image, as seen in it's subtitle, is a reference to Samba De Amigo - a Dreamcast rhythm title with a Mexican theme which came with Maraca accessories (more on this below). She even basically namedrops the game - " I can't lose at the samba! Amigo! "

The other two pictures include her suggesting she'll do a traditional art at the Talent Show - but Mega Drive questions whether suspending herself above water in a bikini classifies as a traditional art. Also bear in mind that Japanese tradition is to read from right to left, which is why the "last" idea is on the leftmost side of the screen.

Then in Episode 11 she imagines the costume they're about to get is a Maid uniform.

There is an artwork of the girls all working together on the Talent Show as a rock band. The artwork (while basic) is cool, however we also see Dreamcast say " I... can only play the maracas. " - a very clear nod to the game Samba de Amigo and the Maraca controllers.

The Dreamcast version of the game came with a "dance mat" and two sensors in the bar at the front. These, plus the motion sensors in the maracas themselves, would track your hand movements and apply them to the game.

The girls are sometimes drawn into large scale artwork that the show pans up and/or down over, meaning the full image isn't visible all at once. Here I have taken these images and used Photoshop to stitch as much of the full image together as possible.

The first image is from I Would Die For You, known internationally as Feel the Magic XX/XY (America) or Project Rub (Europe). I discuss the history of this game in the Episode 13 breakdown, so keep an eye out for that!

The second and third images are from Love and Berry, a girl-centric Arcade game where you collect cards to dress your characters up. I will go over this title in more detail in the Episode 13 breakdown.

Strangely, the girls aren't the only ones given unique artworks, Jeffry from Virtua Fighter gets two such images in Episode 4 as the girls ponder the amazing future he has after he revives Space Channel 5's dying ratings. They suggest he could either be a daytime TV host, or be the face of a TV Dinner brand.

That's all of the main characters covered, next up we will go over the Sega references in the Sehagaga Academy's atrium - trust me there's plenty to cover in this 8 part article series;

PART 1 - Character References

PART 2 - Atrium References

PART 3 - Classroom References

PART 4 - Episodes 1 to 4

PART 5 - Episodes 5 to 8

PART 6 - Episodes 9 to 11

PART 7 - Episodes 12 and 13

PART 8 - Episode 14/The OVA Movie

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on Sega Hard Girls at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

[VGMP] Dead or Alive Character Confusion

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 01:19:11 GMT

VGMP: Dead or Alive can't keep it's characters straight

Let me be the first to say it - DOA: Dead or Alive is not a very good film. At all.

Yes it's a lot of fun, and if your wife is out of the house it can make for a bit of guilt-free voyeurism, but there's little Dead Or Alive gets right about it's chosen franchise even when it seemingly tries - and the less said of finding a deeper meaning in the script the better. On Dead or Alive fansites you'll see the usual cries of how Kasumi isn't large breasted enough, or that she has too dour a personality for the more upbeat game character. You'll see fans bemoan that Christie is not a silver-haired psychopathic assassin, but a carefree blonde diamond thief. And all these issues are completely valid (well, maybe not the breasts one). However...

Here at Video Game Movie Podcast (and Cyberpunk Studios), we tend to focus on the lesser known elements of films and almost ridiculously fixate on the minutiae. As such, the characters we're going to look into are the sad (and completely off base) portrayals of the lesser characters the filmmakers chose to use as mere fodder in Dead or Alive.

And my curiosity was piqued because of this guy. The Man in Yellow. Who is he?

From the moment the fighters appear in Donovan's Complex, this man is stood to the left of the screen as if he portrays one of the series' mains. He later opens the first round of fights by battling Helena (and loses to her acrobatic attacks), though he holds his own for some time. He is also later seen in the beach sequences after the Kasumi/Ayane battle in the bamboo forest.

So who is he? Well, it seems he's representing Hitomi from the games. For those who don't recall Hitomi, here's her character image from the games;

Not quite the same character is it? I'll explain how I can verify the Man in Yellow is officially portraying "Hitomi" in a moment, but first I want to include another puzzling element to the Hitomi confusion - there is literally a girl at the tournament, dressed like the in-game character of Hitomi, who is also seen practicing her martial arts in the background of a few shots.

