Retro

Multi-System Emulator Mednafen Now Has SEGA Saturn Support

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The SEGA Saturn emulation scene is pretty lacking compared to other, more popular consoles from the same time period but we have gotten impressive emulators like Yabause and SSF. But if that wasn’t enough the SEGA Saturn has now been added to the multi-system emulator Mednafen.

If you never heard of Mednafen, it is trying to provide an all-in-one emulation package that spans a ton of consoles including:

  • Atari Lynx
  • Neo Geo Pocket (Color)
  • WonderSwan
  • GameBoy (Color)
  • GameBoy Advance
  • Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom
  • Virtual Boy
  • PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (CD)
  • SuperGrafx
  • PC-FX
  • Sega Game Gear
  • Sega Genesis/Megadrive
  • Sega Master System
  • Sony PlayStation

According to the new Mednafen 0.9.38.7 update, the SEGA Saturn emulation is being added as experimental. You can check out a video of the emulator running Guardian Heroes above.

[Via: Retro Collect]

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Beyond Oasis/ Story of Thor sequel was planned for 32x

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beyondoasis32x1Back in the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive days, SEGA released a game called Beyond Oasis/The Story of Thor, according to the co-developer Ancient Games (also developed Streets of Rage series) there was a sequel planned on the SEGA 32X. They released the proposal document cover and character sketch proposals (seen below) that were shown to SEGA. It seems that the Beyond Oasis/ The Story of Thor sequel was canceled and moved to the SEGA Saturn.

What are your thoughts on the proposal sketches? Do you think a Beyond Oasis/ The Story of Thor sequel would have done well on the SEGA 32x or was moving to the SEGA Saturn a better idea?

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M2 wants to release Alien Syndrome as a ‘SEGA 3D Classic’

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aliensyndrome-wallpaperIn the latest M2 interview with Yosuke Okunari, Kagasei Shimomura and Naoki Horii, which is posted over at the SEGA blog, the team talks about testing the 3D features with games like Alien Syndrome on the Nintendo 3DS.

KS: So rewinding a little bit, before we settled on Power Drift, we had a couple of titles to choose from for this. We talked about Alien Syndrome, Golden Axe, Turbo Out Run, and even Columns.

NH: (looks at the lineup list) These are pretty bold choices.
– I’d like to see Alien Syndrome someday. Stereoscopic 3D would be really effective in that game.

NH: Oh that game is amazing. We did a little test on it to see how it would turn out and it was great. Although, doing every single stage would be quite an effort.

You can read the full interview here. Its a great interview, they talk about the hardships they encountered while trying to bring Power Drift and Puyo Puyo 2 to the 3DS. You know what we say, more SEGA 3D Classics, the better.

[Via: NintendoLife]

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SEGA Game Tester documentary from 1996 emerges online

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This video was uploaded online a few days ago, titled ‘This is SEGA TEST’ a titled “trainumentary” created by the SEGA test department in 1995-1996. The video was shot on location at Sega of America in Redwood City, CA. The SEGA Game Tester documentary talks about what SEGA is looking for in a game tester, but gives you a interesting inside look at the company during that era and the people that worked as testers.

Tom Kalinske, President of SEGA of America at the time is in the video talking about the processes of selecting a SEGA game tester. We had a chance to interview him in our podcast, if you haven’t listened. Its a great little documentary, especially for retro SEGA game fans. Watch it and let us know what you guys think in the comments below and tell us how many of you wanted to be a SEGA game tester during the mid-90s.

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Binary Domain, Streets of Rage 2 and Condemned free on Steam

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phase-2-unlockedA few days ago SEGA gave out Jet Set Radio, Hell Yeah! and Golden Axe for free as part of their Make War Not Love event. Now is time for phase 2, which means more free SEGA games for us! This time they are giving out the following:

  • Binary Domain 
  • Condemned: Criminal Origins
  • Streets of Rage 2

To get the games, visit this page, click “REDEEM PRIZE” enter your email address under the Previous Content banner. You’ll see the instructions “In order to redeem the prize bundle, please enter your email address below.” You will then receive an email asking to add you to a list for the free content. Please allow up to 24 hours for a unique Steam code containing this content to be sent to you.

We are even considering having a SEGAbits game day with Binary Domain, if people are interested in playing online (since its mostly dead now). Let us know what you think about that in the comments.

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Play Fatal Smarties, a new scrolling shooter for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive

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At this year’s Global Game Jam a group of indie developers had a special treat for SEGA retro fans, a new scrolling shooter called ‘Fatal Smarties‘ made its debut for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.

The game was developed by four students that represent the University of Southampton. The students tried to think out of the box for this co-op game, having an interesting mechanic where one player shoots and the other navigates the on screen characters.

The game was developed on a deadline during the Global Game Jam and seems very promising. Want to try it out on an emulator or flash cart? Get the rom here.

[Via: RetroCollect]

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SEGA-16 founder working on a SEGA of America history book

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sega16I have always been a huge fan of the SEGA fansite SEGA-16, the site really went beyond the call in their efforts to secure some of the best interviews I have ever read. Now website founder Ken Horowitz has announced via his SEGA-16 facebook page that he is working on a history book about SEGA of America:

“Last month, I submitted to my publisher the manuscript for a book chronicling the game development history of Sega of America. Tentatively titled: “Achieving the Next Level: The History of American Sega Games,” the book is an exhaustive retrospective of SOA as a game-maker, from its founding in 1986 and the first steps taken on the Master System to its final efforts on the Dreamcast. Nearly 100 former SOA alumni (including each of its presidents from 1986-2001) and independent game developers were interviewed, and the creation processes of almost 40 Sega-published titles are documented. Every one of SOA’s internal studios is included, many of which have never before been examined.”

