Monthly Archives

August 2012

Community, Miscellaneous, Site News

PAX Meetup at the Waterfront Park from 12PM on Saturday

Want to meet up with the Retro community and socialize in person like there’s no other chance? Lucky you dear reader as some of the Retro staff are going to head their way to Penny Arcade Expo. You won’t find a better time to hang out with other Sonic and Sega fanatics for a Retro Community Meet-Up. Besides, you should take a break from all those video games else you’ll strain your eyes, stunt your growth and perhaps die of starvation or dehydration. That’s us at Retro looking out for all of you going to the convention this weekend.

Why not return that favor and look for the Meet-Up at the Waterfront Park on Saturday September 1st at 12:00 p.m. located at 1301 Alaskan Way in Seattle? That’s roughly 15 minutes away from the PAX show floor. More food choices, less PAX crowd makes for a nice peaceful getaway. Heck, even if you’re in the Washington area we’ll let you join in.

 

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Fan Works, Humor

Classic Sonic Has Advice For You Through Source Film Maker

Valve recently released its Source engine video editing software to open beta to allow talented individuals to create movies using Source-compatible assets. YouTube user Waxination decided to try their hand at remaking a certain segment from the popular (and highly “memetic”) ’90s Saturday morning cartoon, Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog.

Aside from showing a small sample of what can be done within the Source Film Maker, it’s also interesting to see how well the Classic Sonic model fits with Jaleel White’s Sonic. Although it’s very unlikely the short’s creator will do much more than finish the clip, it could be an interesting undertaking for a group of fans to try and “adapt” an episode of the cartoon using the film engine.

Check out one more example by YouTuber ChaoFanatic below! Thanks to RGamer2009.

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Game News, Miscellaneous

Starbucks UK App of the Week: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1

If you’re a coffee addict in the UK (and/or you just want to sabotage Costa Coffee), Starbucks is offering a free download of Sonic 4: Episode 1 for iOS now through the 21st in their UK locations. Simply pick up one of the small cards (usually near the register) and the promotional code will be on the back. Please note that for all of you who think you’re going to be sneaky and have a friend pick up codes that they are only redeemable with a UK iTunes account.

For the record, I would have preferred a grown-up Sonic mug that I would not be embarrassed to drink out of, like my current Starbucks mug. Seriously Sega, give me a merchandise license so I can make things 30 year olds wouldn’t have secret shame about owning. 😐

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Community, Sega Retro

Help Retro: Scan Your US/Canadian Genesis Cartridges

Most people are at least vaguely aware  that Sonic Retro also runs a companion website, Sega Retro, to document all Sega-related history that isn’t explicitly Sonic-y in nature. As part of that documentation, there’s a lot of very basic tasks that haven’t been done that we’re trying to accomplish for the basic good of video game research.

One of those is to get pictures of every single video game made for a Sega system. This seems like it should be an easy task–after all,somebody must have done this before–but it turns out that it takes a lot more time and effort than anyone would have realized. And no, no one else has bothered to try to get good photos of everything.

This is where you come in, dear reader! Each week, we’re going to highlight various items we need scans donated for in hopes that we can build the world’s biggest database of Sega knowledge together. One region, one system, one thing, and a list of what we need. 😉

How can I help?

We ask that volunteers go through their collections of Sega games and see if they have what we are looking for. This week, we’re focusing on Sega Genesis cartridges from the US or Canada. If you live in Europe or Brazil or South Korea or Japan, don’t worry! We’ll be highlighting things we need from those regions, too–we just don’t want to overwhelm people. A cartridge that is a good candidate to scan will be free of any stickers (such as from a rental place or a price tag) with a clear label that has no scratches or tears on it. This picture of Asterix and the Great Rescue is a great example of a cart scan. If you’re new to scanning, check out our guides on Sega Retro, but if you’re used to scanning, know we prefer 600DPI images digitally downsampled to 300DPI using Photoshop or another high-quality image editor. You can upload the image yourself on Sega Retro if you’re comfortable, or else post in the Sega Retro forum or leave a comment wherever you read this story (front page, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest.)  You may also e-mail us scans at [email protected].

So, without further ado, the list of Sega Genesis cartridges we currently need scans of!

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Sega Retro

SEGA Alliance Reveals Jack Lumber for iOS

Remember how SEGA listed an all new IP that wasn’t revealed yet on the list of stuff they’ll show at PAX Prime? Well big shock: it’s not Sonic Adventure 3 or Shenmue HD! In fact, those two would be part of existing IPs so it wouldn’t have been either one of those anyway. Instead, it’s a new iOS game called Jack Lumber developed by Owlchemy Labs, the makers of Snuggle Truck. As you can see in the trailer, while the game is similar to Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja, it expands on it enough to be more than just another clone. This is the first game from SEGA’s new publishing initiative, SEGA Alliance. Which focuses on publishing indie games for mobile devices.

