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Published: September 25, 2026
Get ready to dust off your team formations and brace yourself for some seriously slippery physics, because on this episode of SEGA Talk, we are diving headfirst into Sonic Heroes. We are breaking down everything from its chaotic, multi-platform growing pains and that massive ensemble cast to the brutal industry crunch that nearly broke director Takashi Iizuka. Hit that speed dash, grab your rings, and let's jump right into this episode of SEGA….TALK!
http://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SEGATalkSonicHeroes.mp3[iTunes - Stitcher - YouTube - Download]
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Published: September 25, 2026
SEGA and RGG Studio recently pulled back the curtain on some of the pivotal cast of characters starring in the upcoming action-adventure saga STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, launching January 15, 2027 for Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Steam and PlayStation 5.
From 1915 to 1965, Makoto Daito fights to survive across five cities in search of a place to call home. Born to an American father and a Japanese mother, he doesn't belong fully to either country. As he carves out a life during a turbulent age, he tumbles into the orbits of characters carrying their own ambitions, convictions and pasts. Players will follow Daito, his close friend Shinjo and the many lives drawn into their gravity as fates converge.
Check out character, showbiz, and pre-order details below!
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN Characters
Makoto Daito (Portrayed by Yu Shirota) – A half-Japanese, half-American man. After facing persecution in America, he sets out for Japan. On the voyage, he meets a merchant named Orpheus and Yu Shinjo, a young man who shares similar circumstances. These encounters will change his life forever.
Yu Shinjo (Portrayed by Dean Fujioka) – A half-Japanese, half-British man and Daito's lifelong friend. Like Daito, he faces persecution in his homeland and seeks a new life in Japan. He meets Daito aboard the ship to Japan, and the two decide to stick together to survive. Cool-headed and sharp-witted, he is always one step ahead of Daito.
The Merchant Who Alters Daito's Destiny, Orpheus (Portrayed by Snoop Dogg) – A globe-trotting merchant with an ‘open mind' toward the legality of his wares. After discovering Daito stowed away aboard his ship, he teaches him the harsh realities of life in Japan and comes to recognize his talent for music.
The Mentor Who Helps Daito Navigate Life in Japan, Heigo Yashima (Portrayed by Akio Otsuka) – A merchant and boss in Kokura who built up his fortune in trade.
Tae Matsumoto (Portrayed by Moeka Hoshi) – A café waitress in Kokura. Also a yakuza member's mistress.
Suzy Day (Portrayed by Tori Kelly) – A talented singer who dreams of making it big. After meeting Daito, she begins her rise through the world of show business.
Kiyoshi Otsuru (Portrayed by Tokuma Nishioka) – A stylish old man with an unmistakable air of authority.
Takashi (Portrayed by Satoshi Fujihara from OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM) – Daito's sworn brother, a man who lives for the moment. Also a gifted pianist. Daito's discovery of his gift rekindles his passion for music.
The Veiled Stranger (Portrayed by Cordell Broadus) – A man stationed in postwar Japan.
Keiko Shirai (Portrayed by Ado) – The diva of wartime Osaka.
Genzo Iwaki (Portrayed by Bunta Sugawara, Voiced by Takashi Ukaji) – The big boss of Kure, with unmatched influence. In STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, the late and legendary actor Bunta Sugawara appears. SEGA received formal consent from his family, and, with materials provided by Toei Company, Ltd.-which produced many of Mr. Sugawara's films, including the Battles Without Honor and Humanity- RGG Studio crafted his CG character design based on archival footage and photographs from the time. The character's voice is performed by actor Takashi Ukaji, who shared a close connection with Mr. Sugawara.
Tadashi Hataoka (Portrayed by Takashi Ukaji) – A swaggering, violent yakuza from Kokura.
Takeo Godai (Portrayed by Takaya Kuroda) – A skilled craftsman and a man of few words.
