From classic scooters and teddy bears to Furbies and Cabbage Patch Kids, this Good Housekeeping list documents the hottest of hot toys that were hot in their day. And unlike People Magazine’s 80s special, they’ve gone and given Nintendo and Sega their rightful props as hot toys.

While I can’t name anybody who’d be glad to get a jar of Play-Doh this year, I can think of a lot of people who would be thrilled to see a Sega Dreamcast or an original Nintendo Entertainment System under their X-mas tree this year. Sadly, none of them are kids.

What classic entertainment system would you want under your tree this year?

The Best Toys of All Time [Good Housekeeping by Yahoo! Shopping]

Announced on the Dreamcast’s 10th anniversary, Rush Rush Rally Racing is a top-down racer that, in all fairness, looks rather primitive. Primitive as it is, it is still a new game you can purchase that will play in your Dreamcast, and now you can spend a little more to get a little more. You’ll have to wait a little longer for the Deluxe edition, due out in November while the regular version drops this month, but you get a soundtrack CD, full colour manual, deleted scenes and stickers for your trouble. Stickers!

Folks who have already ordered the game from http://www.redspotgames.com/shop are able to change their order to the Deluxe edition via internet magic. The premium package will run you 27,95 EUR / US$ 42.00 / 27,00 GBP (around AU$45).

It’s called Rush Rush Rally Racing. Don’t expect Metro Street Racer; this looks more like Mega Drive Street Racer. OK, that’s a bit mean. Sorry. After all, when a new Dreamcast game is released, we should be thankful somebody is still going to the effort, and concentrate on that, rather than the game’s looks.

It’s $US22, will be available on Amazon, and you can even pre-order the game on the publisher’s site. It’ll be out next month.

New Dreamcast Game Coming This October! [Bitmob]

Blogs Peter Moore, “I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it’s online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today – online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc.”

The Dreamcast certainly pioneered home console gaming as we know it today, but ultimately was killed off by the ubiquitous Sony PlayStation 2.

Moore talks about the Dreamcast in greater depth on his EA Sports blog, so do check it out. Oh, he also throws SEGA Japan under the bus when he clears up a misconception regarding the console’s demise:

The decision was made, from Japan, to pull the plug and begin the transition to becoming a multi-platform third party developer and publisher. We at SOA, while disappointed, were in full agreement that this was the only real course of action, and it was with a heavy heart that I hosted the conference call on January 31st, 2001, announcing that Sega was ceasing manufacturing of the Dreamcast console. The call on the decision was made by SOJ. The conference call to announce the decision was conducted by SOA.

9/9/99 – Ten Years After – Peter Moore Blog [Peter Moore Blog via Eurogamer] [Pic]

The rating says “multiplatform,” which further vagues up whatever Sega’s plans are here. That Gaming Site, which saw the listing earlier today, figures it could be a new control scheme on the Wii, an XBLA release, or part of some new compilation.

Sonic Adventure DX debuted on the Dreamcast in 1998; the Director’s Cut was the version brought to GameCube and PC in 2003.

Kotaku AU Note: When we asked them for comment this morning, Sega would only say that “nothing is confirmed at this stage” and they would “keep us posted”.

Sonic Adventure DX to be Remade Again? [That Gaming Site]

The head of Sega West, Mike Hayes, told me Wednesday that, despite the pride Sega has in the Dreamcast, it has no formal plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its launch in September.

“Generally we won’t be doing anything that’s official,” he said. The main reason is that Sega has reinvented itself as a software company. And it’s important for us to focus on the other platforms that are alive and current.”

“Informally, because there are people in the company who were involved in the Dreamcast launch, there will be celebrations,” he said, “But as a company, publicly, that’s going to be something we’re going to be pretty low key about for obvious reasons. We’re effectively a different company.”

Hayes said that Sega has reinvented itself as a software company, which makes it more fitting to focus on other company’s hardware. “It’s not to disrespect the excellent system the Dreamcast was,” he said, “Or the innovations that were done on it, which I think were probably a few years ahead of time in terms of the online application. I just think we as a company are multi-format and we want to talk about our first-party platform partners rather than when we were a first-party.”