The first clear shot that she appears in (Though the back of her head and jacket is visible on the plane and in a reverse mid-shot prior) is the same as the Man in Yellow. Once the main characters arrive at Donovan's compound, Helena leads them all to the main atrium and Donovan walks out to greet them, talking to them from several stories up. We get a brief camera shot from Donovan's POV which apparently shows all of the fighters who made it to the compound before sundown (Anyone not there by that time is disqualified). For simplicity's sake, I've named all the known characters (under their given names in the film) and credited actors in the image to try and make sense of the mess.

This is the only body shot she appears in with the denim jacket (Though it is visible on the plane behind Zack's arm as he 'flirts' with Tina, photo below), her later appearances have her in just the vest-top, jeans and boots (which are also alternative costumes for Hitomi in the games). You can also see the pink hairband, jeans and boots here. You'll see the Man in Yellow to the far left, all the main characters (minus the named Jann Lee and Eliot) and next to the female Hitomi are two unknown women, one dressed in a pink dress and cut-offs and another in jeans and a white sports top. We have a close up on these two anonymous women below, but I still can't figure out which characters they're supposed to represent - especially the woman dressed in pink as she's seen repeatedly throughout the film.

From left to right: Bayman (mostly cut off), Lei Fang, Girl in Pink , Gen Fu, Brad Wong, Girl in White , Leon.

The entire fighter roster in this film is identical to Dead or Alive 3, except with Ayane not officially part of the tournament and Eliot from DOA4 taking her place. Max (a unique character for the film) takes Hayate 's slot (Though Hayate does appear in the movie). At the time of the film's release, Dead or Alive 4 had just been released (about six months prior). Other than the characters named in the movie, these are the only fighters not used:

Ein [DOA2] (Though he's just Hayate with amnesia)

Tengu [DOA2]

La Mariposa/Lisa [DOA4]

Kokoro [DOA4] (Lei Fang fights in a Kimono like Kokoro's in her fight with Gen Fu, likely as a reference)

SPARTAN-458 [DOA4] (A female Master Chief from the Halo universe. No way she would have been in the movie due to rights issues)

My initial theory was that the unknown women were used to try and balance these camera shots. As mentioned in the previous picture there are two actual combatants from the film missing in this scene, Jann Lee and Eliot. If these two women were replaced by the two male characters, that would make 5 women (6 if you include Helena on the stairs) and 11 men. Considering the type of softcore porn vibe Dead or Alive goes for, I'm guessing one possibility was to reduce this image from being too much of a sausage party.

However that theory was thrown off when I noticed that both Hitomi and the Girl In Pink both clearly appear on the plane en route to the compound too! Because of this I'm convinced the woman sat beside female Hitomi (we only ever see the back of her head and not her costume, sadly) is the Girl In White we also meet at the compound. Below you can see Hitomi clearly visible on the plane.

Of interest to my current theory - that some characters were cut from the film as much as possible for unknown reasons - is the fact that the plane scene includes a lot of characters teleporting from place to place. The Girl in Pink actually teleports from in front of Christie (in the seat next to Zack she has occupied almost the entire scene - bar his close up) to behind her within a quick few shots. Bayman, Christie, Hayabusa, the Girl in Pink, Tina and Bass all have moments where they teleport from one position to another - the most egregious being Hayabusa who just moves from his seat, to Bayman's, back to his multiple times - with nary a second between transport.

On reviewing the footage it also makes no sense for Max to check something into the overhead luggage during the flight (when Christie accosts him) - and this is the one time she teleports. She walks from the front of the plane to talk to him, then appears from the rear of the plane at the start of their altercation. This is also a moment where Hayabusa (who has already started his conversation with Kasumi in the final edit) teleports back from Bayman's seat and is seen in his own, which leads me to believe that this sequence would have opened the scene rather than end it.

It's possible that Hitomi had a scene here, and this frantic cutting and rearranging of events led to characters being in the wrong positions due to the final edit. It would be interesting to see if the Girl in Pink had more to her role as well, and if she was supposed to have a name (potentially Kokoro, though she isn't dressed anything like her).

I did state that female Hitomi does some martial arts work, too. In the montage of the characters training before Round One begins, we can see her in the background of one of Zack's training shots - however it cuts to a close up on Zack's face before switching back to an empty courtyard. Perhaps there were some additional shots cut for time?

