Tag Archives: Sega CD

Put a Sega CD disc in the drive and let that boot screen run for a moment. The logo spins, the music starts, and a Genesis that used to swallow cartridges suddenly feels like a different machine. Then the loading begins. The future had arrived, and it occasionally wanted you to sit quietly while it found the next bit of data. That's a more enjoyable way into these machines than another chart… Read more

Michael Pavone paid around $2,000 for a copy of Outback Joey while trying to emulate its exercise peripheral. The first copy was a fake. After getting a refund and finding a genuine one, he still had to work backward from the game’s code because the bicycle sensor and heart-rate hardware were beyond his budget. That is one of the more expensive detours in a conversation that also gets into disappearing sprites, frozen… Read more

Aladdin springs over a guard, Ristar reaches halfway across the screen, and Yoshi walks through a landscape that looks as though somebody left the crayons out. Put these games beside one another and the variety is wonderful. Sixteen-bit hardware could produce a convincing cartoon, a dense fantasy painting, or a comic page that wanted to punch you back. Some of the best moments only make sense in motion. Thunder Force IV sends… Read more

There is no hurry at first. Ecco swims through clear water, noses toward the other dolphins, and throws himself into the air because it is a lovely day and the game lets him. Then he jumps high enough. The sea begins to turn, his family disappears into the sky, and the pleasant little dolphin game becomes something else entirely. That opening has been catching people off guard since 1992. Ecco the Dolphin… Read more

At 2 a.m., Spencer Nilsen, David Young, and the singers of Pastiche were sitting in a circle on the studio floor, working out lyrics and harmonies for “Sonic Boom.” Nobody was complaining about the hour. Good ideas stayed, weaker ones went, and the song that would greet North American Sonic CD players was coming together between jokes. Nilsen arrived at Sega with years of recording experience and very little experience playing games.… Read more

The Sega CD was never one thing. It could be a rock-scored shooter, a hand-drawn cartoon, a huge role-playing journey, or an interactive movie that asked you to watch every camera at once. That restless variety is what makes its library so much fun to revisit. Would you rather watch than read? Settle in with our video countdown below, then return to the write-ups and images whenever you want a closer look.… Read more

The television shows a woman trapped in a house. You switch camera feeds, wait for intruders to enter a room, and spring a trap. Then you miss one. On the box, Night Trap looks like the movie games were finally going to become. In your hands, it is an awkward game about watching several grainy screens at once. A few months later, politicians would discuss it as though the machine under the… Read more

You are in first place when the rider to your left swings a chain. You lean away, drift toward the yellow line, and see the sedan coming over the hill a second too late. The bike skids down the road without you. Your racer gets up and runs after it while everyone else disappears into the distance. In Road Rash, losing can be funnier than winning, provided you have the nerve to… Read more

Introduction: Lunar’s Place in JRPG History In the early 1990s, role playing games were at a turning point. On one side of the Pacific, Japan had embraced the genre with giants like Final Fantasy IV on the Super Famicom and Dragon Quest V continuing its cultural dominance. In the West, RPGs were still considered a niche market, often dismissed as too slow or too text heavy compared to action driven titles. For… Read more

Introduction In the early 1990s a red book sized disc promised to change everything about home gaming. The Sega CD arrived with glossy full motion video, big stereo sound, and enough storage to make cartridges look quaint. It was marketed as the bridge between arcade energy and living room cinema. For a moment it worked. You could spin compact discs in your console, watch grainy actors run through a haunted house, and… Read more

Hideo Kojima is known for pushing the boundaries of video games, but during the development of Snatcher he almost took things into a whole new dimension — smell. Kojima wanted the game’s floppy disks coated in a special chemical that, when heated by the computer, would release the scent of blood. His vision? To fill the room with the “stench of a murder scene” during key moments in the game. Imagine playing… Read more

The Quintessential Sega CD Games for Each Year of the Console's Lifespan The Sega CD, released in 1991 as an add-on for the Sega Genesis, brought CD-ROM technology to console gaming. Despite its limited success compared to the SNES, the Sega CD had a notable library of games that showcased its unique capabilities. Let's take a journey through the most quintessential Sega CD games for each year of its lifespan. 1991 Sol-Feace… Read more

SEGA's nostalgic gem, Vay, initially released in 1993 for the SEGA CD and subsequently earning its place as a JRPG cult classic, particularly in the West, is poised for a resurgence. Fans can look forward to an "entirely new, fully reimagined port" specifically tailored for iPhone devices, set to launch later this year. The original game, developed by Hertz and released by SIMS in Japan, saw its North American debut thanks to the… Read more

The Sega CD: An Ambitious Leap into CD-ROM Gaming The Sega CD, known as Mega-CD outside North America, was Sega's ambitious foray into the world of CD-ROM technology in gaming. From the moment I tore open the wrapping paper one Christmas morning to reveal a Sega CD, the year it was released, my gaming experiences were forever transformed. That moment marked the beginning of a new chapter, one filled with richer soundtracks… Read more