Mega Drive & MegaSD

The first time I saw what the Mega Drive was capable of was in the Feb 1989 issue of ACE magazine. They featured one game – Space Harrier II, and the graphics looked mesmerizing. Of course, I wanted one but had to wait till it was officially released in Australia. In the meantime, my Amiga was keeping me busy. Fast forward to 1991, and I finally got one, it was bundled with Altered Beast and I purchased several games at the same time such as The Revenge of Shinobi, Rambo III, and Super Monaco II. 

   

To say that I thoroughly enjoyed this beast of a machine would be a massive understatement. By the end of ‘92, I had 18 games in the collection. Being cartridge, games were unfortunately quite expensive. There were cheaper bootleg copies available, but there was no guarantee they didn’t have errors. You could rent or buy second-hand copies, and having worked at a game store during that time, I had access to some cheap games. Or you could invest in a flashcart device typically called the Super Magic Drive. This allowed you to load games into the Mega Drive using a 3.5” floppy disk.

    

Forward to today and we have modern-day equivalents such as the Mega EverDrive from Krikzz and MegaSD from Terraonion. I’ve got both but for this article, I’ll be talking about the MegaSD and its various capabilities. The great thing about the MegaSD is that not only can you play Mega Drive ROM carts, it also plays Master System games including FM support and full Mega-CD compatibility. You can now play all your Mega-CD games without having the add-on attached. 32X ROMs are also supported providing you have a 32X attached.

  

Price is around AUD 380 excluding shipping and dependant upon the exchange rate, but considering the price and availability of games on both formats these days, it’s definitely worth it. The best place to download complete ROM sets and disc images is archive.org. You then put them on a Micro-SD card, insert it into the MegaSD and you’re good to go. 

This is what you’ll see when you boot the MegaSD. Files and folders located on your Micro-SD card will be shown. For ROMS, you can organize them into regions, then A-K and L-Z for example. For disc games, you need to place each game uncompressed into its own folder.

This is the Options screen where you can enable or disable the various functions available. The MegaSD supports auto region fixing, an in-game menu for load/save states and enabling cheats, changing settings for the Mega-CD and Master System, and much more.

Before playing Mega-CD games, you need to download the different region BIOS files, place them on the Micro-SD card and change the BIOS location in Options. They are freely available at archive.org or segaretro.org. It's recommended to run Mega-CD games based on your console's region to avoid issues such as out of sync video, stuttering or slowdowns.

Are multi-disc games supported? They certainly are! Games such as Night Trap, Ground Zero Texas, and Prize Fighter have multiple discs that you would typically swap over when requested. By placing the contents of each disc into the one folder, you can use the in-game menu or the button on the MegaSD to swap discs.

Another advantage of having a flashcart is that you can load graphical demos and play hacked games that typically improve certain aspects of the presentation and gameplay (this isn't exclusive to the MegaSD, you can do the same with a Mega EverDrive). One of the most popular hackers on the Mega Drive platform is called Pyron. He has worked on several games to improve colors so they look closer to the arcade (go to romhacking.net to download these). Here is one example of a Pyron color hack for Final Fight CD -

This is the Japanese version non-enhanced.

This is with the color hack applied so it looks closer to the arcade version.

There are some great graphical demos or productions as they are known as, for the Mega Drive that can be downloaded from pouet.net, here is one example -

The Spiral released by Resistance in 2019

I've had the MegaSD since November 2019 and to date, it has been working flawlessly. I currently have around 50 Mega-CD games, several hundred Mega Drive and Master System games, demos and various game hacks on the Micro-SD card. The only issue I've come across was with Vampire Killer (Castlevania: Bloodlines) as it kept crashing at the Konami logo. When I enabled 'Auto region fix', it ran without any issues. Here is a list of functions that the MegaSD can do -

• FPGA recreation of the Mega-CD/Sega CD hardware, can play all region disc games
• Supports Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System and 32X games (requires a 32X)
• Save State support for Mega Drive/Genesis games
• Built-in cheat engine for Mega Drive/Genesis games
• Per game Mega-CD/Sega CD Backup RAM support
• Master System FM Core
• Enhanced Mega Drive/Genesis games with CD audio
• Supports 400GB+ Micro-SD cards

The overall quality of the device itself, the packaging, and the manual is excellent. You can purchase the MegaSD directly from Terraonion but just be aware that stock isn't available all year round.

