Mega Archive CD: Part X: From Alshark to Prize Fighter

Welcome back to Mega Archive CD, the pearlescent partner to the cart-clarifying Giant Bomb Wiki companion project that is the Mega Archive. Since we've just entered December and the final push for the Mega Drive/Genesis, we'll now have this penultimate check-in with the Sega CD/Mega-CD to put it in the final month of 1993 in parity. After this, we won't be revisiting the Sega CD again until towards the end of this year with what will probably be the last Mega Archive-related blog for quite some time. Part X has our now-standard mix of computer ports, Mega Drive upgrades, and FMV catastrophes for you all to peruse.

I neglected to mention it on the last Mega Archive CD but around this time the Sega CD saw its third competitor in the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system, which released in the October of 1993. I've no plans to cover it or its similarly underachieving compatriot the Phillips CD-i but they are definitely some fascinating libraries to explore from a historical point of view: two systems that didn't have the benefit of a cartridge-based predecessor packed with beloved extant franchises to draw from and no solid ideas about how to engage players with the enhanced capabilities of the CD format. The Sega CD was certainly more successful in striking a balance between FMV experiments and traditional 16-bit gaming, as was the TurboGrafx-CD to a greater extent in Japan (though lesser everywhere else), but it wouldn't be until the PlayStation and its hardware improvements that consoles saw a confident leap into that era. Anyway, the PC I'm using—for as rugged as it is—only has a half-TB SSD so I'm not going to go around downloading entire CD image sets of these other '90s consoles for the sake of our wiki. I believe Borgmaster has you covered for most of that scene anyway.

Be sure to check in with the MegaArchiveMegaSpreadsheet mega soon if you can for all the links and consolidated info any SegaHead could want.

Part X: CD86-CD94 (November '93 - December '93)

CD86: Alshark

• Developer: CRC Research Institute
• Publisher: Sandstorm
• JP Release: 1993-11-26
• NA Release: N/A
• EU Release: N/A
• Franchise: N/A
• Genre: Turn-based RPG (with some Shoot 'em Up bits)
• Theme: Sci-fi / Fantasy
• Premise: *Knock, knock* "Who is it?" "Plumber." "Plumber? I didn't... wait, are you that Alshark that I've heard about? The Mega-CD RPG pretending to be a Phantasy Star?" "...Candygram."
• Availability: Several contemporary ports but no rereleases.
• Preservation: Maybe this speaks to my concerningly low expectations for Mega Archive but it's always kind of thrilling to discover a Sega JRPG that I had no idea existed, developed and published by two entities I'd never heard of before. Like I'm peeking into a parallel universe or something. Alshark is a port of a PC-9801 game from another unknown (to me) company, Right Stuff, and saw an enhanced port to CD-based platforms like the FM Towns and the Mega-CD's chief console rival (pre-1994) the PC Engine CD-ROM. Stylistically, it's going for something similar to Star Ocean or Phantasy Star with its combination of fantasy and sci-fi, having you run around a planet fighting monsters one moment and dogfighting with starships the next. (The space stuff kinda tracks given the original developer's name.) Naturally, the anime quotient is through the roof. CRC was an information services company that briefly dabbled in game development, porting the Mega-CD Alshark and creating a few games for the Mega LD (that would be the LaserActive, a LaserDisc-based system which offered a separately-sold hardware expansion that could play Sega games). Sandstorm (I have to resist the meme here) is a label used by the Japanese branch of Polydor K.K., a global record label that also published a few Sega soundtracks on CD and vinyl: as with CRC, this is the only Sega console release they were ever attached to. (One of their Sega singles was something called "Wizards of the Sonic", which I need to go check out immediately. Trip report: It's German EDM that samples the boss music from Sonic 2. Not bad.)
• Wiki Notes: Bit of everything. Needed to add a page for the developer too.