Suekichi (Portrayed by Kouhei Tsuji from Nippon no Shachou) – Daito's sworn brother. Carefree, but dependable when it counts.
Tetsuya Hama (Portrayed by Yasukaze Motomiya) – A young yakuza from Kure. Iwaki's right-hand man.
Amaru (Portrayed by Tupac, Voice Actor – TBA) – A man in hiding in Japan. Tupac's portrayal of the character Amaru in STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is made possible with the permission and ongoing supervision of his estate, Amaru Entertainment. RGG Studio is treating this integration with the utmost respect for his legacy, crafting every aspect in close collaboration and without the use of AI, including his character design based on archival footage and photographs. More details regarding his role will be shared at a later date.
Kimura (Portrayed by Daisuke Shiba from Mogurider) – An easygoing nightclub worker in Kamurocho.
It's Show Business Time!
Show Business is one of the major themes at the heart of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN. Learn more about how Makoto Daito finds musical inspiration, creates songs, promotes shows, and more in this new In-Depth Look:
Pre-Orders Now Open
Pre-orders for STRANGER THAN HEAVEN are now open. Players who pre-order the physical or digital edition of the game will receive Dosu: Kagekiri, an exclusive DLC weapon.
Published: September 23, 2026
We talk sometimes about how cheat sites like GameFAQs have quality control issues. Lots of games have bogus codes listed. Some are incorrectly transcribed, some are actually for other games, and some are totally made up.
Some of the codes for the Genesis version of FIFA Soccer 96 are bogus. Neither of these work, for example:
EA Dream Team: Press A(2), B(2), C(2), B, C(2), A(2) at the options screen.
Super Power: Press B, A, B(2), C, B, A, C, B(4) at the options screen.
What species of bogus are they? It turns out they're incorrectly transcribed. As we'll see below, they're close to right – but not quite.
While I was looking into this, I found several other cheat codes for this game that I don't think have been documented before. Furthermore, I found nearly identical codes for FIFA 97: Gold Edition. Read on for details!
The cheat menu codesMost of the time, examining an old game involves a lot of fumbling around in the dark. You've got its raw machine code, but you don't know what any of it does. To get anywhere, you have to orient yourself by finding some bit of logic you understand. From there you can spider out to adjacent bits and build up a mental picture of how things are structured.
Things were much easier with FIFA Soccer 96, however. Its ROM has function labels! Most blocks of code in it end with an ASCII identifier. This isn't quite as good as having a full set of debug symbols, but it's pretty handy.
The function called FE_supercheat handles cheat input. It executes when you're on the Options > Game Settings screen.
Game Settings
This function is a fairly standard cheat code listener: it checks controller input against arrays of bit patterns that represent button sequences – no surprises there. But what is surprising is how many button sequences it checks. GameFAQs has two questionable codes, but the game is checking for no less than 50.
The arrays of button patterns start at 001fb64c and use the standard Genesis mapping, so they're easy to read off. The first 10 enable items in the Cheats menu, which is accessed by starting a friendly game, pausing, and pressing B.
The cheats menu
Each of the menu items is activated by its own code:
You need to enter these slowly and deliberately – the game only registers menu button presses every 8 frames, so don't speed through the codes. You'll hear a sound effect if you get one right.
We can now see that the GameFAQs codes are only very slightly off. The Dream Team code is missing an A button in the middle, and the Super power code is missing two B buttons at the end. So close!
Change the backgroundThe first code after the ones for enabling cheat menu items is: C, A, C, A, C, C, C, B, C, A, B, A, C, A, A, C, A, C, A.
What's it do? It changes the direction that the background image moves. Normally the EA and FIFA logos go from southeast to northwest; this reverses that. Here's a video of the change taking effect:
http://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/fifa-soccer-bg.mp4
This code stops the movement entirely: C, B, A, C, C, B, C, C, B, C, B, C, B, C, B.
End game earlyThe next code's buttons are: A, C, B, A, C, A, C, C, B, C, A, B, A, C, B, A, C, B.
