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Posts Tagged ‘sega genesis’

Rocket Knight Adventures and Sparkster Getting Re-Released As a Part of New Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked Collection

Thursday, January 11th, 2024

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.

Lost Zones from Sonic 2 Discovered in Ex-STI Artist Portfolios

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

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:

Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon’s Fist Coming to Mega Drive Via Columbus Circle

Sunday, November 12th, 2023

Previously PC and Switch exclusive, Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon from developer PiXEL is now coming to the Mega Drive via Columbus Circle. The Mega Drive version will release in December 2023 exclusively via Japanese retailers.

Amazon Japan have previously sold Columbus Circle products, but at the time of writing there is currently no listing for Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon on Amazon Japan.

Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon is a belt-scrolling beat-em-up in the Streets of Rage/Final Fight/Double Dragon mold. You can see the Switch version in action via the video embed below:

[Source: Columbus Circle on Twitter]

New Mega Drive Shmup ‘ZPF’ in Development, Mega Cat Studios to Publish

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

ZPF is a brand new horizontally-scrolling shooter for the Mega Drive that has been in development for quite some time now. The three person team of Gryzor Rozyrg, Mikael Tillander and jgvex.eth have been toiling away on this impressive-looking shmup since 2020, and they are now close to launching a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for the last stage of development, as well as give players the opportunity to secure a boxed version of the game which will now be published by Mega Cat Studios.

Mega Cat Studios have been very active in the indie Mega Drive space, publishing games like Coffee Crisis, Phantom Gear, Tanzer and Romeow & Julicat. You can view ZPF’s entry on the Mega Cat website by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the Mega Cat newsletter for updates on ZPF and the Kickstarter as soon as it happens via this same page. Check out the latest development update on ZPF via the embed below:

New Mega Drive Rogue-Like ‘Planet B’ in Development | Fan Scene

Monday, March 20th, 2023

Developed by independent studio Overrated Future, Planet B is a brand new Mega Drive game that offers something a little different. The game is promising procedurally generated worlds and rogue-like action, which is something very unique when it comes to Mega Drive games. You can watch the game’s reveal trailer below:

Planet B by Overrated Future is currently set to be releasing, “in a near future”. The game will be getting a physical release but it is not currently available to pre-order at the moment. We hope to share more about Planet B as further information becomes available.

[Source: Fabrice Fernandez on Twitter]

Mega Drive Rarity ‘Legend of Wukong’ Getting Re-Release on Evercade

Monday, March 13th, 2023

Gamtec’s independent Mega Drive RPG Legend of Wukong is getting a new lease of life through the Evercade EXP and Evercade VS retro systems.

Originally released in Taiwan in 1996 and then translated to English by Super Fighter Team in 2008, the game is one of the rarest independent Mega Drive releases and has been out of print for many years. The game will now be included in Piko Interactive Collection 3 for the Evercade alongside other Mega Drive games like Zero Tolerance and Sword of Sodan. You can watch the full reveal trailer for Piko Interactive Collection 3 by clicking the embed below:

Piko Interactive Collection 3 releases in May 2023 for Evercade systems. Click here to see the full game list for this collection.

Sound Designer for Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker on Mega Drive Shares Unreleased Songs | SEGA Tunes

Saturday, February 18th, 2023

The original sound designer for Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Hiroshi “JIMITA” Kubota, has shared some unreleased original songs that were planned for inclusion in the game but eventually excluded. These songs were intended to flesh out the soundtrack as SEGA were initially only prepared to pay the license fees for 3 of Michael Jackson’s songs at the time, but this changed during development and were no longer needed as a result.

2 of the songs were intended for the game and the other was composed around the same time but never planned to be used as a part of the soundtrack. You can check them all out via the embeds below:

[Source: GDRI and Nicolaas Hamman on Twitter]

Bitmap Books’s Mega Drive/Genesis Visual Compendium Book Cancelled Due to Pressure from SEGA

Monday, January 9th, 2023

Previously scheduled to release in July 2022, Bitmap Books have sadly had to cancel the release of their The Unofficial MD/Gen: A Visual Compendium book after SEGA have threatened the publisher with legal action.

Creative director Sam Dyer has issued a statement that says the company cannot risk potential legal action by releasing the book as the company cannot afford the costs as a small business. SEGA are reportedly not negotiating with the company despite them previously giving Bitmap Books their official stamp of approval for their Master System: A Visual Compendium book from 2019.

The move is a strange one from SEGA who have largely ignored unofficial publications based on their intellectual properties in the past. Dedicated SEGA fanzines like SEGA Powered continue to see publication without SEGA’s approval alongside Hardcore Gaming 101’s excellent SEGA Arcade Classics books.

Bitmap Books are looking for a way to release the PDF of the completed book for free so fingers crossed all the work done for The Unofficial MD/Gen: A Visual Compendium book doesn’t go to waste. This entire situation is a massive loss for video game preservation as history books like these become important archival documents for generations to come. SEGADriven send our condolences to Bitmap Books and the plethora of writers involved in this now cancelled publication.

[Source: Bitmap Books]

First Demo of Final Fight Homebrew Mega Drive Port Now Available

Tuesday, December 27th, 2022

Developed by Mauro Xavier AKA CFX, the first playable demo of his Final Fight MD port is now available to download. It’s quite a generous first offering that allows you to play up to the boss fight with Sodom/Katana.

Final Fight MD can be played on real hardware using a flash device or under emulation. The Mega Drive infamously never received a port of Final Fight, but a version was released in 1993 on the Mega CD called Final Fight CD.

Click here to download the demo directly from Mauro Xavier’s Twitter. You can watch gameplay of the demo via the embed below:

Dreamcast Homebrew Version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection Now Available

Tuesday, December 27th, 2022

Thanks to the amazing programming talent of Ian Michael and artist Adam Burrell, we now have an unofficial Dreamcast collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games that aims to be the Dreamcast equivalent of the recently released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection. This Dreamcast version compiles all the SNES, NES, Game Boy and Mega Drive titles together with surprisingly great emulation. The only games it doesn’t feature are the original arcade ports for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Turtles in Time.

Also included are the Spectrum ports of the first TMNT console game and the arcade conversion which goes above and beyond the scope of the official compilation. We also get ROM hacks of Streets of Rage 2 that include the turtles as playable characters, alongside 2 Beats of Rage games themed around TMNT. There’s also an extensive video gallery which allows you to watch 2 full episodes of the original 1987 animated show, alongside some really deep cuts like the making of feature for the Coming Out of Their Shells tour amongst other videos.

You can download the TMNT Cowabunga Collection by IMRTech from the Dreamcast Talk forums. Click here to go there right now.

[Source: The Dreamcast Junkyard]

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