Legendary Mega Drive programmer Jonathan Miller has sadly passed away.
Miller is one of the key figures behind the GEMS sound driver, alongside Burt Sloane, Chris Grigg and Mark Miller. Miller’s career started with 1991’s Spider-Man vs the Kingpin as a programmer. He would later contribute to the development of Chakan, Taz-Mania, Pink Goes to Hollywood, Taz in Escape From Mars, Wacky Worlds and X-Men 2: Clone Wars.
The GEMS sound driver would go on to be utilised in over 200 Mega Drive games and was a key piece of software for Mega Drive developers in the early nineties. Chances are some of your favourite Mega Drive games are powered by the GEMS sound driver. Miller’s legacy in regards to the Mega Drive is one that has touched upon so many game soundtracks and Mega Drive owners as a result. His contributions go beyond simple music production as the GEMS sound driver is so synonymous with the Mega Drive that an experienced ear can instantly recognise music that has been made with it.
SEGADriven send our condolences to Jon’s family and friends. You can learn more about GEMS via this excellent video essay by GST Channel:
The TeraDrive is a Japan exclusive IBM-compatible PC that also features a built-in Mega Drive. You can click here to read more about it in our website’s hardware section. The computer was released in 1991 and for the longest time the only piece of TeraDrive exclusive gaming software was thought to be a game called Puzzle Construction. This is no longer the case as Archive.org user ZiggyTheHamster has found and dumped a port of Cyan’s The Manhole which was originally released in 1988 for the Mac and developed using HyperCard.
This TeraDrive port of The Manhole is based on the FM Towns version released in 1990. ZiggyTheHamster notes that the in-game action of this TeraDrive port appears to be powered by the PC itself, while the Mega Drive portion of the computer is powering the audio. This is basically a reverse of what Puzzle Construction does which uses the Mega Drive hardware for the in-game action.
In our latest video we decided to look at every Mega Drive port that started life as a NES original! You can watch the video in full via the embed below:
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In our latest YouTube video we’re exploring the world of Amiga games that were ported to the Mega Drive. We take a look at 5 titles in particular and see how they stack up against their original versions:
All 3 Sparkster titles are being re-released as a part of a new Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked collection that comes with a reprint of the entire 6 part Sparkster series from Sonic the Comic. This new compilation is being handled by Limited Run Games using their proprietary Carbon Engine and is being released on PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
The 3 titles included are Rocket Knight Adventures for the Mega Drive, Sparkster for Mega Drive and Sparkster for SNES which is actually quite different when compared to its Mega Drive counterpart. The mini comic that features the entire ‘Last of the Rocket Knights’ story also marks the first time any material from Sonic the Comic has been republished since the comic ceased publication in 2002.
Pre-orders for Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will open on January 19th 2024 and finish on February 18th 2024. All pre-orders placed during this window will be honored. You can browse the various editions of the game on the Limited Run Games store by clicking here, but don’t feel like you’re missing out if you don’t want to place an order for an expensive collector’s edition, as even the standard edition comes with a reversible cover and the comic.
The development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 continues to be one of the most well documented stories in gaming history. The Video Game History Foundation have now preserved artwork from 2 ex-SEGA Technical Institute artists and discover a whole host of content from the game’s early development that we’ve never seen before. See below for a full list of the discoveries that they’ve made:
– Dark Empire was a cancelled STI Mega Drive game that was shelved due to Sonic 2 getting green-lit
– Maps of the concept stage Genocide/Cyber City by Tom Payne have been scanned that give us a better understanding of what this stage might have looked like
– A working demo of Genocide/Cyber City has been produced with Hez of Sonic the Hedgehog Classic fame, who has also been working on his own preservation of Wood/Secret Jungle Zone
– All of Tom Payne’s artwork has been made available to browse on Archive.org by clicking here
– The Sand Shower mock-up screen is actually animated and viewable on Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio alongside a Wood/Secret Jungle Zone mock-up
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio also reveals a completely unseen Winter-themed zone which is a palette swap of Sand Shower that now features snow and Christmas trees
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio has been entirely preserved on YouTube and is available to watch by clicking here. It also contains artwork for a deleted Sonic Spinball stage
You can watch the entire video on all of these discoveries from The Video Game History Foundation via the embed below:
Previously PC and Switch exclusive, Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon from developer PiXEL is now coming to the Mega Drive via Columbus Circle. The Mega Drive version will release in December 2023 exclusively via Japanese retailers.
Amazon Japan have previously sold Columbus Circle products, but at the time of writing there is currently no listing for Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon on Amazon Japan.
Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon is a belt-scrolling beat-em-up in the Streets of Rage/Final Fight/Double Dragon mold. You can see the Switch version in action via the video embed below:
ZPF is a brand new horizontally-scrolling shooter for the Mega Drive that has been in development for quite some time now. The three person team of Gryzor Rozyrg, Mikael Tillander and jgvex.eth have been toiling away on this impressive-looking shmup since 2020, and they are now close to launching a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for the last stage of development, as well as give players the opportunity to secure a boxed version of the game which will now be published by Mega Cat Studios.
Mega Cat Studios have been very active in the indie Mega Drive space, publishing games like Coffee Crisis, Phantom Gear, Tanzer and Romeow & Julicat. You can view ZPF’s entry on the Mega Cat website by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the Mega Cat newsletter for updates on ZPF and the Kickstarter as soon as it happens via this same page. Check out the latest development update on ZPF via the embed below:
Developed by independent studio Overrated Future, Planet B is a brand new Mega Drive game that offers something a little different. The game is promising procedurally generated worlds and rogue-like action, which is something very unique when it comes to Mega Drive games. You can watch the game’s reveal trailer below:
Planet B by Overrated Future is currently set to be releasing, “in a near future”. The game will be getting a physical release but it is not currently available to pre-order at the moment. We hope to share more about Planet B as further information becomes available.
Gamtec’s independent Mega Drive RPG Legend of Wukong is getting a new lease of life through the Evercade EXP and Evercade VS retro systems.
Originally released in Taiwan in 1996 and then translated to English by Super Fighter Team in 2008, the game is one of the rarest independent Mega Drive releases and has been out of print for many years. The game will now be included in Piko Interactive Collection 3 for the Evercade alongside other Mega Drive games like Zero Tolerance and Sword of Sodan. You can watch the full reveal trailer for Piko Interactive Collection 3 by clicking the embed below:
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