21 ms·

Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

610 points by yincrash 9y ago

akhilcacharya 9y ago
The possibility of playing Shenmue on an iPhone is interesting..
yincrash 9y ago
Details: SEGA® Forever™ is a free and growing classic games collection of nearly every SEGA game ever released from every console era – Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and more. Available on iOS and Android mobile devices. -Play free -Save your game progress -Leaderboard -- compete with the world for high scores -Controller support -- fully integrated wireless Bluetooth controller support -Offline play -Games released every month; download them all!
yincrash 9y ago
I wonder if VMU minigames will be ported with the associated Dreamcast games.
nerflad 9y ago
This is amazing and unexpected. I hope this sets a precedent for other developers to follow with their old titles.
chenster 9y ago
It's not free. Every game has "in-app purchase".
- ibic 9y ago
  Exactly what I wanted to say.
- yincrash 9y ago
  It appears to be ad supported with an in-app purchase to disable ads for $1.99. According to eurogamer, "You can play them forever without paying, or you can spend a one-off fee of £1.99 to ditch the ads, which appear on the start screen, the save screen, and I think at launch, but will not interrupt play in anyway" http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-segas-back-catalogue-is-headed-to-mobile-with-sega-forever http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-segas-back-cata...
  - candiodari 9y ago
    Oh so it's $1.99 PER GAME. I was wondering why this amount seemed rather cheap.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- paulcole 9y ago
  You can play without paying money, right? That's much one definition of free, isn't it? Edit: Why the downvoted? I thought free = no money?
  - taneq 9y ago
    Not if they force you to do work for them in order to use it. They're basically employing you to look at ads, and paying you in game time.
    - paulcole 9y ago
      I guess I'm not getting this. The game costs no money out of pocket to play, I'm just exchanging ads for playing? Isn't that a free (as in money) game?
      - efreak 9y ago
        Money is not the only currency.
      - Majestic121 9y ago
        It's free (as in money), but "free (as in money)" is a very limited definition of free
        Tinyyy 9y ago
        It seems that most people would like it to be free as in charity, which would never happen.
        Majestic121 9y ago
        I agree, they need to make money somehow and I actually don't have any issue with the way Sega is doing it (ads if you don't want to pay money, or 2€ if you don't want to pay with ads). What I object to is mainly assimilating not paying money and being free : it's not free if there are ads, you're paying with time, mind share (because there would not be that much money in ads if it was not at least a little bit effective) and potentially security (as ads are a known malware vector) That's why I insist that free as in no money is a very restricted definition of free, and should not be considered equal to simply free, because it then undermines products that actually are free
tdiggity 9y ago
The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.
- richev 9y ago
  Or, you can just purchase the game to get rid of the apps.
  - s0rce 9y ago
    Then its not exactly free.
    - oculusthrift 9y ago
      oh no :(
  - noxToken 9y ago
    This is such a false dilemma. "Pony up money or get the same content with a less-than-stellar ad experience." What about supporting your product with ads that don't suck? I know this is much easier in theory, but I'd like a Web where the advertisements didn't suck so much.
    - accountyaccount 9y ago
      Mobile ads are much better than web ads, in my experience. You just need to wait X amount of seconds and it's gone. Apps don't have pop-unders or any of those insufferable loop traps. Plus you can often pay to make them go away. You usually don't have that ability on the web.
  - tripzilch 9y ago
    there's a certain level of abusive advertising beyond which I think whoever decided to put it there deserves to have their software pirated. sure, the ad networks also carry blame, but the devs provide them with a platform and medium. both are guilty and the cumulative effect of the ubiquity of abusive ads is very damaging to society.
kakarot 9y ago
Serious kudos to Sega. This is how old games should be handled throughout the industry when possible. The likelihood of someone not already familiar with a title or franchise to play it is a function of A) its cost and B) how dated it is. Once a game is seeing marginal returns, it's kind of a very corporate mindset to try and suck it dry of every last penny. Especially when you view games as a form of art. I fear for so many incredible titles, especially as we possibly enter a real VR age. Unless I force it on them (I probably will), my children may never give a second glance to the titles I grew up with and consider masterpieces, when they could sensually immerse themselves in a modern AAA or VR title. So many great soundtracks, assets, feats of code, all deserving to be in a museum somewhere, lost in the ever-growing sea of content. Eventually only treasure-hunters like myself seek to experience and appreciate them. Not only that, Sega can much more accurately determine what franchises might see profitable continuations, given a large enough sample size. Having not played any of these titles on mobile myself, I can only imagine that Sega has ruined this very noble idea with intrusive ads and a payment scheme for removing them.
