Retro

Developer Retrospective: How Overworks and WOW Entertainment became Sega WOW

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Moving into the second month of our Year of the SEGA Developers, we shine the spotlight on two beloved SEGA development teams as well as their short life as a single entity. SEGA’s Overworks and WOW Entertainment were formed in in the midst of the Dreamcast era alongside several other internal SEGA development divisions. Prior to the formation of these teams, SEGA had a long history of shifting about, renaming, and refocusing the efforts of their many internal developers. To better understand where Overworks, WOW Entertainment, and SEGA’s many other divisions came about, let’s dive into a short history of SEGA’s internal teams!

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SEGA Retrospective: Virtua Fighter’s Spin-Offs and Crossovers

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When we kicked off Virtua Fighter week, we took a look back at the main titles from the series. Despite being only five games long, thanks to the many revisions, updates, and upgrades as well as arcade to home console ports, what was five games felt more like ten. While Virtua Fighter didn’t dip into bloody fatalities or energy blasts, there did exist the metallic cyborg final boss Dural. Despite this, Virtua Fighter could be described as a fighter that tends to keep things in the realm of the real world. So where did SEGA-AM2 unleash their pent-up wackiness? In the spin-offs of course!

From 1996 through to today, Virtua Fighter has done everything from turning their adult roster into children, to crossing over with other SEGA fighters and even sharing the ring with a rival franchise! Join us as we look back on the many spin-offs, cameos, and crossovers that the franchise has produced over the years.

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Round Table: Our favorite SEGA developed Saturn games

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We are coming to a close in our SEGA Saturn Month here at SEGAbits, so we decided to go out in a bang by telling you guys our favorite SEGA in-house developed game. SEGA had a power house of developers during the 90’s and most of them really hit their strides during the Saturn, we know its hard to pick just one game, so we will also be listing three more titles as honorable mentions.

Like always, if you guys want to let us know your favorite SEGA developed Saturn titles, you can do so in the comments section.

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SEGA Saturn’s 20th Anniversary: Celebrating Decades of Arcade Perfection

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The SEGA Saturn turns 20 years old today and I thought it would be a good time to discuss the popularity of the Saturn in the land of the rising sun because if we did this article on its life in America it would be a very depressing and frankly this means I can write about Segata Sanshiro which is always fantastic.

So let’s get to it and if you like this article you might want to also check out a similar article I did on the Dreamcast for its 15th year anniversary.

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SEGA Tunes: Battle Garegga flies you to the leaden sky

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Battle Garegga is a fabulous vertical arcade shooter that was ported exclusively to the SEGA Saturn in Japan. Not into the genre? Who cares, you don’t have to care how a game plays to appreciate this fabulous piece of music. That’s the thing I like about Japanese games, they usually tried to hook you right at the first stage and offer you a bombastic opening track. Battle Garegga‘s Stage 1: Valley song is no different, a great opening track that has you hooked right at the first note.

So what are you waiting for? Hit play and fly to the leaden sky.

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Pier Solar out today on Wii U, coming to Xbox One on the 21st

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Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD comes out on the Wii U today, so if your reading this go on the e-shop and grab yourself a copy.

As for Xbox One owners, you guys can now expect to play the game on November 21st, which has been approved by the boys over at Watermelon Games. That would mean that the only versions we are waiting on are the Dreamcast and Playstation Vita (unless I missed a platform?).

The game is already out on Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Steam, Ouya and (as of today)  Wii U. What console are you planning to pick this up on?

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New indie SEGA Dreamcast AMEBA announced, features criminal investigation and drama

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The SEGA Dreamcast turned 15 years old this year, but that isn’t slowing it down when it comes to independent releases. An independent video game studio from Spain have just announced their upcoming detective adventure game called AMEBA. The game is set to be released on Windows, Linux, OSX, Ouya, and of course the SEGA Dreamcast.

AMEBA will be a visual novel game where you take the shoes a of a detective that is trying to solve a string of murders that might never have existed…

“How do you investigate a series of murders that may as well have never existed? Or, how can you be sure you haven’t lost it, when you’re the only cop in your city who thinks several un-connected deaths were not accidental or natural? These are the questions veteran inspector Hugo asks himself on an everyday basis.

I usually loathe visual novels. With the exception of just a few really good ones, they’re too ‘Japanese’ for my tastes, culturally speaking. So we’re taking the genre in a new direction: no anime-like art, as the teaser poster shows, obviously a more western take on storytelling and characterization, a serious story. Imagine Davind Fincher’s Seven meets Frank Miller’s Sin City comic books. Well, that’s what I’d like, but I’m not expecting to reach that kind of quality!” – Carlos from Retro Sumus (Developer of AMEBA)

The developer Retro Sumus promises more information and in-game screens before the end of the year.

