Sonic HQ25 Years & Counting!

At it Sony and Bleem go again...

In a press release today released by Bleem, Inc., Bleem! has filed a motion to the US District Court for the Northern District of California blaming Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) for interfering with the marketing and sales of Bleem's new product, "Bleem! For Dreamcast". The motion filed accused SCEA of unlawfully using its market power to strong-arm retailers via threats of legal action and harm to their business dealings with the company. The motion claims that as a result of Sony?s coercion, Babbages stopped distribution of Bleemcast to its stores and asked to return nearly all of its 7,000-unit initial order. "Sony has already asked the judge to pull bleem! from the market in three separate motions, and each time, they?ve lost," stated David Herpolsheimer, president and CEO of Bleem. "This is nothing more than an end-run around the justice system ? Sony is using its huge market power to force retailers into giving them what the courts won?t."

Released on May 2 of this year, Bleem claims that when Electronics Boutique initially carried bleem! for Dreamcast, it sold out of its 11,000 units in barely a week. It quickly became the number-one best-selling product across all gaming platforms on the ebgames.com website, outselling even the highly-anticipated Gran Turismo 3 title and the PlayStation 2 console. However, Bleem claims that pressure from Sony halted reorders and Bleemcast! was temporarily removed from the site. We have yet to get a comment from SCEA, though hopefully we'll be able to speak with someone at SCEA about Bleem's claims later on this week. Stay tuned for more.

And next, on Springer, game companies that'll never stop fighting...

Credit: DCIGN

You may of missed it, but IGN have given the public this new Sonic Adventure 2 movie. This does show new levels, including what seems to be a ship with planes, played as Sonic, and Tails in Radical highway, a level only seen before through the eyes of Shadow. Also, it shows Rouge looking for something besides Emerald Shards, Eggman Keys!

http://dcmedia.ign.com/media/e32001/movies/sonicadventure2.mov

Ryan "Kaos" Daniel has released a Quake 3 Arena Model, based on our hero, Sonic The Hedgehog.

With the reviews around this model, it's one of the best looking skins based on a game character. With extra skins such as Super Sonic, Psyco "Shadow" Sonic (Not to be confused with Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2), and an excellent looking Cyber Sonic, which has a variety of colours for Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch

Download the Quake 3 Arena skin here

Download the Star Trek: Elite Forces Converted model here

SonicTeam have updated their webpage, and at the same time, have updated their Wallpaper Collection! The latest download uses the 10th Anniversary Logo, and a "Happy Birthday! Sonic" at the side.

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This is from E3 I think:
Sega’s booth was closed to the general public, but that didn’t stop us from getting through the guarded doors to get a first-hand look of the first Sonic game to ever hit a Game Boy system -- Sonic the Hedgehog Advance.

The game wasn’t playable, but it was running on Game Boy Advance hardware through a Wide Boy AGB device (you know, the development cartridge that enables developers to play GBA titles on an N64 and a television) as a self-running demo. And man, it was slick.

The Game Boy Advance title, developed by Dimps, is based on the classic side-scrolling design, but it’s a game all its own. Sonic can run and jump, as well as spin-dash to get himself out of specific binds. Collecting rings is still the name of the game, and when you get hit by specific enemies, dozens of those golden ‘o’s go flying…showing off the GBA’s sprite handling capabilities. The game is super-fast as it should be, and there are plenty of corkscrews and loops to make players going dizzy.

But that’s not all – the game also borrows from the second Dreamcast adventure – Sonic can now “grind” down rails in several places in the game. Though the demo only showed one instance of this feature, it was a lot of fun to watch. The graphics have also been completely redone, giving the hedgehog an edgier look to his classic design. And the pictures that Sega has given us show that you’ll also play as several different characters as well – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy will be in the player lineup. And, like a good GBA game, it will support the four player link for multiplayer mini-games.

The game’s being prepped for a November 2001 release.

E3 is cranking out some good stuff. Here is a video of Sonic Advance in action. Thanks goes to Cyclone for finding it. :-) http://pocketmovies.ign.com/media/e32001/movies/sonicgba.mov

NCSX is now taking pre-orders for the Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack for $65, which was earlier reported:

Sonic the Hedgehog's 10th anniversary lands on June 23, 2001 and Sega celebrates the decade-long run by releasing a commemorative edition of Sonic Adventure 2. In addition to the SA2 game GD, the special edition includes a gold Sonic engraved coin, a bonus music CD, a Sonic series history booklet, and nifty blue gatefold packaging. The product will only be sold in Japanese stores from June 23 (Saturday) to June 24 (Sunday) but NCS has an inside track on quantity. Pre-orders are open starting today online but will close once our allocation is exhausted. Core Magazine posted a feature on this product yesterday. Pricing is set at US$65

Megaman of the SegaTech Forums has posted these pictures of Sonic Advance he has found on a website. Problem is, we don't know which one! But they do look quite nice. The sprites look a little bland compared to other Game Boy Advance games. It also shows that Amy and Tails are avaliable for play.

The pictures were originally found on this page, beware though, the page is full of pictures, so it may take a while to load (includes pictures of Shenme 2, Bomberman DC, Jet Set Radio Future etc)

Straight from IGN:

As I finally arrived at the LA Convention through the nifty subway that no one really knows about, I found it somewhat heartwarming that the main entrance - that was decorated last year with the SEGA Dreamcast “It’s Thinking” Eye – is still held by SEGA, this time it displays a large banner of Sonic’s new nemesis, Shadow.

Source: IGNDC