Arcade version of Golden Axe to be released on Virtual Console

Next week, the arcade version of the Sega classic Golden Axe will be released on the Japanese Virtual Console. The game will retail for 800 Wii Points, the same price as the Mega Drive version.

There are some differences between the Mega Drive and the arcade version, which may make you consider buying both. The arcade version features a higher colour palette, better animation and sound, parallax scrolling and generally more detail. The Mega Drive version, due to technical limitations, has less colour and detail but makes up for it with two extra levels and two extra modes ("Beginner" and "Duel").

All of the Mega Drive versions of Golden Axe are available on the Virtual Console, including Golden Axe III which was never released in cartridge form outside of Japan. They are also available on Mega Drive Ultimate Collection.

There has been no mention of a North American or European release yet.

[Source: Nintendo Life]

Arcade version of Space Harrier released on Virtual Console

Space Harrier is one of the many arcade titles coming to the Virtual Console this year. Today it was released on the North American store, with the European store receiving it on the 29th May. Japan got it back in March when the games were first announced.

It was originally thought that the arcade titles would cost 500 Wii Points, 300 Points cheaper than their Mega Drive counterparts. It turns out that they too will cost 800 Points.

Nintendo Life gave the arcade version just 5/10, whereas the Master System version got one point more. I would rate the game higher than that just to watch the mesmerising chequerboard floor!

[Source: Nintendo Life]

Latest Virtua Fighter 5 revision features classic Sega costumes

The latest version of Virtua Fighter 5, known as "R Revision B", features customisable costumes. Characters can now use items from classic Sega franchises, such as Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo and Virtual On.

Other changes in this revision include a new camera system, new animations and new moves. It had a limited release in Japan back in March, and is now available nationwide.

Virtua Fighter 5 keeps getting revisions in the Japanese arcades, with some fans requesting them to be released on home consoles. Perhaps Sega could patch the original game with the extra features, or offer it as downloadable content.

[Source: Official Virtua Fighter Website and Virtua Fighter Dojo]

Vintage Collection dates released

Yesterday Sega revealed the release dates for the games part of Vintage Collection 2. The games will be available to download on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Some of the titles have added online functionality, such as the ability to play Sonic 3's Competition Mode over the internet.

A price for the individual downloads has not been released yet, and neither has confirmation of whether some of the games will remain XBLA exclusive.

Here are the release dates:

• Gunstar Heroes - June 10th (XBLA), June 11th (PSN), Online
• Altered Beast - June 10th (XBLA), Online
• Shinobi (Arcade Version) - June 10th (XBLA), No online
• Comix Zone - June 10th (XBLA), No online
• Phantasy Star II - June 10th (XBLA), No online
• Sonic 3 - June 10th (XBLA), Online
• Sonic and Knuckles - Late Summer 2009 (XBLA), Online

Hopefully more of the games will become available on the PSN, especially Sonic and Knuckles with its Lock-On technology that was (deliberately?) left out of Mega Drive Ultimate Collection. In fact, the best option is probably just to buy the compilation disc - most of the games in Vintage Collection 2 are available on it.

[Source: ShackNews]

Tiny Sega arcade cabinets on display in Japan

Is that Alien in the background?

Back in February, miniature versions of Sega's Super-Scaler games were announced with an expected release this Spring. Now, they are on display at the Shizuoka Hobby Show in Japan.

This is the first time the "secret" After Burner model has been seen. The original advertisement for the models had this particular cabinet blanked out.


Just four inches tall, the entire line-up consists of Out Run, Hang-On, Space Harrier, Thunder Blade and After Burner.

Also available from an entirely different manufacturer is a tiny Zaxxon cabinet, which forms a set with Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede, Phoenix and Defender.

[Source: Kotaku]

Play Soul Blade and Tekken 2 on your Mega Drive

Over on Sega-16, there is a regular "Hacks and Homebrews" feature, with this edition focussing on pirate fighting games. Not fighting games literally pitting pirates against each other, but bootleg titles.

Some interesting pirate fighting games have been made over the years, including ports of Dragon Ball, King of Fighters '98 and Mortal Kombat: Mythologies. Perhaps the most intriguing of these big-name games to be ported onto the Mega Drive are Soul Blade and Tekken 2.

