Remember the homebrew port of the 1992 X-Men arcade game for Sega Saturn being worked on by hotrodx? They just came out with an all-new version of their demo adding Storm to the playable roster, as well as 3-player co-op and a new 2nd stage.
Might as well cut to the chase. Check in past the break for info on the update as well as a download link.
Sega, out of nowhere, just announced their newest mini console and successor to the Sega Genesis Mini 2. The Sega Genesis Mini 3 will be releasing on October 16th, 2024 exclusively in North America and Japan (Sorry, Europe, but you better get ready to import.) Unlike the previous two Genesis Mini plug-and-play consoles, this console will release in the exact same condition both in North America and Europe, as the Majesco-built Genesis 3 console was released originally only in North America. This means the console will have the exact same game lineup worldwide and will be known as the Genesis Mini 3 even in Japan.
At the same time, Sega have revealed that the console will include 50 games while also revealing what the first 10 games will be. Like with the previous two Genesis Minis, more games will be revealed gradually throughout the year before the console’s retail release. To find out what the first ten games are, check in after the break while containing your excitement.
In a move that shook the entire video game industry, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. have announced that they have purchased a 99% share of Nintendo. Yes, that Nintendo. SegaSammy president and CEO Haruki Satomi have announced their near total takeover of Sega’s former console war nemesis late yesterday, March 31st, 2024, for exactly one billion yen.
So what is keeping Sega from acquiring the remaining 1% of Nintendo? Check in past the break to find out.
I don’t wanna alarm you, Sega fans, but I must inform you that Sega games have, for many decades, been damaging our eyes and our TV sets all along. A shocking discovery was just made by retro game engineer Salporoifl of an issue in which all Sega games, with the exception of any Atlus games pre-SegaSammy acquisition, can potentially burn a perpetual blue tint into your TV, monitor, or even your eyesight, if left playing for too long. Salporoifl has called this issue the “Blue Sky Burn-in” effect. (This also includes any Sega games not published by Sega, such as Streets of Rage 4) If you’re too careless in your Sega gaming sessions, blue, blue skies will be all you see.
Precautions have already been figured out, so check in after the break to find out how you can protect yourself and your displays.
If you’re a fan of the music from the Genesis/Mega-Drive classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (1992), then you’re gonna want this. The complete soundtrack will be up for pre-order from Limited Run Games starting tomorrow, with options for cassette tapes, CDs, and a single LP vinyl record available for the prices in the above graphic in USD. The vinyl is also available in an optional Green Ooze Edition, with a green record, limited to only 1,000 copies, so act fast if you want that in particular. The pre-order period runs throughout the entirety of March 2024.
This comes as part of Limited Run Games’s series of soundtracks for all the 8-bit and 16-bit TMNT games, of which they opened pre-orders for a new one every month starting last year. The only one remaining after this, which is expected to up for pre-order sometime in April 2024, will be for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, and will include the music for the Genesis, NES, and SNES versions of that game, so be ready for that.
Take a look past the break for pre-order links to all three soundtracks. Just watch your step so you don’t fall in a creepy cave.
Another brand-new Genesis/Mega-Drive game has launched on Kickstarter, with the goal of raising funds to finance its development. Rocket Panda, a game developed by Space Pants Games and Mega Cat Studios, is now crowdfunding on Kickstarter and has 18 days left in its campaign. It has also just passed its $15,000 USD goal, so it seems that this is all but locked in, although there is still a stretch goal of $25,000 USD to add an as-of-now unspecified mini-game.
The game puts you in control of the titular Rocket Panda, who must navigate different mazes while avoiding traps and bizarre enemies in order to find the exit. Along the way, you’ll encounter and rescue little badgers to accompany you to the exit, similar to Flicky, Gain Ground, or Sega’s Sonic 3D Blast, except that the badgers also serve as shields to protect you from attacks. As you’d expect, you’ll want to safely guide as many of these badgers to the exit as possible to earn a good score, so fly carefully either way. A demo is also available on the Kickstarter page for you to try right away.
But would you find this to be a game worth supporting with some cash? You can read on past the break and decide for yourself.
It’s Genesis/Mega-Drive homebrew time again. Coming to us from developer and artist JuiceLizard, Demon Girls is still in active development for the wonderful 16-bit console, and now a demo is currently available for all to try from his itch.io page. The demo consists of the entire first level of the game and is absolutely free, but if you’re feeling particularly generous, you can also leave JuiceLizard a gracious tip as you download the ROM file. Like any Genesis ROM file, it can be played in your favorite Genesis emulation software, on original hardware with a Mega Everdrive flash cartridge, or on the MiSTer FPGA console.
You’ll find download links beyond the break.
Good ol’ Atlus with their expanded SMT/Persona re-releases. Seriously though, props for the clever logo design here.
If you liked Atlus’s recent hit JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V, then you’re gonna love Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Just announced within the same Nintendo Partner Showcase Direct from February 21st, 2024, which also revealed the new demo for Unicorn Overlord, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was revealed as an all-new definitive version of the original and highly lauded Shin Megami Tensei V (2021). This all new version of SMT V will include extra locations, demons, and an all new additional story to experience. From a technical side, the game also includes an improved battle, exploration, and demon fusion system, new accessibility features, and all the previously available DLC from SMT V as standard content within the base game.
Journey past the break for links to the game’s official website.
If you’ve been waiting with baited breath to try the brand new strategy RPG from Vanillaware and Atlus, Unicorn Overlord, you now have your chance with an official demo being available on all consoles’ digital storefronts right now. News of this was revealed in Nintendo’s Partner Showcase Direct livestream from February 21st, 2024 via the above video clip, but the demo has also launched on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox at the same time. Give it a shot right away and see what you’re in for.