Dreamcast hardware may not be the focus of any official Sega efforts, but Dreamcast software still has a future. Sega has aggressively distributed much of its older back catalogue of games as digital downloads on home consoles, PCs and portable machines. The Dreamcast line-up, comprised of bigger games, less easily brought to current platforms, is not going to be neglected, Hayes said. “I can’t give you any details. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of technical issues, a lot of licensing issues. But we are very keen to bring [them] to players in the way we’ve done with Genesis games. We want to do it, but it’s hard work to get there. Hopefully we can build on that quite soon.”

You don’t technically even need colour, like these old-school pals. (There is a little bit of red, in the logos; and some colour elsewhere.)

Unfortunately, no papercraft game pads are included with thesetwo designs, put up by Cubeecraft.

Papercraft NES and Dreamcast Cost Less, Play Just as Many Cutting Edge Games [Engadget]

1989 Press release announcing executive hiring at Sega of America…

Based in South San Francisco, Sega of America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega Enterprises Ltd./Japan, recognised as a global leader in the high-technology entertainment game industry. Sega’s worldwide activities involve the conception, creation and sale of consumer electronics and entertainment products, including coin-operated arcade games and home video hardware, software and electronic toys, and the operation of arcade centres.

1990 Press release announcing Thomas Kalinski becoming president of Sega of America
(Note: Some of these descriptions are for the Japanese home company; others for the American subsidiary)…

Sega Enterprises Ltd./Japan is a 39-year-old worldwide leader in high-tech electronic entertainment systems and toys. Sega, a public company listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is one of the fastest-growing companies in Japan.

1995 Press release announcing Sega’s intent to not just support the Genesis and the Saturn, but to start a company called Sega Soft that would “focus on developing content for multimedia PCs and the Internet”…

Sega Enterprises Ltd., is a nearly $US4 billion company recognised as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media and is the only company that offers interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home. Sega of America’s World Wide Web site is located at http://www.segaoa.com.

2000 Press release announcing the debut of the Dreamcast game Sonic Shuffle
(Note: Sega’s getting more verbose, but it’s awkward to see that that company dollar value they cited five years prior has shrunk so much. But check out their better URL. The company would be a third-party developer within a year.)…

Sega of America is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based Sega Corporation responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega videogame systems and videogames in the Americas. Sega Corporation is a nearly $US2.5 billion company recognised as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, offering interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home. Sega of America’s World Wide Web site is located at www.sega.com.

2005 Press release announcing the development of Full Auto and Condemned: Criminal Origins for the Xbox 360…

SEGA of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America’s Web site is located at www.sega.com/usa.

2009 Press release announcing the release of Let’s Tap
(Note: I’m sure people are busy at Sega, but did nothing change in four years? There’s nothing new to say about the company?)…

SEGA of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America’s Web site is located at www.sega.com/us.

I could now ask you readers how you would describe Sega, but that might be asking for trouble.

Remarkably, the writer of last week’s piece on “the highest arcade in the world,” (7,000 feet above sea level) is having some luck finding the young man who whooped his arse at Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the PSOne back in 1999. Lee Bradley says that, after his piece ran on Bitmob, someone wrote to say he would ship a Dreamcast and some games over to the parlor in Darjeeling, India.

Apparently the reader failed to notice this travelogue was about an experience 10 years ago. Undeterred, Bradley set off to locate the kid and/or the parlour. After a call to the hotel he’d stayed in, and an appeal on the comments section of a Darjeeling newspaper’s site, Bradley’s gotten so far as to narrow the parlour’s site down to one of three locations. He’s asked a local man to visit them and take some pictures of each so he can verify which is correct.

He’s waiting to hear back. More on this as it develops.

Also by the way, “highest arcade in the world” has a nice ring to it, but at 7,000 feet, I’m sure there are some game rooms at ski areas, past or present, that could top that. But I bet they don’t serve the kind of tea you can get at this place.

The Search for Arcade Boy [Bitmob]