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Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star II (1989)
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Attachment Sometime in 1987-88, Sega and the Japanese magazine "Beep!" held a "Story Recruitment Campaign" to let readers submit ideas to be considered for Phantasy Star II. This contest was held both to set a base for the start of development and to market the game to a wider audience on the name value of Phantasy Star, with the game being heavily advertised in Beep! thereafter. Despite the contest's name, Sega accepted any idea and gave out awards for scenario writing, illustrations, and game mechanics. Out of over 2000 entries, 29 were selected as winners and awarded with individually numbered "Associate Planner" certificates. They were also offered to meet with the game's developers for a planning meeting on March 20, 1988 at Sega's headquarters in Otorii, Tokyo, among other prizes. The events of the planning meeting and the top 7 winners were published in the June 1988 issue of Beep!, including a picture of the full roundtable. Producer/programmer Yuji Naka and artist Rieko Kodama were two of the developers in attendance.

Associate Planner No. 001, the Grand Prize winner, was Fumiko Sato. Of the 29 winners, three of them are known to have gone on to work in the video game industry and returned for work at Sega:

• No. 004 was 17-year old Masahiro Sakurai, who won the "Game System Award". Sakurai often recalled the contest without mentioning the game by name, claiming he came up with "something like the action-focused Active Time Battle system seen in JRPGs" before it existed. It's believed that this meeting was what prompted Sakurai to drop out of vocational school to pursue a full-time career in game design, using the award to advance his professional image until he was hired by HAL Laboratory after graduating high school in 1989. Sakurai became known for his work with them and Nintendo, creating the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series.

• No. 005 was Yukinobu Arikawa, who won the "Game System Special Award" for his entry titled "Those who inherit the legend". While it's not known if he attended the planning meeting, Arikawa would join Sega's AM2 team in 1990 and is still employed at Sega as of 2022. He became known for the comedic touches he adds to the games he works on, having worked as a game designer, writer, localizer and texture artist on different games in the Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Super Monkey Ball, Virtua Fighter, and Daytona USA series.

• No. 011 was middle schooler Keisuke Ōuchi, who described his proposal as being full of "middle school syndrome", but was unable to attend the planning meeting because he lived in the countryside at the time. Ōuchi worked on games as a character designer and graphics artist in various capacities, and created and directed the 1998 visual novel Ojou-sama Express, which similarly to Phantasy Star II held a long-term reader participation contest in the gaming magazine "Dengeki G's Magazine". He also works as a collectors' toy designer under the name Alan Moriguchi, specializing in mechs and robots.

It's unknown if or how any of the winners' ideas were used in the final game, as all of the developers used pseudonyms in the credits and no Associate Planners were credited.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Artwork/Illustration, Credits, Development, Early Idea, Level Design, Magazine, Pitch Bible/Proposal, Real Life, Sweepstakes, Unsolved Mystery
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month July 31, 2024
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Beep! - screenshots of March 1988 issue (in Japanese; it's believed that this issue is where the full list of winners were first published, but no full scan of the issue is available online):
https://retoge-mag.websa.jp/archives/215

Beep! - June 1988 issue (in Japanese; Page 86 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/beep-1988-06/page/86/mode/2up

Beep! - September 1989 issue translated developer interview:
https://shmuplations.com/psiirelease/

Masahiro Sakurai (No. 004) on Creating Games video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8WsbCQXGc#t=194s

Sakurai translated magazine column on school/early work experience:
https://sourcegaming.info/2015/07/06/school-work-and-specialists-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-3334/

Sakurai - The Guardian interview:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/08/super-smash-bros-ultimate-masahiro-sakurai-35-years-gaming-history-nintendo

A conversation between gamers and game journalists about the future of computer games, held on August 15, 1989 at Dempa Publications, Inc. (19-year old Sakurai partook in this, and is credited with winning the Game System Award in the Phantasy Star II contest) [published in "CHALLENGE!! Personal Computer AVG & RPG 5 JP Book"] (Pages 341-355 in the book, Sakurai only appears on page 348 and did not participate in the rest of the conversation):
https://retrocdn.net/images/d/d5/CHALLENGE%21%21_Personal_Computer_AVG_%26_RPG_5_JP_Book.pdf

Yukinobu Arikawa (No. 005) career history:
https://segaretro.org/Yukinobu_Arikawa
https://www.mobygames.com/person/69425/yukinobu-arikawa/credits/

Keisuke Ōuchi (No. 011) tweets:
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/1320302751096553472
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/1321068321450553347

Alan Moriguchi (Ōuchi) revealing his identity in 2014:
https://x.com/AlanMoriguchi/status/520581151493070849

Ōuchi MobyGames page:
https://www.mobygames.com/person/456584/keisuke-ouchi/

Dengeki G's Magazine - August 1998 issue (Pages 49-61 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/dengeki-gs-magazine-013-august-1998/page/48/mode/2up

