SEGAbits News

SEGAbits Visits SEGA of America, Inc. in Sunny San Francisco – Part 1

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On the list of awesome opportunities that have presented themselves as a result of me becoming a SEGA fan site writer, a visit to SEGA’s San Francisco offices has taken a firm hold of the number one slot. I had already planned to take a trip to California starting in Los Angeles, heading northward via the coastal highway, and ending the San Francisco. When it came to San Fran, SEGA’s offices were at the top of the list of places to check out. At most, I figured I’d pose in front of the building, but given our connections with the SEGA community managers I went out on a limb and reached out. After a short correspondence, a date and time was set and I was in. I was going to visit SEGA’s American HQ! Through the powers of words and photos, come along with me as we step inside SEGA.

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Announcing an update for the SEGAbits Summer of Art Contest!

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This post has been a long time coming. I’ve been trying to get around to writing this for a while, but things seemed to keep getting in the way. But not today! I’ve got a few announcements regarding this contest that will hopefully give everyone more of a reason to participate.
First of all, I am pleased to announce that we’ve added some additional prizes to the contest. The grand prize winner will now also receive:

 

  • The Eyes of Bayonetta artbook and DVD combo
  • The Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack.
  • Two rare, E3 exclusive Castle of Illusion pins
  • A rare, E3 exclusive Castle of Illusion lanyard.

These prizes will be in addition to the Valkyria Chronicles Design Archive, the Jet Set Radio soundtrack, a free SEGAbits t-shirt, rare sets of pins for both Jet Set Radio and Valkyria Chronicles 2, and a free commission from Sonic comic artist Tracy Yardley! Four runner ups will also be receiving the new Castle of Illusion pins, in addition to the Valkyria Chronicles and Jet Set Radio pins.
Finally, I would also like to announce that we are extending the length of the contest to August 10th, due to how long it took me to announce these new prizes. If you have never heard of this contest, check below so that I can tell you all about it!

 

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Find out how to get a SEGAbits themed shirt

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[This is a pre-order, last day to order is 6/10/13]

I usually get messages from users asking how they can support and help the site. Honestly, the first few years we launched the site we tried advertisements, but it’s hard to run a site on such things for multiple reasons I won’t get into. Now, we run a great ad-free website and frankly I like it better this way. But it still costs money to do things, especially things we want to do for the future of the site. So if you want to help, pick up a SEGAbits shirt. You get a shirt, we get some cash to give you more ad-free content. Everyone wins!

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Sega’s big weekend sale on mobile games

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Hey! Hey! Hey! It’s time to save some CRAZY money!

Sega is having a big sale on some of it’s most recent mobile games. Crazy Taxi (with the original Offspring music back in) has a $4 drop to 99 cents. After Burner Climax is also 99 cents while the brand new House of the Dead Overkill: The Lost Reels is down to $2.99 from it’s $4.99 price tag. Both HOTD and After Burner are available on iOS and Android while Crazy Taxi is iOS only. Better hurry, the sale is good for this weekend only.

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Swingin’ Report Show and Sonic Talk now on iTunes

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Here it is, our sweet podcasts are now on iTunes. I know many of you have given us flack for not having them up, due to RSS problems  but guess what? Those are now a thing of the past. Well, not really, we are having some troubles on how it displays on iTunes. But hey, nothing is perfect. Check it out, subscribe and give us a review.

Swingin’ Report Show – Sonic Talk

Thanks to everyone that listened, regardless of not having a iTunes set up. Thank Will for fixing up the RSS feeds for us, he is brilliant.

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Ian Flynn to be guest on the next Sonic Talk! Ask your questions here.

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The most famous writer in video game comicdom is coming back to Sonic Talk! Ian Flynn, writer of Mega Man, the New Crusaders and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog will be answering your all important questions on our next show! Questions like “What do hedgehogs smell like?”, ” Why aren’t (insert your favorite shipping pair here) together”, “Is Protoman secretly Racer X?”, and “If a tasmanian devil gets rid of all the echidnas in the world and no one cares, does it make a sound?”

Post your questions in the comments section below, and we may read them on the podcast! Let us know if you want your name to be read as well.

All questions must be in by Wednesday morning.

Please do not ask any questions about the Archie case against Penders as Ian cannot answer them.

