Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

She’s not one of the fembots from the Austin Powers movies, but she’s the next best thing.  Her name is EMA, which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization.  The maker is Sega Toys, and the target demographic is lonely dudes.  That’s right, according to Reuters she’s being marketed in Japan as a female companion.  She can sing, dance, hand out business cards (?), and of course give kisses.  EMA would make a great girlfriend because not only is she very affectionate, she’s also really low maintenance.  All she needs is some battery power, as that’s what she runs on.

She’ll be available in September for about $175, and Sega hopes for first-year sales of 10,000.  Maybe this could be like a Lars and the Real Girl situation, where not just the Lars character but everyone else could come to see EMA as real!  Except EMA is only 15 inches tall.  But her other measurements would make any girl jealous!

Speaking of robot women, check out this video for comments made about Madonna by singer Dan Gillespie-Sells of The Feeling.  Hilarious!  Unfortunately, unlike EMA, Her Majesty has been unavailable for some time.  But she can still sing and dance though.

Read [MSNBC]

Did we say Sega Saturn? Oh yes and we’re not kidding. The latest Wii rumors are that we can expect to see the lost Sega system popping up on Wii Virtual Console. The rumor started back at DigiPen, who shares an office building with Nintendo America.

Now when I think retro SS hardly ever pops into my mind but why not bring Sega’s 32-bit, CD based gaming system to a whole new generation. If you remember the Saturn to rendered First-person shooter games better than other consoles at the time, games like Quake, Powerslave, Duke Nukem 3D, HeXen.

And now a history lesson from our friends at Wikipedia:

In early 1995 Sega president Tom Kalinske announced that the Saturn would launch in the U.S. on “Saturnday”, (Saturday) September 2, 1995. This date was greatly anticipated by gamers and the media. It also allowed Sony to announce that the Playstation release date would be one week later on September 9, 1995. However, at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 in May 1995, Kalinske announced that the “Saturnday” date was a ruse and that the system was being released nationwide by a few select retailers immediately.

This surprise move shocked everyone in attendance (Sony most of all) and it appeared that Sega had a real opportunity to take a commanding lead in the 32-bit race by beating the Playstation to the market. In reality the “surprise attack” launch backfired for Sega. The Saturn was released at a high price point of [USD]$400 (Sony announced a $300 price for the Playstation at E3).

By the time of the Playstation’s release on September 9, 1995, the Saturn had sold approximately 80,000 systems. The Playstation sold over 100,000 units upon release in the U.S., a record at the time for a new system.

Read [T3]

Sega has announced their initial list of games to be ready-to-play on Nintendo Wii’s Shop Channel for downloading to play on Wii’s Virtual Console. The games must be purchased with Wii Points, which cost $20 per 2000 points. The Sega games will start at 800 Wii Points each.

As we reported earlier, Nintendo promises 62 games to be available for download within the Wii’s first five weeks on shelves, with 32 available by the end of 2006. Thirty of the games will be classics whereas 32 will be Wii exclusives. The Virtual Console will also allow access to Nintendo games from older system including the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx16.

Check out Sega’s complete list after the jump…

• Altered Beast - Use the power of the beasts to save the Goddess of Athena. (1989/© SEGA)


• Golden Axe - Choose from three warriors; Ax, Tyris and Gilius and fight together to defeat Death Adder. The game supports not only co-op mode but also competitive mode. (1988/© SEGA)


• Columns - Line the jewel in vertical, horizontal and diagonal to erase them in the big hit puzzle game that enchants users with its beautiful graphic and sound. (1990/© SEGA)


• Ecco the Dolphin - Help Ecco the dolphin find his missing friends by exploring his vast ocean world. Use Ecco’s unique sonar ability to talk to other sea creatures while exploring the ocean depths. (1993/© SEGA)


• Gunstar Heroes - This big hit action shooter game developed by Treasure enables up to two players to play simultaneously to stop the resurrection of the destructive force plotted by the Imperial. (1993/© SEGA)


• Space Harrier II - Space Harrier II is a 3D shooter and was one of the original launch titles for the SEGA Genesis. (1988/© SEGA)


• Toe Jam and Earl - Embark on an unexpected journey throughout earth with two funky aliens who love the music and collecting items. (1992/© ToeJam&Earl Productions, Inc. © SEGA)


• Ristar - An action game starring Ristar, the child of a shooting star. Use his powers to grab everything around him to blow up monsters and find the truth about his origin. (1995/© SEGA)


• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine - Dr. Robotnik is stamping out music and fun in Mobius with his giant, robotizing Mean Bean Steaming Machine. Before he turns all the citizens of Beanville into robots, you must save the day by gathering up beans in matching colors and defeating Robotnik’s guards! (1993/© SEGA)

Have an old Sega Dreamcast laying around the house doing nothing more than gathering dust? Well here is a nice weekend project that can get the unit back up and running with a bunch of new functions. The steps are long, but the effort will be well worth it>

Enjoy!

Read [DCEmulation]

The folks over at Sega are going to be launching games for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Most notably Sonic, the world’s most famous hedgehog (I challenge you to name another one) will be released on both systems later this year.

Featuring a leaner, meaner looking Dr. Robotnik and a whole host of animal chums accompanying Sonic on his latest adventure, it seems that the usual running and jumping platform antics are intact, alongside some bouncy buggy-and-blasting action too.

Read [CVG]