THIS MORNING I WAS INVITED BY FOX & NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS TO ATTEND A PRESS SCREENING PEVIEW OF “MEGAFACTORIES” LATEST ISSUE, DEDICATED  TO THE FIFA GAME.

This educationnal series, said to be one of the most popular programme of National Geographic Channel, decided to get a peek inside one another original “megafactory”: Electronic Arts (E.A.), the first worldwide videogame publisher, through  it’s Sports dedicated studio in Vancouver.

Founded by Trip Hawkins in 1982, E.A.’s initial goal was to set the spirits of gaming to higher grounds, giving this nascent industry the most edgy image and credibility. During the 90′s, the company turned out to be proeminent on the sports front, notably with the FIFA soccer franchise.

This yearly soft grew very popular, up until the international success of the Sony Playstation 2 platform, which saw the rise of EA’s archrival publisher on the soccer field, Konami, and their Pro Evolution Soccer franchise (Winning Eleven in Japan). With the new domination of Konami, FIFA sales went down to a point and E.A. was suddenly stuck with the image of an outdated, resting-on-it’s-laurel, cashing-it-in major company. The game wasn’t just their own anymore. That brings us to 2007, when the market went through a change of platforms and the two companies soccer efforts were greatly expected. E.A. decided to make at least two moves to stay on top:

-  Innovating with the production of original games outside their trademark sports range: thus the 2008 release of Dice’s Mirror’s Edge and Visceral Games’ Dead Space. While these games were not exactly instant huge hits, their aura as original franchises (or IPs for Intellectual Properties), with top of the range, HD Ready, production values, gave them a great critical feedback and renewed their street cred among core gamers;

- Injecting loads of money, talent and innovation into FIFA. When FIFA 08 was released, the french consensus in the specialized press was: beware, the franchise is back.

The three annual following deliveries kept the soccer sim back in the first league, thanks to they solid apprehension of the latest in terms of technology. Konami, on the other hand, had a hard time delivering the goods on HD home systems, as well as a lot of fellow Japanese developers. PES, once a champion on the field, was now considered subpar to it’s opponent.

This is EA Sports office in Vancouver. For the past eight years, Canada has seen the video game industry blooming and become one of its main growth assets.

That leads us to the office of Vancouver (above) where the Megafactories team was welcomed to follow the development of the latest FIFA iteration, FIFA 12. The goal was to attract talent there and give them the latest tools.

While the challenge remains the same for both companies, the firepower to produce a high octane soccer sim within the short span of a year is clearly not the same. If Konami’s team is about a hundred at most, EA Vancouver regroups 400 people, coming from all over the world: Russia, England, USA, and ironicaly, Japan.

As the mocap feature is introduced to us (see below), with up to sixty movements captors on a dedicated suit, we get to apprehend the task of filming and capturing loads of solid motions. Integrating  them into the computer allows to give a lifelike and less robot feel. Something that was clearly harder to get, if not impossible, on the preceding home systems.

The same goes for sounds, the crowds and the commentary tracks. We’re told that almost every chant is recorded across the globe during playtime for the game’s atmosphere benefit. With some expugnated because of their profanity!

Some funny anecdotes reveal the meticulous work that is now done to perfect the annual formula and push it forward. As Manchester’s Wayne Rooney decided to have hair implants, his face animation had to be updated for FIFA 12 (below). In fact every player in the game is photographed, wether on site or abroad with a detached team for the task.

Here is a close up of player Wayne Rooney. With hair.

All these renewed efforts helped the game to surpass its predecessor in terms of sales. Within its first week of release, FIFA sold 3 million copies worldwide. In september 2011, your humble editor worked for a week in a games shop in Paris la Défense: each day saw ten requests about the forthcoming game’s date release. A month later, another shop manager told me that his own sales ratio was 1 PES game sold for about 12 FIFAs copies.