After entering the sequence, start a game. Then press:
The results screen
The scores are randomly determined. Ghidra's decompilation of the C+Start logic looks like this with labels added:
rand_val_1 = rand_000ad512(); score_p2_fffff8b6 = rand_val_1 & 3; score_p1_fffff8b5 = score_p2_fffff8b6 + 1 + score_p1_fffff8b5; total_score_fffff8b7 = score_p1_fffff8b5 + score_p2_fffff8b6;That is, a number between 0 and 3 is generated for player 2. That number is added to player 1's current score, which is then incremented again to ensure a win.
Unlock Custom League, Custom Tournament, and Custom PlayoffNormally the Custom League, Custom Tournament and Custom Playoff items are grayed out in the Options menu. You have to win once in the corresponding mode to enable each item.
The Custom League item becomes available after winning in League mode
But there are codes that let you skip this process. 12 of them mark a league as complete; 12 mark a tournament as complete; and 12 mark a playoff as complete.
The full list of 36 codes is in the Appendix below. Here is one of each type – putting in one of these is enough to unlock that type's custom mode:
Custom league unlocked
Further research
That's 49 codes – what's the 50th? The button sequence is: B, C, A, B, A, C, C, B, C, A, C, B, A, B, A.
You have to enter it on the in-game pause menu (press Start, then select Options); it gets cleared if you do it via the main menu.
This causes a function named JOYPAD_move_farthest_to to be called when one of your teammates gets control of the ball or jumps. The effect is subtle, though – I wouldn't be able to describe it in terms of gameplay without these labels.
If this makes more sense to you, leave a comment!
FIFA 97: Gold Edition
It's not surprising that the next game in the Genesis FIFA series is similar to its predecessor. Indeed, the cheat detection system is virtually identical in FIFA 97: Gold Edition.
The only differences are:
The full list is in the Appendix below.
OutroFor more on the FIFA games for Genesis, see these articles at 68K Revival – they're excellent:
Those cover images that are hiding in the games, and cover some of the same ground I do here. I was working on my article as these were being posted, so I've been scooped to some extent!
Thanks for reading. I'll be back here at SEGAbits next week with another Genesis game examination. Check out my blog for more retro game reverse engineering in the meantime.
Appendix 1: FIFA Soccer 96These 12 codes mark one of the leagues as complete in FIFA Soccer 96:
These 12 mark one of the tournaments as complete:
And these 12 mark one of the playoffs as complete:
Here are the cheat menu codes for FIFA 97: Gold Edition:
These are the league codes:
These are the tournament codes:
And these are the playoff codes:
Published: September 18, 2026
DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro's forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas - representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. - visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician's game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David's career and Sega of America's audio history.
Day 5 closes the release event with arguably David's most famous Sega credit: an August 1993 prototype of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, the Western localization of Compile's Puyo Puyo. Producer Max Taylor asked David to compose the Western soundtrack in the style of Kraftwerk, with arranging Kraftwerk's “Home Computer” for the title theme. This prototype, dated a month before the September final, contains that arrangement intact, before Sega of Japan intervened for legal reasons and made compositional changes to the track before release. It's not just the title theme: the build features entirely different samples, unreferenced PCM data, and over 200 in-progress localization changes documented in a newly-released disassembly by DaxKatter.
Published: September 18, 2026
SEGA and RGG Studio released a new trailer for the upcoming action-adventure STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, inspired by the firm "Battles Without Honor and Humanity".
The trailer is a collaboration between STRANGER THAN HEAVEN and Toei Company, Ltd. This video pays tribute to Toei's "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" by featuring music, stylistic elements and editing inspired by the iconic film series.
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN will release on Friday, January 15, 2027.
Published: September 18, 2026
Shadow of the Beast II was published for Amiga in 1990. A Genesis adaptation was released in 1992, and an enhanced Sega CD version appeared in 1994. In this edition, the two Sega ports go under the microscope.