Mega Drive Mini & Project Lunar

The Mega Drive Mini is a great reproduction of the original, right down to the non-functioning slidable volume control. The hardware was developed internally by Sega, and the front-end and game ports were developed by famed developer M2 Co., Ltd.

The great thing about the Mega Drive Mini is that you can add additional games as well as emulate other hardware systems. To do this, you can install Project Lunar, a fully-fledged modification tool. I've created a user guide that explains the steps that you need to do. Project Lunar also has Wi-Fi support and I recently received a compatible adapter, so I'll talk about this in a future post. You can download the user guide from here.

Edit 01/06: Having received the supposedly compatible Wi-Fi adapter, the Mini fails to detect it, so I will leave this and investigate further at another time.

Series 8 Game Recorder

About 10 years ago in my previous job, I had the privilege of helping to develop and test a USB device that allowed you to capture video from your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Wii console. As YouTube was in its infancy, gaming channels started popping up showing themselves playing their favorite games and uploading them to show others their skills. Most capture devices during that time were designed to capture VHS video and weren't really suitable for a high-quality video signal from a console. With the increased power of the newer consoles, most games ran at 60fps. Most VHS capture devices didn't support this, so we saw an opportunity to develop one. All up it took around 6 months from start to finish. During the development, I used a variety of different consoles and games to test, with lots of tweaking of settings within the software. The interface was basic but it was neat and quite nimble as it didn't get in the way of its main function. To help with the promotion I created a demonstration video -

And a short promo video -

Why is it called Series 8? We thought it sounded cool at the time. EB Games initially took our first shipment of 1000 units and from memory it sold quite well. This is one project that I really enjoyed working on and being the only gamer within the business, I had a lot of say on the design and packaging. This is what the packaging looked like -

Streets of Rage 4

I know I should be tackling my games list, but Streets of Rage 4 has just been released! Streets of Rage II is one of my favorite Mega Drive games and it's a game that I still play today, especially multi-player. The latest edition of the franchise has been released on the Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC. I've decided to purchase the Xbox One version mainly because I have several controllers for the system and will come in handy for multi-player sessions.

The only difference between each version is that the Xbox edition currently lacks additional video settings such as a CRT filter but will be added in a future update. Apart from that, each version is basically the same. Price is around AUD 38 and is just over 4.6GB in size. To date, I've played it for around seven to eight hours, and from what I've experienced, it's awesome. It's one of those games where you're thinking about it when you're not playing it, which is a good sign. 

You initially start the game with four characters available, Axel and Blaze from the Mega Drive trilogy and two new characters - Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia. Additional players as well as character variants of the three previous games are also available when unlocked. I've mainly been playing as Floyd as he plays very similar to the Max character from Streets of Rage II. 

Controls are slightly different as the B button is used to pick up objects but apart from that it feels like the original games. A couple of new additions is the ability to juggle enemies off walls and each other for extended combos. You can also recover spent health by using a blitz move and to perform successive follow-up attacks. Star icons can be collected to perform super bomb moves that can do massive damage to multiple enemies at once. They are hidden throughout the stages.

The graphics are a joy to behold. They're super detailed with intricate lighting effects, glorious parallax scrolling, and fantastic animation. The soundtrack & SFX are equally good with new music by the original composers, Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima, and others. You also have the option of selecting the original Mega Drive chiptune soundtrack.

I love a good challenge so I've decided to start playing on the Hard setting...man this game is tough!! You basically get two lives to complete a level with unlimited tries where you can continue or change your character. The incentive to keep playing is high as you try to improve your score and ranking. The more you play, the more you unlock those hidden extras. There are 12 stages in total, so you're definitely getting your bang for your buck!

