Hi all!

Welcome to the first dEX Update for 1998! I apologize for being a day late, I've been very busy preparing to return to school and haven't had the time to write a proper newsletter...

Last week wasn't a vary busy one in terms of news, as most companies were closed for new years...with a new year, a whole slew of new games are usually on the way. This is the case in Japan, however in the US and Europe we can expect much fewer games to ship during the year. Most games outside of Japan are coming from Sega, Capcom and a few other third party developers will be of very high quality. Games coming to the US in '98 thus far include:

Sega:

• Burning Rangers (March/April)
• House of the Dead (Unknown)
• Panzer Dragoon Saga (Soon)
• Riven (Unknown)
• Shining Force III (May)
• Winter Heat (Probably February)
• Possibly Grandia as well...

Capcom:

• Resident Evil 2 (Official in Japan)
• X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Semi-Official in US, will hit Europe)
• Darkstalkers 3 (Maybe)
• Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (Maybe)

Other 3rd Parties:

• Aliens 4: The Resurrection (Fox)
• Aliens vs. Predator (Fox)
• Courier Crisis (GTI)
• Dead or Alive (Tecmo)
• FIFA '98 (EA)
• Lode Runner (Natsume)
• Lunar: Silver Star Story (Working Designs/March)
• Magic Knight Rayearth (Working Designs/February)
• NBA Live '98 (EA)
• NHL '98 (EA)

I don't have dates for many titles, as Electronics Boutique doesn't seem to care about publishing complete Saturn release dates (nor releases) anymore.

As you can see Capcom has stated that Resident Evil 2 is headed to the Saturn in Japan. The game will also use the 4MB RAM cart. They also said that Vampire Savior, Pocket Fighters and Dungeons and Dragons Collection will be released during the first half of this year in Japan, and Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter will be released by Summer's end.

As developers continue to shift focus to Sega's next console, we can expect releases to gradually taper off. Speaking of the next console, in the December 29th issue of The Microprocessor Report, a trade magazine, there is an article which is entitled "Hitachi SH7750 Shines for Sega." The description reads: "The first chip using the SH-4 core offers a range of integrated peripherals and will be used in the forthcoming Sega 64 system." I'm not sure what, if any implications the article has, since I first reported info on the SH-4 in the 7-20-97 newsletter, but I'd very much appreciate if anyone who has access to the full article to send me a copy. I'm curious as to why they call it 'Sega 64.'

There have been no new releases in the past week, or any other relevant happenings that I can think of. One last note, there is a week left to vote in the dEX Poll. If you haven't already please voice your opinion. You can vote at:

http://dextremes.com/sega/poll.html

Cya!

-Greg