''Sega Force'' was an early 1990s publication that covered the

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

console range ( Sega Mega Drive, Mega-CD,

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

and

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...

History

''Sega Force'', along with ''Nintendo Force'', was initially announced in mid-1991 by Newsfield. However, the liquidation of the publisher resulted in the magazine being significantly delayed. It was eventually launched by Europress Impact in December 1991. The magazine featured artwork created by Oliver Frey that was inspired by Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, such as '' Akira''. Frey often introduced a horror element into his artwork. His artwork for a

Lemmings A lemming is a small rodent, usually found in or near the Arctic in tundra biomes. Lemmings form the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as Microtinae) together with voles and muskrats, which form part of the superfamily Muroidea, which also incl ...

cover replaced the rodents with humans, depicting their horrified faces as they fell to the ground. The title also featured work by Stuart Wynne, Phil King, Steve Shields, Adrian Pitt and Matt Yeo. The magazine occasionally featured novellas based on console games. Staff writer, Matt Yeo worked in conjunction with Acclaim software to publish a novella based on ''Super Smash TV''. The narrative followed the plot of the computer game closely and at the end of each chapter offered readers hints and tips on how to complete the game. The narrative style was in keeping with the brash violent cartoons used within the title itself - and bore striking similarities to

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

's '' The Running Man''. ''Sega Forces move into computer game fiction is considered to be a response to its rival '' Sega Power'', which had already had success with several books based on computer games. In 1993, Impact Magazines made the decision to separate the ''Sega Force'' and ''N-Force'' titles. ''Sega Force'' was split into ''Sega Force Mega'' (covering the Mega Drive and Mega-CD) and ''Sega Master Force'' (covering the Master System). Both titles featured a

G-Force The g-force or gravitational force equivalent is a Specific force, mass-specific force (force per unit mass), expressed in Unit of measurement, units of standard gravity (symbol ''g'' or ''g''0, not to be confused with "g", the symbol for ...

section that covered the Sega Game Gear.

''Sega Master Force''

''Sega Master Force'' was aimed at the younger market, though it remained readable for older Sega fans. The magazine was edited by Nick Roberts and retained the visual appearance of ''Sega Force''. Six issues of ''Sega Master Force'' were published, each featuring 68 pages.

''Sega Force Mega''

''Sega Force Mega'' was marketed as a ''grown-up'' games publication that would better compete with Future's '' MEGA'' magazine. The first issues were produced at Europress Impact, but later the magazine was outsourced to a company located in

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, while Impact staff moved on to a new magazine, ''Mega Machines''. Each issue of ''Sega Force Mega'' featured 100 pages, consisting of news features, reviews, G-Force and a buyers guide. Six issues were published along with a 'special' seventh issue that included past reviews and news.

''Sega Force'' Special

The seventh, and what would turn out to be the final, issue of ''Sega Force Mega'' was dubbed a ''"Sega Force Special"''. The 132-page magazine featured reprints of reviews that had appeared in the previous six issues of ''Sega Force Mega'' and ''Sega Master Force''. The preview of Sonic Chaos for the Master System was updated to provide a game rating. In the editorial, Nick Roberts indicated that ''Sega Force Mega'' would be 'back to normal' in the following month, but did not mention ''Sega Master Force''. However, issue 8 failed to appear and it was learned that all of Impact's magazines were closed.

References

{{reflist

External links

Archived Sega Force Mega magazines on the

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