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Μια ωραια συνεντευξη του Richard Leadbetter που υπηρξε editor στο Official Sega Saturn Magazine και πλεον αρθογραφει στο DigitalFoundry και στο Eurogamer.
O τυπας με μια φραση τα ειπε ΟΛΑ
O τυπας με μια φραση τα ειπε ΟΛΑ
LINK(segasaturn.co.uk)You needed to be a certain type of gamer with a certain mentality to be turned on by the Saturn
Mick: Obviously we are particularly interested in you work on Sega Saturn Magazine, but first may we ask what got you into video game journalism in the first place and what publications did you work on prior to SSM?
Rich:
When I was studying for my A-levels I sent out some speculative review samples to the likes of EMAP and Newsfield – that wouldʼve been around February 1990.
In June of that year, I had a phone called Julian Rignall on C+VG asking me to interview. A bit of out the blue and rather shocking to an 18-year-old, but somehow I managed to make a decent-enough impression. After that I got some freelance work on the Complete Guide to Consoles and before that was over, I was a full-time C+VG staff member.
I spent around 18 months on C+VG, but worked simultaneously on Mean Machines before moving there full-time. After that I worked on Mean Machines Sega and launched the official Sega magazine.
Mick:
What was it like working on an officially licensed magazine, at a time when a then video games giant like Sega was launching a brand new console?
Rich:
To be honest, most of the time youʼd hear about it first in Famitsu. Certainly all the rumours about new consoles would appear there first. However, in the Mega Drive days, Iʼd sometimes get invited to the inner sanctum of Barry Jafrato, who would always show you stuff he wasnʼt supposed to show you.
I saw the Nomad there first, the MultiMega (both in prototype form) and got the 32X details from him first too. During the Saturn period, I was working on MAXIMUM so wasnʼt really so involved, but Dreamcast was a different story. There were two trips to Japan for that one, and one-on-one access with the heads of Sega was pretty special.
Mick:
Was the apparent 'hatred' between SSM and Sega Power genuine, given that they were both fighting for the same side in a very niche market, and have you ever met former SP editor, Dean Mortlock?
Rich:
There was never really any hatred at all, simply the belief that we were putting out the better magazine.
Call it arrogance if you will but at the time Sega Saturn Magazine and the Paul Davies era CVG were created side-by-side by two teams at the top of their game. We loved what we did and we put our all into those magazines.
It doesnʼt just go for Sega Power but for virtually every ʽmainstreamʼ mag Future Publishing has put out – they just arenʼt into it like we were and it shows in the quality.
Generally speaking, I think only Lee Nutter bothered to actually read Sega Power, the rest of us just flicked through to see if there were any stories weʼd been beaten to.
We had a few chuckles at their expense which tended to go down like a cup of cold sick, but all console wars past and present tend to be somewhat overblown.
Nope, never met Dean Mortlock, by the way, but then I donʼt have much to do with Future full-stop, and thereʼs only editor there (Tim Clark) that I tend to communicate with.
Mick:
The Saturn is rapidly becoming many a nostalgia buff and retro-games enthusiastʼs console of choice, were you aware it had such an ardent following, and indeed do you concern yourself with retro-gaming of any variety these days?
Rich:
My Digital Foundry and Eurogamer work makes it difficult to keep up with current releases, let alone retro gaming.
Iʼve still not completed Super Mario Galaxy and doubt I ever will at this rate.
Iʼm not surprised by the Saturnʼs popularity though. The releases were incredibly well targeted at a particular niche,
and that section of players are going to be into it until the day they die.
Mick:
The failures of Sega and its Saturn are well documented, but we would like to ask what your personal opinion is/was on the System, and do you have any fond memories relating to the console itself and your dealings with Sega?
Rich:
I liked the ethos behind the Saturn, the last console really dedicated to the old-skool gamer: the sort of person 100% dedicated to a gameʼs playability over its graphics, obsessed with the Japanese gaming culture, that sort of thing. It came across almost like a love letter to a generation of gaming that was reaching its conclusion.
The machineʼs lifespan also coincided with a period where the arcades got their second wind, and I think that helped it too. I also really liked its dogged dedication to 2D performance – those Capcom 2D fighters really were something special.
I had a sort of love/hate relationship with Sega. We got games from them and some exclusive access, but all the best stuff we originated ourselves via Warren Harrod in Japan. Sometimes it was infuriating dealing with them, mostly because the Japanese often gave them nothing.
But then on the other hand, we gave away stuff like disc one of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Christmas NiGHTS and that wouldnʼt have been possible without Sega pulling their finger out and fighting our cause with their Japanese masters.
Coming up with the Panzer disc idea was one of my fondest memories. I played through the whole game with a sense of absolute wonder and then realized that the first disc was relatively short and would make for a superb, very special demo.
Mick:
SSM always said proudly that they were never pressurised into boosting game scores. Can you confirm that this was indeed the case, or was there ever pressure from ʽthe powers that beʼ to add a few % to a review?
