Sega to bring 3 more platforms to the Virtual Console
Reports are flying in, from various sources, that Sega will be bringing 3 of their retro consoles to the Nintendo Wii’s online store, the Virtual Console.
We are yet to hear any official announcements from Nintendo themselves, but many sites are claiming that the Master System, Mark III and the Game Gear should all be arriving to the Virtual Console come this February.
So far the only ‘confirmed’ titles, are Fist of the North Star (600 Wii points) and Fantasy Zone (500 Wii points), both originally on the Master System.
The most baffling thing, for me, is how most sites are treating the Mark III and Master System as two different consoles. I was always under the assumption that the Mark III was just the (original) Japanese version of the Master System. Perhaps I have been mislead all these years…
Anyway, this news comes as being very exciting for me, as the Game Gear holds some of the best games from my youth, and is still my favourite handheld to date, (yes the DS and PSP can go suck something hard, the Game Gear is my platform of choice), and I would love to see some 8-bit classics from the Game Gear appearing on the Virtual Console.
The only worrying thing, so far, is that it seems to have only been announced for Japan. Let’s hope Nintendo and Sega get something right, and bring the new systems to the west.
[Sources: Aussie-Nintendo, Hexus.gaming, TVG, Wired and +DGames]
[Special Thanks: Yu Suzuki Via The Forums]
Tags: Downloads, Fan Stuff, Game Gear, Handheld, Imports, Master SystemRelated Stories
POSTED IN: G, Japan, News, Nintendo Wii, Retro, Virtual Console
14 opinions for Sega to bring 3 more platforms to the Virtual Console
Kogen
Jan 25, 2008 at 7:42 am
Why would they have both the Mark III and a Master System? As far as I knew, it’s roughtly the same hardware unless they’re just doing that one for Japan and Master System for everyone else.
Graham
Jan 25, 2008 at 8:25 am
Yeah my thoughts exactly Kogen. I thought that they were the same system (different designs, but essentially the same).
Hopefully this is an indication that they will be bringing the consoles to the western VCs.
udx
Jan 25, 2008 at 10:36 am
Game Gear later on, eh? I only played a couple of Game Gear titles(They were all Sonic games)
I wonder when SEGA CD titles will come to the VC, since TG-CD titles are on there?
Emmett The Crab
Jan 25, 2008 at 10:37 am
Maybe this means there will be import games on those systems, but then they are already doing that with the Genesis, and they aren’t making separate categories for Mega Drive and Genesis in the US.
As to that “Just two more to go ” don’t you think Saturn and DC games are too big for the Wii? Maybe if they gave us a hard drive.
Graham
Jan 25, 2008 at 10:57 am
@Emmett - Yeah I know Saturn and DC games are too large.
But still - it would be nice to see Saturn and DC on one of the download services (preferably XBLA or VC - as I dont own a PS3 ;) )
-It would also be cool if Nintendo made it so you could attach external harddrives (or made one) to the Wii for large games.
F-Unit
Jan 25, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Great news! Master System has a ton of good games to choose from. Wouldn’t hold my breath for any Saturn or DC announcement, Sega CD’s much more realistic. Game Gear was cool back in the day but how many exclusives (excluding anything sonic) did it have worth playing? All I can remember is mostly ports.
eday_2010
Jan 25, 2008 at 1:17 pm
@Graham - I am sure there will be a firmware update at some point that allows you to attach an external hard drive to the USB port in the back and not only store your VC titles on it, but run them from there as well. You can use USB keyboards with the Wii now, so I think it’s only a matter of time. I am sure people who download a ton of VC titles don’t like having to move them to an SD card where they can’t play them directly. Hopefully Nintendo is smart with this :)
Graham
Jan 25, 2008 at 2:45 pm
-Eday. Yeah, one can only hope Nintendo does the smart thing ;)
-F-Unit. The Game Gear actually has quite a few top notch exclusives.
Well some you could call ports, I guess - but they are very different to the console counterparts usually - like Sonic 1 on the GameGear compared to Megadrive (totally different games).
But I used to own about 30-odd (either lost or traded them in later- now I only have about 20) Game Gear games, and they were all great, imo.
Hopefully Sega will be able to bring the goods to the VC.
Neal
Jan 25, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I haven’t read all the comments so this may have been stated already, but maybe they list the Mark III and the SMS as different systems because there were a number of games released on the Mark III that didn’t make it over to Europe/North America on the SMS.
Even so its needlessly confusing.
The Game Gear fizzled out quickly for me - sure it was my first SEGA console, but the games didn’t stay fun as long as Genesis games did. Maybe I just had the wrong games though. But Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble and Columns got extensive use long after I tired of the rest of my Game Gear library.
I still play my SMS regularly though - Phantasy Star, R-Type and Golvellius are always amazing. I’m hoping the VC announcement will cause prices of physical cartriges to drop so I can add a few more games to my SMS library.
ribbitking17
Jan 25, 2008 at 4:37 pm
The VC could hold Saturn games couldn’t it? It holds N64 games.
nuckles87
Jan 25, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Sega Saturn could most certainly be done on the VC. It’s the Dreamcast thats impossible.
Emmett The Crab
Jan 25, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I think taking games from a disc format creates the problem of the space that the CD audio tracks take up. Even Sega CD. I’m no expert, but the VC titles have been taking up a ridiculously small amount of space so far, whereas a CD ROM can hold 640MB of stuff, and most of it seems to be audio tracks. That’s more than the whole Wii internal memory.
V1L3
Jan 25, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Ugh. It’d be so optimistic of me to hope that the AU/EU versions of these games will be in 60hz… I haven’t bought a single Mega Drive game off the VC for that very reason.
develin
Jan 28, 2008 at 7:08 pm
As long as there are no external harddrives for the Wii (and BigN seems more than reluctant to allow them, greedy bastards) there won’t be CD games. Too big. Still I would love to see Shining Force CD - ripping out the sountrack it is <60 MB and as you can compress sound to MP3 (etc) these days …. maybe there is some hope.
As for the 3 new systems … let’s be honest, even the difference between GG and MS is tiny (GG games have more colors - that’s it) and as you (having an incredibly cheap adapter allowing you to use the cartridges) could play any MS game on the GG in fact we get one device - the game gear.
That said, it makes sense to distinguish between MS and GG just because we might get the MS version of some games, once in a while the GG version might be worse (hey - they still sell the MS in Brazil ;) ).
Same might hold for Mark III - if we are lucky, they try to avoid some licensing issues with this (e.g. a game release for Mark III by Company A in Japan, but Publisher B in America. If Publisher B doesn’t exist anymore, maybe they can avoid some lock downs with that).
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