thursday, september 30, 1999
[this story pulled]

wednesday, september 29, 1999
When 2 Tribes Go To War
It's always difficult to report about job layoffs, but unfortunately we've got word that approximately 60 of Dynamix' 170 employees will be let go, and that some of their planned titles such as Desert Fighter and Pro Pilot Paradise will be discontinued. Dynamix was founded by two University of Oregon students. Apparently these layoffs at Dynamix is also part of their "efficiency plan." According to Sierra's President, Dave Grenewetzski, product development costs that can run as high as five milion dollars are choking the company's profitablity. We shall really miss some of the acquaintenances we have had the opportunity to make at Dynamix and wish all well in the future.

tuesday, september 28, 1999
BazPringle.com
We are proud to announce the addition of bazpringle.com to the collection of great links featured here at gamelord.org. Check ou the links section and find out what Barry Pringle of 989 Studios has that he would like to show off. This is a collection of art that cannot be passed up and you should check out this incredible piece of HTML. As he has built the website completely from scratch. click here for link.

Tom Tobey's Shock Therapy
At a party at Tom's house last saturday, guests were encouraged to shock themselves with a dog collar designed to stop dogs from barking. Many of the 989 Studio employees claimed that this shock therapy would help them make better games. Alexander Neff, Jeff Garstecki, Keith Bachman, Hong Hoang, Russ Sabin were amoung the honored guests.

monday, september 27, 1999
Joe Brisbois Returns from HoneyMoon
Joe Brisbois is now officially to be referred to as "Mr. B" and his new wife is to be officially referred to as "Mrs. B" (formerly known as Megan). Joe has his eye on the Audi TT Quatro but don't ever say that European cars are bad in front of him.

Julius Willis Pick Up Line
"i am humbled by my own greatness, and ironically, am made greater by my humility." Apparently, Julius is full of himself.

PS2 Hard Drive Confirmed
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is currently working on a Hard Drive for PlayStation 2, reports Magic Box. To be sure, Sony has all but announced this very fact, especially with its press release in Japan last week stating, "The company will also include in 2001 a PlayStation2 expansion module as a network adapter (PC card interface) and establish an e-distribution server." Expansion module = hard drive peripheral, right? But the site has specific dates and figures, which Sony, after being called, can't confirm. The hard drive will enable consumers to store information they download from high-speed cable modems, which Sony believes will be in place by the end of the year 2001. The PlayStation2 Hard Disc Drive (HDD) is believed to have massive 50G (gigabyte) capacity, and should be ready by the end of 2001. It's believed to be sold for about 10,000 yen, the US equivalent of about $90.

sunday, september 26, 1999
Shock for DC!? Source: IGN
Dreamcast The creators of the MP3Station, a device which allows you to play MP3 sound files on the Playstation, are working on a converter that takes a Playstation controller and plugs in the Dreamcast. Dual Shock pads will rumble with Jump Pack enabled games, and steering wheels will work too. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the PS pad, but if you've already got a pile of PS controllers at home and don't want to buy a new DC ones, this may be the gadget for you. You will be able to buy it online at www.mp3psx.com soon.

saturday, september 25, 1999
Lusty gets Promoted
Mike Lustenberger or "Lusty" as everyone calls him has been promoted to Director, Entertainment Product Marketing by Jeff Fox.

friday, september 24, 1999
EA Presents Quartly Awards Party by the Keg
Yesterday, Electronic Arts throws it's Quarterly Awards Bash. Only EA could have a party every Quarter to give out awards and they partied like it was 1999. EA went all out this quarter supplying Moon Walk carnival rides, mechanical Bulls, a rock climbing ride, Jousting as seen in American Gladiators and extravagant gifts. You may not believe this, but one employee won a $5 gift certificate for Jamba Juice in the big drawing. Now that's what I'm talking about!

JR Doll
This was submitted to us as "news" about a new JR Doll? I don't know who he is, but it's interesting.

thursday, september 23, 1999
Lost in the Sierra from fgnonline.com
Sierra has layed off 105 employees and has cancelled 4 games. Although the complete list of titles to be canned in the immediately effective restructuring include titles such as Desert Fighters, Pro Pilot Paradise, the titles generating most of the online response seem to be Babylon 5, Middle-earth and Orcs: Revenge of the Ancient. Although Middle-earth has not been canned, it is being made from scratch.