Soul Blade

Soul Blade is apparently extremely buggy, with character freezing and self-harm (!). The controls also don't work, which is a shame as the graphics are extremely good. The sprites are nice and big, and the backgrounds are very colourful.

VR Fighter vs. Taken 2

Tekken 2 is not a direct port of Namco's fighter, but a very weird "vs." game entitled VR Fighter vs. Taken 2. "VR Fighter" is referring to Virtua Fighter, although the sprites have not been ripped from the Mega Drive version of the game. Instead, all new sprites have been made for both games, which neither look like the actual characters nor animate very well. The pirate Tekken 3 port is actually a more accurate representation of Tekken 2!

Sega-16 recommend steering clear of these bootleg fighting games, except for one: Top Fighter 2000 Mk VIII. This game boasts an impressive roster, taking characters from Street Fighter, Art of Fighting and X-Men. Other characters include Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. Indeed...

Anyway, go here to read the entire article.

Michael Jackson's arcade auction cancelled

It was announced yesterday that the auction of Michael Jackson's Neverland possessions has been cancelled. This includes the singer's extensive arcade cabinet collection.

Michael Jackson will now retain ownership of 1,400-plus items, although they will remain on display in Beverly Hills until April 25th.

Jackson's arcade collection was full of Sega titles, including the massive R360 cabinet but strangely lacking Moonwalker. Here is the full list of Sega games, taken from a previous post about the auction:

• R360 Cabinet
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Jambo! Safari
• Crazy Taxi (x2)
  
• F1 Exhaust Note
• Crazy Taxi III: High Roller
• Print Club 2
• Harley-Davidson and LA Riders
• Galaxy Force II
• WWF Royal Rumble
• Sega Saturn Display
• Sega Strike Fighter
• Virtua Racing
• Eighteen Wheeler
• Sports Jam
• Star Wars Racer
• Manx TT Super Bike
• Virtua Tennis 2
• Top Skater
• Sega Genesis/Game Gear Display
• Sega Dreamcast Display

Now you have no chance of acquiring one of these, not even his duplicate Crazy Taxi cabinet. Oh well.

[Source: Kotaku]

Space Harrier being converted to Atari XE

This is actually quite old news, but Sega classic Space Harrier is being converted to the 8-bit range of Atari computers. Back in the late-'80s, UK software house Elite Systems had the rights to do home computer ports of the game, but unfortunately an Atari 8-bit version was never made.

First started in the early-'90s, programmer Chris Hutt revived his project in 2002 with a release of the first level of his Space Harrier port. It is still in the process of being made, with stages 6 and 7 being completed in February after a year's absence.

Once finished (there are still eleven levels to program), the game will be released on cartridge. The Atari 8-bit range will then finally have Space Harrier after over two decades of waiting!


The port is looking excellent so far, with nice scrolling, great music and even speech! I would love to play this on my Atari XEGS, the console version of the 8-bit computers.

It's always good to see games being ported to systems that didn't originally have the game. My attempts to port Nintendo's Solar Striker to the Commodore 64 have failed so far, with only the graphics being made. Useless SEUCK!

You can follow the game's progress here. For ZX Spectrum ports of Sega games, see here.

Sega's arcade games coming to XBLA too

Last week it was announced that Sega, along with some other companies, would be releasing some of their true arcade games onto the Wii's Virtual Console. Now Sega has announced that they will be releasing some on Xbox Live Arcade.

Sega's previous offerings on XBLA include online versions of their Mega Drive classics, such as Street of Rage II. Now, they will be releasing the System-16 versions of Shinobi and Altered Beast, apparently making up "Sega Vintage Collection Volume 2".

Other future Sega games coming to XBLA include Virtual On, Comix Zone, Sonic 3, Gunstar Heroes and Phantasy Star II. More true-arcade titles will probably follow later.

Maybe Sega will eventually release some of their arcade games on the PlayStation Network. Hint!

[Source: Kotaku]

Space Harrier out now on Virtual Console

It has been announced at the Game Developers Conference that Space Harrier is available to download now, along with other true arcade titles from Namco and Taito. Other games available include mouse-based platformer Mappy and Galaxian follow-up Galaga's sequel Gaplus. Phew.

