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. "

Comments

This is cool and all..

[rsilvergun]

now for God's sake, release ports of Radient Silvergun and Panzer Dragoon Saga so I don't have to blow $400+ dollars on ebay to play them.

Re:This is cool and all..

[joe_bruin]

The PSP doesn't Blast Processing (tm), so I don't see how any of these games are going to work.

Re:This is cool and all..

[joe_bruin]

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.

No Shadowrun?

[wuie]

What's the deal, chummer? No Shadowrun?

Don't make me come over there and frag some wage slaves!

What about the Revolution?

[Daetrin]

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?

Re:What about the Revolution?

[Babbster]

What does one thing have to do with the other? I doubt that Sega negotiated any kind of exclusivity with Nintendo for their Wii/Genesis emulation support, and they would be stupid do so unless the money offered by Nintendo was huge.

Besides, exclusives are bad for gamers.

Re:What about the Revolution?

[Daetrin]

The only people who would buy the Wii specifically for that purpose are those few "hardcore" (wow, overused) retro gamers who won't, for whatever reason, download emulators and ROMs.

And gee, there might be a few of us who look forward to being able to legitemately purchase some of the games that we missed out on back on the first run of the NES and SNES. The fact that they'll be on a real console should make getting together groups of people for multiplayer a lot easier. I've never had much luck convincing other people to play multiplayer games on an emulator. I'm particularly looking forward to MULE which i used to have a lot of fun playing with my friends back in the day.

I never owned a Sega Saturn and never got very many games for the Sega Genesis so i'm especially looking forward for the chance to play those games. And i'm really hoping that they release whichever version of Bomberman it was that let you have more than four players playing at a time. (How many controllers can the Revolution handle? The fact that it can do four wireless controllers _and_ has four ports for GameCube controllers makes me hope that it will be able to handle at least eight at a time, though admitedly i don't have anything to base that on other than wishfull thinking.)

Re:It's missing some...

[Belgarion89]

IIRC, Zero Wing was never released for the Genesis in the US. Apparantly all our base doesn't belong to Sega.

no wonderboy ?

[eyegee88]

Too bad they didnt put wonderboy, a real nice classic.

Gift Idea!

[abrotman]

I think I know what I'm asking for as a gift for Veteran's Day!!!!

I wonder ...

[Tink2000]

Just how much of this is reaction to the perception of the fan-base that these titles are "abandonware"? I mean, aside from ROMs and old-skool computer geeks, how badly missed are these games, and since they are now coming back in updated format is this simply a way to crack down on emulators and ROM sites?

I wish they'd release PSI (Master System) and Herzog Zwei (Genesis), myself... good times, good times...

Re:I wonder ...

[kirun]

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.

Mixed feelings

[BertieBaggio]

I'll admit, when I saw this I thought "Excellent, a chance to do what I really want: play the classic games I love, portably". Then I realised that Sony wasn't doing a Good Thing (TM) at all. The Good Thing would be to stop messing with the firmware with every damn update and let the homebrew developers in. Give me the ability to run a Genesis emulator without jumping through contrived hoops (which are really holes in Sony's attempted patching), and without a chance of bricking an expensive piece of kit. Hell, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable amount, say $5-10, to 'unlock' the PSP to do homebrew stuff. I don't think such a move would be morally right (and probably not financially right for Sony, what with support), but I *really* like the old Genesis games.

As for the game lineup itself... well, it's good, but they could've done better. Golden Axe is plain fun, and Phantasy Star will keep you entertained for quite a while. Sonic 1 and 2 are *excellent*, but they missed the best of the lot: Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles. I can't believe this is by accident. I smell a "Genesis Collection Vol II" in the works.

Will I buy this collection? Nah. true, it's the right sort of idea -- and multiplayer makes it *almost* worthwhile -- but I just don't agree with either the method or the game choice. So come on Sony, let us use our hardware the way we damn well please, and do what we will with emulators and other nice things.

(...and while you're at it, let us rip UMD games to memory sticks. Those things are sloooow. kthxbye)

Re:Mixed feelings

[BertieBaggio]

Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2) has both of the games you mentioned, plus many more

I appreciate the sentiment, but this announcement is newsworthy (to me) mainly because of the announcement of these games for the *PSP*. The PS2 is a neat system, but if I'm playing a fixed console, why don't I just fire up the games on my original Genesis (à la Mega Drive over here)? Better still, I can play them on my PC, and take advantage of save states and save state 'hacking' to make the game do interesting things. I can also take screenshots / recordings easier on the PC, and I can store my *entire* game collection in a fairly small space, and take it with me on a USB stick. Plus, I'e seen (though do correct me if I'm wrong) that you need to play game X for Y number of times before you can 'unlock' other games. Artificial restrictions suck. NB I came across this on GameFaqs for some Sonic-related + other classics game collection if you want to look before I'm refuted.

Now, playing on the PSP is a different matter. It's better than a USB stick since you can play *anywhere*, so long as you have power. I'm sure there are smart homebrew developers that were able to port all the handy features (eg savestates etc) of the PC emulator counterparts. That is exactly the kind of thing I want from my PSP, and part of my rationale for buying one when they came out.

I guess what irritated me about this collection was: 1) Sony wanting to say "Hey, we're into classic games too!" whilst trying frantically to lock out homebrew developers (wouldn't it be apropos to have a further lock-out firmware update included on the UMD with this collection, mandatory to play the games?) and 2) No Sonic 3 + K :'(

Re:Mixed feelings

[Babbster]

I guess what irritated me about this collection was: 1) Sony wanting to say "Hey, we're into classic games too!" whilst trying frantically to lock out homebrew developers (wouldn't it be apropos to have a further lock-out firmware update included on the UMD with this collection, mandatory to play the games?)

Wouldn't it be Sega saying that they're "into classic games," given that they're the ones making this game? If Sony is saying anything by trying to lock out emulators, it's "Hey, Sega, we're trying hard to lock PSP users out of emulators so that you and other companies can actually make money off the games you own."

Enough Value Added?

[SlashdotOgre]

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.

wow!

[minus_273]

finally a new original game on the PSP that not a port! oh wait..

Doesn't sound that good to me

[Stormwatch]

Altered Beast, Bonanza Bros, Flicky, Gain Ground, Golden Axe, Super Thunder Blade - why the Genesis versions? Port from the better-looking arcade versions.

Sonic The Hedgehog - again? Sonic Mega Collection was released two years ago!

Virtua Fighter 2 - gotta be kidding me... release the Sega Ages port instead.

Phantasy Star series - now here's the most flawed part. It's incomplete, put the first one there too - anything less won't do. And in PS2 and PS3, I sure don't want accuracy: despite the good plots, these games desperately need a massive overhaul! They look crappy, sound horrible, have exceedingly complex labyrinths, characters move and level-up too slowly.

This compilation is overall very weak. It certainly could use games like Beyond Oasis, Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, Pulseman, Dynamite Headdy, Kid Chameleon, Ranger X, Revenge of Shinobi, Mystic Defender, and the Shining Force series.