Beast II is notoriously difficult. Here's how it was described in GamePro:
This game's challenge is hairy... Normal Mode is abnormally hard, and Ridiculous Mode is no laughing matter. Even Easy Mode will make intermediate players cry for their mommas.
Its predecessor, Shadow of the Beast, was similarly vexing. But it at least had an unlimited health cheat. Here's how one GameFAQs guide (from user hellobatman) described it:
Play the game and get a high score... Enter your name as ZQX. Back at the title screen, hold A, B and C together and press Start. Now you are invincible! You will lose health but when you reach 0 you will just loop back around to 11.
I must say, there's no shame in using the cheat. This game is so hard that crazy burnt out Vietnam veterans forget about their war experience and start having Beast flashbacks.
Is there anything similar in Beast II? Let's check...
The Genesis version
The first thing I do when examining a new game is to identify the first few places where it checks for player input. For Beast II on Genesis, the first real check of the controller buttons is on the Psygnosis Presents screen:
; Check whether the Start button's bit is set. btst.b #0x7,(0x1dd6,A6) ; If it is, bail out. bne.b exit ; Otherwise, decrement the timer and loop again. dbf D7w,wait_for_start_000682e4This is just checking for the Start button, so it's not anything cheat-related.
The second check is more interesting, however – it's looking for A+B+C+Start.
; Load the input value move.b (0x1dd6,A6),D0b ; Check whether it matches 0xf0 cmpi.b #0xf0,D0bBut this check is already known – pressing those buttons on the Psygnosis screen displays the staff credits.
The next checks are even more interesting. Just as the Psygnosis screen fades out, it looks to see whether A+C+Up+Start is being held. If it is, the value at memory address 00ff2279 gets updated.
; Load the input value move.b (0x1dd6,A6),D0b ; Check whether it matches 0xe1 cmpi.b #0xe1,D0b ; Store the result st (0x1e49,A6)Then, at the title screen, we have a check for the button combination Down+B+Start. If those buttons are being held, a different memory address gets updated – but only if the one from above is nonzero.
; Load the input value move.b (0x1dd6,A6) ; Check whether it matches 0x92 cmpi.b #0x92,D0b ; Bail out if not bne.b 0x000682c8 ; Check the whether the A+C+Up+Start effect is set tst.b (0x1e49,A6) ; Bail out if not beq.b 0x000682c8 ; Store the result move.b #0x1,(0x1df8,A6)Putting those things together, you should:
If you got everything right, you'll have unlimited health – enemy attacks won't drain your health meter at all.
Intermediate players rejoice! You can now proceed without tears.
The Sega CD version
Now that Genesis players can cheat shamelessly, we can turn our attention to the Sega CD version of Beast II.
The input checks on this version's logo screens weren't remarkable. But there's some notable code that runs on the Options screen. Here's a translation of its logic into pseudo-Python.
# Check the just-pressed button against a static sequence if pressed_button_0915 == sequence_00229494[index_20]: # If there was a match, increment the check position in the sequence. index_20 += 1 if index_20 == 30: # If there were 30 matches, record the fact. effect_090e = 0x46554232 ... else: # If there wasn't a match, reset the sequence check position. index_20 = 0This is a run-of-the-mill cheat sequence detector. It's looking for 30 correct button presses in a row.
The 30 buttons are:
Start, Up, Down, Left, Right,
Down, Up, Right, Left, Start,
Up (x4), Start (x1),
Down (x3), Start (x2),
Left (x2), Start (x3),
Right (x1), Start (x4)
Get them all right, and the screen border will turn from black to red.
And, as you might suspect, you'll have unlimited health when playing the game.
You can now enjoy the Sega CD version's enhanced music without it being interrupted by Game Over screens.
OutroWhen you finish entering the cheat code in the Sega CD version, the value 0x46554232 gets stored in memory. If those bytes interpreted as ASCII characters, they represent the string FUB2. F— you, Beast II? We may never know.
