I want another SEGA console.

[rabidrabbit]

I know this is a bit offtopic, but what does Nintendo mean? what's the origin of the word?

From Wikipedia:

Nintendo - Nintendo is composed of 3 Japanese Kanji characters, Nin-ten-do the first two of which can be translated to "Heaven blesses hard work"; do is a common ending for any store.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies


Edit: hehe kinda silly name NIntendo Reminds of "Arbeit macht frei!!!" :blush:

Edit2:

Sony was originally called Tokyo Tsoshiu Kogyo Kabushika Kaika. Sony was chosen as it could be pronounced easily in many languages

Obviously

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Well, Nintendo(u) in Japanese is spelled thus: 任天堂

任 = responsability/duty/term/entrust/appoint
天 = heavens/sky/imperial
堂 = hall/public enclosure

So there's no real exact translation, but it'd be something like "In charge of the halls of the heavens" or "Entrusted to the heavens above" or something similar. It's possible it's an idiom for something like "throw caution to the wind", but I'm not too great with Idioms... or Kanji for that matter ;_;

 

[amk]

I disagree. I'm sure many people in Japan wondered what S E G A stood for...Service Games. In fact Xbox didn't do well in Japan for the same reasons ie it's an American product. Same with American cars in Japan.

I can say that the Japanese I've spoken to were unaware of Sega's origins, and that Edge magazine has opined that "the fact that Sega was founded by an American is largely unknown in Japan".

As for XBox's reduced success in Japan, there are other factors:

• Increased head start for PS3
• XBox and controllers' physical size
• Microsoft may know less about marketing in NE Asia than Sony knows about marketing in the "West"
• Sony's brand may be even more dominant in Japan than in West
• Japanese mentallity may be less forgiving of buggy products, damaging MS' brand

I also suggest that the Japanese are more likely to buy European cars than American cars, be it Minis or Ferraris.

 

[Betamax]

All VF games are different to the previous iterations. It's still VF though.

Well, obviously they are (and I have played all of them in depth -except for FT). But VF5 looks to be a substantially depature from the gradual evolution of the series. VF1 -> FT has basically just been a process of adding more moves and properties to enhance the gameplay, but I really think that they've taken thsi approach about as far as it can go with FT. VF5, from what we've seen so far, looks to place a much greater emphasis on movement at least than the previous efforts.

 

[Hardknock]

Sega needs to release some of their best DC games on the PSP, that would rock

 

[PC-Engine]

Sega needs to release some of their best DC games on the PSP, that would rock

Only if gamers buy them in large numbers, otherwise development costs of porting it to PSP would not be worth it.

 

[Lazy8s]

The new DoCoMo FOMA 902i series of mobile phones will soon be installed in the hands of millions of multimedia enthusiast users and would make for relatively easy MBX ports from Dreamcast.

 

[KOF]

It's hard to say Sega was founded by solely an American. Service Games was actually a branch model name for the pinball machines developed by Nihon Busan Goraku (Japan Entertainment Production) Of course, Rosen Enterprises was in the same business, but they never had any name that associated with Sega in the beginning. It wasn't until the merger of two companies (Japanese journalists say absorption of Rosen Enterprise by Nihon Busan Goraku, American journalists say the reverse. I'm going to believe in merge because those two companies were fairly close in size and both were vying for the top in the pinball industry while Taito was trailing in third.) that the name Sega Enterprise was finally born. Sure, David Rosen was the first president of the said company, but as far as "Service Games" was concerned, the name comes from the solely Japanese company, so no, Sega is neither a solely American nor Japanese company. Its birth was through the merge of two companies who share different nations. After Rosen stepped down, after Sega was flushed once by the Gaming Crash, it was rebuilt by handful of Japanese enterpreneurs including Hayao Nakayama and Isao Okawa. Sega of Japan officially states they are a Japanese company however. (meaning they imply absorption of Rosen Enterprises from Nihon Busan Goraku)

I love Sega for their innovation. However, you can't have innovation without money. Sega was indulging in so many stupid moves business-wise (Shen Mue $70 million anyone?) that it gained so many fierce Sega maniacs in return. =D but now they seem little slow because the cashflow wasn't what it used to be. That's why Sega-Sammy needs cashing in on gambling business enough until they've become strong enough to take on both Sony and Microsoft in gaming business. we'll see.

 

[Lazy8s]

By the time Sega Sammy can gear up for another console, Nokia should be their biggest competitor or potential ally for a gaming platform.

 

[Kanyamagufa]

I remember setting up my Genesis. One of the most awe inpsiring moments of my life with a TV.

I remember setting up my Dreamcast. I turned it on and all of a sudden, I was in Sonic Adventure. And it was pure bliss. The experience I had with playing Sonic Adventure the first time has yet to be rivaled. I was in graphical nirvana.