Japanese Wikipedia article on Ojou-sama Express with magazine citations (including the above issue):
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/お嬢様特急

Sega Associate Planner No. 017 tweet:
https://x.com/suginov/status/1321062605033664513

Sega Associate Planner No. 019 tweet:
https://x.com/unlucky_numbers/status/1539132578120486912

1988 contest materials were reportedly republished in the reprint mook " Beep(ビープ) 復刻版―特別付録 音楽CD2枚組 ":
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Beep-%E5%BE%A9%E5%88%BB%E7%89%88%E2%80%95%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5%E4%BB%98%E9%8C%B2-%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BDCD2%E6%9E%9A%E7%B5%84-Softbank-mook/dp/4797326239

Tweets that served as a starting point for researching this submission:
https://x.com/gosokkyu/status/1585114095329898496
https://x.com/gosokkyu/status/1705220228828045506
Arcaea
Arcaea (2017)
subdirectory_arrow_right Sound Voltex III: Gravity Wars (Game)
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The song "Red and Blue" was originally composed by Silentroom, then known under the alias "Polycube" for Sound Voltex III: Gravity War's "The First VOLTEX Character Theme Song Contest" in 2014. However, the song was unable to be submitted due to missing the deadline. It was later added and repurposed for Arcaea in the 1.5.0 update.
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Asset Reuse, General, Mistake, Music, Sweepstakes, Unused Audio, Update Difference
person aa1205 calendar_month March 21, 2024
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Video interview with Silentroom verifying this information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-c6okksMU#t=1194

Arcaea Fandom wiki page:
https://arcaea.fandom.com/wiki/Red_and_Blue
Treasure Master
Treasure Master (1991)
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Attachment According to an unused file in Treasure Master, the game was originally going to have a Pizza Hut sponsorship alongside or before the MTV sponsorship.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Early Idea, Product Placement, Sweepstakes, Unused Content, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month January 5, 2024
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Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
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Attachment Eri Kamataki, who appears as a party member in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, was modelled and named after a real-life actress by the same name. The real Eri Kamataki (entrant no. 7) won a contest of more than 1000 entrants to appear as "Ichiban's female co-star" and so appeared as a playable character in the game.
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Development, General, Real Life, Sweepstakes
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month December 3, 2023
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Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration (2022)
subdirectory_arrow_right Swordquest: Fireworld (Game), SwordQuest: AirWorld (Game), Swordquest: Waterworld (Game), Swordquest: Earthworld (Game), Swordquest (Collection)
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Attachment The SwordQuest series was a series of 4 games developed by Atari, each one having an associated contest to win a one-of-a-kind item from the game made of real gold by finding clues in the game and using them to uncover hidden messages in the attached comic book, then coming to Atari headquarters to compete in a contest version of the respective game. The advertised prizes were:

•Talisman of Penultimate Truth, Earthworld's prize
•Chalice of Light, Fireworld's prize
•Crown of Life, Waterworld's prize
•The Philosopher's Stone, Airworld's prize
•The Sword of Ultimate Sorcery, the grand prize

Halfway through the series, the video game crash of 1983 hit, and it was put to a halt, leaving Airworld, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery unreleased. The Chalice of Light is the only item known to still exist, with all others being believed to have been melted down at some point.

In Atari 50, a game based on Airworld would see release, though it was not based on the work done for the game back in the 1980s.
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Alternate Reality Game, Cancelled Release, Magazine, Merchandise, Remake, Sweepstakes, Unreleased Content, Unsolved Mystery, Unused Items
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 26, 2023
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Cheese Terminator
Cheese Terminator (1992)
subdirectory_arrow_right PC (Microsoft Windows) (Platform)
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Attachment Cheese Terminator was a game given away for users who answered a survey included in the box with Microsoft Windows 3.1 in Eastern European countries. When a player decided to send the survey in in 2016 out of curiousity, they received a floppy disc and USB floppy drive containing the original game, packaged in a box advertising a limited-time free remake, Cheese Terminator: Reloaded, that would be released soon after.
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Real Life, Remake, Sweepstakes
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 12, 2023
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Name This Game
Name This Game (1983)
subdirectory_arrow_right Jaws (Franchise)
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Name This Game was a gimmick release with a self-explanatory title. Originally conceived as a Jaws game for Parker Brothers, it was rethemed with an octopus for Quaker Oats' U.S. Games branch after the license fell through. While U.S. Games originally intended to release it under the name Guardians of Treasure (a combination of creator Ron Dubren's suggestions of Guardians of the Deep and Treasure of the Deep), it was decided to make the game's name the subject of a contest where players could win $10,000 for providing a title for the game. U.S. Games was dissolved by Quaker Oats before the name could be chosen, leaving the game without an official title.
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Reskin, Sweepstakes, Title, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
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The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999)
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Attachment In the European version of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland for Game Boy Color, there is a friendly message to hackers:

Hello There Pilgrim...

