Beware The Spaceman

Tag: Sega Mega Drive

  • Sonic is coming to Amiga

    Cassette tape with title

    Back in the early 90s, computer game publisher U.S. Gold bought the home‑computer rights to produce Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega. Their press release promised the port would arrive on all those lovely home computers: Amiga, Atari, C64 and Spectrum.

    Sadly, it never happened. Sega revoked the licence, and although the home computers had some great platformers—fast‑paced ones like Zool included—they never got to see the blue hedgehog. Or so we thought.

    One of the best parts of owning an Amiga was the newsagent. Long before PlayStation and Xbox magazines strapped demo discs to their covers, you could head to your local shop and see titles like Amiga Power, Amiga Format, or Amiga Addict. There were probably more, and most came with a demo disk.

    The disk contents varied. I always fell for those eye‑catching “software worth over £500 FREE with this magazine” claims. Almost always it was shareware. When it came to games, it was demos—the first few levels, a taster only.

    But in this timeline, there’s a recognisable face on the magazine demo disk. In this version of events, Sonic the Hedgehog really did come to Amiga owners. Thanks to some very clever homebrew developers, the timelines have merged and the Amiga demo is real and playable.

    You can actually watch the development of this port (and I have) on the Reassembler YouTube channel. This might be a case of good things coming to Amiga owners who wait. The old magazine screenshots of the U.S. Gold release looked more like the 8‑bit Sonic—the one recently ported to the C64. Reassembler has taken the code straight from the Sega original and… well, reassembled it for the Amiga.

    His whole process is documented in those YouTube updates, and it’s a great look into the technical side of things. The demo has been released. The full game is being worked on. Amiga owners could soon have their hands on a game they’ve waited almost thirty‑five years for.

    … and I thought my Sonic journey was slow.

  • Tanglewood belongs with the Sega greats

    Cassette tape with title
    Tanglewood box art

    I remember finishing Tanglewood and immediately heading online to state that this 2018 Sega Mega Drive game belongs alongside the greats. I stand by it.

    The game from Big Evil Corporation is so well designed, especially with its pixel art. On first glance it would be easy to mistake it for a Sonic clone, or an attempt at another mascot platformer. But that’s not the case. It’s a platform puzzler.

    Nymn, a creature that looks a lot like a fox (if I remember rightly it’s set on another planet), has to rescue Fuzzls by rolling them back to their nests much like balls of yarn. Once in the nest, the Fuzzls grant you a temporary power that can be used to solve more puzzles and save more Fuzzls.

    There is no real combat in the game. The monsters are all part of the puzzle and can be trapped. The platforming elements share their DNA with those mascot platformers mentioned earlier, but the puzzles are more in line with something like Lemmings.

    I find it truly astonishing that a system released over thirty‑five years ago is still capable of providing new games like this. It’s not a high‑score chase, or a platformer based on skill or speed. It is its own experience entirely. It reminded me of everything I loved about the Mega Drive era.

    Coded by Matt Phillips in assembly language specifically for the Mega Drive, games like this are why the real gaming era will never die.

    Tanglewood is available on most major platforms, Evercade and of course the Mega Drive