We also get a different angle of her fight (with Zack in the distance behind her) later in the montage. She's noticeable largely due to the pink hairband Hitomi always wears. The woman doing cartwheels in both shots is most likely Lei Fang as she shares the same hairstyle as Lei Fang has in the plane.

So Hitomi fans rejoice! Your main gal is in the movie, and even does a small amount of fighting, but she gets no real screen time. However watching the film in retrospect - her relegation to minor background role feels overly forced. It's true that Lei Fang gets very little screen time either, but she at least got a fight, as well as being introduced during the "Scanning" sequence of the movie (where all the main characters are in their underwear standing inside a machine). It would make sense for Hitomi to appear here too, at the very least. Especially as we have the oddity that Hitomi is actively named in the tournament roster.

So let's go back to the Man in Yellow - the male I say is called "Hitomi" in the movie. What evidence is there?

First, let's take a look at the fighter list for the opening round;

Kasumi - Tina - Christie - Eliot

Helena - Bass - Hayabusa - Max

Zack - Bayman - Leon - Jann Lee

Lei Fang - Gen Fu - Hitomi - Brad Wong

As we can see, Eliot and Jann Lee are namedropped here despite not being on the plane, in the atrium or in the scanning machine. They join Hitomi's name on the tournament roster, despite not officially making it to the tournament on time.

" B ut wait" , you say, " Doesn't Jann Lee wear similar clothing in the games to the Man in Yellow? That could explain his appearance in the atrium and his name on the tournament roster. Why couldn't this guy be Jann Lee instead? "

Let's compare him to the game character for Jann Lee;

It would make sense for this guy to be Jann Lee. The haircut is the same, the outfit is almost identical to his DOA 3 costume ( Select Costume 2 and Press X to select it instead of A on the character select screen - the purple outfit will turn yellow once in a match ), and his fighting style is very similar. He even performs Jann Lee's infamous jump-kick attack.

This guy is the perfect Jann Lee. But, sadly, he's not officially called Jann Lee. We know this because we see Jann Lee paired up with Christie in the first round, and their names are clearly on the health bars on Donovan's screens. I took some close ups of the guy they called Jann Lee, but he's definitely not as close physically as the Man in Yellow.

This is odd because usually you'd go for a less accurate portrayal due to some recognisable star power. However Hung Lin is credited as Hitomi (we'll come to this later) and the actor for Jann Lee is not credited at all - suggesting he was just a day player (and possibly explaining his lack of appearance anywhere else in the movie bar one time he acts as a stand-in - we'll come to that in a bit).

As you can see, this guy was missing from the Atrium and should have been disqualified for not being there before sundown. However the movie clearly names him as Jann Lee. Also worth noting is that this version of Jann Lee does only 3 moves the entire fight, in a repeating pattern.
His first clip is him blocking two punches, then leaning back to dodge a kick. He does this same pattern 3 times.

His second clip he blocks a punch, leans back to dodge a kick, tries to sweep Christie who cartwheels to avoid, before she slaps him in the face and ends the match with an axe kick to the face. The strikes are all in quick-cut close-ups so they can be tricked with minimal effort, and as such we never see any of them actually land.

That's his entire fight. This screams to me of a fight that had to be made up at the last minute - and why I believe this is where a rehearsed Hitomi vs Christie fight was meant to occur. Whether the fight was filmed or not is another story. The Helena vs Man in Yellow is a far better and well rehearsed fight than this one, which suggests it wasn't cobbled together during the shoot.

That leaves us with Eliot - however we fall into the same problem. He's named on Donovan's screens as the guy fighting Hayabusa in Round One. Despite being an English boy in the games, he is again cast in the movie as an Asian adult. But there's no room for doubt, he's clearly named Eliot.

Also, his fight includes much more varied and better rehearsed fight choreography, as well as breakable set elements (Eliot kicks through several wooden railings and is thrown through objects twice). However, unlike the Man in Yellow, this guy never does any of Jann Lee's signature moves - suggesting he was never supposed to be Jann Lee and was always meant to be an additional character (whether he was originally supposed to be Eliot or not).