The game is available right now on the App Store, and if you buy it within in the next couple of days it will only cost $0.99 instead of the normal price of $1.99. So if you are looking for another game to play while you’re sitting in the bus or just have a hatred for trees than it would be best to buy it now. Or just wait until it gets priced off again, that happens kind of often with iOS games. Speaking of which, SEGA is also having a sale on a bunch of their iOS and Android games including Sonic CD and Sonic 4: Episode 2, so there’s that as well.

[Source: SEGA Blog]

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Game News

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Gamescom Trailer Reveals New Tracks and Wii U Version Details

With Gamescom starting in a couple of days SEGA has released a new trailer for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed just before the event actually starts. This trailer reveals various new tracks based on After Burner, Skies of Arcadia, Samba De Amigo and Starlight Carnival from Sonic Colours. There are also a couple of new screenshots, one which shows that Sumo Digital’s favorite Sonic zone, Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes will once again be represented in their latest game.

IGN also put up a preview of the Wii U version revealing some of the exclusive features that iteration of the game will have, all of them using the new Gamepad. The screen on the Gamepad will show additional info like the current order the racers are in, a mini-map and close-ups of the power-up you’re using hitting it’s target. The Gamepad can also be used as a steering wheel by tilting it left and right and there are various mini-games where one player is using the Gamepad’s screen and other players are using Classic or Pro Controllers. One such mini-game is ‘Super Monkey Ball Arena’, where the player with the Gamepad controls AiAi trying to squash the other players with the ball he is walking around in.

[Source: IGN]

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Miscellaneous, Sega Retro

SEGA Reveals PAX Prime Line-Up and Will Attend Gamescom After All

With Gamescom and PAX Prime nearing more news about what will be shown at the events starts trickling in. Like SEGA has officially announced the games they’ll be showing at PAX, which includes the Sonic Adventure 2 re-release, Phantasy Star Online 2, The Cave, an unannounced digital title (which is a new IP) and more. Here is their full line-up:

SEGA will showcase their games at booths 242 and 252 at PAX in Seattle, Washington, from August 31 through September 2, 2012. SEGA also confirmed along with THQ that they’ll be showing their games at Gamescom, which is in Germany, Cologne from August 15th through August 19th, even though both previously said that they won’t be at attending the event. Their games will be shown at the Koch Media and Saturn stands. Also, according to El33tonline SEGA will hold a press conference on August 16th at Gamescom, though it isn’t listed with the rest of the press dates so whether or not the conference will actually happen isn’t certain.

[Sources: SEGA Blog, MCV and El33tonline]

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Sega Retro

Jet Set Radio and Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit Get Dated and Priced

It’s been unclear when the Jet Set Radio port and Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Death Rabbit will actually be released. So far both games have had the “Summer 2012” date attached to them, but now SEGA has announced more specific release dates for the two titles. Hell Yeah! will be released in North America on September 25th for Playstation Network, September 26th for Xbox Live Arcade and October 3rd for Steam. In Europe the game will be released for all platforms on October 3rd, the price is 1200 Microsoft Points/$14.99/£9.99/€12.99/AUD$19.95. SEGA also released a new trailer (seen above) showcasing the various ways you can “pimp up” the main character of the game, the Dead Rabbit.

Jet Set Radio will arrive a bit sooner on most platforms and will technically still be released during the summer. Playstation Plus users on PS3 will be able to buy the game from September 11th, while non-Plus PSN users will be able to buy it from September 18th. On Xbox Live Arcade and Steam the game will be released on September 19th and on Playstation Vita the game will be available from October 16th. The price on all platforms is $9.99/800 Microsoft Points.

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Humor

SA3 Rumors Officially Addressed by SEGA of Antarctica

Are you the type of Sonic fan who wants SA3 more than anything? Are you one of the people who believe it will single-handedly save the Sonic franchise? Do you clamor for any sign from above that it will fall straight from the heavens into your console? 

If so, your faith in SA3 may be at an all-time high in recent weeks. Takashi Iizuka’s positive reaction to the SA3 chants at Sonic Boom rekindled that fire in your heart. SA3 web domains registered a couple of weeks ago made you all the more hopeful. Even though they weren’t registered by SEGA themselves, you refused to believe that you had come so close yet so far.

In your mind, you will get your SA3 at any cost.

Today, SEGA of Antarctica’s Ben Kalough came forward and addressed the recent events regarding SA3, and even released a trailer that is sure to put to rest anymore rumors.

SA3 hopefuls, be careful what you wish for.

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Fan Works, Hacking

The Many Faces of Sonic Generations Modding

A while back, you’ll remember we made a post showing how a small group of fans on our forums were tearing into the very fabric of the PC version of Sonic Generations to recreate the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed within the game. On last check, they had managed to get the Hedgehog Engine’s Global Illumination Ambiance working, a rather impressive task of its own right. So how are things coming along now?

Quite fantastically, if these three projects all based off Generations are anything to go by.

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