We’ll also be posting another article in the coming days, focusing on SEGA Hardlight and what it takes to make a mobile game.

P.S Big shout out to our buddy Matt Allan at SEGA Hardlight!

In a recent interview with our sister publication, Mega Visions Magazine, SEGA Network’s Mobile Games Community Manager, Danny Russell, spoke about the launch of SEGA Forever, community feedback and the future of the service.

One of the key comments Danny made about the SEGA Forever service is that SEGA is open to and is “looking into” working with indie developers to bring their games to the service. Not only that, there could be a possibility of SEGA Forever working with fan translators, to bring Japan-only titles to the service.

But, don’t get too excited just yet. It looks like we’ll have to see how successful SEGA Forever becomes before SEGA starts to properly approach/open to the doors to indie developers. Here’s an extract from the interview:

Mega Visions: I’m sure you’re aware there’s a decent indie scene on both the Dreamcast and the Mega Drive. Would SEGA Forever ever consider working with indie developers on bringing their games to the service?

Danny Russell: Yes, we’re well aware of the indie scene and we’re investigating the possibility of working with indie devs in the future. There are some really great titles out there.

What excites me more though, from a personal point of view, are fan translations. There are some games that I would love to see released in the West for the first time using those.

The more successful SEGA Forever is, the more we can branch out like this. I would really like us to approach fan translators and to look at releasing games that have never seen the light of day in the West brought over here.

MV: I was going to ask: would SEGA ever consider translating Japan-only titles for the service?

DR: We’re definitely considering the possibility of releasing games to the Western audience that were previously only available in Japan. To make this happen, as mentioned, the perfect way would be to approach fan translators who have done all this work already. We would have to see how receptive fan translators are with this kind of thing.

I mean, from my point of view, there’s a Game Gear title that was only released in Japan called Sylvan Tale, which is a really cool Zelda-like RPG, but not many people have heard of it (I actually made sure there was a copy of it in the SEGA Forever ad, but you can barely see it). The fan translation available for the game is top-notch, so it’d be great to bring fan translation groups like these on board if possible.

For now these are just internal discussions though. We’re not in that phase at all yet, but SEGA Forever is here to stay and this is definitely on the list of things we’re keen to make happen.

So it looks like we’ll have to ‘watch this space’ to see if SEGA Forever does start accepting indie titles.

Plus there’s some slightly bad news for SEGA Nerds looking forward to Saturn games coming to SEGA Forever, it looks like Saturn titles won’t appear until next year:

MV: How soon are we likely to see games from other platforms (not Mega Drive/Genesis) appear on the platform?

DR: I don’t want to make any promises… I would say that you’re probably not going to see Saturn ports this year, but everything else is on the cards at the moment.

So it looks like we’ll be seeing SEGA games from every console, except Saturn, by the end of 2017. However, that’s not necessarily final – SEGA might be able to work its magic and bring Saturn titles sooner. And if you’re wondering why it will take so long, Danny mentioned in the interview that SEGA will be looking to port Dreamcast and Saturn titles, rather than emulate them, which will no doubt add to the time it takes to bring Saturn games to the service. But they are coming.

The full interview features many more exciting ideas around SEGA Forever and will appear in Issue #4 of Mega Visions Magazine (Mega Visions Magazine is a digital, interactive magazine available on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows10 and browsers).

While many of these consoles have held up really well, many owners are now realizing they have a common problem – the all have CD drives.

While CD-ROM technology was once a source of innovation, has grown into more of a headache today as many CD drives in retro systems are dying. Just imagine what the failure rate will be like 10 or 20 years from now.

With that in mind, hackers and modders have been at work to create alternatives to give a second life to these aging consoles by circumventing the CD drive entirely. The Dreamcast has a great community and many alternatives like the SD card adapter and the GDEmu. Today, we’re going to talk to André (known as Andrews by the Dreamcast community), who has been working on another alternative to the Dreamcast called the Dream IDE Reborn.

SEGA Nerds: Hi Andrews, can you tell our readers a little about yourself?

Andrews: My name is André Pereira, 36 years old, married and I have a beautiful daughter of almost 2 years named Alice. I’m from São Paulo, Brazil. I’m an electronics technician, graduated in 1998 and I’m in the third year in Information Systems. I am currently looking for something in the area of I.T., and parallel to this, repairing video games has gone from being a hobby to my current source of income.

SEGA Nerds: When was your first contact with the Dreamcast?

Andrews: It was soon after its release. One day, I arrived from my work and went straight to my girlfriend’s house (and current wife). When I rang the bell, I heard the song “All I Want” from The Offspring. I asked her, “Wow, your brother has now started to listen to punk rock?” She replied, “No, it’s the new video game he bought.”

Arriving in the room, I saw my brother-in-law playing Crazy Taxi for the first time, with that loud Offspring sound, that rush and madness of the game. As a musician who appreciated punk rock, I was ecstatic when I saw it.

Then, he placed Sonic Adventure in the Dreamcast, which came along with the console. In that introduction, I almost died … (laughs)
In a month, I was came home with my Dreamcast, hidden under my arm because at the time it was extremely expensive! (laughs)

SEGA Nerds: What is the Dreamcast IDE Reborn, and how did you get the idea to start this project?

Andrews: The Dream IDE Reborn is an interface card that makes it easier to install the IDE mod. Its function is to avoid damaging the motherboard, making a safe and much better installation than soldering wires!

I had a lot of consoles to (mod), and I was tired of soldering 40 wires on the board. I took a drawing and went to look for a company that could develop this layout for me. Then, I met a boy who worked with it and lived near home.

We agreed to meet at a mall near here, and in the food court, I started to show him the idea. He took it home, and there came a first layout. Until we arrived at the first version, there were many pizzas and Coca Cola consumed over discussions of the project as a whole. There were the mechanical tests, the electronic tests and the final user tests.

It took me about six months to develop the first version of Reborn. Unfortunately, I lost some Dreamcast motherboards from doing numerous tests. Some friends left their consoles with me as a guinea pig.

SEGA Nerds: How does compatibility with games work?

