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Sega Forever: The nostalgia trip that could change the company's future

PAULINK

PAULINK

I microwave steaks.
None of the current games are new releases right? Hardcore sega fans already bought most of these earlier (like myself). Wake me up when they port over some new games.
 
H

hardcastlemccormick

Banned
Modern touch control setups are pretty good. If they do it well, I'll be on board.

I never thought I'd be able to play a monster hunter game with touch but it works. I'll happily try phantasy star 2 and any others than strike my fancy. Good price too.
 
M

muteki

Member
I'd get excited at potential titles that haven't been ported already, but otherwise out of what is out there I already have what I want and hardly play them because it is on my phone.
 
A

Aki-at

Member
Reading more of the interview this just sounds like the beginning. Starting on mobile and expanding onto other platforms in the future, I'm hopeful, since Satomi took over as CEO there hasn't been many missteps from SEGA.
 
E

Evilchris

Neo Member
"Welcome to the next level"

giphy.gif
 
R

RiZ III

Member
I don't understand why people are complaining. Free games. Stfu. If your phone screen is too small, get a better phone.

Sega had removed their classics from the App Store a while back. I look forward to having them available on my phone again. I would regularly play Streets of Rage on the go.
 
J

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
To steal from Donglover, this is like the handjob of retro Sega revivals. It's pretty good, but you know what I really want.
 
T

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
RiZ III said:
Free games. Stfu. If your phone screen is too small, get a better phone.
Click to expand...

I have a Nexus 6P, which has a very large screen, and don't consider it a gaming device.

People are allowed to criticize. It's a frustrating decision for many people as you can see in the thread. The games being free doesn't make Sega immune to that.
 
H

Haganeren

Member
@MUWANdo said:
All those things are specifically cited in the interview: they want to drive sales from mobile to other platforms, they want to track data on individual IP, they want to introduce people to a service they can later use to sell them on other crap.
Click to expand...

Which isnt something which makes me feel good. I hate playing on those device, they just don't feel good to me.
So how does "data" can be collected from people like me ? Well, it can't, and that's my problem. I feel like it will only make the more well known IP more well known, i don't see the point that much.

But i may be egoistic...
 
S

Synth

Member
IronicSonic said:
Model 2's Sega Rally is in the same league tho and Saturn's version is like next gen comparing with first Daytona.

I love them both though
Click to expand...

They're both great in the arcades, but Model 2 (and by extension XBLA/PSN) Daytona is the best arcade racer ever.

Saturn Sega Rally was amazing, and probably the best racer on console until like Ridge Racer V. The Saturn ports of Daytona may as well have not existed, with CCE being especially disastrous.

Sega Rally had its own "Saturn Daytona" moment with Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast. :(
 
D

Diablohead

Member
The real thing that sours this right now is that it's just their mobile games going free, there's nothing too special if you have played or own those already.

It's nice but looking into it I don't really have any reason to get excited.
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
Aki-at said:
Reading more of the interview this just sounds like the beginning. Starting on mobile and expanding onto other platforms in the future, I'm hopeful, since Satomi took over as CEO there hasn't been many missteps from SEGA.
Click to expand...

Something will be lost, though, unless Sega Games is working with Sega Networks on this.

Sega Games were behind (and publisher of) the Sega 3D Classics on 3DS, which took a very different approach to both how the games were conceived and programmed, and how they were distributed.

I can't see Sega releasing these Unity ports on consoles and also hiring M2 to create low-level native versions of the original games too.

The Sega Networks approach is certainly faster and will spread the games across more formats, but I think I'd be more appreciative of an expanded version of the Sega Games approach.
 
T

TimmiT

Member
I totally get people being frustrated that this is for mobile and not for systems on which you can easily comfortably play with a controller. Games that are designed to be played with buttons don't work all that well on touch screens. So I'd love to see this on PC or Switch.

Just also it's a bit unnecessary to complain about that Sega Networks, the mobile branch of the company, is focusing on mobile first.
 
I

IronicSonic

Member
Synth said:
They're both great in the arcades, but Model 2 (and by extension XBLA/PSN) Daytona is the best arcade racer ever.
Click to expand...

True. the very reason my PS3 is still plugged


Saturn Sega Rally was amazing, and probably the best racer on console until like Ridge Racer V. The Saturn ports of Daytona may as well have not existed, with CCE being especially disastrous.

Sega Rally had its own "Saturn Daytona" moment with Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast. :(
Click to expand...

I will never recover from that :'(
 
A

Aki-at

Member
Toadthemushroom said:
Something will be lost, though, unless Sega Games is working with Sega Networks on this.

Sega Games were behind (and publisher of) the Sega 3D Classics on 3DS, which took a very different approach to both how the games were conceived and programmed, and how they were distributed.

I can't see Sega releasing these Unity ports on consoles and also hiring M2 to create low-level native versions of the original games too.

The Sega Networks approach is certainly faster and will spread the games across more formats, but I think I'd be more appreciative of an expanded version of the Sega Games approach.
Click to expand...