- LeoNatan25 9y ago
  They should be handled by a visibly and audibly slow emulator? No thanks.
  - kakarot 9y ago
    Well like I said, I haven't played them. Is the shipped emulator not good?
    - KVFinn 9y ago
      >Well like I said, I haven't played them. Is the shipped emulator not good? Sounds like no: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-sega-releases-classic-games-on-mobile-for-free-but-at-what-cost http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-sega-releases-c...
- j2bax 9y ago
  I'm a little confused by your post. You started with "Serious kudos to Sega." and ended it with "I can only imagine Sega has ruined this very noble idea with intrusive ads and a payment scheme for removing them." Should they be applauded or shunned? Additionally, the games of your youth are special, partly because they were a part of your youth. There will likely be games of your children's youth that they hold near and dear likewise. Maybe they will be serious enthusiasts and want to track the history of video games and see how we arrived at this current age, but thats a lot to take in! In my opinion, Nintendo has continued to release novel and fun games throughout the years that stick to the same principles that they designed the original Mario and Zelda following. Their last few console titles would be a good place to start and a potential bridge between the new and the old.
makecheck 9y ago
* With an in-App purchase of $1.99 to remove “non-SEGA ads”, at least in the ones so far (like Altered Beast). Also, at the current rate of release, it will take years to reach “nearly all” titles so I would take this with cautious optimism. Your favorite games may show up tomorrow or 3 years from now.
codezero 9y ago
Touch Arcade isn't impressed so far :/ http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-forevers-launch-is-a-disaster/ http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-fo...
- mikepavone 9y ago
  It's a shame that did such a lousy job with the emulation. It's one thing to be inaccurate and fast or accurate and slow, but making a slow and inaccurate emulator for the Genesis in 2017 is super lame.
  - jle17 9y ago
    Its not their first offense in this domain, I remember buying a DS collection of Sonic games and their was slowdowns, while in the meantime free emulators can do the job without problems. Monetizing 20 years old games is already easy money, they could at least do it as well as people doing it on their free time...
    - intoverflow2 9y ago
      Actually I will say one thing, maybe not on their iOS releases but for their recent 2D sonic remakes on consoles they actually hired from the Sonic fangame community (Christian Whitehead IIRC) to rewrite the engines and they run ridiculous good. So yeah for once the paid version was as good as a passion driven fan version.
    - mikepavone 9y ago
      That's a bit different. The DS had a 67 MHz ARM9 and an ARM7 running at half that and even the best homebrew emulator. Even the best emulator on DS is not great. Meanwhile the iPhone 5S (chosen since it's the oldest supported by the upcoming iOS 11) has a dual-core ARM CPU running at 1.3Ghz with way higher IPC than an old ARM9.
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  > Somehow, someway, SEGA is using an emulator that is worse than the one they were using in the 2009 iOS releases. That emulator wasn't very good to begin with either. Ouch. Releasing an emulator that runs slower on modern hardware than their old emulator did on old hardware? Sounds like they used whatever the iOS equivalent of Electron is called.
minimaxir 9y ago
Sega games with poorly-coded emulators/ads aside, the Sonic 1 fully-native port is still incredible from a gameplay standpoint, and contains a few surprises even for those very familiar with the game. It's worth it to pay for ad-free. (and it also works on the new Apple TV too, but I recommend having a MFi controller if you want to play it like that)
- SimonPStevens 9y ago
  As an aside, the same guys that did the Sonic native ports are now working on a new Sonic game in the classic style. It's the most excited I've been about a new game in years - http://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/
apapli 9y ago
