Retro

Steel Empire Chronicles revealed for Switch and PS4, plus Sega Genesis Steel Empire official limited reprint also launched

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Steel Empire is back again! Just announced by Strictly Limited Games, Steel Empire Chronicles was just announced for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, containing the 1992 Sega Genesis original (known as Empire of Steel on Mega-Drive in Europe), the Game Boy Advance version from 2005, the remake that was released on Nintendo 3DS back in 2014 and then on Steam in 2018, and even the NES shooter Over Horizon, developed by the same original developers of Steel Empire and released the year prior exclusively in Japan and Europe.

So far, this game is not released on the Nintendo eShop or the PlayStation store and no release date is given yet. The game is only available currently in physical form and will soon be up for pre-order at Strictly Limited’s online store. This includes a standard and collectors edition of both the Switch and PS4 versions as well as new physical cartridges of the original Steel Empire on Genesis/Mega-Drive and Over Horizon for NES, with an NTSC and PAL version of both games sold separately. All these items are in limited quantities.

Check in after the break for more information about this new release.

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New 3D Dreamcast Dungeon Crawler “HarleQuest!” now on Kickstarter

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A brand new indie dungeon crawling RPG has just been announced for Dreamcast and PC (Including Mac and Linux), called HarleQuest!, and has begun its bid for crowdfunding on Kickstarter on April 1st. No foolin’.

Being developed by Ross Kilgariff, with assistance by Alastair Low of LowTek Games (Who have experience with Dreamcast development, porting indie NES games to the console), HarleQuest! is envisioned as a “high difficulty, procedurally-generated dungeon crawler” inspired by Gauntlet, Diablo, The Legend of Zelda, MidiEvil, and “SoulsBorne” games such as the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne. The dungeon layouts will be randomized, many different weapons and loot will be scattered around for the taking, fearsome enemies and giant bosses lurk around most corners, the option of co-op multiplayer is there, and best of all, the game will be in full 3D, a rarity for independent Dreamcast games. At the time of this writing, HarleQuest! has raised $8,214 of the $13,811 needed and has kept a good momentum after the Kickstarter campaign went live.

Go check out the Kickstarter page now, which is running until April 30th 2023, or check in after the break for more info from us at SegaBits.

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Cancelled Woody Woodpecker Racing Dreamcast port saved and archived

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The Sega Dreamcast had a handful of interesting kart racing games in its time, but here’s one that never made it past the finish line to retail shelves. Woody Woodpecker Racing was released for PlayStation, PC, and Game Boy Color, but a Dreamcast version was also planned, as evidenced by the above ad from the manual for the Dreamcast version of The Grinch video game, also from Konami.

Now, thanks to video game archivist and Youtuber Andrew Borman and video game developer @frioglobal1, the source code for Woody Woodpecker Racing on Dreamcast has been found and miraculously compiled into a functional form. Thanks to them, we now have a glimpse of what this game could’ve looked like. Check in after the break to see more.

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Samba de Amigo ver. 2000 English fan conversion now available

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While you wait for the release of Samba de Amigo: Party Central for Nintendo Switch, here’s a new development for what is probably the next best Samba de Amigo game. 

Samba de Amigo ver. 2000, which originally released on Sega Dreamcast exclusively in Japan in the year 2000, has gotten a new English conversion by Dukeblooders. While the game originally didn’t have much Japanese text in it, and didn’t strictly require a mastery of Japanese to play anyway, Dukeblooders went the extra mile and converted as much of the game’s text as possible, mostly using audio or graphics from the Wii version of Samba de Amigo from 2007, which had most of ver. 2000’s features anyway. It may not seem like too much of a change, but it should help the game feel like a more complete English release that never was.

Currently, you can download the patch from Dukeblooders’s Github page. According to this page, patching your copy of the game requires the Universal Dreamcast Patcher software by Derek Pascarella, which you can get from his own Github page. Playing the patched game currently requires a Dreamcast ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) such as a MODE or a GDEMU, as it cannot run from a burnt CD-ROM at this time. It should run perfectly fine in a Dreamcast emulator, theoretically. 

If you’re able to try this out, let us know what you think in the comments below.

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New Genesis/Mega-Drive fighter Insane Pain releases; on sale now

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The new developments on Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive just keep on coming. This time, it’s the new cyberpunk themed 2D fighter Insane Pain, with its impressive pre-rendered 3D graphics and blood and gore effects. The Germany based developers Blast Process Games have released the game in its ROM form on their itch.io page and are preparing an online store in their website to sell physical copies of the game along with collectable trading cards and t-shirts with the game’s characters.

