AM2

A hidden (and broken) stage has been revealed in Fighters Megamix after 28 years.

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Can anyone believe it’s been 30 years since the Sega Saturn launched in Japan? To celebrate the occasion, Yutaka Ito, who works today as a director at RGG Studio, revealed a well hidden secret about Fighters Megamix (1997), the acclaimed crossover fighter on Saturn that he worked on during his early years working for Sega as a programmer at AM2. There was a secret stage hidden away in the game, only accessible through a secret code that he had originally intended to reveal to players through magazines. The reason he didn’t? The stage contained a bug that softlocks the game, which he didn’t find out about until the game already shipped to retail. He really seems to take that mistake personally too.

Want to see what this mysterious(-ly destructive) stage looks like? Check it out after the break.

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SEGA Talk #146: Shenmue Online & Shenmue City (2004-2011)

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On this SEGA Talk we take a look at two Shenmue games you most likely never played: Shenmue Online and Shenmue City. We take a look at one unreleased MMO and a mobile game that never made it out of beta.

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Download]

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, have your memories read on the show, select the games we talk about!

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SEGA Amusement CEO says Outrun 3 is ‘on our radar’

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SEGA Amusement has been making the rounds with old school SEGA fans ever since they announced Daytona 3 Championship USA earlier this year. It seems that SEGA Amusement will continue resurrecting old SEGA franchises, at least that’s what it sounds like. In a recent interview with T3, SEGA Amusement International CEO Paul Williams had this to say about a possible OutRun 3:

“Outrun 3 is not on plan at the moment. It is something that is on our radar but I cannot discuss more than that.”

It is interesting that he even spoke about the possibility of OutRun 3, considering how weird SEGA PR used to be in the past. It also seems, from what I gather from the quote that SEGA Amusement has a sort of short list of franchises they would like to bring back. Its not surprising that Daytona 3 Championship USA is one of the first titles considering how popular the original was. Paul Williams also talks about how they work with SEGA Japan developers and why its hard for them to bring SEGA Japanese games over to the states. Very interesting read.

What are your thoughts of the possiblity of OutRun 3? Let us know in the comments below!

[Via: Arcade Heroes]

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SEGA Retrospective: Virtua Fighter 5 – Ten Years Too Early

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Virtua Fighter 5 turned 10 years old on Tuesday, July 12th. Community members Oliver “oneida” Leland, Mikél “BLACKSTAR” Grissett and VFDC co-creator Mike “Myke” Abdow reflect on how the entry fits into the series at large, and how its community ebbed over the course of a decade.

On July 12th 2006, Virtua Fighter 5 was released in Japanese arcades – that’s ten long years ago this past Tuesday. To put that time-frame in perspective, Soul Calibur III had been in arcades for three months. “X-Men: The Last Stand” was in theaters, “The Sopranos” was still on the air, and there was no such thing as an iPhone. SonicFox, fighting game tournament champion, was in the third grade. Put simply, Virtua Fighter 5 was released a long, long time ago.

Ten years ago fighting games were in that period of purported dormancy which spanned from the release of Capcom vs SNK 2 to Street Fighter IV, during which 3D fighters like Dead or Alive and Tekken saw sequels and revisions. And although Dead or Alive 4 technically brought fighters to “next-gen” on the Xbox 360 the previous November, Virtua Fighter 5 shouldered the responsibility of ushering the high-definition era to the arcades, which is where the franchise has flourished since its inception in 1993.

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The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 3: Innovative Heights and the End of an Era

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REUNIFICATION AND TWELVE INNOVATIVE R&D STUDIOS

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Playing up an executive managing director and joking about the state of the Dreamcast at the time, says a lot about Sega’s attitude at the time.

In Part 2 we covered Sega’s golden age, but great heights inevitably can bring great lows. Sega had lots of up and downs throughout their history. They also had great games, lots of them! But ultimately Sega did not make that much money from the Saturn. However, in the arcades they did absolute gangbusters. Sega needed to change their approach in regards to development and also their hardware. The solution was to make the Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade hardware the same and have all of the internal studios make games for it,in turn allowing them further grow and prosper. Twelve R&D studios in total were established, and the nine software studios were not split into arcade and console divisions – they made games for everything. Hisashi Suzuki and Yu Suzuki would manage the arcade business, with Hisashi putting in his final stretch at Sega before retirement.

