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Sega Genesis Collection for PSP and PS2
An anonymous reader writes "Sega has announced what may be the coolest retro collection yet in a compilation of 30 Sega Genesis games for the PSP and PS2. 1up has a great breakdown of the games in the collection, which features everything from the Phantasy Star games to the Golden Axe games, to the Shinobis, to the Vectormans. Pretty cool stuff." From the article: "Sega's doing its part to give these games context with numerous unlockable interviews with the original developers and a museum with trivia on the disc. According to Sega, the games will be reproduced with 'the utmost accuracy to the originals as possible' by developer Backbone Entertainment. And as a special cool bonus, the PSP version will allow -- for the first time ever -- wireless multiplayer for several of the games. "
What's the deal, chummer? No Shadowrun?
Don't make me come over there and frag some wage slaves!
So will the same bundle be available on Nintendo's virtual console? Or will we have to buy each game separately for that format? Or is Sega going to outright renege on the agreement they presumably had with Nintendo to support the virtual console?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
It ought to be interesting to see if there will be enough bonus features to compete with homebrew emulators. If the price is reasonable ($30 or less) and the games are at least slightly updated (eg. the Sonic Jam or GBA versions of the games), then I'd consider it.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
There are already a load of retro arcade collections available. I own a ton of GBA ones. Most of them are pretty good reproductions, but a few are awkward (like Bubble Bobble needs to zoom out or scroll to get the correct resolution, Robotron doesn't work exactly right because the GBA didn't have enough Fire buttons). I also own Atari Retro Classics DS, which has to be the buggiest, most thrown-together piece of junk I've seen in a long time. I nearly gave it to a jumble sale, but if somebody paid 10p for it, they'd have been ripped off. My absolute favourite is the Game & Watch Gallery, as it has both the originals, and remakes that work, by capturing the spirit of the originals.
I don't think this is a way to crack down on the sites - abandonware doesn't mean it's legal to copy, it's more of an "ethical" gloss, that you're not denying anyone a sale if the thing actually isn't for sale. There is some genuinely legit stuff- many companies have released their rights to 8-bit home computer games, authors who have released their stuff, and occasional bundle deals like with the HotRod joystick. However, the way the law is at the moment, there is no requirement to actually sell a product to keep copyright, and companies have the legal right to shut down sites should they feel like it.
It should also be noted that in many cases, it really is basically impossible to get the games legally for an emulator. A few years back, I enquired with a bunch of companies (a) Do you sell collections of your "classic" games, and (b) If I buy one, can I then get matching ROMsets for these games and use the emulator of my choice. Sega pointed me at the SegaPC division, who sent me a note reminding me that piracy is evilwrongnaughtybad. The person I spoke to at Hasbro Interactive hadn't even heard of emulation and didn't understand why I wanted to play the originals over their shiny remakes. Activision had the clue to know what I was asking, and said sorry that their classics-related offerings didn't let me grab the equivalent ROMs.
I'm scared of numbers that can't be written as a fraction. It's an irrational fear.
Actually, it would have been funnier if I had proofread it and found that it's missing the word "have" (or "do") in between "doesn't" and "Blast". That's what happens when you do copy-and-paste editing. In my post I wasn't referring to the games the parent was talking about, I was simply riding his early, well-moderated comment to tack my joke on. If fact, I was not even aware those were Saturn games, since I've yet to meet someone who admits to having owned one of those machines.