The nature of crowdfunding a product means there's a certain amount of convincing that needs to happen before supporters will part with hard-earned cash and make a groundbreaking idea become a solid, tangible reality. However, the flip side to that is that unscrupulous individuals can get away with making outlandish claims to raise capital, only to under-deliver or – even worse – knowingly ride off into the sunset without fulfilling their part of the bargain.
The SuperSega project seems to have fallen into that latter category and is one of the most infamous video game crowdfunding projects we've witnessed in the last few years. It has featured a vaporware system, missing cash, an expensive sports car, and even legal threats from Sega itself – but it would seem to have finally come to an end.
At the centre of the SuperSega story is Spanish computer engineer Alejandro Martín, a self-proclaimed Sega fanboy who spent his formative years playing the 8-bit Master System. In June of 2024, Martín and his team began contacting video game outlets about the SuperSega project, an all-in-one console capable of playing original software from all of Sega's key home platforms – including Master System, Mega Drive / Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast.
The bold claim was that this device would leverage Field-Programmable Gate Array technology to replicate the performance of these systems on a hardware rather than software level, guaranteeing supreme accuracy, peerless compatibility and low latency. FPGA chips are already used in devices like the Analogue Pocket and MiSter FPGA, but the key difference here is that nobody has been able to get Dreamcast games running on a commercially available FPGA chip as yet – but Martín and his team were confident that they had cracked it via the powerful (and expensive) Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA chip.
It was a bullish opener and one which naturally grabbed the attention of the retro gaming community. What self-respecting Sega fan wouldn't want the ability to play the company's entire hardware history on a single device? The core appeal was easy to grasp, yet there were early questions about the name; surely Sega would take issue with its trademark being used in a third-party product? Speaking in October 2024, Martín dismissed the question, stating that he didn't think Sega would have any problem. In fact, the team had earlier claimed that it was in active discussions with the Japanese giant about the project and was awaiting a reply.
It was around this time that the cracks began to show.
The first worrying revelation was that this wasn't Martín's first rodeo. He had previously crowdfunded an 8K video camera via his Cinimartin company, which eventually declared bankruptcy and failed to deliver the device to those who had helped fund it.
The next red flag was a video posted by Martín that claimed to show the SuperSega prototype in action. Experts pored over the footage, pointing out faults and inconsistencies with the design of the Printed Circuit Board, issues with missing parts and – perhaps most damaging of all – the fact that the all-important FPGA chip was obscured by an absolutely massive heatsink. Then there was the fact that the gameplay footage was largely unconvincing, with some speculating that the emulation was, in fact, being handled by an off-camera PC.
Martín attempted to allay such fears with subsequent videos, none of which seemed to bring him any closer to convincing the increasingly sceptical retro community – some of whom were already claiming the whole venture was nothing more than a scam. Martín's next video, published in November 2024, saw him leap out of his shiny Lamborghini Gallardo (clad in a Cinimartin t-shirt, of course) to beg for more pre-order cash, a stunt which did little to dampen rumours that this was a venture only headed in one direction. Still, by this point, Martin claimed that "hundreds" of people had pledged to support the project.
Those same individuals were in for a nasty surprise; after paying the agreed 3-dollar pre-order cost, they found that they had been charged the full amount for a machine which didn't actually exist. Martín charged on regardless, openly conceding that his company's videos were of poor quality whilst claiming that he was afraid that rival firms, such as Analogue, would attempt to steal his ideas.
Then, at the close of November, came a transparent attempt to prove the SuperSega was a functioning device by enlisting two individuals (presumably friends) in "live" demonstrations, which, if anything, only made the whole venture look even worse – if that were at all possible. Some games refused to run, while others lacked sound, and, at one point, a child in one of the videos seemed to speak for us all when they suggested that the whole thing "sucked".
It was hardly the kind of demonstration that would instil confidence in a rapidly collapsing commercial venture, but things were, amazingly, about to get worse.
Despite Martín's assurances that Sega wouldn't have any issue with the system, it made contact in December via a Spanish IP protection firm asking for the 'SuperSega' name to be abandoned, all prototypes destroyed, the closure of the SuperSega website and information relating to the number of units sold and money generated. Some sceptics quite rightly speculated that this announcement was a ruse designed to allow Martín to walk away with the cash without completing the project, but we were able to verify that this was indeed legitimate legal action on Sega's part.
You'd assume that was the end of the story, but incredibly, it continued to evolve, like watching a car crash in super-slow motion. Martín conducted an interview with British TV celebrity, broadcaster and retro gamer Iain Lee in mid-December, which Lee described as "the wildest" he had ever taken part in. Martín was unable (or unwilling) to answer any of the questions relating to pre-order cash or the inner workings of the system, leaving Lee to rely on his co-host, Katherine Boyle, to intervene in Spanish. "He made no more sense in Spanish than he did in English," was her verdict.
Shortly afterwards, a seemingly defeated Martín revealed that his aforementioned Lamborghini was up for sale after he had refunded all of the pre-order cash – around 133,000 Euros – only to report at Christmas that Sega had apparently gotten back in touch to say it was actually perfectly fine with the SuperSega. The bizarre wording of this statement led to speculation that it was little more than a fabrication on Martín's part to keep the wolves at bay; despite his claim that the cash was back with customers, many reported that they'd yet to see their money.
Martín contacted Iain Lee again after a prolonged period of silence, suggesting that things had gotten so bad that he had been hospitalized. Pre-order cash, despite Martín's assurances, was still missing; one person we spoke to, Daniel Ibbertson of Slope's Game Room, only managed to get his money back by initiating a charge-back via his credit card.
While Martin briefly tried to rally around the idea that a 'SuperSega Mini' was on the cards – and an Asian company was in advanced talks to create it – after months of silence, the inevitable appears to have happened: the project has now completely fallen apart.
"THIS IS THE END, after weeks, and months, supersega is officially death," says Alejandro Martín in a recent email seen by Time Extension. "There will be no more videos, no more news, unless resurrect, which is almost impossible. PS: We are passing on to some media, confidentially, the emails exchanged between the Asian company that would produce the "mini", the super segados, which today, December 12, 2025, they said that they cannot, or at least that was our interpretation."
This won't be a massive shock to anyone with a degree of common sense, given the trajectory of the SuperSega project up to this point. However, Martin has announced that a 'farewell' video will be broadcast today, so who knows? This could potentially be yet another ruse designed to maintain interest in a vaporware system. We sincerely hope not.