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Sega Retro

Jet Set Radio Skating Towards XBLA and PSN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDlHdERxrE

Turns out the new Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 trailer (more on that later) may not be the most important Sega-related reveal today. A teaser trailer for the re-release of Jet Set Radio, a favorite of all Dreamcast fans, has just been released on Youtube. While there’s no release date announced, we do know that it will be released on Xbox Live Arcade and Sony Entertainment Network.

It seems like fans don’t need to worry much about Sega having lost the licensing to the music like with the digital release of Crazy Taxi, considering Funky Radio can be heard in the video above. Now let’s just hope it gets a better treatment than the other Dreamcast ports released so far as well.

February 23, 2012 by TimmiT

Capcom, SEGA and Bandai Namco Crossover Game for 3DS Announced

Announced at the Nintendo Direct live stream earlier today, a crossover game for the Nintendo 3DS between Capcom, Sega and Bandai Namco is in development. The last of these three is also doing the publishing and one of their developers, Banpresto, best known for the Super Robot Wars franchise, is making the title.

That’s all that there’s known at the moment. Any details like what franchises appear in the game or if the game will even hit stores outside Japan still need to be announced. You can visit the teaser site here, but there’s not much there to discover besides the company logos. Still, whatever this is may be worth keeping an eye on.

February 22, 2012 by TimmiT

Game News, Sega Retro

House of the Dead III Released for Playstation Network This Week, Lover

For the Valentine’s Day update week on the Playstation Network in the U.S. and Europe, Sega has released a PlayStation 3 edition of The House of the Dead III, complete with support for PlayStation Move or a standard controller and trophies. The game stars aging Agent G and Lisa Rogan, who are on the search for Agent Rogan after suddenly disappearing. It’s a perfect game for couples to go blasting endless mindless waves of the undead. The game is available through PSN for $6.99 and includes an avatar for a limited time. PlayStation Plus subscribers can purchase it with an additional discount, and get access to a demo of the game.

While this is the fourth time the third entry in the series has seen a home console port, Sega still has The House of the Dead IV in the pipeline for release on the network, which will be the first home console release of the arcade title.

For the Valentines Day update week on the Playstation Network in the US and UK, Sega has released a Playstation 3 edition of The House of the Dead III, complete with support for Playstation Move or a standard Sixaxis controller and trophies. The game stars aging Agent G and Lisa Rogan, on the search for Agent Rogan who has gone missing. The perfect game for couples to go down blasting endless, mindless waves of the undead. The game is available through PSN for $6.99 along with an avatar for purchase for a limited time and is also available for a discount through Playstation Plus. Plus members also get access to a demo of the game.

While this is the fourth time the third entry in the series has seen a home console port, Sega still has The House of the Dead IV in the pipeline for release on the Network, which will be the first home console release of the arcade title.

February 17, 2012 by Bartman3010

Game News, Sega Retro

Index Holdings Subsidiary Atlus Teams with Sega for Distribution Deal in Japan

Atlus Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Index Holdings, has entered a distribution contract with Sega in Japan which allows the developer to take advantage of Sega’s wider distribution network, which is quite an advantage for the smaller developer. This however does not apply to digitally distributed titles. The deal will take effect in April (Spring) 2012. All Altus titles published will now carry the Sega logo on game covers. Currently this does not effect other subsidiaries of Atlus or Index Corp. outside of Japan.

Atlus is well-known for the Shin Megami Tensei series, its spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Devil Survivor, as well as Catherine that had recently come out in the UK.

Via: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

Atlus is well-known for the Shin Megami Tensei series, its spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Devil Survivor, as well as Catherine that had recently come out in the UK.

[Via: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html]

Atlus is well-known for the Shin Megami Tensei series, its spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Devil Survivor, as well the recently-released Catherine.

Source: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

Atlus is well-known for the Shin Megami Tensei series, its spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Devil Survivor, as well the recently-released Catherine.

Source: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

Atlus made famous for the Shin Megami Tensei Series, it’s spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, Devil Survivor, the recently released Catherine and more.

