Considering Sega Owns Technosoft where is a Collection?

[Tokyo-J]

Sega needs to put out a Technosoft Collection. Hyper Duel , Blastwind , Thunderforce V and VI really need re-releases.

Just saying....

Maybe I am just making this post because I am looking for the Saturn versions of Blast Wind and Hyper Duel. But damn it is a good idea.

[Sengoku Strider]

Sega seem to have unofficially decided that the mini consoles are the best way for them to present their back catalogue going forward. But they did have M2 release fantastic ports of Thunder Force AC & Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force for Sega AGES on Switch before that.

[Kiken]

Sega seem to have unofficially decided that the mini consoles are the best way for them to present their back catalogue going forward. But they did have M2 release fantastic ports of Thunder Force AC & Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force for Sega AGES on Switch before that.

They also released the online vs compatible version of Herzog Zwei (which also includes an in depth tutorial).

Sega needs to put out a Technosoft Collection. Hyper Duel , Blastwind , Thunderforce V and VI really need re-releases.

TFVI should be HD-ified (bump up the res and perhaps employ wide-screen support with some rebalancing). I have little hope for TFV as Saturn emulation is still a veritable rollercoaster in terms of accuracy (they'd probably just opt for rereleasing Perfect System)... Hyper Duel at least has the original arcade hardware available but I doubt that the original planned arcade code for Blast Wind exists.. so it sits in the same camp as TFV. Yeah, I get that Sega would no doubt have M2 handle these... but I don't doubt that even they would struggle with Saturn emulation.

It would be appreciated if they would give us a rerelease of X68K TFII.

[Lemnear]

Exactly yesterday, i had the honor to try Thunder Force IV , till the desert stage. It was easier than i thought, and probably the best graphics ever made on Mega Drive!
Also the music is so "Doom-Like" for a game published 1 year earlier than Doom .

[Sima Tuna]

Sega already has fantastic ports of Thunder Force III and IV on Switch. I don't know if they're available on other consoles or PC. If they're not, they should be made available.

I'd be doubtful of any new Sega shmup ports coming out, however. When was the last time *any* Sega Ages port came out? Their work with M2 seems to be sporadic. They never even bothered to port their past-gen M2 ports, like the Golden Axe collection or the collection which includes Super Hang-On, to modern consoles.

[Sengoku Strider]

Sega already has fantastic ports of Thunder Force III and IV on Switch. I don't know if they're available on other consoles or PC. If they're not, they should be made available.

I'd be doubtful of any new Sega shmup ports coming out, however. When was the last time *any* Sega Ages port came out? Their work with M2 seems to be sporadic. They never even bothered to port their past-gen M2 ports, like the Golden Axe collection or the collection which includes Super Hang-On, to modern consoles.

They cancelled the Sega AGES line years ago. M2 have been the ones handling their mini consoles instead.

[Gamer707b]

I've thought the same thing. The TF games have already been made available and the originals are not expensive to begin with. Now, Hyper Duel and Blast Wind is another strory. They've never been ported and obviously there's that sticker shot. I'd be perfectly happy with a halfway decent port of these.

[Sengoku Strider]

I think the main issue here really is that Sega have made the mini consoles their main release vector for back catalogue materials. In an interview for the Mega Drive Mini 2, M2 talked about how when they were selecting the project they costed out materials, doing anything more powerful than the MD (ie., the Saturn or Dreamcast) just wasn't feasible for the price point they were trying to hit. (The economics are different from the Astro City releases because of the 3rd party titles I guess?)

So that leaves all their 32-bit stuff - Fantastic Pinball, Nekketsu Oyako, Hyper Duel, Blast Wind, etc. in limbo for the time being. Honestly, I think it's going to be a while before we see them undertake Saturn releases. Their baseline would either be a cheap mobile CPU or the Switch, and as we've seen from poor old City Connection, that's just not a great fit. By the same rationale, I don't know if anybody should be holding their breath for TF6 any time soon.

They also released the online vs compatible version of Herzog Zwei (which also includes an in depth tutorial).

Yeah, I bought that the day it hit.

...I've never gotten through all the tutorials for some reason. Does it have any kind of active online community? They clearly put some serious love into that port, it seems like it deserves it.

Also, while we're batting around titles, if they're staying in the 16-bit era forever, Sega should bring back that MD Devil's Crush port that Technosoft did. I get why we haven't seen it so far, the rights are probably really complicated. The Crush series was published by Naxat in Japan, Alien & Jaki Crush done by Compile, Devil's done by Red. The MD port was done by Technosoft, who published it in Japan. But it was published in the West by Tengen and renamed Dragon's Fury, and the Genesis followup, Dragon's Revenge, was credited to Tengen themselves. Tengen don't even exist anymore, so I don't know who owns the Western naming rights.

[Jonpachi]

Though perhaps mildly controversial, the recent S-Tribute Boosted Batsugun release was very responsive and playable (at least on PS4). It's no M2, but I think we'd all be happy to see Hyper Duel and Blast Wind escape ebay hell, and I'd personally jump on a release of that quality level.