Check out Retro Sumus on:

Official Site – Facebook – Twitter

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SEGA Tunes: Virtua Fighter 2’s Sarah and her Black Moon Cat

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Virtua Fighter 2 was the most popular game for the SEGA Saturn for many reasons, the most popular of those being the graphics and gameplay. But for me, I could never get over the excellent soundtrack. Virtua Fighter 2 featured one of the most impressive soundtracks that came out of the SEGA Saturn era. This week we look at Sarah’s theme ‘Black Moon Cat‘ and its various remixes including the Virtua Fighter Kids remix and more!

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Retro SEGA themed console boxes will hold your trading cards

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Are you a Collectible Card Gamer (CCG)? You know, like Magic: The Gathering or even Pokemon? If so you might be interested in the variety of deck boxes, collection boxes and even card sleeves based on retro SEGA consoles that are offered by Amazon Japan. With SEGA Saturn’s anniversary coming next month, I think i’ll order myself a SEGA Saturn themed deck holder.

They  have them based on a variety of SEGA’s retro consoles, sadly nothing older than the Mega Drive and no handhelds. Hit the jump to check out the gallery.

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Son releases tribute video to remember his SEGA-loving father

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The above video comes from the ‘SEGA Channel’, a fan ran YouTube channel. This is a tribute to the uploader’s dad, who was a SEGA Genesis fan. He liked the Genesis so much that he made a home video trying to get his New York relatives to jump to the next level.

This video was released around September 1991, meaning that the SEGA Genesis was ramping up to being the number one sold console in the United States. Esposito, who made the tribute video to his father, who has since passed away. Thanks to Esposito for giving us a nostalgic look back to the early 90’s and sharing a personal moments he shared with his father. An entertaining video, must see.

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Swingin’ Report Show #71: Phantasy Star Online with Susan Arendt & James Mielke

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Dreamcast Month comes to an end at SEGAbits with a special episode of the Swingin’ Report Show podcast in which we celebrate one of the most memorable Dreamcast games – Phantasy Star Online.

Joining Barry and George on this episode are two gaming industry greats! Taking a telepipe to the Pioneer 2 is Susan Arendt – Managing Editor of Joystiq.com, former Editor-In-Chief at The Escapist, and former contributor to GameShark, Shojo Beat Magazine, and Wired. And back from busting a blue rappy it’s James Mielke – Founder of BitSummit, former Editor-In-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com, and former producer at Q Entertainment and Q-Games.

Join us for a special round table looking back on PSO, from pre-release hype, to launch, and memories of the many versions and episodic sequels. As a bonus, James reveals that he has an army of super soldiers and he shares some inside info on where Phantasy Star Online 2 is at in English translation and what may be holding up a Western release.

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Lazy Game Reviews covers the Diamond Edge 3D card that brought the SEGA Saturn experience to PC

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Bringing the home console experience to a personal computer has always been a trying experience for game developers. With varying degrees of hardware and dear god, playing Virtua Fighter on a keyboard? Back when SEGA was making a big push for PC gaming, they teamed up with NVidia with the Diamond Edge 3D card for Windows 95. The package brought you Virtua Fighter Remix and Panzer Dragoon as a couple of free games as well as two SEGA Saturn controllers. Why? Because the video card also featured an adapter that lets you plug in any Saturn controller to your computer all while rendering 3D via quadratic texture mapping (In lieu of any OpenGL compatibility), much like an actual SEGA Saturn. YouTube content creator Lazy Game Reviews has recently posted a review on this rare piece of hardware and shows off the card and the games in action.

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Yakuza Zero’s Game Center to have playable versions of AM2 arcade classics

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Famitsu has confirmed a few titles that will be in Yakuza Zero‘s Game Center. The titles confirmed so far include:

  • Out Run
  • Fantasy Zone
  • Space Harrier 
  • Hang-On

If you didn’t catch the early information on this title, it is a pre-quel taking place in 1988, so it is fitting that they would include SEGA arcade classics like this. You know who also did this over a decade ago? A little game called Shenmue, you might have heard of it?

Honestly, this is what I wanted to hear when I found out that Yakuza Zero was taking place in the 80’s, classic AM2 arcade hits.

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Swingin’ Report Show #70: SEGA Dreamcast 15th Anniversary Special with The Dreamcast Junkyard

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This week on the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast, Barry and George celebrate 15 years of the SEGA Dreamcast with Tomleecee and Aaron aka The Gagaman of The Dreamcast Junkyard.

Being from the UK, Tom and Aaron bring the unique perspective of what the SEGA Dreamcast launch was like in Europe. Topics include UK marketing, the delayed launch, games exclusive to the region, the official and unofficial magazines, the collecting scene, and Tom and Aaron’s thoughts on the US release. We also have a discussion on SEGA’s decision to change the red swirl to blue, and which region had the best box art.

You can follow Tomleecee and The Gagaman on Twitter, and make sure to visit The Dreamcast Junkyard, RetroCollect, and Lucky Hit!

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