Having a 4 year old son I am the first person to put my hand up and say I absolutely HATE ads and general in-app purchases for games that he likes to play on my iPhone. In some cases the way these are implemented it is almost akin to being in a casino which is not a skill I really want my son picking up (watch this ad to see what prize you can WIN etc). I welcome Sega's announcement and will be delighted to hand over $1.99 to disable all ads - I know their games are of a known quality, and will come without suprise violence included etc. By way of example I have one simple game he loves to play that randomly brings up images of a guy holding a girl in a headlock with a gun pointed at her head.... and the same ad comes up repeatedly. I can't even disable it via an in-app purchase (trust me, I tried). As an aside, I'd welcome some suggestions of games he can play, and if anyone reading this is a game developer I'll be happy to provide any imnput to something you are dreaming up. EDITS: just for clarity of reading
- OriginalPenguin 9y ago
  I don't have any suggestion for an iPhone. But Humble Bundle has had fantastic ad-free bundles of games, where you pay what you want. Maybe get your four year old a cheap Android phone or tablet and some Humble Bundled games? Then you won't have ads, and if your child breaks the device, at least it wasn't your iPhone.
  - apapli 9y ago
    Looks good. Definitely something to consider. I agree it would be nice to have an alternative to my iPhone, I fear it is only a matter of time before we have lots of tears and a broken screen.... :)
- manmal 9y ago
  Most ads don't work without a connection, so for games that allow it, I just disable Wifi on my son's iPad. Works great for e.g. Zombie Tsunami, it's actually a way better experience without wifi.
  - apapli 9y ago
INTPenis 9y ago
I've seen so much malware spread through ads on Android that I'm more than willing to pay the 1.99 charge.
imron 9y ago
This is incredible. Please let me pay to remove ads though.
- chipperyman573 9y ago
  They do. It's $2/game
lpa22 9y ago
I can't fathom free ads from Sega, I will gladly pay the handful of George Washingtons to keep my kids away from the onslaught of unregulated ads that this storied franchise is about to endure
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
iamflimflam1 9y ago
They only seem to be available on the US App Store.
djhworld 9y ago
Can anyone verify how "good" it feels to play these games? I can't fathom the idea of playing Mega Drive games without a physical controller, my experiences of touchscreen controls for games designed for a controller are not good.
- blux 9y ago
  For me, not good at all. I tried Sonic on an iPad, and it was terrible, control was not accurate. Played the first two stages and then gave up.
  - tangue 9y ago
    I second that Sonic is terrible even more modern games like Jet Set Radio are unplayable. The only enjoyable ports I found on the App Store are Secret of Mana and Rtype.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jypepin 9y ago
this is actually awesome. Altered Beast is one of my favorite game of all time. Really looking forward to see Aladin and Jurassic Park becoming available. It would be cool if they could release those on a more portable format so it could get put inside a raspberry pie or something!
- Pigo 9y ago
  Altered Beast was the one game I was willing to admit jealousy to the Sega guys for, still not sure I'd trade Excite bike for it though.
jackvalentine 9y ago
Very slow ports, pay money and still get advertised to, launch titles are a yawnfest. It's time to forget about the company that Sega once was and ignore anything that comes from the company it has become.
iaskwhy 9y ago
One thing missing from this discussion: people who in the past bought the game are now required to pay for it again in order to have it ad-free! That's the reason for the big influx of 1 star ratings in the AppStore.
- setq 9y ago
  Apparently this isn't actually the case entirely. You can do a restore purchases on the old version now. I haven't tried it myself though. Edit: remove unrelated edit!
  - iaskwhy 9y ago
    You are correct, it seems a new update was released to allow the restoring of old purchases.
- hmhrex 9y ago
  That's good to know. I've stayed away from them because I thought they might be bad ports or something.
  - coldpie 9y ago
    Sadly, they are also bad ports. http://www.retronauts.com/?p=3278 http://www.retronauts.com/?p=3278 They may improve with time, but for now, Sonic is the only playable game in the collection. On the plus side, it is free-with-ads, so you can try before you buy. I think there's promise here, but the current offering is pretty terrible.
adamas 9y ago
Wait, I don't get it, it's "every console game" or juste those 5 ? Where is my Street of Rage ? :(
cdevs 9y ago
Was excited until I download comix zone and heard the choppy audio and the game was lagging out - worked fine over 20 years ago. Just read a article and they ported these games into unity blah blah blah that doesn't excuse that you should test your product to see the final quality before porting everything over. This is unplayable garbage guys...
- draw_down 9y ago
