Super Fighter Team releases two new SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis games on cartridge

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The indie publisher Super Fighter Team isn’t new to the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive scene, they are known as the people that brought over Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong to SEGA’s 16-bit machine. Now they release not one, but two new SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games on cartridge.

The first game is Magic Girl, a Taiwanese scrolling shooter that was released back in 1993. The game stayed in Taiwan and became a obscure relic of the 90s. But now Super Street Fighter Team have picked it up and given it a proper translation!

Cascade is a intergalactic dice puzzler with its own unique style. This game was developed by Epyx and was set to hit the land of the rising sun back in the 90s. Now that Super Street Fighter team picked up the rights, everyone gets to enjoy it the way it was mean’t to be played.

The games come complete with manual, box and the game on cartridge. Each game costs $58 dollars including shipping if you live in America, $65 including shipping worldwide.

[Via: RetroCollect]

SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive homebrew platformer ‘Tanglewood’ announced

Fans won’t let old SEGA hardware die, this new homebrew comes from Big Evil Corporation, who is slowly revealing aspects of the game as time goes on. I guess they really are evil, huh?

While they are just showing a small clip of the main character, Nymm, walking through selected areas; the developer has already promised a lot of the game. The game is set to be influenced by games such as Abe’s Odyssey, Another World and Flashback. If you click the short clip above it will show you their night/day system that they plan on using. This system will tie-in with puzzles throughout the game.

We will keep you updated here at SEGAbits about anymore information about Tanglewood , but what do you guys think so far?

[Via: Retrocollect]

Fan Made: Hearts for Hardware by Randy Gallegos celebrates the SEGA Genesis and more!

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Like paintings of classic consoles? Artist Randy Gallegos has you covered. From the series dubbed “Hearts for Hardware,” described as a platform-agnostic celebration of older gaming hardware, comes three SEGA focused oil paintings featuring the SEGA Genesis and the original 3-button and 6-button controllers. You may have seen Randy’s work before, as he spent two decades working as an illustrator in another area of gaming, creating imagery for Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. With “Hearts for Hardware”, Randy combines his love of classic gaming with his painting skills. The results look great!

Check out Randy’s other “Hearts for Hardware” paintings on his website, including the NES, Playstation, and others. More SEGA works are on the way, including some import Japanese consoles. Looking forward to seeing where the series goes! After the break, check out the 3-button and 6-button SEGA Genesis controller paintings.

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

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.

Shinobi III and Super Hang-On’s soundtracks coming to vinyl thanks to Data Discs

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If you haven’t heard of the London based video game record label Data Discs, they have released both the Streets of Rage and Shenmue vinyls last month. Now they have announced their next SEGA related records, they will do a pressing of the Shinobi III: The Return of the Ninja Master and Super Hang-On soundtracks. Big props for not using the Western cover art, which is inferior to its Japanese counterpart. Also cut out design for the Super Hang-On record is very cool.

The record will cost £19.99 (About $30.45 USD) and come in three flavors (click read more to see those).

Since I have picked up their last two SEGA records, I will obviously be pre-ordering these as well. I’m just a little disappointed that they didn’t do one for The Revenge of Shinobi, which had an amazing soundtrack. Some might even say a better soundtrack than Shinobi III. But what are your thoughts? Excited? Press release after the break.

Review: 3D Gunstar Heroes (Nintendo 3DS)

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Gunstar Heroes
is another SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive classic that found massive success and introduced most SEGA fans to Treasure games. The studio was made up of ex-Konami employees and this anime style run and gun shooter really shows that you can make a Japanese looking game work for a Western audience . While the game is fine and dandy on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, how is the Nintendo 3DS version? Well, let’s find out.

Developer Retrospective: The winning combination of SEGA and Compile

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As summer winds down, we thought it would be the ideal time to shift the focus of our Year of the Developers feature to third party Japanese developers who have worked with SEGA in the past to bring us countless classics. We are, of course, referring to the legendary developers Compile, Treasure and Westone. While these three developers existed on their own outside of SEGA, their collaborations with our favorite company utilizing beloved SEGA home console and arcade hardware went a long way in cementing their statuses as some of the best third party developers of the 80s and 90s.

Review: 3D Streets of Rage 2 (Nintendo 3DS)

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If you owned a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive in the early 90’s, you are well aware of what Streets of Rage series was all about, its SEGA’s answer to (the then) Nintendo console exclusive franchise Final Fight (though it did get a SEGA CD entry). Its been well over a decade since the franchise debuted on SEGA’s 16-bit hardware, which is quite a long time.

