More awesome retro ports & homebrew games (Starfox, Wonder Boy, TMNT, Castlevania, Sonic)

Found some more awesome indie and homebrew retro console games out there or in the making! Love seeing fans pushing these old consoles to their limits and making games and ports we could only dream of as kids.

Firstly GASEGA68k who I’ve posted about before due to his amazing SuperFX chip like games/demos on a regular SEGA Genesis/Megadrive (eg Wolfenstein, F-Zero, Mario Kart) has released new videos showing just how far his Starfox conversion has come along. Just amazing to think this is on a regular un-modded MD and he reckons he’s got some more tricks up his sleeve to gain back more FPS too!

New video of current status of Starfox demo for Sega Genesis/MD.

The scramble intro sound and the music during gameplay are streaming sample rate at 12khz (2 to 1 compresion adpcm type, the same format I used on wolf3d) playing with the z80. #starfox, #SegaGenesis, #Megadrive pic.twitter.com/iIL7T2CSLz

— Gasega68k (@gasega68k) January 5, 2023

Next comes a very cool looking Wonder Boy like game for the Nintendo Gameboy called Tales of Monsterland that is clearly WB3 inspired with its cool monster changes. They’ve even done a nice physical collectors boxset version!

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/09/tales_of_monsterland_is_yet_another_new_game_boy_game_and_its_getting_a_fancy_limited_edition

Then comes some truly awesome projects going on at the moment for the SEGA Master System. Firstly a fellow named xfixium is working on a port of the brilliant Arcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! When you compare this to the official original NES port of the game the difference is remarkable!

https://www.smspower.org/forums/18324-SMSTMNTHomebrew

Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, & Sonic Blast 16bit Genesis/Mega Drive remakes

There’s so many amazing Sonic fan games out there recreating that golden 16bit era on the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis however there’s a few really cool fan remakes of the 8bit games that have caught my attention over the years. If like me you’ve always wondered what it would be like if some of those cool and unique 8bit Sonic games on the Game Gear and Master System such as Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, & Sonic Blast had been given 16bit Mega Drive releases back in the day too then guess what, other fans had the same thoughts, resulting in each of these games getting fan remakes in the style of that era and they are super cool! 🙂

Sonic Triple Trouble is the most recent and most impressive release as it’s actually finished and totally remakes the full entire original Game Gear game in truly awesome 16bit fashion. I especially love how it’s intro has been totally changed to act as a sequel to the final moments of Sonic & Knuckles making it really feel like that next true 16bit 2D Sonic sequel we never got.

More info & downloads: https://gamejolt.com/games/sonictripletrouble16bit/322794

It quickly reminded me of the awesome fan remake of Sonic Chaos that released a really cool demo showing the entire opening zone remade in glorious 16bit style. Sadly things have been a bit quite over the years but hopefully the project is still going and we’ll get to play the full game remade one day!

More info & downloads: https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/sonic-chaos-turquoise-hill-demo.228/

SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Mini 2 Console & Visual Compendium Book Announced!

Well it’s all happening for SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis fans at the moment. We’ve got a new console and a new collectors book coming! After the very successful and highly regarded Mega Drive Mini console released a few years ago SEGA have now announced a sequel console that heavily features Mega CD/SEGA CD content! This is great news as the Mega CD addon to the Mega Drive was very underrated due to it flopping commercially thanks to it’s library and marketing excessively hyping FMV games that just didn’t deliver. Had they shown off more of the 3D/mode 7 like capabilities of the console (that were more powerful than Nintendo’s Super FX chip) and the games utilizing it (eg Sonic CD special stages, Batman Returns driving stages, Thunderhawk, Soul Star, F1 Beyond the Limit, Adventures of Batman & Robin etc) the console might have done better! There’s also some great RPGs and Metroidvanias on the console too, so I’m very happy to see the Wonder Boy like game Popful Mail in the list. It sounds like a western release will be happening too (2nd article below) so fingers crossed a lot of these great classics will make it onto the sequel mini console!

https://www.ign.com/articles/sega-mega-drive-mini-2-announced-50-games-included

https://www.gamesradar.com/sega-genesis-mini-2-over-drive-mini-2-confirmed/

I posted a while back about the awesome SEGA Master System Visual Compendium book created by Bitmap books who made the excellent Nintendo, C64, & Amiga ones all of which I proudly have in my collection. Well for years I’d been hoping they’d make a SEGA Mega Drive book and they’ve finally announced one! Their books are of amazing quality so I can’t recommend them enough if you loved these consoles and their games. Looks like this one will not be a official collaboration with SEGA though as apparently they gave them a lot of trouble with the SMS book which is why my beloved Wonder Boy series didn’t make it into that book due to licensing issues. At least now they should be free to cover the later WB games in this new MD book!

https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all/products/mega-drive-genesis-a-visual-compendium

Classic Sonic The Hedgehog games (1, 2, 3+SK & CD) remastered in Sonic Origins

Around a decade ago ‘The Taxman’ created a classic Sonic The Hedgehog games engine called the Retro Engine that could recreate the original Sonic games and make new ones too. SEGA took interest in it and used it to release official remasters of Sonic 1, 2, 3+SK & CD on Android & iOS mobiles. The remastered versions had everything the originals have along with a number of additions and enhancements such as widescreen support with various graphical filters, 60fps, remastered music tracks, new zones based on famous deleted beta content, and best of all they allowed Tales and Knuckles in every game including Sonic 1! The Taxman went on to work on the very popular Sonic Mania game using his engine which was ported across PC and all consoles, however for some reason all the classic Sonic remasters never got off mobiles until now! Around 5 years ago I complained around a bunch of SEGA forums about this so I’m so thrilled to see they’ve finally fixed the problem and will be releasing all the remastered versions with even more enhancements in a new combined game known as Sonic Origins for consoles and PC!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794960/Sonic_Origins/

Sonic The Hedgehog & Super Mario Bros on Commodore 64

Wow!! The world (and Nintendo’s lawyers lol) went bonkers a few years ago when Super Mario Bros was successfully ported to the Commodore 64 and was actually fast & looked good (I’ll put a link & video below if you missed all the fuss). Well now it’s Sonic’s turn as Sonic The Hedgehog 1 from the SEGA Master System has been ported to C64 and it looks & sounds really good! I love seeing people in the homebrew scene pushing the limits of old consoles like this.

