A collection of floppy disks previously owned by SEGA Technical Institute employee Tom Payne has ended up in the hands of Jason Moorhouse, a California-based retro game shop owner. With the help of Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation, Bob Morgan and Jessie Perez, these disks have been dumped and converted into a readable format and some incredible discoveries have been made.
The most interesting of the bunch is an unreleased Mega Drive game called Spinny & Spike vs the Nightmare King. The game is not in a playable state, but various art assets have been ripped and a selection of them are viewable here:
Also included are a huge selection of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 development documents. A lot of these documents are previously released concepts by Yasushi Yamaguchi, but there are some new discoveries in here and we’ve included a selection below.
If you want to read the full story on the origins of the box of floppies and exactly what is contained on each disk then click here to go to the Megabits blog and have a look around. There is some truly fascinating stuff here.
Hidden Palace user ‘drx’ has discovered, dumped and released a cancelled Dreamcast game called Internet Game Pack. This title was developed by Visual Concepts in 2001 and was scheduled for release as an Official Dreamcast Magazine cover disc, but presumably shelved due to the unpopularity of the Dreamcast.
The game features a selection of classic games like Chess, Poker and Dominoes and was made for online play. However, all the games can be played offline as well. You can see the title in action via the embed below:
Someone has bought the Dreamcast Zip Drive! The auction ended on the 18th of December at 18:07 CET.
ORIGINAL POST
The Dreamcast Zip Drive was an unreleased add-on that was due to release in Autumn 2000. Co-developed by SEGA and Iomega, the device would give users access to 100mb zip disks to allow for greater storage space for browsing the internet and downloading additional game content like maps for Quake III Arena. The add-on connects to the Dreamcast via its expansion port and power input, requiring you to then power your Dreamcast using the zip drive’s power input. The zip drive also features a USB slot on the front which would have given users access to more peripherals that never came to pass.
It’s an interesting little device that never made it to store shelves, but now you can own one of the prototypes. There is currently “one of less than five worldwide” on sale on eBay. The zip drive is located in Berlin and will set you back 4225 euros, around £3798 in British sterling. It’s certainly not a bargain, but it’s definitely one of the more interesting SEGA curios to pop up for quite some time. And let’s not forget, it does come with a zip disk!
UPDATE
Neo Hazard has also shared some additional footage that shows that the music changes at level 40. At level 40 a tune many will recognise as the Blue Sphere theme starts to play, meaning that its creation predates Sonic the Hedgehog 3 by 2 years.
ORIGINAL POST
It appears that a version of the unreleased SEGASonic Bros arcade puzzler has finally been dumped and compiled for use in a modified version of MAME. The ROM hasn’t been made available at this time, but we do have the first direct feed footage of the game running below, courtesy of Neo Hazard at Sonic Retro:
This version of MAME that has been modified to run SEGASonic Bros was developed by GerbilSoft. There is currently no word on if this emulator or the ROM will be made public.
In 1994, Digital Illusions were developing a game for the Mega Drive called Hardcore. The game was to be published by Psygnosis and nearly made it to release, but ultimately it was canned as Psygnosis began its focus on the next generation of consoles.
Now, a new team called Strictly Limited have been given the license to the original game data and with the help from some of the Digital Illusions developers, they will finish the game and release it for PS4 and PS Vita in 2019.
Hardcore is currently the working title of the game, but a digital and physical release has been promised. You can see the game in action by clicking the embed below:
As previously reported, the owner of what is thought to be the only SEGASonic Bros arcade board in existence has brought the game along to the California Extreme arcade expo. The game is open to play by all paying attendees and thanks to this, we now have the very first footage of the game in action. See below for 2 videos showcasing the game in action:
It’s been a while since we last heard about the unreleased SEGASonic Bros. arcade game that was discovered by Tumblr user ShouTime, but it appears he’s bringing the game to the California Extreme arcade show this weekend.
The game will be fully playable at the show, specifically at the exA-Arcadia booth. Hopefully an attendee will see fit to film the game in action so we can finally see some off-screen footage of it. Currently there’s only a selection of screenshots from ShouTime himself available to view online.
California Extreme takes place on the 28th and 29th of July. Full details can be obtained via the official website. Tickets are available on the door.
An unreleased prototype version of Castlevania: The New Generation has been leaked online. Also known as Castlevania Bloodlines, this prototype features some noticeable differences from the final Mega Drive game:
– Black title screen with longer intro
– Title screen says “1P PRESS START” suggesting the possibility of a 2P mode
– Different mermen
– Different wolf boss
– Music restarts every time you enter a room
– Layout changes
– The inside part of the second half of stage 1 has no background
– The outside part has a light blue background and the falling bone bridge portion is more difficult
– The knight boss’ sprite is different
– The stage 2 water is different
The ROM can be downloaded from the Castlevania Dungeon forums and originates with a user called @TheCount#5993 in the CVDungeon discord.
An unreleased sequel to Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future called Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe has been leaked online. A disc image of the unreleased Dreamcast title is available to download now and play on actual Dreamcast hardware.
The game is incomplete, features no sound and the debug menu is constantly active but it does present a curious oddity that suggests SEGA’s reboot of the Ecco the Dolphin franchise did well enough for the publisher to consider a sequel. Information also seems to suggest the game was cancelled around the time SEGA left the console business to become a third party software publisher, which would explain the game’s cancellation.
We’ve finally got a screen of SEGASonic Bros. that shows the multi-coloured Sonics that appear on the title screen, but actually in action.
While we’ve previously seen screens of different coloured balls on the game’s play-field (see below), the multi-coloured Sonics that appear on the title screen hadn’t previously been shown in game. From the above screenshot we can see the multi-coloured Sonics are actually used in play. We can only assume that turn into balls when placed or scored.
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