Rich:
The way around this was that weʼd typically run a bad review in the next issue and let other people (eg Sega Power, Games Master or whoever) do it first.
Bad games – even mediocre games - donʼt sell magazines, so we were never that upset about it.
Mick:
During your time at SSM, do you remember any Saturn games or hardware you were privy to that ultimately went unreleased, and indeed do you still own any promo/preview copies of any titles?
Rich:
Iʼve still got a bunch of promo games (known as ʽsilversʼ as they blank, pressed CDs) somewhere in storage, but they were all production games.
We saw a few Saturn games like Fighting Force and Chill that never appeared but nothing sensational.
Certainly nothing like the preview alpha code of Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive that Ed Lomas nicked from the EMAP office and still owns to this day.
Mick:
How early on were either yourself or SSM as a whole - aware that Sega were making such a balls-up with the Saturn as far as marketing and dealing with developers was concerned?
Rich:
We knew pretty much as soon as PlayStation came out that it was all coming to an end for Sega, though weʼd never admit as much.
The word back from developers was damning and third party publishers were getting much better results from PlayStation hardware than they were from the Saturn. The launch pricing was a disaster. But the Sega audience were still there, attracted by something Sega was doing right – the games – and thatʼs what we concentrated on.
You needed to be a certain type of gamer with a certain mentality to be turned on by the Saturn, and happily that was exactly the way we were too.
Mick:
Were you at the time aware of the development of Shenmue or Virtua Fighter 3 on the Saturn to a greater extent than the public were, and have you ever seen any footage or alpha releases of either?
Rich:
Nope, not a bean. We knew that something was brewing with regards VF3 on the Saturn, but that was it. We didnʼt know anything about Shenmue at all until the Project Berkley announcement.
Mick:
Do you think that the Saturn would have gone the distance, despite Segaʼs cock-ups, if it had seen versions of games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid, and with that in mind what games would you have liked to have seen on the Saturn back in the day?
Rich:
No, the cock-ups were too immense. It wouldʼve stood a fighting chance in Japan if FFVII was Saturn exclusive, but the western world wouldnʼt have paid any attention whatsoever. Sega were simply ill-equipped to market titles like that.
Mick:
The "Jevons' Method" of controller configuration in the Saturn's version of Quake was reportedly so-called after SSM journo Dan Jevons suggested it at the developerʼs offices…
True or False?
Rich:
Yes, Dan was working at GameFan at the time and then moved on to work for a while at Lobotomy so that story is 100% true. We both petitioned hard to get the support into the Lobotomy games as it was the closest Saturn could do to a ʽmouse lookʼ style of control.
Mick:
Do you consider the idea of Sega making consumer hardware again, perhaps a new handheld, completely ludicrous, and either way would you personally enjoy seeing the SEGA branding on a console again?
Rich:
Yes itʼs completely ludicrous. Sega simply doesnʼt have the resources to get back into the hardware market, and Iʼm guessing that it no longer has the technical wherewithal either. I wouldnʼt be hugely excited by a new Sega console. I think theyʼve got their work cut-out sorting out the software side of the equation these days, to be honest.
Mick:
What is your favorite current generation console, and in your personal opinion whom would you expect to ultimately win out over the PS3 and XB360?
Rich:
The problem – if you can call it that – with PS3 and Xbox 360 is that they are basically targeting the same gamers with the same style of gaming.
Now, I prefer these offerings to the Wii experience, but thereʼs very little to differentiate Xbox 360 and PS3. I mean, the vast majority of games that appear come out on both consoles. That being the case, itʼs difficult to have a favourite.
Cross-platform games generally offer better performance on 360, while first party PS3 games like Uncharted and Killzone 2 are pushing the technical boundaries of what this generation can offer graphically and that excites me.
In terms of whatʼs going to ultimately win-out, the chances are that medium term, 360 will be ahead by a few million units, but I wouldnʼt underestimate the PS3ʼs longer term chances. Itʼs always going to be an awesome Blu-ray player and with a few tweaks, itʼll be a monster media playback portal. And that wonʼt change 3-4 years from now when itʼll be dirt cheap to buy.
Mick:
Are you still in contact with any of the folks you worked on SSM with, and if so do you know what they are up to now?
Rich:
I donʼt hear much from the art crew (Jason McEvoy, Nick Patterson) and I rarely hear from Lee Nutter or Matt Yeo, but Iʼm still in regular contact with Dave Kelsall, Gary Cutlack and publisher Andy McVittie.
Leeʼs a publisher-type at Future Publishing and his Future-speak press releases never fail to make me chuckle, Cutlackʼs living in the Outer Hebrides and sports a mean beard while Dave gets to go to photoshoots of glamour models via his work at Bizarre magazine.
Iʼm also still in contact with CVG guys like Paul Davies (running his business with Andy McV), Ed Lomas (working on a Doctor Who magazine) and Tom Guise (doing god-knows-what in Australia).