Source: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

Atlus Co. Ltd. a subsidiary of Index Holdings has entered a distribution contract with Sega in Japan which allows the developer to take advantage of Sega’s wider distribution network, which is quite an advantage for the smaller developer. This however does not apply to digitally distributed titles. The deal will take effect in April (Spring) 2012. All Altus titles published will now carry the Sega logo on game covers. Currently this does not effect other subsidiaries of Atlus or Index Corp. outside of Japan. Atlus made famous for the Shin Megami Tensei Series, it’s spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, Devil Survivor, the recently released Catherine and more. Source: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

February 17, 2012 by Bartman3010

Arcade Games, Sega Retro

Mitsuyoshi’s PSA on Daytona USA

Click play to get a rolling start. Did you hear that Daytona USA came out on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network? You may have heard from us several times that it came out last year, but if you’re still not convinced, perhaps the vocalist for the songs may persuade your interest?

Sega’s US branch uploaded a 10 minute trailer on their YouTube account with Takenobu Mitsuyoshi detailing the Karaoke Mode for the digital download release, which allows you to have instrumental versions of songs play as you drive around the track (Or have the game run the track for you) and display the lyrics on screen (Which he demonstrates as ‘loudly’ as possible.) As an additional bonus, Mitsuyoshi-san also sings “Lets Go Away” for the latter half of the trailer.

January 25, 2012 by Bartman3010

Game Secrets, Interviews, Sega Retro

Sega Plays Dangerous Games

The American government recently made an attempt to enact rules to regulate protection of intellectual properties and to take down piracy. Thanks to the millions of people who shared their anger for overbearing protection and angry high school kids cheating on their homework, both the SOPA and PIPA bills have been suspended for reconsideration. What great timing for this, and the re-release of Sonic CD for PC platforms via Steam, as it lets us recall an incident as early as 1993 during the US Senate hearings for violent video games.

If you recall the lengthy retrospective on the Sega Mega CD, as well as another one of its landmark titles, Night Trap, the developers put out a short documentary named “Dangerous Games” regarding their perspective during and after the hearings from producers, actors as well as avid ‘gamers.’

January 21, 2012 by Bartman3010

Hardware, Sega Consoles, Sega Retro

You Still Don’t Own a Sega CD?

Y-You don’t? Well I can’t blame you. After all, it was one of those schemes from the higher ups of Sega who were ready to capitalize on the popularity of their new flagship console of the 90’s. Competing with the CD-Rom technology of the PC Engine, and to attempt to stay above the rest of the competition, Sega was ready to stay among the pioneers of the uncharted fathoms of a disc-based medium. While not as successful as the Core system, the Sega Mega CD still acts as a milestone of game development that would bring the game industry it’s future, today. The add-on brought upon innovative gameplay, political controversy, expanded the possibilities of sound, graphics, storytelling, and of course helped with the transition of a cartridge based format to compact disc as a storage medium. Without a doubt there should be a buzz of excitement around the upcoming re-release of Sonic CD despite not actually coming out on a CD based consumer format. What a shame! On the bright side this is a good of time as any to highlight the add-on’s history and to show that it was more than just ‘The Sonic CD add-on.’

December 15, 2011 by Bartman3010

Sega Retro

Hey, History Channel: I’m Calling You Out on Sega Slots!

So, I heard through forums member Donnyku that this week’s episode of the History Channel’s American Pickers featured an old Sega slot machine. “Maybe you could use the episode to get some pictures for the wiki,” he said.

C’mon, Donnyku. Like I’m going to turn down a fabulous opportunity to talk about old Sega items. When I go to the parts of the Internet that actually do talk about these things, it’s just me and a bunch of 60-year-old British men. I need to proselytize.

In this episode, the Pickers stop by Smitty’s Big Barn Antiques in Mayer, Ariz., and find a working Sega Mad Money slot machine. The owner, Smitty, mentions that it’s a 1940s slot machine, but hey, we’re Sega nerds. We know better than to take the word of one guy. Besides, the Mad Money is one of Service Games’ more interesting slot machines.

