Post by teridaxxd001 on May 25, 2023 17:06:16 GMT
Gina Savage was sort of a short-lived, overly-sexualized "action girl" type mascot for the Gameshark (a line of video game cheating devices, in case you don't know). She also has a similarly sexy sidekick named Nikki Sharpe. The Gameshark site had a Flash cartoon series called Week in Review (which itself was once mostly lost), made by an animator named Marc Raley. Week in Review has since been made available in its entirety thanks to Reddit user Samathielle and Marc Raley, when Samathielle contacted Marc Raley about it and he was happy to supply the master SWFs.
Well, he also apparently made a test pilot for a Gina Savage cartoon. A link to it (labeled "V.I.P. ONLY") can be found on an archived snapshot of Gameshark.com's main page from October 18, 2000. It may have been initially announced or further elaborated on in Dangerous Waters/Official Gameshark Magazine, though I'm not sure if scans of many issues are available.
Gina Savage appeared on the box art, disc art and menu of the Gameshark CDX for the original PlayStation and Dreamcast. She was featured in Dangerous Waters magazine and Gameshark.com, as well as being portrayed live by a model at trade shows, alongside her sidekick Nikki Sharpe. She was apparently designed by Rich Larson and Steve Fastner, a team of fantasy artists who seem to specialize in nude or otherwise erotic illustrations of women. A concept drawing by Larson can be seen here, which greatly differs from her final design (seen here). A photo of the live show portrayals of Gina and Nikki can be found here, and a scan of an issue of Gameshark Magazine can be found here, with some Gina Savage material, particularly on page 10.
Samathielle mentions contacting Marc Raley about the short after another user brought it up, though no indication was given that he ever responded to this inquiry, despite the thread being over four years old and Samathielle replying to a comment on it only nine months ago. Did the contact suddenly break between the preservation of Week in Review and this question? Who knows.
