Fan made

Summer of Sonic UK fan convention attempts a revival via Kickstarter

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Having taken a break since the last event in 2013, the Summer of Sonic organizers are feeling revitalized and ready to bring the event back for 2016 – and they need your help! Dubbed the largest fan run officially recognized Sonic the Hedgehog event in Europe, Summer of Sonic is relying on a Kickstarter campaign to fund their 2016 convention. With a goal of $28,675, and $20,842 already raised with 28 days to go, it should be no difficult task to fund the event. The planned location is the ILEC Conference Centre in Earls Court, London, and the proposed date is August, 6th, 2016. Activities at the event are said to include meet and greets with the special guests, competitions in art, gaming and cosplay, Q&A sessions with guests, and fan showcases.

If this sounds like the event for you, head on over to their Kickstarter and show your support!

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SEGA News Bits: Flappy Bird Comes To Dreamcast’s VMU

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Remember Flappy Bird, the mobile game that apparently destroyed people’s lives because of its simplicity? A SEGA fan going by the name of guacasaurus_mex has recreated Flappy Bird for SEGA’s Visual Memory Unit, so if you want to play it make sure you have some spare CR-2032 lithium batteries and lots of patience. Hit the play above and listen to me and Barry talk about Flappy Bird, VMUs and even Rappy Bird?

If you enjoy the SEGA News Bits video formats make sure to like, share and subscribe to our YouTube for more.

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Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3 The Trial is a real game that you can play right now!

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Screen Shot 2016-04-01 at 9.19.13 AMIt has been teased for the past few months, but now we can confirm it is real. That’s right, Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3 is a real fan made game that you can play right now! What more, while it is fan made it does have the support of SEGA’s Aaron Webber and the Sonic the Hedgehog social media accounts. This is The Trial edition of the game, meaning it is only a tease of the full game. However, despite being released on April Fool’s day, we can confirm that The Trail is not a joke and that there will indeed be a full game in the near future. The game can be found at www.bigthec.at and features static cutscenes, branching paths, and a variety of mini games which we won’t spoil here.

For those wondering why this game is the third in the series, aside from being an obvious Sonic Adventure 3 joke, this is actually Big’s third fishing game. Big first dropped his line in Sonic Adventure, and his second game entitled Big’s Fishing released in 2004 as a part of a McDonald’s Happy Meal LCD games collection. Sonic Heroes, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and Sonic Runners don’t count because there was no fishing, an omission that clearly hurt sales.

I am proud to confirm that I played a very very small part, as the Big the Cat action figure you see upon completing the game is from my collection. Which means my Big the Cat toy visited SEGA’s Burbank offices before I did. 🙁

Play the game for yourself, and in the comments below tell us what you think!

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You can now play Flappy Bird on your Dreamcast’s VMU

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Thanks to Instagram user guacasaurus_mex, the world’s most frustrating iPhone game can now be played on your Dreamcast VMU! guacasaurus_mex is not new to the world of VMU game creation, having also created Deadpool and Star Wars: The Force Awakens VMU games, but Flappy Bird pushes things to a whole other level of absurdity. guacasaurus_mex had this to say regarding how to get the game working on your own VMU:

“If anyone is interested I just finished making a Flappy Bird clone for the VMU. Just put the file on an SD card, load with Dreamshell and once Speud’s VMU Tool has loaded navigate to ‘Open CD’ and copy FLPPYBRD.vmi to the VMU.

Like most VMU games this doesn’t work properly in the emulator so please use on an actual VMU!

Also, for anyone giving this a go, you hold A rather than tap like in the iOS and Android versions. Tap functionality didn’t work so well with only 32 vertical pixels!”

You can find the direct download link for the .VMI file here.

[Via The Dreamcast Junkyard]

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Racing Apex channels AM2’s low polygon Virtua Racing art style

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Back in the early to mid 90s SEGA and AM2 dominated the arcade racing market with their low polygon racing games including Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and many more. Sadly SEGA has sorta abandoned the racing market in recent years, doesn’t mean that indie developers have forgotten especially the Racing Apex developers.

This isn’t the first ‘SEGA arcade racing’ inspired game we have seen in recent years, do you guys recall Drift Stage and Slipstream? According to the developers Racing Apex will take art styles from late 80s to early 90s arcade titles and add modern gameplay elements like multiplayer. Racing Apex will feature 8 playable racers, over 30 playable vehicles and over 16 tracks to race on. Racing Apex will feature items sort of like a kart racing game that includes stuff like Duel Gatling Guns and Smoke. The game will also have a ton of game modes including Arcade, Cat and Mouse, Bomb Tag, and much more. Check their site for more information.

