It’s crunch time, Saturn developers: The deadline is just four weeks away for the SegaXtreme Sega Saturn 31st Anniversary Homebrew Showcase.
That deadline is May 11, specifically — the 31st anniversary of the Saturn’s launch in North America.
Projects can be submitted in one of four categories: Original Game, Hacks/Patches, Translations, or Utilities. Anyone interested in submitting their project should do so via this form and are encouraged to post about their entry in the SegaXtreme thread for the showcase.
Its organizer, Emerald Nova, announced this year’s event in November. It was previously an annual competition, but he decided to change the format for 2026.
“I wanted our annual event to be more of a celebration,” Emerald Nova said last autumn. “I felt that the community had grown past the point of competition.”
For more information about the showcase, visit Emerald Nova’s website.
How the showcase will work
On or after July 8 — the anniversary of the Saturn’s European launch — all entries will be featured in several ways:
- A wrapup thread on SegaXtreme
- A digital magazine produced by Emerald Nova and distributed for free
- A livestream from Emerald Nova on Twitch that will be reposted on YouTube
- A livestream from SHIRO! on YouTube and coverage on the SHIRO! website and live SHIRO! Show
- A video from Pandamonium on YouTube
A panel of volunteers will write reviews for the entries, with each entry receiving two to three reviews. The reviews will be organized into the digital magazine that will be released as a PDF on July 8. If there’s enough interest, it may be physically printed, too.
The reviewers include this author and fellow SHIRO! members TraynoCo, PandaMonium and Peter Malek, in addition to several others from outside SHIRO! including Cerbero, Christa Lee, David Gámiz and Meleniumshane90.
While the showcase emphasizes celebrating Saturn homebrew efforts, there are still prizes to be won. The digital magazine reviewers also will judge entries to award cash prizes for the following categories:
- Best Original Game
- Best Translation Patch
- Best Non-Translation Patch
- Best Utility
- Most Creative
- Most Likely Fan Favorite
The prize money totals about $955 and was entirely donated by fans and by Emerald Nova himself.
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