After being teased with some very pretty Project Y screen shots we can all now enjoy a teaser video for Project Y.
This work in progress (WIP) video gives us a very good idea of what Project Y will be like. And even though this is very early footage it is looking fantastic.
One of the first thoughts that struck me while watching was that instantly Project Y feels like it has it’s own identity. I did not feel like I was watching just another retro Beat’em-Up. Of course there are many similar elements from the genre but there is a lot that looks unique.
There are several game mechanics that really stood out in this short clip. Of course you can interact with the baddies in this game. You’re going to be punching, kicking and tossing them all over the place; but you can also interact with the other playable characters. Right at the end we see Alex grab Tug from behind and start to push him off-screen (don’t quote me on those character names).
I also noticed Tug using a fire extinguisher to spray and freeze an enemy in his tracks.
Each of the playable characters seem to be able to get some kind of power-up. I’m sure earning and saving these for key moments will help add extra strategy to the game.
And it looks like the baddies can dish it out too. I’m not sure how it happened but I saw a dude electrocute Alex. What was cool is that another baddie got caught in the cross-fire and also got zapped along with Alex. I can’t help but feel that this kind of thing will make multiple play-throughs unique experiences with such variables in the mix.
Speaking of unique, did you notice the butt-slap taunt at about 30 seconds into the video?
Very cheeky!!
I personally feel the graphics look amazing! The environments feel ‘meaty’. They are full of stuff and the character sprites are very large for a Genesis/Mega Drive game. Making it look more like an arcade game from the 90’s rather than a 16-bit home game.
The music is down right intense. I love the pace and mood that it slaps on top of the visuals. Music is an important part of my gaming experience and Project Y has gotten some serious treatment in this department.
I don’t know what to say. The unthinkable has happened. Of ALL the licensed Sega Genesis and Mega Drive games out there I found the one single game that use to hold the #1 position on my ‘Fantasy Wish List’. The ‘Fantasy Wish List’ being a list of games that I would love to have but would never ever be able to afford. And this one particular title was the most unattainable of all.
…entirely unattainable.
Until today when I purchased a complete and Excellent condition Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.
Even now looking at it actually in my collection I can hardly believe it!
I remember writing a blog a while ago stating that “I think the Sega Collection Might have Peaked…“. I’m glad (and surprised) that I was wrong. I’m pretty sure the collection has now actually peaked. Until I some how end up with a complete copy of the official yet unlicensed copy of Tetris for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive (but that’s just crazy talk) my collection has now ‘peaked’ as high as it ever will.
So if by chance the image below is still off screen and you haven’t seen it, hold on for just a moment. Before you scroll down get the tune ‘We Own It‘ from Fast and Furious 6 in your head. Got it? Crank the mental volume way UP! AWwwwwww Yeeaaahhhhh….. OK, I’m done. You can scroll down now.
Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.
Eliminate Down Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
One of the most exciting things about getting to add Eliminate Down to the collection is that it’s a good game. So far it has been really good. If feels great, sounds fantastic, looks awesome and it’s packed full of bosses and mini-bosses. Which helps keep the action intense and fresh. I’ve had a lot of fun playing it!
So… What did Eliminate Down cost me? I bought it in a bundle with a Japanese Mega Drive model 2 and 9 other games. So it’s hard to say exactly what this one game cost me. I’ll break it down at the end of this post.
Of these ten games I already had seven of them but I didn’t care because I had target fixation on Eliminate Down. But for now, on to the other two games that I’m adding to the collection.
At first I thought I already had Heavy Unit but after digging through the whole Mega Drive collection I realized I didn’t. The condition is Excellent, it’s complete and I’m really glad to have it.
