Author Archives: Barry

The Jetzons “Hard Times” – Inspiration for Sonic The Hedgehog 3’s Ice Cap Zone – Receiving Limited Edition Vinyl Release

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Savvy Sonic fans might remember eight years ago when it was discovered that the song “Hard Times” from the group The Jetzons was the inspiration for Sonic The Hedgehog 3‘s Ice Cap Zone. The reason for the resemblance to Ice Cap Zone’s music, as detailed by our sister site Sonic Retro was that “The keyboardist of the group, Brad Buxer would work on the title, along with Michael Jackson as he confirmed in [an] interview conducted in the same year. While he does state he is not sure what material the developers used in the game, turns out to be remnants of the unreleased song.”

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SEGA Talk Podcast #52: SEGA Channel (1994)

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SEGA Talk is taking a break from games to talk about one of the earliest digital rental services ever to launch, the Sega Channel. How did SEGA get games beamed from you cable provider on to your Sega Genesis/Mega Drive? What was reception like and how did it work? Let’s explore on this episode of SEGA Talk!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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EXCLUSIVE: Sonic & Knuckles Rock the Rock Revisited with Chris Tang – Beating the Previous Record!

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High Score is a new documentary series on Netflix charting the history of video games. While the whole series is recommended to SEGA fans, the fourth episode in particular is a must watch. The episode, titled “This is War”, covers the console wars of SEGA’s push to outsell Nintendo in the United States. SEGA all-stars, and friends to the site, Tom Kalinske (former President and CEO of SEGA of America) and game designer and gaming tournament champion Chris Tang are featured in the episode. Chris is known best to Sonic fans as the winner of SEGA and MTV’s Rock the Rock competition in 1994.

Following the Netflix series debut, I got to talking to Chris and he revealed to me that the production of the documentary prompted him to revisit Sonic & Knuckles and redo the Rock the Rock’s finals competition run. The rules being collect the most rings in Launch Base Zone in 3 minutes as Knuckles. Chris, always the competitor, wanted to go up against himself and see if his current skills and abilities could outdo his previous win. After a day of practice, Chris fired up his recording devices and recorded this run that we are proud to debut exclusively here at SEGAbits!

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SEGA Forever Pop-Up Facts Video Reveals Early “NiGHTS into dreams…” Box Art

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To celebrate the anniversary weekend of NiGHTS into dreams…, SEGA has reduced the price of the Steam release by 85%, making it just $1.19! We here at SEGAbits love the original Saturn classic, as well as the holiday themed demo disc Christmas NiGHTS (so much so, we reviewed and rated it an A+.)

In addition to the sale, the SEGA Forever YouTube channel shared a cool pop-up trivia video which reveals an early design of NiGHTS in some mocked-up concept cover art. In our opinion, it’s kind of creepy, but still a very cool find. By the way, if you like clean high res art from SEGA classics, we highly recommend following SEGA Forever on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Recent posts include some great promotional renders for NiGHTS, Gain Ground art and very blocky Virtua Racing renders.

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SEGA Talk Podcast #51: ChuChu Rocket! (1999)

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Barry and George return to the SEGA Dreamcast era with a look back at a Sonic Team puzzle game classic: ChuChu Rocket! This beloved game has seen not only a successful online console release, but also a long history on mobile and handheld devices. Join us as we uncover stories from the game’s development, discuss what it was like playing the game on release and explore the future of ChuChu Rocket!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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More SEGA Astro City Mini Games Revealed – Plus Accessory Kit Announced

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When we first shared the news about SEGA’s Astro City Mini, it was revealed that the plug and play would include 36 arcade classics. At the time, 10 were revealed, and today we learned of an additional 13 games! The newly announced titles include:

  • Cotton
  • Shinobi
  • Shadow Dancer
  • E-SWAT
  • Crack Down
  • Gain Ground
  • Puyo Puyo
  • Columns
  • Bonanza Bros.
  • Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R
  • Wonder Boy
  • Wonder Boy in Monster Land
  • Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

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Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois Debuts Incredibly Rare SEGA R360 Arcade Machine – Only Publicly Playable Machine in America

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I’ve covered the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois a bit here on SEGAbits. Mainly because it is just a short drive away from the SEGAbits Midwest HQ (or SEGAbits Building 2 as I will now refer to it as). The arcade opened in August 2010, and has since expanded to fill an entire block of storefront property in the Chicagoland suburb. In the past, the arcade has debuted countless SEGA classics and hidden treasures including Space Harrier, Air Bike Cop, Star Wars Arcade and Ribbit.