You can't have everything, that's just the unfortunate truth. Would I like all of SEGA's games available on mobile and PC or do I want to be forced to buy x or y console to be able to play select games.

Both are valid things for someone to have but one will lose out. Personally I'd rather have the former than the latter.

Who knows, they may still want to chase some sort of "premium" market. We know a Shenmue port is more or less happening at this point and I bet SEGA won't want to price that at $1.99 considering the level of demand for it so it might just be on a game by game basis.
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
Aki-at said:
You can't have everything, that's just the unfortunate truth. Would I like all of SEGA's games available on mobile and PC or do I want to be forced to buy x or y console to be able to play select games.

Both are valid things for someone to have but one will lose out. Personally I'd rather have the former than the latter.

Who knows, they may still want to chase some sort of "premium" market. We know a Shenmue port is more or less happening at this point and I bet SEGA won't want to price that at $1.99 considering the level of demand for it so it might just be on a game by game basis.
Click to expand...

You're right, and this approach reflects how the market has changed and how games and programming on consoles is becoming more homogeneous.

I'm just not seeing how Sega will be able to revisit its back catalogue in different ways, by distributing retro classics like this they've set the standard already to be these games, leaving only remakes.

e.g. if they port Skies of Arcadia to Unity and it's less-than-satisfactory, then it's a shoe-in as to which version of Skies of Arcadia will make it to PC/PS4/Switch/XBO in the future unless a tangibly different remake happens.
 
M

Malyse

Member
This seems more difficult than releasing PSO2 in English.

-----

I would much rather a Sega Forever app and then download titles through that in oppose to downloading each individually. Also, I wouldn't mind them looping in Windows Phone (because that would mean that they were released on the Windows Store and you could get them on Windows 10)
 
T

televator

Member
I don't care what they do anymore. If it ain't Panzer Dragoon 1-Orta in HD, I don't care. Until then thay can flail around rereleasing Golden Axe for the millionth time on whatever platform they like.
 
F

FairFriend

Member
It's been mentioned that they are using Unity to port the games to mobile, so eventually they'll release everything on PC and other platforms too. I don't understand people being disappointed. Besides, slow games like Phantasy Star should be perfectly playable on a smartphone and there are numerous usb and blutooth controllers which should do the trick for the other ones.
 
celsowmbr

celsowmbr

Banned
So..

1- Free games with Ads

2- They are using Unity as a wrapper/Middleware

3- They "rebuild" (hack?) some games to adapt them to touch screen, add leaderboard and others stuffs

4- Focus on mobile but, thanks to the Middleware, can be ported to any platform

5- Saturn and Dreamcast are coming but they are not so easy to port

6- Subscription service is a possibility
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
Oreiller said:
All I want is to be able to play Chu Chu Rocket on my phone.
Click to expand...

Chu Chu Rocket! to cost £2.99 on iPhone, £3.99 on iPad

Back in 2010 Sega asked Binary Hammer to make a native version of Chu Chu Rocket for iPhone and iPad: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/ChuChu+Rocket!/news.asp?c=25300

Very different market today, and sadly both games got pulled from the App Store in 2015. From the second URL (interview):

What was the most difficult thing about moving from joypad to touch control?

We talked about a number of different control schemes: tap arrow-tap board, drag the arrow from the panel to the board, swiping, etc, but the swiping method felt the most comfortable. Some game modes require the player to be quick, and nothing is quicker than swiping.

As a result, I think the most difficult decision we had to make for the controls was determining how large we could make each gameboard tile appear on the screen.

Too small, and players would have trouble being precise. Too big, and we would run out of screen real estate. Once everything came together, the control scheme became perfect.

What were you provided with in terms of original code and assets?

We were given the entire project archive for both the Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance titles, including source code and graphics.

The menu code was rewritten from scratch but all of the game modes use the original Dreamcast code. You can put the iOS version next to the Dreamcast version and they'll be 1-for-1 exact.

What part of ChuChu Rocket! are you most proud of?

I think I'm most proud of the download size for both iPhone and iPad versions. We took extra effort to make sure the size was under 20MB so that anyone can download it whenever they wanted.

All of the graphics and audio assets are present; nothing is missing. Unfortunately, I have learned that most customers won't notice this, so my pride is somewhat bittersweet.
Click to expand...

Would a Unity version of Chu Chu Rocket weigh under 20MB?
 
J

J@hranimo

Banned
I'm intrigued by this. If I want, I can hook up one of my joycons for controller support.

I saw Comix Zone in that trailer, I need that game!
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
digita1alchemy said:
I miss the Super Monkey Ball mobile games, they were pretty fun.
Click to expand...

I thought they were awful, personally. Other Ocean did the best they could, but the level designs were stale, the controls unresponsive and the visuals underwhelming. I think a modern entry with gyro controls could be excellent, but the Banana Blitz on Wii aped (sorry) the mobile games.
 
P

Piccoro

Member
Nice of Sega to add Android TV compatibility to these games. I can play them on my Bravia TV with a DS4.

But right now, there's not a single game there that interests me, because I have all of those in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. Will wait for the Master System, Saturn and Dreamcast games.
 
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