Fan made

Indie SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Beat ’em Up PAPRIUM Delayed, Coming Early 2018

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Watermelon Games’ SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive beat ’em up game, PAPRIUM has been delayed. Originally it was suppose to come out this September, but this morning Watermelon Games has confirmed that it won’t be coming out until early 2018. Users have also noted that pre-orders for PAPRIUM have been taken down, according to the publisher’s blog, its due to having issues with PayPal, who are withholding their funds.

If you want to know more about PAPRIUM, check out our SEGA News Bits video, giving you a look at all the pre-order details. Sure you can’t pre-order it right now, but it has quite a bit of information about the game itself as well. We will keep you guys posted whenever PAPRIUM‘s pre-orders go live once more.

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Fan Made: Sonic Mania Physical Release Box Art Round-Up

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Sonic Mania has fast become the most hotly anticipated Sonic the Hedgehog games in years, in large part because it is not only the return of classic Sonic but also the return to the graphics and gameplay that made the series so popular in the early to mid 1990s. While Sonic Mania is releasing to all major modern platforms, the development team has described the game as Saturn-esque with several fans taking things a step further and declaring Sonic Mania the Sonic Saturn game we never got but always wanted.

While we won’t actually be seeing Sonic Mania on the SEGA Saturn or the Mega Drive/Genesis, that hasn’t stopped fans from creating their own custom box art that can be printed out, trimmed and applied to an old Saturn or Mega Drive/Genesis case of your choosing! After the break, check out the fan made box art we’ve found online and in the comments share your own custom box art.

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Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap gets unofficial Turma da Monica mod

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For those that have lived in Brazil or are familiar with the infamous Wonder Boy reskin woes, Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap was changed in Brazil to reference the cartoon/comic franchise Turma da Mônica, replacing all of the different animal forms with different characters from the series. This conversion was called Turma da Mônica em o Resgate, exclusive for Brazil, and an example of a Master System game being changed for the market.

With the recent remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on modern systems, dedicate fans decided to change the game to again reference Turma da Mônica. This includes replacing the artwork with new high quality artwork, and faithfully recreating the animations from scratch. Together, this creates a surprisingly high quality mod that is readily available for the PC version for you to play. The video description not only containing the mod, but also a presskit that contains screenshots and artwork for the mod.

In fact this mod is so good, even the official Lizardcube Twitter account threw their praise at the mod, describing it as incredible. So if you have the PC version available, maybe try it out for yourselves.

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Event: Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2017

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The fan gaming event dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog and SEGA returns in 2017 featuring playable classic and modern SEGA video games, special guests behind them, fan panels by the SEGA fan community and special event activities based on various SEGA franchises.

This year with things looking good with SEGA line-up we plan to feature many games coming out in 2017 such as Sonic Mania, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Yakuza Kiwami, and many more with returning guests, Mike Pollock (voice of Dr. Eggman) and Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania composer)

Hit the jump for more details on location, prices, and submissions.

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Fan creates Sonic Mania Studiopolis Zone Winamp skin

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Sonic Mania is a game that embraces old school aesthetics, so it is fitting that fellow SEGA and Sonic fan Ineedmorcowbell created a Sonic Mania skin for the old school program Winamp. Initially released in 1997, Winamp is a freemium media player for Windows, Android, and macOS. If you had a computer between 1997 and now, chances are you downloaded this program and still have it on your machine. What Ineedmorcowbell’s skin does is turn the entire player into Studiopolis Zone.

Ineedmorcowbell has this to say about the project:

After watching game play of Sonic Mania’s Studiopolis Zone, and seeing the Hornet Van. I felt like it needed to dance! This whole project was built around getting that Van to dance! From there, I designed how all the windows and standard features would be reskinned. There is all kinds of animations like the clouds moving, or lights glowing, to the projector playing different animations that react to the music.

All the sprites for this skin have been redrawn by myself! I used the debut, and various game play videos to collect the sprites to use, then redrew them in a much lower resolution. Similar to the original Genesis games. To produce a much crisper look then just using them straight from the videos. The only things that I didn’t redraw were some of the animations for the projector that use the developer logos and intro for the game. Christian Whitehead was redrawn because the original design was very seizure inducing. The Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles Head was done in illustrator.