Ron Allen adds to Tokyo Game Show Review
Here is another version with more details of the Tokyo Game Show from Ron Allen's on words.

Russ Sabin's Quote of the Week
In response to how to get the best work from people without bribing them with money. "Strong charisma can be just as valuable as money."

Julius Willis Pick Up Line of the Week
"I'm so perfect, you can taste me."

wednesday, september 22, 1999
Tokyo Game Show Review feature
Ron Allen our reporter on the go has written a review from his trip to the Tokyo Game Show over the past weekend. Click here to read this great report.

Jeff Fox's Birthday Today
If you are part of the 989 Studios Marketing Department, you are allowed to know that it is Jeff Fox's Birthday today. Jeff Fox is the VP of Marketing for all of 989 Studios and 989 Sports.

tuesday, september 21, 1999
Shenmue by DRY
My friend at Sega told me that development cost for Shenmue is around 100 mil. Also Sega is already using a new arcade board that's better than the Naomi and cost the same to make. It's called the Hikaru board named after the famous j pop star Hikaru Utada. The Brave Firefighters game is running on it. By the way, the Naomi board was named after Naomi Campbell. This tops the 40 Million rumored to be spent on the next Final Fantasy.

More On Microsoft's X-Box
Recall the recent rumor info regarding Microsoft culling developers at ECTS to learn about a new console system? Well, additional "leakage" reveals that this developing product is going to (of course) use a Windows OS of some type, will utilize DVD disc media, pack-in a modem and a hard drive, will be powered by a 500MHz CPU, possess dedicated graphics silicon and come with some 64MB of RAM. Hmmm, sounds more like a computer or a set-top box than a console system. More info when we can squeeze such from sources . . .

Ron Allen "Tours" Japan
[this story pulled] After only 5 minutes of online life, this story was protested by Ron Allen. Threats were made by Ron and gamelord.org accepts the monetary bribe to pull the story.

monday, september 20, 1999
Dreamcast exceeds all Forecasts
Peter Moore, senior vice president of Sega of America, says the company had shifted over 410,000 units of Dreamcast in its first week of official release. The company will update these impressive sales figures again in October.

sunday, september 19, 1999
Cory Strock hired into SCEA
As of Thursday, Cory Strock, the hard working QA employee lands a permanent spot at SCEA. Christian Arends, Derek Rayla, Charlie Huenergardt, Ian McGuinness, and Jason Torres also were also hired but Ben Wisyanski is still not one of them. We hope for the best for Ben.

saturday, september18, 1999
Julius Poll II Ends with Dog
To the question Who will Julius Marry? 22 voted Man, 43 voted Woman, 50 voted Dog, 12 voted Other, and 16 voted Who's Julius? Even with Julius voting 43 times for Woman, Dog still wins out. Check out the New Poll.

friday, september 17, 1999
The TGS
The Tokyo Games Show '99 Autumn is going to be stunning. To be held once again at the Makuhari Messe Nippon Convention Center, Sega will have on show an awesome range of titles ranging from the as-yet unrevealed NiGHTS 2 to the near-complete version of Shenmue Chapter 1, and various arcade conversions. Thirdparty support promises to be immense, with some European developers even jumping in for the fun. Sony are also set to reveal Playstation 2 at the event (see wednesday's news article) and they shoulld have their first opportunity to play the actual games on the actual machine. We'll let you know everything.

Liz Boucher of 989 Studios Promotion
Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth "Liz" Boucher on her promotion to Assistant Product Manager. Liz has been a key member of our team and has done an excellent job over the past year, handling a variety of projects for the entertainment catalog. Liz has also been very instrumental in the upcoming launch of Cool Boarders 4. Please stop by to congratulate her. She rocks huge!

thursday, september 16, 1999
Save the Date for Alexander the Great!
Alexander Neff of 989 Studios, who is well known for his correspondence skills, has announced the date of his wedding. Saturday, November 27th, 1999 Polly & Alex will be getting married in New York City. The wedding will take place in the evening at the boathouse in Central Park.

Russ Sabin's Quote of the Week
When asked, "When you ran your own company, did you ever give your employees gifts?" Russ replied, "No, because my pockets are only as deep as my pockets."