Andrews: The compatibility of the games isn’t dependent on Reborn because it doesn’t contain any software, just a chip with some written code. All the credit for creating Dreamshell software that bridges the gap between the game image on the hard drive and the console should be given to the DC SWAT Team. The only reason Reborn exists todayis due to these guys who did a lot of hard work to make it all work. I don’t take any credit for that. My part in the story is just to make it easier for people to work so they don’t put a “spaghetti” on their motherboards or even break trails (laughs).

The Dreamshell has few games that don’t work; I don’t have the correct data, but I can say that 95 percent of most games that people want to play, work. There’s a shared table out there, where anyone who has the mod done has tested and updated this spreadsheet. I don’t follow it, because of lack of time and because I repair more than just video games.

SEGA Nerds: Is it possible to make the Dream IDE Reborn work together with the GD-ROM drive?

Andrews: Yes, because I designed it for this: so the user doesn’t have to remove their GD-ROM drive to install it, like other projects that already exist. I have customers who are collectors, have original disks and want to continue using them, in addition to still have the player working.

SEGA Nerds: Do people need to have a working knowledge of electronics to install the Dream IDE Reborn?

Andrews: It’s not necessary to have a knowledge in electronics in general; but a person will need a steady hand, good tools, patience and just stay calm. While most people would have to go to a basic electronics course to learn good soldering practices in the past, today, people can learn a lot from YouTube. Soldering is a simple skill, but it requires some care, and the care, you find in the details.

If you can easily dismantle and assemble things with a simple but clean soldering iron with a thin tip, a little flow and good quality tin, you can do the modification without major problems.

SEGA Nerds: Have you saved many unused units?

Andrews: Yes, my career with video games began around 2002, more or less. I was a member of a very large Xbox forum, and I started repairing consoles of friends with the Error 07, in the classic Xbox, without charging anything, just for wanting to find them and have a good reason to eat a pizza and drink Coke. [laughs]

After that, this community grew as soon as the Xbox 360 came along. From there, the infamous “Red Ring of Death” began to emerge around the world. At the time, I was working in an industrial automation company, a German multinational. There, I had the opportunity to understand a little about RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and why various equipment of the era stopped working. Parallel to this, a friend from there taught me how to resolder BGA components.

As soon as I fixed my first Xbox 360, I made a post in the Xbox Portal forum. From there, I began to receive many service appointments, to the point of getting an interview on the radio and having to buy a bigger house because I was already driving my wife crazy with the living room and kitchen full of consoles and scattered disc drives. [laughs] Yes, if I tell you from the time I started, I think I must have saved at least 1,000 consoles.

SEGA Nerds: Every day we see that more consoles are becoming unusable because of the CD, GD or DVD drives that are dying. Do you believe projects like yours can help preserve a part of the history and help new generations to get in touch with these old machines?

Andrews: Yes, I believe this, and I also believe this is a trend, as well. Everyone is waiting for that exquisite SEGA Saturn USB device and some friends in particular want this to also happen on the SEGA CD and the Neo Geo CD. Solutions like GDEMU and USBGDROM of Mnemo, for example, are expensive solutions, but they are extremely sensational and worth every cent invested, since the enormous work that is done to build a project of this, does not happen overnight.

Also, playing games on an emulator will never be the same as the experience on original hardware. So, the more solutions like these that exist in the market, the better for us and the history of video games as a whole.

SEGA Nerds: Do you have future plans for other consoles or for Dreamcast itself?

Andrews: Yes, I have plans to do something for other consoles, especially the Master System. It’s my favorite, the console; I cried with joy when I won one, and I need to develop something for it.

For the Dreamcast, I already have another project in progress, in partnership with my partner Jailson from Dreamcast Fix. We developed together the Dream Bios Revolution and the other versions of Reborn because we were able to test together, get feedback from our customers and improve our products. And we are working on two others, but since they are just in the idea stage, this is all I can say at the moment.

SEGA Nerds: For people who are interested in knowing more about your project, where can they find you?

Andrews: On my website www.gametrackssite.wordpress.com or people can follow me on my personal profile (Andrews Audiopraise on Facebook). Or the main Dreamcast groups in the world (Dreamcast Junkyard, Let’s Sega Dreamcast GD Emulator Happens and Dreamcast Brasil).

To purchase Reborn, you must read the terms and conditions on the website and fill out a form.

SEGA Nerds: Would you like to leave a message for people who would like to learn how to modify hardware like you?

Andrews:  Oh, yes I do, haha! Before, can I give you a quick message? Thank you SEGA Nerds and Luiz Nai for the opportunity you gave me today! I always read the news, and today I realized another dream by having my story on this great website! Thank you so much!

The first thing I want to tell people is you’re always welcome! The demand is too great, and there is so much to do! The second is try to study the basics of what you are going to do and gradually improve. Watch videos, quite a lot of them. Purchase old iron boards to train soldering and desoldering. Practice on your own consoles, and when you feel confident enough, work on others.

The third message is don’t let the criticism and rudeness of forum trolls get to you, especially when you know there are more experienced people. Remember, they’re envious of you for what you have been doing or started doing for the community. Learn from more experienced people, and ignore the trolls.

When I developed the first Reborn, I heard criticism from many people, especially technicians, such as “IDE is the past, Sata is the future” or “It’s just a PCB and nothing much.” I understand Sata is the future, but my goal was to develop a product that everyone had access to. There was also the issue of having to produce them. 

I need to think of something that uses quality components, that you have the security to do to not fry your device (and the guilt falls on me) and the main one: WHAT WORKS RIGHT and doesn’t stop working after a few hours, among many Other problems that happen with any appliance that has been around for 20 years, and most professionals do not have the courage to admit it.

It’s not everyone who has the guts to solder a thread, imagine 40! Do you understand what I mean? Initially, I was very scared to sell Reborn outside of Brazil because I did not want to risk the backlash of selling a bad product and not giving any support to people. So I sent some units to five well-known technicians from here to test and certify the quality before uploading my first video to YouTube showing it to the world.

Thank goodness it was something well accepted by the community, and with that, I was able to reduce the price even more because I was able to buy a lot later and get a lower price. The first batch was very expensive, and I got the only money I had because I had just been unemployed, my 1-month-old daughter. I went for all or nothing. And I even had the help of my partner, to crack the value of the first batch.