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SEGA Network partner site The Dreamcast Junkyard deemed “essential reading for future generations” by The British Library

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An insanely awesome bit of news dropped earlier this month, though we’ve just learned of it this weekend. The British Library has begun to digitally archive all of the UK web, meaning just about everything on the internet originating from the UK will be stored for future generations. Very cool stuff, but it gets even cooler. SEGA Network partner site The Dreamcast Junkyard, one of the first SEGA blogs I wrote for and continue to write for, was selected by curators and other experts from all the participating libraries to be essential reading for future generations researching our life and times in 2013. How many sites did these experts put on the list? A mere 100 websites. That’s right, amongst the likes of  Ebay, Twitter, Facebook and UK sites like Daily Mash, Moonpig, the official website of Stephen Hawking, the BBC and lots of political and official government websites, sits a SEGA fansite. How awesome is that? The BBC even noted The Dreamcast Junkyard by saying:

Some other lesser known ones include the Anarchist Federation, the Dracula Society and The Dreamcast Junkyard – a blog dedicated to the community of gamers who continue to play Dreamcast games online, despite the fact they were officially discontinued in 2002.

A big congrats to The Dreamcast Junkyard writing team including the site’s founder Tomleecee and writers fatherkrishna, The GagaMan(n), Barry the Nomad, Caleb, and NebachadnezzaR.

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SEGAbits to partner with Sonic Retro and SEGA Retro, creating the ultimate SEGA and Sonic fan resource

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No fooling! SEGAbits, Sonic Retro, and SEGA Retro welcome you the next level of SEGA fansites.

We’re excited to announce that SEGAbits will be partnering with Sonic Retro and SEGA Retro! Yes, we know, it’s April Fools day, but we are not joking. Administrators from both SEGAbits and Sonic Retro have made the decision to join forces to create the ultimate SEGA fan resource. Let’s get the big questions out of the way:

Will SEGAbits be drastically changed? No. SEGAbits will continue to bring readers news, reviews, original content and more. No design changes will be made, aside from our usual improvements as well as some additions mentioned below.

Will communities remain separate? Yes. We realize that both Sonic Retro and SEGAbits have their own communities and we do not want to merge either one into the other. SEGAbits.com and SonicRetro.org will remain.

What are the plans for Sonic Retro? Sonic Retro will continue be the Internet’s ultimate Sonic the Hedgehog resource. The Sonic Retro forums will still be home to the vast Sonic Retro community. As for the home page, SEGAbits and Sonic Retro staffs are hard at work on redefining Sonic Retro’s home page goals and once we have a plan set, you can expect it to be a change for the better.

So what’s the big deal? For starters, the plan is to integrate the expansive and informative SEGA Retro wiki into SEGAbits. We don’t want to give too much away, but expect to see SEGA Retro content improving and expanding on SEGAbits content. For example, a SEGAbits review of a game will be greatly enhanced with the integration of SEGA Retro information.

With the integration of SEGA Retro, SEGAbits will offer news, reviews, original content, a forum for SEGA fans to interact in, as well as a hugely informative wiki packed with SEGA information. Have more questions about the partnership? Comment below or visit our dedicated forum topic. We can’t wait to see where this new future for SEGAbits and Sonic Retro leads – we assume to blue, blue skies.

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Announcing the SEGAbits Third Anniversary Contest winners!

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On February 1st we announced a contest to celebrate our third anniversary. Since then, we’ve received several awesome entries, and while we loved each and every submission, in the end we had to select three winners. As per the announcement article, third place wins a copy of the official “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” DVD – and third place goes to: nikibaby19! nikibaby19 sent two awesome pieces of fan art, which we’d love to share now, but instead we plan to post them in their own dedicated “Fan Made” article on April 10th. The second place winner will receive AJ’s copy of Outlander for the SEGA Genesis as well as a copy of the official “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” DVD. And second place goes to: Nicholas C. for his written review of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. We’ll be posting Nicholas’s review on April 17th. Finally, first prize, which includes AJ’s personal copy of Technocop for the Genesis, a Genesis model 2 and a copy of the official “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” DVD goes to: TrackerTD for his video review of the SEGA Power Base Converter. TrackerTD’s entry will be posted on April 24th.

Again, a big thanks to all who entered. We loved reading and watching what you had to say, it’s great to see so many passionate SEGA fans out there. Stay tuned to SEGAbits for more contests, as well as our usual SEGA-centric content!

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From SEGAbits with Love – new SEGA-themed Valentines are here!

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Last year we presented a collection of print-and-cut-out SEGAbits themed Valentines, and this year we’re doing it again! We’re sharing these a day early to give SEGA fans time to prepare. Simply print, cut-out and give (or tweet or instagram or Facebook post) a SEGA Valentine to the man or woman in your life, and pretty soon they’ll be on you like an E-19 Egg Keeper (Sonic Adventure enemy reference, look it up). Have a happy Valentine’s day tomorrow!

After the break, double your love by checking out our Valentines from last year.

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Today marks our three year anniversary!