Heavy Unit
Heavy Unit Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
Heavy Unit isn’t actually that good. It’s not terrible but playing this Space Ship Shooter right after playing Eliminate Down really highlighted it’s flaws. The graphics are OK and the levels do have some good variety but the game feels a bit flat and unpolished. And it’s one of those games that can really be punishing but not in a good way. If you die and lose your power-ups you’re in big trouble. When this happened to me I found the ship to be so slow that I couldn’t really react in time to anything. And I haven’t noticed any use for changing between ship mode and robot mode; which seems to happen when collecting a particular power-up. I checked ebay to get a sense of it’s cost and I found it listed for $40 USD. It’s really not worth this much. But the cover art really does rock.
The first few minutes of playing James Bond 007 the Duel I thought the game was really good. By the time I was able to beat level one I decided that is was just OK. The only thing that knocked down my first impression is the fact that the controls are a bit stiff. It’s pretty hard to get Bond to shoot at an angle or crouch as fast as you need him to. It felt a bit like Rolling Thunder and even used the same cover mechanics (ducking into a door way) but it wasn’t very useful in this game. The cheapest price I found on ebay for this game was $70 USD for the Japanese version. That is way too much if you only care about playing. Just like Heavy Unit James Bond 007 the Duel should be a $20 game.
James Bond 007 The Duel
James Bond Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
Bond is now in the collection! The condition is Good. You can’t see it in the picture but the edge of the cart label is peeling off a bit on the back side. Otherwise I would have given it a rating of Very Good.
…or Excellent if it was any Bond other than Timothy Dalton.
Here are the other 7 games that came with this lot (Found locally on Kijiji):
The Other Games Purchased with Eliminate Down.
The good news is all but one game can be played without needing to know Japanese. They’re also really good games. Two are actually bootlegs; Insector X and a 5-in-1 cart. The 5-in-1 cart is pretty cool. It contains Sonic 2, Jewel Master, Thunder Force III, Same Same Same and Master of Weapon. Once you power on the system you’ll get Sonic 2 by default. Pressing reset will cycle through the games.
So, what did Eliminate Down cost me?
I’m going to sell the doubles and take that money away from my cost of this bundle.
I spent $300 CND on a complete working Japanese model 2 Sega Mega Drive, ten games and one Honey Bee adapter. The adapter allows you to plug a Mega Drive cartridges into a Genesis. This will spare you from having to carve/shave the cartridge slot on a Genesis and make it physically wider. This Honey Bee adapter will not make region locked games play on the wrong system but since most games don’t have region locking it’s still very nice to have.
I’m going to be very conservative about the value of what I bought here. I think the cheapest price you might ever get a complete and working Mega Drive (or Genesis) would $30 and if each game other than Eliminate Down is valued at $20 and the Honey Bee adapter is about $10 then I paid $220 CDN for everything not counting Eliminate Down. Leaving the cost of Eliminate Down at an affordable $80 Canadian. I’ll admit that $80 is still a lot of money to be spending on a 25 year old game but I’m reasonably sure I am a through-and-through fanatical Mega Drive collector so how the heck could I pass this up?
I also want to thank my stunningly Beautiful wife for not once questioning the amount of money I threw down on these games! There wasn’t even so much as a “are you sure you really need it?”. I got nothing but unbridled acceptance. Which is normally the case and I feel it’s worth mentioning.
Below is the Japanese Mega Drive Model 2 that came with the lot. It’s in very nice shape. The only flaw is slight discoloration to both the power switch and the reset button. It’s complete with the hook-ups and an extra identical joystick.
Japanese Sega Mega Drive Model 2
I didn’t realize that the Japanese joysticks were much smaller than the Genesis controllers (of the same type). I don’t have a preference between the two. They’re both a good comfortable size.
To the untrained eye (aka the uninterested) this update to my collection is not so significant. But I can see the difference and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a bunch of Neo Geo AES games pilling up (they’re sooo Huge!) and I wanted to make room for them… Yes, the Sega Dude collects Neo Geo AES and they’ve even managed to worm their way into TheSegaCollection site. I’m not sure what I think about that but the world is not black and white and I am trying hard to come to terms with it.