Julius Willis Pick Up Line
When talking to girls with names of Maria and Ester, Julius likes to use this line. "No one could ever love me... as much as I love myself."

wednesday, september 15, 1999
Tokyo Game Show
This weekend is the weekend of the Tokyo Game Show. Many new products will be shown including the Playstation 2 and many stars of the industry will be there including Ron Allen, Connie Booth, Darren Yager, and Jason Parks.

tuesday, september 14, 1999
Happy Birthday to Eric Medina
Eric Medina's Birthday is today. Wish him well.

monday, september 13, 1999
click for larger image
Anonymous Letter sent to Gamelord.org
I received a letter in my email box from a person with the address of anonymous@989studios.com. Here is the unedited letter in all it's glory:

I have startling information as to Mr. Willis' past life. It appears he on occasion would fein stardom as a "extra" in low budget porn movies. He built quite an extensive underground following in movies like "Girls that like c***, and boys that like it more.", "Blind mans muff!", and "Filipino hot sauce". His breakthrough role into mainstream movies was in the 1996 thriller "Copycat" Starring the chick from "Aliens", and Harry "Chronic" Junior (as Mr. Willis proudly boasted). His first Hollywood movie was warmly received from critics, yet was to be his only "mainstream" film. Fans of our intrepid hero should look for him in his old guise of long hair, (yet wearing a lumberjack shirt?) throwing a beach ball around a ring of grown men, in a notorious San Francisco nightclub...... He was paid only $50.
More to come....

989 Studios presents Gamer's Day
Today 989 Studios presents it's press day featuring all of the new 989 Studio titles including the most impressive Twisted Metal 4. Marcy Ditter, Shon Damron and Arne Cual of 989's PR group host this event and it takes place in the 989 Studio's motion capture studio in San Diego.

sunday, september 12, 1999
Nelson Staffing Solutions
If you're looking to be a tester at SCEA, you'd better contact Nelson Staffing Solutions as they will be the new Solution to all of SCEA's temporary employee needs.

saturday, september 11, 1999
Sega Sells Defects
Many of the consumers that have purchased the Sega Dreamcast have had problems with several titles. Activision is the first to admit there is a problem with Blue Stinger. Although other games including Ready 2 Rumble had similar problems Sega has claimed that they have retrieved all of the defects from the stores. This, of course, is incorrect, but you can tell if you have a defective GD-ROM. The GD-ROMs are labeled with a distinct production number that can identify them as being faulty. Although not officially confirmed, and only based on our research, disks with numbers beginning with "92_ _" are from a Sega plant that produced the faulty GD-ROMs. Sega officials claim that the problem lies in the fact that only one factory burns all the GD-ROMs and a stretch of bad burns slipped out to the public. Despite all the problems, Sega breaks all the records and pulls in close to $100 Million in sales on the first day.

friday, september 10, 1999
SNK Vs. Capcom from Magic Box
For the arcade, the game will run on the Naomi arcade board, it will still be a 2D game, this early demo of the game uses backgrounds and characters from existing Street Fighter and King of Fighter titles. So far there are 6 characters: Ryu, Chunli, Guile for the Capcom side, and Kyo, Iori, Mai from the SNK side. The fighting system will use the ISM concept from Street Fighter Zero 3, in this game you can choose different fighting style, including CAP-ISM and SNK-ISM. Unconfirmed news suggesting that you can also choose to play in 2 vs 2 (Marvel vs Capcom style) or 3 vs 3 (KOF style) modes. SNK vs Capcom for both arcade and Dreamcast is scheduled to release in next spring.
avi Movie

Russ Sabin's Quote of the Week Featuring Julius Willis
"Not all Queens have breasts."
-Julius Willis

Alben Pedroso's Quote of the Year
"It's all about Gameplay, dawg." when asked about NFL2K for the Dreamcast.

thursday, september 9, 1999
Dreamcast Today!
Don't forget to pick up your Sega Dreamcasts today as Sega has spent over $100 Million in advertising and expects you to pay for it. With over 300,000 units in pre-order, Sega proves they can sell units at $199.

Jeff Rotter catches NFL Fever
Last week, Jeff Rotter of Bandai is quoted, "It's the bomb, dawg!" when asked about Microsoft's NFL Fever. This week in a press conference, Jeff announces, "It's the bomb, dawg!" when asked about Madden Football for PC.