CD87: Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra

• Developer: CRI
• Publisher: CRI
• JP Release: 1993-11-26
• NA Release: N/A
• EU Release: N/A
• Franchise: Might and Magic
• Genre: First-person RPG
• Theme: Strength, but also sorcery?
• Premise: Hey, speaking of obtuse spacebound RPGs. The third Might and Magic sees the conclusion of the Corak/Sheltem arc of divinities (actually advanced AI) playing havoc with mankind.
• Availability: You can buy the first six Might and Magic games in a compilation from GOG. Usually pretty cheap too, considering that's a collective playtime in the region of 500 hours.
• Preservation: New World Computing brought the first Might and Magic to the Sega Genesis in 1991 but neglected to follow that up with any of its sequels, leaving Sega subsidiary CRI to pick up a very small amount of the slack—like carrying a single small box of toiletries when helping your friend move apartments—by porting the third game over to the Sega Mega-CD, where it remained a Japan exclusive. Some odd things about this port: the first, and most immediately obvious, is that the game starts with Sheltem's little backstory-providing rant to the player that is voiced entirely in English with Japanese subtitles, suggesting CRI probably did intend to release this overseas at some point. Stuff like the wall graffiti in Fountain Head (the starting town) also has English with Japanese subtitles. However, the portraits for characters have been reworked to be more anime-like and there's some anime influences in the opening intro too, so CRI were definitely thinking about players from their homeland too. Unlike the TurboGrafx-CD port of the game, the music was left mostly as-is from the IBM PC original albeit remixed as redbook audio (which is a shame, because the TurboGrafx-CD OST is a trip). As for the game itself, well, it's Might and Magic: you're not going to find a more accessible RPG series from that far back and it's a good place to start if you ever wanted to try some CRPG retro-gaming (though I hear the Digital Eclipse Wizardry remake is another solid choice too).
• Wiki Notes: Screenshots.

CD88: The Third World War

• Developer: Micronet
• Publisher: Micronet (JP) / Extreme Entertainment Group (NA)
• JP Release: 1993-11-26
• NA Release: March 1994
• EU Release: N/A
• Franchise: N/A
• Genre: Strategy
• Theme: Picking Fights with Libya Just Because
• Premise: The world is on the brink of another devastating internecine war, and probably its last due to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, unless the player does something about it in their role as a head of state. No pressure.
• Availability: Nope.
• Preservation: Despite the exciting title this is a pretty heavy simulation game where you help your chosen country weather (or maybe even instigate) a third World War, with other campaigns that include a cold war and other contemporary scenarios. Some truly wild design decisions here and there: for instance, you can choose to aid terrorism if you think it'll help your nation out any, and the Japanese box art is truly a thing of dubious beauty. Micronet's very much going after Koei's throne with how dense the layers of strategy are with this game so be prepared for a whole lot of menus to navigate if you're curious enough to check it out. Japanese developers Micronet you might recall from the Caesar no Yabou / Warrior of Rome series for Mega Drive, so they're no strangers to copying Koei's homework. Extreme Entertainment Group, the North American publishers, was a Micronet publishing label that would be bought by Absolute Entertainment before the end of the year. We'll see a few more Sega CD games from both but they were done with the Mega Drive by this point: the siren call of CD interactive media was just too hard to ignore.
• Wiki Notes: All it needed was a header image.

CD89: Bill Walsh College Football

• Developer: High Score Productions
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• JP Release: N/A
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: March 1994
• Franchise: Bill Walsh College Football
• Genre: Football
• Theme: Football
• Premise: Bill Walsh is still here telling all these collegiate types where to throw a ball. Those nerds have diseases to cure and Facebook to invent, Bill, how about you leave them be?
• Availability: EA doesn't do reruns. It will, theoretically, bring back college football to the masses though later this month (July 2024) in EA Sports College Football 25.
• Preservation: Like a charging scholarship student who knows his Bachelor's in Communications will never do a damn thing for him, EA Sports refuses to slow down and so we have our mandated football game for this early winter season of Mega Archive CD. We've already covered the Mega Drive version of this game so I have even less to say about a football game than usual other than to say that there's a bunch of little Bill Walsh informational videos they recorded for this thing and there was another one of these College Football games the following year that did not see the Sega CD treatment. In fact, the Sega CD saw very few football games total and zero Maddens: this was the only EA contribution to Sega's compact disc experiment, accompanied by Sega's own Joe Montana's NFL Football and Sony's ESPN Sunday Night NFL. I knew there was a reason why I preferred writing Mega Archive CD entries. Now watch me eat my own words the way the inestimable John Madden chowed down on his turduckens when the next Mega Archive CD entry forces me to play five embarrassing FMV games in a row.
• Wiki Notes: Double-dip from Mega Archive. Just some Sega CD screenshots.

