In response to John Carberry (FG21, "High Noon"), I feel that he's totally mistaken.

I've been a Sega fan since the launch of the Master System. I've owned all of their systems from that date, except the 32X. And, quite frankly, I understand the games market. Since the dawn of time, no follow-up to a machine has seen the same success as the original. Atari failed after their short success, Nintendo dropped after the NES, Sega after the Mega Drive. This PlayStation frenzy is nothing new to the market - it's just another step in a continuing cycle.

Indeed, Mega Drives and Gameboys STILL outsell PlayStations worldwide. Why? Not because they've been around for longer, but because of the excellent range of software available, and support from the company which owns it. (Sony's supply of Mickey's Great Adventures isn't support.) If it hadn't been for Namco and Psygnosis, the PlayStation would have been gone a long time ago.

Sony was a new force with a new machine (apparently supposed to be a Nintendo design) and because of that they were gravely underestimated. They poured millions of dollars into promotion - money which the other companies didn't have. I agree with the point that PS2 vs Dreamcast isn't going to be like the Saturn vs PlayStation "battle" - this time, Sega are prepared, Nintendo are ready and Sony think they're the bee's-knees. Third-party developers are signed up with Sega. A host of in-house games are also being developed. Some of the best companies are working to create Dreamcast games (including Namco, I might add). And PlayStation's backwards compatibility is nothing special. The games will look and play exactly the same, as it's just the original chip. Sega have announced the release of an emulator for the Dreamcast which will really beef up the original titles.

And who will buy PS2, an overly expensive machine which can run DVD (except maybe not movies) when there's one out a year before with Net support, Microsoft backing and which costs £130? You'd have to be mad!

Just one more thing - Sega is NOT associated with children. It's Nintendo who try to keep a younger audience. Sega is now associated with the best arcade games - Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop - as well as Sonic, because those games were masterpieces. In four years' time, do you think anyone will remember much about Crash Bandicoot?

Shane Bluemel

FG: Anyone want to reply to this?