Watch live video from SEGA_Channel_Retro on TwitchTV
Hello everyone! Time again for another Super Sonico Channel Retro Live Concert featuring yours truly playing Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F for the Playstation 3. I may even do requests in the stream chat. Wish me luck! ♥
Update: Thanks to everyone who watched me play the game! As well as RubyEclipse for stopping by in the chat!♥ You can view the archived stream above!
Hatsune Miku and friends have sung many songs throughout their history, but none are more exciting than the SEGA inspired tunes that are featured in the franchise’s games. The 2010 arcade game Project DIVA Arcade featured the MEIKO Vocaloid voice (a voice provided by the Japanese female singer Meiko Haigō) singing lyrics over the theme to After Burner – a SEGA arcade classic. The video above features Hatsune Miku, despite the MEIKO voice. But can you blame us? It’s Miku! But in fairness to Vocaloids everywhere, we’re featuring MEIKO after the break. Happy listening!
![IMG_0015[1]](https://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/IMG_00151.jpg)
The old adage “You get what you pay for” tends to hold true more often than not. After all, if you’re in a Walgreens pharmacy you’re probably not looking to buy a video game console. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the AtGames Sega Genesis is a poor quality console. At $30, it’s pretty tempting, but buyer beware there is some drawbacks to this system. Read on to find out if it’s worth your gas money for this cheaply produced retro console and find out how you can win it!
A year ago today, we made the late night announcement that SEGAbits would be partnering with Sonic Retro, and the expansive SEGA Retro wiki would fall under the SEGAbits banner – making it our dedicated information site for all things SEGA. Since the announcement, we’ve made the move to Sonic Retro’s servers, writers from Sonic Retro have taken on writer roles at SEGAbits, we’ve utilized the SEGA Retro wiki in articles highlighting classic SEGA games and consoles, and in collaboration with SEGAbits and Sonic Retro writer Bartman we’ve created SEGA Channel Retro – a revamped retro streaming channel for SEGA content.
While we didn’t accomplish everything that we have hoped for over the past year, we have some exciting things on the horizon! This Spring we plan to introduce SEGAbits Model 5, a website redesign that will truly bring SEGAbits to the next level. We can’t spill the beans yet, but at the very least we can say it will be wider. Also, on June 28th SEGAbits and Sonic Retro will be co-hosting a panel entitled Surviving the Dreamcast Apocalypse: SEGA Fans in the 21st Century at the Too Many Games convention in Oaks, PA. Then, of course, there are our plans for tomorrow.
On behalf of myself, George, and all the writers and contributors, I want to thank our readers and community members for their continued support in making us the number one SEGA news and information site on the internet!
SEGA Genesis Month may be coming to an end at SEGAbits, but we still have a lot more Genesis content to come in 2014 as we celebrate the console’s 25th anniversary. Still, to give the month a bit of finality, four of our writers have come together for a round table to share their favorite Genesis memories. The Genesis truly is a great piece of SEGA hardware, featuring many classic titles that span countless genres, innovative accessories, and the power to attract talented indie game companies of today that offer up new experiences on the console. Regardless of whether one was an early adaptor, or came to the console in its later days, the Genesis was and is a console that makes a lasting impression.
Watch live video from SEGA_Channel_Retro on TwitchTV
Take a look, with Bartman3010, at SEGA’s earliest attempts to bring Genesis classics to your PC with SEGA Smash Pack 1 and 2, Sonic & Knuckles Collection, as well as a look at The Legend of Zelda DLC for Sonic Lost World.
Update: Archived broadcast can be seen above, enjoy!
With the remake of Castle of Illusion gracing the PSN/XBLA this past summer, it seemed only fitting to revisit its sequel, World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, for Genesis Month. Though it featured far superior graphics and an expanded scope, along with the addition of Donald Duck and cooperative play, World of Illusion has, for whatever reason, struggled to retain the same classic status as its predecessor.
And that’s unfortunate, because World of Illusion is an incredibly capable sequel to Mickey Mouse’s first Genesis adventure; one that sends its title characters into an enchanting world and builds upon the magic of Castle of Illusion to deliver an entirely satisfying follow-up.
Like my previous Tuesday Tunes entry, which focused on the music of Ghostbusters, this week’s tune comes from another favorite SEGA Genesis game from my childhood: Dick Tracy. Like Ghostbusters, Dick Tracy has the unfortunate distinction of being one of those awful titles… for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The SEGA Genesis version is a completely different game developed in-house by SEGA, and bears several similarities to the popular Shinobi franchise, which leads me to believe that the game was developed by the same team. But enough about the gameplay, I’ll save that for my eventual review, let’s talk about the music.
