196
A Former Sega Developer Has Helped Recover Games Lost for More Than 30 Years (handheldhideout.neocities.org)
submitted 21 hours ago by PerfectDark@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Here's an exciting little piece of Sega history that's recently come to light! Former Sega Technical Institute programmer Ken Rose kept a collection of floppy disks from his time at the studio in the early 1990s, and thanks to the preservation efforts of Hidden Palace and DevStash, their contents have now been recovered and documented.

Among the discoveries are prototypes, original source code and development documents from six projects, including Treasure Tails, a cancelled isometric puzzle adventure starring Sonic's sidekick, as well as Jester, B-Bomb, Dark Empires and Segapede. There's even an early build of Kid Chameleon. Some of these games were never released, while others survive in playable forms.

What I love most is how much of the development history has survived alongside the games themselves, including the reasons certain projects were cancelled and the people who worked on them. It's amazing that we're still uncovering new pieces of Mega Drive history more than thirty years later. I've included some of the recovered artwork and prototype screenshots in the article, along with links to Hidden Palace's original preservation work.

As ever, who knows if this is even worth mentioning, this is just the daily little article for my NeoCities experiment :)

top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] GridGremlin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

The source code and design docs matter more than the ROM here. A prototype binary only shows what the game did, while the code shows how the Treasure Tails isometric engine was built on the Mega Drive. Does anyone know if Hidden Palace and DevStash plan to release the code itself, or just the documentation of it?

[-] Henryterd@feddit.online 6 points 5 hours ago

Floppies sitting in a drawer for 30 years and still readable is the real miracle here. Hidden Palace and DevStash keep doing the work that stops game history from just vanishing.

[-] sleepmode@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

Blows my mind thinking how much stuff just gets lost to history but I’ve worked for companies that were purchased and when everyone left, stuff would just get cleared out by liquidators. Even if we were allowed to grab what we wanted almost nobody bothered.

[-] fonix232@fedia.io 16 points 15 hours ago

And, software devs, THIS is why you keep a copy of the code and documentation when you leave.

Not because you might want to use it for malicious reasons. That can backfire.

But, one, your local copy will always be there for your reference, so you can recall a funky solution, or a weird bug and it's workarounds.

But most importantly... who knows if in 30-50 years that code won't become something highly sought after?

[-] jay@pie.zerojay.com 13 points 13 hours ago

With the way gamedev works these days, that would be entirely against the NDAs you sign with the company and open you up to legal and financial repercussions on top of essentially making you unemployable by any other game company out there. Doesn't matter if you leave the company, the NDAs still survive. I completely get where you are coming from and why you are saying that, but it's just not a good idea in today's day and age, sadly.

[-] fonix232@fedia.io 2 points 3 hours ago

That's why I said SAVE the code, not USE it.

in 20-30 years that company will be dust. Or at best, trying to get that code back. In which case you can swoop in and deliver a saviour package - "hey guys I worked here some 30 years ago and kiiiiinda didn't delete the code when I left, now I know it's against my contract, but rest assured it was only used for archival purposes - anyway heard you wanted backups because you lost yours, so here it is"

[-] jay@pie.zerojay.com 2 points 1 hour ago

Unfortunately "archival purposes" doesn't save you at all here. Any act of taking anything out of the office, physical or not, would get caught right now and get you prosecuted.

this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
196 points (100.0% liked)

Games

51633 readers
1223 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Dremor@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
Dremor@jlai.lu
PerfectDark@lemmy.world