Make sure you check in after the break for more information.

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Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack updated with Golden Axe II, Alien Storm, Columns, and Virtua Fighter 2

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On Thursday, December 15th, Sega has added 4 more of their own Genesis classics to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack online subscription service. Alien Storm, Columns, Golden Axe II, and Virtua Fighter 2 are immediately accessible after updating the Sega Genesis – Nintendo Switch Online app to it’s latest version. Japanese players get the same four games in their own update as well, and this is despite the fact Virtua Fighter 2 Genesis did not originally release in Japan. (Although it was developed by Sega of Japan.)

Of course, these four games are all some of the usual mainstays in Sega’s many Genesis compilations, including the Sega Genesis Classics Collection also available on Switch and other consoles, (Golden Axe II is also on the recently released Sega Genesis Mini 2) so chances are many of you are already quite familiar with these games. If you still wanna hear me ramble on about what these games are, then make yourself comfy and check in after the break.

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Cancelled Genesis/Mega-Drive prototype ROM Segapede/Astropede now released to the public

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Anybody remember that canned prototype of Segapede (later called Astropede) that was being developed at Sega Technical Institute and later shown publically for the first time ever by former Sega of America artist Craig Stitt? That was just a video of the pitched prototype in action, but now Craig has found a development ROM in his own archives and well known game development archivists Hidden Palace have released that rom to the public. Now, instead of just looking at the pitch video, you can try it for yourself.

You can go to Hidden Palace’s web page for Segapede to download the ROM for use in your favorite emulator or Genesis flash cartridge. There, you’ll also find a long write-up of the history of Segapede’s development and cancellation and a bevy of hand drawn concept artwork. Just keep in mind there’s not much to do in the game because it was an early prototype.

So do you think this might’ve become a cool game? Tell us what you think in the comments below. (Assuming you’ve clicked into the article instead of just seeing this on the main Segabits page wall.)

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Yuzo Koshiro/Ancient working on new shooter for Genesis/Mega-Drive

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Genesis/Mega-Drive fans are about to be eatin’ good for a while with all the lovely new games, re-releases, and other interesting projects in development for the console. It’s almost like it’s out of retirement. That’s about to  look much more true now that a longstanding developer that’s actually made games for the console in its heyday is now working on a new one for the first time in about 28 years.

Revealed in a tweet by Yuzo Koshiro, who needs no introduction among Sega fans, he and his development studio Ancient (Developers of Streets of Rage 2 and Beyond Oasis on Genesis) are now hard at work on a brand new horizontal scrolling shmup for Genesis. While we don’t know how far along in development this, as of now, untitled game is, Koshiro-san makes it clear this is being made in the spirit of actual official Genesis releases from the 90’s and 80’s and that it will be his first time composing music for a new Genesis game since Beyond Oasis from 1994. (Known as The Story of Thor outside North America).

Hear more about Koshiro-san’s intentions after the break.

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Gley Lancer official cartridge release coming from Retro-Bit; Pre-orders open now

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Retro-Bit sure is on a roll now. Hot off their recent announcement of their Valis Collection, Retro-Bit has now announced their official western cartridge debut for Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer, one of the most beloved shumup classics released exclusively on Mega-Drive in Japan only. Pre-orders are now open from several different stores in both North America and Europe until December 27th, 2022. North American Genesis fans can pre-order from Limited Run Games and Castlemania Games. European Mega-Drive fans can pre-order from Nedgame, Xtra Life, Dragonbox Shop, Spel & Sant, and Strictly Limited Games.

(They’ve also announced pre-orders for Battletoads & Double Dragon for SNES the same day, but that’s not Sega Genesis, so lets ignore that.)

Check in after the break for more information and a nifty trailer.

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Streets of Rage 2 New Era fan port updates old game with new features

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There aren’t many widely celebrated classics on Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive quite like Streets of Rage 2. The beat-em-up classic exclusive to Sega’s 16-bit juggernaut still holds up perfectly well the way it is, but some fans have set out to modernize the game in Unity 3D with some amazing new enhancements, made through reverse engineering.

Streets of Rage 2 New Era is a brand new fan-developed port of the original game for PC and Mac that builds on it with new 4-player multiplayer, widescreen, and even online co-op. It is a complete experience currently at version 2.0 at the time of this writing. The game requires you to have an original Streets of Rage 2 ROM file in order to play. This is only to get around the legal issue of making the game freely available while Sega, the rightful copyright holders, still sell Streets of Rage 2. New Era does not rely on emulation to run or enhance the game. It recommends that you buy Streets of Rage 2 on Steam where, along with every other game in the Sega Genesis Classics Collection, it comes with a freely accessible ROM file ripe for the taking in that collection’s installation files.

