Fan made

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!

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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.

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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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Sonic Generation PC mod let’s you play as Mario

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Well, I think saying that it only lets you play the game as Mario is short changing the PC mod being titled ‘Super Mario Generations’ by its creator. The mod also brings new bosses, new hub world NPCs, and of course Mario but with new improved animations.

Got to hand it to fans who continue to make mods for Sonic Generation, I love this sort of stuff even if it does have Mario in it (not that there’s anything wrong with Mario).

Find out more via Sonic Retro or Moddb page!

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Play Shenmue on Dreamcast in widescreen

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ShenmueWidescreenHackWe know that Codebreaker codes change aspects of games, from infinite lives to instant unlockables. But did you know that you can use a code on games to get them to display in ‘anamorphic widescreen’? Assembler Games forum user S4pph4rad decided to release his anamorphic widescreen codes for Shenmue I & II and this lead to quite a few users contributing back.The idea is to have codes for most of the games, if possible.

“Similar to the codes for other platforms, this is anamorphic widescreen so you’re not getting higher resolution. Some additional changes could probably be made like shrinking the HUD too, but this is the simplest solution. Consider these version 1. There’s still some pop-in occasionally near the edges of the screen, but it’s not as bad as when you use an emulator to extend the visible area. That could probably be fixed with deeper analysis into how it decides when something goes out of range.” – S4pph4rad from Assembler Games

You can read all about the process of Anamorphic widescreen over here and if you want to check out more progress on codes for other games check out Assembler Games’ forum thread. This is all a work in progress, of course and the community is submitting codes to other Dreamcast classics.

Hit the jump for the Shenmue I & II widescreen codes!

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Phantasy Star Generation 2 gets full English fan translation

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PhantasyStarGenerationPart2The Phantasy Star fansite pscave.com has finished fully translating the Japanese only Phantasy Star Generation 2, which is a remake of the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive JRPG Phantasy Star II. This (and the first Generation game) was part of the Sega Ages 2500 series of remakes that got released on the Playstation 2.

Version notes: 

“This version is an open beta. Many pieces of equipment and techniques have had their names revised from their previous incarnations. Namely, many appeared to be German words spelled phonetically in Japanese (i.e., “Nish” is was actually spelled in Japanese as “Harnisch” which is German for “Armor.” Thus, it was decided many techniques will not be seen as they were in previous games like PSO or earlier. This was a collaborative effort with the members of the PSCave forum. A document noting specific changes for reference will be provided with the translated ISO (CRC32: C10FD10C) and the patch.”

You can always download the full English translated ISO of the game here. According to PSCave, the original game was distributed on CD and not DVD, so if you’re going to burn it to play on a modded Playstation 2 then burn it on CD. You can always play it on PCSX2 emulator, which is a lot less of a hassle.

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Fan Made: Hearts for Hardware by Randy Gallegos celebrates the SEGA Genesis and more!

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Like paintings of classic consoles? Artist Randy Gallegos has you covered. From the series dubbed “Hearts for Hardware,” described as a platform-agnostic celebration of older gaming hardware, comes three SEGA focused oil paintings featuring the SEGA Genesis and the original 3-button and 6-button controllers. You may have seen Randy’s work before, as he spent two decades working as an illustrator in another area of gaming, creating imagery for Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. With “Hearts for Hardware”, Randy combines his love of classic gaming with his painting skills. The results look great!

Check out Randy’s other “Hearts for Hardware” paintings on his website, including the NES, Playstation, and others. More SEGA works are on the way, including some import Japanese consoles. Looking forward to seeing where the series goes! After the break, check out the 3-button and 6-button SEGA Genesis controller paintings.

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Volgarr the Viking gets a Dreamcast port

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Volgarr the Viking is a 16-bit style, tough-as-nails, retro-styled action game published by the crazy people at Adult Swim. The game has made it across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox One, 3DS, Wii U, PS4, and Vita. But what if you wanted to play this game on your Dreamcast?

Now you can, thanks to one of the developers of the orginal game, who did a side project to port the game on SEGA’s white dream machine. Since its Marc Hall’s personal port, this project is ‘unofficial’ and labeled as freeware, but works as you’d expect. The game even supports VGA, if you want a crisper picture.

Click here to download the ISO and start stabbing!

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Fans get Phantasy Star Online 2 to run on the Oculus Rift

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Phantasy Star Online 2 fan, HardLight602 has created this masterful first person mod for PSO2, allowing the use of the Oculus Rift headset. Taking roughly 6 months to develop this is no simple script mod.

“Everything you see in the video is entirely the modded behaviour of the game up to and including the stereoscopic distortion rendering.” – Hardlight602

On top of that HardLight602 has enabled inverse character rigging which aligns your characters in-game body with your own. This enables many of the weapons to be aimed simply by looking- your characters aim will follow your gaze.

Hit the jump and learn more about the mod.

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Dreamcast indie game ‘Ghost Blade’ gets release date

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Indie Dreamcast developer and publisher Hucast games has finally announced the released date for their latest title Ghost Blade. The game will be officially out on September 27th and come in a variety of editions.

What the game features:

  • Beautiful, detailed High-res Graphics
  • 5 Stage with HUGE Boss Enemies
  • 3 Player ships with different gun types
  • Instant Respawn
  • Auto-bomb enabled novice mode for beginners
  • Arcade Gameplay and Addictive Scoring System
  • Incredible Soundtrack composed by Rafael Dyll
  • 2-player mode for addictive fun

Accessories supported:

  • VMU
  • RGB cable (480i)
  • VGA cable/box (480p)
  • Original Pad
  • Arcade stick

You can check out both the regular edition and limited editions (limited to 1,000 copies) of the game. Anyone looking forward to this one?

[Via Retro Collect]

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Valkyria Chronicles fan releases ‘”Gallian Crossfire” PC rebalancing mod

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A Valkyria Chronicles fan calling himself Busard decided to create a balancing mod for the game on PC. One of the best aspects about PC gaming is that the fanbase can modify PC games easily and make chances they see fit. It seems that Valkyria Chronicles has gotten quite the cult fanbase on Steam, with close to half a million owners, so its no surprised we would see fan support for the game.

Download Mod – Steam Guide

The patch tries to make the game more strategic, taking away easy strategies like rushing in and tries to add diversity to the gameplay. So how do you install it? What are the patch notes? Hit the jump!

[Via: NeoGAF]

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Homebrew platformer ‘Mega Cheril Perils’ coming to SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis

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Homebrew developer The Mojon Twins’ have announced that their recent homebrew title (originally released on the ZX Spectrum) will have a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive release. Not much has been showing on the game outside of new screenshots that have been shared via RetroManiac.

I guess you can sit back and enjoy the screens released as we wait for more information, maybe the developers will explain to us why a naked girl decided to battle zombies in the nude?

[Via: Retro Collect]

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