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IGCC spoke to Sega's Hiroyuki Miyazaki & Yosuke Okunari about the Mega Drive Mini (part 1)🇯🇵
the Mini as originally announced would've been totally different; they genuinely planned to only release in Japan for the 30th anniversary & didn't expect a huge response but they got so much attention, particularly from overseas, that talks about rebooting happened quite early
Sega-branded plug&plays have been released regularly overseas, year after year, but these licensing deals have always excluded Japan so they were initially thinking purely in terms of producing something Japanese customers would buy, shaped to their preferences
from the moment they announced it @ Sega Fes they received inquiries from regional branches about overseas sales; rather than straight-out saying no, they wanted to wait until they'd gauged the response in Japan before using that as leverage to reboot the project with intl focus
the initial goal of 30 titles was them matching NES Mini; there was also talk of going as high as 50 but there were concerns they were devaluing the games
Miyazaki says if they didn't have third-party games the final number might be fairly low, he doesn't like filler
Miyazaki says if they didn't have third-party games the final number might be fairly low, he doesn't like filler
on license negotiation, Sega's fortunate to have contacts within a multitude of different companies, either via working relationships or shifting personnel, so they were fortunate that in most cases they could easily discuss their project & weren't met with apprehension
the US-owned Road Rash II was difficult to secure—they couldn't negotiate directly, so it was slow work
Tetris & Darius were being dev'd & licensed simultaneously which complicated things; they had to courier a Mini to Tetris' ppl in Hawaii & ask "don't play anything but Tetris"
Tetris & Darius were being dev'd & licensed simultaneously which complicated things; they had to courier a Mini to Tetris' ppl in Hawaii & ask "don't play anything but Tetris"
Miyazaki declined to give names but there were situations where they had to abandon certain games bc, even tho they'd located the rights & the owners were willing, those companies no longer had game divisions and therefore Sega wasn't confident about the validity of the contract
Slap Fight required the most licensing legwork of any single game: the original arcade game was made by Toaplan & distributed by Taito, the MD port was made by Mindware & published by Tengen with new music by Yuzo Koshiro/Ancient, so they had to verify specific rights one by one
why'd they pick Slap Fight & Snow Bros over other, more popular Toaplan games? in Snow Bros' case, genre variety & 2p co-op were big factors but in general, when it came to ports, they wanted high-quality versions that had features or content that could only be experienced on MD
for example, Tatsujin (Truxton) was an early contender and a much more famous game but, rather than reissuing a compromised port of an arcade game that itself may be reissued in the future, they instead chose a game whose MD port went above and beyond the original (Slap Fight MD)
on the Tower Mini: in the very beginning, they were thinking of individual modules that would add MCD, 32X, etc games but for a few reasons—chosen hardware spec, perceived low software volume for 32X in particular—those plans were dropped, but they kept the desire for cosmetics
one of the biggest factors was Sega president Matsubara; they initially picked a lineup w the assumption that they'd be able to put out periodic refreshes with different games, but Matsubara told them to go all-out & try to do everything that wanted bc this may be their only shot
the Tower Mini & general Mini design was an extension of that; they wanted to replicate all the little quirks that they felt were absent from competing minis
Okunari fought for the detachable expansion slot cover; he wants ppl to ask themselves, "how much did this feature cost?"
Okunari fought for the detachable expansion slot cover; he wants ppl to ask themselves, "how much did this feature cost?"
the original MD hardware designer worked on the Mini; when they'd say "replicate the OG MD" he'd say "which version?" and they'd end up going over dozens of tiny revisions they weren't aware of, and those variants ballooned when it came to the Genesis & EU Mega Drive designs
on the overseas versions in particular, the colour of the paint on the actual systems unofficially varied quite a lot as time went on & production methods changed, so they went as far as checking paint swatches at the manufacturing site to nail down specific colours for the Mini
on the controller, Japan decided the 6B was the optimal choice but overseas branches insisted on the 3B, so they ended up making both; as with the consoles, the NA/EU controllers had their subtle variants and Miyazaki ended up just letting the hardware lead choose the final spec
how accurate are the reproduction controllers? not 100%, simply due to changes in modern manufacturing processes, materials, etc but they're closer to any of the other licensed repros on the market & they think the discrepancies will be imperceptible to the average player
..and that's part 1