As I started my collection house cleaning I realized (remembered) that diving in and messing with your collection every now and again is a great way to rejuvenate interest in it. I got to see how many games were is awesome condition and a refresher on the few that I wish were a bit better. But best of all it didn’t take long to remember how much I love seeing a shelf that is absolutely bursting with games. In order to get all of my Japanese Sega Mega Drive games into three shelves (from 3.5 shelves) I really had to utilize every square inch of space. But drawing on my insane Tetris skills I managed what you see below and I was still able to face some of my favorite/cool games to make it look all pretty.
*Hey, did you see? That’s Panorama Cotton down there! 🙂
Look at all of those Sega Master System games. One third of my SMS games where previously on the other book shelf. I’m glad I found room to reintegrate them. Seeing them together really does offer up a lot more impact. Despite having poorer quality artwork, less colour and less over-all polish they really do look great. The Style of the drawings and the white grid backdrop really do mark their era. And they really do look at home with the Mega Drive games yet at the same time they stand out as something special on their own. Speaking of the white grid backdrop my Japanese Mega Drive fooled me. I didn’t realize it wasn’t my boxed Sega Master System until after I had taken my pictures. I don’t have a lot of room for the boxes so I’ll figure out what to do with them later.
Genesis does what Nintendon’t!… because the Super Nintendo wasn’t around for about two years after the Genesis came out. You wont find the SegaDude bashing the SNES. I loved it then and I love it now. But the Genesis is what I had back when video gaming really took hold of me. I had my Master System and I love it and when the Genesis was released I dove in and it never even occurred to me that there might be something else. I love seeing all these kick-butt Genesis games in the next three images below. I feel really lucky that I started collecting so long ago. There a lot of titles there that I just wouldn’t buy if I had to consider today’s prices.
You’ll also notice some cool bead art on a few of the shelves. The Phantasy Star crew and Dark Force were made for me by Nintendo Joe and Sonic, Opa Opa, mini Opa Opa and SEGA were made for me by StopXwhispering. Thank you! to both of you. You did great work and I really do enjoy having them mixed in with the collection.
*Hey, did you see? That’s Musha down there! 🙂
What’s this now? In those two images above… Let me tell you. That’s a little taste of awesome. When the Neo Geo AES first came out I saw two games for it; Nam-1975 and Magician Lord… and they blew my mind. They were literally perfect arcade ports. The Neo Geo AES was offering the arcade in your home with no corners cut. And after hearing the retail price my young brain had no choice but to pretend it didn’t exist.
I know already my Neo Geo AES collection wont get much further than it is now. The games are so expensive that I just wont be able to keep up. I’ve decided that I want to have a few nice pieces in my collection from something that was entirely unattainable back in the day. And even though I got my Neo Geo X before my AES I still love having the real deal. These fat and massive cartridges rock; there is so much meat to them! And most of the games are really fun to play.
I also started a mini collection for the Neo Geo Pocket. It’s a cool handheld and I feel like it’s often over looked. You can get a boxed NGP for about $50 plus shipping so it’s not too hard to get the hardware and loose games are cheap enough. *By the way; don’t believe the negative hype about the Neo Geo X. It’s a good system and a great way to get some of the best Neo Geo games in a much more affordable way. Since my Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo Pocket collection are pretty new to me I know exactly how much I’ve spend so far… but I’m not yet ready to share that number 😛 That should tell you something about the AES.
Look at that last shelf. Isn’t it cute? That’s my baby TurboGrafx-16 collection. The TG-16 is another Rock’in system from back in the day. Ever since my friend EvilKalman gave me a free TG-16 with the add-on CD unit I’ve started picking up a few games here and there. I’m tempted to pick up a PC-Engine but I’m thinking I need to stay focused and I’m getting close to deciding what systems I really want. The TG-16 CD unit is region free so I have been able to get a few cheap PC-Engine CD games that run just fine on my unit. I also tried out burned CDs and they also work. I’m thinking that copying a CD back in 1990 was so expensive that NES felt they didn’t need any protection.
Below are two more pictures of the collection. One showing the whole thing in one shot and the other showing my tucked away Nintendo Collection. Nintendo Joe is helping me print up some covers for Universal cases for NES and SNES games so I can make them look nice when on display.