CD90: Double Switch

• Developer: Digital Pictures
• Publisher: Sega
• JP Release: 1995-03-24
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: February 1994
• Franchise: N/A
• Genre: FMV Action
• Theme: Indecisive Lesbians Nintendo's Next Console It's Just Night Trap Again
• Premise: Night Trap was fun but it bums me out because of what happened to Dana Plato. Hopefully the former child actor that headlines this game was a little more fortun- oh, it's Corey Haim. Whoops.
• Availability: Screaming Villains, the vociferous cads they are, remastered Double Switch for modern platforms back in 2018.
• Preservation: Well, never mind, we don't even have to wait for the next Mega Archive CD to arrive before I'm yet again required to process FMV games with tiny scratchy video feeds and as much star power as a Tubi original. Actually, I take that back: this has Blondie's Debbie Harry and Full Metal Jacket's R. Lee Ermey (as a married couple no less) so that's a pretty solid outing for a Sega CD game. Digital Pictures is still here trying to figure out how to combine movies with video games and hitting the same roadblocks as usual, reducing the player's role to flitting around rooms on a camera network to keep tabs on the bad guys. Worked out pretty well for the Five Nights at Freddy's guy I suppose. Night Trap had a bougie suburban mansion that cheerleaders kept inviting themselves over to apropos of nothing but here it's an apartment complex, which means many quirky tenants and their equally quirky (and trap-laden) living spaces. Archaeology students, metal bands, retired gangsters, and a desperate hacker trapped in the basement giving you instructions: they must've realized that checking in on what the NPCs are doing was the highlight of Night Trap and doubled (switched) down on that.
• Wiki Notes: Needed a header image so I just grabbed one from its remaster's Steam page instead. It's fine if no-one snitches.

CD91: Dragon's Lair

• Developer: ReadySoft
• Publisher: ReadySoft (NA) / Sega (JP/EU)
• JP Release: 1994-06-03
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: March 1994
• Franchise: Dragon's Lair
• Genre: FMV Action
• Theme: Trial and Error
• Premise: Help Dirk the Daring rescue the alluring Princess Daphne by... wait, why did you press left there? Going that way drops you into a pit and instantly kills you. How did you not know that? Are you stupid or something?
• Availability: Probably. This shit's like mildew, it keeps coming back.
• Preservation: Kind of wild that a platform seemingly purpose-built to host obnoxious FMV games would have to wait so long to receive a port of the grand-daddy of FMV gaming itself, the Big Emcee of the Q.T.E.: Dragon's Lair. Created by Don Bluth's animation studio, producer of such classics as Titan A.E. and All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Dragon's Lair is an animated movie that you get to control. Well, sorta. You watch a cartoon and then, at certain intervals, tell some knight dude what to do and observe him getting murdered by who knows what for "daring" to get out of bed that day. In some ways I have to give credit to Dragon's Lair for doing its part in making Souls and its capricious cruelty a reality but in other ways I absolutely don't need to praise or sanction it whatsoever. That's the great thing about Dragon's Lair: there's always a choice. ReadySoft were the official Dragon's Lair (and Space Ace) custodians by the 1990s, having acquired the license to develop the home console ports from Sullivan Bluth Studios and former custodians Software Projects. In fact, every single one of their appearances on Mega Archive CD will be one of these Bluthian crapshoot simulators, so be sure to look forward to that and... press left! Quickly! Ah, you died.
• Wiki Notes: Screenshots and releases.

CD92: Dune

• Developer: Cryo Interactive Entertainment
• Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
• JP Release: N/A
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: January 1994
• Franchise: Dune
• Genre: Adventure / Simulation
• Theme: Walking Without Rhythm
• Premise: Paul Atreides is just your regular teen dude, bugging out about homework and the prom when suddenly his family relocates to a desert world and half of them die in a raid. Bogus! What's a guy to do but to tap into his nigh-deific dormant genetic powers and lead the planet's natives in a huge rebellion against the strongest political powers in the galaxy? Just as long as he gets the family ornithopter back by 10, or his parents will freak!
• Availability: As of yet, GOG has not put the game or its RTS sequel on their storefront. Licensing issues, I'd wager.
• Preservation: So yeah, this would be the 1992 Dune game from French developers Cryo Interactive. Much like the original book, the game is a very ambitious attempt to squeeze a lot of political intrigue, violence, science-fiction concepts, millennia of worldbuilding, and a personal story of revenge into a single piece of media. It balances adventure game, strategy, and simulation mechanics to give you some control over both the micro as Paul works to avenge his fallen house by investigating leads or earning allies and the macro as you control the Spice flow and make sure to give the Emperor his expected due every cycle, balancing the needs and morale of the Fremen natives with the dangers of harvesting from the wake of the enormous Spice-producing Shai-Hulud. The game takes a lot of cues from the 1985 David Lynch movie in particular with regards to the backdrops and character sprites (just try to tell me that isn't Kyle MacLachlan) and that's emphasized further with this CD version, taken from the enhanced PC CD-ROM edition, which adds clips from said movie to spice things up further, so to speak. Primarily a computer graphic adventure game developer, Cryo Interactive won't show up too many more times on either Mega Archive but they did, inscrutably, create a Looney Tunes licensed game featuring Speedy Gonzales that we'll take a look at eventually. No need to ándale though.
• Wiki Notes: Just releases. I tried to add an expanded overview but the site ate it (it's been having issues of late) so... screw it. People know what the Dune is. There were some big recent movies and everything.

