The holy grail of lost Mega Drive media has been discovered and was even playable at Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024. A build of 1995’s Garfield: Caught in the Act – The Lost Levels has finally been unearthed after 29 years.
Garfield: The Lost Levels was a SEGA Channel exclusive version of Garfield: Caught in the Act that features 2 exclusive stages called Bonehead the Barbarian and Slobbin’ Hood. It is further enhanced with the Alien Landscape stage which was only made available via the SEGA PC release of Garfield: Caught in the Act that released in 1996.
An attendee at Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024 called PZTunleaded has recorded 43 minutes of off-screen footage of the recently discovered build of Garfield: The Lost Levels and shared it on their YouTube channel. You can watch this footage via the embed below:
While PZTunleaded is not the owner of the build, the video description does mention that the general public will be able to play this build “sooner or later” which suggests the owner is going to release the ROM dump soon.
Developed by RheoGamer, a brand new port of Real Bout Fatal Fury for the Mega Drive is now available to download. Now titled Real Bout Fatal Fury Genesis, you can click here to be taken to the direct download link, but the amount of traffic this link is currently receiving is making it difficult to access the page at the time of writing.
Real Bout Fatal Fury is the 5th entry in SNK’s Fatal Fury series, originally released in arcades in 1995. It has only received ports to the Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Saturn and PlayStation prior to this homebrew port. You can check out the reveal trailer via the embed below. The video description for the trailer will also be the easiest way to access the official download link for the game if it gets updated with a more stable link:
Indie Mega Drive shoot-em-up ZPF is aiming to launch in February 2025 through Mega Cat Studios and if you want to secure a physical copy then you can now contribute to the game’s Kickstarter.
This impressive-looking shooter features artwork by Gryzor who previously worked on Gunlord and Neo XYX for Dreamcast. Coding is being handled by Mikael Tillander who also programmed Mega Drive indie game Tänzer. You can check out a trailer for the game here:
A playable demo of ZPF was released last October and is still available to download by clicking here.
If you’re unfamiliar with developer Mega Cat Studios, the team have released multiple independent Mega Drive games like Coffee Crisis, Arkagis Revolution and Little Medusa.
We have a fresh batch of merchandise additions now live in the various merchandise sub-sections of our website. Look below for a full list of additions and direct links to each sub-section that has been updated:
Legendary Mega Drive programmer Jonathan Miller has sadly passed away.
Miller is one of the key figures behind the GEMS sound driver, alongside Burt Sloane, Chris Grigg and Mark Miller. Miller’s career started with 1991’s Spider-Man vs the Kingpin as a programmer. He would later contribute to the development of Chakan, Taz-Mania, Pink Goes to Hollywood, Taz in Escape From Mars, Wacky Worlds and X-Men 2: Clone Wars.
The GEMS sound driver would go on to be utilised in over 200 Mega Drive games and was a key piece of software for Mega Drive developers in the early nineties. Chances are some of your favourite Mega Drive games are powered by the GEMS sound driver. Miller’s legacy in regards to the Mega Drive is one that has touched upon so many game soundtracks and Mega Drive owners as a result. His contributions go beyond simple music production as the GEMS sound driver is so synonymous with the Mega Drive that an experienced ear can instantly recognise music that has been made with it.
SEGADriven send our condolences to Jon’s family and friends. You can learn more about GEMS via this excellent video essay by GST Channel:
The TeraDrive is a Japan exclusive IBM-compatible PC that also features a built-in Mega Drive. You can click here to read more about it in our website’s hardware section. The computer was released in 1991 and for the longest time the only piece of TeraDrive exclusive gaming software was thought to be a game called Puzzle Construction. This is no longer the case as Archive.org user ZiggyTheHamster has found and dumped a port of Cyan’s The Manhole which was originally released in 1988 for the Mac and developed using HyperCard.
This TeraDrive port of The Manhole is based on the FM Towns version released in 1990. ZiggyTheHamster notes that the in-game action of this TeraDrive port appears to be powered by the PC itself, while the Mega Drive portion of the computer is powering the audio. This is basically a reverse of what Puzzle Construction does which uses the Mega Drive hardware for the in-game action.
In our latest video we decided to look at every Mega Drive port that started life as a NES original! You can watch the video in full via the embed below:
Like the video? Then why not subscribe to our YouTube channel and receive our videos directly to your subscriptions feed as soon as they drop!
In our latest YouTube video we’re exploring the world of Amiga games that were ported to the Mega Drive. We take a look at 5 titles in particular and see how they stack up against their original versions:
All 3 Sparkster titles are being re-released as a part of a new Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked collection that comes with a reprint of the entire 6 part Sparkster series from Sonic the Comic. This new compilation is being handled by Limited Run Games using their proprietary Carbon Engine and is being released on PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
The 3 titles included are Rocket Knight Adventures for the Mega Drive, Sparkster for Mega Drive and Sparkster for SNES which is actually quite different when compared to its Mega Drive counterpart. The mini comic that features the entire ‘Last of the Rocket Knights’ story also marks the first time any material from Sonic the Comic has been republished since the comic ceased publication in 2002.
Pre-orders for Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will open on January 19th 2024 and finish on February 18th 2024. All pre-orders placed during this window will be honored. You can browse the various editions of the game on the Limited Run Games store by clicking here, but don’t feel like you’re missing out if you don’t want to place an order for an expensive collector’s edition, as even the standard edition comes with a reversible cover and the comic.
The development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 continues to be one of the most well documented stories in gaming history. The Video Game History Foundation have now preserved artwork from 2 ex-SEGA Technical Institute artists and discover a whole host of content from the game’s early development that we’ve never seen before. See below for a full list of the discoveries that they’ve made:
– Dark Empire was a cancelled STI Mega Drive game that was shelved due to Sonic 2 getting green-lit
– Maps of the concept stage Genocide/Cyber City by Tom Payne have been scanned that give us a better understanding of what this stage might have looked like
– A working demo of Genocide/Cyber City has been produced with Hez of Sonic the Hedgehog Classic fame, who has also been working on his own preservation of Wood/Secret Jungle Zone
– All of Tom Payne’s artwork has been made available to browse on Archive.org by clicking here
– The Sand Shower mock-up screen is actually animated and viewable on Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio alongside a Wood/Secret Jungle Zone mock-up
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio also reveals a completely unseen Winter-themed zone which is a palette swap of Sand Shower that now features snow and Christmas trees
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio has been entirely preserved on YouTube and is available to watch by clicking here. It also contains artwork for a deleted Sonic Spinball stage
You can watch the entire video on all of these discoveries from The Video Game History Foundation via the embed below:
SEGADriven and its original content are copyrighted to their respective authors. Media related directly to SEGA is copyrighted to its respective authors. Any comments on SEGA-related materials do not represent SEGA themselves. All rights reserved 2008-2022.
We use cookies to analyse site usage, provide social media features and personalise content and ads. We may also share information about your use of our website with our partners.Accept cookies