If success is present among soccer and gamer fans worldwide, the developpers team receive regular phone calls… from the players themselves, asking such things as “Why am I not faster on the field?”. Jamie McKinlay, as EA Sports global marketing senior director, comments the impact of the game on players’ careers and image: “To be on a cover of a FIFA game, for a soccer player, is equivalent to play in the national team”.

A little bit promotional at times,  this Megafactories issue still gives us a great insight of a top notch place. As Canada is now on the forefront of the gaming industry, this insider look in EA Sports office in Vancouver  is packed with recent images and up to date information.  So if you’re a FIFA addict, a soccer fiend or a gaming enthusiast, give it a chance if you can catch it!

Most visuals provided by Fox Channels.

Thanks to Gwendoline for inviting TNS over!

TheNightShift
20.02.2012

THIS LAST WEEK, DRIVE’S SOLE “SOUND EDITING” CREDIT HAS BEEN OVERSHADOWED IN FRANCE BY THE ARTIST’S RESOUNDING TEN ACADEMY NOMINATIONS. YET THE FILM, AS A VIOLENT B MOVIE WITH A HIGH ESTEEM OF ITSELF, WAS AN UNEXPECTED HIT IN FRANCE, WITH 1,5 MILLION MOVIE GOERS GETTING INTO GEAR. IN SPITE OF THIS SUCCESS AND GREAT REVIEWS, SOME OF OUR BEST CRITICS CALLED IT A CASE OF FORM OVER SUBSTANCE. IN OTHER WORDS: AN EMPTY SHELL. TIME TO PONDER AROUND THAT. 

While the film doesn’t shy away from burrowing the likes of Walter Hill (Driver), Michael Mann (Thief), Clint Eastwood (the come-and-go hero with no past) and John Carpenter (Halloween), it still manages to deliver its own signature. The cinematography is pure, effective and glamorous:  the wombish car chases, the balance between tension, romantism, reverie motions and unexpected bursts of violence. All along with motors & hearts amplified by top of the crop electronica.

People say the film has a strong eighties vibe. It certainly has, but I think its willingness to cloud the period issue makes it very contemporary. It’s a reflection of our current obsession with modernity: moving forward with technology while shuffling pop samples from the past three decades.

Sometimes form is meaning. Vibrant and glam, with a predictable story and silent characters, Drive blends arty visual flair with pop culture winks, chevaleresque  measures with gruesome gore, and a social underdog hero with the highest deadly skills. To say it loud and clear, Drive is the ultimate movie of this generation. And the one after.

Our times is that of a violent, tough period while plagued by consumerism, digital craze and emotionless bling. Embodying all these values while being heroic, the main character is both controversial and serves as a model figure for this so called meaningless, faster generation. He retains his latest parcel of humanity through acts of incredible violence, as the Beauty & the Beast opening song explicits the nature of their coming relationship. She’s little red riding hood craving for the wolf. For the audience, this silent metrosexual character appeals on every possible stage: our culture and ambiguity is glowing on the silver screen and the guys can root for his coolness and skills, while the ladies go damp on sight.

Remember Gordon Gekko in Money never sleeps? “This is the NINJA generation”, standing for No Income, No Job & Assets. Yet evoking the deadliest silent assassin ever. And what is the Driver if not a shadowy icon of our time? This generation handles technology like the Driver handles any wheel, yet faces dire social and professionnal perspectives. Though highly talented and effective, the Driver is socially inexistent, to the point of having no name. An exploited mechanic during the day, he survives through nighshift heist calls. His anti-hero ways are of the survival, because the old ways don’t work anymore. This generation has to adapt faster than the ones before, forget the rules, take 400 blows, stay up to date and still move on.

Hand on the wheel, Drive offers the opposite life metaphor to the nightmarish driving sequence from We own the night. There Bobby Green handles the wheel but that doesn’t help him to prevent fate. The Driver sees the wheel as the ultimate way to control his life. On Imdb, some argue that he is Death impersonated, hence fate itself. And does he even die in the end? Or his symbolic sacrifice and endurance serves as a metaphor for this generation’s trials? And why does he leave the money behind?

