Black Dawn

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Black Dawn
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Black Ops Entertainment, Point of View
Supporting companies: Tommy Tallarico Studios (audio)
Distributor: Sega-Ozisoft (AU), Tec Toy (BR)
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (51 tracks)
Peripherals supported: Mission Stick
Genre: 3D Shooting, Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1997-04-25 ¥5,8005,800 T-7013G US 1997-01-07 T-7027H EU 1997-05-01 T-7027H-50 DE 1997 T-7027H-50 UK 1997-05-01 T-7027H-50 PL 1997 AU 199x VFBLA07SSC BR 1997 191x69
Non-Sega versions PlayStation

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Black Dawn (ブラックドーン) is a 1996 shooter originally developed by Black Ops Entertainment for the PlayStation and later ported by Point of View for the Sega Saturn, and published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment on both platforms. It is a 3D helicopter-based shooter running on the same engine as Black Ops' earlier game Agile Warrior F-111X where the player is tasked with various objectives, like blowing up enemy targets or rescuing hostages.

The game is slightly notable for the fact that a few of the songs from its soundtrack, composed by Todd Dennis of Tommy Tallarico Studios, were later reused by Tommy Tallarico as the themes for the Great Megalith and Molten Mine stages in Sonic and the Black Knight, which Tallarico had worked on, with the Molten Mine version being an arrangement made specifically for Black Knight.

Story

Set in the year 1998, terrorist activity is at an all-time high. Small, yet technologically advanced, groups are beginning to grow strong and powerful. Efforts toward regional stability and peace are failing, compromised by assassination, genocide and racial strife. Separatism, nationalism, religious fervor and overpopulation are fueling the fires of conflict. All around the world, terrorist and gang activity has grasped a permanent foothold of fear in the lives of all with no end in sight.

A top secret Black Operations military group funded by the US Government has been assembled, and the player is enlisted as part of the Black Operations. Their mission is to save innocent civilians and take out terrorist militia at any cost.

Production credits

BLACK OPS ENTERTAINMENT

• Lead Game Programmer & Director: Will Botti
• Black Ops Producer: John Botti
• Lead Artist: Clay "Baron" Dale
• Programming: An Nyugen, Kelly McCarthy, Sean Chuu
• 3-D Artist: Margaret "Magpie" Asbury
• 3-D Modeler: Eric "Hubba" Armstrong
• Artists: Grady Lee Perry III, Don Myers, Jason Rickard
• Mission Briefings Written & Directed by: Will Botti
• Explosion Animations: John Botti, Raymond Pettitt
• Support Tools: Rudy Kammerrer, Kelly "Special K" McCarthy, David Sosna, Matt Whiting
• Production Coordinator: Rita "Big Mouth" Mines
• Production Assistants: "Hot Rod" Randy Planck, Laura Ashford, Jean Gjenasaj
• Contract Line Producer: Jessica Budin
• Audio Director: Will Botti
• Music and Sound Effects: Tommy Tallarico Studios, Inc., Todd Dennis
• Commanding Officer Voice: Keith Szarabajka
• Radio Officer Voice: Michael Gough
• Original Engine Development: John Botti, Jose Villeta, Will Botti
• Engine Build Tools: Interactive Technologies Corp., John Botti, Will Botti
• Computer Graphics Animations: Raymond Pettitt, Margaret Asbury, Maximum CGI, Inc.
• CG Sound Designer/Mixer: Thomas Orsi
• VP Research and Development: Jose Villeta
• Technical Support: John Sheen, Frank Aguilar
• President and CEO: John Botti

VIRGIN INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT (FOREIGN OFFICES)

• UK
• Shadow Producer: Sacha Tait
• Test Manager: Gary Foley
• QA: John Martin
• Product Analysis: Jonathon Stocken, Haydn Wright, Steve Frazer
• Germany: Marc Buro
• France: Sophie Cristobal
• Japan: Yutaka Sano

VIRGIN INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT, INC. (U.S.)

• VP of Product Development: Eric Lux
• VP of Design: Julian Rignall
• Technical Director: Tim Page
• Producer: Eric Hayashi
• Associate Producer: Grady Hunt
• Assistant Producer: Craig McCoy
• Design Consultant: Lisa Hoffman
• Product Manager: Justine Rosenheck
• Package Design: Tim Eames
• Packaging Creative Direction: Shawn Markert
• Manual Editor: Lori Ellison

Virgin Interactive Entertainment Quality Assurance Team

• Director of QA: Dave Maxey
• QA Administration/Planning Analysis: Chris McFarland
• QA Supervisor - Saturn: Stuart Roch
• QA Supervisor - PlayStation: Stacey Mendoza
• QA Technical Specialist: Paul Moore
• Lead Analyst - Saturn: Scott Ciufo
• Lead Analyst - PlayStation: David Johnson
• QA Team - Saturn: Paul Ahn, Aaron Blean, Aaron Lenz
• QA Team - PlayStation: Robert Dearborn, Matt Orlich, Gordon Madison, Glenn Burtis, Victor Rodriguez, Paul Shoener, Greg Corzine, Wally Wachi, Jason Lewis, Dave Walsh, Rob Smith, John Lee, Gail Salamanca, Anthony Perea, Tim Hall, Todd Livdahl, Patrick Fordham, David Hunt, Jeff Rice, Chris Nelsen, Tim Tran, Tuan Bui

• Special Thanks to: Martin Alper, Michele DiLorenzo, Keith Greer, Test Pilot Albert D. Altura, Major Walter J. Kowalewski, USMC

Source:

US manual

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Magazine articles

Main article: Black Dawn/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in EGM² (US) #29: "November 1996" (1996-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #89: "December 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) #15: "January 1997" (1996-12-17)

Print advert in Hobby Consolas (ES) #66: "Marzo 1997" (1997-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 55 Freak (IL) 90 Fun Generation (DE) PAL 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 83 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 68 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 80 neXt Level (DE) PAL 80 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 58 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 53 Sega Magazin (DE) 69 Sega Power (UK) PAL 84 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 85 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 67 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 81 Strana Igr (RU) 80 Super Power (FI) 79 Video Games (DE) PAL 77

	75
Based on 17 reviews

Black Dawn

Saturn, JP
Cover
Disc

Saturn, US
Cover
Manual

Saturn, EU
Cover

Saturn, AU
Cover

Saturn, BR
Manual

Technical information

Main article: Black Dawn/Technical information.