John McClain

Developer BIO

John McClain was hired by Sega of Japan in 1993, after a friend saw an ad in the Japan Times for someone "with knowledge of weapons, sports and videogames". He joined the "foreign game manual department" that tested games (to some extent), wrote, edited and laid out software manuals for systems including the Master System, Game Gear, Genesis, Sega CD and Sega Saturn. Of the seven manual writers in the section, he was usually given the role-playing games due to his fanatical devotion to that genre. At the beginning, manual credits were not always included, and even when they were, manual writers were still not always listed. And even when they were, we sometimes used pseudonyms (e.g. Number 6 at the Village, used by John McClain on occasion).

In his last year at Sega he also worked on a number of hardware manuals for Sega CD and Sega Saturn accessories. When Sega decided to move all of its manual production facilities to Sega of America, the employees were asked to relocate to within other sections of the company to work in business translations or other functions, and John McClain decided to say sayonara to Sega. He now works as a graphic designer in Honolulu Hawaii. Aloha. Now go play a videogame, will ya?

In the five years he spent at Sega of Japan, he wrote manuals including:

Batman Returns, Ecco the Dolphin, Jurassic Park, Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II, Bio-Hazard Battle, Eternal Champions, Lightening Force, Virtua Racing, Beyond Oasis, Prince of Persia, Blazing Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Shining Force, Shining Force II, Cyber Speedway, Dark Savior, Virtua Cop, Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA...

I'm sure there's more, but even with Moby's excellent search capabilities I can't remember them all!

Websites

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Games Credited

Panzer Dragoon (1997), Expert Software, Inc.
Dark Savior (1996), SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
Daytona USA (1996), SEGA Entertainment, Inc.
Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei (1996), SEGA of America, Inc.
Sonic 3D Blast (1996), SEGA of America, Inc.
Blazing Heroes (1995), SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
Pebble Beach Golf Links (1995), SEGA of America, Inc.
Wing Arms (1995), SEGA Corporation
Shining Force CD (1994), SEGA Enterprises Ltd.