SEGA Memories: Remembering the launch of the Dreamcast
Fourteen years ago, SEGA launched their fifth and final console, the SEGA Dreamcast. Gaming was becoming huge in the late nineties, things were changing and SEGA had a reputation to uphold.
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The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today, how are we going to celebrate?
Hey there, space cats! The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today in the USA, how are we celebrating? Well, we will be delivering a bunch of Dreamcast related content all month long. We will have all our weekly features focus on Dreamcast music, games and nostalgic moments. Expect to see Dreamcast related articles on Monday Memories, Tuesday Tunes, Saturday Sequels, and Sunday Round Table. There will also be the return of the ‘SEGA in the Media‘, where we spot SEGA references in current TV shows and movies (sometimes even the past). We already started celebrating by giving you guys a really awesome episode of the Swingin’ Report Show featuring the editor-in-chief and writer for Official Dreamcast magazine.
One of our former writers and current editor-in-chief over at Dreamcast Scene is also teaming up with us, DC Emu and Age-Media to bring some interviews with current SEGA published authors and Dreamcast indie developers. Actually he already published one of his interviews with David Munoz, author of ” “Service Games: Rise and Fall of Sega ”. Some of the other interviews you can expect includes author of “Zoya Street’s Dreamcast World” author, who got crowd sourced by Indiegogo. There will also be interviews with indie Dreamcast developers like Senile Team, Duranik and Water Melon.
Stay tuned later today for “Monday Memories: Remembering the Dreamcast’s launch“.
Swingin’ Report Show #50: Dreamcast Birthday Bash with Francesca Reyes, Simon Cox, & Ricardo Torres
If you didn’t know, we here at SEGAbits are huge fans of the Official Dreamcast Magazine, so you know we totally geeked out knowing that Francesca Reyes (ODCM writer and OXM editor-in-chief) and Simon Cox (Editor-in-chief OCDM) were coming on the podcast. But that isn’t all, we also have a unique perspective coming from Ricardo Torres (working at CNET Gamecenter, coming from early online media compared to print at the time) who gets massive SEGA props for having more Samba de Amigo maraca sets than all the staff combined. I’m really happy with the way the podcast turned out this week, full of nostalgia and the perfect way to kick off the 14th anniversary of the Dreamcast.
Happy 20th anniversary to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog!
Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of Sonic’s most inventive, craziest, and funniest cartoons: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog! One of my strongest nostalgic connections to the Sonic franchise was this 1993 cartoon series. It was the only cartoon of my childhood which I remember watching from the very beginning. While I was a huge Ninja Turtles and The Real Ghostbusters fan, both cartoons were at their heights a few years before I began watching.
When The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (hereby known as AoStH) premiered, I remember exactly where I was. It was September 6th 1993 and I was eating breakfast in our kitchen, catching the first episode (in airing order, not production order) “Best Hedgehog”. The image after the break is a pretty accurate representation of what I saw. Yes, despite it being 1993 we still had an old black and white in our kitchen.
PAX ’13 – Heroki Demo Impressions
At this year’s PAX 2013, SEGA is hitting it off with another indie developer under the SEGA Alliance brand. This time lending a hand to a developer from the Netherlands, Picomy Games, to release their action game Heroki to iDevices. I was joined in by two of the developers, Michael Balm and Bobby Bouman, as well as SEGA Alliance producer John Eternal as they showcased a build running on an iPad to help explain the game mechanics and provide some insight on the development on the game.
Review: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F
Warning: the review you are about to read is very bright and colorful. If you hate bright neon and colorful things, well.. you have been warned 😉
So it’s finally happened, a Hatsune Miku game has been translated to English and released in the Western hemisphere. Is the Project Diva series as good as people say it is? Read on to find out how I have experienced my first Hatsune Miku game.
My Life with SEGA returns this October with an Alien-packed season 2 premiere
The SEGAbits YouTube channel original series My Life with SEGA will return this October with a three part assault on the Aliens franchise! On October 2nd, AJ revisits the Alien Trilogy, a game he reviewed way back before the series moved to SEGAbits. October 16th sees the battle of Aliens vs. Predator, and then the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines lands the day before Halloween. Check out the trailer above, and mark your calendars!