The Sega Collection
Tucked Away Nintendo Goodness.
I really do want to make the whole wall where my collection sites a bit nicer looking. The furniture and games look good but the white wall in the back is a bit stark. The consoles could be setup a bit neater and I need to find a proper home for the TurboGrafx-16 and the Neo Geo AES. It’s time for some growth! …but I’m not quite sure how to approach it yet. So for now phase one is complete; pack’em in there!
This is the second time I’ve been to the Video Game Collector Community (VGCC) Game Swap. The first time myself and Nintendo Joe rented a table and we sold some of our extra games and systems. You can read about those VGCC highlights here. This time around we just went as pure (and giddy) shoppers.
Nintendo Joe and I brought a box and backpack each full of stuff to trade. I always prefer trading vs. spending my hard earned money but trading can be hard to pull off. Specially when you’re The SegaDude. I’ve started to realize that this event is very NES and SNES heavy. That’s not a bad thing but the selection of Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games was much less by comparison.
We were at the event for about five hours and it’s wasn’t until closer the end that I scored most of these new and glorious Sega additions.
First up is a very exciting find for me. Ever since I discovered Mystical Fighter for the Japanese Mega Drive (called Maou Renjishi) I have always wanted the Genesis version. And it’s not often you’ll come across it. Even better I was able to trade for it! I traded a boxed copy of Phantasy Star for the Sega Mark III (no map) for the Mystical Fighter shown below. With this same vendor I also traded Steel Empire for the Genesis for a boxed NEO GEO Pocket puzzle game called Crush Roller.
My new Mystical Fighter is complete and in Excellent Condition. I love it.
Mystical Fighter
Mystical Fighter Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Mystical Fighter is an isometric (Golden Axe style) fighting game and it’s a good game. Not amazing but good. Games like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage have it beat on every count but it’s still a worth while entry. And even though the game will recycle a lot of sprites and send identical but different colored enemies at you the graphics are still good and there is still enough variety in the character designs.
Occasionally I would pick-up and throw an enemy and I was never quite sure how I did it. But it still helped make the combat feel more interesting despite being pretty simplistic. The level design although a little plain still looks good enough and in some stages the environment can be used to hurl enemies off cliffs into some unknown abyss! Of course the same can happen to you but I liked seeing this. It reminded me a lot of Golden Axe where I use the environment to my advantage a lot. I also tried to take advantage of this in the video clip above but you can see it sometimes got the best of me.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms III
ROTTK3 Gameplay by the Sega Dude
I have a bunch of Japanese strategy/Sim games that I knew I could never play because of the language barrier. So I was curious to try out Romance of the Three Kingdoms III in English. I started the game and I knew right away that I was in way over my head. It is very complex.
There are tons of tasks you can perform and in my very short time playing it I never really understood anything. I just did the best I could to make different things happen for the sake of the above gameplay video. Even still, there isn’t much to show off. It could be a great game but I’d have to spend a lot more time with it to find out. I suspect that for those who like this style game it was great in its day. But I bet it hasn’t aged well.
Next up is Earnest Evans! Check out that cover! Looks like it might be a cool Indiana Jones brawler. So far so good. Power up the game and you get a brief but decent looking into. Then the game starts and that’s were it falls down… flat… on it’s face. The Rag Doll Earnest character is ugly and the added complexity of getting him to crouch or go prone feels completely unnecessary. Even the animation of his whip attack is ugly. This combined with plain graphics and uninspired enemies leaves us with a really weak game.
Earnest Evans
Earnest Evans Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Caliber 50 is actually the first game of these four that I tried out when I got them home. While playing it I was sure it was going to be the worst of the bunch. Unfortunately it’s not good and despite this it’s still better than Romance of the Three Kingdoms III and Earnest Evans.
