SEGA Talk Podcast #133: SegaSonic The Hedgehog (1993)

Let’s spin that trackball as we join franchise star Sonic the Hedgehog and newcomers Ray and Mighty as they try to escape Eggman’s fortress. We take this wild trip down memory lane looking at this obscure Sonic arcade game!

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Homebrew port of Konami’s X-Men arcade game being worked on for Saturn; playable demo now available

We’ve talked al lot about homebrew developers porting games to Genesis/Mega-Drive lately, so lets switch things up with a homebrew Saturn port this time. Developer hotrodx is working on converting the 1992 X-Men arcade beat-em-up by Konami to the Sega Saturn and now has a demo ready for the public to try out.

X-Men is one of the most beloved arcade classics of all time and one of the shining examples of classic beat-em-ups, right up there with Sega’s own Streets of Rage series, but somehow the game never received an official home port on any game console in the 90’s. Decades later, it would finally receive official home ports to PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, an iOS port in 2011, and its own Arcade1up home arcade cabinet in 2011. Only the latter is still available, as the digital-only 2010 port was removed from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace in 2013 with the iOS version going away in 2014.

The port is early in development, with the demo available as of this writing being version 0.1.1. The demo only consists of the first stage and gives you access to only two characters: Wolverine and Cyclops. Developer hotrodx also has a message displayed in the demo saying that they’re not using any source code derived from the original game and are, instead, eyeballing the whole game, trying to match the arcade game’s feel as much as possible. It sounds difficult, but based on this demo, they seem to be on the right track, but you can try it with an ODE such as a Fenrir, Satiator, or Phøde on real NTSC Saturn hardware and judge for yourself.

The download link will be past the break, along with a video of the demo in action.

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Japanese porn video includes an unexpected tour of an early 2000s arcade

Twitter/X user @suddendesu stumbled upon a Japanese porn video titled 超ハード変態娘 変態羞恥感じる露出女!!(roughly translated, it’s “A super hard perverted girl. An exposed woman who feels perverted and embarrassed! !”). How he stumbled upon it? I won’t judge, I’ve found my fare share of video game related gems in weird old Japanese porn videos (Google “Cosplay International” for some real weird Space Channel 5 content).

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Rare 1980 SEGA Samurai arcade cabinet found and restored

This is an odd story. An arcade auction in Texas ended up auctioning off a rare 1980 SEGA Samurai arcade cabinet without even being aware of it. Patrick Scott Patterson, who reached out to us to share the news, was bidding on a Mr. Do! arcade cabinet that was a converted SEGA Samurai cabinet. Because nobody was aware of the cabinet’s past life, Patrick was able to win the machine easily. Throughout May 2023, Patrick stripped off the forty year old paint to reveal the artwork for Samurai. Once the project was completed, Patrick had himself a Samurai cabinet with all the lovely artwork intact.

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SEGA in the Media: Ellie plays Daytona USA in HBO Max’s The Last of Us

Its a video game inception post! In episode seven of HBO Max’s The Last of Us (which, believe it or not, is based on a video game), our lead character Ellie has a flashback episode remembering her time with an old friend where she was taken to an abandon mall which happens to feature a full set of working arcade machines. Aren’t they lucky? Ellie then bursts out that the arcades are “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen”.

The episode shows Ellie trying out her driving skills on Daytona USA before they continue to play Mortal Kombat II, while it isn’t a SEGA video game, it was pretty prolific game on the SEGA Genesis. They also have the original Tetris machine which has a history with SEGA, as the Japanese rights for Tetris Arcade used to belong to SEGA.

Any other arcade machines you guys noticed during this episode?

Rare English version of SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter ROM released publicly online

Everybody loves a good dump, especially when it comes to ROMs. Twitter user @iamamazing100 has announced that a rare English version of the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter has been dumped and is now publicly available online. The game is not playable just yet, as it must be added to MAME, however @iamamazing100 has shared the audio files which showcase a very funny Superman style voice for Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Eggman’s voice, which oddly is more befitting for Sonic. It’s great to see that after 30 years we still are seeing new old Sonic content being uncovered!

Once the game is playable on MAME, we’ll be sure to news it! 