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The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 2: The 90s Golden Age

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THE NUMBER ONE ARCADE ENTERPRISE

The Model series of arcade hardware by Yu Suzuki in co-operation with Lockhead Martin, where the next step in the Sega arcade world. Virtua Fighter sold Sega Saturns in Japan.

The Model series of arcade hardware by Yu Suzuki in co-operation with Lockhead Martin, where the next step in the Sega arcade world. Virtua Fighter sold Sega Saturns in Japan.

In Part 1, we looked at Sega’s origins and their Japanese game development during the 80s. In Part 2 we turn our attention to the golden age, when Sega was fought in the console wars and arcades were in full-force globally. Throughout the 90s, Sega would really grow up and mature and have individual divisions, splitting into arcade and consumer software and product development. Many of the programmers, designers and planners of the 80s and earlier would become managers and producers of their own divisions.
Let’s start Part 2 off with the growth of their AM studios, which is short for Amusement Machine Research and Development.

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Round Table: Can Shenmue 3 live up to the hype?

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Its literally been 14 years since Shenmue 2 made its debut and left many unanswered questions. Over the years the Shenmue fanbase has grown since more and more people have gotten a chance to try the franchise, it has reached some level of mysticism. Having this rabid fanbase, all with individual reasons as to why they like the Shenmue franchise waiting for the next evolutionary step can be daunting to a development team.

Can Ys NET and Yu Suzuki make a game that will live up to the hype? That’s this topic on this week’s Round Table.

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Rent A Hero English translation finally released

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SEGA AM2’s Action RPG, Rent A Hero, has been fully translated to English and released by the hard working of hackers from Rom Hacking Dot Net. Pretty much finishing what Edison Translation Group left off with only one section of the game translated.

Now gamers can finally get their hands on Rent A Hero from start to finish in English language for the first time ever.

Rent A Hero focuses on a teenager named Taro who has recently moved to Aero City along with his family and receives a armored suit. When he wears the suit, he becomes Rent A Hero, a hero for hire keeping the world at peace and payed for his heroic deeds.

For screenshots of Rent A Hero in English. Click the jump below!

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SEGA Retrospective: After Burner II – From SEGA arcade classic to SEGA 3D Classics

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After Burner is just one of those franchises by SEGA that took American arcade goers by storm due to the sheer speed of the game, the eye catching cabinet, and its highly detailed (for the time) graphics. I truly believe that After Burner is just one of those arcade games that don’t get enough credit by gamers today, so jump into your F-14 Tomcat and blast through our After Burner retrospective. You never know, you might learn something!

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The SEGA Five: How SEGA-AM2 changed video gaming

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Welcome to our new video series The Weekly Five, a top five list covering a wide range of SEGA topics. We are celebrating The Year of Developers over at SEGAbits.com, that means that each month throughout the year we will be covering notable notable SEGA developers. This month is all about a developer that is close to my heart, SEGA-AM2. What better way to kick off the new series than to discuss five ways SEGA-AM2 changed video gaming.

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SEGA Tunes: Bust down the door and jam to Virtua Cop’s OST

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SEGA AM2 has a huge library of developed games, but nothing is more shocking at how much they change genres and still delivered a game that would defy that same genre. For example, Virtua Cop which in my opinion is one of the best light gun shooters around.

Nothing has a bigger impact on you than the first stage’s music. Its the song that draws the player into the game and Virtua Cop succeeds with its Stage 1 Theme: “Arms Black Market”, giving you that feeling that you and a buddy really are taking down this black market gun rig.

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This is Saturn goes cross-country with Gale Racer for SEGA Saturn

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Surprise: It’s a This is Saturn double-month!
That’s right, to celebrate 20 years of the Saturn, we’re bringing you a second episode of This is Saturn for November!

Gale Racer, the Japan-exclusive port of SEGA AM2’s Rad Mobile to Saturn, has seen some bad rep over the years, with some going as far to call it outright “abysmal.” But is it really as bad as those folks suggest? Or has it earned that ‘glorious’ title?

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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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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