SEGA Talk #142: Ten Electro-Mechnical Arcade Machines (1956-1985)

On this SEGA Talk, we jump way back to SEGA’s early years as an Electro-Mechanical Arcade Machine manufacturer! So plug in and take a break from screens as we take a look at ten Electro-Mechanical SEGA Arcade Machines!

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Sonic Prime Season 2 Blu-Ray announced for August release – pre-order now!

SEGA’s Netflix series Sonic Prime has a season 2 blu-ray releasing soon! On August 27th, fans can get their hands on a physical copy of the second part of the series in lovely 1080p. Amazon has the Season 2 pre-order up now for $19.99, and if you missed it Season 1 is available now.

It’s great to see NCircle continuing their efforts to release Sonic animated content on DVD and blu-ray in a timely fashion. At this rate, we should see the full series on blu-ray before the year ends!

The Rebellious Crazy Taxi Driver Axel Makes His Way To Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble via SEGA Pass DLC

Axel, one of Crazy Taxi’s iconic cabbie drivers, makes his way to Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble as part of the SEGA Pass DLC.Axel joins AiAi and friends, causing chaos along the way!

Axel will be playable across both Adventure Mode and Battle Mode, with unique stats to help him on the courses. Plus, for Axel only, all in-game bananas will switch to coins in homage to the franchise so you can rack up some insane money.

The SEGA Pass is included with the Digital Deluxe Edition of Banana Rumble and will also be available as a separate bundle to purchase. Individual characters will also be available a la carte. All content is scheduled to be released over the coming months.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble launches exclusively for the Nintendo Switch family of systems June 25, 2024. Pre-order your copy here!

Homebrew Games Summer Showcase 2024 showcases 120 new homebrew games, including many for Sega consoles

Yesterday, on June 6th, 2024, NES Homebrew developer extraordinaire Matt Hughson aired the second ever Homebrew Games Summer Showcase video presentation. The 34 minute long presentation showcased a whooping 120 games across many retro game systems, most notably including many Genesis/Mega-Drive, Master System, and Game Gear games, as well as even one Saturn game and two Dreamcast games. You can also expect many games for NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and SNES, as well as two Turbografx-16 games and even a Virtual Boy game. This is one video you can’t miss if you’re really interested in seeing what talented developers are doing with long retired game hardware today.

You can watch the whole video above, but join me past the break for a quick list of all the games shown that are coming to Sega platforms, as well as links to follow their developers and/or download the games.

SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS Speeds Into Stores Oct. 25, 2024; Now Available For Pre-Order!

Today, during Summer Game Fest 2024, SEGA had officially unveiled a new trailer for SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS and announced that the game will be set to release digitally and physically on October 25, 2024 and is now available to pre-order for PlayStation®5 (PS5®), PlayStation®4 (PS4®), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch™ family of systems, and PC starting at $49.99 USD.

The game will also have a Digital Deluxe Edition which allows fans to play the game three days early and includes additional iconic music tracks from previous Sonic and Shadow games, a Terios skin based on Shadow’s original concept, behind-the-scenes art, an additional level and Shadow Skin, and more!

Sonic fans can also pre-order the Physical Day One, Digital Standard or Deluxe editions of SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS ahead of launch to receive a legacy skin for Sonic, based on his look from Sonic Adventure™! Players who pre-order the Physical Day One Edition will receive Gerald Robotnik’s Journal, a 28-page logbook chronicling Gerald’s innermost thoughts and drawings while he created Shadow the Hedgehog and the Ark Space Station, in addition to the legacy skin for Sonic.

Hit the jump for more details on SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS from the official press release including pre-order bonus, key features and more!

SEGA and Rovio announce production has started on The Angry Birds Movie 3

Now that SEGA owns Rovio, that means SEGA has involvement in all things Angry Birds and just this week the announcement was made that there will be a third animated movie for the franchise. Titled The Angry Birds Movie 3, the movie is now in production and a press release has been sent out detailing those involved, seen after the break. My big question is, will the movie open with the SEGA logo?

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy joins Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble via DLC/SEGA PASS

The crossover tradition continues in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble as Sonic and friends joins the adventure.

Not only Sonic and Tails are returning as playable characters, but Knuckles and Amy joins Banana Rumble. Each with unique stats and Gold Rings as in-game pick-ups.

The Sonic Superstars will be available as part of the SEGA Pass included in the Digital Deluxe Edition, as a separate bundle, or a la carte.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble will be available exclusively for Nintendo Switch on June 25, 2024. Pre-Order the Deluxe Edition on the official website.

Burning Rangers gets lost 2P Co-Op mode restored with downloadable patch

Did you know that Burning Rangers (1998) was planned to have a two-player co-op mode during development? This was shown in early previews and was found in some prototype builds of the game, but no such mode exists in the final retail release. Turns out that the code for the co-op mode was left within the game’s data, so dedicated Sega Saturn reverse engineer Bo Bayles has restored that co-op mode with a special patch. You can download the patch and try it out with your own image file of Burning Rangers. (Which I trust you obtained legally from a copy you own, which you may or may not have paid hundreds of dollars for, but that’s not my place to judge.)

