HD Re-Releases for Shenmue & Skies of Arcadia? Please Be True...
If I'm a fanboy of anything, it's Sega. Funnily enough, I never owned a Sega Genesis, and was never a Sonic fan back in the 16-bit heyday. I was all Nintendo and all Mario, even though I only owned a PC. But, from a content standpoint, Nintendo had my heart (in that console realm).
Fast forward a number of years, and I waited in line on 9.9.99 for a Dreamcast. In college I had dabbled in consoles, and bought a Nintendo64 while I worked at Babbage's (bonus point to anyone who shopped at one of those), but I was overall a PC guy. For some reason I saw that the Dreamcast had soul, and I loved it. In fact, I still own one (VGA adapter and all). Some of my favorite gaming experiences are on the Dreamcast. NFL2K was a monster of a game, and Jet Set Radio will be a forever favorite. I even found all the soundtracks to JSR from a local "anime" shop, back when such things were hard to find.
Recent Sega re-releases and updates have had my heart all a-twtitter. The announcement of Jet Set Radio was like welcoming home and old friend (and here's to hoping for Eyefinity/Surround support), and the recent Sonic Episodes are like a time warp back to my childhood.
The announcement of potential PC releases of Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia is like have a dream upgraded. I never got around to buying either of those titles on the Dreamcast. I was simply at a point in my life where I didn't have the time for RPGs. The fact that the GameCube version of Skies of Arcadia is seen as the penultimate version is one reason I've kept my Wii and delved into Wii emulation on my PC. That is a testament to good game design...
Bottom line - Sega has great properties, and has made great games that didn't get the exposure they deserved. Today's PCs far outstrip the power of consoles of today (much less yesteryear). So, let's hope that Sega takes the opportunity to release their classics of yesterday to take full advantage of today's PCs: namely high-res widescreen and multi-monitor. Otherwise, we'll be forced to fix them, here at the WSGF...