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Swingin’ Report Show #49: SONiC into Dreams…
Hey, this week on the Swingin’ Report Show Barry the Nomad and George talk a lot about Sonic Lost World, the upcoming Castle of Illusions remake and of course the newly announced Yakuza: Ishin. So sit back, listen in and enjoy. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube or iTunes feed.
NiGHTS into Sonic Lost World?!? – SEGA reveals The Deadly Six Edition
Well this is very much a “what the f***?!” piece of news! SEGA has released the Sonic Lost World Gamescom trailer with an added bit at the end showing off a special version of Sonic Lost World for Wii U dubbed The Deadly Six Edition which includes “deadlier game content” by way of The Deadly Six teaming up with NiGHTS bosses! Yes, you read that right. Sonic is going back to the world of NiGHTS and is taking on several bosses from the series. Give the video a watch and try to wrap your head around this crazy news! Currently the special edition of the game is only announced for the UK, but like Sonic & All-Stars Racing’s special edition a US version is likely to be revealed too.
My Life with SEGA gets unboxed by SEGA CD Universe
YouTube user Vampire Mike, owner of the SegaCDUniverse YouTube channel, has created an unboxing video of the recently released “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” DVD which was given away as part of our third anniversary contest. While Vampire Mike was not a contest winner, he was enough of a My Life with SEGA fan to receive a copy of the DVD from AJ, as well as a hilarious note and a special Video CD version of “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” for use on the SEGA Saturn. As AJ is on summer vacation, with new episodes returning in October, I thought I’d share this special unboxing video. Check it out, and check out SegaCDUniverse’s awesome channel!
SEGA Tunes: Samba de Amigo’s Samba de Janeiro
In Samba de Amigo, every day is a dance party, with and endless parade of singing, shaking and Latin music. Few songs in the game embody the spirit of Samba’s visuals as well as Samba de Janeiro does. This is what a wild party sounds like and it’s always a joy to shake maracas to. This carefree party atmosphere also makes Samba de Amigo one of SEGA’s quintessential summer games.
Fighters Segamix: Waku Waku 7
Now for something a little different. I’m reviewing Sunsoft’s Waku Waku 7. A fairly rare import (although available on Neo Geo in the U.S.) full of oddball fighters that takes some stabs at Anime tropes. It’s a very fun fighter with a small assortment of crazy characters and a super meter that beats them all. However, the translation from Nero Geo to Saturn didn’t go as well as expected. Considering it also comes with a one meg RAM cartridge, how could they mess up those backgrounds so badly?! Check out my video and see is you have the “balls” to play this wacky fighter.
Click on comments to check out a Neo Geo comparison.
Summer of Sonic 2013 – Takashi Iizuka Interview
Over the past few years the Sonic series has hit a bit of a renaissance, with Colours and Generations achieving relative success critically as well as commercially. Typically, just as this turnaround is achieved, the newest game shows signs of radical change to the 3D Sonic formula that had finally gained acceptance. Sonic Lost World’s new design is the kind of decision that means it’s always interesting to chat to Takashi Iizuka, the man at the top of Sonic Team today and the public face of the team. He’s always cheery and approachable, but you can never quite predict the answers you’ll get from him. Read on to find out Iizuka’s take on the limitations of Sonic’s previous 3D outings, what inspired the new design of Sonic Lost World and his view of differences between working in the USA and Japan!
SEGAbits Visits SEGA of America, Inc. in Sunny San Francisco – Part 3
Welcome to the third and final part of our visit to SEGA of America! Check out the first part here and the second part here. In part three, we’re going to take a look at several rare, cool, and sometimes strange pieces of SEGA history pulled from SEGA’s archives from SEGA community managers Kellie Parker and Julian Mehlfeld. Consoles in their original boxes, cool accessories, rare statues, and a few items from the Kellie Parker Collection™ can all be seen after the break!
Sonic Talk #22 Getting fat from eating your black hearts
We got some communications problems in this weeks Sonic Talk. Makes for some humorous moments though. In this episode, we talk about the latest movies we’ve seen and our time at the San Diego Comic Con. We also talk about the controversy surrounding the dark, violent dialogue in Sonic Lost World and speaking of dark dialogue, Alex goes on a rant about Ken Penders and the Ouya.
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