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The Official Sonic's Megadrive/Genesis Ultimate Collection thread

Wow.

That guy has never heard of Alex Kidd and he plays the games stretched with smoothing on.

So much fucking fail in one YouTube video.
 
OKAY! Alright slight delay on the actual compilation impressions due to having to check on my Seaman(lolz)

But while I'm here I'll talk about the packaging.
-On the back of the box there's a screenshot of Sonic 3 but it's labeled as Sonic 2....k.
-In Sonic 1's "play tips" section: Remeber the time bonus - there's no time to lose! Wish there was a way to slap a manual.
-In the Golden Axe "gameplay hints" section(yes they didn't call it "play tips" like in the Sonic 1 section): When you ride a Bizarrian, it will take all damage from enemy hits instead of you.(What? That can't be right)
-There's a couple other sections for Streets of Rage 1, Vectorman, Ecco, and Phantasy Star 2. They all vary in size with PS2 taking the most pages.
-From the status effects description for Sleep(Zzz): The character is temporarily knocked out by sleeping potion.(Say what?)

And that's the end of the manual. :lol
 
I'd be interested in hearing about the emulation quality, especially regarding the sound. It seems like the genesis emulation is hard to perfect. Even virtual console couldn't get the sound right in certain games (Streets of Rage 2).
 
jepjepjep said:
I'd be interested in hearing about the emulation quality, especially regarding the sound. It seems like the genesis emulation is hard to perfect. Even virtual console couldn't get the sound right in certain games (Streets of Rage 2).

This is the most important thing right now.

The Xbox live emulation was very good for Sonic 1 2 and SOR. However there are hickups/skips every now and then, that was the extent though. I'm extremely anal about this sort of thing, and even with the hickups I found it acceptable overall. Hopefully this is just as good or better for every game.
 
So far so good it looks like. About the only fault I've seen so far is some slowdown in the arcade port of Space Harrier(which I'm not even 100% sure on)

The issue with the battle music continuing to play after the battle was over in PSIV was also resolved.

I imagine somebody else in here will pick up on a few things so eh.

Golden Axe still sucks btw.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
So far so good it looks like. About the only fault I've seen so far is some slowdown in the arcade port of Space Harrier(which I'm not even 100% sure on)

The issue with the battle music continuing to play after the battle was over in PSIV was also resolved.

I imagine somebody else in here will pick up on a few things so eh.

Golden Axe still sucks btw.

By Golden Axe still sucks, do you mean the sound is off or do you just don't like the game?
 
Kadey said:
Will it have the Sega Ages versions of certain games?

Ain't nothing Sega Ages about this set.
-The artwork is a picture of the NA boxart(front only) and a pic of the cartridge. None of this hundreds of pieces of official art + commercials + other nonsense.
-All of the games are straight ports. None of this faster run-speed for PSI-IV or whatever else. It's essentially the same stuff from the late 80s/early 90s.
-Aside from controller configuration and save-anywhere the options are pretty sparse. Video is limited to 4:3 or 16:9 with toggle smoothing(which I didn't even touch). None of this dozen filters/resolutions with optional scanlines or any of that other jazz.
-Basically you get what you pay for; almost 50 games for $30. If you want to spend more money to get less games but with better versions and more extras that's all you.
-To a handful of Sega fans this compilation is an insult but to most everyone else it's pretty damn decent, well at least it's certainly an improvement over the last one.
-It's still several times cheaper than attempting to hunt down any of these games on your own...legally of course.

And Golden Axe sucks because it's a terrible game. Actually strike that it's a terrible series(except for Revenge of Death Adder and Golden Axe Warrior)

It is rather unfortunate though that Sega has possibly stopped their Ages releases. Lately they've all been A++ affairs.
 