Now as an adult can the game bring back those nostalgic memories that shaped my gaming habits or is Streets of Rage 2 just one of those games that I liked as a kid but aged badly? Or even worse, a bad port? Let’s find out

Swingin’ Report Show #82: Interview with Brian Silva of Visual Concepts, Midway, Accolade and more!

Video game designer and voice actor Brain Silva joins us on our latest episode to discuss his work on Bubsy and Bubsy II, Floigan Bros., Hydro Thunder, and H2Overdrive as well as many other games created during his time at Accolade, Visual Concepts, Midway, Blizzard Entertainment and Specular Interactive. Brian also discusses several unreleased games including Hydro Thunder 2 for arcades, Congo: The Secret of Zinj for Genesis and SNES, and Floigan Bros. for the original Playstation!

Brian currently works at Specular Interactive, having helped create the arcade titles H2Overdrive (Hydro Thunder‘s spiritual successor), Project HADES, Dirty Drivin’, and Batman. Learn more about Specular Interactive by checking out their website.

Also, make sure to check out Brian’s website where you’ll find some excellent design docs for Floigan Bros. and Crank the Weasel.

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

New 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 trailer shows off local co-op and new ‘Keep Ring Mode’ gets detailed

While we haven’t gotten a release date in the west on the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 release, over in Japan the game is being release in less than a week! That means that 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has been getting quite the amount of information released, like the trailer above showing off the local wireless connectivity. It will be required for both 3DSs to own a copy of the game, but if you do you will be able to have a second player control Tails through your single player adventure or you can go head to head in the versus racing mode.

Like most M2 re-releases in their SEGA 3D Classics series, this game will not only have 3D, save states and the ability to save replays; but it will also have a new mode that they are calling ‘Ring Keep’ mode. In this mode you will start a stage with 10 rings, each time you get attacked the amount of rings you lose is halved. I guess we shall see how this will work when we get to play it and how it impacts the way you play the game.

If we had to predict the release date of 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the west, I would say expect it sometime in August!

New SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive game Papi Cammando gets official demo

A new and upcoming SEGA Gensis/Mega Drive game known as Papi Commando has not gotten a official demo release by the independent developers behind the project. The game takes ques from classics like SEGA’s Alien Syndrome and Lucas Art’s Zombies Ate My Neighbors by delivering a run and gun game with a unlikely protagonist.

The game promises to have 2 player mode, up to 11 zones, with varied units including soldiers and zombies. So if you want to see what the independent SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive indie scene is up to, give the demo a try below.

You can download the bin file of the demo here. Have fun shooting.

[Source: The Forums]

First Look at 3D Streets of Rage 2 Gameplay

Recently SEGA and M2 announced that they would be continuing their incredible range of 3D remakes for the Nintendo 3DS. In the next wave of titles comes three of the most beloved SEGA Megadrive/Genesis titles; 3D Streets of Rage 2, 3D Sonic 2 and 3D Gunstar Heroes.

Today SEGA uploaded the first look at 2D Streets of Rage 2 or as it was known in Japan ‘Bare Knuckle 2.’ Check it out above!

Unboxing a brand new SEGA Menacer from 1992

You don’t find boxed hardware from the early 90s all that often, and when you do they usually sell for an arm and a leg. Thankfully, last week I found a boxed SEGA Menacer light gun from 1992 still sealed with baggies and all for a cool $40. I really wanted to free it from its packaging as soon as I got home, but I abstained until I had the time to do a proper unboxing. Check out what a boxed Menacer looks like and join me as we play a few of the bundled games!

Some background on the Menacer: Revealed to the public at 1992’s CES in Chicago, the Menacer was SEGA’s answer to the Nintendo’s Super Scope. The Menacer project was spearheaded by SEGA producer Mac Senour, who worked on the light gun and the bundled six-game pack. Notable to Toejam & Earl fans, one of the six games was a mini-game from Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger. Other SEGA licenses were proposed, but ultimately abandoned in favor of shooting mini-games. You can learn more about the Toejam & Earl mini-game in our recent interview with Greg Johnson.

While SEGA did not release additional first-party Menacer titles, there is a small library of games compatible with the light gun. Most notably, T2: The Arcade Game, both Mad Dog McCree games, and Corpse Killer. Call me a SEGA fanboy, but I much prefer the look and feel of the Menacer to Nintendo’s Super Scope.

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