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Copyright 2001, 2002
Julian McKenzie
In September 1999, Sega Japan were at the height of their Shenmue promotion before the Japanese release at the end of the year. The last huge promotion that Sega launched was at the final game event of the year, the Autumn Tokyo Games Show. At this event, Sega had a whole stand dedicated to Shenmue. Looking back now, we bring you pictures of the event to show how keen Sega were in marketing the most expensive game ever produced.
These two pictures show the front of the stand. There was a real forklift, almost exactly the same as the one in the game, with many crates stacked about. Huge amounts of old 1980s TVs showed videos of the game:
Click to see Pic 1
Click to see Pic 2
These next two pictures show close ups of the crates and monitors:
Click to see Pic 3
Click to see Pic 4
Pics 5 and 6 show the huge video wall and stacks of monitors on the stand:
Click to see Pic 5
Click to see Pic 6
The Project Berkely demo disc showed pictures of ceramic character busts of some of the main characters in the Shenmue series, and these were on display at the show. The following two pics show them:
Click to see Pic 7
Click to see Pic 8
As well as a real forklift, the show also displayed a real model of the motorbike that Ryo borrows of Naoyuki Ito near the end of the game to rescue Nozomi from the harbour with, and on which he has that memorable scene returning from the harbour with Nozomi on the bike. Pic 9 also shows what I guess to be the voice actor for Joy. If anyone can correct me please email me.
Click to see Pic 9
Click to see Pic 10
The Shenmue voice actors were also on hand to speak to visitors at the show. They were dressed in full character costume. Pic 11 is Masaya Matsukaze who plays Ryo, and Pic 12 is Haduki Ishigaki who plays Ling Shenhua:
Click to see Pic 11
Click to see Pic 12
Sega also had a separate stand for selling merchandise in an adjacent hall of the Tokyo Games Show. This picture shows some of the Shenmue gear they had on sale, mousepads and music CDs etc.
Click to see Pic 13
The day before the Tokyo Games Show, Sega held a private press conference. Pics 14 and 15 show Yu Suzuki (and translator) talking about Shenmue and Pics 16 and 17 show the Shenmue presentation they gave.
Click to see Pic 14
Click to see Pic 15
Click to see Pic 16
Click to see Pic 17
At this pre-show conference, they also gave away Shenmue goodie bags containing a booklet, mousepad and mugs. Pic 18 shows the contents:
Click to see Pic 18
This picture is unrelated to the Tokyo Game Show but is of the Shenmue Exhibition which Sega held for three days from May 1st 1999 in Tokyo.
Shenmue Exhibition picture