18-April-1999 [Artur Marques]
Today [23:35]: #1) Censorship in France; #2) SEGA changes the Dreamcast logo; #3) PSX2 SDK from SNS; #4) Villeneuve & GPL?!
Censorship in France - The stupidity of the "Fammiles de France"
France is changing, in case you did not notice it before... Some very strange attitudes are being taken by the french. I am not going to talk about some anti-USA youth, but about something even stranger and more stupid: 6 (s-i-x) games were withdrawn from the market, classified as "dangerous to the youth"!!!! This is incredible!! Absolutely incredible! The country of the May of 1968 is applying the most ridiculous form of censorship, using the most stupid arguments!
Resident Evil 2, Wild 9, Grand Theft Auto, Sanitarium, Unreal, and Carmageddon II (the latter three being PC-only titles) are OUT of the market :-( being described as "profoundly harmful, in an era where the unprecedented rise in youth violence is of major concern." These software masterpieces were victims of the stupidity of the "Fammiles de France" organization, which are currently taking court action to have the games formally banned, but this is largely irrelevant as all major french retailers (including the Virgin group!!) have already withdrawn them. Familles de France have already had success banning pornography on the French domestic online network Minitel, and are now poised to attack any video game they see as morally unclean. VP of the group, Dominique Marcillhacy, maintains that Familles de France is "not trying to play the virtuous parent — children have always played at soldiers — but this [game content] is really going too far. We are trying to protect children; it is a kind of moral ecology."
This is very bad. I just hope this kind of people and their way of thinking, never to have expression out of France!
Don't you forget, ever! FREEDOM! 100% FREEDOM, no matter the price!
SEGA Dreamcast logo is going to change
In a rather desperate attempt to keep themselves in the news, SEGA has revealed that its Dreamcast logo is even more badly thought out than previously suspected. Sega announced a few weeks ago that it was changing its color from red to blue in Europe. The change might have occurred because the logo is almost exactly the same as that of German children’s multimedia publisher, TIVOLA. The two companies have recently entered into a binding legal agreement that will keep SEGA out of the dock. Neither company will reveal the details of the arrangement, but TIVOLA head Mil Thierig has commented that he "had a lot of fun in our talks." What he was doing during the meeting, in order to elicit such pleasure, is unclear.
New Playstation 2 SDK from SN Systems
SN Systems is due to deliver software development kits for the Playstation 2 (or whatever it ends up getting named), just as it delivered a SDK for the current PSX. SN Systems, based in Bristol, England, is working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and has been able to start work on the kits at the earliest opportunity. Apparently the company has been busy since last year, in contrast to its rather late arrival on the original Playstation scene. According to Sony’s high-profile announcements, development kits should be going out within six to eight weeks, and SN Systems has confirmed that its work should be finished at around that time. The rumor is that Core will be one of the very first European developers to take delivery of a development kit, allegedly to work on a "further iteration from the [Tomb Raider] franchise". The quotes originating from a rather vague announcement from Core Design themselves, although they did not mention the Playstation 2 specifically.
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This rumor requires confirmation... may be someone could post a JV replay @ Nurburgring... If you want to know what GP Legends is, visit the Alain
Prost Racing website. |