To make things a little familiar, the first level is reminiscent of the first two games right down to the naming of some of the buildings (Pine Pot for example). The streets are full of life, there's flashing neon lights, moths surrounding street lights, steam from manholes, birds flying, reflections on water puddles, people in buildings, and so much more.

So that's Streets of Rage 4 in a nutshell. Obviously, this is a no-brainer for fighting fans. A big thank you to Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games, and Dotemu for their fantastic work and for keeping the dream alive of bringing these classics to modern gaming (a big thanks to Zehb for giving me the ok to use his illustration on this post, please follow him on Twitter).

Games, Game, Games - Part Two

Radiant Silvergun - This game is a bit of a mystery to me, not that I don't know what the game is, but for the fact it has only been available in limited numbers and the prices have been exorbitant. Developed by famed developer Treasure, it was released initially in the arcade for the ST-V in 1998 and then soon after for the Saturn. I don't have the original but I do have a reproduction that is a near-exact copy. Looking forward to giving this a blast.

Three Dirty Dwarves - This is a beat 'em up developed by Appaloosa Interactive and released in 1996. I remember at the time that it got a decent review in GameFan (Volume 4, Issue 11), it takes advantage of the Saturn's advanced 2D capabilities.

Golden Axe: The Dual - Based on the characters from the Golden Axe series, it was originally released in 1995 for the ST-V and ported to the Saturn a few months later. I remember playing this quite a bit in the arcades, the graphics are quite impressive and it plays quite well.

Guardian Heroes - Here's another Treasure game that I've been looking forward to playing on the Saturn. Released in 1996, it's a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up with RPG elements thrown in. It got rave reviews in the magazines at the time and was later released on the Xbox 360.

Gradius V - From the games I've listed so far, you might get a notion I love shooters, whether they're horizontal, vertical, 3D, whatever. What makes Gradius V so special is that Konami gave Treasure the coding responsibilities. Released in 2004 and the only Gradius not released in the arcade, this is a graphically stunning but rock hard horizontal shooter. My best effort is level six out of eight. Time to finish this!

Odin Sphere - Here's another Vanillaware title to finish. Released in 2007, it was conceived as a spiritual sequel to Princess Crown on the Saturn. It's a 2D side-scrolling action game with role-playing elements. It has lush graphics and intuitive controls.

Another World - I'll never forget the first time I played this on the Amiga, it blew my mind, it felt fresh and was a blast to play. Now it's time to play this enhanced version to see how it compares.

Super Mario Sunshine - Another Mario game that I haven't played! Purchased this when it was released in 2002 (18 years ago!), I had very good intentions to rip it open and pop it in the Gamecube. Watching various gameplay videos on YouTube, it still looks stunning.

Luigi's Mansion - When the Gamecube was released in Australia in 2002, this was one of the launch titles along with Wave Race: Blue Storm and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II. I hurriedly unpacked the Gamecube, played this for 30 mins then packed it up again intending to set it up properly later on. Fast forward to 2020, this will be the second time playing this and I intend to go all the way.

Yoshi's Story - Seriously, who doesn't love Yoshi?! Released in 1998 in PAL territories, this is the follow up to Yoshi's Island on the SNES. Using pre-rendered 3D graphics and lush colours, it's a great demonstration of the N64's 2D capabilities.

Ikaruga - This is the third Treasure game on this list that I'm looking forward to playing and finishing. Developed on the NAOMI system and then later ported to the Dreamcast in 2002, it's a spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun borrowing elements from that game.

Sturmwind - Developed by Duranik and released in 2013, it's a horizontal shooter that uses a mix of pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds. I purchased this when they did a second print run and it was named as the 2013 game of the year by Classic Game Room.

Galagon - Who said the 2600 can't do a near-perfect version of Galaga?! Developed by homebrew specialists Champ Games, the attention to detail, accuracy, and spot-on graphics & sound are fantastic. Even the artwork on the packaging and manual are super detailed and will take pride of place in any collection.

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns - I remember first seeing and playing this in 1984 at K-Mart and I wanted it so badly. Unfortunately it was quite expensive (close to AUD 100) due to it having a DSP for improved graphics and sound. No way were my parents going to spend that much on a single game. Anyway, now that I've got a Harmony flashcart, I'm going to give it a red hot go.

