Sega Genesis/Mega Drive mini previews

apathetic · Aug 14, 2019

As an unrelated side note as someone who hasn't watched gamesack in a while; I like their new intro video.

Also, was there ever a fix found for the sound delay on the NES classic? I think I remember seeing something but haven't looked into it. Just seeing if there is any hope for something similar for this.

Beer Monkey · Aug 14, 2019

Finished the MLiG video.

Yeah, The Genesis Mini scaling to 720p is fine for the 320x240 (320x224 active) games but oof, the handling on the 256x240 (256x224 active) games is a fail for M2. Using the stretch (fullscreen) mode and then using a TV squeeze to crush the game back down to 4:3 fixes the issue with 256px wide screens on the horizontal but wrecks the vertical something fierce because they're filling the screen on the vertical instead of leaving the black bars of a 3x vertical scale (black bars = 224p active lines in 240p games).

This is all very basic stuff that M2 could have handled.

Mandos · Aug 14, 2019

So after checking some of the videos and reading around seems the sound issue is currently an universal issue with almost all emulation so that's not really that big a deal. And I can roll with the other stuff.

Hack-ability has me really curious but sounds like the odds are good

maximumzero · Aug 14, 2019

Goddo Hando said:
Kinda what i figured, the strength of this lies in its stock library, but lets be real---- everyone jailbreaks these.

That seems like an awfully confident statement, any sort of data to back that up?

Zalman · Aug 14, 2019

The lack of Sonic 3 still hurts, but other than that it seems like a good product.

Dphex · Aug 14, 2019

seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Beer Monkey said:
Finished the MLiG video.

Yeah, The Genesis Mini scaling to 720p is fine for the 320x240 (320x224 active) games but oof, the handling on the 256x240 (256x224 active) games is a fail for M2. Using the stretch (fullscreen) mode and then using a TV squeeze to crush the game back down to 4:3 fixes the issue with 256px wide screens on the horizontal but wrecks the vertical something fierce because they're filling the screen on the vertical instead of leaving the black bars of a 3x vertical scale (black bars = 224p active lines in 240p games).

This is all very basic stuff that M2 could have handled.

i think M2 is spread pretty thin these days.

apathetic · Aug 14, 2019

Dphex said:
seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

80 ducets is a bit much for a shell. And even more for the extra Sega CD plastic shell to sit underneath it to give more empty space for additional parts if you want...

Nerdkiller · Aug 14, 2019

KoolAid said:
Uh, why are they doing for the Mega Drive mini a version of the Genesis Does ad, that definitely didn't run on Europe?

It kinda feels like the european version is an afterthought :/

Yes, THANK YOU! Just saw that and it just irritates me how US centric the Western gaming world is. No one here in Europe has any nostalgia for ads like that. If they really cared, we'd see them remake something like this.

Also, Mega Drive will forever be the one true name for the console.

chalkitdown · Aug 14, 2019

Playing something like Street Fighter 2 with just 3 buttons is crazy. What's the reasoning for not including the 6 button controllers? Especially when Japan get them. Mind boggling decision.

lupinko · Aug 14, 2019

chalkitdown said:
Playing something like Street Fighter 2 with just 3 buttons is crazy. What's the reasoning for not including the 6 button controllers? Especially when Japan get them. Mind boggling decision.

Sega West signed a contract with 8bitdo or whatever to sell 6 button pads that are compatible with the Mini.

Mandos · Aug 14, 2019

chalkitdown said:
Playing something like Street Fighter 2 with just 3 buttons is crazy. What's the reasoning for not including the 6 button controllers? Especially when Japan get them. Mind boggling decision.

I mean the 3 button controller is the iconic controller most are familiar with and only a fourth if that many of the Sega catalog even used the 6 button controller. At least you can purchase the other ones. But considering how much of the catalog is early life the 3 button makes sense

IronicSonic · Aug 14, 2019

Sound delay and dark CRT filter aren't what I expect for an M2 work. Even though, it seems solid enough, just not perfect as other M2 works. Preorder stands!

Deleted member 23893 · Aug 14, 2019

Goddo Hando said:
Joe didn't seem to be particularly impressed by the performance in his Game Sack review.

Kinda what i figured, the strength of this lies in its stock library, but lets be real---- everyone jailbreaks these.

I come for the plug and play UI. I stay for the ability to load Sonic 3 + K and Jurassic Park onboard.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Mandos said:
I mean the 3 button controller is the iconic controller most are familiar with and only a fourth if that many of the Sega catalog even used the 6 button controller. At least you can purchase the other ones. But considering how much of the catalog is early life the 3 button makes sense

I'd guess around 60 tops support the controller. given that i have zero interest in an objectively inferior console port of an arcade game i can play elsewhere, the two most irritating games on the US version are going to be Comix Zone and Shinobi III's special mode.

mute · Aug 14, 2019

Dphex said:
seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

http://retroflag.com/MEGAPi-CASE-M.html

That is a lot cheaper.

