Fan made

Sketch group BEASTS gives their humorous spin on the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog

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Having just recently written about the history of Sonic’s many redesigns, it’s fitting that sketch comedy group BEASTS reached out to us to share a video they made on the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. BEASTS member James McNicholas shared the following information with us:

Let’s face it: video games are weird. Those from the 80s and 90s are arguably weirdest of all — try explaining the logic behind Pac Man to someone whose never encountered it.

Few games make less sense than Sonic The Hedgehog, with its blue rodents, gold rings and magic emeralds. Fortunately, sketch group BEASTS have stumbled upon this footage of SEGA’s planning meeting for the original Sonic. Hope you like it!

BEASTS are comprised of Ciaran Dowd, James McNicholas and Owen Roberts. They’ve been going for two years, and have two sold-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival under our belts. You can find nice things that other journalists have said about them here (they don’t put the nasty ones up). They’re also over on Twitter @BEASTScomedy.

As regards the sketch itself, you’ll notice two of the characters are named Yuji and Naoto – an allusion to messrs Naka and Oshima. “Mr. Needlemouse”, as you’re probably aware, was the name given to the prototype for the Sonic character on Naoto Oshima’s early concept art.

Thanks to BEASTS for reaching out to us and sharing their work!

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Help kickstart SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works

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2013 appears to be the year of SEGA Kickstarter campaigns. We’ve had Not Enough Rings, Redux: Dark Matters, and now we have SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Darren Wall, the UK man behind the campaign, is attempting to create what he describes as the “definitive volume” of the SEGA Mega Drive. The end product will be a book, officially licensed by SEGA, containing “an unparalleled treasury of production artwork, interviews, development sketches and hardware manufacturing plans”. The project also promises:

It will also include over 20 exclusive interviews with original SEGA team members – many of whom have never been interviewed before – a foreword by industry legend Dave Perry and an insightful 10,000-word piece by Keith Stuart (Games Editor for the Guardian and regular contributor to Edge) on the machine that changed the landscape of gaming forever.

The book will showcase a wealth of SEGA’s 16-bit titles, from blockbuster games such as Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Gunstar Heroes, The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe through to cult gems such as Rent-a-Hero, Vectorman and DecapAttack.

Darren Wall shouldn’t have any problem with meeting his £30,000 goal, as at the time of writing this there is 27 days remaining and he is only £10 away from completion. Head on over to the campaign page and show your support! We’ll keep you updated on the project as it progresses.

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Keith Apicary’s latest song “Keith of Rage” takes inspiration from a certain SEGA beat ’em up

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SEGA superfan and recent SEGAbits interviewee Keith Apicary has returned to the music world with a new music video entitled “Keith of Rage” – inspired by SEGA’s classic beat ’em up Streets of Rage. While the whole song is awesome from start to finish, a few stand out lyrics include “My Segas so hot its turning red. I’m eating apples and bustin heads. I played so hard my fingers bled. In a few more levels Mr X is dead.” and “I’ve got the brain of a 12 year old kid. My friends grew up but I never did. Spent half of my life jamming on Bare Knuckle and as a result I look like your uncle.”

Make sure to give the video a thumbs up and check out Nathan Barnatt’s other videos!

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“Not Enough Rings” Sonic parody comic attempting a book release on Kickstarter

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The hilarious Sonic the Hedgehog parody comic “Not Enough Rings” has turned up on Kickstarter to fund a physical book release of the series. We’ve backed it! Why don’t you do the same? Creator Veronica Vera describes the series best: “We know video game webcomics are a dime a dozen. Especially Sonic ones! But in all our years on the internet, we never came across the comic we wanted. No sprite recolors, no tribal Echidna warriors, definitely no werehogs — just a real comic retelling of the remarkable games we grew up playing.”

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For just $25, fans get a slick looking copy of the book, featuring comics covering every stage from Sonic 1 through to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. As a special perk to buyers, many of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles comics will release in the book long before appearing on their website. Other goodies include a barrel of death t-shirt, signed copies of the book, original art, and more! So what are you waiting for? Spin dash over to their Kickstarter page and help them out.

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Fan made: nikibaby’s sweet Sharpie SEGA drawings

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Third place SEGAbits third anniversary contest winner nikibaby won herself a My Life with SEGA DVD thanks to these two cool photos showing off her unique drawing style. Of course, the contest rules stipulated that the entry would have to be a review, but we left it as open as possible, hoping to see some more unique takes on the guidelines of the contest. As such, nikibaby worked in a short, but sweet, written review of SEGA by proclaiming “I ♥ SEGA”.

But the real stars of the pieces are her takes on iconic SEGA characters Sonic the Hedgehog and Jet Set Radio’s Beat. Using nothing but paper and Sharpie markers, nikibaby depicted Beat by way of bright colors, hatching, and cross-hatching. Sonic, meanwhile, was expertly drawn using a technique called pointillism. Bonus points for not scanning the drawings, but rather displaying them in a photo alongside the markers used. You can see nikibaby’s Sonic drawing after the break.

Great job, nikibaby!

