Sega Forever might just be the final push that makes me ditch my iphone for an android. Mainly so I can just put emulators on it.
If you have access to a Mac, there's nothing stopping you from putting emulators on an iOS device right now. A couple years ago they changed their developer program so that people could develop apps for their own devices without paying a $99 fee for the signing certificate necessary to sign apps so they could run on hardware. You're allowed to "develop" for your own device. Even if you're not familiar with coding, you can still take advantage of this to get open source emulators onto your device. It's as simple as downloading & installing the developer tools, downloading the source code to one of the open source emulators, and then using the dev tools to compile and install the code on your device. Once it's on there, it works like any other app. (Although it won't be part of backups, so if you switch devices you'll need to re-install the app manually via the dev tools) For example, here's a multi-system (SMS/GG/Genesis/SCD/32x/NES/SNES/GBA etc) emulator for iOS: https://github.com/jasarien/Provenance/wiki/Building-Provenance The steps walk you through how to install it, no jailbreaking required. Unfortunately, if you don't have access to a Mac (or a Virtual machine running macOS) then this is not an option.
Yeah, unfortunately I kind of don't have a Mac. I've been looking to escape from the apple ecosystem anyway, to be honest.
Hey is that Sega Forever rep still around here? Has he addressed why the Sega Forever rebrands for Sonic 1, 2, and CD make the game worse than before? Because it's really scummy and disgraceful.
caffinedreamer was last online yesterday. He can't and shouldn't be expected to address why the rebranded games are so much worse; it's not his fault and all he can do is try to put the heat on those in charge to start making an effort. He's a good guy for reaching out to the fans directly and trying to spread some good will.
That's fair, perhaps my wording was off, I didn't mean to imply that he was scummy (he's not, he runs around and gives free codes, he's a good guy). That'd be like saying it's Aaron's fault that Forces came out the way it did (and he actually helped remove the pay to play Super Sonic thing, good for him). It's just a shame as the idea of Sega Forever is cool, it's just that the execution is lacking. Sega's so weird. In some ways they're really cool, like they're generally ok with hacks and fan games. Hell the Unleashed Project is a thing and they didn't even bat an eye, even though that involved porting over levels from a game that people could still buy. But the stuff they release into the wild is so anti consumer it's mind boggling. Who's in charge of those sorts of policies? I mean they've had to have noticed the wide spread hate by now right?
https://mobile.sega.com/post/sega-forever-2018-update/ So they've noticed that the most played titles have been the ported ones and not the emulated ones (I.E all the ports that already existed that they slapped their branding on, also the ones that are just more popular in general but I digress). As a result they plan on focusing more of their efforts to porting future titles over with enhancements rather than just slapping them in an emulator. They won't stop with the emulated titles, but it sounds like that's not going to be their primary focus this year Well this should be interesting at least. Hopefully this will result in more non-genesis titles seeing the light of day. If they decide to port over Sonic Adventure though, please please please get in touch with all these fine modders that have been fixing that mess of a port of a port of a port. The 360/Steam version just doesn't do the job.
Beaten by mere seconds in posting this there Dark Sonic. Damn you're fast! :v: Yeah it's a good and positive news post, showing that the team are dedicated to this and are making the necessary changes based on user feedback, in terms of which games are the most popular and accurately determining the reasons why. I mean you could argue "of course Sonic is most popular" but the native versus emulation issue is a real thing especially with the emulation complaints. It's no wonder users prefer the native ports. It's really cool to see they're evolving the service and are serious about this. Caffeinedreamer coming in here with his dedicated threads and generous codes is a lovely gesture to the fans too. That said, if you're listening to this Sega, for the love of God create a Sega Forever master app that has all the games you can select within a single interface (even if you have to download the ones you want) and this would become infinitely better. That and improving the quality and performance of your ports whether emulated or native. Still think this service has potential and I look forward to seeing more on it as it evolves in the future.
It's really taken them 8 months of "observation", the newly added spyware in the titles, to realize the emulation isn't good and the ports are doing better? All I can say is: REALLY?
IIRC they had a specific reason for splitting up the titles in the first place, something along the lines of making them stand out in the app store more or something like that.
Downloaded a few more games to my phone recently (Kid Chameleon, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi) in addition to the ones I already had (Rister, Streets of Rage) and to be honest, though this service may not yet be perfect, I still think it's a really cool and slick concept and initiative that honours Sega's legacy. The emulation might not be where we want it to be but there's something effortlessly cool about having all the retro Sega games of my childhood readily available on my phone. I think Sega had a fucking fantastic idea here even if they're still playing catch up in execution. This service has so much potential. I look forward to seeing the library expand over the coming months. Also regarding that Sega Forever "master app" and Sega not adopting it, they're obviously getting millions and millions more downloads via separating the games versus making one central master app so that's probably their reasoning here, however cool a master app idea is in theory. Gamers are way more likely to search for "Sonic" or "Streets of Rage" and discover Sega Forever that way as opposed to searching for "Sega Forever" so I can see Sega's logic and intentions. Separating the games to increase downloads is probably why they have a very impressive 40 million downloads (and rapidly rising) right now. Also in that most recent update (which is just under a month old now) they said the next game's coming soon, so that's something to look forward to.
Sure they do, but exact names will always rank higher in search results. There's sense to it, even if it makes your phone more cluttered than you'd want.
They do I believe. But it's a branding thing. If you think of a child wanting to play Sonic - they're going to search for "Sonic" on the app store and are way more likely to download a "Sonic" game as opposed to a "Sega Forever" master app which is quite simply less alluring than downloading an actual named game. As Overlord stated there is sense to this even if us hardcore gamers would prefer the opposite. It's almost certainly dramatically increasing their number of downloads. Highly doubt they'd be at 40 million and rapidly rising if there was one master app as opposed to the game's being separated downloads. Anyway the next game should be coming soon. And we should expect more native ports for the remainder of 2018. So the service is improving and evolving. Still think Sega have a fantastic concept here.
Isn't it a bit too soon to say that, since we don't even know what they're releasing next yet? We still haven't got the chance to see any improvements or evolution in this brand.
Ah yeah, my mistake there. I meant the March update they posted that insisted (or at least heavily inferred) that they're listening to feedback and intend to evolve and improve the service in the near future and the to native (and presumably better) ports. You are right, they've made slight tweaks and adjustments here and there but there isn't yet the massive overhaul we've been hoping for particularly in regards to improving the emulation. So the service still exists as an excellent concept but one still lacking in execution. I remain optimistic this'll eventually become a great service. Hopefully we'll see their good intentions in-motion soon. Looking forward to the next release.
Dynamite Headdy is the latest classic Genesis title to be released on Sega Forever. Just got the email in my inbox. Came out of nowhere. Hope more releases are coming. Can anyone try this and comment on the quality of the port? EDIT: Just read the linked article and they do "review" this so to speak. They say it's the same as past releases and performance/emulation isn't any good.
