SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Mini + Clones Thread

[Hawq]

Hot on the heels of Nintendo, Sega has announced a Mega Drive Mini Console with 80 built-in games, wireless controllers, and compatibility with original Sega Mega Drive cartridges from all regions, including PAL and NTSC.

Unlike the Nintendo Mini NES the SEGA Classic Mega Drive will come with two controllers, allowing players to play multiplayer games without needing to buy an additional controller.

This new Mini Classis console will cost £49.99 in the UK and is listed by Smyths UK to release in October. This specific Mega Drive version has been created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and will contain several classic Sonic games as well as Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3.



Compared to the Nintendo Mini NES this classic console from SEGA is a real win, not only offering 80 games but compatibility with SEGA MD cartridges from all regions. Unlike the Nintendo Mini NES the Classic Mega Drive will also offer two wireless controllers, allowing owners to avoid cable clutter and play multi-player games without needing to but an additional controller.

2016 is quickly turning into the year of nostalgia, but if you are looking for a classic console it seems that SEGA offers significantly more for its price point of £49.99, which is the same as the price for Nintendo's Mini NES.

You can join the discussion on SEGA's Classic Mega Drive Mini console on the OC3D Forums.
source is it just me or does that look almost identical to an existing Medadrive thing?

[OrangeRibbon]

Mini Genesis does what Mini Nintendon't.

[Skynet]

But... that's the thing that already exists...

[Dr. Zoidberg]

It doesn't look like an actual shrunk down MD/Gen. It's just a cheap looking lump of plastic, which is the same thing they've released for the past decade.

The old versions:




Also it looks like it doesn't have HDMI.

Here's the game list. About 40 good games and then it's a bunch of homebrew type stuff.

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Arrow Flash
Bonanza Bros.
Chakan: The Forever Man
Columns
Columns 3
Comix Zone
Crack Down
DecapAttack
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
ESWAT: City Under Siege
Eternal Champions
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden Axe
Golden Axe 2
Golden Axe 3
Jewel Master
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star 2
Phantasy Star 3
Ristar
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic Spinball
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic 3D Blast
Sword of Varmilion
The Ooze
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Mortal Kombat 1
Mortal Kombat 2
Mortal Kombat 3
Adventure in the Park
Cross the road
Jack's Pea
Jewel Magic
Curling 2010
Plumbing Contest
Wall-Breaking
Bubble Master
Break a Fireline
Mahjong Solitaire
Warehouse Keeper
Chess
Memory
Snake
Air Hockey
Spider
Naval Power
Mr. Balls
Cannon
Fight or Lose
Bottle Taps Race
Bomber
Checker
Hexagonos
Whack-A-Wolf
Mirror Mirror
Panic Lift
Black Sheep
Flash Memory
Brain Switch
Mega Brain Switch
Hidden Agenda
Dominant Amber
Hide and Seek
Jura Formula
Lost World Sudoku
Meatloaf Rotation
Mya Master Mind
Skeleton Scale
T-Rex Memory Match
Yawning Triceratops

[melancholy]

They literally release one of these every holiday season. And they always have the exact same flaws. Bad audio decoding, mono composite hookup with no HDMI, and only half of the game list being classic Genesis titles with the other half being random homebrew crap. The only news here is that they finally got the rest of the Sonic library in the package.

[melancholy]

DAMNIT ZOIDBERG, you sniped my post!

But yeah, you basically proved my entire point.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

It's good to have multiple people point out that this thing is bad.

AtGames sucks! And Sega sucks for being so cheap.

[OrangeRibbon]

Also the controllers look like they are IR wireless so you need line of site.

[Calavera]

I saw those at stores around Christmas in probably 2013. I could have gotten one really cheap but passed because it was really cheap looking, plus I already have 3 model 1 Genesis consoles laying around. Around the same time they also had this
Didn't take cartridges but allowed you to put roms on an SD card.


Regarding the game list I have two questons, why no Sonic 3? And if you are going to have Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles then why not have Sonic 2+Knuckles?

[Big Boss Man]

Could be no Sonic 3 for a few reasons, some licensing issue like over the Music maybe since MJ apparently was involved with it or its that the cartridge data is incompatible/ROM size too big. But saying that it has Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic 3D. So has to be licensing I guess of some kind. Speaking of S3 there's no android release either like there is with Sonic 1 and 2, Sonic CD.