The only other character shown and named, but not given much focus, is Brad Wong. He appears in a younger form here, with his drinking gourd. He doesn't use the drunken fist martial arts style but he is, again, named by Donovan's computers during his fight with Bayman in Round One. As you can see if you compare him to the video game, unlike Jann Lee and Eliot, the filmmakers put in effort to make this guy resemble the original character. Okay they didn't do a great job (His hair is clearly a wig, for example), but the effort was there.

He's also seen later in the film at the beach (after the Kasumi/Ayane bamboo fight), he chats to the Man in Yellow in several shots, and his final appearance is in the dining room when the girls decide to go find Hayabusa. Considering we never see him leave the island, and this takes place near the end of the movie, we can only assume he died when the island exploded at the end of the film.

So the only unknown name left on the roster that could be the Man in Yellow is Hitomi.

Donovan's computer never actually names the Man in Yellow, despite the name Hitomi becoming ghosted (showing a loss) after Helena has defeated him. However this is where the editing of the movie is done in such a way as to keep this vague.

Bayman is the first to win (against Brad Wong). After his victory, we cut back to the roster to show Bayman moving to the Quarter Finals, Brad Wong's name is ghosted.

Christie gets the next win (against Jann Lee) and we cut to the roster to see her name slide over and Jann Lee's name ghosts out.

Helena then wins against the Man in Yellow, but we don't cut to the roster on this occasion, instead we jump to the next fight.

Hayabusa defeats Eliot, and we cut back to the roster to see Hayabusa's name slide across with Eliot's name ghosted out. However on this screen, we can also see Helena's name already in the Quarter Finals, and Hitomi's name ghosted out. She beat the Man in Yellow, we've had no other fights - which means the film tries to get away with naming him Hitomi.

So what happened to female Hitomi? Why not use her in the Helena fight?

My feeling on this was that the Man in Yellow was originally supposed to be Jann Lee, and Christie was supposed to fight Hitomi in the Japanese garden. If I'm right, this would mean that Jann Lee is not only a recurring character in the movie, but that he did make it to the atrium in time - along with Hitomi.

If I'm correct, then why label the Man in Yellow as Hitomi? Why not call him Jann Lee and call the guy fighting Christie "Hitomi" in the editing suite?

My guess is it's due to coverage in the editing room. With how close the camera work is, and how intense the fight is between Helena and the Man in Yellow, there were perhaps no clear shots available to add in the Health Bars at the top of Donovan's screens for their match. However as the choreography is so basic, one-note and repetitive in the Christie battle, it's likely that adding the Health Bars to the distance shots of that fight was more practical for the VFX team. As such they butchered Jann Lee by giving his name to a day player, and omitted to name the original Jann Lee hoping no-one would notice. Bear in mind all of the screen displays would be added in post-production by the VFX house, so this could have been toyed with and altered long after filming had ended.

So why not just use the existing actress for Hitomi?

Well, there may have been an issue with the actress portraying Hitomi. Perhaps she wasn't available for much of the shoot, there may have been problems on set, she could have been injured during filming - anything could have come up. However due to her omission from the later beach scenes (after the Ayane/Kasumi bamboo fight), my guess is for some reason she couldn't finish principal photography.

Here is an updated version of the atrium shot, this time with the names following what I believe was the original intent.

We know there were constant issues on-set, thanks to an interview with Jaime Pressly (who played Tina in the movie) for Rotten Tomatoes back in 2007;

"We were working with a director, Corey Yuen, who is one of the number one action and marital arts directors in the world. That’s why we did the film. In the process of filming, a lot of bad stuff came up and happened, being that we were over in China in little small villages, you didn’t have the means necessary to get things done like you do when you’re in Hollywood. So I think between things getting lost in translation because there were four dialects going on at all times, or languages I should say, and the lack of necessities, it just didn’t turn out the way that it should have. And I think for gamers, a lot of the stuff was inaccurate because they changed it along the way."

Interesting that she mentions specifically that stuff became inaccurate as they changed it during production.

Holly Valance (who played Christie) shared some further details on the issues the crew had filming in rural China. While her take on events has the feeling of a person looking back and laughing, it's possible some of the cast/crew left due to the issues with food poisoning. This interview was with TheSciFiWorld.Net in 2007;

"I think even the Chinese crew found it hard in rural China. They were as sick as us and they were from a few hours plane ride away but the same country. I really wish I’d written a daily journal of all the funny things that happened cos no one would believe it, but the hardest part was being violently ill with food poisoning everyday for 4 months, as were the others."