CD93: Jurassic Park

• Developer: Sega Multimedia Studio
• Publisher: Sega
• JP Release: 1994-09-30
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: February 1994
• Franchise: Jurassic Park
• Genre: Adventure
• Theme: The Licensed Video Game Market Finds a Way
• Premise: Gotta collect dinosaur eggs before they hatch into dinosaurs and eat you. We're making the mother of all omelets here, Hammond, can't fret over every egg.
• Availability: Licensed game so it might be tricky.
• Preservation: Jurassic Park saw a whole bunch of adaptations shortly after the movie came out and none of them were particularly good, but at least I can say that there was a great variety of mediocrity on offer that played to each respective console's strengths. You might not be surprised to learn that the Sega CD version, produced by a new and untested internal studio, heavily uses FMV clips and timing-based mini-games for much of its run but is otherwise a standard enough graphic adventure game. Set after the movie, because who wants to pay any of those actors, the player is some unnamed agent of InGen sent to recover dinosaur eggs before they fall into the hands of rival corporation Biosyn. Biosyn, being the good sports they are, sabotaged your helicopter and left you stranded on the island where you're forced to survive both corporate espionage and dinosaur attacks. Sega Multimedia Studio was established to help with other Sega-produced CD games equipped as they were with a high-spec recording studio for music and live actor performances; they only actually made two games on their own though, this and the aptly-named Wild Woody. (Wild Woody might actually end up being the final boss of the Mega Archive CD with the way I've planned things.)
• Wiki Notes: Needed some text and releases. Also my second new company page this entry.

CD94: Prize Fighter

• Developer: Digital Pictures
• Publisher: Sega
• JP Release: 1995-03-24
• NA Release: December 1993
• EU Release: March 1994
• Franchise: N/A
• Genre: FMV Boxing
• Theme: More Like Raging Blur
• Premise: Enter the ring and take on a series of contenders in this artistically (?) black-and-white boxing game that heavily employs FMV clips. It's like Punch-Out!! with loading times.
• Availability: Screaming Villains has plans to resurrect this one too but there's no confirmed release date yet.
• Preservation: Our second Digital Pictures joint this entry is Prize Fighter, a boxing game that tries to find a happy balance between the interactive movies the company is known for and a more traditional sport video game experience that isn't just pressing the appropriate buttons while watching a video. I mean, it is still that, but the boxing framework makes it feel closer to a real video game. There's only four boxers to clash with but they all have live performers including Manny Perry, a stunt guy in a lot of my favorite '90s action movies, and Jimmy Nickerson, a genuine boxer who was a boxing coordinator for Raging Bull and Rocky, two movies the creators of this game knew all too well. Rounding out the cast we also have Michael Buffer as the announcer (he says the line), legendary martial arts instructor Gene LeBell as the ref, and the always-reliable Dick Miller as "Billy the Bucket Boy" despite being well over 60 by this point. If I had to pin down what they were going for here, I'd say they approached boxing movies the same way Rockstar does crime or cowboy flicks: there's a stylistic referential deference that is juxtaposed with some tongue-in-cheek parody aspects, a sort of self-aware edge that makes all the naked homaging a little more palatable. An example: one of the incidental characters is a skinny, nerdy fan who also wanted to be a boxer when he grew up until "the tragedy", which is never elaborated upon. I don't think the boxing gameplay is particularly great, not that I care too much for pugilism in games regardless, but this seems like the kind of FMV game that is "fun" for other reasons.
• Wiki Notes: Screenshots.