  Looks like this is just another ploy to shovel a bunch of junk onto the App Store and collect the ad revenue. They had this IP just sitting around and not making any money, so what do they care. It doesn't actually need to be any good.
  - computerex 9y ago
    That kills the brand.
- mikejmoffitt 9y ago
  Why in the world is an emulator wrapped up in Unity?
monster2control 9y ago
I think this is awesome, and I wish Nintendo would do it too, but I was hoping for an Emulator style application, a single app, where new games can be added as they come out. Being separate apps, it's fine, but it's going to make it a PITA when you have over 100 games you'd love to play. Thank god for iOS searching.
- bitJericho 9y ago
  I think nintendo has it right. I'd rather pay for the games and not be the product.
  - JTon 9y ago
    Would you pay a subscription for access to the old games? Ad revenue is recurring and is probably more attractive to Sega (vs. a one time purchase fee).
    - bitJericho 9y ago
      No, but I wouldnt be opposed to spending 20-40 for a good game either.
      - scarface74 9y ago
        The issue is that once they have your money, what is their motivation to offer updates to the game when new iOS versions come out? This is no different from every other phone manufacturer but Apple. They have no reason to support older phones because it doesn't make them money. It does benefit Apple because they get recurring revenue from the App Store. You might be willing to pay 20-40 bucks for a game, but the vast majority of users aren't.
        bitJericho 9y ago
        I still have my sega. I'd rather just buy the original cart, new or used :)
  - 9y ago
jancsika 9y ago
In other news, Hasbro is releasing Monopoly for free in exchange for listening to a timeshare pitch on every 10th roll.
system16 9y ago
I think this is great, but 121 MB download for a game whose ROM file is 316 KB? I mean, of course I expect overhead but the cynic in me suspects most of that is analytics, tracking, and advertising libraries.
- striking 9y ago
  It's also built in Unity, which explains the terrible performance and emulation.
  - fenwick67 9y ago
    It really boggles my mind that they did this... performance is absolutely critical for emulation. This is like using Javascript to run a car.
    - moduspol 9y ago
      Please don't give the Javascript community any ideas.
      - jfktrey 9y ago
        node-opencv + johnny-five = profit?
trimbo 9y ago
I look forward to Herzog Zwei being available!
- jamesgeck0 9y ago
  SEGA owns the rights [1], so it's a possibility. They haven't released it in any recent Genesis game collections I know about, though. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technosoft#Closure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technosoft#Closure
nihonde 9y ago
They didn't make these available in the Japan iOS App Store. It sounds like we're not missing much, though.
phjesusthatguy3 9y ago
I'm holding out for Dreamcast games, since it's one of the few Sega systems I didn't own (and at one point I did own the Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Nomad, Saturn) and there are games for the DC I would really like to play. Too bad Sega can't/won't get their third-party licensees to release stuff through this program.
- portal_narlish 9y ago
  Crazy Taxi is already out and it's surprisingly good.
  - phjesusthatguy3 9y ago
    Cool! I just went and looked at WP's list of Dreamcast games[0] and honestly, besides Ecco, Seaman and Shenmue there's nothing from Sega I want to play. I'm hoping they do as good a job at bringing third-parties along for the ride as the JP PSN did for PS1 games. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_games
    - josu 9y ago
      Chu chu rocket is a pretty good game and it's available on Android and iOS.
Overtonwindow 9y ago
Sort of on topic: Check out the book "Console Wars" by Blake Harris, about the battle between Nintendo and Sega. A really awesome book, in my humble opinion.
DonHopkins 9y ago
I sure hope that includes Seaman! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game)
- DerekL 9y ago
  Apparently, the developer of Seaman is making a sequel. I don't know if it will be published by Sega or someone else. http://seaman.ai/ http://seaman.ai/ https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/25/15690876/new-seaman-yoot-saito-teaser https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/25/15690876/new-seaman-yoot-s...
CurrencyDigest 9y ago
Dear Sega, you won't probably read this comment. If you do this for saturn Dragon Force.... I... I don't even know how to express the feelings if this happens. I know it won't be a reality but I guy can dream. My favorite game growing up. (only finished it through an emulator because I didn't understand english when I was a kid. The memories of non sleep till I finally finished the game.
helpmate 9y ago
Some of them are in the Dutch store. Not Sonic though. I did see the Dreamcast version of crazy taxi!
clubm8 9y ago
So there's no option to pay a small fee and get an ad free experience? :(