With that Reborn arrived in Japan, Canada and it is spread all over the US and Europe, and literally has arrived there from Madagascar, Mauritius! I never imagined that I could do something in which all parts of the world would have interest. 

And finally, people should have respect for customers and their money. If a problem occurs, deal with it. It’s better than messing around. (laughs)

Before I say goodbye I must say that I am very grateful to Pedro Oliveira and Filipe Marques, both managers of the Dreamcast Brasil group. When I was unemployed in September 2015, Pedro and Filipe started to introduce me customers. My thanks to them and the entire Dreamcast Brasil community for that. I also thank my wife who has always supported me in everything I do. Thank you Joice, I love you very much!
And finally, I thank SEGA Nerds for the golden opportunity! Thanks for keeping the SEGA story alive!

To start this series, today we are interviewing one of the main figures behind the success of Tectoy in the ’90s: Alexandre Pagano.

SEGA Nerds: Good morning Alexandre first of all it’s a honor to speak with you, your work was part of the childhood of many people here in Brazil. So for outsiders who don’t know your work, let’s start with the basic.

Who are you? Where you are from? And what do you do as a profession?

Alexandre Pagano: I’m Brazilian, born in São Paulo capital on Dec. 30, 1968, so I’m 48 years old. I am happily married, and I have a 25 year old son.

To talk a little about my professional career we have to go back a little in time … actually quite lot [laughs].

In 1974, when I was only 6 years old, my parents took me to see the Orlando parks. I was amazed by such technology, beauty and all the wonders created by Walt Disney and his entire team. The designs and animations have always fascinated me and since then I have known that I would work with animation.

A few years later, when I was in college in the ’80s, I started working in an animation studio called HGN. This studio was outsourced from Disney Studios, where we did some short films. Goofy and his gang, DuckTales, and the coolest of all, the Gummy Bears.

It was a very important experience because, as the computers at that time were still a very, very expensive resource, we worked with the traditional animation, that is, frame by frame, 24 frames per second, acetate painted manually and then photographed frame by frame.

It was at this time that I learned all about animation. A great school!

SN: How and when did you join Tectoy?

Pagano: In 1990, it was very difficult to continue in the ​​animation area, and unfortunately, this is a very underpaid area. My father, who worked in the Tectoy sales department, told me that they had a vacancy for a promotion assistant and that paid a lot more than I was earning at the time.

As I had to pay my tuition fees in the design course at the Faculty of Belas Artes in São Paulo, I left the animation area and went to work in the promotions area of ​​Tectoy.

One of my activities was to respond to letters from children who had doubts about the Tectoy toys. The biggest demand at the time was how to go from certain stages in the Master System games. So, to answer these questions, I had to play the games until the end. At one point, the children did not want to wait for the mail, they wanted the answers as quickly as possible and started calling Tectoy.

When the lines started getting congested, I spent more time answering tips than doing other activities. Marketing management decided to absorb me into a new hotline department, which served as a direct channel to answer questions about Tectoy games.

As the demand increased, more and more attendants were hired, and they had the tips in individual notebooks, but the tip books didn’t have a response pattern. So I decided to make a folder with all the tips presented in a standardized way, with a unique language, clear layout, clean and very technical – this helped when responding to the doubts of our customers.

At a given moment, the number of games released was quite high and the complexity of the games increased every day. It became increasingly difficult to play and answer calls. We were no longer having fun; we had deadlines, goals, etc.

It was at this point that I spoke with my manager at the time, André Goldfarb, suggesting that we had a gaming expert, and I was applying for this vacancy. Thus, in the middle of 1991, Tectoy created the Games specialist position.

The years passed, and a game that marks my transition from specialist in games to the first game designer of Brazil falls on my desk. My manager at the time, Andrea Bedricovetc, gave me the Phantasy Star cartridge for Master System and asked me for an evaluation: “Alexandre, play this game and tell me what you think? I want to know if it’s worth getting released.”

At that point, I had never even played tabletop RPG, much less a digital version. We were in the ’90s, we had no internet, and while Phantasy Star was known in the rest of the world, it was entirely new to us. I played and loved the game, but my opinion was that if it wasn’t translated, people would not play it.

This was evaluated, and, to my surprise, I was tasked with assisting in the translation project of the game that went on to take about three months of work. The reverse engineering work done by engineer Claudio Oyamagushi made it possible to not only to find the text characters but also the graphic characters.

This meant we could get games that had not been released to change the characters and adapt games to our market! After translating several games, the whole team began to be dissatisfied … we wanted to make a game from scratch.

After several marketing negotiations with copyright, we got the authorization to make a game of the character Pica-Pau (Woody Woodpecker in U.S).

We were very excited, but then we had to ask ourselves, “How do we make a game?” We only knew how to adapt games! [laughs]

Based on the concept of animation, we started producing the Pica-Pau game (it would go on to be known as Woody Woodpecker’s Frustrated Vacations) that had the secret name of “Asdrubal Trouxe o Trombone,” the name of a Brazilian Jazz Funk band from the time I had just watched a show. As the name was too big … It was only Asdrubal.

After approving the script written by Jaime and Sandra Chemmin, we started to design the Memory Map, which is essentially a storyboard of the game. Once that was done, we fleshed out the animations and the game’s graphics, backgrounds, sound effects and the soundtrack.

While this was going on, another team worked on the structure and programming of the game. This team was managed by Claudio Oyamagushi, and had programmers Marcelo Caiado, Luis Campello, Mauricio Guerta, among other beasts of the programming area.

We finally finished the game in November 1995.

SN: When did you leave there?

Pagano: I worked at Tectoy until Jan. 2, 1996.

SN: Which projects did you work on while at Tectoy?

1) Hotline;
2) Especialista em games (Specialist in games);
3) Understanding how games work based on semiotics concepts;
4) Phantasy Star Translation;
5) Translation of Phantasy Star II (Mega Drive);
6) Translation of Phantasy Star III (Mega Drive);
7) Monica in the Castle of the Dragon (Master System);
8) Monica’s Gang in the Rescue (Master System);
9) Monica in the Land of Monsters (Mega Drive);
10) Chapolim x Dracula (Master System);
11) Geraldinho (Master System);

12) Sapo Xulé: The Master of Kung Fu (Master System);
13) Sapo Xulé: SOS Lagoa Poluída(SOS Polluted Lagoon) (Adapt. Master System)
14) Sapo Xulé: vs. Os invasores do Brejo (Master System);
15) Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (Master System);
16) Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (Mega Drive);
17) Super GP Monaco with Ayrton Senna.

