SEGA Genesis games coming to PC

[Not One Of Us]

"SEGA announces plans to bring some of their 16-bit games from the SEGA Genesis to PCs via digital distribution. The first group of Genesis games will be rereleased on June 1, and will include Golden Axe, Ecco the Dolphin, Comix Zone, and Vectorman, with all titles selling for $2.99 USD each." (http://www.bluesnews.com/s/110495/sega-genesis-games-for-pcs-next-month)

[XenoCrash]

Here's the full list of initial games from the SEGA site:



The first batch of games covers of some true classics and fan favorites:
Comic Zone
Altered Beast
Crack Down
Gain Ground
Ecco the Dolphin
Shadow Dancer: the Secret of Shinobi
Golden Axe
Sonic 3D Blast
Vectorman
Shinobi III
Space Harrier II

Everything will be available on June 1st, so look for them shortly!


Also of note is that these will be releasing on Steam.

[Murbella]

Vectorman! i used to love that game.

[extarbags]

Three bucks apiece for these seems a little bit high though, doesn't it?

[Demon G Sides]

Comix Zone was one of my favorite games ever. I don't remember why though.

[None]

I think my life would actually end if they released Sonic Spinball and/or Road Rash II.

[copet]

:/ Emulating Playstation 1 and such is difficult for some due to the .iso format and mounting drives, but for Sega and SNES, it is just too easy to use an emulator for this to be successful, I think.

[Greatatlantic]

Didn't Gametap already bring at least some of those to the PC?

[Volksy]

Whither Herzog Zwei?

[Factory]

Also some the arcade versions are much better games. Prolly costs more to emulate those though.

[malkav11]

Didn't Gametap already bring at least some of those to the PC?

Not any more than Gens did.

[sventest]

Three bucks apiece for these seems a little bit high though, doesn't it?

I think it's a steal for some of those titles.

[Pogo]

I'll probably buy Ecco, maybe Shinobi.

[Myth]

Golden Axe Altered Beast and Comic Zone for me


Riiise From your Grave.................................

[Fugitive]

It's notable that some of these (Crack Down, Space Harrier 2) weren't on the recent Ultimate Genesis Collection for the consoles, so they're not just repackaging pieces out of that, at least.

[Nezz]

:/ Emulating Playstation 1 and such is difficult for some due to the .iso format and mounting drives, but for Sega and SNES, it is just too easy to use an emulator for this to be successful, I think.
Never underestimate the laziness and ignorance of the average consumer.

[Jab]

Comix Zone was one of my favorite games ever. I don't remember why though.

Loved Comix Zone as well and between the sega collections that were released I think I have it on 3 different games. I hope that if this does well it will convince Sega to release more Sega collections either on the PC or the consoles.

[Lykurgos]

Make it Saturn/Dreamcast, and bring me Dragon Force. Then Sega can have my money.

[sam and the firefly]

Comix Zone and Ecco came preinstalled on my first family PC, I don't even think of them as Mega Drive games. If I didn't have both on a PSP compilation thing I'd consider buying - Comix Zone is particularly awesome and totally got bit by Viewtiful Joe.

They really should be releasing the arcade versions of stuff like Space Harrier, though.

[habibi]

I love Crack Down in the arcade coin op machine. I have not tried the Genesis version although I suspect that it is more inferior. Anyone here played this before?

[Dan_Theman]

No clue on Crack Down, but I'd imagine the same.

Regardless, there's nothing but good news here. I'll gladly fork over a few bucks to play some of these again.

[Rumpy]

Well, some of those were never on the PC, but I remember Ecco and Comic Zone being on the PC. I had a demo disk with my first PC.

[Strato]

No Shining Force on the list :(

[Equis]

I hope they combine the Sonic games this time, rather then leave them to be standalones.

[copet]

No Shining Force on the list :(

No kidding! Shining Force 2 (which I still have the cartridge for) is the only game from that era to rival Chronotrigger. Also, Phantasy Star IV was amazing.