I spent a lot of time and work really hard on this, so let me know what you think!

You can learn more about the skin and download it here. If you have any questions or comments for the creator, you can chat with him in our forums!

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Cave Story gets an almost complete SEGA Genesis port

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We posted last year about a fan working on a port of Cave Story for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, which he is calling ‘Cave Story MD‘. While the developer released a proof of concept demo, which we discussed on the SEGA News Bits last year, it is now mostly fully ported over. While Cave Story might be almost fully playable on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, it doesn’t mean its perfect. On Cave Story MD‘s GitHub page it says to expect ‘alpha quality’ on this release and that the farthest you can reach in this game is ‘Last Boss room’, which has the hardware hang upon entry.

You can download the Cave Story MD rom over on the game’s GitHub page. The game should be playable on any major emulator or even on official SEGA hardware if you have a EverDrive. Let us know what you think of the work being done on Cave Story MD, tell us in the comments below.

 

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Sonic Generations “Unleashed Project 2.0” project cancelled

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Bad news for people looking forward to the Sonic Generations Unleashed Project 2.0 mod, as it has been announced that the project has been cancelled. The project’s former head, S0LV0, has announced that she is stepping down from her position and canning the project as a result. According to her via a TwitLong post, it was due to a lack of passion on her end causing a lot of stress, and being unable to pass the workload onto someone else.

So, here it is. I can’t begin to express how sorry I am about this, but I’m cancelling Unleashed Project 2.0. For a long time I was really passionate about it, and I felt I had something special to share with people by working on it, but that passion is gone. I know of no one I could pass the workload onto, nor do I plan to release my “completed” work as none of it is fully polished. I’m sincerely sorry to those who were looking forward to it, but I hope you’ll understand by this far into my post that it was extremely unhealthy for me.

The project itself was designed to replicate Sonic Unleashed levels, including bonus and DLC stages, using the PC version of Sonic Generations as a base. Though intended to replicate levels, some designs were changed as a form of compromise due to technical limitations. Ultimately the project was ambitious, with over 30 levels planned for the Unleashed Project, with the ultimate goal to expand Sonic Generations with a DLC-esque experience and a way to re-introduce Sonic Unleashed levels.

As for any hope of Unleashed Project being revived in the future, it may be a possibility. Former head DarioFF may return as the head of the project, expressing interest in reviving the project. Whether or not it will happen remains to be seen.

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A look at Virtua Fighter ‘No Matter the Cost’ fan tournament

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Hi SEGAbits readers! Kori-Maru here! Giving you all another event report covering a a fan dedicated Virtua Fighter ‘No Matter the Cost’  tournament which is being hosted by NWO and VFDC. The event featured many Virtua Fighter iterations starting from Virtua Fighter 2 through Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown spanning over three days. While Virtua Fighter has a small tournament scene in the West, fans of the series continue to show strong support for SEGA’s elite fighting game franchise.

Prizes were given out for each tournament and raffle giveaways included rare items such as Japanese Virtua Fighter player BunBunMaru’s jacket, Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary for PlayStation 2, a copy of Yakuza 6, and a flight ticket to EVO Japan 2018 as the grand prize. Pretty good haul for a fan ran tournament.

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Rush Rush Rally Reloaded re-releasing on SEGA Dreamcast

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Remember the Senile Team indie Dreamcast game Rush Rush Rally Racing that came out way back in 2009? The game also got a WiiWare release back in 2012 featuring two new modes titled challenge and time attack. Now Senile Team is set to re-release the game as Rush Rush Rally Reloaded back on the SEGA Dreamcast with the two modes that used to be exclusive to the Wii version.
Senile Team isn’t stopping there since they have said Rush Rush Rally Reloaded will also feature re-designed menus, improved graphics, faster loading, optimized video code, and a lot more features. If you want to see everything that is new in Rush Rush Rally Reloaded has to offer hit the jump to check that out.

