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Sega lost code to old games

chautemoc | July 29, 2008 | News | SEGA GENESIS SEGA SATURN Misc 
Apparently Sega is keen on bringing back some of its classic titles to services like WiiWare and/or XBLA, but over the years has lost the code to its now classic games. Indeed, you'd think a company, especially one like Sega, would hold on tight to that kind of stuff!
[Sega has] a little problem: they can no longer find the source code for their games. Apparently, the cause of the entire mess is the fact that, over the years, the company had moved so many times that a lot of their games were lost. And that's a really strange thing to hear - I have two reasons for saying that.

First, because I was actually hoping that game developers do care about the games they release and manage to archive them somewhere, just in case an opportunity arises (or, at least, in order to show them to their grandchildren). And second, because today, the old code doesn't mean too much anymore: the graphics have to be revamped, the gameplay mechanics have to be rewritten... basically, Sega has to develop new titles and it could do so without the original code.

There are some voices saying that this is actually the company's strategy in order to make everybody forget about the long gone times when it was a console manufacturer, while others say that Sega is not the only firm struggling to find old source codes. Either way, we're really sorry to hear that. We would've loved some Bonanza Bros. action or, at least, some of the most recent games like Virtua Fighter or Sega Rally.
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  • 0 thumbs!
    cheatcodeman11 | July 29, 2008
    Wow!! wat complete idiots
  • 1 thumbs!
    Deathsythe | July 29, 2008
    I'm sure they can look to several websites online to get a disc/cartridge image and just backwards engineer it from there.


  • 0 thumbs!
    Remino52 | July 29, 2008
    So does that means no more Genesis games on VC for a little while.
    • 1 thumbs!
      chautemoc | July 29, 2008
      None developed by Sega, anyway..
  • 0 thumbs!
    Final Blade | July 30, 2008
    Oh NOEZ, that means Road Rash will never make it to the classics. :<
  • 1 thumbs!
    reaver11 | July 30, 2008
    Ah shit. I was hoping that by some large margin Aladdin was gonna come out. Damn I loved that game for the Genesis. That and The Lion King.
    • 0 thumbs!
      Demonfurby | July 30, 2008
      Whoah, I though I was just *bleep* when I liked those.
    • 0 thumbs!
      Deathsythe | July 30, 2008
      Hells no furby, back in the days of GENESIS, Disney actually made half decent games. The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse anyone?

    • 0 thumbs!
      Gamesta100 | July 30, 2008
      I LOVE The Lion King game on SNES.I still have the game.
  • 0 thumbs!
    MusiKon | July 30, 2008
    Wow, this has got to be one of the most embarrassing things I've ever heard.
  • 0 thumbs!
    reaver11 | August 02, 2008
    Who cares about embarrassing? I was like 8 when I played those games. I even *illegally* played them on my computer because I lost all my old Genesis stuff and I really wanted to play them again. Unfortunately The Lion King was rather hard with a keyboard.
    • 0 thumbs!
      Gamesta100 | August 02, 2008
      I think he means Sega losing game coding is embarrassing, not your comment (or maybe even mine).

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