There were more projects, but my memory is not the same … a type of bank-line that accessed the account of Game Gear users through dial-up line.

And the most unusual thing was a game program that was on the GuGu show (Brazilian TV show) where kids entered into the video game. I think there were more projects, but I don’t remember

SN: Which project was the hardest to complete, and which one are you most proud to have done?

Pagano: There were a lot of projects that required a lot of work, but I think we could split them into three …
The most complex work that made me proud was undoubtedly Pica-Pau’s game. The most satisfying, which I have no doubts was the adaptation of the game Monica to the Mega Drive, it was one of the most beautiful we did. It would be unfair not to include the Phantasy Star translation because without it I would not have gone into the development of games.

SN: How was working at Tectoy in that golden age? Did you have much contact with SEGA? Did they evaluate your work?

Pagano: Working at Tectoy at that time was very satisfying. Everyone is proud to have worked in what was the biggest technology toy industry of the 1990s. We were a big family.

Contact with SEGA was minimal, and it was done only by the marketing department. Unlike today, the language barrier was also a problem. Few people spoke English, and it made it difficult to communicate with SEGA, which was very closed off at the time.

SEGA did not evaluate our work and also did not help … We had no software, books, support, basically nothing. Everything, absolutely, everything that was done and created by Tectoy, was developed and created by its collaborators.

Remember again that we did not have Google, YouTube, or the Internet at that time … nothing! We took blood from stone! We were a very tight team and very talented!

SN: Is there any project or something that was started within Tectoy but has never been finalized that you can share with the public?

Pagano: It was a very dedicated company; when we started a project, it always went to the end. I think the only project that did not go forward was the development for the SEGA Saturn, which was considered, but we didn’t begin the development.

SN: With the launch of the new Mega Drive, many Brazilian fans are asking Tectoy to relaunch the Monica Gang. Because it’s a project that you participated in, how do you feel when you see the game receiving so much affection even after so much time?

Pagano: I never would’ve imagined these old project I did would be remembered as they have after all these years. They were just games, and I didn’t realize that they would have such a big impact.

Everything I do I always try to do with a lot of attention to details and give my best. But I always think we all try to do this, don’t we?

Every time someone recognizes, praises or even criticizes our games, for me, it’s a great honor. Because knowing that somehow I could contribute to the entertainment of a group of people and that they had any kind of good or bad opinion, it makes me feel extremely flattered.

Having the opportunity to be a digital artist in the ’90s and collaborating with the learning curve of a generation that bridged the digital generation of today, only makes me proud.

SN: What is your favorite console? And the favorite game?

Pagano: Nowadays, due to lack of time, I’m no longer a regular player, but my family is very technological as you must be imagining. We have almost all the new generation of consoles, Wii U, Switch, PS3 and 4, and Xbox, among others.

It gets very difficult to talk about X or Y console because each one has its own characteristics and particularities that I love.

Let’s put it this way …

The most nostalgic without a doubt is the Atari.
What gave the greatest technology step was the Master System.
The most entertaining was the Nintendo 64.
The one that had greatest variety of games was the PlayStation 1.
The most interactive was the Wii and Wii U
The most technologically advanced is the PlayStation 4

But the console that lives in my heart still remains the Mega Drive.

It’s unfair to be able to talk about just one game, so I’ll pick five, OK?

#5) Phantasy Star
#4) Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau (Frustrated Holiday of the Woodpecker).
#3) Monica in the Land of Monsters
#2) Epic Mickey
#1) Super Mario 64

I think these five were the games that made the most of my life!

SN: What did you think of Tectoy’s new Mega Drive?

Pagano: I didn’t have the opportunity to evaluate, but knowing the visionary look and the great entrepreneur that is Stefano Arnold, I’m sure it will be a great console.

SN: What advice would you give to someone who is just getting started in the industry?

Pagano: Learn from the past to create an even better future. The secret of successful games is still in our essence, that is, as much as we create extremely innovative technologies, we will continue human beings.

Games create communities that allow for competition, and the eligibility of leaders, regardless of gender, will continue to be the next success of the market, regardless of console, graphics quality, gameplay or other specific characteristics.

Would you also like to leave a message for Tectoy and SEGA fans?

I’m a fan of yours, and thanks for the opportunity! I feel honored and flattered to be able to tell a little of my history, our history.

A big hug,

Alexandre Pagano.

By Blake J. Harris

ToeJam & Earl, SEGA’s beloved 1991 Genesis game, garnered a cult following for numerous reasons. It was fun and funny, cool and subversive, critically acclaimed and currency for street cred. And yet it’s hard to imagine that, at first glance, anyone’s reaction to this game was anything other than: What the funk?

I mean, it’s a game about two aliens (one oddly named, both oddly shaped) who love hip-hop, high-tops and slinging slang. Hailing from the planet Funkotron and having crashed on something akin to Earth, they use a Bill-and-Ted-like elevator to scour various islands and search for the scattered pieces of their spacecraft. Oh, and along the way, they encounter giant hamsters, man-eating mailboxes and evil, drill-wielding dentists. WHAT. THE. F*CK.

What were the creators thinking? What was SEGA thinking? And, most importantly, why does all this madness work so well together? To find out, I spent a few hours chatting with ToeJam & Earl creator and Greg Johnson …

Prologue

Blake J. Harris: Greg, I’m psyched to chat with you about the origins of ToeJam and Earl (and the origins of your career in videogames). But before we travel back in time, I had a question about something much more recent.

Greg Jonson: Sure. What would you like to know?

Blake J. Harris: Last year, you launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring back ToeJam and Earl. To make a 4^th game. So my question: why now? Why 25 years after the original (and 10+ since the previous incarnation)?