Edit had a check on Sonic Retro and there's some kind of legal issue regarding Sonic 3s music so I guess that's why it's omitted.

http://www.sonicretro.org/2015/02/regar ... y-stealth/

[pixel]

Could be no Sonic 3 for a few reasons, some licensing issue like over the Music maybe since MJ apparently was involved with it or its that the cartridge data is incompatible/ROM size too big. But saying that it has Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic 3D. So has to be licensing I guess of some kind. Speaking of S3 there's no android release either like there is with Sonic 1 and 2, Sonic CD.

Edit had a check on Sonic Retro and there's some kind of legal issue regarding Sonic 3s music so I guess that's why it's omitted.

http://www.sonicretro.org/2015/02/regar ... y-stealth/

That's a good point. On Steam, you can't buy Sonic 3 standalone. SEGA only has it combined with Sonic and Knuckles. Maybe if it's added with S&K, it skirts past some copyright issues by technically becoming a different title?

I'm glad I know now that half of those games on that mini system are junk.

[melancholy]

Around the same time they also had this
Didn't take cartridges but allowed you to put roms on an SD card.

I bought one at Dollar General when they were $20. It would actually be a nice system that you can dump your entire Genesis collection onto an SD card if it didn't have two super annoying flaws.

1. The audio hardware plays back at a lower pitch. The music, the sound effects...everything is played in a lower pitch than the original hardware. Hearing Green Hill Zone music sound like it's being played on a Walkman with dying batteries is a complete dealbreaker for me.

2. The viewing angle of the screen is weird. Normally on handhelds, the LCD screen view angle is bad looking from the top (everything is washed out) and bottom (everything is dark or inverted). But on this handheld, it's left and right of the system. This messes with my eyes because it makes the left side of the screen lighter than the right. You pretty much have to hold the left side of the system slightly closer to you for it to look good.

And if you are going to have Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles then why not have Sonic 2+Knuckles?

You can't just boot a game and tell it to attach S&K. It has to be loaded as an entirely separate ROM. Which means they would have had a Sonic 2 ROM and and Sonic 2 featuring Knuckles ROM. The stranger decision was including S&K by itself instead of the Sonic 3 lock-on version.

http://www.sonicretro.org/2015/02/regar ... y-stealth/

That's a good point. On Steam, you can't buy Sonic 3 standalone. SEGA only has it combined with Sonic and Knuckles. Maybe if it's added with S&K, it skirts past some copyright issues by technically becoming a different title?

Or maybe the music that is in dispute was replaced with the lock-on. If you remember, the lock-on changed some of the music in Sonic 3 with the S&K versions (like Knuckles theme, invincibility music, and the mid-boss music).

[Calavera]

I bought one at Dollar General when they were $20. It would actually be a nice system that you can dump your entire Genesis collection onto an SD card if it didn't have two super annoying flaws.

1. The audio hardware plays back at a lower pitch. The music, the sound effects...everything is played in a lower pitch than the original hardware. Hearing Green Hill Zone music sound like it's being played on a Walkman with dying batteries is a complete dealbreaker for me.

2. The viewing angle of the screen is weird. Normally on handhelds, the LCD screen view angle is bad looking from the top (everything is washed out) and bottom (everything is dark or inverted). But on this handheld, it's left and right of the system. This messes with my eyes because it makes the left side of the screen lighter than the right. You pretty much have to hold the left side of the system slightly closer to you for it to look good.

I almost bought one from Dollar General aswell when they were down to $20 but they were out of stock when I went to get it. Sounds like I lucked out.

And if you are going to have Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles then why not have Sonic 2+Knuckles?

You can't just boot a game and tell it to attach S&K. It has to be loaded as an entirely separate ROM. Which means they would have had a Sonic 2 ROM and and Sonic 2 featuring Knuckles ROM. The stranger decision was including S&K by itself instead of the Sonic 3 lock-on version.

I understand that, I meant why not also include the Sonic 2 Lock-on version

[Big Boss Man]

Or maybe the music that is in dispute was replaced with the lock-on. If you remember, the lock-on changed some of the music in Sonic 3 with the S&K versions (like Knuckles theme, invincibility music, and the mid-boss music).