This is my first foray into Sega CD reverse engineering – I hope there are more secrets lurking in games for that system. If you have any suggestions for where to look, leave a comment!
Published: September 17, 2026
During the recent XBOX Livestream at Tokyo Game Show 2026, SEGA unveiled Japan as the second international location for the all-new, high-octane adventure Crazy Taxi: World Tour. The Japan map is the third of five maps offered in the game's new single-player World Tour story campaign.
In the Japan map, players can take in the hustle and bustle of a modern city next to historic neighborhoods and burn rubber as they tear through expressways winding between towering skyscrapers. Along the way, players can stop by iconic shops like ICHIRAN, Kani Doraku and SHIBUYA109.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is slated for release in 2027 on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, and is an XBOX Play Anywhere title. It is available to wishlist on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, Steam and PlayStation 5. Be sure to wishlist the title today!
Published: September 17, 2026
DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro's forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas - representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. - visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician's game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David's career and Sega of America's audio history.
Day 4 centers on DJ GEMS Demo, a collection of David's original Genesis compositions assembled as he prepared to leave Sega in late 1994. Built by Developer Technical Support programmer Kenneth Chao upon Sega of America's internal GEMS test program, it effectively exists as a demo tape in cartridge form, complete with tracks from titles like Baby Boom and Iron Hammer, as well as unique animated artwork of Sonic and Tails. However, the demo's biggest claim to fame is “Club Scene”, a Ute Lemper-inspired cabaret song David composed earlier that year for Multimedia Studio's CES Demo. Created to familiarize himself with GEMS, David had caught wind that Sonic 2 was in development and pitched the song for that game after the game had already wrapped. First surfacing on YouTube back in 2019, the cartridge has now been fully dumped for the first time.
Head over to the thread to dig into everything, and check back tomorrow for Day 5.
Published: September 16, 2026
DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro's forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas - representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. - visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician's game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David's career and Sega of America's audio history.
Day 3 covers Sega Multimedia Studio and the Sega CD, where David's role as head of the company's CD audio department gave him access to a range of in-development titles – and the means to burn early CD-Rs on Product Development's $50,000 Toshiba disc writer. Highlights include minor prototypes of Multimedia Studio-assisted FMV titles like Prize Fighter and Sewer Shark, two prototypes of Jurassic Park (including an undocumented CDX-compatible revision), and an August 1993 prototype of Sonic CD sourced from the original disc given to David as reference for Multimedia Studio's creation of the game's US soundtrack. The real standouts, though are the demos: the never-before-dumped Sega Multimedia Rave CD, a psychedelic 1993 successor to the studio's famous SCES92 demo that later served as the basis for a planned Mötley Crüe racing game, and an earlier revision of said Sega Multimedia CES Demo built for the first annual Sega Summit in Boca Raton, Florida.
Head over to the thread to dig into everything, and check back tomorrow for Day 4.
Published: September 15, 2026
Tomorrow, September 16 at 4:00 am PDT / 7:00 am EDT / 12:00 pm BST, tune in for the world-premiere of all-new footage, plus live gameplay and a hands-on demo coverage on STRANGER THAN HEAVEN directly from the Tokyo Game Show 2026 show floor.
Three of the game's five locations (Kokura in Fukuoka, Kure in Hiroshima, and Minami in Osaka) will be highlighted, revealing the adventure elements for the first time in each city, alongside new footage of each cityscape. SEGA and RGG Studio will also be introducing the game's unique "Showbiz" element, showcasing never-before-seen gameplay and a look at this exciting mechanic in action.
The stream will feature:
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is a 50-year action-adventure saga of men with nowhere to go and their desperate struggle to find a home. Unfolding across five cities and eras of modern Japan, players will utilize the raw brutality of an ever-changing combat system to survive, and musical talent to thrive as a showman. The title will launch on January 14, 2027 for Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Steam, and PlayStation 5.
