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Sega has announced the release of SEGA Mega Drive Classics Hub for Steam on April 28th. Following is an excerpt from their announcement on their website:

The new-look system is based on a bedroom of an early nineties SEGA fan with dynamic time-of-day conditions, retro SEGA paraphernalia, a shelf full of MEGA Drive games (including the ones you own) and of course a CRT TV! That’s not all, every single MEGA Drive game will now feature Steam Workshop support allowing you to share modified versions of your favourite retro SEGA titles!

Yes, SEGA is officially allowing modders to share their custom roms of your favourite Sega Mega Drive/Genesis titles! The company is effectively making gaming history as being the first company to
explicitly allow the legal distribution of modified copies of its classic titles.

The sharing of ROMs has been for long looked down upon by video game companies, since it directly implies piracy. Modders would usually receive a cease and desist notice or be neglected from any official support. It does come as a surprise for a company like SEGA to officially embrace the concept of sharing ROMs. We can look forward to past gems like Golden Axe and Ecco the Dolphin, with a twist!

Check out the video below and their official news post from the source for further details!

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SOURCE

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Damn, was just about to write this up.

This is pretty neat of SEGA to do, I'm curious to see how this works.

 

[Prans]

Damn, was just about to right this up.

This is pretty neat of SEGA to do, I'm curious to see how this works.

Woop! Getting ninja-quick on my keyboard I guess Yup, will be definitely interesting to see where this all leads to!

 

[the_randomizer]

This was certainly unexpected, but a pleasant surprise all the same

 

[WiiUBricker]

I don't understand. Do you have to purchase the original titles first to be eligible to receive modded game versions? And are those actual .rom files?

 

[tech3475]

I don't understand. Do you have to purchase the original titles first to be eligible to receive modded game versions? And are those actual .rom files?

I would have thought you'd need to buy a game to be able to mod it, although I'm curious about the modification part myself and whether Sega will be doing anything to support modders or just basically making it a place to dump roms.

 

[migles]

I don't understand. Do you have to purchase the original titles first to be eligible to receive modded game versions? And are those actual .rom files?

i also have this question... but i guess yes... you will have to buy the base game.. i don't see why sega (or any company that needs money to survive)would allow it without thinking how to get money from it..
this also leads to my next question, what about games that are built from scratch? will sega also offer this option?
and i guess they will also have a paid roms option where you can buy peoples modifications and sega will take a share...

 

[loco365]

I'm really curious to see how this will pan out. Are they actually using ROMs, or what's happening here...

 

[Flame]

Mother of God what madness is this. this is the genesis of where big companies embrace the hacking/modding scene


this mega news.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

For those wondering if they're ROMs, assuming they continue using the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Classics setup they've already been doing on Steam, it'll be their own emulator with officially licensed ROMs. This is how they handle classic stuff like Golden Axe and such on Steam now. Obviously it's not 100% certain that they're going to continue that with these games, I'd imagine they probably won't change it up.

 

[Clydefrosch]

yfw this isn't at all like you're thinking it's going to be
:|

 

[Null-project]

Is sega still in good shape, Financially Wise?

 

[Real_Redwolf]

I'm impressed that they would actually do this, but I'll stick with Kega Fusion. Plus, I don't actually have a Steam account. (Blasphemy I know.)

 

[Sliter]

this is interetsing haha
But i was even unable to edid sonic gaes with lot of prograns (becaus eno tutorials >w>) .. I think it's something I can't take part :/

 

[the_randomizer]

Hopefully their emulator has accurate YM2612 emulation this time, a good way to compare is by using Genesis Plus GX, which has higher accuracy than Kega

 

[cearp]

just like ninteno made suoer mario maker, sega will let us do this i guess, cool

 

[Raylight]

my guess is that you need to buy the games they put up and you can edit and mod from there. Unless they have a kit to let you dump your own roms and verify that they are legit and not from the many places you can obtain them. Either way this is a great idea glad to see Sega doing somthing good.

 

[Bladexdsl]

i'll stick to vwii

 

[codezer0]

Any way you shake it, this is fecking cool.

 

[Segtendo]

I love the fact that they make an environment of the average Sega fanboy at the time.

That, and the fact that they're allowing the Workshop with this.