PS3 Demo Disc Collection | Playable games which are now unobtainable

The UK Official PlayStation magazine (OPM) was the only PS3 based magazine that handed out game demos distributed via Blu-Ray. Many other magazines couldn't afford to use Blu-Ray discs such as PSW (Playstation World) and PSM3, both opting instead to use double-sided DVD's which they tried to make up for with their list of videos, themes, pictures, save files and more. 

What makes these particular demo discs even more interesting is the fact that only the UK and some selected European countries (from my knowledge) had exclusive access to these demo discs from their regional official magazine. Finding any information on what is contained on these discs is impossible due to the limited appeal, regional exclusivity and just a lack of coverage in general.

So it's time to scour through my complete collection of these discs and find out what's on them. Here's the list of games that you will never be able to get access to ever again and which never saw a PC release. Officially of course...

Sega's Lost Arcade Game - Jet Squad | Did it ever exist?

I'm a huge fan of lost media, the fact that something got released, or was shown in some capacity only to disappear forever is fascinating to me. There's a huge list of games which we're all well aware of, however one I had not heard of until recently was Jet Squadron by Sega. It's featured in a few YouTube videos after a post on Lost Media Wiki surfaced details it's partial existence. A Sega game? Shown in the Year 2000?  Sign me up

That time when Dreamcast outsold Xbox in Japan

Just a fun little story that captured a few headlines for a short period of time. For a brand new console that hit Japan, it's amazing to think just a short while later the now obsolete Dreamcast would be shifting more of it's left over stock than Microsoft's newest console...

Sega Saturn on PS1? | Sega's plans which never were

When Sega shocked the world by going third party, we all knew what this meant - Dreamcast games on competitors consoles, but Saturn games on PS One?...

The Hunt for Dreamcast 2 | A search for the truth [Intro]

So there's been a lot of talk about the Dreamcast 2, whether it is just hypothetical 'what if' scenarios discussed among fans or made up renders peddling Sega returning back to the console market. However not a lot of discussion, or research, has been made surrounding the possibility or mention of a Dreamcast follow up.

This is just the intro to a huge research project I started a few years back looking into whether the Dreamcast 2 existed. This isn't a fan wish list or a hypothetical look into Sega returning, this is everything or anything relating to an official Dreamcast 2 surrounding 1996-2002.

I started this project started around 3 years ago when I saw a post talking about a Dreamcast 2. In there, it linked to an IGN article back around mid 2000 reporting how Shoichiro Irimajiri had stepped down as president to work on a console successor to the Dreamcast.

This one news article opened the flood gates, and the more I dug, the more I found. I scoured easily over 150 hours on the way back machine, tonnes of game magazines in physical and PDF formats, books and more. As I started to catalogue and assess everything I found, I asked myself - why has no one ever done this before?

A lot of information discussed will also talk about the Dreamcast and Sega's business strategy. When you are looking at hundreds - if not thousands - of articles around business strategies, you start to see parallels with what Sega was doing, and wanted to do at the time. This helps to draw a bigger picture to how the Dreamcast 2 would fit in and what it would be.

So what did I find? Quite a bit...

TGS Autumn 2002 | Dreamcast's Last Trade Show Appearance

Whilst we are all well aware of Dreamcast and it's demise in the west, the Dreamcast continued getting official support in Japan until 2007. However with the console ceasing production in March 2001 I was wondering; when was the last time the Dreamcast hardware was represented at a trade show? Information was quite hard to find on this but after trawling through a few sites, the Dreamcast's last physical appearance seems to be in September 2002. 

Up until then, the last appearance of Dreamcast seems to be E3 2001 with it all but disappearing afterwards. Looking past TGS 2002, there definitely wasn't any representation from 2004 up until the Dreamcast's full discontinuation in 2007 - evident by going through the archived TGS's reports. 

2003 is rather ambiguous, whilst Puyo Puyo was shown at TGS and listed for Dreamcast - along with the other ports of the game, there's no evidence I can find which suggests it was played on a Dreamcast on the show floor. After trawling through countless videos, show floor plans, even finding any videos of Puyo being displayed is something I can't find. The official TGS website will list it as being a Dreamcast title, though this will also list this under the other available platforms also. 

