Hello all!

A relatively busy week...the news in the past week is all relating to the Dreamcast. From ECTS details, to future titles, some new appointments at SoA, along with VideoLogic shipping its goods to Sega of Japan...

Well, the ECTS is over and for the Saturn nothing was shown...not even the PAL version of Deep Fear which still seems to be set for a European release. Over in Sega's invite only demos at the Hilton, attendees were shown some taped demos of Dreamcast games...mainly of Sonic Adventure...but there were also very short clips of other unnamed titles in the video as well. After the video, an actual Dreamcast console was set up to show a self running demo of Sonic Adventure. Load times were very fast, lasting only a second or two. The rather unconventional looking Dreamcast controller was also stated as being quite comfortable and well designed. Though its performance in fighting games such as those from Capcom remains questionable.

A good first hand report of the DC demos can be found on Kristof's PowerVR Site: http://www.ping.be/powervr/ECTS2.htm.

Speaking of Capcom, the company formally announced that they are developing for the Dreamcast a title to be released 'around' November. No details on the game itself were given. Sega also announced their three launch titles for the console: Sonic Adventure, Virtua Fighter RPG, and Sega Rally 2.

VideoLogic this week announced that they are now shipping their PowerVRSG chips, now collectively re-dubbed PowerVR Series 2. The version of the chip in the DC console is called PowerVR2 DC. The company says that the chip is about 20 times more powerful than any other console system on the market, and significantly more powerful than current arcade machines.

Back in the States, Sega of America hired a few new people to help take charge of the 1999 US launch of the Dreamcast: First off is a new Director of Research and Development, Jared Rosen. Rosen previously worked with companies such as Xaos Tools (image processing), Protozoa (VRML), Sens8 (Realtime 3D/VRML), Kubota Graphics, and Sun Microsystems. With his previous jobs, Rosen brings a lot of experience from the graphics industry, especially in realtime 3D. On the corporate level comes Stephen Ackroyd, a new Vice President and General Manager of Business Development. Ackroyd previously worked for Lightspan Partnership (childrens ent.), and before that as director of business development at Sony Computer Entertainment.

Check out the site's Breaking News area for more details on this weeks news.

Well, for the Saturn, there's not much to say. There were no releases in the past week at all. As more Japanese developers prepare for the Dreamcast we can expect to see more weeks with no new Saturn games. This week three re-releases will ship: Do-Don Pachi, Falcom's Classics Collection and Thunderforce V. Also due is a simulation/RPG from ASCII called Simulation RPG School. In two week's we'll see another generation collection from Capcom and also the long awaited final scenario in the Shining Force 3 series.

For a while I've been promising the new areas at dEX. They're still in development...I'm just about done with the Genesis software list and will then move to the Sega CD and 32X lists (which should go much faster). After that, only a few more articles and reviews will have to be written before the Genesis area is ready. Then work will begin on the Dreamcast area.

One last thing, I've added a new link to a Sega site called Sega Extreme. The site mainly has Dreamcast shots and other info, but also has several editorials. Worth checking out! Again thanks for your support, cya in a week!

-Greg