610 points by yincrash 9y ago

The possibility of playing Shenmue on an iPhone is interesting..

Details: SEGA® Forever™ is a free and growing classic games collection of nearly every SEGA game ever released from every console era – Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and more. Available on iOS and Android mobile devices. -Play free -Save your game progress -Leaderboard -- compete with the world for high scores -Controller support -- fully integrated wireless Bluetooth controller support -Offline play -Games released every month; download them all!

yincrash 9y ago

I wonder if VMU minigames will be ported with the associated Dreamcast games.

nerflad 9y ago

This is amazing and unexpected. I hope this sets a precedent for other developers to follow with their old titles.

chenster 9y ago

It's not free. Every game has "in-app purchase".

ibic 9y ago
Exactly what I wanted to say.
yincrash 9y ago
It appears to be ad supported with an in-app purchase to disable ads for $1.99. According to eurogamer, "You can play them forever without paying, or you can spend a one-off fee of £1.99 to ditch the ads, which appear on the start screen, the save screen, and I think at launch, but will not interrupt play in anyway" http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-segas-back-catalogue-is-headed-to-mobile-with-sega-forever http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-segas-back-cata...
- candiodari 9y ago
  Oh so it's $1.99 PER GAME. I was wondering why this amount seemed rather cheap.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
paulcole 9y ago
You can play without paying money, right? That's much one definition of free, isn't it? Edit: Why the downvoted? I thought free = no money?
- taneq 9y ago
  Not if they force you to do work for them in order to use it. They're basically employing you to look at ads, and paying you in game time.
  - paulcole 9y ago
    I guess I'm not getting this. The game costs no money out of pocket to play, I'm just exchanging ads for playing? Isn't that a free (as in money) game?
    - efreak 9y ago
      Money is not the only currency.
    - Majestic121 9y ago
      It's free (as in money), but "free (as in money)" is a very limited definition of free
      - Tinyyy 9y ago
        It seems that most people would like it to be free as in charity, which would never happen.
        Majestic121 9y ago
        I agree, they need to make money somehow and I actually don't have any issue with the way Sega is doing it (ads if you don't want to pay money, or 2€ if you don't want to pay with ads). What I object to is mainly assimilating not paying money and being free : it's not free if there are ads, you're paying with time, mind share (because there would not be that much money in ads if it was not at least a little bit effective) and potentially security (as ads are a known malware vector) That's why I insist that free as in no money is a very restricted definition of free, and should not be considered equal to simply free, because it then undermines products that actually are free

tdiggity 9y ago

The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.

richev 9y ago
Or, you can just purchase the game to get rid of the apps.
- s0rce 9y ago
  Then its not exactly free.
  - oculusthrift 9y ago
    oh no :(
- noxToken 9y ago
  This is such a false dilemma. "Pony up money or get the same content with a less-than-stellar ad experience." What about supporting your product with ads that don't suck? I know this is much easier in theory, but I'd like a Web where the advertisements didn't suck so much.
  - accountyaccount 9y ago
    Mobile ads are much better than web ads, in my experience. You just need to wait X amount of seconds and it's gone. Apps don't have pop-unders or any of those insufferable loop traps. Plus you can often pay to make them go away. You usually don't have that ability on the web.
- tripzilch 9y ago
  there's a certain level of abusive advertising beyond which I think whoever decided to put it there deserves to have their software pirated. sure, the ad networks also carry blame, but the devs provide them with a platform and medium. both are guilty and the cumulative effect of the ubiquity of abusive ads is very damaging to society.

kakarot 9y ago

Serious kudos to Sega. This is how old games should be handled throughout the industry when possible. The likelihood of someone not already familiar with a title or franchise to play it is a function of A) its cost and B) how dated it is. Once a game is seeing marginal returns, it's kind of a very corporate mindset to try and suck it dry of every last penny. Especially when you view games as a form of art. I fear for so many incredible titles, especially as we possibly enter a real VR age. Unless I force it on them (I probably will), my children may never give a second glance to the titles I grew up with and consider masterpieces, when they could sensually immerse themselves in a modern AAA or VR title. So many great soundtracks, assets, feats of code, all deserving to be in a museum somewhere, lost in the ever-growing sea of content. Eventually only treasure-hunters like myself seek to experience and appreciate them. Not only that, Sega can much more accurately determine what franchises might see profitable continuations, given a large enough sample size. Having not played any of these titles on mobile myself, I can only imagine that Sega has ruined this very noble idea with intrusive ads and a payment scheme for removing them.