The Sega Mad Money was originally branded to highlight the popularity of the then-new Mad magazine, and featured the publication’s iconic Alfred E. Neuman on the machine’s attraction display. However, at this time, Service Games was a rather rogue company, and had not bothered to actually obtain the license for Mad‘s mascot. When Sega heard that Mad wanted to bring a lawsuit, the company decided to just sell the machine overseas to avoid any legal issues.

So, how did a machine that was never meant to be in America wind up in Mayer, Arizona, and with no Mad artwork on it?

Mayer is located about five hours southeast of Las Vegas. In the late 1950s, after Service Games was increasingly banned from U.S. military bases, the company decided to come back to America (where slot machines sales were legal once again) to try to sell to the domestic gaming industry, so they opened a small office in Las Vegas. Sega of Nevada, if you will. In order to sell in the American market, the infringing material would have to be removed, so the attraction showing various payouts instead makes sense.

(Trivia: the site of Service Games Nevada’s office today has an adult video store built on it.)

So, what does this mean for the actual date of this slot machine? Given that the machine would have to be distributed from that office, and given that the Mad Money shares many parts with the Sega Diamond 3 Star (manufactured in 1958 and sold in 1960), this slot machine is realistically dated somewhere between 1959 and 1962—a good 20 years off the owner’s guess. The Mad Money model continued to be popular for a while, though: Sega later manufactured two newer versions of the machine, and continued to sell it with the Mad branding overseas even after becoming Sega Enterprises.

At any rate, it’s a neat little slot machine. Check out the episode if you get the chance–I imagine it’ll be on rerun for a good while.

July 17, 2011 by Scarred Sun

Sega Retro

segaoa.com, Circa 1995: The Origins of Sega’s Online Presence

The year is 1995, and the Internet is pretty barren in terms of Sega-related content. Before there was rat.org, before there were Sega webrings, before there were people who had no idea what the Gopher protocol was online, there were only two real places to be a Sega fan: alt.sega.genesis and rec.games.video.sega. Enter, naturally, segaoa.com—the original official website of Sega of America. By the first time archive.org got around to crawling the site, it was already gone, replaced by a domain purchase parking page.

Thankfully, the site is still preserved in one place: the May 1995 issue of Sega Visions magazine. Although the two-page spread is basically an advertorial for Compuserve (you may be as surprised as I was to find out that the service is still around to this day), it does capture screenshots and give a writeup of what the site featured, including “online conferences” with Roger Hector, Tom Kalinske, and Joe Miller (then-senior VP of product development), video clips and graphics, and cheesy graffiti–a feature sorely missing from sega.com today. 🙁

Check these scans out to see segaoa.com (or, on Compuserve, GO SEGA) for yourself:

Sega of America, I know you probably have a copy of this site sitting somewhere on a disk (or several floppy disks, or even a ZIP disk.) Give us a copy of the site and I’d be happy to host it–heck, I’ll even try to buy back segaoa.com. 😉

September 1, 2010 by Scarred Sun

Community, Sega Retro

PlanetDreamcast Site Archive Now Available

If you were a fan of Sega in the late 90s to early 2000s, odds are you at least spent some time visiting PlanetDreamcast, a GameSpy site dedicated to the Sega console which had news, reviews and features for reading. PlanetDreamcast is also known as the starting grounds of community websites such as Shadow of a Hedgehog and PSO World. In 2009, IGN began redirecting planetdreamcast.com to RPGPlanet, and now is currently pointing to ClassicGaming with nary a Dreamcast mention in sight. Therefore, we are now hosting a mostly complete backup of PlanetDreamcast for archival purposes at http://planetdc.segaretro.org

One image is missing, the quizzes don’t work, the news search doesn’t work, and there is no forum backup. The articles, features, reviews and such all appear to be there, though. Many of the videos linked in the reviews are still available at FilePlanet. We hope you enjoy this little piece of history and special thanks to profshiny for his work.

July 13, 2010 by Scarred Sun

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