Sega Genesis ROM hacks hit Steam, with bizarre results

By Danny Cowan April 29, 2016

Sonic 1 Boomed - Walkthrough

Sega has opened the floodgates on a new wave of bizarre and unconventional fan mods. Thanks to a recent Sega Genesis emulator frontend update, users can drastically modify and distribute hacked copies of many 16-bit classics via Steam Workshop.

Players who own any of the dozens of emulated Sega Genesis games on Steam can now access their library via the recently launched Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics hub, which also grants access to a growing collection of fan-made ROM hacks.

Recent additions to the Mega Drive Classics Steam Workshop page include impressive user-made mods like Sonic 3 Complete and Big’s Fishing Derby, which transforms the original Sonic the Hedgehog into a unique fishing-themed minigame featuring Sonic Adventure co-star Big the Cat.

Many mods focus on humor and satire, including a Sonic the Hedgehog hack that inserts intentionally annoying dialogue ripped from the Wii U flop Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. One of the most popular Sega Genesis mods on Steam at the moment is the self-descriptive Streets of Rage 2 Except It Makes That Weird Tim Allen Noise When People Die.

The Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics hub additionally hosts a number of hacks that fix or improve elements from featured Sega Genesis games like Comix Zone, Gunstar Heroes, and Shinobi III. Other mods restore data from pre-release prototype versions of commercially released games.

Some mods replace original game content with new ROM data entirely, giving Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics hub users access to infamous unlicensed titles like CrazyBus and Squirrel King. One such release, titled Sonic Jam 6, places Sega’s mascot character in levels ripped from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros.

Data-swapped ROM files featuring commercially released Sega Genesis games like Contra: Hard Corps have also surfaced on Steam Workshop, presumably without the permission of their original publishers. While this puts the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics hub on shaky legal ground, Sega has yet to step in to moderate the incoming rush of user-submitted ROM hacks.

Topics

Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera

Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Gaming

All Fallout games, ranked

The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Gaming

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is as fun to watch as it is to play

Monkeys race one another in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

I couldn’t tell you what the last Super Monkey Ball game I played was, but I can still talk your ear off about the series. That’s thanks to the speedrunning community that has formed around the franchise, making it into the most exciting game to watch when it's played at a high level. After spending close to a decade watching old games turned inside and out, I’m ready to finally dig into a new entry for myself.

Thankfully, I’m getting that chance on June 25 when Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch. The latest entry in Sega’s precise platforming series comes loaded with content, from an adventure mode with 200 stages to multiple 16-player multiplayer modes. That’s all exciting, but my attention was on one question when I sat down to demo all of that last week: How fun will it be to watch players master it?