Greg Johnson: Oh, that’s a simple answer. I’ve been trying to bring it back for years. I think that for most creative people—and I’m sure you must feel this way—there’s a pull to old things you love. So in between new projects, whenever I had some free time and was thinking about what to do next, there were a number of times I took ToeJam and Earl to different publishers. To SEGA and EA and Ubisoft. A whole bunch of publishers, but I could never get traction. Everyone always said something like, “Yeah, we don’t know. Game 3 didn’t do that well. I think that might have killed the property. Plus it’s old. How many people out there even remember who ToeJam and Earl are?”

Blake J. Harris: Interesting. Well now I’m tempted to ask why this was the project that stuck with you. Why, of all your games, ToeJam and Earl is the “old thing that you love.” But I suspect, as is often the case with histories of love, it’s not the kind of thing that can be answered in a paragraph. Nor, really, can it be answered directly.

Greg Johnson: Right. Like: why do I love my wife? Because I love her!

Blake J. Harris: Exactly. And the reasons why have as much to do with you as they do with her herself. So on that note, let’s start at the very beginning…

Part 1: A Perception of Depth and Peacefulness

Blake J. Harris: Tell me a bit about your childhood. What was your family like? And, since videogames didn’t yet exist in the 60s, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Greg Johnson: [laughs] Really? It’s flattering that you would ask that at all, and surprising. But I’m happy to answer. Let me see… it’s a rather melodramatic story. I grew up with my mom raising me and my sister. My dad, well, he was an alcoholic; and my mom ran away from him when I was about four or five. His story is like a movie.

Blake J. Harris: In what sense?

Greg Johnson: So he was a black man. And it was a dramatic life that my parents led. My mother came from a very traditional Jewish family that had escaped from Russia during World War II. And they disowned my mom for marrying a black man.

Blake J. Harris: Wow.

Greg Johnson: He was a brilliant man. A professor. Had a couple of doctorate degrees in philosophy and musicology, I think. And then in a time when abortion was still illegal, his wife—his earlier wife—died from the abortion. I think it was at his urging. So that’s what launched him into his drinking and he never came out of that hole. My mom loved him but couldn’t take it any more so she fled with me and my sister when we were little. So I grew up just being raised by my mom who was an amazing woman. Very strong. She ran a school in Southern Cal for kids with emotional disabilities. She was just a real inspirational person. And it was really because of her that I grew up with the confidence to pursue creative things. In fact, in my graduating high school yearbook I won “Most Creative.”

Blake J. Harris: Really?

Greg Johnson: Yeah! I went to a pretty big high school in LA. We had 1500 kids in our graduating class. So it was quite an honor.

Blake J. Harris: What was it based on? How did people know you were creative?

Greg Johnson: One thing I remember I did was I wrote this science fiction story. And then I got a friend of mine, who was a really talented artist, to illustrate it and create a slide show. And then I got another friend of mine to compose the music and I put on a show in the auditorium at the end of the year.

Blake J. Harris: That’s awesome.

Greg Johnson: So I guess that was one way. There were other things too. And I wrote for the school journal. I wrote a lot of poetry.

Blake J. Harris: Typically, I would imagine social life to be tough for a mixed race kid who was into science fiction books, but it sounds like that wasn’t the case here. Did you feel like an outsider when you were growing up?

Greg Johnson: Not really. I had a small, but tight circle of friends. I wasn’t part of the popular crowd or the jocks crowd, but I was in all the honors classes so I hung out with the geeky kids. And I always kind of hung out with the Asian kids too. I don’t know why, but I was always kind of an Asia-phile.

Blake J. Harris: Yeah?

Greg Johnson: It’s funny, I’ve been told by people that I was Japanese in my past life. When I was young, I used to ride across town. A long way across town, on my bike. And I’d just stand in the Japanese market. Just because it felt comfortable; it felt like home to me. And then I married a Japanese woman. And I’ve learned to speak Japanese. And one of my great creative heroes is [Hayao] Miyazaki. Anyway…

Blake J. Harris: Well, wait. Why do you think that is? Or was, I suppose, I mean. Why did it make you feel comfortable? Why did Japanese culture feel like home?

Greg Johnson: I’ve thought a lot about it over the years. It would be easy to rattle on at great length about my feelings on Japanese culture. But if I go back to those days: I really didn’t know. I didn’t have a clue. Maybe it had something to do with what I perceived to be a depth and peacefulness. And, I suppose, a kind of simplicity to the aesthetic. It kind of called to me. I’ve always loved the Japanese themes of innocence and purity. And the quiet small moments that I see in Japanese work that are so missing in American work. American work is always so darn fast-paced; we seem to have to fill up every space with something.

Blake J. Harris: Yeah. As both reader and writer, I like trying to find those moments. Those “kind of quiet small moments.”

Greg Johnson: Yeah. Anyway, I should jump back. In college, I moved my major all around. I was an Asian philosophy major for a while. And then an animal behavior and bio major. And then I was a linguistics major. And then I read a book that was transformative for me.

Blake J. Harris: What was the book?

Greg Johnson: It was a book by John Lilly. The Mind of the Dolphin: A Non-Human Intelligence. I don’t know if you’re familiar with John Lilly, but he was kind of a fringe scientist who did a lot of work with marine mammal communication back in the 60s and 70s. He pushed the boundaries, but was only partly respected by the scientific community because he took a lot of acid, and he wasn’t terribly rigorous in his approach. He was criticized a lot, but he had some incredible anecdotal stories about the things he had discovered in regards to what dolphins could do. In particular, how they could communicate with each other. It completely sparked my excitement. Like wow, there’s an alien race living on this planet; another race of intelligent beings living right next to us here (who, by the way, we were destroying and exploiting). And I remember that moment—I was just sitting next to the window in the library at Colorado College—and I had this feeling of: that’s what I’m going to do with my life. I’m gonna be the one who breaks the barrier and talks to dolphins for the first time and figures it all out.

Blake J. Harris: Ha! That’s awesome (and quite ambitious).

Greg Johnson: [laughing] Then, I had another thought too. It was a little more out there, but I was a big sci-fi reader in those days. I thought: wow, if I succeed and I really become a total expert at this, then when the aliens land and they need someone to talk to them, who are they going to call? It’ll be me!

Blake J. Harris: That’s amazing.