LeoNatan25 9y ago
They should be handled by a visibly and audibly slow emulator? No thanks.
- kakarot 9y ago
  Well like I said, I haven't played them. Is the shipped emulator not good?
  - KVFinn 9y ago
    >Well like I said, I haven't played them. Is the shipped emulator not good? Sounds like no: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-sega-releases-classic-games-on-mobile-for-free-but-at-what-cost http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-21-sega-releases-c...
j2bax 9y ago
I'm a little confused by your post. You started with "Serious kudos to Sega." and ended it with "I can only imagine Sega has ruined this very noble idea with intrusive ads and a payment scheme for removing them." Should they be applauded or shunned? Additionally, the games of your youth are special, partly because they were a part of your youth. There will likely be games of your children's youth that they hold near and dear likewise. Maybe they will be serious enthusiasts and want to track the history of video games and see how we arrived at this current age, but thats a lot to take in! In my opinion, Nintendo has continued to release novel and fun games throughout the years that stick to the same principles that they designed the original Mario and Zelda following. Their last few console titles would be a good place to start and a potential bridge between the new and the old.

makecheck 9y ago

* With an in-App purchase of $1.99 to remove “non-SEGA ads”, at least in the ones so far (like Altered Beast). Also, at the current rate of release, it will take years to reach “nearly all” titles so I would take this with cautious optimism. Your favorite games may show up tomorrow or 3 years from now.

codezero 9y ago

Touch Arcade isn't impressed so far :/ http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-forevers-launch-is-a-disaster/ http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-fo...

mikepavone 9y ago
It's a shame that did such a lousy job with the emulation. It's one thing to be inaccurate and fast or accurate and slow, but making a slow and inaccurate emulator for the Genesis in 2017 is super lame.
- jle17 9y ago
  Its not their first offense in this domain, I remember buying a DS collection of Sonic games and their was slowdowns, while in the meantime free emulators can do the job without problems. Monetizing 20 years old games is already easy money, they could at least do it as well as people doing it on their free time...
  - intoverflow2 9y ago
    Actually I will say one thing, maybe not on their iOS releases but for their recent 2D sonic remakes on consoles they actually hired from the Sonic fangame community (Christian Whitehead IIRC) to rewrite the engines and they run ridiculous good. So yeah for once the paid version was as good as a passion driven fan version.
  - mikepavone 9y ago
    That's a bit different. The DS had a 67 MHz ARM9 and an ARM7 running at half that and even the best homebrew emulator. Even the best emulator on DS is not great. Meanwhile the iPhone 5S (chosen since it's the oldest supported by the upcoming iOS 11) has a dual-core ARM CPU running at 1.3Ghz with way higher IPC than an old ARM9.
semi-extrinsic 9y ago
> Somehow, someway, SEGA is using an emulator that is worse than the one they were using in the 2009 iOS releases. That emulator wasn't very good to begin with either. Ouch. Releasing an emulator that runs slower on modern hardware than their old emulator did on old hardware? Sounds like they used whatever the iOS equivalent of Electron is called.

minimaxir 9y ago

Sega games with poorly-coded emulators/ads aside, the Sonic 1 fully-native port is still incredible from a gameplay standpoint, and contains a few surprises even for those very familiar with the game. It's worth it to pay for ad-free. (and it also works on the new Apple TV too, but I recommend having a MFi controller if you want to play it like that)

SimonPStevens 9y ago
As an aside, the same guys that did the Sonic native ports are now working on a new Sonic game in the classic style. It's the most excited I've been about a new game in years - http://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/

apapli 9y ago

Having a 4 year old son I am the first person to put my hand up and say I absolutely HATE ads and general in-app purchases for games that he likes to play on my iPhone. In some cases the way these are implemented it is almost akin to being in a casino which is not a skill I really want my son picking up (watch this ad to see what prize you can WIN etc). I welcome Sega's announcement and will be delighted to hand over $1.99 to disable all ads - I know their games are of a known quality, and will come without suprise violence included etc. By way of example I have one simple game he loves to play that randomly brings up images of a guy holding a girl in a headlock with a gun pointed at her head.... and the same ad comes up repeatedly. I can't even disable it via an in-app purchase (trust me, I tried). As an aside, I'd welcome some suggestions of games he can play, and if anyone reading this is a game developer I'll be happy to provide any imnput to something you are dreaming up. EDITS: just for clarity of reading

