Retro

Playable build of Sonic X-Treme now available

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We all know the story. 19 years ago, everyone was getting super excited about the upcoming release of Sonic X-treme, which would mark Sonic’s first fully three dimensional adventure. Long story short, the game was never released, and the Sega Saturn always had a hole in its library, no main Sonic title ever being released.

While bits and pieces of what the game would have been have leaked/been released over the the years, last November JollyRodger showed up with a plethora of material from defunct gaming studio Point Of View, including the source code for a variety of Sonic X-treme builds on both the Saturn and the PC. Being as the code could only run natively on hardware very few people have access to, Jolly took it upon himself to begin the process of porting the code to modern PC’s. Earlier tonight, the first public release of this labor of love was been released, “version 037” of X-treme now fully operational.

Download links and more after the jump.

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My Life with SEGA riddles us this in Batman Forever: The Arcade Game for SEGA Saturn

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After the misfire that was Batman Forever on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, Acclaim tried to make amends with this arcade beat-’em-up developed by Iguana Entertainment of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter fame. That’s right, no platforming nonsense or Mortal Kombat theatrics. Just good old-fashioned ass whoopin’ in black rubber…. Wow! That sounds about as wrong as nipples on the bat suit, doesn’t it?

In any case, I’m here to help you solve the greatest riddle of all. The mother of all riddles: “Is Batman Forever: The Arcade Game worth playing?”

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Resident Evil Code: Veronica never before seen concept art hits the internet

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[Wasn’t this design later used in South Park?]

Resident Evil Code: Veronica was my favorite entries into Capcom’s long running survival horror franchise. Maybe its because I’m biased due to it being originally a Dreamcast exclusive title (which later got a Playstation 2 port). I’m also the type of person that likes to see unreleased artwork for games, especially concept art. It seems the guys over at Project Umbrella (a Resident Evil fansite) have been sitting on hundreds of pieces of unreleased concept artwork for Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil Zero.

From the owner of Project Umbrella via NeoGAF:

We came into contact with freelance concept artist Satoshi Nakai, who was hired by CAPCOM in 1997 at the recommendation of Nextech Co., Ltd to provide concept art for the games under the directions of scenario company FLAGSHIP’s lead writers Noboru Sugimura and Hiroshi Soda.

Only a very small fraction of this artwork has been released by CAPCOM over the years. They are direct scans of the original pages. Also included is a single artwork for a scrapped game originally directed by Masaaki Yamada, featuring HUNK on a cruise ship facing against new plant/human Zombie enemies.

Hit the jump to see over  100 pieces of never before released concept art.

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2-Man Scramble plays Batman Forever for the SEGA Genesis – Holy co-op, Batman!

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Andrew Rosa and Mickey Mac must team up to beat one of the worst movie-licensed video games ever produced; Batman Forever on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.

Before this foul-mouth duo can take fight the puzzling Riddler and maniacal Two-Face, they must first overcome a seemingly endless onslaught of jackasses like “Blood Fire”, “Anti-Freeze” and “Charlie”, as well as some tough platform jumping.

For an in-depth review, watch Andrew go it alone in My Life with SEGA.

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Developer Retrospective: A look back at the games of SEGA’s Overworks

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Last week when we kicked off Overworks and WOW Entertainment month, we took a look back at how SEGA organized their many internal development teams over the years. Among those teams were Overworks and WOW Entertainment, two separate teams that released games from 2000 through to 2004 when they were merged and became SEGA WOW. This week, we will be taking a look back at the games released by Overworks. While the Overworks softography is small, especially compared to giants like SEGA AM2, in the span of four years Overworks released some truly classic titles.

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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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