Treasure trove of Sega Channel roms, source code, and development tools found

[ElkPlaysAndPaints]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/07/mega_cd_super_strike_trilogy_prototype_reaches_a_playable_state

https://www.assemblergames.com/threads/a-bunch-of-saturn-dev-software.60654/

I thought this would absolutely be worth sharing on Segabits. (It's ironic how only a Nintendo fan website has reported this so far, at least as far as I'm aware)

Someone actually found old floppy disks and CDs containing a bunch of lost developer files for Sega Genesis, CD, 32X, and even Saturn. Among the files, there is source code for Sega's Spider-Man game on Genesis and Sega CD, several Sega Channel roms from several months in it's life, along with text files with game titles, news broadcasts, and game hints that were shown on Sega Channel, and development files for Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. There was also a collection of files for an unreleased Sega CD game called the Super Strike Trilogy, which was a collection of EA's Jungle Strike, Urban Strike, and Desert Strike games for Genesis, but all in one Sega CD disc.

Headcrab, who is developing Tanglewood for Sega Genesis, even found a file among this stuff that was pivotal to unlocking the full potential of the Sega Mega-CD development kit that he's currently using to make Tanglewood. He even used it to make the Super Strike Trilogy into a partially working ISO. He's now hoping to use it to make something special for Sega CD, but hasn't said whether or not it could be related to Tanglewood in any way.

I looked at all the Sega Channel roms and it was pretty cool. They're all different menus, all of which are decorated to match the holidays of a certain month, and have old news reports, such as announcing Tom Kalinske being a key speaker at the first ever E3 event, and old contest details. One rom is also a Sega Channel music player. There's also several full game roms included of games from Time Warner, Tengen, and Konami which were all at some points playable from Sega Channel. There's even a collection of roms for the Japanese Sega Channel including Game no Kanzume Otokuyou (http://segaretro.org/Game_no_Kanzume_Otokuyou).

What's really got me excited, however, is the development tools. There's files and documents detailing how to develop games and 3D graphics for the 32X and Saturn as well as sound drivers for Sega CD. Not to mention there's that file that Headcrab needed for his Mega-CD development kit which was also included. This could potentially be a huge boon for independent game development for those systems. It also sheds more light on the technical details of how those systems worked.

I'm so glad all this stuff was found and can now be achieved. Every little bit is an important part of video game history preservation. I encourage everyone to check all this stuff out.

[Berto]

That was awesome. I wonder what Headcrab would do after he finished Tanglewood.

I also like the fact that Nintendolife's very often reporting SEGA related news.
Of course there's always a user complained "why is this being reported on NintendoLife?".

Usually NL won't care but this time they commented, "Retro is history. Retro is important knowledge. Retro is not only Nintendo. If I didn't think this news was important, I would not have submitted it. I believe you will find most of the staff and public will agree. "Nintendo Life" isn't "Nintendo Supreme Doctrine". "

[ElkPlaysAndPaints]

That was awesome. I wonder what Headcrab would do after he finished Tanglewood.

I also like the fact that Nintendolife's very often reporting SEGA related news.
Of course there's always a user complained "why is this being reported on NintendoLife?".

Usually NL won't care but this time they commented, "Retro is history. Retro is important knowledge. Retro is not only Nintendo. If I didn't think this news was important, I would not have submitted it. I believe you will find most of the staff and public will agree. "Nintendo Life" isn't "Nintendo Supreme Doctrine". "

I hope he does do something cool with it, like a Sega CD port or perhaps making his next game a Sega CD game if he decides to make a new game

It's funny, cause I hear a lot of people say that whenever NintendoLife reports on Nintendo doing or having once done something cool there's always people who say they're fanboys blindly praising Nintendo just cause it's a Nintendo focused site, even though they do criticize Nintendo when it's appropriate. I'm sure Segabits knows that feeling all too well.

Either way, I'm glad someone noticed this and shared this news. If more people download all this data like I did, then that means we'll have multiple copies of all this stuff floating around if anything happens to the original source. That "Retro is history. etc." motto is very true and I'm happy NintendoLife understands that