Indie SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Beat ’em Up PAPRIUM Delayed, Coming Early 2018

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Watermelon Games’ SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive beat ’em up game, PAPRIUM has been delayed. Originally it was suppose to come out this September, but this morning Watermelon Games has confirmed that it won’t be coming out until early 2018. Users have also noted that pre-orders for PAPRIUM have been taken down, according to the publisher’s blog, its due to having issues with PayPal, who are withholding their funds.

If you want to know more about PAPRIUM, check out our SEGA News Bits video, giving you a look at all the pre-order details. Sure you can’t pre-order it right now, but it has quite a bit of information about the game itself as well. We will keep you guys posted whenever PAPRIUM‘s pre-orders go live once more.

Golden Axe joins the SEGA Forever mobile lineup

The SEGA Forever lineup expanded today with the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive version of Golden Axe, available free-to-play now on iOS and Android devices. Like Ristar, this release features improved emulation, new screen modes, customizable controls and controller support. As an iPhone 7 owner, the game plays much better than the first wave of SEGA Forever titles. No doubt helped by the improvements to the emulator. It’s a shame this isn’t the superior arcade version, as I would love to eventually see the excellent Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.

AtGames SEGA Genesis Sound Issues Fixed via Fan Hack

If you guys have heard us discuss the AtGames SEGA Genesis plug-in-play boxes that they reship to stores every year, you probably noticed that we are harsh on them for having bad emulation. One of the worse offenders from the company is the in-game sound from their unit. You can even check out a full review from My Life With SEGA where he demonstrates how bad the sound really is.

It seems that this fix will work with both AtGames Genesis machines with a SD slot and the newly released Brazilian TecToy Mega Drive since both of these machines share the same processor. It seems TecToy will apply this as an update on their devices while AtGames hasn’t said anything. Maybe they don’t care?

How to:

  • Download latest version of MDI Hack
  • Put both files from the rar inside the games folder
  • Go to main menu and choose Neto_Boot_Loader.BIN, play it as you would any game.
  • Done: No more bad sound

You can check out the differences in sound from the video above. Thanks for Usagijojo on our Discord for bringing this up. Give it a try, its not perfect but its a lot better than what you had.

Ristar joins SEGA Forever line-up

Ristar3Sonic Team’s Ristar might have only had one game, but it was a pretty damn good one. The stretchy armed platformer featured fantastic music, vibrant and colorful world. The game was also more of a slower platformer, having Sonic Team take a break from Sonic the Hedgehog games was a nice change of pace. If you never played the game, I feel like you should try it on a better emulator than what is being offered right now on SEGA Forever, but if a mobile phone is all you have then you can give the game a try for free, with ads. If you like what you played, you can always keep it ad-free for only $1.99. I have downloaded and played it a bit, the emulation on this title is a bit better, but still having issues with sound (on my Android device).

Download:
PlayStoreiTunes

It seems that Ristar had a sneak launch, while SEGA Forever teased the game, they haven’t officially announced it coming out. No trailer like they did for The Revenge of Shinobi last week and no tweet (as of writing this). If you want to learn more about the future of the SEGA Forever line of games, check out our interview with Danny Russell (Mobile Games Community Manager at SEGA).

SEGA News Bits: SEGA Genesis AtGames 2017 Hardware Revealed

Today on the SEGA News Bits, we look at the upcoming AtGames SEGA Genesis plug-in-play consoles set to release this 2017 including the AtGames Flashback, AT Games Classic and the Ultimate Portable Game Player. All three of these devices are set to hit store shelves this upcoming September! On this episode we talk about our thoughts on AtGames’ SEGA Genesis plug-in-play releases, our thoughts on the pack-in games and what we want to see improved on these new devices. But in the end, what are your thoughts? Are you picking up any of these AtGames SEGA Genesis devices and if so, which one?

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

Factor 5 almost ported/created three games for the SEGA Genesis

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Factor 5 is a rather interesting company. With the many project that came and went, notably the Turrican and Star Wars Rogue Squadron series, along with a rollercoaster of failed projects and bad business mistakes that eventually shut down the studio, until a recent surprise revival in 2015. But regardless, it was an ambitious studio, to the point that staff would even create their own devkits to gain an edge over the competition.