Oh man, I have waited too long to use that image.
A.J. Rosa is a man of many talents – and a man of many games. I mean, hey; if he lacked games, My Life With SEGA wouldn’t still be running to this day! A short while ago, some of you may remember A.J. held a competition in conjunction with this very site, in celebration of the 3rd Anniversary of SEGAbits. The winner would receive A.J.’s personal SEGA Genesis Model 2, and the copy of Technocop he reviewed for My Life With SEGA.
Lo and behold, I ended up winning said contest – and so despite being one of the few staff members of SEGAbits from the UK, I don’t have to watch Genesis Month pass by whilst I cradle my beloved Mega Drive – and hey, I’d promised A.J. I’d post up my impressions of Technocop, so now’s as good a time as any.
As Streets of Rage Week comes to an end, the SEGAbits writer’s round table has us reflecting on our fond memories of the franchise, and where we would like to see the franchise headed in the future. SEGA has always been hit or miss when it comes to reviving and remaking older franchises. For every SEGA 3DS 3D Classics remake, Castle of Illusion and Shinobi 3DS there are a slew of stinkers – Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Altered Beast (PS2), several of the Sega Ages 2500 releases. Point is, a remake or reboot of Streets of Rage could go either way. What direction would be like to see the franchise headed? Follow the flashing “GO!” and read on!
Streets of Rage trilogy on the SEGA Genesis had a wide range of enemies, some of them are so memorable that when you go back years later all you can think about is getting in the game and punching their pixels. Here is a list of enemies we love to hate.
This just might be a first for SEGA in the Media, a SEGA inspired video game within another video game! Released last year, Saints Row IV was a tongue-in-cheek action-adventure game from Illinois based developer Volition. Given the self-referential nature of the series, it only makes sense that they’d eventually reference crazy action games of the past, and what game is more fitting to pay tribute to than SEGA’s Streets of Rage? Dubbed “Saints of Rage”, this 2D beat ’em up appears at around 75-80% of the way into Saints Row IV. In-game, “Saints of Rage” is an enemy created nightmare simulation. Kicking off with a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” message, the player is taken to a title screen which is a direct reference to the original Streets of Rage title screen.
My Life with SEGA’s Streets of Rage three parter comes to an end in the midst of Streets of Rage week at SEGAbits! In part one we looked back on one of the best beat ’em ups to grace SEGA’s 16-bit machine. In part two, Jimmy Mac and myself tackled two player mode for a 2-Man Scramble. Now we take a look at the sequels that followed, the appropriately named Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3. Do the sequels live up to the original, or do they fail to reach the excellence of the first game? Punch the play button to find out!
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SEGA Genesis Month continues as Darren Wall, the man behind the successfully funded and coming soon “SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works” book, returns to the Swingin’ Report Show to update Barry and George on his project’s progress! One exciting bit of news is the reveal that David Rosen, co-founder of SEGA, has been interviewed for the book. Learn what we can expect to hear from Mr. Rosen, as well as all the cool new art and articles the book will contain, in this week’s show.
Also, since it is Streets of Rage Week at SEGAbits, we spend a portion of the show talking about the game’s development including new details Darren has learned. We also share our nostalgic memories of the series, our favorite music tracks, and what we would like to see in the future from the series.
If you’re a fan of SEGA, and still think Genesis does what Nintendon’t, this is definitely the show for you.
In November of last year, Darren Wall, graphic designer and art director at Read-Only Memory, took to Kickstarter in an effort to fund a book that was to be “the ultimate retrospective of the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis”. Dubbed a “documentary art book”, Darren had the official license from SEGA, including access to the company’s archives and staff from both past and present. The only thing left to to obtain was the funds to make the project a reality.
This part was probably the easiest step of the project, as in less than 48 hours the team had met their £30,000 goal, and by the end of the campaign they earned £98,725! Prior to the end of the campaign, Darren joined George and I for a Swingin’ Report Show interview to discuss his plans for the book. It is now five months later, and Darren is nearing completion of the project with only SEGA’s approval and printing remaining. We caught up with Darren in a written interview, as well as another podcast which you can listen to tomorrow. Darren was even nice enough to give us some exclusive content from the upcoming book: design documents from the development of the original Streets of Rage!
After the break, check out the full interview as well as the cool exclusives from Read-Only Memory and SEGA.