C64 Sonic The Hedgehog:
https://www.indieretronews.com/2021/12/sonic-hedgehog-is-coming-to-c64-and.html

C64 Super Mario Bros:
http://www.indieretronews.com/2019/04/hot-news-super-mario-bros-has-been.html

Wolfenstein and Super Nintendo Mode 7 3D Effects on SEGA Genesis Mega Drive

Wow! This super talented creator named GASEGA68k has managed to get Super Nintendo SNES like Mode 7 3D scrolling graphics like effects on a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive with no extra chips. Naturally he used the effect to create a F-Zero like game. Of course to get this working on a Mega Drive he had to the lower the resolution a bit but wow..

Download: https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1959&start=45#p36187

It just amazes me when fans achieve things like this on retro consoles that professionals thought were impossible back in the day. Here’s another one of his Genesis mode 7 demos. This time its a retro Sonic Team Racing game (basically Mario Kart but with Sonic) that SEGA should have made back in the day.

Download: https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1959&start=30#p27666

The talented creator behind these videos is also the same guy that made the popular Wolfenstein 3D SEGA Genesis Mega Drive game from a few years ago. Another utterly amazing technical achievement considering no extra chips were used and is just running on default hardware.

Download: https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=33633#p33633

Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 HD Remastered Remake

Wow!! I can’t believe I only just found this! Some extremely talented guys have been remaking one of the best Sonic The Hedgehog games ever made, Sonic 2!

They released a playable alpha a few years ago that only contained Emerald Hill Zone, and recently they have released a brand new demo that contains an even better looking Emerald Hill Zone and yes you can continue on to a extremely impressive looking Chemical Plant Zone and Hill Top Zone!!!

I was surprised just how well it plays. The movements and controls are very smooth like the original and the demo ran fast on my computer despite me not having a proper graphics card (running off cr*ppy inbuilt Intel 4600). However the biggest shock for me was the AMAZING remastered soundtrack! Act 1 of each Zone contains an awesome remaster of the classic songs we loved that stays true to the original style, but then in each Act 2 they use a very Sonic 3 & Knuckles style where they’ve created a completely unique and different remaster of that zones song. Eg the new Act 2 Chemical Plant Zone track is friggin AWESOME! I was literally dancing at my desk while playing that level haha!!

Check out the video below, download their latest demo and give them some support and feedback!

Video Log 1 – Testing My SEGA Mega Drive After 20yrs

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of activity lately. Massively failed my ‘1 video every week’ promise a few months back as real life got very busy and I had to step away from ‘nerd life’ for a couple of months haha. As a result the video uploading stopped (those promised videos ARE filmed, they just need cuts & edits lol) and I missed some great milestones! Blake’s Sanctum passed 31,000 visitors (that’s 11,000 since this time last year!!!) and this blog passed the 5,000 visitor mark which is just incredible. When I think back to the early days in the 2000s when the site was lucky to get 1000 people a year it just shows how much the site has grown, the love people have for retro gaming and how my hard work has paid off. 🙂

So.. I’ve decided to take my youtube channel to the next level and start doing occasional Video Logs (in between all my regular videos) talking about retro gaming and other fun stuff relating to Blake’s Sanctum. Putting myself in front of a camera is slightly nerve racking as the internet can be mean haha but hopefully some people will enjoy the more ‘personalised’ content as apposed to the usual gameplay with my droning voice in the background vids haha.

To kick this new video series off I thought it would be fun to get out my old SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis for US viewers) that I hadn’t touched in 20yrs due to a broken cable and test it along with all my old games. I also talk about my love for retro gaming and recommend some great twitter retro gaming personalities & news channels to follow if you want to get more into the current scene.

PART 1:
Introduction, Getting out the SEGA Mega Drive & Games, Setting up & talking about retro gaming scene. Testing Sonic the Hedgehog 1,2,3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

In the end I waffled on so much and was having so much fun the video got waaaay longer than planned lol so here’s part 2.

PART 2:
Testing Super Monaco GP, Bubsy, Menacer 6 Shooting Games, Lemmings 2 Tribes and Starflight.

Sonic & Mario Crossover + New 3D NES Emulator

I love it when fans use modern tools and abilities to improve old school games whether it be mod projects, fan patches or remakes of things hence why my website often tributes such projects after tributing the original base game. One day I plan to do big Sonic the Hedgehog & Super Mario sections on my website covering all the great platformers, spin offs and numerous fan projects out there. I also still have to finish my old Emulation/Console section one day too lol!

In the meantime check out these 2 amazing pieces of work below…

The first is a new emulator that converts old Nintendo (NES) games into 3D! Its a bit glitchy in some parts but looks amazing in others. Skip to different parts to see different games. Check out his channel for more videos and you can try it yourself HERE.

2018 EDIT: A new much improved version of this emulator has been released on itch, I’ve posted some way better videos and animations from it HERE !
2022 EDIT: This emulator has continued to improve a lot over the years since this post, has changed it’s name to 3DSen and is available on steam HERE !

The second are some cool fan created crossover videos between Sonic, Mario & other famous series. Check out his channel for more cool videos!