Video game players, like music lovers and film buffs, are incurable nostalgics. And so are the games companies. Last year we had the cruelly hard-to-come-by Nintendo Classic Mini console, which took us back to the heady days of the mid-1980s, and earlier this week, Atari announced its decision to get back into the hardware business with a new machine. Now, Sega has announced its Sega Forever collection, a range of classic titles, which will be downloadable for free on mobile phones from Thursday.

According to Sega, the growing collection will be carefully curated to include hugely recognisable cult gems as well as obvious hits. In the first batch are the original Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, the legendary 1989 role-playing adventure Phantasy Star II, Sega Mega Drive launch title Altered Beast and two offbeat console titles from the famed Sega Technical Institute, Comix Zone and Kid Chameleon. These are all 16bit titles, but Sega says future additions will be plucked from throughout the company’s long history, from the Master System to the Dreamcast. This raises the scintillating possibility of playing everything from Wonder Boy in Monster Land to Crazy Taxi on your iPhone or Android. When asked about arcade titles, a spokesperson told us they are, “an opportunity that Sega hopes to explore down the road”.

It looks like the collection will include official emulations and ported games, handled by Sega’s mobile subsidiary goGame. External studios, including experienced porting specialist, Blitworks (which has previously produced versions of Sonic CD and Jet Set Radio), are set to work on other titles in the future. The mobile versions will be augmented with modern features like cloud saves, leaderboards and bluetooth controller support. Games are free to download with embedded ads, but players will be able to pay $1.99 to play ad-free. Naturally, there will be accompanying iMessage sticker packs. Sega says that multiplayer functionality will be added in the future.

Although Sega stopped producing console hardware after the Dreamcast in 2001, the company has long exploited its rich heritage of home and arcade machines. Many classic titles have received mobile versions and spin-offs over the past decade, while Mega Drive game collections have been released for almost every PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo console. The company is now mostly supporting modern titles like Football Manager, Total War and Yakuza, although two new titles in the Sonic series are due this year.

Additional titles will be added every two weeks, and all of them can be played offline. It is not clear whether Sega is taking requests, but Gunstar Heroes, QuackShot and Chu Chu Rocket would all work well.