SEGA Talk Podcast #74: Star Wars Arcade Games (1993-2000)

Blast into hyperspace with us as we cover the trilogy of SEGA Star Wars arcade games! We delve into Star Wars Arcade and the 32X port rush job, Star Wars Trilogy Arcade and the connection to Space Channel 5 creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and lastly Star Wars Racer Arcade and the evolution of the development studio that brought us all three games. Plus, Barry discusses his own Star Wars fandom.

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Prototype build of Star Wars for the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis released

As a SEGA and Star Wars fan, it had long bothered me that Star Wars never saw games released to the SEGA Genesis. Despite some truly great Star Wars arcade games developed by SEGA talent, only the Genesis add-ons SEGA CD and 32X had seen a few titles. However, as it turns out, a version of the SNES game Super Star Wars was in development by SEGA Interactive during 1992/1993 for the Mega Drive/Genesis before shifting to the SEGA CD and then being outright cancelled.

Unreleased beta for SEGA Saturn game Star Wars: Rebel Strike uncovered!

Thanks to a post on the Obscure Gamers forum, we have our first look at an unreleased Star Wars game from SEGA for the SEGA Saturn! It has long been known that SEGA had planned a port of their Star Wars Trilogy Arcade game for the Saturn (a game I actually played through just yesterday at the Galloping Ghost Arcade). But in addition to this, SEGA had planned another game exclusive to the console. Titled Star Wars: Rebel Strike, gaming magazines at the time guessed that the game would be an amalgamation of all three Star Wars films, though that sounds very much like what Star Wars Trilogy Arcade already was. My guess is journalists confused the two projects for one, as the recently released beta footage for Rebel Strike shows a very different game.

The footage shows a speeder bike with lock-on targeting, and while free roaming it does very much resemble SEGA’s on-rails shooter Panzer Dragoon. Personally, I think it looks like Luxoflux’s Star Wars: Demolition. It is unknown who exactly developed this, and if it was truly internally developed by SEGA, but based on the test menu mentioning the name “Scott” I’m going to guess it was developed in the west. We’ll be sure to share more information as it is uncovered! It’s very cool to see another Star Wars game uncovered, especially for the SEGA Saturn which lacked any Star Wars games in its library.

SEGA Tunes: Star Wars Arcade 32X feels like it could take on the whole Empire

starwarsarcade

While the heyday of the original Star Wars trilogy video games in the 70s and 80s belonged to Atari, during the 90s and early 2000s our favorite arcade game maker (that’s SEGA, if you’re wondering) internally developed a three games that blew the Atari arcade experiences out of the water. The arcade games I am referring to are Star Wars Arcade (by SEGA AM3 and LucasArts), Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (by SEGA AM8 and LucasArts), and Star Wars Racer Arcade (by Sega Rosso). These games were exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, you had some of the best SEGA arcade talent behind the titles working with some of the best arcade technology of the time. [Learn more about SEGA’s arcade development in the 90s]

I know old Atari arcade games have their charm, but when you’re dealing with a franchise like Star Wars that leans so much on visuals, sound and music I’d much prefer to know what I’m looking at rather than trying to figure out what tiny wireframes are trying to convey. Personally I found Star Wars Racer Arcade to be the pinnacle of Star Wars arcade experiences, as it felt 1:1 to the film in every aspect. But today, for the latest entry in our SEGA Tunes series, I wanted to look back at the Star Wars arcade experience that kicked off the SEGA trilogy of arcade games, the aptly named Star Wars Arcade.

My Life With SEGA takes on the whole Empire in Star Wars Arcade

This week, AJ strikes back with an all out attack of the 32X in his review of Star Wars Arcade.

The adventure continues in Star Wars: Episode II – Rise of the 32X, where I review Star Wars Arcade. Yeah, it’s a port of the SEGA-produced arcade game from 1993. Now, SEGA has made some miraculous conversions, such as Virtua Fighter 2 for Saturn and Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast….

Should this 32X exclusive be counted among them?

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My Life with SEGA becomes one with the Force in Star Wars: Rebel Assault

This week, My Life with SEGA returns to a galaxy far, far away in Star Wars: Rebel Assault for the SEGA CD. Will it be a day long remembered, or will it end up being Bantha poodoo?

It may be hard to believe, but long before Greedo shot first, or the prequels devided the fanbase, I was playing Rebel Assault; my very first Star Wars game. It has been a day long remembered….

Now, 18 years since it’s release on the SEGA CD, I ask myself, “Is it still a day worth remembering?”

Let’s find out.

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The SEGA Five: Star Wars Games on SEGA Consoles

When I was a kid, most of my free time involved the three S’s: SEGA, Star Wars and The Simpsons. Sometimes, though very rarely, these things would mix. Simpsons games would appear on the Genesis, The Simpsons would parody Star Wars and Sonic 2 would feature the Death Star inspired Death Egg. Despite all this intermingling of my favorite media properties, I never was able to play a Star Wars game on my SEGA Genesis due to Nintendo getting all the games. I recall seeing the Super Star Wars Trilogy in magazines and thinking “why can’t the Genesis get those!?”. As time went on, Star Wars games began to appear on SEGA consoles, and in 1999 I finally owned a console that would receive some of these games. Now, in 2012, I’ve amassed most of the SEGA consoles and all of the Star Wars games. With The Phantom Menace 3D hitting theaters this weekend, I thought it would be fitting to look back at five of my favorite Star Wars games that appeared on SEGA consoles. Do they still hold up? Let’s find out!

Dreamcast + Millennium Falcon = Awesome


SEGA mods are the best, but what about a SEGA and Star Wars mod? Holy crap, that sounds amazing. Someone has just done that, its as if they divided by zero. “Pezzapoo” from the Ben Heck forums has put a Dreamcast into a Millennium Falcon toy.

“As soon as I saw these caricature versions of the Star wars toys I thought about the Dreamcast and how the fun little console would feel right at home inside one. Strangely the DC game port facia fitted directly into the toy with about a mill to spare so I knew it was meant to be! Two side docking ring fans keep the hot DC from melting. Lots of soldering and the switch was added to turn on the GDROM. No paint was applied.”

Now I wonder what else we can shove a Dreamcast into?

[Source: Dvice]