For those whining about no S3+K, from the official SEGA America blog:

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2009/02/10/sonics-ultimate-genesis-collection-yes-it-has-sonic-games-too/

This ‘Sonic 3 + Knuckles’ feature wasn’t included for Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. I spoke with the producer for Sonic’s UGC, Ethan Einhorn, who definitely understands the nature of hard-core Sonic fandom. We had a good conversation about the game, and I got Ethan’s official explanation for why Sonic 3 + Knuckles wasn’t included: “To shore up the development time necessary to get “Lock-On” to work in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety.”
I'm not rabid about the omission, but that's a weak excuse for it. February 10 is a hard and fast deadline that can't slip no matter what? Really? HotD came out the same day, it actually would have been a smarter business move to delay it.
 
This just in: Next-gen systems can't handle 16 bit gimmick. Microsoft to release new 360 with "blast processing" chips. Sony to recall all PS3s to add an additional core to handle Mode 7 graphics.
 
Lock on doesn't need anything to actually work. It's a simple matter of plugging in RAM between the ROM for Sonic 2 and Sonic 1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is no more a matter than marging the two ROM together.

The technology is bullshit. Sega have the ROMs already within Mega Collection anyhow.
 
Costanza said:
My Amazon order moved to shipping soon, should have this Thursday :D

My Amazon order also says Shipping Soon, but still has a shipping estimate of 02-17. Should I expect it sooner than that?
 
“To shore up the development time necessary to get “Lock-On” to work in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety.”

That is the weakest shit I have heard from a developer in quite some time. They are fucking 16 bit roms. On a 5gb disc. In an emulator. With filters. Oh look here I am google searching. Good lord, it appears someone has already done the impossible! Sonic 3 & Knuckles? 4MB?! BUT HOW?!
 
“To shore up the development time necessary to get “Lock-On” to work in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety.”

Wow, so much bullshit in just 2 sentences. I'm not sure what the real reason is, but this is just a blatant lie.
 
lawblob said:
My Amazon order also says Shipping Soon, but still has a shipping estimate of 02-17. Should I expect it sooner than that?
Yeah. That doesn't update if they happen to get something instock before the estimated date.
 
Lateraleye said:
For those whining about no S3+K, from the official SEGA America blog:

Luckily I don't care about the omission, but yeah, if this isn't blatant bullshit, I don't know what is.

Costanza said:
Yeah. That doesn't update if they happen to get something instock before the estimated date.

Awesome! Can't wait to play this collection with my new SFIV stick! :D
 
mh56 said:
just played kid chameleon, im mad i missed that game when i was kid, I cant get pass the 3rd lvl tho>_<

Knights can climb walls(hit whatever is the C button when next to one) and you need to get a short running start before you can break walls with the Rhino.

Also I know this goes against the original design of the game but feel free to save every now and then. It's a pretty long game with a rather confusing level structure(not to mention that you have to beat it in one sitting with limited continues on top of that)

I'll admit I'v never "honestly" beaten this game. Farthest I got was near the end of the second-to-last stage(which is an absolute bitch). The only way I beat the game was by doing the 2nd stage warp which kicks you straight to the final boss.

Course that was over 13 years ago I think so eh maybe things have changed for me.

Shawn128 said:
Extra work or not, it's still pretty weak that Sonic 3 + SK wasn't included. I'd rather play that than a lot of the extra arcade games that were included. Hard decision, I'm sure, but also the wrong decision imo.

If by "a lot" you mean Altered Beast, Congo Bongo, and Zaxxon then yeah I agree. The rest are phenomenal though.

Also the main reason I'm not spitting flaming daggers at everything Sega right now is because I steeled myself months ago when I assumed that S3&K wouldn't make it in.
 
Extra work or not, it's still pretty weak that Sonic 3 + SK wasn't included. I'd rather play that than a lot of the extra arcade games that were included. Hard decision, I'm sure, but also the wrong decision imo.
 
cjelly said:
Wow.

That guy has never heard of Alex Kidd and he plays the games stretched with smoothing on.

So much fucking fail in one YouTube video.
The woman saying "No, I want to play Sonic!" was what made me shut it off. Freaks.
 
I want to know as well. Wouldn't really worry about it if it weren't for the fact that for some weird reason madcatz made the last buttons on both rows right shoulder buttons (RB/RT).

