Missing Magazine: Sega Saturn Magazine

[marktrade]

Sega Retro pegs this Japanese magazine as having 116 issues published on a varying basis from monthly to bi-weekly to weekly.

http://segaretro.org/Sega_Saturn_Magazine_(JP)

Nearly all the issues are hosted there in low quality PDF and Kiwiarcader has mirrored them at OGM. I've scanned a higher quality version of the penultimate issue here in 300 DPI, containing a preview of Project Berkeley.

https://archive.org/details/SegaSaturnMagazine115Oct301998

As also happens with Japanese magazines the cover numbering does not match the order of the total number of issues. In this case the issue numbers reset every year. So this issue is volume 31 for the year 1998, but in total it's the 115th issue, according to Sega Retro.

 

[Sean697]

Please someone add this to the database! Would love to read through some Japanese Saturn coverage.

[kitsunebi]

As also happens with Japanese magazines the cover numbering does not match the order of the total number of issues. In this case the issue numbers reset every year. So this issue is volume 31 for the year 1998, but in total it's the 115th issue, according to Sega Retro.

 

 

Dunno that I'd trust their info as sacrosanct.  It's usually based on incomplete data.

 

What I CAN tell you is true is exactly what's printed on the cover.  This is Vol.14 Number 31, Issue 232.  The problem is, how to interpret that? 

If volumes are yearly, that would mean this mag started in 1985.  That ain't right.  For that matter, if this is the 31st issue published in 1998, why is it the 32nd issue from 1998 shown at Segaretro, and the 34th if you start with the one from 1997 that is actually labeled as #1?  (Actually the answer to that one is there are a few "extra" issues published that year (and every year) that aren't included in the volume by volume numbering, but ARE included in the total numbering.  Ay yay yay...)

 

As for the difference between 115 (as SegaRetro claims) and 232 (as the mag itself claims), you've got to understand that Japanese mags often change titles and publish special issues and spin-off mags, and often all of these are included in the numbering.  So it's pretty much a given that issue one of this mag (by the Japanese numbering) was a differently titled mag entirely.

 

Despite my lengthy efforts (or because of them) to get complete publishing info on Famitsu and Dengeki Playstation, I'm pretty much done with trying to sort out the convoluted publishing nature of Japanese mags.  WHO THE HELL CARES.  Unless we start listing these things by cover date and ISSUE NUMBERS BE DAMNED, I'm through trying to add any Japanese mags that aren't published on a regular monthly basis.

 

And, err...thanks for the scan, marktrade!

[marktrade]

I just noticed that 232 number on the back cover.

 

Well, SegaRetro says that the Sega Saturn Magazine was the successor to Beep! MegaDrive, which they also say was the successor to Beep!, which they describe as "a multi-format magazine which had given significant coverage to the Sega Master System at a time when most other Japanese publications focused almost solely on the Famicom." So Beep! may have started in 1985. That sounds right, doesn't it?

 

 

 

I like your idea that you mentioned in another thread about a numbering scheme on the back end that would make it easier to make database entries ad hoc. You're the DB mod, so you can do what you want.

 

Although I wonder if our database might be more useful if there was a notice somewhere showing known problems with the magazine being viewed. Like, "this listing is incomplete" or "the publisher skipped this issue number" or something.

[kitsunebi]

Anyway, rant over.  I say just go with SegaRetro's numbers.  There's no way to know the actual number of issues of that mag with that title unless you have them all lined up in front of you and count them, so if we're gonna use arbitrary numbers, theirs are as good as any. 

 

We have a precident for making up numbers, anyway.  When we added the trilogy of mags: Dengeki PC Engine, Dengeki G's Engine, and Dengeki G's Magazine, we split them up and started each issue at #1, even though in Japan they're all considered the same mag and the official numbering leads from one to the next (and also includes a number of unknown special publications and the first several issues of Dengeki Playstation, which started as a Dengeki PC Engine special publication and thus those issues are a part of the Dengeki PC Engine numbering as well as the Dengeki PlayStation numbering.)  It's all BS in the long run.  Japan is weird.

 

That said, you're gonna have to get Philly to add this if you want it.  115 issues is too many to add by hand, issue by issue, which is how I'd have to do it.  Pretty sure Philly can write a script to fill in the info so long as you provide him with the cover dates to each issue.

[kitsunebi]

I just noticed that 232 number on the back cover.

