http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAzzoU0fIxU So basically this is a fancy emulator shell for the Mega Drive games SEGA is currently selling on Steam. The virtual room looks neat, but the most interesting aspect is this bit: http://www.sega.co.uk/news/sega-mega-drive-classics-hub Uh huh...
What a curious thing to announce! I wonder whose ports are they, Backbone or M2? (hopefully the latter) No online coop however is a disappointment however, Gens was able to do that and so did Backbone and M2! Also curious as to how we're supposed to share modified versions of games, basically with the ROM files?
Wait... is this an official endorsement of romhacks? If so, this is really REALLY strange and unexpected.
Probably with an IPS patch or something similar? I'm not really sure how else to interpret that statement, but it is a bit concerning vague. The other thing that's a bit iffy is that the list of supported games doesn't actually appear to include any of the Sonic games. The ones with pretty large romhacking scenes, so that's kinda bizarre.
This is pretty cool! Even thinking about SEGA endorsed romhacks makes me excited. I also really like the concept of a 3D HUB, but I wish it looked a bit better.
It seems like it does support Sonic games, it's just that they only listed the games that are available in the big Mega Drive bundle on Steam. The trailer shows that Sonic games are playable.
Can people get their heads out of the clouds for five minutes and realize that poorly-phrased statement about Workshop support most likely has to do with the 3D room interface, and not anything to do with letting people pass unendorsed ROM hacks around through Steam?
It specifically says that the Workshop support is for modified versions of the Mega Drive games. SEGA not specifying what the possibilities are is pretty dumb though. Now people are assuming that they mean ROM hacks and if it turns out that SEGA meant something else people are going to be disappointed.
I'll be happy if it's support of any kind of modification for Genesis games at a level higher than Game Genie. (might as well set the base line at cheat device level.)
Arguably, if you stacked enough Game Genies up, you could apply several megabytes of patches to a ROM. Assuming signal attenuation doesn't getcha. :v:
Found this through Ars Technica. As interesting and uplifting as this news is to see them officially supporting ROMhacks -- I'm hoping they don't now pull a Nintendo and demand Sonic Retro "turn all your hosted ROM hacks into IPS patches OR ELSE." Here's to hoping that they won't do that and thus alienate the very people (us) that they are trying to appeal to with this Steam Workshop stuff -- but it wouldn't be the first case of a company's legal department shooting its own marketing department in the foot. As a precautionary measure I'd suggest ROM hackers begin always offering IPS versions of their ROM hacks going forward if they haven't already.
So we're getting this if we own any Mega Drive games on Steam? Neat! I also hope that M2 is behind this...
An IPS patch made from a hack made with a disassembly is likely to contain most (if not all) of the data in the entire ROM, not only making the patch larger than the ROM itself, but arguably just as illegal to distribute.
This certainly came out of left field. I wish they'd elaborate on what the workshop entails a bit more, but so far it sounds pretty neat. Maybe it'd even motivate some Non-Sonic modders to try their hands at other Genesis games we have yet to see an uprising of mods for. Looking at you, Gunstar Heroes/ Ristar. :v:
Super super out of left field. At the same time, it makes sense to incentivize purchasing Steam Genesis/MD releases as opposed to downloading ROMs. Looking forward to seeing what kind of modding capabilities it actually allows.
SEGA has confirmed that they mean sharing ROM hacks with Workshop support: https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/723285810028642304 Holy fuck
I wonder if this is somehow in response to Mario Maker. Except they decided to one-up it by giving the green light to ROM hacks themselves, not just a novelty drag and drop.
I am absolutely shocked. I knew SEGA didn't necessarily have a problem with ROMs, but now they're encouraging them? And making them something you can share on Steam?! My jaw is on the floor.
Seriously? They have always been cool with not trying to stop us, but to actually let us share our hacks like this? Oooooo I wonder exactly how it will work.
Personally, I believe there has to be some catch to this. Maybe the hub will come out with some modding tools that hacks on the Workshop page MUST use. Surely even Sega must have a limit as to what they'll accept us doing to their games? Surely they won't let us upload hacks made with the use of a disassembly? If they'll gladly let us put games like S Factor or Knuckles' Emerald Hunt on the Steam Workshop, I am going to be completely floored.