Take a look beyond the break for links to each demo.
Limited Run Games and Sunsoft are back with another Genesis/Mega-Drive cartridge re-release. You can now get a brand new boxed cartridge of the Genesis version of Aero The Acro-Bat 2 (1995). (By the by, they have not re-released the original Aero The Acro-bat yet, so don’t panic thinking you missed your chance to get the prequel. No word on why they started with the sequel.) Just like with their re-release of Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, this comes officially licensed in a high quality cartridge complete with box and manual compatible with any official NTSC Genesis console or clone console. The game can be pre-ordered for $69.99 until March 10th, 2024.
Also, like Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Aero the Acro-Bat 2, in its original cartridge release form, is a lot more expensive than you might think. Prices for just the cartridge alone are just over $50 USD on the second hand market. Don’t ask me why. Maybe the game’s infamy over the years as an example of the 16-bit mascot craze started by our beloved Sonic the Hedgehog carried some value over the years? Either way, this will be your best chance to get a complete copy of the game for your collection at an affordable price, so make sure you get it while you can.
To learn more about Aero The Acro-Bat 2, and for the pre-order link, check in after the break for the whole skinny.
Limited Run Games are giving you the chance to own a combo pack of the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive Masaya Games shoot-em-up classics Advanced Busterhawk Gley-Lancer (1992) and Gynoug (1991) on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. These are the re-releases from Shinyuden and Ratalaika Games that came out on these consoles a few years ago, now collected together in physical form. Pre-orders start tomorrow, February 16th 2024, until March 17th 2024 and will cost $34.99 USD each.
These versions of both games play excellent, with special features such as button mapping, rewind, save states, some modernized control convenience options, and a surprisingly customizable CRT filter. In the case of Gley Lancer, which was originally only released in Japan, the game’s cutscenes have all their text translated to English. Beyond that, they are admittedly rather simple releases with not much else aside from the game, but they are fully playable and serve as an excellent and affordable way to play both classics.
For pre-order links, have a look past the break below.
The long lost discoveries in Sega Saturn classics just keep on coming. Usually fans have to translate Japan-exclusive games in English themselves with fan translations, but it seems the cult arcade shooter Kingdom Grandprix, or Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen (1996), already had one prepared and hidden away in the game all along. Thanks to Saturn homebrew enthusiast and fan translator Malenko, who also discovered hidden characters in the Saturn version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition just last year, as well as Bo Bayles, who it turns out is another familiar name behind some recent crazy Saturn discoveries, a previously undiscovered English language script was found deep within this game’s code. Just like with his NBA Jam discovery, Malenko just happened upon this while poking around in the game’s code. He intended on making his own fan translation of Kingdom Grandprix, and he still ended up doing so as the ready made English script was… rough, to say the least, but it was still enough to aid him as a base for his new script.
Race straight on through the break to learn more and to download the English patch to try for yourself.
Score one for video game preservation, or in this case, interactive edutainment software preservation. Thanks to Omar Cornut, going by @orconut on Twitter (X), as well as the website SMS Power, an ever-so-elusive Sega AI Computer has been procured and a bunch of stuff relating to it preserved online, including photos of the hardware and games, scans of sales fliers, print ads, and instruction manuals, and digital ROM files of all commercially released games. They’ve also prepared a MAME driver, allowing the AI Computer to be emulated for the very first time.
Chances are you may not know what this is. I’ll admit, I’ve never even heard of it until now. If you’ll follow me past the break, I will sum up what this AI Computer is all about.
Vectorman is a name well regarded by fans of the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive. Vectorman (1995) and its sequel Vectorman 2 (1996) were hallmarks of that console’s twilight years, with some truly impressive pseudo-3D graphics and fluid animation, on top of also being a legitimately fun time. It’s earned it’s honor of being one of Sega’s common picks for their many Genesis game compilations in recent times. It’s just too bad that Vectorman was never able to move beyond the Genesis, though this wasn’t for lack of trying. The original developer of the two Genesis games, BlueSky Software, had envisioned a second sequel on the Saturn that never came to pass, and other developers have wanted to bring Vectorman to the Dreamcast and beyond.
The ill-faded sequel that came closest to fruition was the PS2 game being worked on by Pseudo Interactive, the creators of Full Auto (2006) and Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Also 2006 on PS3 and 2007 on PSP), both of which were actually published by Sega. Before that, Sega announced a new Vectorman title for the PlayStation 2, simply known as Vectorman, in April 2003, with intent to release the following year. The news of the game’s cancellation came before 2003 even ended, in November, despite a positive showing at E3 earlier that same year. This was during the time when then-Sega of America CEO Peter Moore was preparing his departure from the company and shortly before the company would merge with Sammy, so internally, things were tumultuous at Sega and Vectorman did not survive this transition. What did thankfully survive was a bunch of prototype and press builds, art, and documentation on the game, which was all just found and preserved by Comby Laurent on his preservation website Sega Dreamcast Info Games Preservation.
Check in past the break for more info, and a link to check out these finds in finer detail.
This is for retro gamers who love to get very technical with their TVs and monitors. The well known 240p Test Suite, created as an open source software by Artemio Urbina, is available on all sorts of retro consoles, but until now, the Sega Saturn was not among them. A version of the Test Suite has now been ported to Saturn by SegaXtreme forum member hitomi2500 for this year’s Sega Saturn Homebrew Competition. However, the Saturn version is currently work-in-progress, so it may still have some issues that need to be worked out, but for now the port is available for you to mess around with on your Saturn.
Check in after the break to learn more about what 240p Test Suite is and to download it.