I speculated yesterday that Space Harrier would cost 600 Wii Points, based on the fact that newer (i.e. late-'80s) arcade titles would generally cost that much. It turns out the game will cost 500 Wii Points, 300 Points cheaper than its Mega Drive port. I wonder which version you would choose?

The new Virtual Console Arcade service sounds promising. I wonder which games will be released on it in the future?

[Source: Sega Nerds]

Sega's arcade games available on Virtual Console

It has been announced at the Game Developers Conference that Sega will be releasing their arcade games on the Wii's Virtual Console. Other companies to do this include Namco and Taito.

Space Harrier will be the first Sega title available. There has been no price set as of yet, but games all ready available cost 500 Points for older titles and 600 Points for newer ones. This means that Space Harrier will probably cost the latter.

Thankfully, you will no longer have to settle for watered-down console ports, and can experience the real thing instead. Console versions of Sega's sprite-scaler games were remarkably hit-and-miss, so being able to play the proper versions is excellent.

I'm sure Out Run will be the most anticipated Sega title to be released. I would personally opt for Galaxy Force - the illusion of depth is even greater than a true three-dimensional game!

If you can't wait for these games to be released, you can unlock the arcade version of Space Harrier on Mega Drive Ultimate Collection right now, blobby filter (unfortunately) included.

[Source: Kotaku]

Play unported Sega games on the ZX Spectrum

Some Sega games were never ported over to the ZX Spectrum, either because they came out before the computer or too late in its life. Others were started but never finished. But now, thanks to the internet, some coders have decided to port those games themselves.

Up first is Columns. This has seen numerous unofficial ports to the Spectrum, the best of these coming from Computer Emuzone. The gameplay has been transferred brilliantly, and even has a nice rendition of Clotho. You'll also notice the title screen has the angels present from the original version.


A less successful port of a Sega game is Daytona USA, coded entirely in Basic. Oh dear. The game is top-down, and features all the tracks from the arcade (which are identical). My verdict? Stick to the Saturn version!


Next up is Deep Scan. The arcade version was released in 1979, too early for the Spectrum. It has since been ported, and is almost arcade-perfect! For those of you that haven't heard of Deep Scan, you are a boat that must bomb submarines. I'm sure you've played it on your mobile phones under a different name.


Perhaps the most infamous Sega game never ported to the Spectrum (or Commodore machines) is Sonic the Hedgehog. The game was apparently started by US Gold, who handled most of Sega's licenses. Unfortunately the game was never finished, allegedly due to the 16-bit version increasing the Mega Drive's popularity. Other versions may have taken away from this success, so the project was abandoned.

Sorry for the terrible '90s-compression quality!

Instead, coders began their own version based on the Master System port. This was to be the "fastest game on the Spectrum", featuring scrolling in all directions. The game eventually went the way of Sonic X-Treme and hasn't been touched since 2001. Perhaps one day the game will finally make its way over to home micros!

Michael Jackson likes Sega

Michael Jackson had a good relationship with Sega in the '80s and '90s, appearing in his own game, allegedly working on Sonic 3's music and appearing in Space Channel 5. It seems that Jackson is an actual fan of Sega, as his arcade collection features many of their games.

On top of Jackson's R360 cabinet being sold at auction, the rest of his collection will be too. Here is the full list of Sega goodness:

• R360 Cabinet
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Jambo! Safari
• Crazy Taxi (x2)
  
• F1 Exhaust Note
• Crazy Taxi III: High Roller
• Print Club 2
• Harley-Davidson and LA Riders
• Galaxy Force II
• WWF Royal Rumble
• Sega Saturn Display
• Sega Strike Fighter
• Virtua Racing
• Eighteen Wheeler
• Sports Jam
• Star Wars Racer
• Manx TT Super Bike
• Virtua Tennis 2
• Top Skater
• Sega Genesis/Game Gear Display
• Sega Dreamcast Display

What an amazing selection of games. There seems to be one omission though - where's Moonwalker?

[Source: Kotaku]

Ringedge and Ringwide arcade boards showcased in Japan

Recently, a trademark application for "Ringwide" and "Ringedge" was filed by Sega, sparking rumours that they were returning to the console business. The trademarks applied to both arcade hardware and home consoles.

