Round Table: Which ex-SEGA developers do you miss the most?

exsegaroundtable
Most people follow around sport teams and their players, here at SEGAbits we follow SEGA studios and developers. There have been tons of employees and developers that SEGA have fired or left throughout its long history, as is expected with every big publisher. But sometimes there is that developer that was behind one of your favorite games, when he leaves the company it really tugs at the heart strings. So in this week’s round table we will be discussing which ex-SEGA developers we miss the most!

NeoGAF user creates a fantastic Dreamcast themed 3DS

3DSDreamcast

Hey, we all here love SEGA and we know that we won’t get another console. NeoGAF user A 3 Legged Goat , a huge Dreamcast fan, who designed a concept art above. The idea is to make his 3DS look more sexy, Dreamcast sexy.  Above and below are his photoshop renders.

If SEGA and Nintendo teamed up to release a limited edition Dreamcast design, they would have all my monies.

Round Table: Who would you want to see reboot Shining Force franchise?

Shining

 Shining Force franchise was one of my favorites back in the day when Camelot Software was in charge of it in the 90’s, now-a-days SEGA has given other developers chances to reboot the franchise and the games have been received poorly by critics (and fans). Regardless of this, I still think that Shining Force franchise has the chance to comeback and do pretty well. This week on the round table we will discuss which developers should reboot Shining Force and release a classic game that this franchise deserves!

SEGA Tunes: Power Drift’s Like the Wind

You know what’s more awesome then classic SEGA arcade music? Obscure SEGA arcade music! I’ve never played Power Drift, but its soundtrack is still pretty damn awesome. This is just the sort of incredibly catchy, upbeat tune that I would expect from a classic SEGA title. Hope you enjoy it!

Power Drift’s soundtrack was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. He is one of the oldest SEGA composers still active and working within the company. You can find his website here.

HUCAST Games now shipping DUX 1.5, their Dreamcast shoot’em-up

img_6502

Hey, just because SEGA has pulled support for the Dreamcast over a decade ago doesn’t mean there aren’t new things to play on the device. HUCAST games actually released DUX in 2009, so if you think you have heard of this title before you aren’t mistaken. This is the new 1.5 version of the title.
So what is new in DUX 1.5 compared to 1.0? Well they have a new soundtrack, rebalanced gameplay and even the option to respawn instantly after death (which is a big deal).

If you bought the original, the team is willing to upgrade you to the 1.5 version for free. How? They say take a picture of your copy of DUX 1.0 with a current newspaper. Who buys newspapers? If you want to take them up on their offer, hit them up on twitter.

You can buy the game here.

Retro Review: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

zombies
 
The following Retro Review of Zombies Ate My Neighbors was written by SEGAbits third anniversary contest winner Nicholas C.

Our current era juxtaposes AAA titles, with huge expectations on presentation and endless cutscenes, and smaller package XBLA/PSN/Steam/etc budget titles. There’s a lot to love on both ends and in between. But a few elements many recent games lack, for me, are local co-op. The ability to not take yourself too seriously, and simply being able to pick up and play the game (sadly, there are only so many levels to Earth Defense Force 2017).

Panzer Dragoon creator talks about his time at SEGA

pdsaga-1
Eurogamer is running a pretty neat piece on Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of the Panzer Dragoon franchise. Like every great piece they go into detail on how he grew up, the schools he went to and how he ended up at SEGA. One of the neat pieces of information was that at age 23 he took over Team Andromeda. Think about it, this dude was in charge of many people older than him at the age of 23. He was 25 when Panzer Dragoon came out. Crazy!

“I handed in several proposals, one of which was Panzer Dragoon,” says Futatsugi. “I’d only been there about two years, but they accepted my proposal and put me in charge of the project. Just like that I was making Panzer Dragoon for the Saturn launch. It was a difficult project. All the programmers and designers were above me in the company but I had to tell them what to do, which was tricky. But I was young, so I could be stubborn.”Yukio Futatsugi

The piece goes on and talks about his work after leaving SEGA, working at Microsoft Studios and releasing Phantom Dust (a great Xbox game, if you haven’t played it). He also confirms that Crimson Dragon is still in the works!

Shirt Punch: Celebrate being a 16-bit war veteran with a shirt

April 8-Nathan Davis, Console Wars

The guys over at Shirt Punch have another Sonic the Hedgehog related shirt going up tomorrow. The site sells 3 shirts everyday, but only for 24 hours and then after that they are gone forever. So if you want to get yours, make sure you go to Shirt Punch tomorrow, they are only $10!

This shirt is called Console Wars and is by Nathan Davis. The shirt should be up by midnight EST or 9PM PST. Tell us what you think of the design!

Segakawaii: SEGA’s cute clothing line aimed at girls

segakawaii2
Hey boys, didn’t you know that being nerdy is like so in. It seems that way. SEGA has launched Segawaii facebook to promote their new clothing brand that is suppose to design clothing and asscessories for young women. Their first product is the Dreamcast backpack, which is rather large. Maybe its normal size but the woman is… actually never mind that started sounding a bit racist.

Check out the pictures here of the backpack.

SEGA Memories: SEGA debuts Sonic & Knuckles with a MTV special ‘Rock the Rock’

mondayrocking

Welcome to a new entry for our Monday Memories weekly (hopefully from now on) articles. This week we’ll be taking you all the way back to the year 1994, at the height of SEGA’s popularity. They had a great mascot that released three main games in his franchise, sold tons of SEGA Genesis/Mega Drives around the world, and had a new upcoming game: Sonic & Knuckles.

What better way to introduce the game to America than an MTV special entitled “Rock the Rock” on Alcatraz Island?

The Weekly Five: Genesis/Mega Drive classics that deserve the retro engine treatment

WeeklyFiveRetroEngine
Ever since SEGA announced the Sonic CD re-release running on the Retro Engine, I had a long list of retro titles that I wanted to see use the engine. Then after awhile SEGA stopped announcing titles for it, then out of the blue they announce Sonic 1 & 2 re-releases using the engine. As much as I love Sonic, there are plenty of SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games that I would love to see running on the Retro Engine. Check out the five games I would want to get the Retro Engine treatment and what type of extras I would love to see for them.