As part of our SAGE coverage, we managed to get a hold of Noah Copeland to come have a chat with us about the development of his fangame Sonic Triple Trouble 16 bit. This love letter to the classic Game Gear game released to much fanfair last month, remaking the original games visual to fit perfectly with it’s classic Mega Drive counterparts, featuring the ability to switch between Sonic or Tails as well as multiple playable characters. Hit the break for the first of two part interview with Noah as he goes into more detail about the fan games history and development ideology!
On this SEGA Talk we dive into the Nintendo DS exclusive Sonic Rush and see not only the birth of Blaze the Cat but also the start of the boost gameplay that would come to dominate future Sonic Team titles. What’s the rush? Sit back and enjoy this SEGA Talk.
Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!
If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!
If you ever wanted to know what you missed out on as a kid when McDonalod’s teamed up with SEGA to release a bunch of Sonic LCD games well, you’re in luck! Thanks to developer Dfug hard work, we have been graced with the collection that has all the games from Knuckles Baseball to Tails Soccer. Their painstaking work to digitise the collection of 17 games helps to perserve these bits of Sonic memoriable and shows you how popular Sonic was in 2003, with the height of popularity coming thanks to a combination of Sonic X and the release of Sonic Heroes. So head over to SAGExpo and give them a try, along with all the other cool games at the event.
It’s that time of the year again where the Sonic Amateur Games Expo, or SAGE (No relation to the Sonic Frontiers villain!) for short, graces us with it’s presence. Filled to the brim with some of the most dedicated Sonic fans on the net, this event now boasts a huge selection of non-Sonic fangames from Mega Man to Kirby as well as a host of indie games. In the coming days we’ll be sharing interviews with developers and game impressions at the event, so stick with SEGAbits and don’t miss a beat in our coverage. In the mean time, check out the SAGE trailer and head over to Expo’s website here and start downloading some of the coolest fan projects around!
Gamescom 2022 kicked off, and after several games that take place in the future where you shoot everything in sight the new Sonic Frontiers trailer dropped. Titled the “Story Trailer”, the new footage showcased CG cutscenes as well as gameplay in new environments including tropical and desert islands. Also showcased were the long teased cyberspace levels, which revisit locations from Sonic’s past. Locations included a highway environment, Green Hill and Sky Sanctuary. Sonic also finds Amy imprisoned in a red structure before being confronted by enemies. How about a release date? Fans can expect a global launch date of November 8th, 2022.
The game will release digitally and physically to Xbox and PlayStation platforms, Nintendo Switch and PC. Those who pre-order will receive a treasure box of in-game items including skill points, blue seeds of defense and red seeds of power. Personally, I’d have loved to see a collector’s edition, and the fact that every SEGA franchise except for Sonic seems to get cool physical bonus editions really annoys me. I want a Koco to snuggle, dammit!
A musical album released in the form of a game cartridge or ROM might sound like an odd concept, but quirky homebrew developer and musician Mike Yedley has done just that, and it’s not even his first one. Not too long ago, he debuted his second Genesis music ROM on his itch.io page, called “mikeyeldey95”. Being a ROM, it can be run in your favorite Genesis emulator or on original hardware with a flash cartridge such as any of the Mega Everdrive line of cartridges. In a very interesting twist, this album also doubles as a retro Windows 95 desktop simulation, full of fun easter eggs and mini-games. You can change the desktop background and color scheme, explore a web browser (This game has no way of actually connecting to the internet), and even explore an MS-DOS environment. There are 11 main songs total, but exploring a bit more can uncover several hidden songs, including some full PSG tunes.
On this SEGA News Bits Live, Barry runs through some of the notable titles releasing to the Mega Drive Mini 2 and Genesis Mini 2, talks the possibilities of a Space Channel 5 movie and shares his beef with Sonic fans on Twitter.
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.
Thanks to the success of Paramount and SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog movies, it was only a matter of time more cinematic deals were made for other SEGA franchises to make the jump to the screen. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that SEGA has entered into a partnership with Picturestart to develop film adaptations of the Dreamcast classic Space Channel 5 and the SEGA Genesis platformer Comix Zone.
Enjoy the Ride Records have just released a limited run of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 soundtrack audio cassette tapes, limited to 250 copies, featuring the score by Tom Holkenborg. The cassettes feature UV-printed shells, meaning you get promotional graphics from the movie printed right on the tape. Pretty slick! To sweeten the deal, the case evokes Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s video game cover art, a move that the 4K home video release also did with the steelbook. Also available is a repress of the first film’s soundtrack on vinyl, featuring a tri-color swirl. Head on over to Enjoy the Ride Records and order yours today!
TONS of SEGA Mega Drive Mini 2 and SEGA Genesis Mini 2 news today! First up, Europe WILL be getting the mini console as well. It will release October 27th alongside the Japanese and American models. At the moment we do not know if the lineup will differ for Europe, but for now it seems it will be the same as the American lineup.
