Yea, here's one from the Toronto Sun
Copyright 1999 Sun Media Corporation
The Toronto Sun
September 8, 1999, Wednesday, Final EDITION
SECTION: CONNECT, Pg. 66
LENGTH: 714 words
HEADLINE: SONIC BOOM SEGA'S 128-BIT DREAMCAST SYSTEM MAKES FOR ONE HOT HEDGEHOG
BYLINE: IAN HARVEY, TORONTO SUN
BODY:
He's baaaaack!
That irascible hedgehog Sonic, who dangled precariously over the edge of extinction, victim of the vicious nature of the recent video game wars, is making his triumphant return tomorrow as Sega's Dreamcast game platform hits the shelves.
Why tomorrow? Maybe it's the 9/9/99 thing to tackle the PlayStation beast. Or maybe it's because PlayStation launched Sept. 9, 1995.
Sonic, a.k.a. Sega's signature game and lead character, kicks off the long-awaited resumption of hostilities between the three major contenders for game console supremacy -- Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation and Sega.
My firsthand look at the new Sega game Sonic's Adventure was spectacular. Aside from the crisp, video-quality graphics, it plays super-fast and the soundtrack is also high quality.
Ditto for the other game packaged for the preview, NFL 2000, which was a big hit with the boys who played it, probably because it really sounded like they were breaking someone's bones with each tackle.
Other launch titles include VirtuaFighter 3tb, NBA 2000, The House Of The Dead 2, CART: Flag To Flag and a slew of third-party games from air combat sims to racing and role-playing games.
PREMIUM PRICE
It all comes at a premium price, of course. Dreamcast sells for $ 299 at Toys R Us, Electronic Boutique and Walmart, and games are about $ 70 a pop.
Meanwhile, Nintendo and Sony aren't sitting back on their controllers. Both have announced price cuts to $ 139 each for the N64 platform and PSX respectively, in Sony's case squeezing the last few drops of cash out of a platform that vaulted the Johnny-come-lately to the top of the heap since it was first unveiled four years ago in North America.
Given the N64's superior play experience and Sony's already announced plans for a backward-compatible PSX2 for next year, I'd bet more price cuts are coming, perhaps driving the PlayStation below the $ 99 mark with a collection of games included before we bid farewell to the old workhorse.
With N64 well established in the marketplace and the list of games now comfortably padded, Sony's battle to maintain it's spot has been focused on its ability to churn out games by the dozen.
Unlike Nintendo's more clumsy but piracy-proof cartridge system, Sony uses simple CD-ROMs, which can be produced in mass quantities, quickly and cheaply.
And with PSX2 well into development, Nintendo has also announced a revamped machine. It signed a US$ 1-billion deal with IBM to produce the next generation platform, code-named Dolphin, using DVD technology and the wonderful RISC- Power PC processors.
It's expected to be on shelves for next Christmas and go head-to-head with the PSX2.
Nintendo has apparently learned that cartridges may be safer, but in the long run cost much more and turn off consumers.
Sega, which was a frontrunner in the market until its platforms were left in the techno-dust of N64 and PSX, is striking back with awesome power.
The Dreamcast is truly a hot machine. The tech specs alone are drool-enducing.
For a start it's a 128-bit machine, which refers to the size of the instructions digested by the computer's processor.
Your desktop computer runs on 32-bit architecture while Nintendo's N64 obviously runs on 64-bits.
With 128-bits developers -- game designers -- can load the machine with intensely detailed commands and thus produce the richly-textured graphics and lightening speed.
KING OF TECH HILL
With a processor roughly as fast as a P3 450 MHz desktop computer and 64-channel sound, the Dreamcast has claimed the crown as the most technologically advanced platform. Throw in built-in Internet gaming capability and LCD-screen controllers for games-within-games and the sun seems to be shining on Sega as we gear up for the Christmas buying rush.
Not bad for a company that some had written off after the spectacular failure of predecessors Saturn and Genesis two years ago.
But the platform is only half the story. The key to gaming is, of course, the games. And that's why Sony has held its position despite being third to the market with the PSX.
While Nintendo's growing list of games has a long way to go before it seriously threatens Sony's 2,000-strong lineup, all eyes are on Sega's 16 roll-out titles.
GRAPHIC: 1. photo 2. photo DREAM MACHINE ... Sonic the hedgehog is better than ever on the new Sega Dreamcast platform.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 9, 1999
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