Drive shows the betrayal of the old and the enduring hunger, disregarded talents of the new. And you have to be in your thirties or under to fully understand this current-up-and-coming-yet-kept-under-the-rug-generation and why the movie reflects it, consciously or not.

Cruising nights with a low social profile, the Driver is invisible to the daily society and yet, serves as the ultimate hero, tougher than the rest, deadliest of all, effective to the bone. That’s the “ghost protocol” we live in, the famous generation Y that’s everywhere, compelled by advertisers to “follow your own rythm” and “forget the rules”. Do you know what I mean? 

TheNightShift
14.02.2012

]]> http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/dryve/feed/ 0 Lift thenightshiftwebmag Lift seq. http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/disappearances-of-christian-blachas/ http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/disappearances-of-christian-blachas/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:22:32 +0000 thenightshiftwebmag http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/disappearances-of-christian-blachas/ Lire la suite]]> IT’S A COLD WEEK-END. A VERY COLD ONE. IT HIT US HARD WITH BEN GAZZARA FIRST. BUT AN EVEN SADDER NOTE COMES TONIGHT WITH THE NEWS OF CHRISTIAN BLACHAS’ PASSING

Anne Magnien (left) & Christian Blachas (right) as Culture Pub anchors back in the 90's.

Sir Blachas was an important media figure in France and an inspiration to me. He launched the two main publications about communication & marketing, Stratégies in 1971, then CB News in the 80′s. On television, he anchored the influent Culture Pub program along Anne Magnien for years (above) before taking it to the web and the NT1 channel. This weekly influent show was dedicated to commercials from all over the world, at a time Internet and Youtube didn’t even exist. A whole generation grew up with it, as it was cleverly scheduled right before the weekly sunday softcore movie.

In 1999 he was one of the few answering,  responded to the questions of Pierre Carles in his film Pas vu pas pris, while every other “important” journalist of the time was shitting his pants in front of the camera. I was impressed.

A very rare breed, his blend of poise, professionalism and easyness sparked off many higher callings. His work and attitude inspired, along other mentors, the quality and touch this very place is looking for.

When I launched La Mensuelle as a newsletter, the former iteration of TheNightShift which quickly became a media blog, he was among the people I sent it to. He didn’t answer (no one did at the time), but I was still looking forward crossing his path and working alongside someone like him. What a wake up call…

In the following interview, which was released in june 2011 through Youtube, he tells the “young bloods” to “fulfill your dreams… especially regarding love matters”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGD_wp-DGw

Since the general vibe in France right now is “don’t move an inch and operate like a robot”, these words strike a peculiar chord.

TheNightShift
06.02.2012

]]> http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/disappearances-of-christian-blachas/feed/ 0 christian_blachas3 thenightshiftwebmag Culture Pub! http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/the-french-institutes-first-annual-press-conference-are-froggies-bouncing-back/ http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/the-french-institutes-first-annual-press-conference-are-froggies-bouncing-back/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:02:25 +0000 thenightshiftwebmag http://thenightshiftwebmag.wordpress.com/?p=318 Lire la suite]]>

X. Darcos, S. Tarsot-Gillery and L. Auer are looking in many directions to promote France's language, culture and influence.

THE FRENCH INSTITUTE, WHO HAD THE CURTESY OF INVITING TheNightShift IN CANNES THIS LAST MAY, JUST HELD ITS FIRST ANNUAL PRESS CONFERENCE IN ORDER TO INTRODUCE THEIR BUDGET & SHOWCASE THEIR DEVELOPMENT. 

Strange currencies
As France  took a blow with the loss of its S&P  triple A notification, people have been recently seen queuing for hours  to attend prestigious art venues in Paris such as Game Story at the Grand Palais, Diane Arbus at the Salle du jeu de paume or Edward Munch at Beaubourg (see below).