So what was shown? Well there were 2 games shown, both of which were visual novels. First off, there was Ever Seventeen ~The Out of Infinity and then also Me and Our Summer. I haven't played either of these titles simply due to them being visual novels and them not being playable in English. The games were not massively prominent in Sega's line-up at the time with them being relegated to the kid booth of TGS.

Until proven otherwise, 2002 TGS was the last time physical Dreamcast hardware was represented on the show floor at a major event. It's not a spectacular send off for the console, but it does make you wonder what Sega ever did with these final consoles...

References:

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2002/release/release20020830.html

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2002/booth/booth17.html

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2003/english/imgs/r3_7.pdf

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2004/list.htm

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2003/release8.html

Virtual Fighter X | The story behind VF4's early development known as VF-X

One of Sega's biggest franchises Virtual Fighter is to return some point this year in 2022 under the name Virtual Fighter X Esports. Upon it's announcement I was initially excited, then I felt confused - that name sounds awfully familiar? Well back in the year 2000, Sega's next entry in the franchise was called just that - minus the 'Esport'.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to look back at the inception of the real Virtual Fighter X back before it was known as the 4th entry in the franchise, and what Sega's plans were before it was renamed became a staple in the mainline series as we know it.

Official Logo on Sega AM2 site

Nintendo GameCube Pre-Reveal Information | Everything we knew about GameCube Part 1 (1999)

Nothing got me more excited than following up all the information and rumours leading up to a console reveal. The drip-feed of information, the rumours, the pre-release screenshots and promo footage - it was a magical time. With the 6th generation of consoles looming, Nintendo had a lot to prove. Moving from the Nintendo 64, it had lost a lot of market and mind share. 

So I thought it would be interesting to have a look back at everything GameCube prior to it's release. I have spent hours collecting everything from wild rumours, off-hand comments and official information will be here to get a wider perspective and to really give a perspective of Nintendo from 1999 to it's official reveal at E3 2001.

Early Information on GTA 3 | Coverage of the game from the year 2000

One thing that fascinates me is looking back at early game development of popular games before they changed everything. GTA 3 was a landmark game, It changed games forever, and was a cultural phenomenon in a way not even Rockstar themselves could have imagined. Coming off of GTA2 the series had a strong fanbase, enough to warrant a sequel, but the earlier games never reached the cultural status.

Little did the world know how much the gaming industry would evolve with the release of the 3rd entry. People were interested in the sequel, and Driver 2 gave everyone a taste, but at the time the game did not garner the amount of interest it had once the game released. And this is what makes it so fascinating to look back, to see the history of GTA3 in the public eye, at a time when it was just a small blip on many people's radars...

The Most Interactive DVD Games | Playing golf with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Family DVD Game

With the advent of the DVD and it's rise to success starting from the early 2000's, the boundaries of what the medium could offer were to be tested. Among the features of extra content and interactive menus also saw the rise of interactive media and gaming on your DVD player.

You've probably seen the countless TV series adaptions such as a Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Deal or no Deal piled among countless of other DVD's now on sale for pennies. These were basically an interactive video footage where you're essentially dictating the next scene which is about to play. The slow paced and methodical nature of these adaptions were a good fit for any generic DVD remote.

However the 2 main games I want to look at are two of the most interesting examples; PGA Tour and Tomb Raider. Trust me, they're more interesting than you think... 

Games Exclusive to Xbox One | Part 2 - Digital Games

Continuing from Part 2, we will look at the digital games that are currently only available on Xbox One consoles. Now there's not as many to look at, well to be honest - there's only 3, but they're well worth looking at. There's plenty of other games that are also on PC, or strange Asian mobile games ported over like Q, but we'll focus entirely on games you can only get on Xbox One. 

Games Exclusive to Xbox One | Part 1 - Physical Games

To say Microsoft has changed gears during the Xbox One's lifespan is a bit of an understatement. At first, their priorities were in shifting consoles and now, it's about shifting subscriptions. Microsoft will happily launch their first party games on PC and Xbox (and in rare occasions, Switch and PlayStation) as long as you play their titles.

Now the Xbox One doesn't have many exclusives to speak about, and notable first-party franchises always get a PC release. So that means, inevitably, some games have been left behind on the Xbox One. So we're going to look back at some Xbox One Exclusive games that you cannot play elsewhere.