In a live stream, the final Mega Drive Mini 2 titles were revealed. They are: Star Cruiser, Night Trap – MEGA CD, Mahou no Shoujo: Silky Lip, Granada, Ex-Ranza, Shin Souseiky Ragnacenty, Midnight Resistance, Chelnov, Honoo no Tokyuuji Dodge Danpei, Captain Tsubasa, Super Locomotive (arcade port), Party Quiz Mega Q 2022 (MEGA Q with modern questions), Party Quiz Sega Q (MEGA Q with SEGA questions and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi as the host), Devi & Pii (unreleased Takashi Iizuka game), VS Puyo Puyo SUN (Mega Drive port of the Saturn game), Space Harrier (remastered), Space Harrier II (remastered). If you would like more details and factoids on these titles, I suggest this Twitter thread from GSK. Personally, I am excited to see ports of Space Harrier and Spacer Harrier II that play like the arcade original.
Also revealed on the live stream were new merch, including a Mega Drive 2 keychain, business card holder and a slick travel case. It was also revealed that the console’s staff role will play over the MEGA CD loading screen, which will change according to your language settings, and the credits can be toggled on and off. Also, select games will include regional variations based on console language settings. Sadly, not ALL titles will do this with Popful Mail being one of them.
FINALLY, the full SEGA Genesis Mini 2 lineup was revealed, which can be seen in the video above. After the break, check out the full lineup for both consoles including regional exclusives in bold.
Yes, you read that right. Apparently, at the turn of the millennium, an ambitious “TV Adaptor” was planned for Game Boy Color, that would at allow it to communicate with the Sega Dreamcast via your TV screen. This was planned for release in 2000, just a couple of months before Sega would announce their departure from the console race, shocking the world.
Fans of FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) console clones may remember Analogue’s FPGA Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive clone system, the Mega SG, released to widespread acclaim in 2019. Since then, they’ve been busy working on clones of other beloved early 90’s consoles, including the subject of this article: The Analogue Pocket. For the uninitiated, the Analogue Pocket is an FPGA recreation of the Game Boy and capable of playing your Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges in crisp HD and on your TV if you buy the separately sold dock. This also includes tons of options to tweak the video and sound if you are technically savvy enough and patient enough to mess with it and get the most out of your games, just like Analogue’s other systems, and that’s hardly half of it’s capabilities. So, did you click NintendoBits by accident? How does this involve Sega, you ask? Well, the Analogue Pocket can also play your Game Gear cartridges as well, provided you buy the Game Gear cartridge adaptor, which is also sold separately.
Update: Tails’ Channel claims that two verified anonymous sources have told them “the synopsis was incorrect, and not indicative of Paramount’s current plans for the upcoming theatrical release”. Here’s my take: This does not invalidate all the information nor does it mean that this information is false. It is likely Production Weekly’s information is from earlier work on the film that has since evolved. Also, I find it odd that these sources claim the synopsis is incorrect given it is exactly what the Sonic 2 mid-credits scene sets up for a third film, yet they do not confirm or deny the mention of various characters.
Thanks to the Sonic Stadium and Sonic Paradise, we have some juicy information on Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which is due out December 20, 2024. The information comes from a movie industry trade, Production Weekly, which sits behind a paywall. Thankfully, Sonic Paradise bought the article and Sonic Stadium smoothed out their translation of the information, which can be found over at Sonic Stadium. You can also read the spoilery information after the break in our own words, but give Sonic Stadium a click too.
Buckle up because on this SEGA Talk, we put the pedal to the metal and hit the road to talk about Sumo Digital’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! What are the origins of this racing franchise? What characters didn’t make the cut? What is a Bentley Jones? Click play and find out!
Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!
If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!
Another stream has taken place in which SEGA Japan revealed additional titles for the upcoming Mega Drive Mini 2. The titles announced include: Ecco the Dolphin (Mega CD), Ecco: Tides of Time (MEGA CD), Gain Ground, Sorcerian, Phantasy Star II (which includes an easy mode when is from the PlayStation 2 SEGA AGES release), Tougi-ou King Colossus, Populous, Sangokushi III aka Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny (Mega Drive and Mega CD versions), Tenka Fubu: Eiyuutachi no Houkou (Mega CD), Dennin Aleste (Mega CD), Robo Aleste (US version of Dennin Aleste for SEGA CD), Shin Megami Tensei (Mega CD) and as a bonus Viewpoint (SEGA Genesis, first time released in Japan).
In all some nice surprises, a good mix of genres and some cool bonus features and regional options. After the break, check out our revised lists for both the Mega Drive Mini 2 and the SEGA Genesis Mini 2! The final Mega Drive Mini 2 announcement is August 19th, and we will be sure to news the new titles as we hear them.