Greg Johnson: Yeah, so I got really excited by that too. But I thought: okay, that’ll be my secret goal. But my actual goal is going to be to talk to the dolphins. So I transferred to UC San Diego, started preparing myself with an independently designed major I called Bio-Linguistics and I got a job at Scripps Oceanographic Institute.

Blake J. Harris: Did the experience end up being what you had hoped it would be?

Greg Johnson: There were a handful of magical moments. Like I remember I was out on a Scripps research boat for a month or so. I would get up round the clock to collect water samples. One night, at around 3 a.m., I noticed there was this school of dolphins riding the bow wave of the boat. I laid down on my stomach with my face hanging over the front of the boat to watch them. At first I didn’t understand what I was seeing, because as the dolphins swam there were bursts of light all around them in the water. After awhile I realized what it was: certain kinds of bioluminescent phytoplankton glow when they get agitated. It was one of the most magical things I’ve seen in my life.

Blake J. Harris: That’s beautiful.

Greg Johnson: Yeah, it was. And there were other great things about my time at Scripps, but I also ended up getting a firsthand view of how difficult it would be to make a career out of pure research. I realized that researchers spend most of their time chasing funding, and that it was going to be a real rough road, especially in the political climate of the time. So I took a little time off. Then I ended up getting involved with a project my roommate was helping out on, for some new home computer entertainment company no one had heard of [laughing]. This new publishing company [laughing even harder] had about 20 people on staff and called themselves… Electronic Arts.

To Be Continued

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However, the Game Gear had some problems, like short battery life, very high price and also less support from SEGA when we compare to its other consoles. And because of these problems, in addition to others, it couldn’t surpass the Game Boy’s monstrous lead in sales.

Thinking about a new solution, TecToy took a monochromatic product they had found in Taiwan, and after they improved it and created a prototype, they approached American-based Tiger Electronics to distribute it in the U.S.

Randy Rissman, the owner of Tiger at the time, didn’t think twice and said if TecToy could nail down a good price point, they definitely would do it. Afterward, TecToy representatives took the project to Japan to present it to SEGA’s leadership. After making their pitch, SEGA CEO Hayao Nakayama declared, “SEGA doesn’t make monochromatic products.” Despite their best efforts, it was impossible to convince him otherwise.

In the video above, TecToy CEO Stefano Arnhold discusses how he believes he could have convinced SEGA if he had presented it in a different way.

Imagine if this monochromatic portable device had been released? The history as we know could have been totally different. A monochromatic and cheaper portable device could have been the solution? The answer we will never know; however I believe the battle for the Game Boy wouldn’t have been so easy.

MegaDriver is one of the most famous bands that play video game music, playing for thousands of people in concerts like Video Games Live and MAGFest. The band has been playing SEGA songs since 2003 and all their albums are available for free on their website, Spotify and iTunes.

Today, SEGA Nerds interviewed Nino, the lead of the band, who told us how everything started and how they learn the songs and turn them into the tunes you hear as the end result. The band also lets us know their plans for the future.

Good morning Nino! First of all, it’s a pleasure to interview you. I have followed your work since I watched you on MTV Brazil, but for those who don’t know you, tell me who are you, where you are from, and what do you do in your life? How did MegaDriver start?

I am a 38 year old nerd, born in São Paulo but now I live in Piracicaba (City inside São Paulo state). I have an academic background in Computer Engineering and Computer Media, but my passion is music and nowadays I have the great pleasure of working with it professionally. My first thoughts of playing game music emerged in the early 90’s when I noticed the similarity of some games with the Heavy Metal universe. For example, one of my great inspirations was the game, Golden Axe: A barbarian, an Amazon, a dwarf, a full track of “horseback riding”. This is pure “Iron Maiden”!

However, at that time people did not walk down the streets hunting Pokémon with Flash t-shirts screaming Bazinga. People were ashamed to say they liked anything that might sound “nerdy.” Then, when I played with garage bands and told the guys, “let’s play Golden Axe! There’s nothing more metal than that!”, The answer was, “Never! If we play that we will die unmarried.” So the project was shelved for a few years. In 1999, I decided to follow another inspiration, Bathory band, and set up a solo project. At the time, it was just the “Nino.com.br”, where the main goal was to really have fun. Things were changing in the world; the acceptance of the nerd universe was becoming much better and then in mid-2003 I decided to return to the original idea and I started the MegaDriver. The name, of course, was in honor of my favorite console, the SEGA Mega Drive.  The project had a huge acceptance in Brazil and internationally. Within a few weeks after the publication of the first material on the website of the band, we were already in magazines everywhere.

When and how was your first contact with a SEGA game?

Although the focus of the band are the consoles, I am a guy of arcades. I spent countless hours playing with my skateboard, leaning on the side of the machines. My first contact with SEGA games was with a pinball machine. I’m talking about 1990-91 and games like Golden Axe, Altered Beast, E-Swat, Thunder Blade, Shinobi. Many of SEGA’s advertisements at that time said that SEGA Genesis was as potent as an arcade, so my first inspiration were the arcades and later I met Sonic! Hahaha.

Did you already notice the songs at that time? Is there some game that marked you because of the music? If so which one?

Of course! Music has always been part of my life and when you like music, it changes your perception of things. I always noticed the video game music; Some of them we end up playing only to enjoy the atmosphere that the music creates. So, I have a huge list of games that led me down this trail. I have mentioned Golden Axe, which was my first inspiration. Altered Beast also follows the same inspiration in the Metal universe, as well as Sonic.

And there’s a guy that I am a fan and he inspired me a lot, although his songs are the totally the opposite of heavy metal and so enhances even more the value of the thing. Imagine a 14-year-old in the 90s, at the height of his “Black Metal” phase, that you want to set fire to churches and hates any other style than yours, enjoying a game, an artist who makes electronic music? It does not fit, does it? This is to get an idea of the size of the importance I attach to this guy. The name is very known: Yuzo Koshiro. Streets Of Rage and The Revenge Of The Shinobi are masterpieces for me.  I thought, “Hey, this guy is fucking good! He even has his name on the titles.” For me, Yuzo is the “nectar” of video game music.

When did you start to learn guitar? Did you already want to play video game music?

