Japan's CEDEC conference is currently underway, and one of the panels they hosted yesterday was a joint presentation and roundtable discussion about the internal preservation efforts of four of Japan's most storied game publishers, chaired by Square-Enix's Yoichiro Miyake and featuring Taito's Yuichi Toyama, Sega's Yosuke Okunari and, making what may be their first public appearance as a preservation specialist, Capcom's Yasuyuki Makino.
CEDEC didn't stream this particular section but the media writeups are starting to come out (thx 4gamer!), so here's a rundown:
He also brings up how their archival efforts unearthed unknown or forgotten aspects of their history—for example, their work on acquiring a ROM for Rainbow Islands Extra for the Genesis Mini 2 clued them into the details of the Sega Channel, the US initiative for distributing Genesis games via a cable TV line, so their archival efforts made a concrete effort in strengthening the historical foundation of their past work.
Having just watched @retropals Friday stream where they played the unreleased US version of Rainbow Islands Extra and speculated that it may have been meant for Sega Channel distribution, it's really neat to see this basically confirmed.
I wonder if any other games may have been considered for Sega Channel distribution, but didn't make it.