Alben and Arne: Got cheese?
Overheard over the ICQ is Alben and Arne conversation to get cheese last night. It's funny what these kids call things nowadays.

wednesday, september 8, 1999
Half of Madden is Mad by The Keg
If you're a fan of Madden football and have purchased this for the PC, you're probably wondering the same thing I am. Why is the matchmaking webpage eafootball.net and not Madden.net? Well there are two different answers. 1) John Madden himself had a cow when EA proposed Madden.net and 2) Madden.net is already owned by some Madden family not associated with John Madden and wanted roughly $75,000 to give up the URL.

tuesday, september 7, 1999
The Grinch that stole Sega's Night Before Launch
Most of us already know about how Sega is trying to pay people to show up for the Midnight Madness event on 9/8/99 in San Jose. If you don't know, Sega is trying to make it look like a whole mess of people are waiting to buy the DreamCast at launch, when in fact, they are just paid actors. If you haven't seen the emails that were sent around, fatbabies.com has one printed online. However, now that Sega's ploy has been exposed to the public, Sega has officially stopped the offer and everyone that was planning to show up and get paid, need not appear. Or at least, need not expect to be paid.

monday, september 6, 1999
NEOGEO Pocket Look Out! GameBoy 2 is coming!by ron allen
Nintendo of Japan announced today the first official details regarding the upcoming sequel to the 80-million selling Game Boy. Simply called the 'Game Boy Advance', the 32-bit handheld will be a joint venture between Nintendo, Konami, and Mobile 21. In addition to sporting a powerful 32-bit CPU, Game Boy Advance will be able to connect to a cellular phone (or a PHS phone in Japan) to access the Internet, thus allowing users to download game software, participate in multi-player games, chat and exchange E-Mail. Adding communication features to a portable game system like the Game Boy is expected to result in new kinds of network entertainment. In effect, Game Boy Advance will be a personal communications terminal as well as a next generation handheld game system. Nintendo Co. Ltd. Chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi, sees it as a way to explore new areas of multi-player gaming. Mobile 21 will also develop software for Nintendo's next generation home system, code named 'Dolphin', which takes advantage of a hardware connection between Game Boy Advance and the home unit. The retail price for the Game Boy Advance and its accessories has not yet been determined, although a mass-market price is expected. This cool-sounding handheld powerhouse is slated for an August 2000 release in Japan and is tentatively set to release before the end of 2000 in North America.

sunday, september 5, 1999
Rumor: Microsoft's Console to outcast Dreamcastby Ron Allen
Next Generation magazine has revealed details of Microsoft's secret next generation games console, code named X-Box. Microsoft claims that this is only a rumor and will not comment on any claims that they are now producing the X-Box.

saturday, september 4, 1999
ECTS Today and Early Next Week
Don't forget about the big European show this weekend, but I guess you would already know about it by now if you we're going. Many big names will be there including Miyamoto, Kelly Flock, Jonathan Beard and Connie Booth. Tokyo Toy Show is also this month.

friday, september 3, 1999
Crazy Japanese Music Games by Ron Allen
With the recent music craze going on in Japan right now, companies are putting out games one after another to cash in the frenzy. Because of this, there ends up being a flood of 'me too' type titles that bring no innovation to the genre and only take up space that could be used for much better games. To break into the music market more aggressively, Namco has taken up the chance to bring the sequel to PaRappa the Rapper, Um Jammer Lammy, to arcades in Japan. Similar to Guitar Freaks, players use a guitar that they strap onto their body and then use the buttons available on the pad that correspond to the buttons being displayed on the screen. What changes Namco will make to the arcade version aren't yet known, but they should be minor, at best. A release date for the arcade Um Jammer Lammy has not been decided yet. As well, no US release date has been announced.

thursday, september 2, 1999
Sega Dreamcast's Mobile Assault Tour
A rip-off the Sony Playstation Truck and Nintendo's moving tournaments of the past, Sega is sending a Truck around with Dreamcast goods. You can check out news and schedules for the Tour in your area at their new website, www.assaulttour.com.

Sony to Sell PS2 at Select Sony Shops? by IGN
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. may try a different distribution approach when its next-generation PlayStation goes on sale late this year or in early 2000. According to a weekly Japanese newsletter on interactive entertainment called Weekly NEXT, SCEI will try to sell PlayStation 2 at selected Sony shops, a chain of Sony-owned electronics entertainment stores across all of Japan. In all, there are about 2,000 of Sony's shop total...

wednesday, september 1, 1999