Those who’ve wasted away most of their life in the romhack scene already know this, but modifying old games – making new ones from them even – is already a big thing. From translation patches to bugfixes to making Mario a communist superhero, if you have a crazy idea for an old game from your youth, you’re just one IPS patch away from playing it.
Recently, Sega Europe announced on twitter that owners of any Sega Mega Drive Classics game will soon be given access to a new hub for each game that will contain, among other things, Steam workshop support.
What this means is that romhacks will be readily available from Steam via the new workshop, giving users a place (other than the usual places) to share and download their modifications. Of course, the virtual 1980s bedroom they give you to play the games in is a pretty cool edition too.
This is great news for Phantasy star 4, since their collection is based off of the original, which contained the infamous lv99 glitch, which was fixed in a patch/romhack.
These new hubs for each game will roll out on April 28th, giving players a “virtual room” for their games and letting them try out whatever crazy romhacks are available.
Uncle Ocelot
April 22, 2016 at 10:10 amNOICE
Heavily Augmented
April 22, 2016 at 10:15 amQuite the rarity to see publishers support emulations of older games.
Dewey Defeats Truman
April 22, 2016 at 10:18 amWhile I can’t say I have any interest in this since I just play these kinds of things on my everdrive, I think it’s cool that they’re supporting it like this. The idea that people that aren’t fully aware of these things or have moral objections to them for whatever reason can play things like Sonic 3 Complete or Big’s Fishing Derby now is great news.
dogmentation
April 22, 2016 at 10:38 amThis is just hilarious. I’m certain it’s intended for those without technical prowess or of a delicate moral sensibility when it comes to emulators, but it’s so thoroughly pointless. Like when Chik-Fil-A stopped selling Cole Slaw so they decided to make their recipe public — as if people had never made cole slaw before. Maybe you prefer Sega’s original flavor, but don’t pretend like this hasn’t already been around forever.
dogmentation
April 22, 2016 at 10:42 amNintendo VC and Sony Classics can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.
deadeye
April 22, 2016 at 10:44 amPublishers acknowledging and officially supporting romhacks is a pretty big deal, honestly.
Izzy Lichi
April 22, 2016 at 11:09 amclickbate jerkface… thumbnailing a picture of Phantasy star only to be lead to bullshit
dogmentation
April 22, 2016 at 11:19 amWhy? Who cares? Other than Sega, who desperately wants to trim that thin dime. Roms have been hacked and modified since pretty much day one, and trying to cash out 30 years later doesn’t change anything at all.
ProxyDoug
April 22, 2016 at 11:31 amFunny to se JC talking to himself.
deadeye
April 22, 2016 at 11:33 amI’m sorry you’re so short-sighted that you can’t see why this is an overall net good thing.
Johnathon
April 22, 2016 at 11:35 amWhat’s that, a good idea?
Shut it down
buddyluv324
April 22, 2016 at 11:42 amPhantasy Star IV is part of the workshop support. Hardly clickbait
Captain Vidya
April 22, 2016 at 12:00 pmIf you want to go with a food analogy, it’s more like a burger joint having their normal recipes they offer you that you used to not be able to alter, but now they decided to also add a condiment stand that has stuff you can use so you can alter your burger however you want without having to go home and do it.
The fact that SEGA’s going “sure, you can use romhacks and whatnot on these games, go nuts” is pretty huge.
dogmentation
April 22, 2016 at 12:04 pmAnd I’m sorry you’re so vague you can’t cite a reason why.
dogmentation
April 22, 2016 at 12:07 pmExcept they offered this recipe 30 years ago, and haven’t cared what people put on the burger since then, and now suddenly they’re taking an interest and charging for the privilege.
“We’re happy to be offering the classic burger you remember, except now we’re providing the condiments you’ve been enjoying for years, as long as you buy it from us and stay in our restaurant while you eat it.”
Uncle Ocelot
April 22, 2016 at 12:31 pmTry reading the article, friendo. Phantasy Star is mentioned.
Kev Lew
April 22, 2016 at 1:22 pmthis, is fantastic. Would love to re-play some classic titles with a controller that does not feel so spongy/flimsy in my hands. megadrive was a significant part of my childhood, playstation was later on after the gaming enthusiasm that had already awoken in me.
Minuteworld92
April 22, 2016 at 1:26 pmthis’d be cool news if there weren’t emulators better than sega’s official emulator. still cool though
Yabloko Molloco San
April 22, 2016 at 2:38 pmThe Dentons are in full force today.
scemar
April 22, 2016 at 3:42 pmI think everyone is massively underestimate the big significance of this event.
We’re talking Sega, one of the oldest classic japanese gaming companies, in fact almost as old at Nintendo in this industry, they are old school console people all right.
And now they are releasing tools so average people can legally, freely and openly make modifications for their games in all kinds of ways and share them with each other.
From a technical point of view it’s nothing special, old game mods, new game mods, they’re already a thing, and there was already a community that enjoyed making mods of old sega games.
But for Sega to take that murky territory and legitimize it this way is a big thing.
scemar
April 22, 2016 at 3:44 pmSpecially an old school Japanese console publisher.
Zombie_Barioth
April 22, 2016 at 4:26 pmI think he meant the unofficially supported variety.
Remember Nintendo took down just about anything to do with Mario ROM hacks?
Zombie_Barioth
April 22, 2016 at 4:57 pmMost companies have stood against ROMs and unofficial emulation, many have tried to make it illegal in the past.
Having a company openly encourage it rather than shut it down is pretty big.
Its the same thing as with Youtube and the controversy over use of video game footage.
JoeSislack
April 23, 2016 at 1:47 amAs opposed to a company like Nintendo who would send their lawyers so far up people’s asses over things like parody videos? Sega has its own problems, but offering this is definitely not one of them.
But go ahead and be a contrarian baby about it as much as you want with stupid as fuck food analogies.
dogmentation
April 23, 2016 at 5:16 amThanks, I will.
dogmentation
April 23, 2016 at 5:21 amTwo Dentons in the field — The NSF won’t know what hit them.
Malcolm_Ecks
May 3, 2016 at 10:42 pmFan localizations of old titles. New fan created levels.