[XenoCrash]

These are up on Steam now. Everything is $2.99 USD except 'Sonic 3D Blast' which is $4.99 (gotta pay extra for that 3rd dimension). There is also a 'Sega Classics Pack' that includes all the games for $34.89, which is exactly the same price as buying everything separately...

[OrfBC]

Too much for just straight emulation. And too little if they were doing enhanced versions (I know they're not). IMO they should be doing two-packs for $3 or $4.

[extarbags]

These are up on Steam now. Everything is $2.99 USD except 'Sonic 3D Blast' which is $4.99 (gotta pay extra for that 3rd dimension). There is also a 'Sega Classics Pack' that includes all the games for $34.89, which is exactly the same price as buying everything separately...

It's also almost five bucks more than the price point SUGC debuted at, which had forty-nine games instead of eleven...

[Jason Cross]

It's also almost five bucks more than the price point SUGC debuted at, which had forty-nine games instead of eleven...

Yeah, this is a real problem. I mean, if they brought the SUGC to Steam at the $30 price, I'd be in. And I might buy a really great one-off game (Herzog Zwei, Shining in the Darkness, etc) for $3. But this mix just seems sort of wrong to me.

Hopefully they'll keep adding games at $3 a piece, and one day have a big Steam super weekend sale when you can get the whole mess of them at a 75% discount.

[Enidigm]

All these so called hard core gamers and not one mention of Gain Ground.

[Jon Rowe]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am going to run out of money.

[Heliocentric]

Genesis gaming is dead. No wait-

[extarbags]

All these so called hard core gamers and not one mention of Gain Ground.

I expounded on it at length in the SUGC thread. I somehow hadn't even heard of it before then. Freaking amazing game, in the running for the best game of the lot here, and certainly the most gobsmacking design.

[Gordon Cameron]

A friend of mine has been talking about Gain Ground for years. I never knew about it when it was current.

[Fugitive]

They're available on Gamersgate now as well. Same prices, but no DRM, according to the descriptions.

[Wallapuctus]

No Kid Chameleon?

I'm curious, has anyone ever completed Kid Chameleon? I would get to the crazy later levels with Skateboard guy and things would go all to hell.

[Dave Long]

$3 per game is even less than the Virtual Console price of these games. It's not even close to unreasonable for titles that we gladly paid $50 or more for when they were new.

The more important question is how good is the emulation? That's been a sticking point with almost every set of Genesis re-releases except Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and the Virtual Console releases.

[Fugitive]

A whole bunch more just showed up on Steam, most for $3 except where noted (*) for $5:

Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
*Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Ecco Jr.
Eternal Champions
Fatal Labyrinth
Galaxy Force II
Kid Chameleon
Ristar
*Sonic Spinball
Super Thunder Blade

[Wholly Schmidt]

Oh man, Eternal Champions! We played that game to death for some reason as kids.

[Nezz]

While I don't usually have a problem with old graphics, I make an exception for the bitmapped pseudo-3D seen in Galaxy Force II or Super Thunder Blade. The distances just look so wrong in motion.

[XenoCrash]

There's a nice indepth write-up of Fatal Labyrinth by John Harris (for his "@ Play" roguelike column) on GameSetWatch: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/06/column_play_fatal_labyrinth_or.php

He only gives it a lukewarm recommendation, but it sounds interesting enough for $3 (even if it's mainly a historical curiosity).

[Universal Leader]

Hopefully they'll keep adding games at $3 a piece, and one day have a big Steam super weekend sale when you can get the whole mess of them at a 75% discount.

Hey, would you look at that (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7825/).

[extarbags]

Sweet. This is about the price point that they should probably just be though. Of particular note are Kid Chameleon and Gunstar Heroes, which are cheap at this price and weren't among the initial releases. Also, Gunstar Heroes wasn't in SUGC and isn't playable natively on any console that I know of, so that's pretty cool.

[Not One Of Us]

How well do the Genesis games run on Steam?

[Alstein]

Steam had a sale where they were 50 cents a piece, and cheaper in bundles yesterday. I think that's still around.

