about them plush dreamcasteses

[exodus]

so yeah - is this zumi character going to market the beasts?  I suppose sega wouldn't like it.  Some other people might though.

[NFG]

It wasn't part of the plan, but you're not the first to ask...  Maybe I should ebay the first and see what we get.  =)

[Haohmaru]

It wasn't part of the plan, but you're not the first to ask...  Maybe I should ebay the first and see what we get.  =)

Ugh. I was afraid he'd say that.

[exodus]

Maybe I should ebay the first and see what we get.  =)

I'm so gonna kick your ass when I meet you in japan.  I don't care if you're a foot taller and twice my weight, or whatever the ratio is.


I thought of something else: how about putting up a 'how to'??

[NFG]

Zumi's actually excited about making money on these - and for such a profitwh0re she's talking about surprisingly low numbers considering the time she puts in.  

She's upstairs working on a gamecube model now.  =)

[Haohmaru]

Why not stitch serial numbers in them and make 'em LIMITED FUCKING EDITIONS while you're talking "profit whore" smack? Eh?

Fuck, I'll take one. FUCK.

[exodus]

Fuck, I'll take one. FUCK.

yes, one fuck please.

[Gord]

yes, one fuck please.

Hot damn, I missed the memo that said she was back on the market.  I'll order one as well, please.  

[exodus]

let it be noted that I meant this in the general sense, not the specific wife-stealing thread that Gord seems to be consistently after.

[Haohmaru]

let it be noted that I meant this in the general sense, not the specific wife-stealing thread that Gord seems to be consistently after.

Gord can steal wives? Hrm, I'll have to keep that on the back burner in case I run into any trouble with mine.

[exodus]

haha...

you all have wives.

[Fluff_Daddy]

If she decides to make a plush Divers 2000 (which I asked if she would) that is sooooo gonna be mine.

[Haohmaru]

haha...

you all have wives.

(Makes a mental note to smack Exodus upside the head if he happens to meet him at E3)

[exodus]

(Makes a mental note to smack Exodus upside the head if he happens to meet him at E3)

YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME!!!

I'm too wiley for you.  I've no ball and chain to tie me down

I AM however drinking beer and eating garlic filled olives.  That's the life, far's I'm concerned.

[Haohmaru]

Beer. Beer! BEER!

... and...olives? You feeling okay? That sounds like a problem, to me.

I'll find your sorry ass no matter WHERE you are!

[Chuplayer]

I love that Neo Geo plush! It's so cute! I wish I had one    

[Seven Force]

Zumi's actually excited about making money on these - and for such a profitwh0re she's talking about surprisingly low numbers considering the time she puts in.  

She's upstairs working on a gamecube model now.  =)

How about a  PS2 model later....

*rimshot*

I'll take a DC plushy...or three.  

[Vertigo]

*something predictable about the size of an XBox plush*

I'd love an SP one, with something cute inside on the screen.

[Pcenginefx]

Hi all,

Aaron from Pcenginefx.com.  I just gotta say that the plush consoles are awesome.  I've already emailed Zumi about making a PC-FX, but we will see

Anyway, if/when she decides to market these plushes, Pcenginefx.com would be more than welcome to sell some of the PC Engine ones (or any other NEC console she may make.)  There is tons of interest, so I'm sure they would sell well.  Keep up the great work!

[exodus]

Nanto dares to show his face!!

The forum is ruined!

heh.

I wouldn't mind seeing a PC-FX either, though the indented sides would be tough.  You know...I always wondered how small you could get one of those things.  There's so much empty space in it...really seems like it could have been the size of a coregrafx, maybe.

[Pcenginefx]

LOL... Yah, since it's hard enough to make a square system "square" in plush, a mini-sized PC-FX would be difficult...but could still be possible.

I'd say that if you stripped out all of the expansion ports from the motherboard, it could possibly fit into a CoreGrafx-sized shell....but you are right that the FX has LOTS of empty space.  Everytime someone comes over to my place, they ask what the heck it is.."whoh, is that a computer??"  

