EGN Issue 137:
"PCs? Who needs 'em! Not when 1999's game of the year hits the PlayStation 2 and SegaNet"
(then followed by lots of text on how each port got neutered from the PC original)
"For a music game where you play guitar, dance or become a DJ, a special controller completes the experience. A wave of gizmos for these games followed the genre's popularity in Japan. Sega's DC Samba de Amigo and its maracas will be the first to come to the U.S.-"
(Stopped right there. The rest goes on to mention Konami's various Bemani titles. Doesn't seem like much nowadays, but remember that this was YEARS before the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band showed up-incidentally influenced by aforementioned Bemani games. Missed opportunity much?)
"And 1999 was a banner year for armchair fishermen. That's when fishing controllers were first made available for the home. The jury is still out whether these controllers are fads, but the fact that they are available for the N64, the PlayStation and the Dreamcast, is a good sign that these things will be around for a while."
(Wrong call. I haven't seen a dedicated fishing reel controller made for anything past the Dreamcast, nor games that would even use them. Wiimote + Nunchuk doesn't quite count since it's a general-purpose controller setup that just happens to emulate a fishing reel surprisingly well.)
"Online Console Gaming Is Here!" (referring to the Dreamcast's SegaNet)
(Hardly the first...well, maybe the first if by "online", you mean "through the Internet", which the XBAND modems of yore bypassed. But even then, Sega of all companies should know that. The Saturn had a multiplayer modem in the form of the NetLink that was actually based on the XBAND hardware, but the North American version eschewed the XBAND infrastructure in favor of a direct-dial system, unlike the Japanese version that DID use the XBAND infrastructure. Too bad only like five Saturn games used it, three of which needed specific NetLink-enabled versions, but at least you can still play anyone you can make a phone call to. Can't say that for SegaNet or original Xbox Live titles now, can you?)
EGM Issue #136:
"Without a doubt, the PS2's launch will mark the biggest 24-hour event the games industry has ever seen."
(I'm not so sure about this, with the next generation of consoles out on the market for four or five years already...)
"The truth is the biggest competition is not necessarily traditional competitors like Nintendo, Sega and Microsoft, but rather...seeing a move or going out to play pool...any type of entertainment really, is our competition." (Kaz Hirai on PS2)
(Damn, that's pretty lofty. They looked poised to do that with PS2, but then screwed up when the X360 launched a year early, getting more core gamer interest, and the Wii starts expanding the market at a pace they couldn't have foreseen.)
"Developers and the market have pretty much dismissed Sega. We certainly can't ignore Sony, but Gamecube will perform very well against PlayStation 2. Microsoft has the novelty factor and plenty of money, but no existing customers." (George Harrison)
(How hilarious in hindsight, though it's said that the GCN did outpace the Xbox if you look at global sales, not just US sales.)
"The créme de la créme of Sony's non-HD direct-view TVs, the 36-inch KB-36XBR400 makes everything-video games, DVD or plain old TV-look outstanding. Picture quality alone makes the $2,699 price tag bearable-"
(Stopped reading there. How technology flies...you'd have to be out of your mind to buy a 36" SDTV or even many of today's HDTVs at that price.)
"We have to design our game for some guy in Greece playing on a Pentium 166 so that his old machine gives him a great experience, yet the leatest Intel 1000Mhz machine also needs to get a great experience."
(I get the point, but that spectrum's just TOO broad. Anything that won't choke to death on a Pentium 166 wouldn't really harness a Pentium III 1 GHz, and the latter system would likely start having compatibility issues.)
"Worst Feature: May be too deep for casual gamers" (Ogre Battle 64 review)
(Didn't think you'd hear that being said about a console game, huh?)
"Controls are iffy-even with the mouse/controller combo (and don't even think about playing this game without the mouse)" (Alien: Resurrection PS1 review)
(Hey, check this out! A console FPS with mouse support! I'll have to add this to the list currently only populated by the console ports of Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament.)
I've probably got more quotes to dig up, though I hate to admit that a flood claimed a substantial portion of my old gaming magazine collection.
