- Source: SegaSoft
SegaSoft, originally headquartered in Redwood City, California and later San Francisco, was a joint venture by Sega and CSK (Sega's majority stockholder at the time), created in 1995 to develop and publish games for the PC and Sega Saturn, primarily in the North American market.
SegaSoft was responsible for, among other things, the Heat.net multiplayer game system and publishing the last few titles made by Rocket Science Games.
History
In 1996, SegaSoft announced that they would be publishing games for all viable platforms, not just Saturn and PC. This, however, never came to fruition, as in January 1997 SegaSoft restructured to focus on the PC and online gaming.
SegaSoft disbanded in 2000 with staff layoffs. Many of them were reassigned to Sega.com, a new company established to handle Sega's online presence in the United States.
Published games
Incomplete List
10Six
Alien Race
Bug Too!
Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover
Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover 2
Da Bomb
Emperor of the Fading Suns
Essence Virtual Makeover
Fatal Abyss
Flesh Feast
Golf: The Ultimate Collection
Lose Your Marbles
Grossology
Mr. Bones
Net Fighter
Obsidian
Plane Crazy
Puzzle Castle
Rocket Jockey
Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection
Scud: The Disposable Assassin
Scud: Industrial Evolution
The Space Bar
Three Dirty Dwarves
Trampoline-Fractured Fairy Tales: A Frog Prince
Vigilance
Cancelled games
G.I. Ant
Heat Warz
Ragged Earth
Sacred Pools
Skies
Heat.net
Heat.net, stylized HEAT.NET, was an online PC gaming system produced by SegaSoft and launched in 1997 during Bernie Stolar's tenure as SEGA of America president. Heat.net hosted both Sega-published first- and second-party games, as well as popular third-party games of the era, such as Quake II and Baldur's Gate. Much like Kali, it also allowed users to play any IPX network-compatible game, regardless of whether or not it was designed for the Internet. Each supported game had its own chat lobby and game creation options. In addition, players could add friends and chat privately with them. Heat.net and its sister service, SEGANet, are considered ahead of their time and precursors to both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
Heat.net essentially combined the network, client, and protocol technologies of the MPlayer system (obtained under license) with the IPX tunneling package Kahn. However, the client software eliminated the Voxware voice features, as SegaSoft's engineers found that most bugs in the MPlayer software were in the voice module. Heat.net branded itself as a peaceful alternative to real-world violence with advertising slogans such as "Total peace through cyberviolence" and "Kill pixels not people."
It featured a currency system where the player earned "degrees" through playing games, trivia contests (both game-related and general), viewing ads, or other actions. Degrees could be spent, but only by premium members, at Heat.net's online store, the Black Market, which had computer games and related merchandise. On May 6, 1999, SEGA announced it had partnered with Chips & Bits' online game superstore which allowed players a vast selection of games, hardware and even magazine subscriptions.
The degree system was highly flawed and non-active players could leave their PCs logged into servers and earn degrees. Rooms were established for idle players to sit and earn degrees. Heat.net established "parking police" to discover these servers but players discovered other ways to falsely earn points.
Other features included tracking of user rankings on individual profile pages. Heat.net had a loyalty program, in which members, known as "Foot Soldiers", received shirts and Heat.net dog tags.
Heat.net was also the home of a collegiate gaming league called HeatCIGL (College Internet Game League). Students from 1,100 registered schools would play Quake III: Arena or Unreal Tournament in teams representing their colleges, with play-offs at the end of the season. The championship team received $5,000. The league also gave away a $5,000 "Excellence in Gaming" College Scholarship.
In September 2000, it was announced that Heat.net and HeatCIGL would be shutting down on October 31, 2000.
In June 2008, CNET hailed Heat.net as one of the greatest defunct websites in history.
= Partial list of games supported on Heat.Net
=Sega-published titles
10SIX
Fatal Abyss
Flesh Feast
Flying Heroes
Net Fighter
Plane Crazy
Scud: Industrial Evolution
Vigilance
Third-party titles
Age of Empires
Age of Empires II
Age of Wonders
Army Men
Army Men II
Baldur's Gate
Battlezone
Blood (video game)
Blood II: The Chosen
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty
Darkstone
DeathDrome
Descent
Diablo
Duke Nukem 3D
Get Medieval
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto II
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Hexen II
Kingpin: Life of Crime
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
NAM
Postal
Quake
Quake II
Quake III: Arena
Railroad Tycoon II
Red Alert
Redneck Rampage
Redline
Requiem: Avenging Angel
Sin
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Take No Prisoners
Total Annihilation
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
Unreal Tournament
Uprising: Join or Die
Uprising 2: Lead and Destroy
Warbreeds
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
Warlords III: Reign of Heroes
WWII GI
References
External links
Official Website (ARCHIVED)
SegaSoft at GameFAQs
SegaSoft at MobyGames
SegaSoft at IGN
Photos of the SegaSoft team at E3
More information about HeatCIGL