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SEGA Talk #102: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (2010)

Buckle up because on this SEGA Talk, we put the pedal to the metal and hit the road to talk about Sumo Digital’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! What are the origins of this racing franchise? What characters didn’t make the cut? What is a Bentley Jones? Click play and find out!

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SEGA showcases nine arcade games for Amusement Expo

SEGA Amusements has put together a short video showcasing what arcade games the company has for 2022. Some of the games we’ve seen talked about before like Mission Impossible Arcade DLX, but the video also showcases smaller titles like Capto Crane and Polar Slide.

The video features:

  • VR Agent
  • Mission Impossible Arcade DLX
  • Jet Blaster
  • Men in Black
  • Jumanji
  • Polar Slide
  • Power Roll
  • Capto Crane
  • Pushing Points

I know that lately people have assumed SEGA has pulled out of the arcade markets because they sold their arcade management business, but that isn’t true. SEGA is, as of right now, still creating arcade games but just doesn’t own most of its Japanese venues anymore.

SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic’s Boots & SEGA’s Arcades

Let’s discuss the shocking revelations pertaining to Sonic’s feet! Oh, and that small bit of news about SEGA pulling out of the arcade operations role for good. All that and the past month’s news on this SEGA News Bits Live!

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GENDA SEGA Entertainment Changes Name to GENDA GiGO, Fully Acquiring SEGA’s Japanese Arcade Management Division

Cha-cha-changes are happening with SEGA’s arcade division in Japan. If you guys have been keeping up with the news since Covid, SEGA went from trying to launch its own innovative cloud based “FOG” system, to closing down iconic SEGA Arcade landmark locations and even selling 85.1% of its arcade management business to GENDA!

At the time, GENDA announced it would keep the SEGA branding at actual locations and name the company GENDA SEGA Entertainment. Seems plans have changed as GENDA has announced it will rename the company GENDA GiGO. Not only that, the company also announced it was buying the last remaining 14.9% of shares owned by SEGA, meaning SEGA doesn’t have any say in the company (and probably didn’t seeing as they had minority control). SEGA is completely out of the arcade management business! This is a end of a long, historical era for the company.

This doesn’t mean SEGA isn’t making arcade games still, it just means they no longer manage and own their 200 plus locations that they used to manage before Covid. Now I wonder if these arcade locations will still keep the SEGA branding they promised…

UPDATE: Arcade Heroes have confirmed that the existing locations will remove the SEGA branding and replace it with GiGO.

[Translated by: @Gosokkyu]

SEGA’s Mission: Impossible Arcade DX cabinets begin shipping in America & Europe

For old school SEGA fans, before their entry into the (and then exit of) console market, the company had always been about arcades and still are. The latest entry is a licensed Mission: Impossible game that hos now begun shipping its Deluxe cabinets around America and Europe. SEGA’s arcade division isn’t a stranger to using licenses to create high quality arcade experiences since they’ve also made games based around Die Hard, Rambo and even recently Transformers.

SEGA Announces The SEGA Astro City Mini V

In the past we talked about the SEGA Astro City Mini, a mini console designed to mimic SEGA’s Astro City line of arcade machines that comes packaged with 37 SEGA arcade games. Well it looks like SEGA is ready to release a new successor, named the SEGA Astro City Mini V. As the name implies, the main difference between the original mini arcade cabinet and the new one is that the SEGA Astro City Mini V system has a vertical (aka portrait) screen. Another major difference is the larger emphasis on third party games instead of SEGA’s own arcade titles, including games such as Raiden, Truxton (aka Tatsujin), and Gunbird. 22 games have been revealed for the SEGA Astro City Mini V, which can be viewed under the read more tag below.

Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade machine revealed

Toe Jam and Earl creator Greg Johnson’s HumaNature Studios has teamed with iiRcade to produce a Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade cabinet featuring 128GB of storage and two-player Sanwa controls. The machine runs on an Android based OS, optimized for gaming, so while Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove comes pre-loaded the machine will also play a variety of other games. The machine is up for pre-order now at $599.99, and looks to be the perfect premium holiday gift for the Toe Jam and Earl fan in your life.

SEGA News Bits LIVE: Classic Sonic EXPOSED

This week, we talk about revelations of Classic Sonic revealed in the recent content added to Apple Arcade’s Sonic Racing, SEGA’s arcade plans in Japan and unbox the new Mega Drive Tower Mini Zero!

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If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.