Queuing for Munch, Beaubourg, 29.10.2011.

Like gold and real estate, culture, art and entertainment seemingly turn out to be safe investments. When the northern city of Lille ventured as the European Capital of culture in 2004, officials eventually said that every penny funded brought several back. During his two latest press conferences, Frederic Mitterrand, current Minister of Culture & Communication kept repeating, contrary to popular belief and the say of some friends going through local cutdowns, that the overall budget dedicated to culture was stable.

Xavier Darcos, President of the Institute: "A solid English is a priority (...) but we have to promote French and its values nonetheless".

The power of being smart
Under the rule of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The French Institute (l’Institut Français) is the newest entity of the former CulturesFrance, whose goal is to promote French abroad through cultural exchanges.

Accordingly, the notions of “smart power” and “cultural diplomacy” introduced within the very pages of the Institute presentation sheet are very interesting. With an annual budget of 65,5 millions of euros, maintaining a dialogue and a certain influence through the language, the books, the movies, the ideas and cultural exchanges is what it’s all about.

Expanding the networks
While the core action of the Institute is giving broader means to teach French language through its large network of foreign Institutes and Alliances, other fields such as cultural exchanges, helping intellectuals and ideas to circulate are undertaken.

Sylviane Tarsot-Gillery, Head of the Institute: "We have to emancipate through time and geographical constraints".

But what seriously enticed the concern of  TheNightShift is the care and prority given to digital development. Right now, the French Institute managed to set up, with the help of Universciné, a streaming platform dedicated to french cinema, with an ongoing growing catalog including documentaries, spectacles and animated features as well. The result looks very promising and close to what prestigious movie publisher Criterion is commercially offering through its own website. Two months ago, Olivier Attia, head of cutting edge company Audionamix, which recently worked on the sequel to Sherlock Holmes, told me that the global exploitation of back catalogs online was one of the main concerns and transformations discussed right now among the majors’ back alleys.

Beyond the exploitation of the French catalog, Valérie Mouroux, responsible of the cinema department, tells TheNightShift:  ”We are currently in the process of scouting young and promising directors in emerging countries like Indonesia and Burma. We want to help them produce their first movie”.

Laurence Auer, General Secretary: "Experimentation must pay".

Other very interesting tools and perspectives are under development and the sound of it is very exciting and spot on:  a facebook like network dedicated to book professionnals, a digital library, a web TV with specific content, mobile applications,  a global map of current cultural places, events and venues…

All these initiatives seem to reflect the cultural and media transformation our country is going through, which mainly concerns a new generation that holds both a curse and a blessing in its hands: the financial crisis and its dire consequences in one, the digital playground and its incredible possibilities in the other.

Seeing all these projects pushing through would be very meaningful and interesting. So stay tuned!

TheNightShift
29.01.2012

More  is more

The Institute’s brand new website :
http://www.institutfrancais.com

IFCinéma, the promising online movie platform:
http://ifcinema.institutfrancais.com/

The map app:
http://ifmapp.institutfrancais.com

“The French Institute  is  a diplomatic tool”,
Xavier Darcos in l’Express, 12.12.2011 (video in french):
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/xavier-darcos-l-institut-francais-accompagne-la-diplomatie_1060568.html

Dear Leonard,

This is for the record

I’m glad to see you going home, back on the streets again
Especially among these leggy fumes of the french subway system

Your recent concerts gave you far more visibility and credit than ever before
You’re all over Youtube now, with bits of your craft from all over the world, times and places

I keep listening to Feels so good, the Chicago take by Albert Noonan, a song which hasn’t been recorded yet
It’s soothing and meaningful, as it has always been, healing a recent wound

You see I keep hearing things, since you remotely spoke to me:

Felipe Munhoz is 22 and a promising brasilian author
His first song Bombas was a fountain of youth and he says he writes a lot
and used to sing your songs in front of punk audiences whe he was 16

I’ll probably never meet you, but I’m looking forward meeting him someday

That’s your gift to us

I’m listening to Old Ideas right now. The opening track is wonderful. And the first notes of Darkness right after Show me the place sends a killer vibe down my spine

Otherwise I hear you’re not Snow White

But who is?