Recently, Nintendo Life has interviewed Factor 5 co-founder Julian Eggebrecht, dropping information about two ports and an original game that were intended for the SEGA Genesis.

Data Discs announces Altered Beast vinyl record

19437497_1779005802411641_1363039717141303446_nData Discs’ release of SEGA soundtracks continue with their newly announced Altered Beast vinyl record. The Altered Beast vinyl record will be the 12th release in the series, which isn’t counting their upcoming Sonic Mania release. While I’m not a huge fan of the Altered Beast game, I am a big fan of it the game’s soundtrack which I feel is a rather nice, but short collection of tunes. The Altered Beast vinyl record will ship with one LP containing the game’s full SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive soundtrack. Every copy will also include an Altered Beast poster containing artwork from the game’s cover.

The Altered Beast vinyl record will be released in three versions:

  •  Clear with Orange Splatter (Limited Edition)
  • Opaque Orange
  •  Classic Black

The release will cost £19.99 (about $26 USD) and go on sale on June 30 at 11 AM PST. If you plan on picking up the limited edition versions, I suggest you get on a bit early before 11 AM on June 30th and check this link. What is your opinion on Data Discs’ release of Altered Beast? What other SEGA games would you want to get a vinyl record release? Let us know in the comments below.

SEGA News Bits: SEGA Forever Officially Revealed Reaction

SEGA has officially revealed their SEGA Forever launch, which will offer an array of SEGA titles. While at launch SEGA Forever is sticking with SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive titles, the service makes promises of exploring a ever expanding catalog of retro games from across all SEGA platforms. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we take a look at all the information we know regarding SEGA Forever’s launch, its promises, our thoughts the project and take a look at all the teased upcoming games in their launch trailer. It seems opinions for SEGA Forever has been mixed since it was shown off officially this morning.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that new YouTube algorithm is. Thanks for the support.

SEGA Forever Officially Revealed and Detailed

SEGA Forever has officially been revealed, the service has been a mystery to fans since it was leaked a while back as it was being tested. We even did a SEGA News Bits on SEGA Forever (expect a follow up one now that the product has been fully detailed) on what the service could be. But what is it? According to the press release, which you can read in full after the break, SEGA Forever is a mobile name for classic SEGA re-releases on both Android and iPhone. Prior to this, a rumor came around that it was supposed to be ‘a subscription service’, but this press release says you get the option to play either free, ad supported version of the game or unlock it forever (SEGA Forever) for $1.99.

They promise to cover the following SEGA consoles:

  • SG-1000
  • Master System
  • Genesis/Mega Drive
  • Game Gear
  • SEGA Saturn
  • Dreamcast

The service will launch on June 22nd with the following five games, new releases every couple of weeks:

  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Altered Beast
  • Phantasy Star II
  • Comix Zone
  • Kid Chameleon

The press release also goes into the fact that the games will support leaderboards, cloud saves, offline play, controller support, community news feed, and a ton of languages for menus. So the real question is, what is you opinion on SEGA Forever? Is this what you expected, another re-branding service for retro SEGA re-releases?

SEGA News Bits: Top 100 SEGA Games Discussion

On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss the Top 100 SEGA Games list we posted up earlier this month, so if you haven’t checked it out give it a gander. Join us to listen to us rant about how the list was put together, which games surprised us on the list, which games didn’t make the list, how SEGA games are under-appreciated on other top gaming lists, and much more. Sadly we don’t cover all the top 100 SEGA games that are represented on the list, that would take too long, but I hope the games we talked about was entertaining enough. Let us know if you agree or disagree with the top 100 SEGA games list and what your top three SEGA games would be in the comments below.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that new YouTube algorithm is.