Check in after the break for extra info. Otherwise, head to the game’s web page to download the game.

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Lost Sega FMV game “The Sacred Pools” discovered; now available to download and try

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An unreleased Segasoft game named “The Sacred Pools” has finally been found and dumped online for all to try. According to The Gaming Alexandria, who made and released this discovery, The Sacred Pools was developed as an “Erotic Thriller” sci-fi FMV (Full-Motion Video) game for Sega Saturn, PC, and PlayStation (I did not stutter, thank you). It was actually shown at E3 in 1996, where it was slammed by press, causing Segasoft to quietly shelve the game despite all the work that was already done on it. Now, in late 2022, the game was released online with help from former Sega of America employees Joe Cain (Game tester) and David Grey (Associate producer on The Sacred Pools). The latter had held onto several CD-Roms, each containing alpha builds of the game for Saturn, PlayStation, and PC, which were all thankfully preserved online with no trouble and now playable on some emulators and on real hardware.

See more of the brief history on this game after the break.

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Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack updated with Alisa Dragoon, Beyond Oasis, and Earthworm Jim

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On Thursday, September 15th, Sega added three more classic Sega Genesis titles to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack lineup, after skipping a month from their usual bimonthly update. Subscribers can now play Alisa Dragoon, Beyond Oasis, and Earthworm Jim on Nintendo Switch. Japanese players get all the same 3 games in their own update at the same time. Each game will be immediately accessible after updating the Sega Genesis – Nintendo Switch Online application on your Switch to its latest version. You can learn more about each game within this article.

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Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! Gets English + Cut Content Restoration Patch

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Another Sakura Wars game called Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! has been translated into English by diligent fans. This project was helmed by @burntends2, with the assistance of @matto_bii, dan_jia, Neko, @The_Opponent, and comicmaster, with the goal of not only making Sakura Wars GB accessible to English readers, but to also restore unused content such as being able to view the miscellaneous character portraits, unlockable secret photos, and unused voice clips for the endings.

Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! was originally released for the Game Boy Color, developed by Jupiter and Published by Media Factory under the license of SEGA and Red Entertainment. Taking place between the events of Sakura Wars and Sakura Wars 2, you take on the role of an unnamed temporary recruit who was recently enrolled in the Flower Division. You’re task is to train with six members of the Imperial Flower Division, both to gain a stronger bond with each member and to also get stronger, with the ultimate goal to complete an exam by the end of the month. Unlike other titles in the series, Sakura Wars GB is a mixture of a raising simulator and a minigame collection, where you must participate in different training sessions that tackle different subjects like accuracy and intelligence, play different mini-games, and have turn based battles to test your wits.

The patch is readily available here. For official PR post and trailer, click here.

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Guilty Gear Isuka and Rumble Fish 2 have now been ported to SEGA Dreamcast

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It looks like those SNK Atomiswave arcade ports continue to pour in for the SEGA Dreamcast. It seemed I even missed a few, but I had to come do a post for the release of both Guilty Gear Isuka and Rumble Fish 2! I have seriously been waiting for Rumble Fish 2 since this whole port thing got started.

Guilty Gear Isuka GDI Download | Rumble Fish 2 GDI Download

Its also cool to see other people in the community start porting some of these arcade titles over, even adding little short cuts to get into Time Attack and other options. Is the Atomiswave ports the best thing to happen to the Dreamcast in 2020?

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Sega Saturn Japanese exclusive SRPG “Valhollian” getting fan made English translation

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The fan translation team known as Meduza Team (recently they translated Linkle Liver Story and provided widescreen hacks for Shining Force III, Powerslave and Dead or Alive) have announced they are working on a English translation for Valhollian or better known as “Zanma Chouougi Valhollian” . This Sega Saturn exclusive SRPG came out in 1998 and was developed by Datt Japan which only worked on two previous Sega Saturn games, Virtual Casino (1996) and Monster Slider (1997).

Quite frankly surprised this title never got a proper translation and release in the West since the game did sport some really cool looking polygon graphics and seems to have a pretty interesting cast of characters. Check out the video above on the work they’ve done on the game so far. Pretty interesting project and worth keeping an eye on if you are looking for more Sega Saturn goodness.

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