Last month we shared the news that Retro-bit would be creating USB, bluetooth and classic controllers for the SEGA Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast, with the products debuting at CES 2018. Well CES 2018 is happening now, and images of the Retro-bit SEGA products are online! The community section of the RGT 85 Facebook page and Madlittlepixel show us just what we can expect from the new line of products. After the break, let’s check out the images and see what we can see!
Seen above (click for high res version) is new art from Yasushi Yamaguchi aka Judy Totoya, the character designer of Sonic the Hedgehog’s trusty sidekick Miles “Tails” Prower. Yasushi’s design came out of an internal competition at STI where numerous designs were submitted, including a rocket-powered turtle named Boomer, but in the end Yasushi’s two-tailed orange fox named Miles Prower won out. As Tails turned 25 years old with the 25th anniversary of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in November, 2017, Yasushi decided to create new art to celebrate. Yasushi also revealed some facts about the character’s creation, seen after the break!
Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works, an upcoming book from Read-Only Memory, is the followup to SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Successfully backed on Kickstarter late last year, Read-Only Memory sent a new years update to backers and boy is it an exciting one! Read-Only Memory received a large amount of production materials from SEGA of Japan, including several never-before-seen pieces from popular Dreamcast games. Included in the haul are:
Game mechanic sketches, environment concepts and high end renderings for Sonic Adventure
The complete design document for Jet Set Radio/Jet Grind Radio, including some amazing graffiti artwork concepts
A very early proof of concept video for Space Channel 5
Character studies and production artwork for Phantasy Star Online
Storyboards, character designs and environment artworks for Shenmue
Read-Only Memory will spend the coming weeks sorting through all the materials and identifying pieces to include in the book, with the final cut of the book to be laid out in a few months. Also revealed is that photoshoots for the Hardware Showcase chapter of the book will be taking place in the next few weeks, featuring everything from consoles to the fishing controller to the Samba de Amigo maracas. If you’re the proud owner of a Dreamcast hardware rarity you think should make the final cut, please do drop Read-Only Memory a line!
We here at SEGAbits can’t wait to get our hands on the book, and in the meantime we’re working to get Darren Wall of Read-Only Memory back for another Swingin’ Report Show podcast.
We’re only a week into 2018 and we already have our first indie Genesis/Mega Drive (and Dreamcast) game about to be successfully backed on Kickstarter. With a little over two days to go, the top-down arcade style shooter Xeno Crisis is $80,382 pledged of its $27,138 goal. As the campaign nears its end, the team has released a new video showcasing more gameplay footage including footage of the new female marine and 2 player co-operative play.
The Treasure classic Gunstar Heroes has been added to the SEGA Forever mobile lineup, available to download now on Google Play and the App Store. If Gunstar Heroes on iOS sounds familiar, it’s because the game released to that platform 7 years ago. Those who have previously downloaded the iOS version of the game will be able to restore their purchase for the premium SEGA Forever version. A new addition to the mobile version is cross-platform local multiplayer over Wi-Fi. You can interact with the SEGA Forever team on Twitter at twitter.com/segaforever and follow them if you’re so inclined, as they post some pretty cool stuff.
We’re a bit late in newsing this, as the game released to around the busy holidays, but better late than never!
New year, new indie games! As we return from the holiday season, we look ahead to what indie developers have in store for our classic SEGA hardware in 2018. Thanks to SEGAbits Forums member Berto, we have a helpful topic which compiles all the upcoming SEGA indie games for 2018. Keep Berto’s topic bookmarked, as he will be updating it throughout the year as new games are announced.
Clicking on the games names after the break will bring you to the respective crowdfunding campaigns, pre-orders and ROM/ISO download links should they be available. So what indie SEGA games are coming in 2018?
Nearly a year ago today, I shared a list of indie games coming to classic SEGA consoles in 2017. While I’m hard at work on a 2018 list, which includes some who didn’t make their 2017 deadline, I wanted to report on the Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and Dreamcast game Xeno Crisis. Releasing in both physical and digital formats, the game is an arena shooter for up to two platers and takes inspiration from games like Smash TV, Contra, Mercs, Granada, Alien Syndrome, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Chaos Engine and Shock Troopers. Currently, the game is in the prototype stage and the plan is to release the game in October of 2018 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Mega Drive.
The campaign ends in 5 days, and currently they have $68,726 pledged of a $27,038 goal. You can learn more about the project here, and as always with a Kickstarter campaign, read everything carefully before making your mind up on backing or not.
ATLUS has today announced that Catherine: Full Body, the remake of 2011’s Catherine, will be heading to the west. Release date and pricing is unknown at this time, but information will be revealed in the future. As we’ve detailed in our previous news stories, Catherine: Full Body will feature a new love interest, new storyline elements and additional puzzle content. For more information, you can check out the official website at catherinethegame.com/fullbody.
We’ll be sure to share more about the western release as we hear it, in the meantime you can check out the press release after the break!
The SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show is back with returning guest Chris Tang! Chris is a game designer and gaming tournament champion, and was recently inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. SEGA fans know Chris as the winner of SEGA’s Sonic & Knuckles Rock the Rock competition in 1994, and before that Chris was a finalist in 1990’s Nintendo World Championships. Since then, Chris has worked on games at Atari and Capcom, including Gauntlet IV, Primal Rage, Street Fighter III, Rival Schools and Power Stone. Chris is also the yearly announcer for the Tetris World Championships and originator of the BOOM! Tetris for Jeff meme.
Currently, Chris is hard at work on Flight Armor Project: STRIKE HARBINGER (working title – subject to change), a new game inspired by classic SEGA titles like Space Harrier. The game combines the fast paced forward flying gameplay of Space Harrier with the RPG and combat elements of Phantasy Star while utilizing a unique arcade control structure that evokes Virtual On. The game is developed by HitSparks Games, and features the work of senior artist Kiyoshi Okuma, whose past work includes Gauntlet: Legends, World Series Baseball 2K2, The Sims 2 and Darkspore.
I sat down with Chris for an update on the development of Flight Armor Project: STRIKE HARBINGER, including the incredibly fun two player mode, and to discuss more of his past career, his work as an announcer for the Tetris World Championships and his recent induction into the International Video Game Hall of Fame.
Earlier this month we shared the news that SEGA teamed up with The Yokosuka Action Promotion Committee to design a map of Yokosuka, Japan. Why? Well, because Yokosuka was the setting of SEGA’s hit game Shenmue. Since the game’s release, fans have visited the locations from the game, using fan made guides and videos. But now, SEGA has officially put their stamp on the region with this guide! The guide was originally Japanese only, but now we have the English language version, which you can download here.
Have you ever played a rerelease of a classic SEGA game and felt that it just didn’t feel quite right with a modern controller? Well we could be seeing classic SEGA controllers for modern hardware soon, as retro gaming hardware manufacturer Retro-bit has announced a collaboration with SEGA. The official press release states that the plan is to produce accessories for SEGA’s platforms which includes, but is not limited to, SEGA Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast. The first products to be released will include accessories that match the quality of the originals, made for use on original hardware as well as USB for PC use and Bluetooth wireless. These new products will debut in the Innex booth #21023 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES 2018.
This is very exciting, as games like Sonic Mania, Jet Set Radio HD and NiGHTS HD all would benefit from the original controllers. Also, the notion of a new Dreamcast pad for original hardware being made in 2018 is just sort of crazy and cool. Also, new USB Saturn pads would be amazing.
2018 might be a quiet year for Sonic the Hedgehog games, but the world of merchandise appears to be heating up. Not only will IDW debut their spin on the Sonic franchise, but TOMY will be releasing many more action figures and plush toys from the modern, classic and Sonic Boom character lineups. TOMY has been in the Sonic action figure business for two years, so they have released some figures but there are still several characters that they have yet to release. Let’s take a look at what collector’s can expect in 2018!
The SEGA Forever free-to-play mobile lineup expanded today, with the classic SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis beat ’em up Streets of Rage joining the fight. Released in 1991, Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle in Japan) was SEGA’s answer to Final Fight and Double Dragon. Players take control of Adam, Axel or Blaze in a bare knuckle battle to take down a criminal syndicate led by Mr. X. This version of the game has local multiplayer over Wi-Fi, so you and a friend can play together. We here at SEGAbits love Streets of Rage, and we know SEGA fans do too as it made #44 on our Top 100 SEGA Games list.
Streets of Rage is available now on the Google Play store and App Store. You can follow @SEGAForever on Twitter and share your thoughts on the lineup using the hashtag #SEGAForever.
After the break, give our SEGA Talk podcast a listen as we discuss the history of Streets of Rage!
Sad news for SEGA fans. We’ve learned that Tom Petit, co-founder of Sega Enterprises, Inc. (USA) and president and CEO of the company for eight years, passed away at his home in Durango, Colorado on November 21, 2017. Tom worked in the video game industry for more than 28 years, with leadership positions at Atari, Nintendo and SEGA.
I’ll admit, in assembling information about Tom’s time with SEGA, I could not find a lot. I still do not have a firm idea of when he was at SEGA, though he did appear in news stories from 1986-1991. I came across an interview he did when the SEGA arcade game Time Traveler released in 1991 (seen above) and found this fun article on Tom and David Rosen at the 1986 JAMMA Arcade Game Show where OutRun was unveiled. I am also under the impression that Tom was the president and CEO of the coin-op side of things for America.
In 2004, Tom retired from the industry and started a career in ranch real estate development. His hobbies included fly fishing and scuba diving. A memorial service is planned for the summer of 2018, and you can leave a tribute here. We’ll provide more information on Tom Petit’s career as we find it.
Sonic Runners, the Sonic Team developed always online 2D runner, was released in February 2015 and shut down in June 2016. While there was a good game there, SEGA made the mistake of including unfair casino-style awards and making the game always online. Since then, Gameloft has reworked the concept into Sonic Runners Adventure which received a soft launch in June 2017. The follow-up features gameplay tweaks and the ability to play offline. Now, Gameloft has announced the game will soon receive a wide release on the App Store and Google Play. You can check out the launch trailer above, which strangely is missing any mention of SEGA including the usual copyright information.
More information on Sonic Runner Adventure as we hear it!