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SEGA Tunes SEGAbits community spotlight: Brian Corey’s cover of Splash Garden

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This week we’re bringing you a special Tuesday Tunes, as we’re featuring the music of a SEGAbits community member! Ungibbed, aka Brian Corey, put together this cover of the NiGHTS into Dreams tune Splash Garden from memory. Pretty impressive if you ask us! Of course, we don’t blame him for getting the tune stuck in his head, as Splash Garden is a stage that Saturn fans have surely played again and again.

Great job, Brian, on this awesome cover! We look forward to hearing more tunes from you in the future. Share your comments for Brian below, or in our dedicated topic in the SEGAbits forums.

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Fan Made – Father and daughter create an Amy Rose Pinewood Derby car

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SEGAbits reader Shawn reached out to us to share an awesome Amy Rose Pinewood Derby derby car that he and his daughter carved. Shawn told us that the inspiration came from the upcoming release of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and it really shows! The car is all wood, aside from the wheels and four nails, and the resemblance to Amy Rose is excellent. After the break, check out more photos of the derby car. Kudos to Shawn and his daughter, and if you’re participating in a Pinewood Derby race, best of luck!

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Cool art print: The Genesis and SNES as giant fighting robots

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The internet is never short of crazy fan made SEGA goodies. From Daniel Dussault comes an awesome piece of fan art which depicts the 90’s console war as two console-inspired robots in battle. The piece originated at the Fangamer VERSUS Attract Mode Art Show during PAX Prime 2012. Now, SEGA (or Nintendo) fans fans can own their very own print of the piece by hitting up the Fangamer site. The print is $20 and measures 24″ x 16″. Hit up the link for more images of the print and make sure to share it with your friends!

Thanks to SEGAbits reader and forum member Randroid for the heads up!

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The conclusion to the James Rolfe SNES vs. Genesis royal rumble

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Earlier this week we shared a video from James Rolfe of Cinemassacre in which James, also known as the guy who plays the Angry Video Game Nerd, shared his memories of the days when the SNES took on the SEGA Genesis. At the end of the first part, James promised to return with a deciding battle between the two 16-bit consoles, and that deciding video has arrived. James makes it clear that this is HIS OPINION, and while we won’t spoil the ending James doesn’t exactly declare a winner though anybody with basic math skills can add up each round and find the results. So check it out and once you’re done share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Cinemassacre’s Mike Matei reviews the Game Gear

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRlyL8XMJAQ

Cinemassacre, home of the Angry Video Game Nerd, is typically a Nintendo leaning site. However, contributor Mike Matei showed SEGA some love by way of a Game Gear video review. The video covers a number of games including Streets of Rage 2 and X-Men. One interesting aspect of the video is that Mike commissioned a video game hardware wizard to make him a Game Gear that is capable of video out. This allows for a way to capture video directly off the Game Gear. Given Mike’s close ties with James Rolfe, this opens the door for AVGN Game Gear episodes. Want to know how the Game Gear video out modification was done? Check out the video after the break.

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The Mystery Science Theater guys briefly rip on Sonic ’06

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Leave Sonic alone! Oh wait, it’s Sonic ’06 you’re kicking in the ribs? Please, continue.

Former Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars and current RiffTrax riffers Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett applied their brand of making witty comments while watching movies to a slew of video game cutscenes over at Joystiq. One of their subjects was none other than 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Just what nice things do the guys have to say about Sonic getting some love from Princess Elise? Well, see for yourself here. Sonic’s scene starts at the 1:11 mark, but you might as well watch the full thing.

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Arts and Crafts: Make your own Sonic 4 Episode 2 Genesis box, manual and cartridge!

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With only a month until the game’s digital release, I thought it would be fun to once again create a retro Genesis box design for Sonic 4’s next episode. The first time I designed a fake Genesis box was for Sonic 4 Episode 1, which I shared over at my personal blog The Nomad Junkyard [Update: Here is the new Sonic 4 Episode 1 download link]. I used the original Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis box design as inspiration for Episode 1, so I thought it would be fitting to use Sonic 2’s original Genesis box as my inspiration for Episode 2. After the break, a download link, instructions and a photo gallery for those too lazy to make it themselves.

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Sit on a Master System while you play a Master System

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From gameblog.fr comes this crazy piece of fan art. French video game blogger Subby-kun and his wife Subbinette converted a couch into a Master System, complete with controller pillows. I’d make an Xzibit Yo Dawg meme image for this, but you can pretty much imagine how it would go. This isn’t their first piece of video game hardware furniture either, they’ve also created an NES bed. No clue what their next project is, but I’d love to see a Dreamcast futon. After the break, check out more images of this crazy couch!

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Check out this Sonic the Hedgehog hack, the prequel “Dr.Robotnik’s Creature Capture”!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2dFzO_LEAFE#!

Ever wonder how Eggman captures all those little animals and stuffs them into a capsule? A recently released hack of Sonic the Hedgehog answers this question with “Dr.Robotnik’s Creature Capture”! The game has you, as Robotnik aka Eggman, running about the first Sonic the Hedgehog’s stages catching animals with a net and placing them in a capsule. Once the capsule is full, you must find the sign post and turn it from Sonic to Robotnik, thus setting the stage for Sonic the Hedgehog. Hurry and fill that capsule before Sonic begins his own game! So in essence, it’s a prequel.

You can find the game at sonicresearch.org, so give it a play and if you’re inclined to leave them a comment, let them know SEGAbits sent you.

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