[exodus]

if I had won that damn california 92 million dollar lottery, I could have paid someone to make that happen for me.  Even better, I could have taken classes to learn how to do it myself.

I'd love to make the ultimate NEC system, which would play all NEC console formats...hmmm.  good times.

I really do wonder why they made it so big.  Well - even more than that, I wonder why they so heavily restricted what kind of games could be on the system, especially once they saw that it wasn't working for them.

[Pcenginefx]

I really do wonder why they made it so big.  Well - even more than that, I wonder why they so heavily restricted what kind of games could be on the system, especially once they saw that it wasn't working for them.

Well, the story goes like this...

The head man of PC-FX hardware dev team (forgot his name) wanted a *different* console when designing the PC-FX.  The two main features he wanted in the new design was: 1. Expandability and  2. High-quality visuals.  At the time, the Sega Saturn and Playstation were getting ready for release and after looking at some of the new polygon-based games, the FX design team was NOT impressed.  They weren�t going to get high-quality visuals out of polygons at that time, so they decided that interactive FMV was the way to go.  Taking a page out of the Sega CD, they were going to make a system that could not only display high-quality FMV, but have enough expansion for any future technologies.

This of course was a good and bad direction for the PC-FX to go.  It was a good for Japanese developers that were (at the time) really good at doing 2D games, but bad in a way that any developer that was transitioning to 3D, couldn't develop for the FX.  Of course, the first real nail in the coffin for the FX was that NEC limited the kind of games developers could release for the system.  Notice that the first games for the unit - Team Innocent, Battle Heat and Queen of Queens...all of those games utilize the PC-FX's graphical abilities during game play (specifically JPEG FMV streaming & decompressing)  NEC didn't want any game that didn't utilize those graphical abilities, thus no Bomberman's or Bonk's on the console were going to be made.

I won't go into any more detail (I could go on for hours...) but to really put you into the mindset of the FX dev team, this quote from the lead of the group pretty much sums it up (and I'm quoting verbatim):

"Polygons are just a passing fad.  They will get popular and fade away.  People will demand high-quality graphics and the FX is the system to do it."

[NFG]

That's more or less what I believed as far as the system itself goes, NEC went with FMV as the primary capability of the system and it was, unfortunately, the wrong choice.  I always thought this was what limited the capability of the games, not an actual decision to restrict the genres offered.  That seems intensely short-sighted.

I like the physical design of the PCFX as far as appearances go, it's very unique and IMO attractive.  I don't like the quality of construction, it's just garbage.  Squeaks and flexes when you move it around, and it's a right BITCH to disassemble.

[exodus]

personally, I don't find the FX's 2D graphics all that amazing, unfortunately.  I like the system, but most of the PSX and Saturn remakes of FX games turned out looking much sharper.  

Interesting that they thought the polygon technology was too rough, considering how much artifacting there is going on in the fmv...

I really need to get more games for the thing (one day I'm gonna get them from you, nanto).

I wonder what Hudson thought of the arrangement.  I mean - the FX signaled their decline as one of the really MAJOR top players in the industry.  Evidently someone at NEC was extremely bullheaded...the decision not to switch to action games after the obvious difficulties with their system became apparent.

I'd really love to see another NEC console some day.  It'd probably wind up just being similar to the Xbox, but I wonder if they wouldn't get a lot of the old 2D stuff back together, and keep updating their old licensed properties.  

I can dream!

[edit] thanks for the summation btw.

[NFG]

I wonder if the decision, if indeed it was a choiec not a consequence, to stick with FMV titles wasn't partially made to boost the sales of NEC Interchannel's largely-FMV software line?  It wouldn't be the first time a company went with in-house support instead of 3rd-party...  That said, how much third-party support did the unit receive from the beginning?  Basically zero, yeah?  It should have been clear from long before the system was released that it was a non-starter in that respect.

