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Mega Drive

Snake? Snaaaaake?! On the SEGA Mega Drive?!

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🎮 Snake? Snaaaaake?! On the SEGA Mega Drive?! 🐍💥

Yes, you read that right. Thanks to the incredible work of coder h0ffman, the original Metal Gear has stealth-crawled its way onto the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis, complete with retro flair, chiptune goodness, and a love letter’s worth of polish.

Originally a 1987 MSX2 title from the mind of Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear kickstarted a legendary stealth-action franchise. But while NES players got a… creative reinterpretation of the game, the true MSX2 version never graced a Sega console—until now.

🔧 Enter h0ffman, a coding wizard who reverse-engineered the original game and painstakingly rebuilt it from the ground up to run natively on Mega Drive hardware. We’re talking full sound and music via the YM2612 chip, buttery-smooth scrolling, and pixel-perfect visuals that feel right at home on a CRT.

image source: h0ffman via BlueSky

💾 You can:

  • Download the ROM (here) and play it on real hardware or an emulator

  • Check out the development blog (here) for juicy technical insights

  • Support the project (and future ports?!) through his itch.io

This isn’t just a port—it’s a what-if alternate reality where Metal Gear launched on Sega’s 16-bit beast back in the day. And honestly? It slaps.

So fire up your EverDrive or emulator of choice and get ready to infiltrate Outer Heaven, Mega Drive-style. Just remember: this is a sneaking mission. 🕵️‍♂️

Sega Mega Drive Under Siege: SACRED LINE 1 & 2

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Horror Games Invade The Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

Get your Sega Mega Drive / Genesis consoles out, cause Mega Cat Studios and Sasha Darko have released Sacred Line I & II for Sega’s 16-Bit wonder!

These surreal and horrifying choose-your-own-adventure titles for Sega’s 16-Bit beast feature haunting and treacherous locales to explore, brought to life with gorgeous yet unsettling 3D-rendered visuals, clever puzzles to solve, and deep stories centered around mature themes like war crimes, religious cults, and much, much more!

What are you waiting for, go and get horrified on your Sega Mega Drive / Genesis!!

Details:

  • Titles: Sacred Line 1 & Sacred Line 2
  • Price: US$39.99 (cart only) / US$49.99 (complete in box + manual) each
  • Availability: right now at Mega Cat Studios

 

image source: Mega Cat Studios

 

Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name, Played On The SEGA Mega Drive

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We have belted out RATM’s ‘Killing in the Name’ countless times over decades since it was released some 30 years ago (1993), and even now, it still stirs up the existential rage inside of us!

Before we get too deep into the meaning of the song, let’s take a step back and enjoy this timeless classic being played on Sega’s 16-bit awesome Mega Drive / Genesis console, courtesy of fxsnowy! Ah, that unmistakable sound of the Mega Drive’s Yamaha YM2612 six-channel FM synthesizer chip is music to our ears!

Turn it up peeps!

PS: Imagine this tune being played on the C64’s SID chip….. We can dream 😉


source: fxsnowy



Mega Book Collection Digital Book Is Now FREE

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Yep, you read that right! The ‘Mega Book Collection – A Visual Guide to the Sega Mega Drive’ digital book – the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis visual opus is now totally gratis!

The author, Darren Doyle (Greyfox Books) explains the reason this book has now been released for free:

We attempted to bring this book physically to everyone back in 2021 via crowdfunding but alas we were unable to do so. So going forward, we decided rather than this amazing project to be left sitting on a hard drive gathering dust forever, we made the decision to offer it for free for everyone to enjoy and because we are very nice and generous people here at Greyfox Books and love to support the Sega retro gaming scene.

In case you were wondering, the great big SEGA put the kibosh on this book being published physically. So before they kill the digital one, grab it now! And while you are at it, please consider leaving a donation via the publisher’s PayPal account.

image source: Greyfox Books



SEGA Genesis Interactive Plush Console

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Sega Does What Nintendon’t!

Another nostalgia inducing product from Kidrobot for those Sega 16-bit and Sonic fans! Kick it oldschool with this cool retro plush! The beloved classic SEGA Genesis (we prefer, Mega Drive!) gaming console gets a plush makeover with interactive elements.