Caliber 50
Caliber 50 Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Any game (and there are a few) that require you to turn your character clockwise or counter clockwise by holding down the A button and then the C button for the opposite direction is going to feel awkward right from the start. It takes a good while to get use to this and if the game itself is a bit flat it’s really hard to justify the effort.
Sometimes it was dificult to get my guy to face the right direction, he felt too slow to really be able to dodge all of the incoming fire and sometime I didn’t even know where on the map I was suppose to go.
Forgotten Worlds has the same control scheme but it’s just so nice looking and fun that I never felt put out when trying to deal with controlling my character. Although Forgotten Worlds is too easy to beat.
But despite all my complaints about three of my four new additions they do look pretty and I’ll enjoy putting them on the shelf with the others 🙂
Another tiny incentive for me regarding these new additions is when I first started this blog I had almost exactly the same number of Japanese Mega Drives games as Genesis games. But over the years the Mega Drive count took a big lead. Mostly because they were cheaper and easier to find. Even though they shipped all the way from Japan! So now, slowly, I’ll see if I can bring the count closer together and restore balance to the force and all that jazz.
Before this post I had 160 Genesis games to 194 Japanese Mega Drive games. And now that’s 164 Genesis games to 194 Japanese Mega Drive games. YAY!
Just 30 more Genesis games to go! That’s about 18% more Genesis titles required to catch up to my Japanese Mega Drive count! And knowing me I’ll find some Mega drive games that I wont be able to pass up along the way before I get my next 34 Genesis titles.
Nice New Genesis Additions for the Collection
Earnest Evan (Excellent Condition), Romance of the Three Kingdoms III (Excellent Condition) and Caliber 50 (Good Condition) cost me $55 together. At just over $18 each I’m very happy with them… even though I don’t like them. That makes sense, right?
Below is what I feel was the best find of the day. A complete boxed Japanese Sega Mega Drive. Which is in excellent condition!
Japanese Mega Drive
Asian Region Packaging
I’ve always wanted a Japanese Mega Drive but because of shipping it was always just too expensive. Specially considering the fact that I have many Sega Genesis consoles kicking around.
Box Opened
Mega Drive Close Up
When I bought this Mega Drive I was sure it was the Japanese version. It had to be, right?
Later I went online to double check and I found the video below from Ian. So I realized that my packaging is definitely what was used for the Asian markets but not Japan. I kept watching and I started to realize that despite the Asian market packaging everything else about this Mega Drive console was exactly to specification of the original Japanese model.
My beautiful Mega Drive is Model # HAA-2510, it has writing on the left and right side of the power LED, the word Trigger is written above the A B C buttons and the button letters are Red not black and the system has the cartridge lock that engages when you power on the system. This Mega Drive also plays with no slow downs on my NTSC Television. I tested it with Sonic 1 and 2. So it’s not PAL and it is running at 60 Hz.
To be honest I’m not 100% why this model is more sought after. I don’t know why an Asian market Mega Drive that runs at 60 Hz wouldn’t be just as good. I’ve read a few comments that people believe the audio is better on the HAA-2510 but I don’t know any details.
This Mega Drive cost me $65 with no shipping or anything else to deal with so I feel like it was a great deal. I’m really happy with it.
I found a nice surprise in my mailbox this morning from Super Fighter Team. Brandon Cobb is releasing two games for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. And they are available for purchase right now.
I actually have Magic Girl (cartridge only) and after reading Brandon’s comments I think Magic Girl might have been an unlicensed game when it was first released for the Mega Drive.
“Magic Girl was developed by Gamtec in Taiwan. In addition to translating the game into English, we at Super Fighter Team have also fixed a few bugs that plagued the Chinese original.” – Super Fighter Team
Magic Girl Featuring Ling Ling the Little Witch
Magic Girl Gameplay by the Sega Dude
“It is a harsh reality for Ling Ling, whose heart is filled with sorrow over the suffering of her people. But there is no time for tears, as she must rush to avenge the fallen. Only with your careful guidance will she be able to prevail over the enemy and restore her planet to a semblance of its former peace and prosperity.”