So we know there were on-set problems of various kinds. However the only possible hint at issues with the actress is that the female Hitomi is the only minor actor not to get a close up in the atrium - as if she'd been purposely cut out of the film as much as possible. Again, this is a carefully and accurately designed character and costume to match the game - it feels off that unknown and random characters get close ups and she doesn't, and it almost feels vitriolic.

She also never appears at the beach after the Kasumi/Ayane bamboo fight. The Man in Yellow (now Jann Lee in my head canon), Lei Fang and Brad Wong all walk around the beaches during this segment. Oddly, I'm pretty sure the Girl in Pink from the Atrium appears here too - the one who was also fighting Hitomi in the previous screenshots behind Zack, as well as sitting next to Zack on the plane.

She's dressed in tight black shorts, gold shoes with black socks and a gold-and-black cowboy shirt - and she even holds a conversation with Lei Fang behind Max and Christie for one shot. Her hairstyle is the same in all the outfits, and her face and build seem to match the Girl in Pink.

It's only a theory, but it does make some sense out of the oddities on display in this film. After all, including a game-accurate Hitomi only to name some guy as her in the tournament makes little sense. Some care and attention went in to having this game-accurate looking Hitomi appear and it looks like she could do some martial arts, it would be interesting to find out the reason for the switch.

I also believe that Hung Lin (who is credited as Hitomi in the end credits and is presumably the Man in Yellow) is a fake name, as the only credit on IMDB is for DOA, and a Google search doesn't find him. In fact, Hung Lin doesn't appear as an actual name anywhere , it's always got other names attached to it. A good example is Po-Hung Lin on IMDB - though he wouldn't have been old enough to be in DOA (and looks completely different). It seems Hung Lin is, at best, part of a name. Like calling someone Ja Smi instead of Jack Smith - a strange name choice to say the least.

To give more credence to this theory is the fact that both the official "Male Hitomi" and "Jann Lee" actors portray the Man In Yellow on the plane! For the most part, it is the "Male Hitomi" actor in the role, but one of the first establishing shots of the cast in their seats clearly shows the Jann Lee actor dressed in the yellow outfit instead. They don't look at all alike, their hair is a dead giveaway (The Jann Lee actor's hair isn't as bouffant and has to be gelled to try and hold itself up) and looking at them straight on gives them away.

Just to be thorough, here is the evidence that the other minor fighters appear after their defeats at the tournament - at the beach after the Ayane/Kasumi fight in the bamboo forest (none appear at the volleyball game).

In the image below, you can see Brad Wong talking to the Man in Yellow (Behind Max and Christie), with Lei Fang in the orange dress to the right (With the Girl in Pink - in her black and gold outfit - walking away from the conversation with Lei Fang, passing behind the tree). These characters are seen multiple times throughout this scene (and yes, some do teleport here too) but I've been unable to verify any appearance of the female Hitomi anywhere. The pink headband would be the main giveaway, but I can't spot it in any of these scenes, leading me to believe she isn't here. The other alternative is that she's not wearing it and without a decent face shot in the film, she becomes impossible to identify without it.

As for the other missing characters from DOA4 , it appears there's a reference to Kokoro during the Lei Fang vs Gen Fu fight. Lei Fang - previously dressed her green Cheongsam dress (DOA2 Ultimate, Costume 16) - fights Gen Fu wearing something closer to a traditional Japanese kimono (I'll be honest, it also looks like a different actress, but that may be it's just because she's got a concentration face on here). Lei Fang is not known for wearing this costume (Certainly no occurances in DOA1 to DOA4) - however Kokoro is known for wearing kimonos (Though none look like this in DOA4).

As for Eliot... well I don't have a theory for him. As a DOA4 character, his design may not have been available to filmmakers so they simply used his name on a day player for the Hayabusa fight.

Considering DOA4 would have crossed over development with the film, the filmmakers could have simply shoehorned these references in at the last minute for the fans.