 

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Play Fatal Smarties, a new scrolling shooter for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive

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At this year’s Global Game Jam a group of indie developers had a special treat for SEGA retro fans, a new scrolling shooter called ‘Fatal Smarties‘ made its debut for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.

The game was developed by four students that represent the University of Southampton. The students tried to think out of the box for this co-op game, having an interesting mechanic where one player shoots and the other navigates the on screen characters.

The game was developed on a deadline during the Global Game Jam and seems very promising. Want to try it out on an emulator or flash cart? Get the rom here.

[Via: RetroCollect]

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Sonic Retro webmaster celebrates Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the latest issue of Retro Gamer

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The latest issue of the UK classic gaming magazine Retro Gamer is celebrating its 150th issue in a big way by counting down the 150 Greatest Games Ever as selected by readers. What’s so cool about the issue is that for many of the entries, they turned to those in the fan community to wax nostalgic on the greatest games. Seeing as Retro Gamer‘s readers have taste and didn’t completely avoid SEGA like another publication out there, several classics from the developer have made the cut. Just some include 1986’s OutRun with a piece written by Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett, Shenmue with thoughts from the Shenmue Dojo webmaster, and (as stated in our headline) a write-up on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by Sonic Retro’s very own webmaster Scarred Sun.

Seeing as the magazine is out there for sale right now both physically and digitally, I’m not going to spoil the surprise of the game’s placement or what was said, so you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

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SEGA-16 founder working on a SEGA of America history book

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sega16I have always been a huge fan of the SEGA fansite SEGA-16, the site really went beyond the call in their efforts to secure some of the best interviews I have ever read. Now website founder Ken Horowitz has announced via his SEGA-16 facebook page that he is working on a history book about SEGA of America:

“Last month, I submitted to my publisher the manuscript for a book chronicling the game development history of Sega of America. Tentatively titled: “Achieving the Next Level: The History of American Sega Games,” the book is an exhaustive retrospective of SOA as a game-maker, from its founding in 1986 and the first steps taken on the Master System to its final efforts on the Dreamcast. Nearly 100 former SOA alumni (including each of its presidents from 1986-2001) and independent game developers were interviewed, and the creation processes of almost 40 Sega-published titles are documented. Every one of SOA’s internal studios is included, many of which have never before been examined.”

The book will look at games created by SEGA of America’s development division and I hope gathers new information about games we loved as kids. He estimates that the book will be around 500 pages long and as of right now there isn’t a release date. Of course, we will keep you posted as more news hits.

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Super Fighter Team releases two new SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis games on cartridge

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The indie publisher Super Fighter Team isn’t new to the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive scene, they are known as the people that brought over Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong to SEGA’s 16-bit machine. Now they release not one, but two new SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games on cartridge.

The first game is Magic Girl, a Taiwanese scrolling shooter that was released back in 1993. The game stayed in Taiwan and became a obscure relic of the 90s. But now Super Street Fighter Team have picked it up and given it a proper translation!

Cascade is a intergalactic dice puzzler with its own unique style. This game was developed by Epyx and was set to hit the land of the rising sun back in the 90s. Now that Super Street Fighter team picked up the rights, everyone gets to enjoy it the way it was mean’t to be played.

The games come complete with manual, box and the game on cartridge. Each game costs $58 dollars including shipping if you live in America, $65 including shipping worldwide.

[Via: RetroCollect]

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Slipstream takes to Kickstarter with the spirit of SEGA’s sprite-scaling racers

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We’re always ones for a good SEGA-inspired Kickstarter here at Bits, and it’s that time again; with Noctet Studio’s Slipstream being the latest object of our affections.

We’ve covered a few SEGA-themed racers such as Drift Stage and The 90’s Arcade Racer in the past, but rest assured; Slipstream is aiming for something very different to those games. It’s more focused on being a pure driving game than just a racing game, a la OutRun. And it’s not just in gameplay either; Slipstream makes clever use of sprite-scaling to deliver an authentic look that’ll be plenty familiar to fans of the 80’s and 90’s heydays for SEGA driving titles such as Rad Mobile, and the aforementioned OutRun, all on a custom engine at a smooth 60fps. The influences even stretch beyond the racing classics of SEGA’s past; because we can’t not look at that Casino district and see Casino Night from Sonic the Hedgehog 2!

