SEGA Memories: Remembering the launch of the Dreamcast
Fourteen years ago, SEGA launched their fifth and final console, the SEGA Dreamcast. Gaming was becoming huge in the late nineties, things were changing and SEGA had a reputation to uphold.
Retro
The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today, how are we going to celebrate?
Hey there, space cats! The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today in the USA, how are we celebrating? Well, we will be delivering a bunch of Dreamcast related content all month long. We will have all our weekly features focus on Dreamcast music, games and nostalgic moments. Expect to see Dreamcast related articles on Monday Memories, Tuesday Tunes, Saturday Sequels, and Sunday Round Table. There will also be the return of the ‘SEGA in the Media‘, where we spot SEGA references in current TV shows and movies (sometimes even the past). We already started celebrating by giving you guys a really awesome episode of the Swingin’ Report Show featuring the editor-in-chief and writer for Official Dreamcast magazine.
One of our former writers and current editor-in-chief over at Dreamcast Scene is also teaming up with us, DC Emu and Age-Media to bring some interviews with current SEGA published authors and Dreamcast indie developers. Actually he already published one of his interviews with David Munoz, author of ” “Service Games: Rise and Fall of Sega ”. Some of the other interviews you can expect includes author of “Zoya Street’s Dreamcast World” author, who got crowd sourced by Indiegogo. There will also be interviews with indie Dreamcast developers like Senile Team, Duranik and Water Melon.
Stay tuned later today for “Monday Memories: Remembering the Dreamcast’s launch“.
Swingin’ Report Show #50: Dreamcast Birthday Bash with Francesca Reyes, Simon Cox, & Ricardo Torres
If you didn’t know, we here at SEGAbits are huge fans of the Official Dreamcast Magazine, so you know we totally geeked out knowing that Francesca Reyes (ODCM writer and OXM editor-in-chief) and Simon Cox (Editor-in-chief OCDM) were coming on the podcast. But that isn’t all, we also have a unique perspective coming from Ricardo Torres (working at CNET Gamecenter, coming from early online media compared to print at the time) who gets massive SEGA props for having more Samba de Amigo maraca sets than all the staff combined. I’m really happy with the way the podcast turned out this week, full of nostalgia and the perfect way to kick off the 14th anniversary of the Dreamcast.
SEGA Australia’s crazy pitch for remaking SEGA classics
[Above is SEGA Australia’s pre-alpha prototype pitch for Golden Axe remake under their label ‘SEGA Reborn’]
SEGA Australia isn’t known as the type of studio that had too many hits, but it seemed that the team was finally hitting their stride with the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse remake that is coming out in early September. Sadly that will be the studio’s last game, since it was announced that they will be closing by the end of the year.
Seems that the studio pitched for a series of remakes, most notably ‘Golden Axe’ and all to be in a new label called ‘SEGA Reborn’. That’s not all though, the company thought that all these classics should take place in the same universe. Yes, we are talking about Marvel movie treatment with retro games. That would mean that a game like Out Run takes place hundreds of years after Golden Axe.
Much like its remake of Castle of Illusion, they where open to going in and adding new content and fixing issues the originals had. Some of the other games they talked about remaking included Streets of Rage and Shinobi. Hit the jump to see video of the ‘Golden Axe’ remake that the studio pitched to SEGA.
Plants vs. Zombies running on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive
This weekend at the PAX Australia event, fans of the game ‘Plants vs. Zombies‘ got to see a weird version of their favorite PopCap tower defense game. The game running on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.
Penny Arcade got a chance to play the game and posted the above video of it in action. Dave Cudrev from Retrospekt said he bought the game from the creator, who is a Russian coder. His hobby was rebuilding games and selling them on Ebay.
He purchased the game for $30 dollars, with no box or manual. Other games the coder has re-worked include Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers for the Genesis/Mega Drive. I have to be honest, this would be a cool conversational piece of software to have.
Crazy Taxi is out now on Android – Make that craaaaazy money!
I know that SEGA doesn’t really promote these mobile releases, all they pretty much do is send a tweet or a blog post telling you that the title is out. But they really missed the mark with the Crazy Taxi port for Android, since they didn’t even tell anyone it was coming today. Well, don’t worry, we got you. Crazy Taxi is now on Android.
This port is a lot like the iOS version with Arcade Mode and Original Mode playable and music by Bad Religion and The Offspring. You can purchase your copy today for $4.99.
My Life With SEGA reviews Panzer Dragoon
My Life with SEGA returns this week with a review of the acclaimed SEGA Saturn game, Panzer Dragoon. Probably one of my favorite franchises in SEGA’s huge catalog of unique IPs, this week you get to see A.J. give you his take on the game.
