What the Heck is Sega Forever? Retro Games on Your Phone, Probably

Edit: Yes, it is retro games on your mobile. Check out the trailer and updated info at the end of this article.

Five-hundred-and-twelve audio cassettes have been sent by Sega to games journalists around the world. Contained on these tapes are 12 tunes from old-school Sega games, including Super Hang-On, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and, inevitably, Out Run (which gets two spots on the tracklist). I know this, because I've received one of these things—see the picture above (it's number 310 of 512, FYI). The packaging, designed to look like that mixtape you never gave to your unrequited secondary school crush, features the hashtag #segaforever. But what the heck does it mean?

A clue is contained in an accompanying note, which reads: "Cassette tapes changed music forever*. We're about to do the same with retro gaming on mobile." It ends, "From Sega, with love." Sweet. But, again: what's going on here, exactly?

(*Yeah, they chewed up my favorite Nirvana album, changing the sound of "Very Ape" forever. But I guess you don't mean that. Anyway.)

I'm rarely (i.e., these words are unprecedented) one to publicize promotional material that comes through the door. Truthfully, I hate getting it at the best of times—there are only so many oversized, games-branded t-shirts I'm never going wear in my life (pens are useful, though, thanks). But this is a bit different, isn't it? It's a tease. And it's kind of cool. And nothing is explicit regarding what this tape is even meant to be promoting.

(And yes, I have played the thing—it does indeed contain all of the songs it says it does, and it's terrific to hear them on a proper home stereo system, Dolby NR optional. I was curious if there was anything on the tape that did more than hint at what Sega Forever was to be, but, nope—just the music, no obvious "hidden" messages.)

There are official Sega Forever socials—[Twitter](https://twitter.com/SEGAForever and https://www.facebook.com/SEGAForever/), Facebook—that are giving away nothing right now. What they are doing is posting imagery of the old SG-1000 system, Sega's first-ever games console, which came out in 1983 (the text on the Japanese Twitter post translates as "Full of fun!"). Which had me thinking: Is Sega Forever to be a micro console, like the Nintendo Classic Mini, but with a portable twist?

I had some other thoughts, too, on what Sega Forever might be, and put them to Twitter.

Probably not a new piece of hardware, then. Or a cool package of old games ported to the Switch, like a new version of the Ultimate Genesis Collection that came out for Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2009. Or an actual phone from Sega, which is a bit of a leftfield shout, but there was that Commodore thing, remember?

The consensus seems to be that Sega Forever is simply games from the 8 and 16-bit era (going by what's on the tape) newly reconfigured for smartphone play. And, wouldn't you know it, a little more Googling brings up a Sega Nerds post from May 23rd speculating, with screenshots to support the theory, that Sega Forever is a subscription service where players can either pay a one-off fee to enjoy Comix Zone (for example) on their mobile, both offline and on, or play for free with ads and be restricted to internet-connected access.

But what is that SG-1000 imagery about? Would it be cool to have a micro console bearing that sort of design? One that you could plug into a TV and use on the move? Yes, absolutely, 100%. None of the tunes on the tape, though, are from games that date back that far—Hang-On II did appear on the 8-bit SG-1000, but Super was strictly 16-bit on Sega hardware. And there's no way that system could have handled the pre-rendered visuals of something like Vectorman. So: IDK. Solely for the memories, I suppose. You can bet that the songs are illustrative of the games that will be on the mobile service, though.

Whatever the outcome, I've got to admit that these tapes are a pretty cool idea on the part of Sega. I've seen several of my peers share photos of them, and ask the same kind of questions I've done above—peers who, like me, usually wouldn't even mention getting promotional stuff in the post. People are talking about Sega, years after they last had any hardware out there. And as someone whose first console was a Master System, went the whole hog in the 16-bit days with both a Mega-CD and 32X, and who gets a little misty eyed whenever someone walks past in one of those Dreamcast shirts from Urban Outfitters, that makes me very happy indeed.

Update: Yep, Sega Forever is old-school Sega games for your mobile phone, iOS and Android. Five games are available at launch, which is now—OG Sonic (obvs), Comix Zone, Altered Beast (not as good as your memory will tell you, trust), Phantasy Star II and Kid Chameleon. More will be added every two weeks. You can pay $1.99 per game to keep them and enjoy ad-free play, or opt to tolerate adverts and sample each game for no outlay. Each title features Bluetooth controller support, and Sega is promising games from right across its console history—so, SG-1000 to Dreamcast, then. Check out the awesomely 1990s advert for the new service below.