 

[Comfortably Lomb]

Not all American cars are shite. The American car companies own a lot of foreign car companies too. For example Volvo, Saab, Vauxhall, Jaguar etc.

Saab as a product has deteriorated terribly since being taken over by GM a few years ago. Today, instead of being the turbo-charged metal monsters that they were in the 90s, they've become less reliable and more expensive plastic Subarus. Volvo hasn't impoved either as they're now overpriced, far from their roots in appearance, and are plagued by electrical problems.

I don't know much about Vauxhall or Jaguar other than that Jaguars are now more reliable than they used to be. Although, to be fair, they were well known in the past for being at the far end of undependable.

I think it's awfully hard to say much good about American made cars when considering the level of reliability, luxury, safety, and performance that can be found in Japanese brands like Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Saab as a product has deteriorated terribly since being taken over by GM a few years ago. Today, instead of being the turbo-charged metal monsters that they were in the 90s, they've become less reliable and more expensive plastic Subarus. Volvo hasn't impoved either as they're now overpriced, far from their roots in appearance, and are plagued by electrical problems.

I don't know much about Vauxhall or Jaguar other than that Jaguars are now more reliable than they used to be. Although, to be fair, they were well known in the past for being at the far end of undependable.

I think it's awfully hard to say much good about American made cars when considering the level of reliability, luxury, safety, and performance that can be found in Japanese brands like Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus.

Saab was never well-known for its reliability, just for its power. And as they figure out more and more ways to get more and more power out of naturally aspirated engines, turbocharged I4 engines don't look as beefy as they used to. Monster horsepower in 1988 was 200 hp; monster horsepower today is 350+ hp, which just isn't happening in an I4 without serious trickery and expensive, fragile parts (incidentally, you can get the 9-3 with as much as 250 hp today, which is 100 hp more than a 1994 Saab 900 made). Further, virtually all cars are more reliable than they were 20 years ago. A 1997 Chevy should last at least 150K miles if you take care of it. A 1987 Chevy will often crap out at aroud 80K miles, especially if it's got one of those TBI 305's in it.

There's no rule of reliability of Japanese cars anymore than there's a general rule applying to Japanese electronics; Toyota and Honda are the only two that regularly come out on top of quality surveys and reliability statistics. Nissan, Subaru, Isuzu, and Mitsubishi all range from pretty good to pretty bad. Two quality brands do not a national rule make. The fact is all the brands are different, just as they are in the US. And while I'm mentioning US cars, the top 5 nameplates for dependability according to JD Power are Lexus, Porsche, Lincoln, Buick, and Cadillac. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 are Infiniti, Toyota, Mercury, Honda, and Acura. Subaru, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, and Isuzu all rank well below average, while Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler are all above average (and very close to each other, and all way above the American-owned foreign nameplates).

Say what you will about popular stories and anecdotes, but these are actual statistics considered pretty reliable by the industry.

And who would buy an 80's-styled Volvo anymore other than hardcore Volvo enthusiasts?

 

[Mintmaster]

The problem with those JD Power dependability stats is they're "initial quality". They really don't tell you much about the long term reliability. They count problems per 100 cars or something, which is next to useless. If a few gadgets go wrong but the drivetrain is perfect, that hurts them.

I think stats like what Consumer Guide collects for much older cars is far more useful. There, the Japanese cars do very well.

It's fully possible that American cars coming off the line right now are great for reliability. However, until we see how they are 5-10 years from now, we just won't know. I used to think the reliability argument was just a false stereotype because we had an '86 Plymouth Turismo that lasted over a decade, just like our '83 Subaru. But then I found that this was related to the K-Car platform, whose reliability was far from the norm for Chrysler. Our subsequent Chrysler purchases had plenty of problems, but at the time they had so much more value than Japanese cars that I think it was worth it.

Anyway, now I'm personally a big fan of Nissan/Infiniti. Many of their cars do quite well in reliability according to CR (as well as by reputation, so I'm not sure what you're talking about fearsomepirate), have gobs of power, handle well, look awesome, and don't have the price premium of Honda/Toyota.

Anyway, I think we should get back on topic...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Seeing as the topic was someone saying they want a new Sega console (without saying why) and the following discussion has already covered every point on the matter it seems, it's not surprising things drifted this far, though it is surprising the thread's not locked.

Can anyone post any worthwhile contribution to this thread before closing time? Tune in next-week to find out (or switch over now to E4 on your Digibox)

 

[Simon F]

Can anyone post any worthwhile contribution to this thread before closing time? Tune in next-week to find out (or switch over now to E4 on your Digibox)

In that case, I'll try. IIRC you were stating that Sega did not innovate, however the DC introduced some rather new features, which were listed here.