Yes of course. I was lucky to have contact with the early days of the Internet, while access was done by the universities, in my case at USP (São Paulo University). At that time it was very different; we accessed only the console of Unix, then all environments were done in command lines. At that time, I studied music through files exchanged by gopher system. Even the size limitation, it was much easier to share melodies than rhythms. So, I was always more like studying melodies than bases.  Since I started playing guitar I always took the music of the games I played on the instrument. It has always been a great challenge …

Nobody has doubts you are a very talented musician, but what impresses me is that you have a very good ear. When you learn a new song you learn everything just by listening to it, right? Is it difficult?

Music is just like any other art, the more you practice, the easier it gets. We learn everything just by listening, but it is a very natural process because we practice over the years. Even when you study music, you begin to listen differently. It’s like if you were listening to the melody and already imagining the “drawing” of it in the score in hand path, etc. So it’s really something very natural.

Do you imagine these songs in metal versions before you learn them? What is the process?

Apart from melodies that are more obvious, that will be played almost entirely on the lead guitar, other instruments, the drums, rhythm guitar and bass, I listen to original music already imagining my heavy metal influences. For example, which rhythm of drums that combines, then the bass interweaving with the drums in octaves, then the bass guitar, then arrangements to complement the main line, etc. I like to bring influences from bands that I like the songs. I usually listen to the original already imagining what style would be cool. For example, if I will leave the song close to Black Metal, if I will leave it closer to the traditional style like Iron Maiden, or if it will become something like Thrash Metal, etc.

About the electric guitars…that one that is a Mega Drive. How did you have this idea? Does it have the same timbre of a common electric guitar?

My “SEGA Guitar”, how I like to call it, was a sacrilege I committed. That was my first SEGA Genesis! It was an idea that I had on a bored Sunday, something like, “Hey it would be interesting if I could play the songs on my own Mega Drive”. Then I looked at an old guitar I had, I looked at my console, and committed this sacrilege! Hahahaha. It has a normal tone, like a normal guitar, only the “carcass” is a Mega Drive. Nowadays I have a second “SEGA Guitar.” I didn’t take the original to the shows. The original is now guarded with great care.

I heard rumors that you and the other members of the band also develop games, is it true? If so, do you have a project in mind for the future?

I’m a programmer and I developed basic games in academic places . Jeff, our former drummer, has also made a game development course. I don’t particularly focus to develop games; I like much more of the music side. I still prefer be in an amusement environment, the way we do with MegaDriver today. We have already received invitations to do game trailers, but I ended up not accepting because the game didn’t match with our style.

I saw that you have done shows outside Brazil and also played to that huge audience at Video Games Live. When you started, could you imagine that the band would go so far? What do you think about it?

I really didn’t think that one day I could be a professional in this. The MegaDriver started for fun and for a noble reason: I didn’t want some games to become forgotten. The MegaDriver never existed for self promotion. As the band was getting popular, invitations to shows were increasing and the process of professionalization was natural. Throughout our career, we had several memorable moments; the Video Games Live was one of them, (perhaps the first) because we are playing in a specialized event to a large audience and a tremendous acceptance. And the other, perhaps something I consider the pinnacle of our career, was to have been the headliner at MAGFest 12, an event that I always followed and I always dreamed to participate in a sacred stage of Game Music. Even the God, Yuzo Koshiro has played there! Can you believe that? We played on a stage where Yuzo Koshiro played?

The band now has vocals. When did you decide to do this change? Do you think you can attract more audience with vocals than instrumental music?

Nowadays is very common for nerd bands or gamers to make their own music. The idea is to innovate, always seek new challenges and always evolve. That’s why we brought a vocalist for the band to further broaden our tribute to the games and continue to show our potential. The gamer audience is used to instrumental songs, although some of them are the weary.

They have a certain rejection of songs with vocals, but in a concert of an hour and-a-half, we play themes from various games, everything is more dynamic when we alternate with vocal songs. So, our focus is to reach all the audiences and mix them; the classic fans of instrumental music and also people who like follow to lyrics.

Do you as a musician think the video game songs nowadays are catchy as before?

If I could only answer “yes” or “no”, the answer would be a straight ‘no’. We do have games with catchy trailers today, citing my favorites are the games like The Witcher and Skyrim. However, the vast majority of modern games melodies are too simple, almost imperceptible. Many formed only on a base note, the arrangements are orchestrated with lines divided in several instruments which are good in all but lost independent manner. It’s easy to play. Whistle any Sonic theme. Now whistle one of the themes of games like Batman Arkham series? You know what I mean? The trailer of the Batman games are really cool, really like, match the game, etc, but not remarkable. This is closely related to the style of play and also to the technological limitations.

The older games were very fast; sometimes you couldn’t pass two minutes in each stage. Then, the composer had to give all the excitement of very quickly and directly. Furthermore the technical limitations forced the composer to use a smaller set of instruments and, therefore, they had to create bigger melodies to be striking and not cloying. Today the games are longer and need ambiance, it have a lot more filling than music themes itself.

Would you like to leave a message or news for the fans?

I’d like to say thanks to all the fans who support our work over the years. I also want to say stay tuned because MegaDriver is focusing a lot on new releases. Our last album, “Rise From Your Grave”, is all dedicated to games “B side” of the SEGA Genesis, and it’s already available for download on our website, Spotify and iTunes. I also want to say thanks to all the fans of SEGA community. We SEGA fans, we are different, we are warriors who never let our passion disappear. Other brands have the media and financial strength, SEGA have us

Thank you very much.

Good morning Daniel, we are very happy to make this interview with you, everyone who love Sega greatly admire the work that was done by TecToy, and doing an interview with someone who was part of that is very special.

First of all who are you? Where you are from? What do you do in your life?

Daniel Trevisan, born in São Paulo – SP and currently living in Balneário Camboriú – SC. My main background is graphic design, I have expertise in visual and multimedia creation, I also have training in communication design, scenography, video editing, 2D and 3D animation, I also have an international certification in coaching and mentoring.

Currently, I’m working with the sum of knowledge mixing arts and design with mentoring and coaching. I create tools that assist in self-awareness and leadership of people, groups and businesses.

I created the WELL-BEING DESIGN concept, which operates in the construction of happiness of human beings through behavioral knowledge combined with communication in the visual arts.

