Hammer Away: Unreleased Sega Arcade Game Found

[JoeMusashi]

Just spotted this on SegaBits;
http://segabits.com/blog/2014/11/03/prototype-of-unreleased-sega-shmup-hammer-away-found/

An unreleased Sega arcade shmup from 1991 call Hammer Away.
Should be available for MAME soon. I can't wait to get this ROM loaded up! Whether its complete or not I dunno??

Although, with a cynical view, maybe there was a reason it was unreleased, lol.

[Shadowrunner]

Really cool when they find stuff like this! Looks good from the video

[Greyfox]

Still you can't beat a new game from the past making its grand entrance can ya? Looks like I'll have to download the 0.155 Mame set now (56gigs) lol. To have a go when they've dumped the rom.

[TrekMD]

That is really cool.  It seems we more often learn about consoles games that are found but not that often about arcade prototypes. 

[JoeMusashi]

It looks kind of like a cross between Under Defeat and Raiden.
I'm intrigued by how the shooting direction mechanic will work. From the video it looks like the shot will relate to the direction you're holding on the stick. Whether there is the ability to hold a particular shot direction whilst moving around remains to be seen.

I'm loving the whole story with this game.

[guest5352]

Cool, always good to see things that never got a release finally make an appearance.

[zapiy]

Brilliant stuff this, to find a PCB with a lost game is pretty damn rare.

[sloan]

Gameplay has a very "Xevious" look and feel from what I saw.

[JoeMusashi]

From what I can gather the ROM for this is now kicking about the web and can be played in MAME v0.156

Unfortunately, its sound like its a bit of a stinker but I guess we can make our own judgement on that.

[zapiy]

Thanks for the heads up.. If someone finds it can it be shared here legally?

[JoeMusashi]

Not sure about legalities mate. I'm going to have a look for it later, I don't think its particularly hard to come by once you know the ROM file name. Checking the game list in MAME will give you that info.

[Greyfox]

The name of the Mame header is "Hamaway.zip" no bad either.

[JoeMusashi]

Have you tried it Greyfox? I've not had chance to sort my MAME version out yet, I'm still on an older one.

[onthinice]

How soon before the Mega Drive cart is released?

[Greyfox]

Have you tried it Greyfox? I've not had chance to sort my MAME version out yet, I'm still on an older one.

No not yet fella, but will do after the weekend, I'll let you know how it plays