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Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works
"Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works" is the official retrospective of the console, featuring development and concept illustrations for Sega’s best-loved game franchises, original developer interviews and previously unseen hardware production plans. Much of the visual material – drawn from the Sega of Japan archives – has never been released before.
Alongside the illustrated history is ‘Arcade Perfect’, a written history of the console and its legacy by "Guardian" Games Editor Keith Stuart, which features the voices of Sega executives and industry luminaries – including the company’s founder David Rosen, its president Hayao Nakayama, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske and many more. The book opens with a foreword by legendary developer David Perry, on the console that catalysed his career.
Alongside the illustrated history is ‘Arcade Perfect’, a written history of the console and its legacy by "Guardian" Games Editor Keith Stuart, which features the voices of Sega executives and industry luminaries – including the company’s founder David Rosen, its president Hayao Nakayama, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske and many more. The book opens with a foreword by legendary developer David Perry, on the console that catalysed his career.
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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111 people want to read
About the author
Keith Stuart
17 books232 followersKeith Stuart is a veteran journalist who has been covering video games and digital culture for over 20 years. In 2015 he wrote his first novel, A Boy Made of Blocks, which was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. It has sold over 200,000 copies and is translated into 24 languages. His second novel, Days of Wonder, is available in paperback, audio and ebook, and his third, The Frequency of Us, was selected for BBC2's Between the Covers series and is available in hardback, ebook and audio. His latest, Love is a Curse is available now.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 24, 2016
Awesome trip down memory lane here!
Loved the insights into the history of the console and its position in the market at the turn of the decade (1980s-1990s). Fascinating too, to see the sometimes aggressive marketing strategies behind Sega's success as it strove to differentiate itself from the 'cutsy' Nintendo as the company was seen back then.
The essays at the beginning and the interviews with key developers from Japan and US were especially interesting to me, whether it was composers or planners etc, each revealed a lot about both the time and the games they developed. I'd have personally loved a little more in the way of extra insights behind Sonic or a few lesser known games but this collection was never meant to focus on any single game or aspect. It's much more wide ranging and quite a fond tribute to the console itself in the end. (It's a beautifully produced book too.)
The design specs section of the collection, while interesting, went over my head as a layperson and maybe the lengthy graphical section wasn't quite as engaging as the interviews for me, but still, I really enjoyed reading this and it got me to give my Megadrive a spin again (and thankfully the console still works after a long hibernation in the shed :D)
Loved the insights into the history of the console and its position in the market at the turn of the decade (1980s-1990s). Fascinating too, to see the sometimes aggressive marketing strategies behind Sega's success as it strove to differentiate itself from the 'cutsy' Nintendo as the company was seen back then.
The essays at the beginning and the interviews with key developers from Japan and US were especially interesting to me, whether it was composers or planners etc, each revealed a lot about both the time and the games they developed. I'd have personally loved a little more in the way of extra insights behind Sonic or a few lesser known games but this collection was never meant to focus on any single game or aspect. It's much more wide ranging and quite a fond tribute to the console itself in the end. (It's a beautifully produced book too.)
The design specs section of the collection, while interesting, went over my head as a layperson and maybe the lengthy graphical section wasn't quite as engaging as the interviews for me, but still, I really enjoyed reading this and it got me to give my Megadrive a spin again (and thankfully the console still works after a long hibernation in the shed :D)
July 1, 2017
I never had a SMD when I was a kid but I learned to love it because my wife had one, and now it's one of my two favorite retro consoles (the other being the SDC). So I was really anxious to get this book, also judging by the publisher's other works quality and high standards.
And indeed, the production of the book is awesome, and it shows. Heavy binding (though on my copy the binding cloth got disconnected from the glue so I'm not 100% sure how long it'll last), great heavy stock cover, excellent in-book paper throughout (and not a fingerprint to be found on the black, shiny pages!).
But in the end, it was a bit of a disappointment. Clearly this book is a product of love, but I found it lacking. It begins with a rather nice intro into the genesis of, erm, the Genesis/MD. While it does have several interesting tidbits and things I didn't know, it was very short to be considered a 'proper' history of the Megadrive. A few fold-outs with original mechanical drawings for the case were quite impressive and I did spent quite some time studying the details.
