Play through Sonic The Hedgehog as Knuckles, Tails, and even Amy
[dropcap size=small]I[/dropcap]n just one day after Steam gave official mod support for it’s Genesis and Mega Drive classics, modders and hackers have saturated the Steam Workshop Listing for Sega Mega Drive Classics hub with a plethora of graphical overhauls, unlicensed ports and copy right infringement.
There is currently a total of 175 listings on the workshop page and an increasing majority of them are Sonic-related.
We know that these things take the un-paid time and effort from people in the Steam community and we thank them for helping put some zest in games that have gotten a little stale. But there are a lot of grey areas when it comes to copy right law and some of these rom hacks are sporting other developer’s copy righted material.
Amidst all the comedic mods like Ring the Ring and Streets of Rage 2 Except It Makes That Weird Tim Allen Noise When People Die; there are some blatant examples of copy right infringement like Kirby in Sonic the Hedgehog . Where you play through the levels of the first Sonic game as Kirby, it’s more than a simple sprite swap as Kirby retains his ability to fly and inhale enemies.
Other offers on the workshop include unlicensed ports of Street Fighter II: Turbo, Angry Birds and many other games not originally playable on the Sega Mega Drive. Some users have begun to post disclaimers on their work. Steam user: Master Sauce has written the following under the “description” of his mod The Revenge of Shinobi Rev. 01
“if sega wishes me to take down this mod i will do so”
Previously copy righted content is already beginning to be removed from the page. A complete version of Konami’s Contra: Hard Corps has already been taken down. However, infringement is abundant and it may be a while before Steam is free of unauthorized content.
Sega has yet to offer specific modding tools for the Steam Workshop and has yet to specify any restrictions that would stop users from uploading complete roms as “mods”. Sega Community Manager Daniel Sheridan had this to say on the Sega Europe blog:
“The Steam Workshop functionality is a platform to share the wealth of custom Mega Drive & Genesis ROMs out there and support the highly talented and engaged community of modders behind them. Now content creators can easily share their custom ROMs with other Mega Drive & Genesis fans giving a new perspective on so many beloved retro titles.”
The workshop is available to users worldwide and all you have to do is own one of the qualifying games to have access. The SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics are currently available at a 66% discount on Steam to celebrate the launch of the new hub.
Sale ends May 1st!