Today Sega have shown off their new arcade hardware, entitled Ringwide and Ringedge, at the AOU Show in Japan. The first game to use the new technology will be Border Break, a robot fighting game.

Both boards have online capabilities, with parts from Intel and Nvidia. Although this announcement has confirmed the boards' existence, it hasn't yet confirmed whether the technology will be used in home consoles. We can still hope!

[Source: Intergame]

Michael Jackson's R360 arcade cabinet up for auction

In April, there is an auction selling off lots of Michael Jackson's possessions from Neverland. This includes his arcade machines, one of which is Sega's R360.

The machine, from 1991, is a flight simulator that could turn 360 degrees. Games available for it were G-Loc and Wing War. The value of Jackson's cabinet is listed at $4,000 - $6,000.

Not included in the auction is Moonwalker, a Sega arcade game featuring Michael Jackson himself. I wonder if he actually had one in the first place?

[Source: Kotaku]

More tiny Sega cabinets being made

A few weeks ago I reported on an American trainset company making tiny arcade cabinets, including some Sega ones. Now a Japanese company has decided to make tiny versions of Sega's deluxe arcade cabinets.

Included on the list is Out Run, Hang-On, Space Harrier and Thunder Blade. There is a "secret" one, which is actually just After Burner.

The models are four inches in length, and are out in Japan this Spring.

[Source: Kotaku]

Sega's weird Lego-block game revealed

Sega have released some details concerning what they will be showcasing at next month's Amusement Expo 2009. One of the games, Block Pipo, will use an entirely new method of control - lego-style building blocks.

Only a few images of the arcade game have been released, but Geek.com have said that players must build the blocks beneath the character's feet in order to collect objects on the screen. They cannot tell, however, whether or not you control the character yourself once the blocks have been placed.

Sega says that two machines can be placed together for multiplayer competitive or coöperative play. The game sounds very interesting, like some sort of puzzle-platformer where you must build the platforms yourself.

Lego blocks certainly are an interesting method of control, but we can now expect more things like this with the success of the Wii and its control method. That's not to say that there hasn't been weird control methods before that - think of Konami's dance mat, Mattel's Power Glove or even Atari's Mind Link, whereby you control the game with your mind.

Look at this tiny Zaxxon arcade cabinet!

Model train company J&C Studios has just launched a new range of figures - tiny "O-Scale" arcade cabinets! There are seven to choose from, including Sega classic Zaxxon, also available to scale on Mega Drive Ultimate Collection.

The seven are Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede, Zaxxon, Phoenix and Defender. They are just 4.5cm tall, and you build them yourself. As well as the lovely side art, you get a screenshot of the game in progress to stick on the front! It is even possible to fit a bulb inside them, although they are not included.

Each cabinet is $7.49, about £5.43. How I would love one, but alas, they ship to US only. Oh well.

Hooligan not included.

[Source: Kotaku]

Have a look at Mega Drive Ultimate Collection's bezels

Some of the arcade games that are unlockable on Mega Drive Ultimate Collection have very narrow screens, and as such have new bezels to fill up our HD resolutions.

Zaxxon has a gradient background with the logo at the side, and Congo Bongo has a "jungle temple" style bezel.


The original Zaxxon didn't have much in the way of a bezel, with just side art. However, Congo Bongo did have a bezel so that could have been used, although there probably is not a high-quality version available.

All the other games seem to be in widescreen, so a bezel is not needed. Narrow screens were very common with earlier arcade games, with wider screens coming in during the mid-'80s.

See more screenshots here.

Mega Drive Ultimate Collection arcade unlockables revealed

Sega Europe have posted on their blog all the arcade titles that will be unlockable on Mega Drive Ultimate Collection. I was rather disappointed by them as I was expecting more sprite-scalers, but these are definitely an added bonus. Here they are:

1. Zaxxon, 1982
2. Congo Bongo, 1982
3. Fantasy Zone, 1985
4. Space Harrier, 1985
5. Alien Syndrome, 1986
6. Shinobi, 1987
7. Altered Beast, 1988

The fact that some of these games have their Mega Drive counterparts also on the disc makes them less exciting. Why not keep the arcade versions and replace the Mega Drive ones?