Continue Reading ➜

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Homebrew Mega Drive/Genesis platformer ‘Mega Cheril Perils’ gameplay revealed

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It seems that not only is the Dreamcast one of the consoles that refuses to die, but so is the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis. This time we have ‘The Mojon Twins’ who are developing Mega Cheril Perils for the old 16-bit console.

We posted about this game awhile back, this is suppose to be a follow up to a earlier title created for the ZX Spectrum. The game is rather strange, having you take control of a naked Cheril who has to use her time freezing ability via a time capsule, which will allow her to traverse the stages. My only issue with the game is that the jumping and movement seem to need some work.

You can see some of the gameplay yourself in the video above. As you can see they are teasing this as coming out soon and is expected to get a physical cartridge release. How many of you here are going to add this title to your SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive collection?

[Via: Retro Collect]

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RadioSEGA’s WinterFest returns, starting December 18th

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It’s the holiday season; and to ring it in, our friends at RadioSEGA are back with another WinterFest, after the success of last year’s event!

WinterFest consists of a bunch of community members getting together and playing radio shows about all aspects of SEGA, whilst holding giveaways and playing some awesome music from the long history of SEGA. It’s a big celebration of community spirit; sites such as SEGADriven and The Sonic Show are involved, and this year, we’re getting in on the action too!

Liam Ashcroft of This is Saturn (that’s me!) will be hosting a show for the event; about VOCALOID! “VOCALAND with Tracker_TD” hits the air Saturday 19th December at 5pm GMT (12pm ET/9am PT). Be there!

Programming starts at 7pm GMT tomorrow, and you can catch the full press release from RadioSEGA after the jump.

Continue Reading ➜

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A Compilation of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s In-Game Artwork

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Years ago, I ended up trying to extract some artwork images from Panzer Dragoon Saga, the Sega Saturn classic and only RPG in the Panzer Dragoon series. While I managed to write a small program to extract the grayscale versions of the images out of the game’s files, actually getting the images in color proved to be a bit more challenging. I never did figure out how to apply the color palette to the images, but I did manage to find a workaround. I looked up the exact address where the Sega Saturn stored the images and the color palettes in its internal memory, and then used the Sega Saturm emulator Yabause to inject all of the images and the corresponding color palettes at the correct location in the memory, while the game was running and showing the opening menu. In doing so, I could alter the background of the start screen and grab each of the images.

The artwork consists of the following:

  • Four images that were shown when you were asked to switch between the game’s four CDs.
  • Four images shown at the end of the game when you viewed your statistics (like how much of the game’s map you explored). The images differed depending on how well you performed throughout the game.
  • The image shown in the background of the Save menu.
  • The images shown at the game’s title screen, for both the US/EU and Japanese version.

But I never did upload those images to Panzer Dragoon Legacy. More recently, someone posted a thread on Panzer Dragoon Legacy’s forum asking for those images, and I finally got around to uploading them. You can view the images by visiting the link below:

Panzer Dragoon Saga in-game background art

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Custom Sega Dreamcast bios aims to improve experience

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You are probably sitting there thinking whats a bio and why should I give a damn? I mean, you have been playing your beautiful SEGA Dreamcast games just fine without these custom, fancy fan bios. First what is a bio? Well, you know that information that the system loads before it boots your game? That’s it.

What does this revised fan bios replace? Let’s check the list! 

  • Region free: boot GD/CD from any regions
  • No VGA flag check: no matter if the game supports the VGA output, the lets it boot
  • Bootfile extent check: allow a game to boot even if its bootfile, more commonly called 1ST_READ.BIN, is not located on the outer part of the disc
  • SEGA License screen skip
  • MIL-CD/backup direct boot
  • Black fade-in color while booting from menu
  • No VMU copy-protected file check

I tend to play my Dreamcast in VGA mode like most (cool) people, so the idea of just skipping the check on boot might be a good thing for me.The issue? the method for installing takes some talent with a soldering iron, something that I just don’t have.

[Via: RetroCollect]

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SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive homebrew platformer ‘Tanglewood’ announced

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Fans won’t let old SEGA hardware die, this new homebrew comes from Big Evil Corporation, who is slowly revealing aspects of the game as time goes on. I guess they really are evil, huh?

While they are just showing a small clip of the main character, Nymm, walking through selected areas; the developer has already promised a lot of the game. The game is set to be influenced by games such as Abe’s Odyssey, Another World and Flashback. If you click the short clip above it will show you their night/day system that they plan on using. This system will tie-in with puzzles throughout the game.

We will keep you updated here at SEGAbits about anymore information about Tanglewood , but what do you guys think so far?

[Via: Retrocollect]

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