Pre-order page

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Lighting mod for Sonic Adventure DX restores Dreamcast lighting effects

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Sonic Retro user Morph and several others have gone through Sonic Adventure DX and created a mod that restores the lighting effects that were previously seen in the original Sonic Adventure into the PC version. The difference gives off more vibrant colors in the environment that also reacts to objects and characters. You can download the mod from the discussion thread in Sonic Retro’s forums.

Lighting can be used to set a specific tone or mood in an environment. But why is it such a difficult thing to remain consistent when converting this to other game platforms? The game featured an artistic shift that occurred when the game was converted to other platforms. A combination of technical hurdles and creative liberties can dampen the original artistic intent, and Sonic Adventure is no exception. The original Dreamcast version featured a “Lantern” engine which provided impressive looking lighting effects using palettes on SEGA’s then cutting edge game console. However the dozens of ports of the game left out these lighting effects in favor of using drop shadows instead, until now. Check out additional videos, comparison screenshots and an interview with Morph on the mod after the jump!

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NWO & VFDC: No Matter the Cost Tournament

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Are you a fan of Virtua Fighter and looking into participating in causal tournament matches with other players? If you happen to live near Alexandria, Virginia, NWO (New Wolf Order) in association with VFDC, will be hosting a North American Virtua Fighter tournament next week starting from February 17th all the way through the 19th. The event will feature various entries in the franchise such as Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle, Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned, and Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. All tournaments will also be streamed throughout the weekend.

I will be attending NMTC for SEGAbits next week to bring you all coverage on the Virtua Fighter fan event. For details on registration, schedule, and prizes, head over to VFDC for more info. Hit the jump to view the trailer for the event.

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Interview: Gistix, team lead on fan made Sonic ’06 Unity

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What do you say when the words “fan-made Sonic 2006 PC port” jump at you? What sort of images, reactions, and most importantly, questions, pop into your head when this prospect meets your mind? Is it perplexing? Audacious? Blasphemous? These were of course all reactions I saw when news broke of a demo for a full fan-made recreation of the ill-fated and infamous Sonic 06 in Unity. However, much against others’ reactions, mine was of…curiosity.

Rather than stick with a few fleeting moments of “hey that’s a thing”, the very idea stuck to me so hard that it gave me a jolt of energy. Not because I like Sonic 06, god no, but because I am a huge lover of weird games and weird ports. And to me, a Unity port of this maligned title was far too weird to pass up. So, faced with a lack of information, and a thirst to spread the good will of odd, ambitious projects, I went straight to the source. Ladies and gentlemen and others, I present to you, hopefully everything you’d want to know about the ins and outs of the Sonic 2006 PC port, from the mouth of its current leader, Gistix!

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SEGA Channel Retro: Sonic 06 Unity Demo Today

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Sonic 06 has gone down as one of the blue hedgehog’s more divisive adventures. But like it or not some dedicated fans have gone through the trouble to recreate the game in the Unity engine. I’ll be checking it out on today’s shorter stream.

You can now watch our live streams on YouTube or Twitch!

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic 2006 being remade for PC by fans with Unity, demo first impressions

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Sonic 2006 is being remade in Unity by a small team headed by Gistix. A demo, playable on PC, has just released showcasing their progress in the form of the game’s original demo. We downloaded it and now talk about it in the first SEGA News Bits of 2017! Download the Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) Unity demo for yourself here.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us, give us a sub. If you are already subscribed you can always like the video.

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SEGA Channel Retro Stream Highlights: A Brief History on David Gonterman

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Thanks to Sonic Retro‘s David the Lurker, who is so steeped in Sonic the Hedgehog lore that he is writing Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3 and named the island seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 4, we present to you a highlight from a SEGA Channel Retro stream in which David the Lurker regaled the listeners with a brief history on David Gonterman.

Who is David Gonterman? Why he is only the most famous Sonic the Hedgehog fan fiction writer of the mid to late 1990s. He has written several crossover stories involving Sonic, Power Rangers, Doctor Who and Sailor Moon, and has injected himself into the action. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Watch the video above to learn more of this strange period in Sonic history.

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