Can I customize the controls on a per game basis or overall blanket setting as these pads just basically scream genesis 6 button pad.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Knights can climb walls(hit whatever is the C button when next to one) and you need to get a short running start before you can break walls with the Rhino.

Also I know this goes against the original design of the game but feel free to save every now and then. It's a pretty long game with a rather confusing level structure(not to mention that you have to beat it in one sitting with limited continues on top of that)

I'll admit I'v never "honestly" beaten this game. Farthest I got was near the end of the second-to-last stage(which is an absolute bitch). The only way I beat the game was by doing the 2nd stage warp which kicks you straight to the final boss.

hmm yea see i got stuck where I just had no idea where to go, it dropped knight suits, picked them up and it looks like he clings to the wall, but i can never get him to climb up...pressed all the buttons too, i dunno ill try again today
 
Can't really hate on people who don't know Alex Kidd.
If you didn't own an SMS you only remember him from that piece of garbage Genesis game. He's also playable in Sega Superstars Tennis and is also a cheapass goober when you face him in the campaign mode.

Couple that with the fact that despite its good qualities the SMS was nowhere near the popularity of the NES and you've got a generation and a half that couldn't give two shits about some rice-cake loving goon who kills people in Janken.

DarkCloud said:
Can I customize the controls on a per game basis or overall blanket setting as these pads just basically scream genesis 6 button pad.

Unfortunately as far as I can tell it's on a per game basis. Takes like 10 seconds to set-up though and all settings are saved.
Works great with the Hori EX stick(though I wish the stick was heavier, damn near heaved the thing off my coffee table and into the screen door during a session of Space Harrier)

mh56 said:
hmm yea see i got stuck where I just had no idea where to go, it dropped knight suits, picked them up and it looks like he clings to the wall, but i can never get him to climb up...pressed all the buttons too, i dunno ill try again today

The trick is you have to mash the action button(as listed in the control settings) in order to climb. If you simply press it once or hold it down you won't get anywhere. The flying costume you can get later on works the same way.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
If you didn't own an SMS you only remember him from that piece of garbage Genesis game.
Pretty much.

I had heard of him in my younger days, but I never considered him to be relevant.
 
I really hate the lack of Shadow Dancer in this set. Otherwise I'd just buy this and throw out the old PS2 collection.

I'll still get this (after a price drop or two), but now I'm forced to keep both collections. I really liked Shadow Dancer.
 
SecretBonusPoint said:
“To shore up the development time necessary to get “Lock-On” to work in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety.”

Oh come on. Come on. Really?

I can see the whole situation going down at Sega.

"Quick guys, are development budget is running out. We need to decide how to spend the next 5 minutes of our development time wisely. Do we drag and drop the Sonic 3+ knuckles rom or do we drag and drop Mark III Golden Axe rom? Decisions decisions!"
 
Random Sega stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRQvAY9MzOQ&feature=related

Crappy JP-only Arcade beatemup D.D. Crew features a Prince sample.

"Shut up already. Damn" The sound designers played with the voice sample a bit but apart from that it's near an exact replica. Course as we all know this isn't anything new for Sega(Just check out Golden Axe, Sonic CD JP, and many others).

Youtube sucks for anything Prince-related so best check out "Housequake" off the album Sign O' the Times.

Probably a mountain of other samples buried in this game(especially since it's JP-only and thus less likely to run into copyright issues) but eh I dunno...
 
Dang it!! I knew I forgot to reserve something a few weeks back. I totally forgot about the release date. I hope my Gamestop has an extra copy. I want this SO badly......
 
Everybody MUST play the Alex Kidd arcade sometime. Forget that Genesis game. The original Arcade game is one of those great, long-forgotten games that nobody ever brings up anymore.
 
There are far too many arcade games overshadowed by stupid only-good-for-nostalgia ports. The more exposure the arcade versions of games get, the better.
 
Total newb question (I no longer had a Genesis by the time it was released) but is S&K its own stand alone game without the add on feature or was it basically an add on game to begin with?
 