Eternal Champions spiritual successor gets named, first test renders shown

adam-starcaster-highresscreenshot00203Remember SEGA’s 1993 fighting game Eternal Champions? The title was highly marketed by SEGA America as an ultra violent fighting game that was highly influenced by Mortal Kombat. It seems that Eternal Champions’ original producer Michael Latham has been working on a new fighting game which is set to be the spiritual successor to Eternal Champions and its being called “Eternal Successors“. Have to say, its a pretty damn good name.

Michael Latham said he was trying to get the official rights from SEGA, which they haven’t done anything with since the 1994 release of Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side on SEGA CD (1996 if you count loose spin-off title X-Perts). Michael also shared some test renders of what the game would look like running on Unreal Engine 4. If you want to give Michael Latham some feedback on Eternal Successors, check out his shoryuken forum thread here. He says that they are trying to do justice to the original SEGA Genesis color pallet with the renders and they have done a good job, I think. Not sold on the paint like filter, but the color scheme is pretty great.

More information for those that never got to play Eternal Champions,  the character with the yellow helmet is Trident from the first game, the other character is hard to tell since they have been ‘overtkill’ which is basically a fatality in Eternal Champions. Seeing as it looks like a female wearing high heels, I will have to guess its Shadow Yamoto. The stage that is being rendered is also known as ‘Trident’s Stage’, you can check the original stage here and compare it with the renders.

SEGA News Bits: Genesis/Mega Drive Indie Brawler Paprium Announced

On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss the newly announced 2D brawler for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive titled Paprium. The game is being developed by Watermelon Games, who are best known for Pier Solar and pre-orders for Paprium are available now. The game is set to push the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive to its limit with large sprites, tons of enemies on screen and an 80 meg cart. Now that’s playing with power. Check out the episode to hear us discuss Paprium, its art style and discuss all the different versions available. Are you picking up Paprium? Which version are you getting? Let us know in the comments below.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that new YouTube algorithm is.

Cave Story gets an almost complete SEGA Genesis port

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We posted last year about a fan working on a port of Cave Story for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, which he is calling ‘Cave Story MD‘. While the developer released a proof of concept demo, which we discussed on the SEGA News Bits last year, it is now mostly fully ported over. While Cave Story might be almost fully playable on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, it doesn’t mean its perfect. On Cave Story MD‘s GitHub page it says to expect ‘alpha quality’ on this release and that the farthest you can reach in this game is ‘Last Boss room’, which has the hardware hang upon entry.

You can download the Cave Story MD rom over on the game’s GitHub page. The game should be playable on any major emulator or even on official SEGA hardware if you have a EverDrive. Let us know what you think of the work being done on Cave Story MD, tell us in the comments below.

 

Indie games coming to classic SEGA consoles in 2017

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Happy 2017 from SEGAbits! As everybody is coming back from the holiday season, we are beginning to look ahead to what we have in store for 2017. Our latest SEGA News Bits video ran through the official SEGA games releasing this year, and now we thought it would be helpful to share what games we can expect to see hitting classic SEGA consoles in 2017 from the indie game community. Thanks to SEGAbits Forums member Berto, we have a helpful topic which compiles all the upcoming SEGA indie games for 2017.

In addition to this list, Berto has also compiled a handy list which links to the respective crowdfunding campaigns, pre-orders and ROM/ISO download links. So what indie SEGA games are coming in 2017?

Book Review: “Playing at the Next Level: A History of American Sega Games”

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Playing at the Next Level: A History of American Sega Games was written by Ken Horowitz, who runs the long running SEGA-16 fansite. As a longtime Sega fan and lurker on various sites, especially before I started this blog, I was a huge fan of what Ken was doing at Sega-16.  One of the biggest resources the site offers is a review for almost every single Sega Genesis game published. That’s quite the feat. While his work on getting a review for almost every single Sega Genesis game is amazing, I truly love his website because he interviews some of the most interesting people from Sega’s glory days. I first heard about the site when doing research on Sega Technical Institute, after finding his interview with Roger Hector about his time being director of the studio I started checking daily for more Sega historical content. Ever since then I have been a huge fan of the site, when I heard Ken was writing a historical Sega book we invited him on our podcast (listen to that below).