OriginalPenguin 9y ago
I don't have any suggestion for an iPhone. But Humble Bundle has had fantastic ad-free bundles of games, where you pay what you want. Maybe get your four year old a cheap Android phone or tablet and some Humble Bundled games? Then you won't have ads, and if your child breaks the device, at least it wasn't your iPhone.
- apapli 9y ago
  Looks good. Definitely something to consider. I agree it would be nice to have an alternative to my iPhone, I fear it is only a matter of time before we have lots of tears and a broken screen.... :)
manmal 9y ago
Most ads don't work without a connection, so for games that allow it, I just disable Wifi on my son's iPad. Works great for e.g. Zombie Tsunami, it's actually a way better experience without wifi.
- apapli 9y ago

INTPenis 9y ago

I've seen so much malware spread through ads on Android that I'm more than willing to pay the 1.99 charge.

imron 9y ago

This is incredible. Please let me pay to remove ads though.

chipperyman573 9y ago
They do. It's $2/game

lpa22 9y ago

I can't fathom free ads from Sega, I will gladly pay the handful of George Washingtons to keep my kids away from the onslaught of unregulated ads that this storied franchise is about to endure

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iamflimflam1 9y ago

They only seem to be available on the US App Store.

djhworld 9y ago

Can anyone verify how "good" it feels to play these games? I can't fathom the idea of playing Mega Drive games without a physical controller, my experiences of touchscreen controls for games designed for a controller are not good.

blux 9y ago
For me, not good at all. I tried Sonic on an iPad, and it was terrible, control was not accurate. Played the first two stages and then gave up.
- tangue 9y ago
  I second that Sonic is terrible even more modern games like Jet Set Radio are unplayable. The only enjoyable ports I found on the App Store are Secret of Mana and Rtype.

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jypepin 9y ago

this is actually awesome. Altered Beast is one of my favorite game of all time. Really looking forward to see Aladin and Jurassic Park becoming available. It would be cool if they could release those on a more portable format so it could get put inside a raspberry pie or something!

Pigo 9y ago
Altered Beast was the one game I was willing to admit jealousy to the Sega guys for, still not sure I'd trade Excite bike for it though.

jackvalentine 9y ago

Very slow ports, pay money and still get advertised to, launch titles are a yawnfest. It's time to forget about the company that Sega once was and ignore anything that comes from the company it has become.

iaskwhy 9y ago

One thing missing from this discussion: people who in the past bought the game are now required to pay for it again in order to have it ad-free! That's the reason for the big influx of 1 star ratings in the AppStore.

setq 9y ago
Apparently this isn't actually the case entirely. You can do a restore purchases on the old version now. I haven't tried it myself though. Edit: remove unrelated edit!
- iaskwhy 9y ago
  You are correct, it seems a new update was released to allow the restoring of old purchases.
hmhrex 9y ago
That's good to know. I've stayed away from them because I thought they might be bad ports or something.
- coldpie 9y ago
  Sadly, they are also bad ports. http://www.retronauts.com/?p=3278 http://www.retronauts.com/?p=3278 They may improve with time, but for now, Sonic is the only playable game in the collection. On the plus side, it is free-with-ads, so you can try before you buy. I think there's promise here, but the current offering is pretty terrible.

adamas 9y ago

Wait, I don't get it, it's "every console game" or juste those 5 ? Where is my Street of Rage ? :(

cdevs 9y ago

Was excited until I download comix zone and heard the choppy audio and the game was lagging out - worked fine over 20 years ago. Just read a article and they ported these games into unity blah blah blah that doesn't excuse that you should test your product to see the final quality before porting everything over. This is unplayable garbage guys...

