Veteran SEGA developer Yosuke Okunari has stated in a Famitsu feature that he has been hard at work on a massive project cataloging everything SEGA has made, both hardware and software, to create one giant library. Mr. Okunari wants this gargantuan collection of games available to play on modern hardware, which is clearly one hell of a task. Licensing could be an issue but even if Okunari gets half of them playable on current hardware that would be spectacular. Here’s what he said:
“For the past few years, I’ve been working on creating an in-house game database,” Okunari explained. “I still have a long way to go to complete it, but a search of the current version reveals that, excluding ports and remakes, there are about 2,800 Sega game titles. Including all of them, there are about 4,500 titles.”
“Once this database is complete, I’d like to make it fully playable,” Okunari continued. “But I’ll probably retire before then, so I’ll likely have to hand over the work to someone else.” The task in question is one on such a seemingly impossible scale that I’m not sure how I’d feel if I were the one left to complete Okunari’s life’s work – terrified at the prospect, or excited and honored at being the one the veteran believes might be able to make it happen.
GIVE US THE DAMN SHENMUE 1+2!
It should be like the Internet Archive and open to everyone. Basically the opposite to what Nintendo does.