Make sure if you want more videos from My Life from SEGA and others, to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Its groovy, I swear.
Shinobi III could be getting a 3D port according to PEGI
According to the rating PEGI, SEGA is planning a 3D port of its famous Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master video game. This game is considered by many to be the best Shinobi game, so 3DS owners should be happy when it finally releases.
SEGA has been releasing a ton of 3D ports lately, including Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Crimson Dragon creator wants to to make a Crimson Dragon RPG
Yukio Futatsugi is the creator of the acclaimed Panzer Dragoon franchise, though he has left SEGA to work at Microsoft Game Studios Japan, the developer working on Crimson Dragon. Yes, that Xbox One title that looks very similar to the iconic SEGA franchise.
SEGA also had a spin-off of sorts called Panzer Dragoon Saga, which happens to be an RPG instead of a rail shooter. That title was created by Yukio Futatsugi, and when asked at E3 if he would ever return to make a new RPG, he said he would like to make one based in the Crimson Dragon world. Seems that the team is full of SEGA employees that worked on the old Panzer Dragoon titles and it shows.
When he was also asked if he would like to see Panzer Dragoon Saga re-released by SEGA, he stated yes. He said that they’ve talked about a re-release over at Grounding Inc (the name of his studio) and ultimately came to the conclusion that it would be too hard to remake. Of course, this RPG will only happen if Crimson Dragon does well on Xbox One…
Check out how Super Hang-On, Space Harrier, Sonic, and Altered Beast play on 3DS
With all the new Game Gear games being ported to the 3DS, most people are asking themselves if buying these classics are worth it. Well, above is a 5 minute video from the dudes at Nintendo Life testing out the games.
Now all I wonder is if that tilt effect is optional in Super Hang-On, because it looks pretty annoying.
SEGA Memories: The incredible artwork of Panzer Dragoon
If you guys didn’t know, one of my favorite aspects about the video game Panzer Dragoon is the incredible artstyle. The art in the game is a mixture of one of my favorite comicbook artists, Mœbius and Studio Ghibli (especially the movie Nausicaa). On this week’s Monday Memories we will look at the art that inspired the great video game known as Panzer Dragoon!
SEGA Memories: EA not supporting the Dreamcast
Recently EA has said that their upcoming video games will not be heading to the Nintendo Wii U. Nintendo hasn’t been the first one to be black balled by the publishing giant, back when SEGA was going to launch the Dreamcast, EA pulled a similar move.
This week on Monday Memories we will look at EA not supporting the much beloved Dreamcast.
EA employee says Nintendo should “done a Sega” and went 3rd party
Console wars, they never change. EA has announced that their EA Sports titles won’t be coming to Wii U and that they don’t have any games in development for the system. Does this remind anyone of the Dreamcast situation?
“Nintendo are still operating like it’s 1990.They should have “done a Sega” and offered Mario/Zelda as PS4/Durango exclusives.
If that wasn’t enough, EA’s Bob Summerwill Senior SE and Architect of EA Sports, has decided to take to twitter to insult the console by stating that it’s a crap console and that Nintendo should have just went 3rd party (like SEGA did). But it seems that EA probably told him to stop what he was doing, since he has deleted the tweets. But of course, the internet caught on fast.
Hit the jump for more wonderful quotes.
Sonic 1 heading to 3DS…in 3-D!
Looks like we’ll be getting a heavy dose of the original Sonic 1 this year.
Thanks to our sister site Sonic Retro, we have learned that Sega of Japan have announced Sonic 1 as the third Sega game (along with Space Harrier and Super Hang-On to get the 3-D treatment. It looks like this will not be the same as the version coming from Christian Whitehead for the iOS. While it will have full 3-D effects, it will still looks to be in 4:3 mode. Besides 3-D other new features include..
- Switch between Japan/Western version with some minor differences.
- Spin Dash.
- New animations in backgrounds like rippling effects in water.
- CRT mode to give it that “classic” look.
- Full controller customization. Set it to press A to jump or B to jump, or X to Jump or Y to well you know where I’m going here.
- Sound settings for PSG and FM.
While the game will be coming to Japan on the 15th, but given how long it’s taking Space Harrier and Super Hang-On to come over here, it may be awhile before we see it stateside.
Backbone Entertainment pitched Streets of Rage and ESWAT concept art leaked
Backbone Entertainment is mainly knowing for doing a poor job of porting those SEGA Vintage Collection games, but did you know that the team tried to pitch a new Streets of Rage and ESWAT to SEGA? Below is the gallery of that artwork.
The artwork was posted by former Backbone Entertainment artist, most likely to get articles like this written. Congratulations.