This Genesis/Mega Drive console is a 12″ / 30cm plush which includes a plug-in plush Sonic game cartridge and an original 3-button type plug-in plush controller.

image source: Kidrobot



Retrogaming Magz, Comics and Books!

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Planes, trains and automobiles? No, magazines, comics and books, the retro gaming kind!

Last weekend we tweeted a couple of teaser photos of a number of magazines in our collection and promised that we would share more. Well, here they are! Relocating this stuff is always a chore, but the amount of nostalgia we get is priceless, so it is always well worth it.

For those keen observers, you will note that there are no photos of our most favourite 80s mag, Zzap64!, but rest assured, those issues are well preserved and didn’t require relocating. We hope these images bring back great memories for you too!

All images copyright of ausretrogamer.com



Chip’s Challenge is coming to the SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive!

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Chip's Challenge for SNES and SEGA GENESIS

Chip’s Challenge for SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Pre-Orders Now Live

Top-down tile-based puzzle game

Independent publisher The Retro Room Games has recently announced that the pre-orders for Chip’s Challenge on Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive are now open!

Play as Nerdy Chip McCallahan, who navigates through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles in 148 two-dimensional levels, in order to prove himself and gain membership to the very exclusive Bit Busters Club.

Chip's Challenge

Originally developed by Epyx, Chip’s Challenge is a classic top-down tile-based puzzle game launched on Atari Lynx in 1989. The game was also ported to MS-DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and the Amstrad CPC back in the 90s.

Chip’s Challenge was also released on Steam 6 years ago featuring 90% of positive reviews. This will be the first time that the game will be available on Nintendo and Sega platforms.

Chip’s Challenge will be available on 16-bit consoles including a cartridge in both PAL and NTSC versions, a box and an instruction booklet. Pre-orders for the game can be found here.


source: The Retro Room Roo

Features:

  • 148 two-dimensional levels
  • Block-pushing puzzles
  • Dodging enemies
  • Skip to the next level option

Price: US$24.99 (cart only) / US$49.99 (Complete In Box)



Lego Sonic Mania – It’s Happening!

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Remember when we told you to vote for the Sonic The Hedgehog (Sonic Mania) Lego set on Lego Ideas back in 2019?

Well guess what, your vote helped, as this creation garnered over 10,000 votes, meaning Lego has approved this set to become an actual product you can buy – woohoo! Lego is tweaking and finalising the set’s design, we just hope it is as close as possible to the original Lego Ideas submission! Can’t wait for this to be on store shelves and build Sonic’s world out of Lego!

 

Things Are Afoot At The Ausretrogamer Fun Factory in 2021

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With having a lot of time at home in 2020, we had been thinking about changing things up in the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory!

Things are afoot with designing the new space, which will see new additions, things being moved around and unfortunately, stuff that will go to a new home. We are quite excited with the next chapter of our games room, so we’ll be sure to share our journey throughout 2021 of the new and improved Ausretrogamer Fun Factory.

For now, you can have a read how the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory has evolved over the years.

Taking one last look at the current Ausretrogamer Fun Factory (click to enlarge)

 

Celebrating the Sega Mega Drive in Australia

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On this day [November 30] in 1990, Sega’s 16-bit beast arrived on our shores, which was about 2 years after Japan got theirs, but it was always better late than never back in those days!

Coming from the days of playing games on the Commodore 64 and Atari ST, the Mega Drive felt like we had a genuine arcade system in our bedroom! The Mega Drive was our first day one purchase (the N64 was the other) in 1990, which we paid $399 with the pack-in Altered Beast game. We also couldn’t resist buying Golden Axe on that day too. We still remember unpacking and playing it that day – our mind was completely blown!

Sega stamped their authority with their 16-bit powerhouse, and as history would record it, their most successful console ever. The Mega Drive was the catalyst for converting a generation of micro computing enthusiasts into console gamers, we should know, as we were one of them. Our transition from 8-bit (C64) and 16-bit (Atari ST) computing was quite stark – and as soon as we got our Mega Drive and whacked in the pack-in Altered Beast and then Golden Axe games, we honestly thought we had Sega’s arcade games in our bedroom. We were instantly smitten, and alas, that also rang the death knell on our playing days on the micros.

What were your earliest memories of Sega’s 16-bit beauty? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and join in the conversation.