I still care for you, lazy bastard in a suit.

S.T.  for TheNightShift
27.01.2012

This was shot on the 17th of january at the Ministry of Culture & Communication for the annual best wishes press conference. Starting at 00:30, Frederic Mitterrand, the current Minister, gives the following speech:

“I personnally saw that the videogame industry got more government support, as we are giving more wages structure toward the different lines of work of this crucial industry for our country. The recent success of the Game Story showing at le Grand Palais will soon be followed by the “City of videogames” brought by Univers Science at La Cité des Sciences. The videogame industry has now completely entered the field of our action”.

Afterwards, I came up to him and asked to comment on the success of Game Story and the forthcoming “City of videogames”, which he answered with his usual blend of attitude and seduction toward journalists:

“I think I was clear enough on the matter. There’s such creativity and aesthetic potential there that I think  it’s important not to let this industry controlled by marketing and business only”.

I'm going in people!

The last time french government substantially went at it was in 2003 under the rule of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. They wanted to provide more financial comfort… given the developers would make “educationnal and serious games”.  As if the likes of Mario and Rayman were not culturally playing hard enough.

The NightShift has been witnessing some crucial changes anyway. If the Game Story showing proved anything, it’s that the videogames industry as a culture publicly reached its first truly transgenerational status (see the picture below). Swarms of families, lovers, women and digital students have been willingly queuing for hours to enjoy the showing. Moreover, there was a recent increasing interest from public libraries to offer the rightful selection of videogames and digital content, in order to stay in touch with the revolution at hand.

Father and son playing Factor 5's blast from the past Turrican on Amiga.

And as game journalism from the 90′s was agonizing, as the reflect of a certain market and the demographics of the time, an editorial renaissance took place around 2005. While the “buy-this-product-them-graphics-are-rad-as-I’m-paid-to play-videogames-for-free” approach was gently dying, the net saw the rising of dedicated websites giving more and more historical and precise content, accompanying the increasing demand for solid content whereas a demographic shift was happening.

Against all odds, this web boom helped people to publish the same level of information, with more and more lavishly edited books. In 2004, word scientist Kieron Gillen prophetized the coming of the New Game Journalism. And in the midst of this demographic shift – gamers turning into mothers and dads – there was a first wave of scholars whose research was begging to be published. The same thing happened with the CD and DVD industries. As legal or illegal downloads were rising, labels were forced to produce more and more quality oriented artists and/or objects, with a double dose of content and bonuses.

Alexis Blanchet introducing his thesis, adpated into a book by PixNLove, key publisher of the current editorial renaissance.

All the while, gaming schools and courses started to make a stand and being a “videogames teacher” is now a tangible position within our very public colleges, as Alexis Blanchet above was recently recruited as such by the prestigious Sorbonne.  In december, I have met several 18 years old students willing to join these schools… and who are desperate for knowledge and proper information. The reason is simple: videogames have been there for 40 years. If we do the maths, the kids are lacking 20 years of gaming, reading, experiencing and witnessing all of its beautiful evolution.

As Miss Penny Lane said, “It’s all happening”.

17.01.2012
The NightShift

While visiting Game Story where his work is highlighted, he’s framing Philippe Dubois, here on the right of the picture. Dubbed by some as the “Henri Langlois of videogames”, Philippe is the head of non profit organization MO5, curator of the showing and currently helping computer & videogame culture getting a permanent museum for the public good.