My version is not translated and doesn’t have the bug fixes offered by Super Fighter Team and it doesn’t have a case or manual. For me this was enough reason to purchase a copy. In my short gameplay example above I managed to get to level 3.
I didn’t notice any bugs unless performance qualifies. There was no flickering or slow downs but it felt like the frame rate was too slow or the refresh wasn’t adequate. I’m sure if those terms apply but something felt a bit off. I’m having a hard time describing what I experienced while playing.
The game is not very polished. The sound effects for both your rapid fire shot and sound played when you get hit are annoying. The graphics aren’t great but they’re OK and the boss fights are a bit simple. Not simple as in easy but there isn’t much variety in what they do. And the levels felt too long for what little variety they offered.
You can grab a bunch of different power-ups including a mega blast that hits everything on the screen. This ‘bomb’ is something to save for when the screen gets a little to cluttered with enemies. You might have noticed that I wasted one of my blasts right at the beginning as I was figuring out which button does what.
*Hold A for rapid fire shooting and B for your mega blast/bomb.
If you love collecting retro video games then consider getting Magic Girl. If you just love playing great games take some time to think about this one. It might not be for you.
We all know how rare it is for games to get release for retro systems so for me personally I do like buying them whenever I can.
I really don’t know what to think about Cascade. It’s a puzzle game with 7 levels and a two player competitive mode. Sounds great but from the one screen shot I’ve seen I suspect that it might not be very good.
However, I purchased Cascade because like I said, it’s not often games are released for retro consoles and I’ve been very happy with Star Odyssey and the Legend of Wokong. Both releases from Super Fighter Team for the Genesis / Mega Drive.
I feel like I’ve been very lucky when it comes to the Watermelon Team (Creators of the video game Pier Solar) thanks to Luis Martins. Luis has been doing amazing concept artwork for Watermelon Team’s upcoming Sega Genesis / Mega Drive game code named Project Y. And whenever something cool happens Luis always sends me a messages.
Very recently Luis sent me a link titled Leaked Images of Project Y. Even though there are only two screen shots I was really amazed. Check them out below:
Project Y Work In Progress Screen Shot One
**Update** After publishing this post I got a message from Luis Martins who told me that the artwork and backgrounds you’re looking at here are from the actual Project Y video game and are 100% Watermelon Team.
Luis Martins: “Yes it is legit, all the artwork is from the actual game even the backgrounds.”
He did want me to also say that this is very much a work in progress and things may change or look different in the final game. So you can disregard my speculation as you read it below.
I don’t believe everything you see here is created by Watermelon Team (maybe?). From the videos below you’ll see that during development Watermelon team will use sprites (characters) and possibly other elements from other games in order to see what the Genesis / Mega Drive can do.
Project Y Work In Progress Screen Shot Two
I’m sure this method really helps move along game development. I imagine this enables the coders to work on the gameplay mechanics while the pixel artists work on the unique characters for the game. I do hope the background environment from the first screen shot has been created by Watermelon Team. It’s looks really excellent! I wanna go to the Blue Bar!
The fact that I entirely trust Luis Martins as a reliable source for Project Y and because you can see these same screen shots on Watermelon Teams Magical Game Factory forums and no Watermelon Team member has jumped in to say they are fake I really do believe this is a real first glimpse into Project Y. And it’s very exciting!
In the video below Fonzie from the Watermelon Team shows how he’s working on getting many large sprites on the screen at the same time while keeping the Mega Drive / Genesis CPU usage low. Leaving lots of horse power left for the rest of the game.
Did you hear that?! Fonzie hints at having 16 characters on the screen at one time. If in the end Watermelon Team gets anywhere near that it will be unbelievable.
Fonzie might have also suggested that they are trying to make the best RPG Beat’em Up ever 🙂 Outstanding.
If you still play your Mega Drive / Genesis watch for this one and buy it as soon as you can.
Project Y is going to be all up in your face!
And just for fun have a look at Watermelon Teams Mega Drive 25th Anniversary Celebration:
Retro Megabit 