As for potential deleted scenes, I've gone over the Deleted Scenes included on the US Dimension Films' Blu-Ray, and the only missing fight sequence is a 90 second fight between Kasumi and Gen Fu on the water rafts (Just before Bass enters to fight Tina). Kasumi wins, obviously. However this seems to have been removed to keep the rounds consistent in the film, as Tina vs Bass is a Round One fight, whereas Kasumi vs Gen Fu is a Round Two fight - it would make no sense for a Round Two fight to precede a Round One fight. As such this fight is never shown visually in the final film - nonetheless it doesn't give us any further hints on the mystery of Hitomi.

Before I wrap this up, I did a search for Production Stills of DOA Dead or Alive, and found one on Alamy, the full resolution version of which can be bought here . The accurate representation of Hitomi is very clear in this image. If I can afford the full resolution version one day I can try and cut her out to give us a clearer picture of what her actual face looks like.

So what do you guys think? Let us know if you think there might be another explanation for the switch.

Also let us know if you think you can work out who the Girl in Pink and Girl in White from the atrium and plane are supposed to represent. Until next time, here's the one of the only close ups of Hitomi - sadly it's only the back of her head.

Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on DOA: Dead or Alive at www.vgmovie.co.uk .

CINEMAPUNK: Cyber Razor Cut

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 10:57:27 GMT

SEGA challenge Nintendo in cyberpunk fashion!

CinemaPunk reviews the 1992 SEGA commercial campaign of Cyber Razor Cut, starring Steven O' Donnell!

This includes an overview of the campaign and visual comparisons of upscaling the original standard definition video and the Cyberpunk Studios' 4K Restoration.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the original film reels, or anyone interested in re-recording the game footage in 4K via OSSC or emulator, please get in touch. And please feel free to comment on what you like or dislike about this reviewing style so that we can improve the series as we go on.

INCLUDES: Stills and video from the cinematographer Geoff Boyle. https://www.gboyle.nl/SEGACYBR%20qt.HTM

Not available in Stores

CINEMAPUNK: Timebomb

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 06:23:05 GMT

Michael Biehn and Patsy Kensit battle PTSD and the CIA!

Cyberpunk Studios deep dives into Michael Biehn's psychological thriller, Timebomb! After he starts receiving counselling from his psychiatrist, played by Patsy Kensit, Biehn finds himself the target of multiple assassination attempts - further driving him into despair. Eventually, he decides he has to prove his sanity to Kensit, by kidnapping her and taking her on a journey into his past.

INCLUDES: Stills and video from the German "Nameless: Total Terminator" blu-ray release by Koch Media.

Nameless: Total Terminator (Koch Media): https://shop.kochfilms.de/de/genre/aben/nameless-total-terminator-mediabook-b-blu-ray-dvd
Timebomb (Scream Factory): https://www.amazon.co.uk/TIMEBOMB-1-Blu-ray/dp/B071HGJK8Y/

CINEMAPUNK: Runaway

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:53:47 GMT

Tom Selleck and Gene Simmonds battle using AI Robots!

Cyberpunk Studios deep dives into Tom Selleck's 80's cyberpunk thriller, Runaway! He must do battle with KISS Singer Gene Simmonds, fighting against an army of AI controller smart-bullets and robo-spiders, to save the life of Kirstie Alley (from Cheers and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). If that all sounds like a crazy mix of actors, then join us for the deep-dive of the movie.

INCLUDES: Comparison shots between the 101 Films (UK) blu-ray and the Koch Media (German) blu-ray.

Runaway (Koch Media): https://www.amazon.co.uk/RUNAWAY-SPINNEN-TODES-Michael-Crichton/dp/B013FO6PTW
Runaway (101 Films): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Runaway-Blu-ray-Tom-Selleck/dp/B081WW97YX

TURNING TIDES: Short Film

183:812187245 (Rory Joscelyne) — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:01:31 GMT

CSS VIDEO and Cyberpunk Studios' festival film!

Cyberpunk Studios teamed up with CCS Video to create a short film that has now been entered into Raindance Film Festival! Written by Rory Joscelyne and Directed by Robert Campbell, this one minute short is a step into historical drama and comedy. With the consent of CCS Videos' Robert Campbell, Cyberpunk Studios has created a page for the short with production stills, behind the scenes photographs and the 90 second cut of the film!

SEE THE PAGE HERE

To see more of CCS Video and Robert Campbell's work, you can visit their OFFICIAL WEBSITE and their VIMEO pages.

