DICE was founded in 1992 and released a number of games on Amiga personal computers. The developer was nearly finished with a game for the Sega Genesis before it was canceled. And its 1994 game Hardcore is now finally being released after over two decades.
Hardcore is a Holy Grail for video game historians, DICE fans, and hardcore Genesis fans. Thanks to Strictly Limited Games, Hardcore is coming to the PS4 and PS Vita this year. Strictly Limited is developing the game on an original Genesis SDK and is then being ported to modern systems. It is also coming to Analogue’s Mega Sg aftermarket Sega Genesis. (via The Verge)
Analogue, the makers of aftermarket retro game consoles like the Super Nt and Mega Sg, announced that Hardcore will come bundled with the Mega Sg. The Mega Sg is a premium Genesis/Mega Drive clone that natively plays games for those systems at up to 1080p. The aftermarket console can also plug into official Sega CD add-ons, displaying those titles at a lag-free 1080p.
Hardcore‘s revival comes after the only known version of the game was pulled from a near-dead hard drive. The 1994 DICE game Hardcore was canceled by publisher Psygnosis when a shift towards the next generation of consoles came. Sony came to own the Psygnosis back catalog, likely leading to the game releasing on their modern platforms. The inclusion on the Mega Sg is a unique way to honor the game’s storied legacy with the platform.
Hardcore is a 2D side-scrolling shooter, similar to Contra but at a slower pace. The game was nearly lost to time until Analogue founder Christopher Taber began hunting for the title. Taber helped get an unreleased director’s cut of Super Turrican on Analogue’s Super Nt SNES clone. Taber and the team at Strictly Limited Games had to iron out some bugs and fix various things but it was otherwise a complete game. Hardcore was shelved for numerous reasons, but now fans can finally experience the long-lost DICE title.