Now then, to the next phase and to the next stage. Come with me past the break for the patch download and more info.

Like A Dragon: Yakuza Heads to Prime Video on October 24

RGG Studio dropped some major news regarding a live-action series adaptation of Yakuza/Like a Dragon series by announcing Like A Dragon: Yakuza for Prime Video set to be released on October 24th.

According to Variety, The series’ story is set in two time periods, 1995 and 2005, and follows the life, childhood friends and the repercussions of the decisions of a fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity.

The screenplay and story are by Sean Crouch and Nakamura Yugo, with a Japanese screenplay by Yoshida Yasuhiro and Yamada Kana. The six-part crime-suspense-action series is directed by Take Masaharu and stars Takeuchi Ryoma as the lead character, Kiryu Kazuma.

It will upload to Prime Video in two batches of three episodes on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, with subtitled and dubbed versions in 30 languages.

We had a couple of live adaptations of the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series through Japan and other media. How do you guys feel about this one? Will you watch it when it airs? Let us know in the comments below!

SEGA says “Don’t expect any Mini Console announcements this year”

Well, today is the 64th birthday of Sega, so Happy Birthday, Sega! Now, in the past few years, Sega made announcements of new mini consoles on their birthdate, as they had done with the Genesis/Mega-Drive Mini 2 and the Game Gear Micro, so now we can expect a new one to be announced any second now…….. annnnnnnnnny second now…

Surprise! The announcement is that there is no announcement. According to Yosuke Okunari, as transposed by Twitter announcement translator Gosokkyu, no new mini consoles are going to be announced in 2024.

That’s that. Nothing to see here. Go home, folks. (Or go outside, if you’re already home) (Or you can come with me past the break for a bit more info)

Regal bringing first two Sonic the Hedgehog movies back to theaters this summer – tickets are just $1!

The Regal theater chain has announced their Summer Movie Express lineup, and featured in the lineup are the Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movies. The kid-focused budget priced matinees are priced at $1 a ticket and feature budget priced concession items. Showings are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 11am, with the first Sonic movie playing July 16 and 17 and the second Sonic movie playing the following week on July 23 and 24. Also worth noting, both Spider-Verse movies are playing as is the recent Ninja Turtles movie Mutant Mayhem.

The including of the first Sonic movie is exciting, as it really has not seen screenings since the pre-pandemic release. Who plans to watch the first two Sonic movies in theaters again this summer?

SEGA Talk #141: Virtua Cop (1994)

On this episode of SEGA Talk we get lock and loaded into the criminal underworld of Virtua City and break the case of SEGA’s 1994 revolutionary light gun shooter Viruta Cop, we look at its history, ports and legacy it left behind. ALL THIS AND MORE ON … SEGA TALK!

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Enjoy the Ride Records releases limited edition Paramount+ Knuckles vinyl soundtrack

Enjoy the Ride Records has just released a limited run of soundtrack vinyls for the Paramount+ Knuckles series. How limited? Only 300 are being made in the Knuckles Spin Dash version. No other version is currently listed, so it is unknown if the soundtrack will see a wider release. The soundtrack is $24.99 and is set to ship in late summer or early fall (or sooner), just in time for the impending release of Sonic 3. Click on over here if you’d like to pick up a copy!

If you have collected all the Sonic movie soundtrack vinyls so far, this will slot in nicely with the labels previous releases. If you have yet to pick up the Sonic movie soundtracks on vinyl, you can find them in the shop’s catalog as some variants are still available.

Metaphor: ReFantazio™ Panel Announced For Anime Expo Featuring Katsura Hashino & Shigenori Soejima

ATLUS today announced they will host a panel titled “ATLUS Presents: The World of Metaphor: ReFantazio” featuring Katsura Hashino & Shigenori Soejima at Anime Expo 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The panel will be held at the Petree Hall on Friday, July 5, 2024 from 10:30AM to 11:20AM PT.

We will be covering as much SEGA/ATLUS games and events at Anime Expo in person this year. Be sure to follow our social channels for more updates. Check out further details on the Metaphor: ReFantazio panel by hitting the jump!

Sega Tetris online multiplayer restored through Dreamcast Live

Another Sega Dreamcast classic has just had its online multiplayer modes restored for Dreamcast Live, a new fanmade online connection service for Dreamcast. Sega Tetris (2000) is now back up and running online thanks to the efforts of one Shu, who has restored online features for many Dreamcast games already, including The Next Tetris: On-Line Edition (Also 2000), another Dreamcast Tetris game.

Unlike The Next Tetris, which only released in North America and Europe, Sega Tetris released only in Japan, both on Dreamcast and the NAOMI arcade system. Because of its reliance of Japanese reading comprehension, Dreamcast archivist PCWZRD13, who also made and uploaded the above video, had also taken the liberty of preparing a patch to translate the online multiplayer menus to English. Patched versions of Sega Tetris, as well as a few other Dreamcast Live compatible games, can be downloaded freely from Dreamcast Live’s downloads page.

Drop down past the break for more info on how to get started if you’re interested in trying this game out.