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The number three is quite an important one for SEGA fans: the highly successful Mega Drive/Genesis was the third SEGA console (excluding the many variations of the SG-1000 and Master System), Sonic 3 & Knuckles is considered to be Sonic’s greatest 2D epic, and fans often request Sonic Adventure 3 and a Shenmue 3. It is fitting, then, that we make such a big deal of our three year anniversary. While three years may not seem like a long time, for a website it is quite a feat. For three solid years our writers, admins and mods have strived to bring SEGA fans the best general SEGA fan site we can. We’ve done our best to keep up to date on SEGA news and reviews, from official stories to fan projects, and strived to create as much original content as we can. As such, we are very proud of our many features including the My Life with SEGA video series, Tuesday Tunes, writer round tables, the Friday Five (which will return soon), the Sonic Talk podcast, and our general SEGA podcast the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show. We have also redesigned the site a number of times, but always for the better, to give readers and followers the best visual experience we can.

Of course, all of the above means nothing without a crucial element: our readers and community members. Without all of you, SEGAbits probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has, and would be nowhere near the success that it is. As such, we want to give a huge “thank you!” to our readers. Thank you for frequenting the site, thank you for the comments and news tips, thank you for the hours spent in our forums and thank you for making us the number one general SEGA fan site on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. Also, a big thank you to the many members of SEGA’s staff who helped us out with articles, interviews, contests, and events. You know who you are, and you’re awesome. So here’s to three years, and here’s to many more!

Check out these notable articles from our past three years: our first post, our second anniversary post, our exclusive preview of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, our interview with Steve Lycett, our interview with Nagoshi, that time we got angry at Kotaku, our incredibly long special edition podcast looking back at ten years of SEGA games, our Dreamcast marathon, why we’re glad to be SEGA fans.

 

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After Burner Climax to release to iOS!

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SEGA dropped a bomb today, revealing that After Burner Climax will be receiving an iOS port. The game, which will be playable on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch platforms, looks to be completely rebuilt to support touchscreen play. Graphics appear to be scaled down, but presumably the smaller screen and super fast speeds will make the scaling down not so noticeable. In case you can’t tell, I’m trying to pad this article out to make it a paragraph, because SEGA has shared little else other than a screen, the platforms and a promise that more info is to come. Given the announcements of past SEGA iOS titles, we could very well see the game releasing within a week.

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Contest: The SEGAbits 3rd Anniversary My Life with SEGA Giveaway!

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While SEGAbits.com doesn’t officially turn three years old until February 6th, we were too excited to wait and want to officially announce the SEGAbits 3rd anniversary My Life with SEGA contest! AJ lays out all the rules and prizes in the video above, but to nail the details into your heads here is a recap:

WHAT TO DO:

Create a review of a SEGA game, a game on a SEGA console, or a piece of SEGA hardware. The format is up to you: written, video, a drawing, a photo of a sculpture. As long as it is a review of something SEGA, and you’re able to share it with us, you’re in the running.

WHAT YOU GET IF YOU WIN:

The top three winners will be featured in a SEGAbits.com article. First place will receive AJ’s personal copy of Technocop for the Genesis, a Genesis model 2 and a copy of the official “SEGAbits Presents My Life with SEGA” DVD. Second place will receive AJ’s copy of Outlander as well as the My Life with SEGA DVD. Third place will receive a copy of the DVD. The best runners-up will also be featured in an article.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

Submissions must be sent to us by the end of February (the 28th). Winners will be announced the second week of March and prizes will be sent out at the end of March.

Written reviews can be submitted via the contact button in the navigation bar at the top of the site, or emailed to us at: SEGAbits@gmail.com

Drawings can be submitted the same way, either as a link to a page where your drawing is hosted or by attaching the drawing to an email.

Videos can be shared by being posted to your personal YouTube account and then shared with SEGAbits as a video response to the above video, or by emailing us a link.

GOOD LUCK, SEGA FANS! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

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Round Table: Our Favorite SEGA Games of 2012

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Another year, another batch of SEGA games for us to play, critique, argue over, and enjoy. As is tradition here at SEGAbits, our writers have come together and each have selected their favorite SEGA games of 2012. Looking back, 2012 offered up a number of excellent rereleases, sequels to franchises both old and new, crazy and unique mobile and digital titles, and not a single crappy licensed Marvel title in sight. So, from all the games SEGA had to offer, which ones did we like best? Find out after the break!

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Happy Holidays from SEGAbits – deck the halls with SEGA ornaments!

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Happy holidays from all of us at SEGAbits! We’re truly thankful the have such an awesome community, and look forward to what 2013 will bring. As a special holiday treat, we’ve made some SEGA themed ornaments for fans to print, cut out, and hang on their Christmas tree, or whatever plants they may have sitting about their house. Directions: Below are the two pages in thumbnail form. Open both in new tabs, hit print, glue them back to back and cut out the four ornaments. Using a hole puncher, or the pointy end of an ornament hook, make a hole in the top of the ornament. Then, if you did it correctly, you’ll have four cool SEGA themed ornaments. It’s that easy!

Again, a very happy holidays and all the best in 2013 and beyond.

– The SEGAbits Team

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