draw_down 9y ago
Looks like this is just another ploy to shovel a bunch of junk onto the App Store and collect the ad revenue. They had this IP just sitting around and not making any money, so what do they care. It doesn't actually need to be any good.
- computerex 9y ago
  That kills the brand.
mikejmoffitt 9y ago
Why in the world is an emulator wrapped up in Unity?

monster2control 9y ago

I think this is awesome, and I wish Nintendo would do it too, but I was hoping for an Emulator style application, a single app, where new games can be added as they come out. Being separate apps, it's fine, but it's going to make it a PITA when you have over 100 games you'd love to play. Thank god for iOS searching.

bitJericho 9y ago
I think nintendo has it right. I'd rather pay for the games and not be the product.
- JTon 9y ago
  Would you pay a subscription for access to the old games? Ad revenue is recurring and is probably more attractive to Sega (vs. a one time purchase fee).
  - bitJericho 9y ago
    No, but I wouldnt be opposed to spending 20-40 for a good game either.
    - scarface74 9y ago
      The issue is that once they have your money, what is their motivation to offer updates to the game when new iOS versions come out? This is no different from every other phone manufacturer but Apple. They have no reason to support older phones because it doesn't make them money. It does benefit Apple because they get recurring revenue from the App Store. You might be willing to pay 20-40 bucks for a game, but the vast majority of users aren't.
      - bitJericho 9y ago
        I still have my sega. I'd rather just buy the original cart, new or used :)
- 9y ago

jancsika 9y ago

In other news, Hasbro is releasing Monopoly for free in exchange for listening to a timeshare pitch on every 10th roll.

system16 9y ago

I think this is great, but 121 MB download for a game whose ROM file is 316 KB? I mean, of course I expect overhead but the cynic in me suspects most of that is analytics, tracking, and advertising libraries.

striking 9y ago
It's also built in Unity, which explains the terrible performance and emulation.
- fenwick67 9y ago
  It really boggles my mind that they did this... performance is absolutely critical for emulation. This is like using Javascript to run a car.
  - moduspol 9y ago
    Please don't give the Javascript community any ideas.
    - jfktrey 9y ago
      node-opencv + johnny-five = profit?

trimbo 9y ago

I look forward to Herzog Zwei being available!

jamesgeck0 9y ago
SEGA owns the rights [1], so it's a possibility. They haven't released it in any recent Genesis game collections I know about, though. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technosoft#Closure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technosoft#Closure

nihonde 9y ago

They didn't make these available in the Japan iOS App Store. It sounds like we're not missing much, though.

phjesusthatguy3 9y ago

I'm holding out for Dreamcast games, since it's one of the few Sega systems I didn't own (and at one point I did own the Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Nomad, Saturn) and there are games for the DC I would really like to play. Too bad Sega can't/won't get their third-party licensees to release stuff through this program.

portal_narlish 9y ago
Crazy Taxi is already out and it's surprisingly good.
- phjesusthatguy3 9y ago
  Cool! I just went and looked at WP's list of Dreamcast games[0] and honestly, besides Ecco, Seaman and Shenmue there's nothing from Sega I want to play. I'm hoping they do as good a job at bringing third-parties along for the ride as the JP PSN did for PS1 games. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_games
  - josu 9y ago
    Chu chu rocket is a pretty good game and it's available on Android and iOS.

Overtonwindow 9y ago

Sort of on topic: Check out the book "Console Wars" by Blake Harris, about the battle between Nintendo and Sega. A really awesome book, in my humble opinion.

DonHopkins 9y ago

I sure hope that includes Seaman! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game)

DerekL 9y ago
Apparently, the developer of Seaman is making a sequel. I don't know if it will be published by Sega or someone else. http://seaman.ai/ http://seaman.ai/ https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/25/15690876/new-seaman-yoot-saito-teaser https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/25/15690876/new-seaman-yoot-s...

CurrencyDigest 9y ago

Dear Sega, you won't probably read this comment. If you do this for saturn Dragon Force.... I... I don't even know how to express the feelings if this happens. I know it won't be a reality but I guy can dream. My favorite game growing up. (only finished it through an emulator because I didn't understand english when I was a kid. The memories of non sleep till I finally finished the game.

helpmate 9y ago

Some of them are in the Dutch store. Not Sonic though. I did see the Dreamcast version of crazy taxi!

clubm8 9y ago

So there's no option to pay a small fee and get an ad free experience? :(