You read that title right.  Heroes of Might and Magic is coming to the Sega Genesis, on a cartridge even.  This is great news for turn based strategy fans, and definitely fans of the computer series- which has not graced a cartridge based console, yet (I am ignoring the Game Boy Color remakes).  For those that don’t know Heroes of Might and Magic, it is a turn based strategy series that expands on the classic turn based role playing game series.  Primarily released on Windows and DOS over the years, we have seen the Mac and Linux receive a game or two in the series.  Now, the Sega Genesis is being prepared to be the latest recipient of a Heroes of Might and Magic title- the first in about four years.

The team of Russian programmers over at PSCD are working on a wholly original release for the Sega Genesis, aka Sega Mega Drive outside the United States.  This is rather interesting since we mostly see ROM hacks and the like that take an already available title and simply change it to become something else.  Super Mario Bros on the NES is a popular choice for action games for instance.  There really is nothing that the team at PSCD could really pull that would even remotely fit the required bill of Heroes of Might and Magic.  This may have played into their decision to do an original game instead of a hack of something else.  Master of Monsters might have been a decent choice if they were to hack something available already- or even Gemfire to a lesser degree.

PSCD currently plan for “Heroes” as they are calling it, to avoid possibly copyright infringement with Ubi Soft (current owners of the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise) to be released supporting English and Russian languages.  There are also talks about there being a different version available in ROM format for those that wish to play the game in emulators.  This kind of sucks since not everyone will be able to afford the cost of the cartridge, but the developers have every right to expect compensation for their original works.  I hope that they will offer a paid ROM image that is complete, like the planned cartridge release.  This won’t stop piracy, nor will only releasing on cartridge though.  A paid ROM image release would at least allow more people to enjoy the full game.  Or maybe do like NintendoAge do with their reproductions- after a certain number of cartridges are sold (usually the first print run) the ROM image is released for free.  That may, or may not be something for the PSCD team to think about- I hope they do though.

Currently there is not a lot available on Heroes of Might and Magic for the Sega Genesis, just a couple of screen shots, one looks like a title screen and the other looks like a battle animation frame of a dragon breathing fire and a map looking shot.  All of these shots look like they are running within the limitations of the Sega Genesis hardware.  It remains to be seen how this will work out.  I will keep an eye on this new game and keep you posted as to what is going on with it.

Source:  PSCD

Carl Williams

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