jrutz

Reading this thread and others which preceeded it really make me nostalgic. After all, it was in the fall of 1996 when I finally bought my own Sega Saturn (my brother and I shared one since its launch), ordered from Tronix for $200 which included a copy of the fabulous Sega Rally Championship. Incidentally, my life has come full circle, as I now live literally blocks away from Tronix here in Manhattan.

Yes, that fall was one of the finest videogame periods in my life. Daily visits to Fernando's SaturnWorld website and Dave Z's Sega Saturn Page filled the gaps of professional boredom. I remember fondly stopping by the TRU in Lafayette, IN on Fridays to pick up the latest Saturn release - it was literally a weekly occurance. I remember the day when I bought Baku Baku and NiGHTS together. I can still remember marching down to the register with the two claim tags in my hands, picking up that big NiGHTS box, and racing home (which was just a half mile away) in a haze of euphoria to play them.

I remember the day I ran down to pick up Sonic 3D Blast, excited because there was finally a Sonic game for the 32-bit underdog. Or Tempest 2000. Or Virtual On. Or WipEout, when it finally dropped to $29.99. I remember the crisp autumn breeze through the open patio door while I experienced the magic of such games for the first time. I remember playing Sonic 3D Blast on a Friday, from the time I got home from work until late at night, by candlelight, finally reaching the last boss but running out of lives before I could emerge victorious, and then going out to down a few beers with friends to drown my failure.

I remember when I introduced the Saturn to my friends. All they heard about was the Playstation, and even then they weren't into gaming that much. But then came Virtual On, and the marathon gaming sessions which followed. Or their challenge to finish first in WipEout. Or the two-player battles of Sega Rally Championship, and the bragging rights which ensued. Oh yes, those were the golden times - of gaming, and of living.

With this nostalgia comes thoughts of what had come of those gaming icons. We all know where Yu Suzuki is today, and have seen his fall from grace. In almost a reversal of roles, we know where Yuji Naka is today, and Sonic Team's almost unstopable string of innovation and success. But back in the golden era of 32-bit gaming, there were only a few innovators. Yu Suzuki, and Psygnosis were undoubtably two who should be credited as the forefathers of the 32-bit era. There is also one other who seems to have slipped through the cracks of time: Kenji Eno.

For those who don't know Kenji Eno, he was the video game designer who pushed the boundaries of gaming. First creating the atmospheric D. Then the innovative import release Real Sound, which was devoid of any visuals and relied solely on sound to guide the gamer thorough an adventure unlike any other experienced. He brought his experiences with past games together to create Enemy Zero, which used sound and an uncomfortable, claustrophobic presentation to simulate what true gaming horror was. His final contribution to the gaming world was the somewhat oft-delayed, overbloated, and overhyped D2, more of a cinema with bits of gameplay than a true game. He not only created the design of the games, but also frequently contributed to sound design and provided the hauntingly ambient music scores for his titles.

We know what happened to other big game designers, but where did Kenji Eno disappear to? D2 was released in 2000, but then he and his company Warp seemed to vanish into thin air. I may be in the minority, but I can say with much certainty Warp was great for the gaming world. Kenji Eno pushed the boundaries of game design. He wasn't content in making games from a formula or cloning popular genres - he wanted to contribute a completely different experience, from visuals to sound to gameplay.

I think where he failed was based on the limitations of the hardware. Now gaming hardware has grown leaps and bounds - integrated internet capabilities, controller feedback, complete analog controls including buttons, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, widescreen presentations, DVD media. The time is right for a Warp comeback, and to instill some creative genius into the glut of familiar releases we are are stuck with. I just hope his vision didn't die with the 32-bit era.

There is something to be said of nostalgia, whether good or bad:

"They don't make 'em like they used to."

Jeremy