As the arcade nears 800 games and hits its 10 year anniversary, arcade owner Doc Mack has long wanted to celebrate the milestone by debuting the ultra rare and expensive SEGA R360. The process to obtain one has been in the works for a while, with Doc even reaching out to SEGAbits for help in finding somebody willing to part with one. Thankfully, it looks like Doc’s efforts paid off as now, for the first time in decades, a functioning SEGA R360 machine is publicly playable in America!

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SEGA’s Aaron Webber Accepts Role at SEGA of Japan as Director of Strategy, Studio & Community Relations

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Aaron Webber, longtime friend to the site and a legend among Sonic and SEGA fans, has had a long career with SEGA of America. Joining SEGA in 2008, Aaron worked as a Game Master for Phantasy Star Universe, an Assistant Community Manager and then as Associate Brand Manager before a brief departure from the company in 2014. Then, in 2015, Aaron returned to act as PR & Social Media Manager and then Senior Social Media Manager for the Sonic the Hedgehog brand. It was during this period that Sonic saw a social media EXPLOSION with national attention on how he and his team handled the brand’s social media accounts.

Now, Aaron has accepted a role with SEGA of Japan as Director of Strategy, Studio & Community Relations. While not much has been said of Aaron’s day to day responsibilities, he has said “besides Sonic, this means I get to support a lot of great SEGA teams – first up is PSO2 which just launched on Steam!”

We here at SEGAbits congratulate Aaron and wish him luck on his new role at SEGA’s Japan offices.

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SEGA Akihabara Arcade, Building 2, Closing Permanently on August 30

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Earlier this month it was announced that SEGA Building 2, a Japanese SEGA arcade in Akihabara, will be closing its doors for good on August 30. While no official reason has been given, some speculate that SEGA are competing with themselves as the 1st, 3rd, 4th and recently opened 5th SEGA arcades in the area draw much more foot traffic thanks to being near stations and busy roads. It has also been said that Building 2 is cramped and is difficult to navigate.

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SEGA Talk Podcast #50: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992)

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On this, our milestone 50th episode of SEGA Talk, George and Barry look back on the development, release and legacy of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. We cover the game’s unique creation in America, the debut of Miles “Tails” Prower and the comics and cartoon adaptations that took place following the game’s release.

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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Did You Know: Sonic the Hedgehog Sneezes When Danger is Near!

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Just as we shared the news that Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu is a virgin, comes another bombshell about a favorite SEGA character. Did you know that Sonic the Hedgehog sneezes when danger is near?

The obscure Sonic fact came up when we posted a couple of weird Sonic the Hedgehog 2 pins on Twitter, one of which appears to have Sonic sneezing on Tails’ butt. We received a reply from @RanenWise who said “It was an early Sonic thing (that’s kinda mentioned now..at times?) that he’d sneeze when danger was approaching. I mainly remember it being in Sonic CD’s intro.”

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Phantasy Star Online 2 launches on Steam on August 5th

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Phantasy Star Online 2 has been available in North America for several months, but only for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. All that changes on August 5th when Phantasy Star Online 2 releases to Steam for PC. Along with the date announcement came a slew of special rewards which allow you to wear costumes and decorations from Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. This isn’t the first time SEGA and Valve joined forces, as fans might remember when Renegade Ops and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed crossed paths with Valve franchises.

Read more about the Steam rewards at the PSO2 website, and in the meantime mark your calendars for August 5th!

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Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima present BALAN WONDERWORLD, a new platformer published by Square Enix

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While we’re quite late in covering this, I did think it was necessary to news the reveal of Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima’s project at Square Enix seeing as we had an article about Naka’s Square Enix project last year. BALAN WONDERWORLD is an entirely new 3D action-platformer with hints of NiGHTS into Dreams and classic Squaresoft art styles. As described in the video above, the game features a costume system (of which there are over 80) which gives the player various actions. Different costumes will allow the player to solve the game’s puzzles and progress through the stages.

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