[XoPachi]

The day they port HyperDuel will be a good day.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Also, while we're batting around titles, if they're staying in the 16-bit era forever, Sega should bring back that MD Devil's Crush port that Technosoft did. I get why we haven't seen it so far, the rights are probably really complicated. The Crush series was published by Naxat in Japan, Alien & Jaki Crush done by Compile, Devil's done by Red. The MD port was done by Technosoft, who published it in Japan. But it was published in the West by Tengen and renamed Dragon's Fury, and the Genesis followup, Dragon's Revenge, was credited to Tengen themselves. Tengen don't even exist anymore, so I don't know who owns the Western naming rights.

It might be easier than that, actually. While developed by Compile (except for Devil Crush MD), the whole series belonged to Naxat Soft (Kaga Create). Dragon's Revenge was never really part of the series, so leaving that apart, it seems that the IPs ended up in the hands of Hudson when Kaga sold their videogames. So it's just Konami the one to deal with. Devil Crush's IP is apparently shared with Red indeed, but I don't think that would be a problem for Sega, as both have always been in quite good terms ever since Sakura Taisen.

If Sega entirely bought Tecno Soft's IPs, hardly a few rereleases from the Thunder Force series is all they'll do. It's just a matter of when, I'd say.

[Sengoku Strider]

It might be easier than that, actually. While developed by Compile (except for Devil Crush MD), the whole series belonged to Naxat Soft (Kaga Create). Dragon's Revenge was never really part of the series, so leaving that apart, it seems that the IPs ended up in the hands of Hudson when Kaga sold their videogames. So it's just Konami the one to deal with. Devil Crush's IP is apparently shared with Red indeed, but I don't think that would be a problem for Sega, as both have always been in quite good terms ever since Sakura Taisen.

If Sega entirely bought Tecno Soft's IPs, hardly a few rereleases from the Thunder Force series is all they'll do. It's just a matter of when, I'd say.

Sega wouldn't rename Lightening Force for the Switch release despite that being one of the worst titles ever conceived. And I can 100% see them saying something like "We tried to include Devil Crash but the rights to the Dragon's Fury name were slightly too expensive and nobody could possibly identify the game without that exact title. What we're really selling isn't games. No my friends, it's nostalgia and the chance to dream."

[Bassa-Bassa]

That might be overrating Sega's interest in Western markets in regards to rereleases of their old titles other than Sonic, though.

[hamfighterx]

Hahahaha just chiming in to mention that I would think about Blast Wind and Hyper Duel ports every time I drove by a local office for a (very different) company called Technosoft. Googled them and found that they CHANGED THEIR NAME, "Technosoft is now Apexon". And I think we all know the reason, they got taken out by the Lightening Force.

[Sengoku Strider]

That might be overrating Sega's interest in Western markets in regards to rereleases of their old titles other than Sonic, though.

I can guarantee you the reason they keep choosing Mega Drive stuff to go back to isn't because Japan can't get enough of it.

[Alec44]

If hyper duel got a release (just dreamin') I want the saturn version (and the arcade of course) I've never played it and the game is still so expensive.


Technosoft was really a good studio, thunderforce V (I know this game is ugly ) and its arcade feel, it's my favorite so far!
The designs are so great!

[Gamer707b]

That might be overrating Sega's interest in Western markets in regards to rereleases of their old titles other than Sonic, though.

I can guarantee you the reason they keep choosing Mega Drive stuff to go back to isn't because Japan can't get enough of it.

I totally agree. Just a hunch, but I would bet that North Americans are far more Genesis/Mega Drive nuts than the Japanese.

[Bassa-Bassa]

That's hard to contradict, but still, Sega (particularly the Yosuke Okunari team), have been thinking about Japan first and foremost for their rereleases of classics, including the MD Minis. You just need to check how the projects were announced and developed. In some interviews the Genesis Mini is almost referred to as an afterthought. The MD and its games got so much traction because they're stupidly easy to emulate against other Sega systems, and somehow it's become more popular in Japan among old game enthusiasts than it was in the 90s.

[BrianC]

M2 somewhat annoyed me with they way they handled and gave up on the SEGA Ages releases for Switch. They should have prioritized bringing the games missing from the non-Japan versions of the 3D classics outside of Japan and never got around to releasing Alien Syndrome or Turbo Outrun on the Switch. SEGA didn't even bring the eShop version of Power Drift 3DS outside of Japan. I don't know if it's more M2 or Sega, though. Turbografx mini had most of the same games worldwide (though other aspects of the release were a disaster, though it's a nice mini overall).

[Jonpachi]

M2 somewhat annoyed me with they way they handled and gave up on the SEGA Ages releases for Switch. They should have prioritized bringing the games missing from the non-Japan versions of the 3D classics outside of Japan and never got around to releasing Alien Syndrome or Turbo Outrun on the Switch. SEGA didn't even bring the eShop version of Power Drift 3DS outside of Japan. I don't know if it's more M2 or Sega, though. Turbografx mini had most of the same games worldwide (though other aspects of the release were a disaster, though it's a nice mini overall).

This was 100% driven by Sega. M2 were just the contractors doing what Sega wanted. They had no say on titles chosen or regional distribution.