Mandos · Aug 14, 2019

IronicSonic said:
Sound delay and dark CRT filter aren't what I expect for an M2 work. Even though, it seems solid enough, just not perfect as other M2 works. Preorder stands!

Sound delay is an universal issue with almost every emulator official and otherwise so I don't think that should be held against this

andymcc said:
I'd guess around 60 tops support the controller. given that i have zero interest in an objectively inferior console port of an arcade game i can play elsewhere, the two most irritating games on the US version are going to be Comix Zone and Shinobi III's special mode.

i mean there's the officially licensed and compatible one that's about 20 bucks

MouldyK · Aug 14, 2019

andymcc said:
i think M2 is spread pretty thin these days.

Yeah, I'm worried they're taking on too much work lately.

ReyVGM · Aug 14, 2019

Dphex said:
seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

Here we effing go with the pi comments in mini-console threads.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Mandos said:
i mean there's the officially licensed and compatible one that's about 20 bucks

oh i'm not even really complaining as i have both the Japanese and US units preordered lol

Beer Monkey · Aug 14, 2019

FWIW if the PC Engine Mini does the same as this (aka doesn't resample the 256px horizontal games) that's going to affect practically every game, unlike the Genesis where most games are 320px horizontal.

Agreed with Coury that resampling should be the default, there's no need to even have a menu option.

Resample/interpolate *everything* on the horizontal for modes where the pixels aren't square. Integer scale the vertical. That should always be the norm for old 240p/224p games at 4:3 when 720p is the only output resolution. This is common knowledge in the emulation/FPGA/scaler community at this point.

Taco_Human · Aug 14, 2019

The company is called Retrobit. I recently bought one of the 6 button Saturn controllers. It's solid.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Taco_Human said:
The company is called Retrobit. I recently bought one of the 6 button Saturn controllers. It's solid.

yeah, i have the six button genesis one for my second player Mega SG. Seems to be ok.

civet · Aug 14, 2019

The sound issue is a bit annoying. With M2 leading the project I had high hopes about the quality of the overall product, but as other have stated they seem to do way too much work lately so that's understandable in a way.
Too bad that Sega didn't have spare stock of YM6212 to get some real sound! May be this'll be patchable at a later point.

Still planning on getting one in any case, if only for the pleasure of buying a freshly released Sega hardware in 2019.

ReyVGM · Aug 14, 2019

So any news on the authentic retrobit 6 button controllers? Are they being sold already?

I'm not talking about the alleged "genesis mini" 6-button controllers that also have an L&R button or a mode button that they have been selling for a while now.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

ReyVGM said:
So any news on the authentic retrobit 6 button controllers? Are they being sold already?

i have their actual genesis controller and it seems to be mostly identical. the d-pad seems to be a touch higher set than the original, but i haven't used a new Sega-produced Genesis controller since I was a kid lol

Dache · Aug 14, 2019

ReyVGM said:
So any news on the authentic retrobit 6 button controllers? Are they being sold already?

I'm not talking about the alleged "genesis mini" 6-button controllers that also have an L&R button or a mode button that they have been selling for a while now.

I had a look on Amazon UK, they say Sept 19th. link

yyr · Aug 14, 2019

Any word in the videos as to what kind of connectivity the controllers use? Is it just USB like the PS Classic?

modoversus · Aug 14, 2019

yyr said:
Any word in the videos as to what kind of connectivity the controllers use? Is it just USB like the PS Classic?

Yeah, just USB. Will work with Retrobit's 6 button Genesis controller.

IronicSonic · Aug 14, 2019

civet said:
if only for the pleasure of buying a freshly released Sega hardware in 2019.

Yeah. This gonna feels so good :D

ReyVGM · Aug 14, 2019

Dache said:
I had a look on Amazon UK, they say Sept 19th. link

Seems to be the same one they already have available for $15 that has a mode button?

Goddo Hando · Aug 14, 2019

is the mode button the most useless button in gaming or what

Beer Monkey · Aug 14, 2019

Subtweet!

Velocity:Design:Comfort · Aug 14, 2019

AtomicShroom said:
Aw fuck not sound lag again. In what fucking universe is it harder to generate sound than video? This shit was a deal breaker on the NES Classic for me. Ugh. Pass. :(

Talk about hyperbole

andymcc said:
what is basic about this game selection? don't really get this criticism AT ALL. it is way less "basic" than both the NES/SNES mini consoles.

This. A lot of people into retro gaming (and I am too heavily so its not an outsider criticism) are wayyyyyyy too picky and freak out at literally any error and find any nitpick they can.

TrojanAg · Aug 14, 2019

After watching the My Life in Gaming video, it still sounds like a very solid mini console worth purchasing. For those of you that are hell bent on things like sound and picture scaling accuracy, you probably already own something like a Mega Sg or a Framemeister/OSSC setup and prefer to play these games that way. The sound delay is a little annoying but not a deal breaker.