And: I recently picked up a SCSI adaptor for the PCFX, which finally fills one of the cavernous expansion slots in the rear.  I've never seen or heard of this before, is it really rare?

[Pcenginefx]

Lawrence: Yes, actually, the SCSI adapter is a rare item for the FX.  You think you could take some photos of it and the box? I'd like to put them up on Pcenginefx.com.

As far as 3rd party support - they had a handful of developers... NEC HE/Avenue/Interchannel & Hudson of course, Koei, Hunex, Fill In Cafe, Cocktail Soft, Tokume Shoten Intermedia, Nihon Application, ELF, Micro Cabin, Ask Koudansha, NCS, Naxat Soft, Riverhill Soft, Activision, RayForce, Kodado Studio, Sonnet, Artdink, Datawest, and Chatnoir (that's pretty much it.)


exodus:  As for as Hudson's take on the FX, I don't have as much "insider" info on what they thought about the whole arrangement, but I do know that they were under contract to make a certain amount of games for the unit, and that excluded Hi-Ten Bomberman (which was Hudson's own in-house baby - originally on the FX first before being ported to the Sega Saturn).  They pretty much stuck it out till the end....even considering releasing the practically-finished Tengai Makyou III NAMIDA, but opted not to due to poor projected sales.

[exodus]

wow, what did datawest bring out?  That's a company I'm really interested in.  They're so odd, really - they're very small, but actually followed a similar path to Data East, to whom they are completely unrelated.

[edit] - I just checked.  cutey honey FX, eh?  How'd that turn out?

They started with action games/shooters, then moved into the realm of the RPG, then to sims before ultimately deciding to ditch game software and move into hardware and accompanied software/network stuff.

This is what Data East did, except...they didn't make it.  Plus Data East started in the arcades.

Datawest did some great stuff, like the Rayxanber series (PCE), and the Brave Prove ARPG for PSX.

As I don't have the main action titles, I've not really seen what the PC-FX can do...I need to change that before I form a full opinion on the system.  I bought it way back in '97 or '98, but have hardly played the thing.  Hmmm...can't really remember when I got it, but it was before the last game came out.

So strange how they used the PCE soundchip and didn't use redbook audio for everything.

[Tung Fu Rue]

Does anyone have a link to pics of these plush dreamcasts?

[davidleeroth]

http://nfg.2y.net/zumi/

[NFG]

Edge Magazine has mentioned Zumi in their latest issue.  Woohoo!

Check it out

[Vertigo]

This is what Data East did, except...they didn't make it.  Plus Data East started in the arcades.

I own a Fighters History PCB, I got it a couple of years ago you know, just for old times/old lawsuits sake, still unemulated due to the weird CPU, I believe. We used to play it in the newsagent near school actually. I think it's in MAME but doesn't work, or something.
Anyway, I've never even heard of Datawest. Who the hell are they? Was PC-FX stuff all they did or was there more? Any staff members who've moved on to high-profile things?

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

slashdottage: http://games.slashdot.org/games/03/11/30/2...tid=186&tid=213

[Pcenginefx]

Glad to see the plushes on their way to sale, and the added exposure at /. and EDGE.  I can't wait to get my hands on a plush PCE or PC-FX <wink wink> <nudge nudge>

[exodus]

Anyway, I've never even heard of Datawest. Who the hell are they? Was PC-FX stuff all they did or was there more? Any staff members who've moved on to high-profile things?

Here's Datawest's game site: http://www.datawest.co.jp/amusement/gamefra.html

they never made a really big mark, but did some very nice stuff.  Notably Brave Prove, a deep combo-based ARPG for PSX, and the Rayxanber series, a difficult horizontally scrolling shooter than spanned the FM-Towns and the PCE.

I think their most popular series was 4th unit, a detective/mech visual novel thing.

they still make the occasional game...maybe?  I'm not sure.  the page copyright only goes to 2002.

As for prominent guys moving on, I've really no idea.  There's not a lot of information out there about them...all I know is from research I've done personally.