Dr. Zoidberg said:
I really hate the lack of Shadow Dancer in this set. Otherwise I'd just buy this and throw out the old PS2 collection.

I'll still get this (after a price drop or two), but now I'm forced to keep both collections. I really liked Shadow Dancer.

This describes my situation exactly. I was ready to dump the PS2 version and then I saw that it didn't have Shadow Dancer, which I absolutely love... thus, I am keeping the PS2 version for 1 freaking game... damnit.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Random Sega stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRQvAY9MzOQ&feature=related

Crappy JP-only Arcade beatemup D.D. Crew features a Prince sample.

"Shut up already. Damn" The sound designers played with the voice sample a bit but apart from that it's near an exact replica. Course as we all know this isn't anything new for Sega(Just check out Golden Axe, Sonic CD JP, and many others).

Youtube sucks for anything Prince-related so best check out "Housequake" off the album Sign O' the Times.

Probably a mountain of other samples buried in this game(especially since it's JP-only and thus less likely to run into copyright issues) but eh I dunno...
Weird...D.D. Crew was released in US arcades officially, I thought. It was in an arcade I used to go to regularly in order to play vanilla SF II at (not long after release in '91) and was fully English AFAIR. Definitely crappy, though.

On the new collection, how's the sound quality of the Genny/MD games?
 
MightyHedgehog said:
Weird...D.D. Crew was released in US arcades officially, I thought. It was in an arcade I used to go to regularly in order to play vanilla SF II at (not long after release in '91) and was fully English AFAIR. Definitely crappy, though.

On the new collection, how's the sound quality of the Genny/MD games?

1. You're probably right about that. Maybe I misread somewhere that it was JP only and ran with it.

2. I haven't noticed anything particularly off. It's a step up from the last Genesis Collection. Then again I haven't bothered to hook up my genesis to compare.
 
truly101 said:
Total newb question (I no longer had a Genesis by the time it was released) but is S&K its own stand alone game without the add on feature or was it basically an add on game to begin with?

The best way to describe it is a stand-alone expansion pack that could be appended onto the original game.

Sonic 3 - A number of levels (with level select) that you could play through as Sonic, Tails, or Both at once.

S&K - New levels that you could play through (no level select) that you could play through as Sonic or Knuckles.

S3&K - All of the levels of both games (with level select) that you could play through as Sonic, Tails, Both, or Knuckles.
 
Coin Return said:
I haven't played Kid Chameleon, Dynamite Headdy or Decap Attack for years, can't wait to pick this up today!

Same here. Kid Chameleon and the Golden Axe trilogy alone make it worth my while, but there are also tons of games on here that I never played. I was more of an NES/SNES kid in those days, so I skipped a lot of great Genesis games (never played the other compilation discs last generation either).

But yeah, Kid Chameleon will be first on my list.
 
I'm pretty sure Ethan monitors these boards, and though I know he's getting shit for the S&K thing... I just wanted to say that now's the time to take this game and build off it - not through "plus" versions that add a couple new games, but by adding discs to the "series" with other games...

Make a Sega CD disc with just the best games as an appendix, or some "deep cuts" of lesser known games.

I hope Sega just doesn't re-release the hell out of this thing with minor upgrades - it will just punish the early adopters.
 
I've played at least half of these games, but I'm really buying this collection for Shining Force II. Because that's a long game though, I kind of want to play through a few of the shorter games first. Any suggestions on where to start?
 
ZealousD said:
The best way to describe it is a stand-alone expansion pack that could be appended onto the original game.

Sonic 3 - A number of levels (with level select) that you could play through as Sonic, Tails, or Both at once.

S&K - New levels that you could play through (no level select) that you could play through as Sonic or Knuckles.

S3&K - All of the levels of both games (with level select) that you could play through as Sonic, Tails, Both, or Knuckles.
And also KiS2 which lets you play as Knuckles in Sonic 2.
 
Aaron Strife said:
And also KiS2 which lets you play as Knuckles in Sonic 2.

I've always been wondering if Sonic 2 was slightly modified for Knuckles or not. Some of the bonuses couldn't be reached without him !
 
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