Velocity:Design:Comfort · Aug 14, 2019

Dphex said:
seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

Honestly posts like these in mini console threads have been kind of obnoxious, for years now even ever since the nes classic announcement. We get it, a tiny pc is better. I also have a laptop if i want to emulate stuff. Cool.

Tiny Chihuahueño · Aug 14, 2019

Dphex said:
seems like the best option is to rip it apart and put a raspberry pi into the shell...

I'm sure you have all these games in your shelf and you're going to manually dump all these roms.

Sectorseven · Aug 14, 2019

Why are these called previews? Seem like reviews.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
Honestly posts like these in mini console threads have been kind of obnoxious, for years now even ever since the nes classic announcement. We get it, a tiny pc is better. I also have a laptop if i want to emulate stuff. Cool.

right? i have a Mega SG and pretty much every Mega Drive/Genesis game at my fingertips but the actual CURATION of these devices are what makes them special.

ReyVGM · Aug 14, 2019

Sectorseven said:
Why are these called previews? Seem like reviews.

There's a fine line.

JustinH · Aug 14, 2019

Tiny Chihuahueño said:
I'm sure you have all these games in your shelf and you're going to manually dump all these roms.

I'm kinda sick of seeing Pi posts in these Classic Edition/mini threads too, but to be fair if they're buying it and using the case the case for something else, then they might be able to rip the games off the system too. I like my NES Classic and SNES Classic, but I ripped all the ROMs off them so I could play them on my FPGA systems (well, not all the SNES ROMS since the "special chip" ROMs don't really work on the Super NT).

After watching some other videos, I'm not sure how much the audio delay will bother me. It has bothered me in the past with emulated games (like I mentioned before, Mega Man 2 on Xbox One), but I have a hard time seeing it in this GameXplain video. I can tell if I concentrate for some games, but it's not like... slapping me in the face or anything and I can't even notice it in others.

Maybe it's more apparent when you see more of the actual game, probably? Since these are just like few seconds of a look at each game.

Velocity:Design:Comfort · Aug 14, 2019

andymcc said:
right? i have a Mega SG and pretty much every Mega Drive/Genesis game at my fingertips but the actual CURATION of these devices are what makes them special.

Yeah, for sure. I have about 10 carts myself only, but even if I had more, there are games in this collection you cant buy the rom for on steam or whatever. Aren't there even two games ported specifically for the collection?

TrojanAg · Aug 14, 2019

Tetris was released but quickly pulled off of retail, so there's only around 10 copies out there or something like that. It's practically impossible to buy for most people, and ROM availability in cases like this is tricky.

Velocity:Design:Comfort · Aug 14, 2019

JustinH said:
I'm kinda sick of seeing Pi posts in these Classic Edition/mini threads too, but to be fair if they're buying it and using the case the case for something else, then they might be able to rip the games off the system too. I like my NES Classic and SNES Classic, but I ripped all the ROMs off them so I could play them on my FPGA systems (well, not all the SNES ROMS since the "special chip" ROMs don't really work on the Super NT).

After watching some other videos, I'm not sure how much the audio delay will bother me. It has bothered me in the past with emulated games (like I mentioned before, Mega Man 2 on Xbox One), but I have a hard time seeing it in this GameXplain video. I can tell if I concentrate for some games, but it's not like... slapping me in the face or anything and I can't even notice it in others.

Maybe it's more apparent when you see more of the actual game, probably? Since these are just like few seconds of a look at each game.

The only noticable one was Strider. Probably a bug for the settings for that game.

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
Yeah, for sure. I have about 10 carts myself only, but even if I had more, there are games in this collection you cant buy the rom for on steam or whatever. Aren't there even two games ported specifically for the collection?

Tetris and Darius both are basically "new" games. To me, that is a better value proposition than the SNES Classic because those games don't suck ass unlike Starfox 2.

DaveLong · Aug 14, 2019

andymcc said:
I'd guess around 60 tops support the controller. given that i have zero interest in an objectively inferior console port of an arcade game i can play elsewhere, the two most irritating games on the US version are going to be Comix Zone and Shinobi III's special mode.

bwuh...?! I never knew about "Shinobi III's special mode" and I've owned that game since it launched! Holy shit!

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

DaveLong said:
bwuh...?! I never knew about "Shinobi III's special mode" and I've owned that game since it launched! Holy shit!

having melee and projectile as two separate buttons is a magical thing.

DaveLong · Aug 14, 2019

It's like a whole new Shinobi game now! I'm honestly floored. This is cloudbush levels of crazy for me!

andymcc · Aug 14, 2019

DaveLong said:
It's like a whole new Shinobi game now! I'm honestly floored. This is cloudbush levels of crazy for me!

you can toggle between the two modes w/ ease on the 3DS Sega Classics version.

Replicant · Aug 14, 2019

IronicSonic said:
Sound delay and dark CRT filter aren't what I expect for an M2 work. Even though, it seems solid enough, just not perfect as other M2 works. Preorder stands!

M2 isn't infallible. A lot of their work in the last two years has been far from perfect. I think they are stretched thin at this point.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive mini previews

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