Having a 4 year old son I am the first person to put my hand up and say I absolutely HATE ads and general in-app purchases for games that he likes to play on my iPhone. In some cases the way these are implemented it is almost akin to being in a casino which is not a skill I really want my son picking up (watch this ad to see what prize you can WIN etc).<p>I welcome Sega's announcement and will be delighted to hand over $1.99 to disable all ads - I know their games are of a known quality, and will come without suprise violence included etc.<p>By way of example I have one simple game he loves to play that randomly brings up images of a guy holding a girl in a headlock with a gun pointed at her head.... and the same ad comes up repeatedly. I can't even disable it via an in-app purchase (trust me, I tried).<p>As an aside, I'd welcome some suggestions of games he can play, and if anyone reading this is a game developer I'll be happy to provide any imnput to something you are dreaming up.<p>EDITS: just for clarity of reading
I think this is awesome, and I wish Nintendo would do it too, but I was hoping for an Emulator style application, a single app, where new games can be added as they come out. Being separate apps, it's fine, but it's going to make it a PITA when you have over 100 games you'd love to play. Thank god for iOS searching.
I think this is great, but 121 MB download for a game whose ROM file is 316 KB? I mean, of course I expect overhead but the cynic in me suspects most of that is analytics, tracking, and advertising libraries.
Sega games with poorly-coded emulators/ads aside, the Sonic 1 fully-native port is still incredible from a gameplay standpoint, and contains a few surprises even for those very familiar with the game. It's worth it to pay for ad-free. (and it also works on the new Apple TV too, but I recommend having a MFi controller if you want to play it like that)
The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.
I'm holding out for Dreamcast games, since it's one of the few Sega systems I didn't own (and at one point I did own the Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Nomad, Saturn) and there are games for the DC I would really like to play. Too bad Sega can't/won't get their third-party licensees to release stuff through this program.
Touch Arcade isn't impressed so far :/ <a href="http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-forevers-launch-is-a-disaster/" rel="nofollow">http://toucharcade.com/2017/06/23/musgravian-musings-sega-fo...</a>
Details:<p>SEGA® Forever™ is a free and growing classic games collection of nearly every SEGA game ever released from every console era – Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and more. Available on iOS and Android mobile devices.<p>-Play free<p>-Save your game progress<p>-Leaderboard -- compete with the world for high scores<p>-Controller support -- fully integrated wireless Bluetooth controller support<p>-Offline play<p>-Games released every month; download them all!
* With an in-App purchase of $1.99 to remove “non-SEGA ads”, at least in the ones so far (like Altered Beast).<p>Also, at the current rate of release, it will take years to reach “nearly all” titles so I would take this with cautious optimism. Your favorite games may show up tomorrow or 3 years from now.
Can anyone verify how "good" it feels to play these games?
I can't fathom the idea of playing Mega Drive games without a physical controller, my experiences of touchscreen controls for games designed for a controller are not good.
One thing missing from this discussion: people who in the past bought the game are now required to pay for it again in order to have it ad-free! That's the reason for the big influx of 1 star ratings in the AppStore.
Was excited until I download comix zone and heard the choppy audio and the game was lagging out - worked fine over 20 years ago. Just read a article and they ported these games into unity blah blah blah that doesn't excuse that you should test your product to see the final quality before porting everything over. This is unplayable garbage guys...
this is actually awesome. Altered Beast is one of my favorite game of all time. Really looking forward to see Aladin and Jurassic Park becoming available.<p>It would be cool if they could release those on a more portable format so it could get put inside a raspberry pie or something!
I can't fathom free ads from Sega, I will gladly pay the handful of George Washingtons to keep my kids away from the onslaught of unregulated ads that this storied franchise is about to endure
Very slow ports, pay money and still get advertised to, launch titles are a yawnfest.<p>It's time to forget about the company that Sega once was and ignore anything that comes from the company it has become.
I sure hope that includes Seaman!<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_(video_game)</a>
Sort of on topic: Check out the book "Console Wars" by Blake Harris, about the battle between Nintendo and Sega. A really awesome book, in my humble opinion.
Dear Sega, you won't probably read this comment. If you do this for saturn Dragon Force.... I... I don't even know how to express the feelings if this happens. I know it won't be a reality but I guy can dream. My favorite game growing up. (only finished it through an emulator because I didn't understand english when I was a kid. The memories of non sleep till I finally finished the game.
Serious kudos to Sega.<p>This is how old games should be handled throughout the industry when possible. The likelihood of someone not already familiar with a title or franchise to play it is a function of A) its cost and B) how dated it is. Once a game is seeing marginal returns, it's kind of a very corporate mindset to try and suck it dry of every last penny. Especially when you view games as a form of art.<p>I fear for so many incredible titles, especially as we possibly enter a real VR age.<p>Unless I force it on them (I probably will), my children may never give a second glance to the titles I grew up with and consider masterpieces, when they could sensually immerse themselves in a modern AAA or VR title.<p>So many great soundtracks, assets, feats of code, all deserving to be in a museum somewhere, lost in the ever-growing sea of content. Eventually only treasure-hunters like myself seek to experience and appreciate them.<p>Not only that, Sega can much more accurately determine what franchises might see profitable continuations, given a large enough sample size.<p>Having not played any of these titles on mobile myself, I can only imagine that Sega has ruined this very noble idea with intrusive ads and a payment scheme for removing them.