Ken Kutaragi on PS4 | The PlayStation's creator input on PS4

The PS4 was the first console not headed by the creator himself, Ken Kutaragi, and ultimately had more western influence then other PlayStation console that came before. We're gonna look back and see if the grandfather of PlayStation had any influence on Sony's most successful console.

Playing Differently | Dead Rising 4 - no combo, no exo and no skill playthrough

Rules:

• No Exo suit (if obtained one, get out straight away)
• No use of combo weapons (if obtained one through story, get out/drop it straight away)
• No Exo combo weapons
• No upgrading of any skills

Exceptions:

• Exo suit was used on the last boss as it was too difficult without it
• Going to be some anomalies in there due to how the game forces you at some point to use combo item/vehicles.

Capcom Vancouver have continuously advertised during release that Dead Rising 4 is "going back to it's roots" with the return of the main protagonist Frank West and the Willamette Mall. Though despite what the developers claim, this is most certainly not a call back to the original Dead Rising. Everything from Frank, to the combat mechanics as well as the location have had major overhauls to the point where Dead Rising 4 resembles very little of the original game. Despite the reception of changes, it's become unanimous that this game is easy, in fact - very easy. The addition of the ludicrously overpowered combo weapons became apparent with the third game, where combo weapons can be created on the fly with many having little to no balancing whatsoever. 

So I decided what better way to play the game than to play with no upgrades and avoiding combo weapons entirely. After all, the developers emphasised it's homages to the original series so I thought I'd play in a way that pays homage too. I want to play the game the developers didn't really intend and hopefully provide some much needed difficulty. I like a good challenge! 

PS3 Demo Disc Collection | Games that are no longer obtainable.

The Official PlayStation magazine (OPM) was the only PS3 based magazine that handed out game demos through a Blu-Ray disc. Many other magazines couldn't afford to use Blu-Ray such as PSW (PlayStation World) and PSM3. Instead, they decided to use double sided DVD's where they tried to make up for with their inclusion of videos, themes, pictures, save files and more. 

What makes these demo discs even more interesting is the fact that only the UK and some selected European countries (from my knowledge) were the only OPM to have access to these demo discs. Finding any information on what is contained on these discs is impossible due to the limited appeal, regional exclusivity and just a lack of coverage in general.

So it's time to scour through my complete collection of these discs and find out what's on them. Here's the list of games that you will never be able to get access to ever again and which never saw a PC release.

PS3 and Xbox 360 Games at 1080P | The definitive list

Using two main reliable sources and some research myself, this has become a definitive list of Xbox 360 and PS3 games that run in both upscaled and native 1080p. One of the websites contained a list of PS3 titles that upscaled to 1080p, while the other website documented the list of native rendering resolutions. 

However the latter has been inactive for a few years and with the help of Eurogamer's Face Off series and other sources such as developer comments and websites, I have compiled and categorised all this information to create a more focused and up-to-date list.

N64's Later Years | How the N64 sold during the new millennium

I am fascinated by the N64 in its later years. By the turn of the millenium, the N64 was beginning to age much more than its rivals on the market. Carts and single stick controllers was something of the past, yet Nintendo had to hold on for another 2 years in a fierce market dominated by disc based consoles and new emerging technologies.

So how did the N64 fare during this time?

Sega Dreamcube | When the Dreamcast was nearly a cube

With my usual browsing of the web for information on Dreamcast related info, I came across 2 very interesting links regarding to the history of the Dreamcast and its design.

Hideki Sato in an interview upon reflection had waned the Dreamcast to be a more cube-shaped design; something similar to the Nintendo Gamecube. He made multiple prototypes which utilised a front loading disc drive which puts the design closer to the Panasonic DVD GameCube than Nintendo's own system.

Pre-Release | Jet Set Radio Future

Early Look is a series dedicated to looking at games long before they came out. This month is dedicated to Jet Set Radio Future and the coverage it gained over a year ahead of its Japanese release on 22nd February 2002. The game's development is truly a fascinating story and a great insight into one of Sega's most beloved titles.  

The game was originally planned for an Autumn 2001 release. 

Welcome to Input Archive - My First Post of Many

Thank you visiting! 

This will be the place to find everything strange, unheard of and interesting about gaming.

I will update the blog on a weekly basis with information such as game specifications and articles regarding unreleased consoles and games.

Enjoy!