[VGMP] GAMESMASTER Host Admires our Restoration

Mon, 03 May 2021 18:58:11 GMT

EXCLUSIVE: Dominik Diamond Namechecked us on his Twitch Channel

DOMINIK DIAMOND'S SHOUTOUT

For several months of the Covid-19 Pandemic, during the summer months of 2020, Dominik Diamond set up his own Twitch Livestream feed and fans of GamesMaster rejoiced.

During the 2000s, the Scottish legend took off from the isles of Blighty and made home in a Llama Farm in Canada. When his planned Llama Farming expertise turned out to be less than he imagined, he began to rebuild his career on Canadian radio - making a name for himself across Canadian airwaves. When his fans in Britain discovered this, he was soon flooded with fans who wanted to hear what he was up to now - much to the confusion of his Canadian friends. What is "GamesMaster"? "You did a TV Show!?"

With the pandemic closing off large amounts of human contact, Dominik set up his Twitch channel and found himself inundated with loyal viewers. Unsurprisingly, GamesMaster came up more than once. It was here that our restoration efforts were spread, jumping from a very small number of views to a far wider audience rapidly. Thankfully the community was kind enough to leave comments on the videos directing us to the Dominik Diamond, and we managed to catch his amazing hour-long show! A week later, he gave us a special shoutout, with open praise for how sharp and high resolution the transfer looks.

The video above includes a quick summary of the restoration work, the effort required to transfer a standard definition show (recorded on video tape, no less!) into an almost native-looking 4K presentation. We then have Dominik Diamond himself presenting the work. For a better look at the work, watch the video below (there will be extra artifacts added by his stream), but we couldn't help but spend the next few days beaming like the seventh season GamesMaster himself at our long-favourite presenter giving us a shoutout.

[VGMP] HEADHUNTER - 2003 Movie Treatment Found!

Mon, 03 May 2021 18:25:07 GMT

EXCLUSIVE: 2003 Cyberpunk Video Game Adaptation FOUND

ABOUT THE DISCOVERY

On 10th January 2020, Cyberpunk Studios had an exclusive interview with screenwriter Ben Trebilcook (via our radio show Inside The Cyberpunk Studio ). During the interview, Ben mentioned that he had worked on a cyberpunk film treatment for classic SEGA title Headhunter - he had been commissioned to do the treatment in 2003, however the film never made it past pre-production.

Host Rory Joscelyne happens to be a huge SEGA fan, having worked with SEGA Europe on the Summer of Sonic conventions in London (and Brighton) and immediately requested some information on the little known adaptation. Here we will share all the information we have on the project, and above is a video link to the interview with Ben that centres around the Headhunter film. Ben Trebilcook has also gracefully shared a copy of the film's treatment, which we have included here (albeit we have redacted personal and business information).

ABOUT THE SERIES

Headhunter is a cyberpunk action-adventure series that was first released exclusively in Europe on the Sega Dreamcast in 2001. The game would see a 2002 release worldwide on the Playstation 2. A sequel called Headhunter Redemption would see release on Xbox in 2004.

At the time, Sega's position in the gaming market was strained. The Dreamcast would be the last mainstream console they would develop, but in a last-ditch attempt to grab a varied gaming audience Sega commissioned multiple companies to make breakout titles. Most of these developers would be in Europe, one of the Dreamcast's most successful markets. Because of this, Headhunter (along with a few others) saw exclusive release in Europe and not in the US.

The release dates of the game titles sheds an interesting light on the film's development. Initially given a limited run in 2001, and seeing wider release a year later, it seemed Sega wanted to capitalise on the media furore the title had managed to develop. Knowing that a sequel was due out on Xbox the following year, it was likely that the film title was to be released alongside the new game as some form of cross-promotion.

ABOUT THE SCREENPLAY AND TREATMENT

Sadly Ben was unable to find a copy of the screenplay, though he's sure he completed one. This was just one of several jobs he was working on at the turn of the millennium and such files can be lost in a maze across old hard drives or in some cases lost to drive failures. We don't know which has taken Headhunter's script, but Ben is certain it is on a drive somewhere.

If we get any more information on the screenplay or any elements he may have been given relating to the script we will update this page with more information. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the story treatment provided above. While it is lacking in specifics (essentially giving a brief story outline), it still provides some official information on this long-lost cyberpunk movie that was, until 2020, lost completely to time.