Sega doubles down on retro releases with updated Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub

For the last couple of years, Sega has been quietly pushing out classics from the Mega Drive era onto consoles and Steam, allowing players to get to grips with games they loved from the 90’s.

With Sega’s newly announced Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub, they’re about to go a whole lot further.

The Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub (genuinely in need of a good acronym) will serve as a 3D front end for Sega titles you already own on Steam, offering a virtual space that looks like the bedroom of a hardcore Sega fan in the mid 90’s. My room had more Spice Girls posters, admittedly.

The hub comes with a graphical enhancement filters, a virtual shelf of cartridge boxes, a virtual CRT and even a dynamic day and night cycle, because… well, why not at this stage? You can save anywhere you want too, a big improvement for anyone trying to reach the end of their favourite cartridge games.

Here’s the exciting part though. The update includes Steam Workshop support for every Sega game on Steam, allowing modders to distribute custom Rom’s of their favourite Sega games without the risk of a cease and desist from a very angry Sega. This is a massive step forward, and not something I think we’ve ever seen from the 90’s home consoles before.

The following games will be available to play in the new hub on release, and owning just one of them gets you access, although I believe you’ll need to own a specific game to play the Workshop options available for it, I’ve highlighted the ones I’m a big fan of, because, well, it’s my news story.

Golden Axe™
Altered Beast™
Comix Zone™
Ecco the Dolphin™
Gain Ground™
Shinobi™ III: Return of the Ninja Master
Vectorman™
Crack Down™
Shadow Dancer™
Space Harrier™ II
Ecco™ Jr.
Alex Kidd™ in the Enchanted Castle
Bonanza Bros.™
Super Thunder Blade™
Kid Chameleon™
Ristar™
Galaxy Force II™
Columns™
Eternal Champions™
Fatal Labyrinth™
Bio-Hazard Battle™
Columns™ III
Sword of Vermilion™
Virtua Fighter™ 2
Ecco™: The Tides of Time
Alien Storm
Decap Attack™
Flicky™
ESWAT™: City Under Siege
Golden Axe™ II
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Shining Force
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Streets of Rage 2
Alien Soldier
Light Crusader
Gunstar Heroes
Streets of Rage
Shining Force II
Shining in the Darkness
Beyond Oasis
Dynamite Headdy
Golden Axe III
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Streets of Rage 3
Revenge of the Shinobi
Vectorman 2
Wonder Boy in Monster World