Right above them you can see a part of the mural dedicated to the figure of Lara Croft. As videogame culture is finally getting through the last rites of mainstream normalization, it is clearly embracing another world…

TheNightShift
29.12.2011

Cabou (right) giving fellow DC enthusiast Antifrog a crash course about VGA cables.

WHILE THE MUCH BELOVED DREAMCAST (DC) HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY OUT OF PRODUCTION SINCE  2001, A NICHE COMMUNITY STILL ENJOYS IT TODAY, THROUGH AN INCREDIBLE BACK CATALOG AND AN ONGOING STRING OF INDEPENDANT & HOMEBREW GAMES. AS A PART OF THE FRENCH  UNDERGROUND RETROGAMING COMMUNITY, CABOU HELPS FELLOW ENTHUSIASTS TO ENJOY THEIR SYSTEMS ON THEIR LATEST FLAT PANEL TV’s AND PC MONITORS THROUGH HIS OWN MANUFACTURED VGA CABLES. AS WE KEPT UPDATING EACH OTHER ABOUT SEVERAL RELATED VGA TOPICS FOR THE SYSTEM, I THOUGHT HIS VERY INITIATIVE WOULD MAKE UP FOR A SOLID INTERVIEW AND A GREAT  OPENER FOR TheNightShift. SO WE MET IN MARCH 2011 IN MARSEILLE.  

TheNightShift: Where did you get the idea to produce such cables for the community?
Cabou: The Dreamcast was the first console with a true VGA output built in from the get go. What makes the image quality is not a VGA box whatsoever, It’s the Dreamcast itself. In early 2000 I bought myself a third party cable from Hais, and hooked my Dreamcast unit to a PC LCD screen. I was spending some time on a board called Metagames and to my great surprise, nobody there was aware of this possibility to play the games in higher definition! So I started by shouting it out loud on every roof! And as an electric engineer, I saw that the pattern for a VGA cable was easy to make so I took a regular RGB cable and turned it into a VGA one.

“THE DREAMCAST WAS A VERY ADVANCED PIECE OF HARDWARE, WELL AHEAD OF IT’S TIME”

TNS: What’s the main difference between the RGB and VGA video output?
Cabou: With the VGA signal, components are separated and forwarded through an individual electric line. This allows to drive directly the monitor’s end stage without the need of using complex thus quality degrading video decoders. This results in a simple & streamlined design that helps achieving the best possible video quality. And it’s the only way to read onscreen typos properly. That’s why up until now, VGA has been the standard video format for computers.  The current format for PC monitors is still DVI. HDMI for television is in fact DVI+sound. The Dreamcast was a very advanced piece of hardware, well ahead of its time. It offered online gaming 4 years before anyone else with Chuchu rocket… as well as the embedded VGA port. VGA offers a progressive signal with one pass while interlaced needs two. Thus reducing image flickering.

Sticking to the Dreamcast with this original Japanese "CEO" advertising.

TNS: But why such an interest for a system which has been dead for years?
Cabou: Because of today’s flat screen market. It sparked a new interest in the Dreamcast, allowing, under the right circumstances, to play a lot of good games very neatly. It’s like “How, there’s a VGA port on my Dreamcast and there’s one on the back of my big flat screen. How do I do to play my old favorites through this HD port?”. But the official Sega VGA cable has become a very sought after item, very rare and so generally very hard to find and very expansive. And other third party cables don’t really match the official one in terms of display quality.

TNS: So you do it yourself for the community. Do you make any business out of it?
Cabou: First of all, I have a regular job in electronics that I love. I must have produced a hundred cables on a 1year and a half span around 2008-2009. So it’s not really a question of going for the “extra buck”. I was so excited about discovering this opportunity, build it and meeting the requests from fellow gamers through Metagames and other popular gaming forums. What I ask for it allows me to recoup the investment and the time spent on it. So It’s merely out of passion, and definitely a hobby.

