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SEGA announces F2P RPG ‘The World End Eclipse’ made by the Valkyria Chronicles team

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Famitsu reveals that SEGA has a new free-to-play ‘online theater RPG’ video game as they describe it. It will be launched this winter in Japan on the Playstation Vita, mobile and PC. Save data is said to carry over to all three platforms, online servers are also shared meaning cross-platform online play is a possibility.

The game seems to be online only and will have simplified RTS like elements that let you build, explore and fight. Battles are said to be mostly automated with ‘fast-forward and pause buttons’.  I can see this be SEGA’s take on the ever popular Clash of Clans franchise.

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SEGA makes sandcastle arcade game using real sand

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Making arcade games means you have to think of new ideas to attract consumers walking by. This time, SEGA is making a real sandcastle building arcade game that uses sand that resembles dirt mixed with some Play-Dough, along with dynamic image projector technology. The idea is to replicate playing with sand at the beach, so if you dig a hole inside the sand it will be filled with water. There are quite a bit of animated displays that occur while playing to keep the kids interested. Very unique technology, and great for younger arcade visitors. The game is similar to 2009’s Brick People, in which you stack real blocks and little men on a screen climb your creations to reach items.

Above you can see the trailer, what do you guys think? Would this get your attention and money?

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PAX Prime ’14 Preview: Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS

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While Penny Arcade Expo allowed the general public to play Sonic Boom, Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd and Alien Isolation, along with Bayonetta 2 showcased by Nintendo, very little was new to those looking for new information, which included the updated Sonic Boom demo which unfortunately did not make it to the event. This left very little for new SEGA news for fans to pick apart. That is until you factor in Sonic’s involvement in the upcoming release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. Nintendo was showing off both versions for the general public to play at PAX. With the new installment coming out, there are a few changes that are in place that people can expect to enhance the gameplay, but for what was shown off so far is guaranteed more Smash Bros. to go around.

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Unboxing a Launch Day SEGA Dreamcast

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When I originally bought my Dreamcast in December of 2000, it was a refurbished GameStop unit in a bland white box. At the time I was trying to be a good son and save my parents some money, but unfortunately this also means I never had a box to proudly display, but I would never even know what the system’s original packaging was like.

That is, until I plunked down some cash to buy a near mint system on eBay a few days ago! In order to mark the occasion, I decided to record the experience so anyone in my predicament can finally get an idea of what it was like to get a (sort of) new Dreamcast in September of 1999. A few screw-ups aside (calling the controller a Dreamcast, not looking at the manual, not knowing what some of the launch games were) I daresay this might be the best launch edition Dreamcast unboxing video on the internet. At least, I couldn’t find one. I hope you enjoy my belated little birthday gift for the DC!

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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure’s “Emerald Coast” and “It Doesn’t Matter”

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Today we’re focusing on two songs represent both ends of Adventure’s soundtrack: cheery and Genesis-esque instrumentals of “Emerald Coast” and the corny rock tunes of “It Doesn’t Matter” that would go on to become more prevalent in many later Sonic OSTs.

Emerald Coast will probably always hold a special place in my iPad for one simple reason: it was the first song I ever heard on a Dreamcast. Seeing Emerald Coast on a Target Dreamcast kiosk is what ultimately made me buy the system, and the graphics and sound played a large part in that decision. I imagine many Dreamcast owners will feel nostalgic over this track for this very same reason.

It Doesn’t Matter was my introduction to Crush40 and its brand of cheese rock. I loved this stuff when I was a teen. Even today, this song always give me a warm feeling because it’s so goddamned optimistic! As cheesy as its lyrics may be, I love the sound, and it continues to be one of my favorite Sonic vocal tracks. Back then I would listen to this a lot whenever I was feeling down, and to my surprise it still has the same effect on me today.

For me, this song is in many ways the theme song of the Dreamcast. This was SEGA’s last shot and they put everything into it. The system’s short lifespan had the greatest concentration of legendary titles in the history of gaming, at least since the onset of 3D consoles. SEGA may have given up the fight, but in many ways the Dreamcast never did. It continues to enjoy one of the most prosperous afterlifes of any console on the market.

Check out “It Doesn’t Matter” below the fold.

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SEGA Dreamcast’s 15th Anniversary – the Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Classic Console

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It’s hard to think that the Dreamcast turned 15 years old today. For many of the writers here at SEGAbits, the Dreamcast holds a special place in our hearts, and even though the console was active in retail for less than 2 years, it amounted itself an incredible amount of great games. Let’s look back at the history of the iconic console, its death, rebirth, and its future…

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SLaVE announced for SEGA Dreamcast

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The Dreamcast’s life-after-death continues with yet another new game from the indie scene: Jay Townsend’s SLaVE. This new game is considerably different from most other indie projects the Dreamcast has received over the last few years. Neither a sh’mup nor an old school RPG, SLaVE is instead a colorful first person shooter built around an enhanced Doom engine called 3DGE.

Jay Townsend is making this game in collaboration with indie developer Isotope and GOAT Store Publishing. Only 484 copies of the game will be produced, including 400 limited edition copies and 84 “Limited Limited” edition copies, which will be sold for $20.84 and $30.84 respectively. You can pre-order them here. Production is slated to begin in April 2015.

SLaVE is supposed to combine the game design sensibilities and aesthetics of 80s arcade shooters with old school first person shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein. The game was originally revealed for the PC and is not currently slated for any other platforms besides the Dreamcast.