 

Well, SegaRetro says that the Sega Saturn Magazine was the successor to Beep! MegaDrive, which they also say was the successor to Beep!, which they describe as "a multi-format magazine which had given significant coverage to the Sega Master System at a time when most other Japanese publications focused almost solely on the Famicom." So Beep! may have started in 1985. That sounds right, doesn't it?

 

Yeah, that makes sense.

[marktrade]

All I know is what's on SegaRetro.

 

I'm in no hurry. I figure I'll just make these missing magazine threads after I have at least one issue scanned and edited, so at least there's somewhere I can post a link and gather information from/for others who are interested.

[Sean697]

I'm all for issue 232 and number based on that. An issue number is an issue number, even if it spans across different titles.

Interesting the magazine then became Dreamcast magazine. I would love to ha e all these and issues of Japanese Sega coverage.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Sean697

[marktrade]

I'm all for issue 232 and number based on that. An issue number is an issue number, even if it spans across different titles.

Interesting the magazine then became Dreamcast magazine. I would love to ha e all these and issues of Japanese Sega coverage.

 

It does make sense to use those issue numbers, especially since, as you can see from this magazine, the content from each generation blends with the other. There's lots of Dreamcast coverage in the final issues of Sega Saturn Magazine, even what look like self-contained mini-issues of Dreamcast Magazine, until the whole thing just became Dreamcast Magazine.

[kitsunebi]

It does make sense to use those issue numbers, especially since, as you can see from this magazine, the content from each generation blends with the other. There's lots of Dreamcast coverage in the final issues of Sega Saturn Magazine, even what look like self-contained mini-issues of Dreamcast Magazine, until the whole thing just became Dreamcast Magazine.

 

Sounds like a good idea until you look a little deeper.  I have a copy of what Sega Retro says is issue 3 of Sega Saturn Magazine, which is labeled as #123 on the mag itself.  A 120-issue difference means that SegaRetro's #115 should be issue 235, but as we've already established, it's actually #232.  So until somebody downloads every issue and checks the microprint on the cover/back cover to see how each issue is labeled, there's no easy way to know what the hell is going on (typical Japanese mag).  I doubt I'll be downloading them myself, since frankly I've never even seen a Sega Saturn in person, let alone played one, so Saturn coverage isn't exactly my area of interest.

[marktrade]

Sounds like a good idea until you look a little deeper.  I have a copy of what Sega Retro says is issue 3 of Sega Saturn Magazine, which is labeled as #123 on the mag itself.  A 120-issue difference means that SegaRetro's #115 should be issue 235, but as we've already established, it's actually #232.  So until somebody downloads every issue and checks the microprint on the cover/back cover to see how each issue is labeled, there's no easy way to know what the hell is going on (typical Japanese mag).  I doubt I'll be downloading them myself, since frankly I've never even seen a Sega Saturn in person, let alone played one, so Saturn coverage isn't exactly my area of interest.

 

So SegaRetro might be wrong. I would take the microprinted issue number over SegaRetro. I just didn't put it in the filename this time because I didn't see it on the cover (it is really really small).

[kitsunebi]

So SegaRetro might be wrong. I would take the microprinted issue number over SegaRetro. I just didn't put it in the filename this time because I didn't see it on the cover (it is really really small).

It's a source of untold frustration for me that most Japanese mags print the publishing info right on the front cover, but it's so goddamn small that it's illegible on 99% of all pics one might run across on the web.  So unless it was scanned in high res, the cover is useless for helping to construct a database.

[marktrade]

It's a source of untold frustration for me that most Japanese mags print the publishing info right on the front cover, but it's so goddamn small that it's illegible on 99% of all pics one might run across on the web.  So unless it was scanned in high res, the cover is useless for helping to construct a database.

 

It's always in such an odd place, too. I habitually look near the copyright logo in one of the lower corners or maybe underneath the masthead, but this mag it's on the far left upper corner. Unless you zoom in on it, it looks like scuffing or normal wear on the cover next to the spine. On another mag it was between the masthead and the top, also looking like a scuff mark on the ink near the edge of the cover.

 

Crazy!

[PirateDragon]

These were all the same magazine, they kept sequentially numbering them through to Dorimaga at least (and I would guess continued with Gemaga).

 

Beep
Beep! Mega Drive
Sega Saturn Magazine
Dreamcast Magazine
Dorimaga
Gemaga

 

1984~2012 RIP

 

I think that the first one or two issues of Sega Saturn Magazines were supplements of Beep! Mega Drive.