Banshee - This is a vertical shooter released in 1994 by Core Design, it was also released for the 1200 and is highly ranked in many Amiga game lists.

Flink - Developed by Psygnosis and released in 1994, it was released for the Mega CD and CD32 and is one of the few games not released on other Amiga systems. It's a 2D side-scrolling platformer with detailed graphics and high-quality music.

Games, Games, Games - Part One

With the pandemic outbreak that has spread around the world, we certainly live in interesting times. For the last six weeks I’ve been working from home, writing user manuals and product testing. I’ve set up a little makeshift desk with my Surface Pro and an iPad to keep me company. I’m lucky to work for a business that gives me a lot of flexibility in regards to what hours I work, as long as my projects are submitted on time. The upside to working from home is that I save two hours of travel time a day, which means there’s more time dedicated to playing games! I set myself a challenge by selecting a minimum of two games per system to finish. This is what I’ve selected:

Geometry War: Retro Evolved 2 - Released in 2008, this is the sequel to Geometry Wars by the now-defunct Bizarre Creations. I’ve only played this here and there throughout the years but now’s the time to knuckle down and see how much I can score.

Mutant Storm Reloaded - This is a multi-directional shooter by the sorely missed PomPom Games. One of the first games that I downloaded on release way back in 2005, the highest I’ve gone is room 52 out of a total of 89.

Project Sylpheed - Purchased this on release in 2007, it’s been one of those games on the ‘to be played’ list that’s been there forever. The graphics look awesome, let’s see how it plays.

Super Stardust HD - A brilliant twin-stick shooter by the fab developer Housemarque. I’ve got pretty far with this one but I’ve decided to start from scratch. The graphics still mesmerize me.

Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype - A graphically stunning horizontal shooter released in 2008 and developed by SideQuest Studios. I had a go of this today to see how it plays and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to exploring it a lot more.

Black - Having played first-person shooters mainly on the PC, I wasn’t a particular fan playing these on a console. That is until I played Black. Developed by Criterion Games and released in 2006, it felt right playing it with a controller instead of a keyboard & mouse. The graphics are great, it has destructible environments and atmospheric sound. Purchased this on release, played it heavily but then life got in the way and haven’t played it since. Time to fix that.

Outrun 2 - I hate to admit it but I’ve never played this game! My copy is still shrink-wrapped and sitting on the bookshelf begging to be opened. Developed by Sega and ported over to the XBOX by Sumo Digital, it was released in 2004 to rave reviews.

Strikers 1945 - I love shooters yet I’ve only dabbled in Psikyo’s range of games mainly in the arcades. I’ve never sat down and played their ports on the various consoles. Released on the PlayStation and the Saturn in 1996, this is a vertical shooter with a WW2 type theme. Really looking forward to giving this a go.

RayStorm - I played this heaps back in the day, probably one of my favorite games on the system. Originally released in the arcades in 1996 by Taito on the FX-1B (arcade version of the PlayStation) system and then ported over in ‘97, this is the middle game in the “Ray” series. It’s time to finish this.

New Super Mario Bros. - Unfortunately I’ve been quite lax with my Mario games in the last 10 or 15 years. Super Mario 64 was the last one that I put a decent amount of time into and only dabbling with the Wii, Wii U, and portable versions. I thought I would start with this before getting onto the Galaxy games.

Punch-Out!! - One of my fav Nintendo series is Punch-Out!! and having finished the NES and SNES editions, it's time to get onto the Wii version.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade - There's something alluring about Vanillaware's game catalog. Odin Sphere on the PS2 and Dragon's Crown on the PS3 are quite stunning and this looks equally as good. Released in 2009, the graphics look like a work of art and is frequently listed as a hidden gem on the system.

Strike Series (Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, Urban Strike) - When you think of the Strike Series, you typically think of the Mega Drive versions. However, I've clocked the SNES version of Desert Strike and finished the PC version of Jungle Strike. Urban Strike is the one I've played the least. Now it's time to finish all three on the Mega Drive.