The book will look at games created by SEGA of America’s development division and I hope gathers new information about games we loved as kids. He estimates that the book will be around 500 pages long and as of right now there isn’t a release date. Of course, we will keep you posted as more news hits.

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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]

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Homebrew Mega Drive/Genesis platformer ‘Mega Cheril Perils’ gameplay revealed

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It seems that not only is the Dreamcast one of the consoles that refuses to die, but so is the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis. This time we have ‘The Mojon Twins’ who are developing Mega Cheril Perils for the old 16-bit console.

We posted about this game awhile back, this is suppose to be a follow up to a earlier title created for the ZX Spectrum. The game is rather strange, having you take control of a naked Cheril who has to use her time freezing ability via a time capsule, which will allow her to traverse the stages. My only issue with the game is that the jumping and movement seem to need some work.

You can see some of the gameplay yourself in the video above. As you can see they are teasing this as coming out soon and is expected to get a physical cartridge release. How many of you here are going to add this title to your SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive collection?

[Via: Retro Collect]

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Custom Sega Dreamcast bios aims to improve experience

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You are probably sitting there thinking whats a bio and why should I give a damn? I mean, you have been playing your beautiful SEGA Dreamcast games just fine without these custom, fancy fan bios. First what is a bio? Well, you know that information that the system loads before it boots your game? That’s it.

What does this revised fan bios replace? Let’s check the list! 

  • Region free: boot GD/CD from any regions
  • No VGA flag check: no matter if the game supports the VGA output, the lets it boot
  • Bootfile extent check: allow a game to boot even if its bootfile, more commonly called 1ST_READ.BIN, is not located on the outer part of the disc
  • SEGA License screen skip
  • MIL-CD/backup direct boot
  • Black fade-in color while booting from menu
  • No VMU copy-protected file check

I tend to play my Dreamcast in VGA mode like most (cool) people, so the idea of just skipping the check on boot might be a good thing for me.The issue? the method for installing takes some talent with a soldering iron, something that I just don’t have.

[Via: RetroCollect]

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SEGA News Bits: SEGA re-releasing legacy games like Shenmue?

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SEGA Europe’s marketing director Jon Rooke said in a recent interview that SEGA was looking at opportunities to re-release Legacy titles like Shenmue. On this episode we sit and discuss the possibility of this being just PR talk, we discuss what is a SEGA legacy title and discuss SEGA legacy games we want to see re-released. Let us know what you consider a legacy title and what games you want to see re-released in the comments below!

If you like what you see make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube so you never miss an episode.

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Play Shenmue on Dreamcast in widescreen

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ShenmueWidescreenHackWe know that Codebreaker codes change aspects of games, from infinite lives to instant unlockables. But did you know that you can use a code on games to get them to display in ‘anamorphic widescreen’? Assembler Games forum user S4pph4rad decided to release his anamorphic widescreen codes for Shenmue I & II and this lead to quite a few users contributing back.The idea is to have codes for most of the games, if possible.

“Similar to the codes for other platforms, this is anamorphic widescreen so you’re not getting higher resolution. Some additional changes could probably be made like shrinking the HUD too, but this is the simplest solution. Consider these version 1. There’s still some pop-in occasionally near the edges of the screen, but it’s not as bad as when you use an emulator to extend the visible area. That could probably be fixed with deeper analysis into how it decides when something goes out of range.” – S4pph4rad from Assembler Games

You can read all about the process of Anamorphic widescreen over here and if you want to check out more progress on codes for other games check out Assembler Games’ forum thread. This is all a work in progress, of course and the community is submitting codes to other Dreamcast classics.

Hit the jump for the Shenmue I & II widescreen codes!

Continue Reading ➜

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Volgarr the Viking gets a Dreamcast port

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Volgarr the Viking is a 16-bit style, tough-as-nails, retro-styled action game published by the crazy people at Adult Swim. The game has made it across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox One, 3DS, Wii U, PS4, and Vita. But what if you wanted to play this game on your Dreamcast?

Now you can, thanks to one of the developers of the orginal game, who did a side project to port the game on SEGA’s white dream machine. Since its Marc Hall’s personal port, this project is ‘unofficial’ and labeled as freeware, but works as you’d expect. The game even supports VGA, if you want a crisper picture.

Click here to download the ISO and start stabbing!

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Cook and Becker release officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog and Virtua Fighter art prints

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paul veer sonic the hedgehog print for SEGA

Art Dealership Cook & Becker have released several new officially licensed SEGA prints, adding to their previous prints including Phantasy Star and Streets of Rage; as well as a gorgeous Shenmue print. This time in the spotlight are two Virtua Fighter prints (for different coloured backgrounds) and everyone’s favourite spiny mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The Virtua Fighter print was produced by Gerald Parel, whilst the Sonic print was produced by Paul Veer (Also known as @pietepiet on Twitter), who you may know for his work on games such as Nuclear Throne. 

You can check out the prints here:

Unframed, the prints cost $115, or roughly £100/140 Euros, give or take. Be sure to let us know your favourites, and support these incredible artists! You can check out previews below.

 

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