Might play Shining Force II through this weekend or something.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Bio-Hazard Battle is a good game.

[Relayer71]

Vectorman is such an awesome, overlooked game that should have gotten a current generation sequel by now.

[rei]

I guess this is what happened to work done by emulator author Steve Snake.

[SuperAdventurer]

I don't know about all that $3 for a game. It runs good? But you have originals and plus NES and SNEs you can all 3 with Retron 3. Like $50 amazon it plug in with all the old cartridges also you can use the initial controller if you have those. I don't know about buying it but maybe has anyone tried or is other emulation console the better now? Thing I'm not to sure about is with the save game how that is working specialy with the old battery pac cartridge like zelda. I don't think it has hard drive for this on console. That would be best even pay extra but at this price, well...

[Theodore Rex DX]

I don't know about all that $3 for a game. It runs good? But you have originals and plus NES and SNEs you can all 3 with Retron 3. Like $50 amazon it plug in with all the old cartridges also you can use the initial controller if you have those. I don't know about buying it but maybe has anyone tried or is other emulation console the better now? Thing I'm not to sure about is with the save game how that is working specialy with the old battery pac cartridge like zelda. I don't think it has hard drive for this on console. That would be best even pay extra but at this price, well...

Why would I buy some shitty bootleg console for $50 when I could just pay $3 for the games and play them on my PC? If you actually have the games you can just play them on the console you also presumably still have (who keeps games lying around if they don't have the systems they're for?). If you don't have the systems ... there's this. Also, sorry, but your English is really bad.

[SuperAdventurer]

Yes I know about my English is not perfect. For why would you buy this, I don't know but for me this is the reason. I have some NES games and some genesis. I also have consoles, both that don't work good now. With NES there is the common problem of the cartridge slot, not just me but everyone almost has this problem with old NES design. It does not work at all. And with genesis it has problems with controller input, sometimes works but very unreliable. So that is my reason. A bonus of Retron 3 is the upgrade to s-video, and I do not have SNES but there are good games maybe I will try. Here is a review on youtube, for me this is a good solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asksCvYRva8

[Alstein]

Another advantage is having save states, which helps some games such as Shining Force.

[Robert Sharp]

I buy these on sale on Steam. Great little nostalgia trip. I'm aware they can be emulated, but I like the convenience of having them on Steam, and they are super cheap anyway. Plus, I like the idea of encouraging more of these releases.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Yes I know about my English is not perfect. For why would you buy this, I don't know but for me this is the reason. I have some NES games and some genesis. I also have consoles, both that don't work good now. With NES there is the common problem of the cartridge slot, not just me but everyone almost has this problem with old NES design. It does not work at all. And with genesis it has problems with controller input, sometimes works but very unreliable. So that is my reason. A bonus of Retron 3 is the upgrade to s-video, and I do not have SNES but there are good games maybe I will try. Here is a review on youtube, for me this is a good solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asksCvYRva8

If you already own the games ... just emulate them. On your PC. I know that's not, uh, legal (or maybe it is depending on where you live, I don't know), but then there's no way the Retron 3 is either. Why bother giving them your money?

[SuperAdventurer]

For save states I agree, would be better if there was a hard drive to save. A machine like this with a hard drive and you download the ROM from cartridge to hard drive, also including space for saves. Would be perfect. But to emulate on PC like you say, not sure if that is legal and can you trust pirate sights to download virus free? I do not need to play this game. I have cartridges already, also including the original controllers and these plug in to Retron 3. I do not want to pirate. So I think this is the option for me but thanks for other considerations.

[Theodore Rex DX]

As far as legality goes, they're not legal - but neither is the Retron 3. It's a bootleg machine. Sega and Nintendo did not authorise it.

[SuperAdventurer]

Then how can it sell on Amazon if illegal? I do not care if you pirated ROMs but I think there is a difference between these.

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperkin-Systems-GENESIS-Nintendo-Wii-GameCube/dp/B003Y5AHPG/