During my professional life I developed games, participated in exhibitions of visual arts, created visual identity and virtual scenarios, I was responsible for designing animation and editing for major TV stations in Brazil, in addition to teaching various subjects in the communication area in universities from São Paulo.

What’s your favorite SEGA game and console?

With no doubts, Duke Nukem 3D and the platform our beloved Genesis. Duke Nukem for having managed to realize a dream of building a game from scratch and Genesis to be part of my teenage years.

How and when did you start working at TecToy, and when did you leave?

I started at TecToy in April 1997, through an ad on the wall of my university to work with games; It was the dream of many young people at that time. I was advised to give up the job, as more than 300 students had already applied for it. I didn’t care and decided to give it a chance, I already had a good knowledge in design and computer, and really believed in my potential. I remained in this company for almost two years.

What games have you worked on TecToy? What was your role in each one of the games?

I worked on the Street Fighter game – Master System as Tester, Phantasy Star 3 as a Translator and Tester, Sítio do Picapau Amarelo – Master System as Developer and as a Designer for Duke Nukem 3D – SEGA Genesis.

Any idea or canceled game we do not know?

Well, at that time due to the success of Duke Nukem 3D, we started to develop Tomb Raider for Genesis, but Tectoy filed for bankruptcy and sent several talent away. They started just to import and resell games. Then I asked resignation because I was invited to work in a TV station. There wasn’t more opportunities for creation there.

How was the relationship between TecToy and SEGA? Did they have to approve everything, or could TecToy do whatever they want and release it? Did they help in the process (documentation, Assets, Arts, other things)? Did they always give feedback for all the projects?

It depended of the agreement, each game had a characteristic, in the case of Duke Nukem had a lot of freedom to recreate the game, bringing their concepts from PC lunar stage. SEGA had its strict quality control and after the development of any title, was infinitely tested by the staff of TecToy and the next phase by SEGA staff. Everything was analyzed, from gameplay, visuals, sounds, content adaptation, making it adequate to the public. The feedback was constant. However, other games were just adaptations and even then had to be relentlessly tested to avoid any bug.

Making Duke Nukem run on a SEGA Genesis must have been insane work when they came with the idea of the game for you. Did you already have in mind about making a game with 3D perspective, or it was decided later?

It was really insane at the time because it was seen as almost impossible to work. It would need to be in 3D, bringing two-dimensional aspects to this game would totally disqualify the proposal. It was very tense, the pressure was constant and we had to develop short-term own tools to build it.

I have to highlight two professionals who were partners on this process: Heriberto Martinez Mandique who worked on the sound, and 3D engine and Maurice A. Guerta who developed the tools . I had the pleasure of working with these fantastic companions without their technical capacity, we could never accomplish this challenge without them.

Finally, joining the knowledge of each area we could find a solution and communicate in a timely manner responsible for the viability of the game in the market.

How was the process in development? Did you have a lot of problems? Is it true the team used a Phantasy Star algorithm?

It was a lot of work. When we found a solution, deadlines were already very short and we had to make the methodology into practice as soon as possible.

We used the languages like C and Assembler as well as many calculation tables using log and ant-log of sine and cosine functions to accelerate the process of multiplication and division without using a mathematical processing CPU. Heriberto and Mauritius used BSP algorithm (binary space partition) to link many areas (indoors) through the hollowed walls.

This algorithm was very different from 2D and a half used in earlier versions of this platform. It made it possible to create walls and doors with thickness and with rectangular variable dimensions and not only as the square Wolfenstein game. I used a Cartesian plane system to map the whole game, from then on, we began to applying textures and strategies of Duke Nukem 3D.

Each level had to be with progressive difficulty and at the same time interesting to the user. Creativity had to be present in every password or secret passage, the personality of the enemy and in the combination of every animation, audio and scenery. We also created a quality roadmap to consolidate an effort of three talking heads. Yes, the Duke Nukem 3D for Mega Drive was made from scratch and developed by three professionals: Two engineering and design.

I recently heard someone saying that Duke Nukem 3D was made from the Phantasy Star. I don’t know why he did this statement, since there were no connections between the two games. None at all! Maybe who he said that doesn’t remember how it was done or even the talent he had in this company, unfortunately.

How long did this project last?

To create the authoring tools, design and testing, about a year.

How was the feedback from SEGA when they saw Duke Nukem 3D running on the SEGA Genesis?

It was a great surprise, we received an email from SEGA classifying the game as AA, which is the maximum score achieved in a game for the Mega Drive platform and a congratulatory comment for having achieved something that even SEGA wondered if it was possible. Moreover, it was matter of specialized magazines of the time. It was something exciting where three Brazilians developed with little technology and a lot of pressure, something that would be amazing so far.

In 2015, the company Piko Interactive relaunched the game worldwide. Do you feel proud that even after so many years there is still demand for the game?

I feel extreme fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment, and ready for new challenges. No wonder, because the love that was put in the development of this game only tends to give good results. I remember having worked on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve! What is done with care and quality remains. Knowing that now a project in which you participated so intensely, belongs to the world is the best feeling you could feel. After 20 years I am thrilled!

Daniel ,thank you for the interview.  Lastly, do you have any message for someone who is starting now with game design?

Never give up is the first thing, the second is to love very, very much what you do, the third is not limiting yourself to creating games in front of a computer. A professional should study hard and have a systemic view of the work. It’s not limited in what the software or programming gives you, the secret is to explore what is out of the computer universe, know how to create is to look at nature and see different painting techniques and illustration; It’s to feel the movement of a walk and the flow of people who are around you. The design of a game begins long before digital effects and advanced plugins. I developed the Digital Art Therapy ©, it’s a tool that works WELL-BEING Design concept mentioned above, many studies I used from the time when I developed games.

Currently, I help people in changing mentality and exercise leadership in business, adding knowledge of that time in other areas. The different professionals need to have an open mind to new possibilities and applications of their skills.

Thank you very much.

I first came across his work when I saw his “Complete History of Streets of Rage” video, and I instantly became a subscriber.

In this interview, we discuss Ibbertson’s inspirations, his views on video games and how YouTubers can be successful when there’s so much competition out there, and strange SEGA marketing stories.