Bari-Arm - Known as Android Assault in the west, the Japanese version was released in 1993 and developed by Human Entertainment. It was certainly a title that got overlooked upon release and received unfairly low scores in some magazine at the time.

Super Aleste - This is one of the few games listed here that I've played and finished several times. Released in 1992 and developed by Compile, this is part of the Aleste series that's available on many different consoles. What makes this version unique, is its use of vibrant colour and Mode 7 effects to create one of the best shooters on the system.

Super Mario World - The first game I played on the SNES way back in 1991 when I purchased the Japanese version on import. After all these years, it's time to revisit this unforgettable classic.

Defender of the Crown - One of my favourite games on the Amiga and Commodore 64, the ST version has been converted to the Jaguar. Purchased this limited edition version along with the ST mouse adapter from Atari Age. Looking forward to giving this a red hot go.

In the beginning...

My love of video games goes back 42 years, it’s 1978 and I’m five years old. The first time I saw Space Invaders at my local milk bar in St Albans, I was mesmerized and hooked forever. Those black and white graphics and strips of colour, the iconic artwork on the side of the cabinet, and that pulsating sound. It may not be the first arcade game released but in my five-year-old mind, it’s all that mattered!

Throughout the years from 1978 to 1980, there was an explosion of arcade games and they started appearing everywhere. In shopping centers, in cafes and takeaway shops, and places like 7-11 and even at the cinemas. There were Atari’s Asteroids with those crisp vector graphics, Namco’s seminal Galaxians, the first game to use tile-based graphics, Sega’s Monaco GP, probably the first driving game I ever played, and the cocktail version of Nintendo’s highly addictive Sheriff. Whenever I saw an arcade machine, I would relentlessly pester my parents for whatever spare change they had and patiently wait my turn to play while they went off to shop.

I look back at my childhood with such fond memories. My Mum worked in the city, so we frequented places like Myer and other department stores and to see the latest movies at Village, Hoyts and Greater Union (this is before the local malls had cinemas). And of course, this involved many a visit to the local arcade centers. In Melbourne we were certainly spoilt for choice. We had Orbit on Elizabeth St, Flashback, and Orbit2b on Bourke St, Coin Play on Russell St and 10/4 Amusements on Swanston St. Being so close to Japan, Australia, and particularly Melbourne, received the latest games as soon as they were released. We certainly had a thriving arcade industry. I will never forget when I first played Pac Man, Moon Patrol, Gyruss, Joust, Karate Champ, Kung Fu Master, Xevious, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Punch-Out!! and many, many more.

The year 1982 was particularly important in my gaming history. Seeing as though I could only play video games in the arcades, I wanted, heck I needed a system to play on at home. And of course, the only thing I wanted was an Atari VCS. I pleaded with my parents to buy one for my birthday or Christmas or whatever! Unfortunately, they weren't exactly cheap, in '82 they were priced at $299 which was equivalent to a week’s wage. I would love to say that the VCS was my first console, but it wasn’t. That prize goes to the Hanimex Tempest TV Game Console, essentially a Pong clone that had a cartridge slot. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to get it, but all the games were two-player only and let’s face it, it was very basic.

  

Seeing the slight disappointment on my face, my parents finally caved in and purchased the last of the four switch wood veneer VCSs with Combat, two controllers, and the two paddles from Ted’s Cameras on Elizabeth St. I even got a copy of Pac Man with the bundle. Can I say that was one of the happiest days of my life?! I was beaming from ear to ear and I couldn’t wait to get home and start playing. After 30 mins of unpacking and setup, I was gaming till the wee hours of the morning. From memory, I‘m pretty sure it was school holidays as no way Mum was going to let me stay up late. Within two years, my collection grew from two games to round 65!

It was a glorious time to be alive. With frequent visits to the arcades and my ever-growing Atari collection, my gaming knowledge and skills were getting better and better. I was voraciously buying computer and video game magazines and soaking up all that information. This led to my next obsession, the Commodore 64...but that’s a story for another time.