“YEARS BEFORE RAVING RABBIDS, MICHEL ANCEL KEPT MESSING THINGS UP IN CLASS” 

TNS: Such expertise implies an engineering background
Cabou: I do have a degree in electronics. I grew up in Tunis and I moved in Marseille in 1990. There I majored as an engineer. Michel Ancel (top game designer for Ubisoft, father of Rayman, Beyond good & Evil and The Raving Rabbids) was one of my fellow comrades for several years, in primary and high school back in Tunis. Funny thing is that he kept being lazy and mischievous. Years before his Raving Rabbids would do the same, he kept messing things up in class. Teachers were always shouting “ANCEL, SHUT IT UP!”. So there’s no wonder where his ideas come from!

School games: Cabou and Michel Ancel in Tunis, 1984. Cabou is second from the left, first rank, while Ancel is second from the right.

TNS: How long does it take to produce a cable?
Cabou: 2h30 for the very first ones that I made was what it took.  At one point I ran out of components. I got through a shortage of RGB cables. So I ordered a pack of hundreds through Priceminister.fr. But the rarest piece is the proprietary part to hook up on the back of the DC. It was made in purpose to help competition from mass producing such cables.  I had a hard time finding those and finally found a provider in China. The first batch I received from them in mid 2010 was good for trash. I had to figure out the proper adjustments and draw them back to the provider. It was fastidious. But that’s how I finally received a correct sample. Now I ordered them 200 pieces. They wanted to build 2000 initially, which I refused. With this new provider, the time to make a cable is almost split in half. So now it takes atound 1h30 to build one.

TNS: And what about the community feedback?
Cabou: So far the feedback is: “Awesome!” I even get requests from Switzerland and Belgium. But I take care to get updated about some compatibility issues. Some flat screen brands or specific units are not compatible though, like some Sony Bravia models. For a time I held an updated list of compatible games. While most of them are, some few ones are not.

Some domestic mischief with Toy Commander, one of the very first titles for the Sega Dreamcast, produced by french maestro Frederick Raynal.

TNS: Which games truly benefit from the VGA display? Is Shenmue a blast?
Cabou: Shenmue already looks great through RGB, so there isn’t such a gap. But all the fine shmups the DC has to offer benefit from it. Everything is clearer and crisper so it helps to concentrate and enjoy the game even more. For instance, in Under Defeat, you clearly see the shells of your bullets flying around when you fire at your enemies. Otherwise games like Soul Calibur, Ferrari 355, MSR, Ecco, Propeller Arena and Alone in the Dark are good examples of games that benefit from VGA quality. And personally I got a soft spot for the French game Toy Commander (from Frederick Raynal powered company No cliché).

Japanese shots of the latest Sega arcade hardware.

TNS: Do you believe Sega will be back in the game soon with new hardware? 
Cabou: Sounds very unlikely. I think they wouldn’t hold it long opposite Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

TNS: Last question. Where the frak is Sturmwind. Did you pre-order it?
Cabou: The game has already been postponed two times now. It’s original release date was announced in spring 2011. Now Duranik‘s webpage gives a december 2011 release date. I have pre-ordered it. I think it’s gonna be a blast on VGA!

Will Duranik/Redspotgames' Sturmwind spark a new interest in the Dreamcast and Sega hardware?

The end note: good news is that Cabou has now everything he needs to supply solid VGA cables. As he gave me one for the purpose of this article, I can tell you that it’s kind of a blast to enjoy games like  G Rev’s Border down or Yu Susuki’s F355 in the best available conditions. Thanks to such people, the legend will truly never die.

The NightShift
march-december 2011

UP YOUR ARSENAL 

Cabou’s official facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cabous-Dreamcast-VGA-cables/252286754827860

The dragon’s lair:
http://www.metagames-eu.com/

The compatibility list for the games:
http://www.gamekult.com/forum/topic-liste-des-jeux-non-compatibles-vga-380937n.html

Sturmwind trailer and official page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1vcIhjUjCc
http://sturmwind.duranik.com/