SPEC - Sega Players Enjoy Club
SPEC, or Sega Players Enjoy Club, was an official fan club organized by Sega of Japan. Fans that joined were issued membership cards and received an official SPEC newsletter. Issues of this newsletter were handmade by game development staff and highlighted many of Sega's popular games at the time, including Phantasy Star.
The newsletter ran for eleven issues over the course of five years. It began with #0 in August 1988 and ended a supplemental, non-numbered issue in 1993. Work began on an additional issue, SPEC #9, but that issue was never finished. Although SPEC #9 was never published in completed form, portions of it did make their way into other works, such as Phantasy Star: Official Production Compendium and Phantasy Star Collection (Saturn).
Among the features of the SPEC newsletter were unique artwork created for the publication and Phantasy Star related comics. At least three comic series ran in the newsletters: "Phantasy Star: Phantom Cities," "Third!," and "Phantasy Star: Outside Saga." Four panel Phantasy Star III comics also appeared.
The following scans from other sources display samples of SPEC issues.
Image Gallery
Release History
| Release Title | Date | Region |
|---|---|---|
| SPEC 0 | August 26, 1988 | Japan |
| SPEC 1 | November 28, 1988 | Japan |
| SPEC 2 | February 6, 1989 | Japan |
| SPEC 3 | May 10, 1989 | Japan |
| SPEC 4 | October 20, 1989 | Japan |
| SPEC 5 | July 1990 | Japan |
| SPEC 6 | September 10, 1990 | Japan |
| SPEC 7 | November 1990 | Japan |
| SPEC 7.5 | July 8, 1991 | Japan |
| SPEC 8 | 1992 | Japan |
| SPEC Supplement | 1993 | Japan |
| SPEC 9 | Not Released | Japan |