This isn’t the only Dreamcast project GOAT Store and Isotope are working on. Earlier this year GOAT Store revealed that it would be publishing another Isotope project running on the same technology, Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness. Check out a developers diary for SLaVE and a trailer for Hypertension below the fold. Check out the official press release here.

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SEGA Dreamroom 2014 – watch the full 9 hour SEGA Dreamcast stream

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The SEGA Dreamroom is here! Enjoy live streaming Dreamcast games from 9am ET to 6pm ET – head on over to our twitch channel to chat as we play.

9/10 Update: Dreamroom 2014 was a huge success! Thank you to all those who tuned in. Enjoy the archived broadcast embedded above, and we’ll see you in the Dreamroom next year!

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SEGA Memories: Owing a debt to the SEGA Dreamcast

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With Dreamcast month currently underway, I thought I’d share my launch memories with all of you. It’s a little different from the launch discussion we’ll be talking about in our next round table, because I already had an import Dreamcast for a little while. This is more about helping a small business out by giving them a bigger launch while helping big business sell out it’s stock. Well…that and paying off some debt.

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SEGAbits Presents: Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2014 in Savannah, Georgia

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Calling all Sonic & SEGA fans in the Georgia area, we are happy to announce our big event in association with Savannah, Georgia’s very own The Guild Hall on November 22nd titled “Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam“. We will be hosting a fan event to not only celebrate the launch of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric/Shattered Crystal but other SEGA games including: Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax and more! Another surprise that we have for the event is that we will have Tracy Yardley, penciler/writer for Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, and Tails’ Channel owner Matt as our special guests. We’ll also be featuring some more surprise guests who will drop in and say hi via video. Want in on more details, such as events and location? Be sure to hit the jump!

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Classic SEGA Ads: It’s Evening in America…

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The Dreamcast had one of the best advertisement campaigns in video game history. Period. Its ads took all of the best parts of SEGA’s Genesis era advertisement and infused it with fun and consistent quality. Every single time I click a Dreamcast ad and expect something ho-hum, I’m surprised by yet another kick-ass ad.

Here we have a parody of the classic Reagan re-election ad, “Morning in America”. With narration by Seaman. And whistling by guys from Quake 3, NFL 2K and NBA 2K. And a bunch of SEGA characters screwing around inside people’s Dreamcasts. And while Seaman gives a beautiful speech about Americans coming together so they can whoop each other’s asses, you’ve got gamers celebrating and raging over victories and losses. You’ve got house fires, decapitated teddy bears and exploding trailers. This ad is a perfect example of a great SEGA ad: well written, well directed, well voiced, plenty of game footage and plenty to get you pumped.

This ad is a thing of beauty. I hope you enjoy it, have a fine Saturday morning and play some Dreamcast.

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The Dreamroom Dreamcast Marathon returns on Tuesday 9/9 at 9am ET at SEGA Channel Retro

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From 2009 to 2011 at The Dreamcast Junkyard, I hosted the Dreamroom – a SEGA Dreamcast marathon celebrating the console’s memorable American launch date. Since 2011, however, the Dreamroom remained locked. I knew I wanted to host another, but I was busy with work and my increasing duties at SEGAbits. Not to mention, I didn’t think aiming a webcam at the TV cut it as a live stream anymore.

This year, however, I’m excited to announce that the Dreamroom is reopening on 9/9 at 9am ET at the SEGA Channel Retro Twitch channel for a special 9 hour marathon of Dreamcast games streaming directly from the console! Yes, I’ve finally caught up with streaming technology.

Hope to see SEGAbits and DCJY readers new and old there as we celebrate 15 years of the SEGA Dreamcast!

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Relic removes Game for Windows Live from Dawn of War II and adds dedicated servers

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Dawn of War II is a Warhammer 40k based RTS that was massively successful when it came out in 2009. To many people’s dismay it used Game of Windows Live as its multiplayer and even with these hurtles it was massively successful. Fans asked for years for the developer Relic Entertainment and its then publisher THQ to remove Microsoft’s Game for Windows Live.

Relic was bought by SEGA in 2013 and with that all their game’s transferred ownership to SEGA. Seems they don’t have plans on abandoning support for older titles since a new update (2.6.0.10216). Not only that, this and its predecessor Dawn of War 1 have now been moved to dedicated servers. This is a big update for the game that fixes a lot of  lag experienced by players. 

Game also uses Steamworks for matchmaking, but since the removal of GFWL it will be impossible to unlock achievements, but there will most likely be a update on steam to add Steam achievements in the near future.

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SEGA Import Guide: Cool Cool Toon (SEGA Dreamcast)

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More than eight years since the death of SEGA’s final console, SEGA fans have been left digging deeper and deeper into their console’s libraries, looking for new games to play. Though impressions, reviews and videos for SEGA’s English language releases are typically easy to find, information on their console’s Japanese exclusive selection of games can be quite elusive. That is why we at SEGAbits are launching a new feature focused on the quality and playability of SEGA console regional exclusives. Today, we will be looking at an obscure rhythm game released by SNK exclusively for the Dreamcast in mid-2000: Cool Cool Toon. I’d like to give a special shout out to my niece for getting me this for my birthday!

Cool Cool Toon is a unique game in SNK’s Dreamcast library. A rhythm game made from the ground up for the Dreamcast, it was neither a fighting game nor an arcade port. It is so far removed from what SNK did for the system that it doesn’t even look like an SNK game at first glance. It does share one common thread with other SNK games though: it is very easy to pick up and play.

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