If you have hacked this ROM, you no doubt are reading
this text. This game is basically a 2 Meg. Game. However,
Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, has decreed that the
smallest ROM they will produce for the Gameboy Color is
8 Meg. -- Now, what to put in that empty 6 Meg.? So, the
developers of the game decided to put .GIF pictures of
themselves into the game. Why not? Might as well fill the
void with something entertaining. See if you can retrieve
them from this ROM. If you do, you win the prize. Please
call (609) 466-2092 (in New Jersey, USA) if you have been
able to view the two .GIF pictures, located in the rest of
the upper 6 Megs of this ROM. We will have a nice reward
for you...

Good Luck!

Roger W. Amidon
September 28, 2000

The described graphics do indeed exist within the game code. It is unknown who the first person to discover the images were, or if and how they were rewarded. Sadly, Roger W. Amidon has since passed away.
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Console Difference, Hidden Credit, Hidden Message, Sweepstakes, Unused Graphic, Unused Text
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 8, 2023
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Cool Spot
Cool Spot (1993)
subdirectory_arrow_right 7 Up (Franchise)
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Attachment In Cool Spot's manual, a promotional campaign was advertised where players could win a "Cool Prize" if they beat the game under certain circumstances. If you beat the game on any difficulty under Hard, use any of the six "UNCOLA" letters as a free continue, or fail to collect any of the letters at all, you will be greeted with a screen featuring a pair of Spots crying because you did not meet the requirements to win the contest. However, if you beat the game on Hard and have all six "UNCOLA" letters, then you will instead be greeted with a screen of a Spot holding a camera instructing the player to take a picture of the screen and mail it to the address in the game's manual, the headquarters of Virgin Games. This contest ended on December 31, 1993, roughly 8 months after the original Genesis version was released, and not even 4 months after the SNES version was released. According to a TV Tropes entry, the prize was allegedly a cheap plastic Spot toy, although there has been no official confirmation on what prizes were awarded to winners, if any.

One known "winner" of the contest years after the fact was YouTuber Jirard Khalil "The Completionist", who reviewed the game and instead of sending his screen to the now-defunct Virgin Games, he decided to tweet it out to 7 Up's official Twitter account in 2014. This caught their attention for being "crazy, old school and incredible", resulting in them messaging him and asking for his address to send him a prize. The following week, a bizarre PR stunt took place where two "7 Up Women" arrived at The Completionist's offices, bringing with them a pallet of assorted 7 Up, Diet 7 Up, Cherry 7 Up, Sunkist and Snapple drinks, as well as free sunglasses and loudspeakers. Khalil described the event: "They had no idea why they were there, I didn't know why they were there, it was an overall weird experience to say the least."
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Bonus Content, General, Real Life, Social Media, Sweepstakes
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month October 31, 2022
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The Completionist - Cool Spot episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGMxS04HLg#t=800

TV Tropes entry with unproven claim of contest prize:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/CoolSpot

7 Up tweet:
https://twitter.com/7up/status/541985561595375617

The Completionist - Rare picture of Jirard, Greg and the 7 Up Women:
https://imgur.com/Npz3rg8
Franchise: Super Monkey Ball
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Attachment Throughout the Super Monkey Ball franchise, SEGA has partnered with DOLE to promote healthy eating and DOLE fruit in their games, and promote their games by featuring AiAi on banana stickers. Later in 2010 a similar partnership was created between SEGA and Chiquita to promote the Wii's Super Monkey Ball titles such as Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll. There was also a Sweepstakes in which the grand prize was A 50" Flat Screen, A large sofa, four gaming chairs, a copy of Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll, a Wii balance board, Wii Fit plus and various other Wii oriented prizes.
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General, Product Placement, Real Life, Sweepstakes
person Voodin calendar_month August 12, 2014
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Action 52
Action 52 (1991)
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Attachment A contest was planned in which anyone who completed level 5 of the game "Ooze" would be entered in a drawing for $104,000. However, the game locks up on level 2, making this contest impossible. The message can be seen through the use of hacking tools.
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Sweepstakes, Unused Content, Unused Text
person DeerBoarDude calendar_month September 24, 2013
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994)
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic & Knuckles (Game)
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Attachment The game was meant to be longer, but due to time constraints, the high manufacturing costs of a 34 megabit cartridge with NVRAM, and Sega's commitment to a major McDonald's Happy Meal promotion featuring a sweepstakes to win a copy of the game, the decision was made to split the game into two games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. Evidence of this split can be found in the level select menu (sound test), where levels from the second game (such as Flying Battery, Mushroom Vally, and Sandopolis) can be found.
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Bonus Content, Development, Early Idea, General, Merchandise, Music, Sweepstakes, Technology
person gamemaster1991 calendar_month May 6, 2013
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