This was followed by a section of lovely artwork and... sprite sheets. Um. Well, everybody likes pixels and sprites and whatnot, but, sprite sheets. You can find these online. Tons of them, like in the book. So yeah, at first it's like "oh that's cute" and "I remember that!" but it gets very old, very fast, not to mention that the games represented are very, very few.
And then comes the interview part. Some of them I found very interesting, some were on the 'meh' level, but what really ruined them is that it seemed that most of the times there was no follow-up questions even when a reply BEGGED for one, so they're never too deep.
If there was a lower cost edition it could earn a star more, but as it is it's a grandiose effort with medium results, though I'm sure that every SMD fan will want to have it on their shelves.
[EDIT] Oh, here's another thing I forgot: the book uses a font in big sizes, which is slightly strange; it features a very Greek-like 'a'. Now this may not be apparent to most, but to me, being a Greek, it constantly put surprised me throughout the book.
What's more, the author decided for some stupid, inexplicable and totally bizarre reason, to underline all game titles that appear in the text body. You never, ever underline in the text body. Underlining is reserved for titles or uses such as email and, when used, it denotes emphasis. As you can imagine, in a book about games, this happens very, very often. Coupled with the fact that each and every time a game is presented with all its regional names (all the time!) this really breaks the flow of text. Inexplicable.
And indeed, the production of the book is awesome, and it shows. Heavy binding (though on my copy the binding cloth got disconnected from the glue so I'm not 100% sure how long it'll last), great heavy stock cover, excellent in-book paper throughout (and not a fingerprint to be found on the black, shiny pages!).
But in the end, it was a bit of a disappointment. Clearly this book is a product of love, but I found it lacking. It begins with a rather nice intro into the genesis of, erm, the Genesis/MD. While it does have several interesting tidbits and things I didn't know, it was very short to be considered a 'proper' history of the Megadrive. A few fold-outs with original mechanical drawings for the case were quite impressive and I did spent quite some time studying the details.
This was followed by a section of lovely artwork and... sprite sheets. Um. Well, everybody likes pixels and sprites and whatnot, but, sprite sheets. You can find these online. Tons of them, like in the book. So yeah, at first it's like "oh that's cute" and "I remember that!" but it gets very old, very fast, not to mention that the games represented are very, very few.
And then comes the interview part. Some of them I found very interesting, some were on the 'meh' level, but what really ruined them is that it seemed that most of the times there was no follow-up questions even when a reply BEGGED for one, so they're never too deep.
If there was a lower cost edition it could earn a star more, but as it is it's a grandiose effort with medium results, though I'm sure that every SMD fan will want to have it on their shelves.
[EDIT] Oh, here's another thing I forgot: the book uses a font in big sizes, which is slightly strange; it features a very Greek-like 'a'. Now this may not be apparent to most, but to me, being a Greek, it constantly put surprised me throughout the book.
What's more, the author decided for some stupid, inexplicable and totally bizarre reason, to underline all game titles that appear in the text body. You never, ever underline in the text body. Underlining is reserved for titles or uses such as email and, when used, it denotes emphasis. As you can imagine, in a book about games, this happens very, very often. Coupled with the fact that each and every time a game is presented with all its regional names (all the time!) this really breaks the flow of text. Inexplicable.
November 20, 2017
One of my all time favourite books. Far far better than I ever could have imagined. It includes a great history of Mega Drive/Genesis and it's journey to the west (a huge turning point for Sega and gaming in general). It also includes tons of fantastic concept images, sprites, box art etc all printed with great detail. The book ends with a section printed on thinner paper hosting a wealth of incredible interviews printed with blue ink.
The attention to detail in both the research and design is absolutely incredible. An absolute no brainer for anyone who has even a passing interesting in the Mega Drive. If their upcoming Dreamcast book is even half as good as this it'd be unarguably essential.
The attention to detail in both the research and design is absolutely incredible. An absolute no brainer for anyone who has even a passing interesting in the Mega Drive. If their upcoming Dreamcast book is even half as good as this it'd be unarguably essential.
August 12, 2018
Very very good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews