Eternal Champions
From Sega Retro
| Eternal Champions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: Sega Interactive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sound driver: GEMS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peripherals supported: Six button pad, Activator | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1-2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CERO
Missing Parameter! |
Eternal Champions (エターナルチャンピオンズ) is a 2D fighting game developed for the Sega Mega Drive by Sega Interactive. The game was pitched as Sega of America's attempt to cash-in on the popular Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat franchises, and was released in 1993.
Contents
Story
| “ |
Welcome to my chamber. I am the Eternal Champion, keeper of this vast fighting complex. It exists in a place and time corrupted by centuries of misuse and destruction. My purpose in this grand scheme is to maintain the balance between good and evil, light and darkness, hope and despair. Now this balance has been lost and the very fabric that holds the world together will be torn apart. Your future, my present, has been destroyed by a cruel and unjust twist of fate. Nine individuals from various periods in time were killed before their lives could affect this dark existence. I have observed each of their short lives and have been powerless to stop the chaos. I have spent the centuries harnessing my power for this very moment. I am the pure and untouched energy of all the great martial arts masters that have lived before me. Their skill, wisdom, knowledge, and inner-strength are at my command. Even with the force of their collective powers, I can only reward one of the nine individuals with the gift of life. Any of them can have an equally profound effect on the future. For this reason, the contest must take place. At the end of this contest, only one will remain. The victor will be returned to life a few seconds before his death, allowing him to avoid the past with the knowledge to change the future. Only one may live so that the balance may be again achieved. Let the contest begin... |
„ |
— Intro demo | ||
Gameplay
Much like its highly influential peers, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, Eternal Champions is a 2D one-on-one fighting game in which players fight as one of a variety of different characters, in this case dragged from different periods of time to do battle. The player fights their way through a contest, hoping to face the "Eternal Champion" and return to their normal life. Like Mortal Kombat, there is a high level of violence.
If the player loses a round in contest mode, they not only have to fight the person they fought prior to the person they lost to, but also the person before that fighter.
There is also a training room to build up a player's skills with various challenges to try, a two player mode, and a tournament mode for up to 32 people to fight in one-on-one contests with a choice between 3 different modes of tournament play. Characters can perform special moves by inputting combinations.
Each special move costs an amount of inner strength, which is the little Yin/Yang symbol that appears next to the health bar at the top of the screen during a fight. In stages, if an opponent lands on the correct spot, they will be killed by something from the background in a finishing move known as an "overkill".
The CPU is able to attack the player even if it's inner strength is empty. This was fixed in the sequel.
Although the game can be played with a standard three-button control pad, it will leave the player at a major disadvantage, with the updated six-button control pad being the preferred option.
Using a six-button control pad, three buttons are for kicks: 
snap (weak), 
thrust (medium) and 
wheel (strong); the other three buttons are for punches: 
straight (weak), 
lunge (medium) and 
swing (strong). START pauses the game, 
jumps, 
crouches and 
/
move forward or backward depending upon the direction the characters are facing; / in the opposite direction of the one the character is currently facing blocks.
Each character has a taunt (+), which decreases some of the user's inner strength, though decrease the opponent's Inner Strength by an even larger amount.
Using a three-button control pad, much like Mega Drive ports of the Street Fighter games, pressing START switches between punches and kicks. However, due to this, the pause game feature is activated by pressing ++, which may interfere with moves that require all three buttons pressed at once). The controls are otherwise similar.
Eternal Champions was also packaged with the Activator in North America, and therefore is compatible with it. The game's manual has a list of moves for the activator.
Playable characters
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Shadow Yamoto |
|---|---|
| {{{imagewidths}}} | R. A. X. Coswell |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Jonathan Blade |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Jetta Maxx |
| Jetta Maxx initially started life off as a male clown character, who according to Michael Latham, saw his special move ideas recycled for the Senator secret character in Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side. | |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Slash |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Trident |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Xavier Pendragon |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Mitchell Midleton Knight |
| {{{imagewidths}}} | Larcen Tyler |
History
Development
According to the series' executive producer and designer, Michael Latham, the character Dawson from Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side, was originally planned to appear in this game. Chin Wo and Blast, secret characters from Challenge From the Dark Side, were also planned for the original game as well. These characters were scrapped due to ROM limitations.
Legacy
Sega of America took great pride in Eternal Champions, with the game selling very well in Western territories and being re-released under the Mega Hit Series, Classic Mega Drive and Sega Platinum Collection ranges, amongst much spin-off merchandise. However, the game was never fully adopted by Sega of Japan, who preferred to concentrate efforts on the Virtua Fighter series (and later products such as Fighting Vipers and Last Bronx). As such, Eternal Champions was sidelined after Sega's US operations were downsized during the late-1990s and is unlikely to make a return in the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless Eternal Champions was followed by the Sega Mega-CD title Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side, released in 1995 and saw two spin-off games, Chicago Syndicate and X-Perts. A second sequel, Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter, entered production but work was halted by Sega's Japanese arm.
Eternal Champions has since been re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service.
Comic adaptation
Sonic the Comic included few "Eternal Champions" comics strips, where the champions work together as a team. The story arcs are: "Eternal Champions" (issue #19 to issue #24) and "Larson's Revenge" (#37 to #40). Futhermore, Sonic the Comic had a special issue Eternal Champions Special, that is fully dedicated to the game, containing three "Eternal Champions" stories: "Death Isn't Forever", "Reality Check" and "Brains & Brawls".
Production credits
- Developed by: Sega Interactive Development Division
- Lead Artist and Animator: Albert Co
- Lead Programmer: John Kuwaye
- Programmers: Steven Lashower, Jack Loh, Mike Terlecki, Pravin Wagh, Christopher Warner, Ala Diaz
- Artists: David Russ, William Kier, Maureen Kringen, Art Wong, Kevin Lee, Rachel Coleman, Steve Knotts, Larry Flores
- Designer and Executive Producer: Michael Latham
- Producer: Mark Nausha
- Technical Director: Christopher Warner
- Music Composers: DMP Entertainment, Joe Delia, John Hart, Jeff Marsh, Adrian Van Velssen, Andy Armor and the Night Crew (DMP)
- Sound Effects: Dave Delia, Paul Gadbois
- Marketing: Jaime Wojick
- Game Balancing: Erik Wahlberg, Harry Chaves
- On-Site Testers: Bill Person, Siegie Stangenberg, Chris Cutliff, Janine Cook, Joe Cain
- Lead Tester: Ben Szymkowiak
- Game Lieutenants: Dermot Lyons, Mark Paniagua
- Testers: Dante Anderson, Greg Becksted, Dianna Boundy, Jennifer Brozek, Jason Epps, Dave Forster, Darin Johnston, Lawrence Gibson, Casey Grimm, Keith Higashihara, Jason Kuo, Vasily Lewis, Max Loeb, Jeff Loney, Tony Lynch, Julio Martinez, Andrew Podesta, Loran Pudinski, Conan Tigard, Paul Walker, Ari Warner
- Special Thanks to: Dave Albert, Scott Berfield, Kevin Burley, Marilyn Churchill, Ernie Chan, John Couch, Greg Fleming, Claude Foucault, Clyde Grossman, Frank Hsu, Terry Kirch, Broderick Macaraeg, Willie Mancero, Joe Miller, Hooell Monleon, Robert Morgan, Nancy Nakamoto, Rod Nakamoto, Steve Patterson, Eric Rawlins, Scott Rohde, Scott Steinberg, Alex Suzdaltsev, Omega Group, OUI Multimedia, Waterman Designs
- Program Code/Design (C) 1993 SEGA
- All Rights Reserved
- Product Manager: Jaime Wojick
- Voice Actors: DMP Entertainment
- Manual: Carol Ann Hanshaw, Michael Latham, Jaime Wojick
- Testers: Renato Alferez, John Amirkhan, Mike Baldwin, Dusty Bedford, Mike Bench, Steve Bourdet, Blair Bullock, Dan Caraballo, Harry Chavez, Brian Dawson, Marc Dawson, Daniel Dunn, Atom Ellis, Eric Fong, Richard Gangwish, Roman Greco, Rick Greer, Chris Hudak, Tony Hursh, Lawrence Jeung, Tracy Johnson, Tyrone Johnson, Dan Jung, Jeff Junio, Mark Kessler, Simon Lu, Dermot Lyons, Mike Madden, Jim McCarthy, Ryan McLaughlin, Vincent Nason, Lance Nelson, Mark Paniagua, Joanna Pataki, Chris Pepper, Eric Rawlins, Kim Rogers, Matthew Rosaaen, Sam Saliba, Tim Spengler, Terry Thomas, Kurt Tindle, Jeff Todd, Maria Tuzzo, Matt Underwood, Greg Vogt, Erik Wahlberg, Christine Watson, Stan Weaver, Richard Wong, Dave Wood
- Special Thanks: Laila Atassi, Lisa Best, Clint Dyer, Diane Fornasier, Steve Hendricks, Denny Moore, Mike Tyau, Ed Volkwein
Artwork
Magazine articles
- Main article: Eternal Champions/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- Sega Visions (US) #16: "December/January 1993/1994" (1993-xx-xx)[6]
- Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) #16: "January 1994" (1993-12-21)[7]
- GamePro (US) #54: "January 1994" (199x-xx-xx)[8]
- Sega Visions (US) #17: "February/March 1994" (199x-xx-xx)[9]
also published in:
- Hobby Consolas (ES) #28: "Enero 1994" (199x-xx-xx)[10]
also published in:
- Hobby Consolas (ES) #32: "Mayo 1994" (1994-xx-xx)[11]
Television advertisements
US TV advert
US TV Advert
Digital manuals
Steam manual
Physical scans
 |
82 |
|---|---|
| Based on 43 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, US |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual   Poster |
| Mega Drive, US (Mega Hit Series) |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US (console pack-in) |
|---|
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, EU |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, EU (Classic Mega Drive) |
|---|
 Cover
|
Cart |
| Mega Drive, JP |
|---|
 Cover
|
  Cart |
| Mega Drive, AU |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, AU (Sega Platinum Collection) |
|---|
 Cover
|
Cart |
| Mega Drive, Asia |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, BR |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, KR |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, SE (Rental) |
|---|
|
| Mega Drive, ES (Special Collector's Edition) |
|---|
|
 Manual |
| Mega Drive, FR (Special Collector's Edition) |
|---|
|
 Leaflet |
Technical information
ROM dump status
| System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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3MB | 1993-10 | Cartridge (US) | ||||||||||
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3MB | 1993-10 | Cartridge (EU) | ||||||||||
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3MB | 1993-10 | Cartridge (JP) | ||||||||||
|
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3MB | 1993-11-17 | CD-R disc[55] | Page | |||||||||
|
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3MB | 1993-10 | PAL region locked | Page |
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 File:GamePro US 054.pdf, page 44 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:GamePro US 054.pdf_p44" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 File:SegaMagazine UK 01.pdf, page 94 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:SegaMagazine UK 01.pdf_p94" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ File:SegaPro DE 18.pdf, page 31
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 File:Megazone AU 37.pdf, page 44 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:Megazone AU 37.pdf_p44" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ File:Eternal Champions MD US Manual.pdf, page 66
- ↑ Sega Visions, "December/January 1993/1994" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 138
- ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "January 1994" (US; 1993-12-21), page 26
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 200
- ↑ Sega Visions, "February/March 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 16
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Enero 1994" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 38
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Mayo 1994" (ES; 1994-xx-xx), page 22
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 File:CVG UK 147.pdf, page 64 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:CVG UK 147.pdf_p64" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 13.0 13.1 File:EGM US 054.pdf, page 44 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:EGM US 054.pdf_p44" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ File:HobbyConsolas ES 028.pdf, page 56
- ↑ File:MegaFun DE 1994-02.pdf, page 64
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 File:MeanMachinesSega16UK.pdf, page 61 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega16UK.pdf_p61" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 17.0 17.1 File:PlayerOne FR 038.pdf, page 80 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:PlayerOne FR 038.pdf_p80" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 18.0 18.1 File:SonicMag FR 02.pdf, page 34 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:SonicMag FR 02.pdf_p34" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ File:VideoGames DE 1994-02.pdf, page 44
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 72
- ↑ Alaab Alcomputtar, "" (SA; 1995-08-xx), page 72
- ↑ Aktueller Software Markt, "August 1994" (DE; 1994-07-04), page 38
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "March 1994" (JP; 1994-02-08), page 19
- ↑ Console Mania, "Gennaio 1994" (IT; 199x-xx-xx), page 84
- ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "January 1994" (US; 1993-12-21), page 68
- ↑ Famitsu, "1994-02-25" (JP; 1994-02-10), page 1
- ↑ Freak, "2/94" (IL; 1994-xx-xx), page 44
- ↑ GameFan, "Volume 2, Issue 1: December 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 27
- ↑ Game Power, "Gennaio 1994" (IT; 199x-xx-xx), page 34
- ↑ GamesMaster (UK) "Series 3, episode 19" (1994-01-11, 24:00) (+6:10)
- ↑ Game Informer, "January/February 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 26
- ↑ Hippon Super, "March 1994" (JP; 1994-02-03), page 61
- ↑ Hyper, "March 1994" (AU; 1994-xx-xx), page 32
- ↑ Joker, "Junij 1994" (SI; 1994-xx-xx), page 23
- ↑ Mega, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-20), page 22
- ↑ Mega Action, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-28), page 16
- ↑ Megablast, "2/94" (DE; 1994-03-30), page 35
- ↑ Mega Force, "Janvier 1994" (FR; 1994-01-08), page 84
- ↑ Mega Power, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-02-17), page 24
- ↑ MegaTech, "January 1994" (UK; 1993-12-21), page 42
- ↑ Power Unlimited, "Jaargang 2, Nummer 3, Maart 1994" (NL; 1994-02-23), page 34
- ↑ Sega Magazine, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-10), page 108
- ↑ Sega Power, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-06), page 60
- ↑ Sega Pro, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-01-27), page 36
- ↑ Sega Zone, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-27), page 46
- ↑ Sega Force, "6/94" (SE; 1994-09-14), page 20
- ↑ Svet Kompjutera, "Maj 1996" (YU; 1996-xx-xx), page 85
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Sonic the Comic, "January 21st 1994" (UK; 1994-01-08), page 10
- ↑ Supergames, "Ano I, Numero I" (AR; 1994-xx-xx), page 14
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Enero 1994" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 42
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 65
- ↑ Video Games, "2/94" (DE; 1994-01-26), page 46
- ↑ VideoGames, "February 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 68
| Games in the Eternal Champions Series | |
|---|---|
| Eternal Champions (1993) | Chicago Syndicate (1995) | Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side (1995) | X-Perts (1996) | Eternal Champions (LCD) (1994) | Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter (unreleased) | |
| Eternal Champions related media | |
 |
Eternal Champions Special (1994) | Eternal Champions: Sega Genesis Official Power Guide (1994) | Eternal Champions Adventure Gamebook 1: The Cyber Warriors (1994) | Eternal Champions Adventure Gamebook 2: Citadel of Chaos (1994) | Eternal Champions Official Sticker Album (1993) |
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