Yea that makes sense. Although from what I've heard/read Michael Jackson wasn't pleased with how the music turned out for Sonic 3.

B&W: Can you clarify the rumor that Michael had in 1993 composed the music for Sonic 3 video game, for which you havel been credited?

Buxer: I've never played the game so I do not know what tracks on which Michael and I have worked the developers have kept, but we did compose music for the game. Michael called me at the time for help on this project, and that's what I did. And if he is not credited for composing the music, it's because he was not happy with the result sound coming out of the console. At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music...

B&W: One of the surprising things in this soundtrack is that you can hear the chords from Stranger in Moscow, which is supposed to have been composed later...

Buxer: Yes, Michael and I had composed those chords for the game, and it has been used as base for Stranger in Moscow. [...]

Much more here: http://info.sonicretro.org/Michael_Jack ... th_Sonic_3[/quote]

So if the music rights/licensing are is what causing the issue, maybe they could somehow re-work it and re-release it like they did for the PC version.

Removed tracks in PC version

The PC remake Sonic & Knuckles Collection featured replaced tracks for Carnival Night Zone, Ice Cap Zone, Launch Base Zone, the Knuckles Theme of Sonic 3, the Competition Menu, and the Sonic 3 credits music. One theory behind the reason for replacing these tracks is that the original tracks may have been composed by Jackson, and were removed in this remake due to legal reasons.

In hindsight I'm surprised no one picked up on it earlier that Michael did the music, especially Carnival Night Zone which sounds very MJ like.

[pixel]

The plot thickens. I just played Carnival Nights, Ice Cap and Launch Base Zones with my Steam version of S3&K. All three zones have the original music!



My kneejerk opinion: The licensing for MJ's music was for Sonic 3. SEGA got around some arbitrary contract language by releasing a different ROM.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

They've just announced a "new" "mini" handheld



It has the same games and can play ROMs from an SD card.

Here are some videos of it from 2010.

[Matisfaction]

It's good to have multiple people point out that this thing is bad.

AtGames sucks! And Sega sucks for being so cheap.

You'd be better off investing in an original MD and a "cheopo Everdrive MD" or something as you're getting much better build quality, Stereo Sound, a glorious RGB signal, straight out of the box and even the ability to play SMS games.

Those plug in and play things are pretty tragic, you get a shitty composite signal (Dot Crawl City and a blurry image with washed out colours) which looks even worse on a HD TV, accompanied by crappy mono sound, no thanks!

[ian]

And then Sega announced another mini system with over 40 games built in, and capable of playing discs..

Games List:
18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
Bust-A-Move 4
Capcom vs. SNK
ChuChu Rocket!
Confidential Mission
Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi 2
Daytona USA
Dead or Alive 2
Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future
F355 Challenge
Fur Fighters
Grandia 2
Hidden & Dangerous
The House of the Dead 2
Ikaruga
Jet Set Radio
Metropolis Street Racer
Outtrigger
Power Stone
Power Stone 2
Quake III Arena
Rez
Samba de Amigo
Sega Bass Fishing
Sega GT
Sega Bass Fishing
Sega Rally Championship 2
Shenmue
Shenmue 2
Silent Scope
Skies of Arcadia
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Shuffle
Soul calibur
Space Channel 5
Suzuki Alstare Extreme Racing
Test Drive Le Mans
Toy Commander
Toy Racer
TrickStyle
Virtua Cop 2
Virtua Fighter 3tb
Virtua Tennis

You know.. something people would give a shit about.
They charged whatever the fuck they damn well wanted and people still bought it..
I'd pay $1000 for that console.. I wouldn't pay 10 cents for a mini megadrive, and I know many people share this thought.

The problem is.. you pick up a megadrive with 30 games for what, $150... because they are EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE had one.
Try pick up a dreamcast with even 5 good games for $200. Can't be done.
Re release what people WANT and CAN'T get easy..

I'd make a kickstarter to finish Shenm.... oh.. I am sure more people backed shenmue 3 than EVER originally bought it..

[Matisfaction]

There is such thing as a "Dreamcast on a chip", so a mini DC would be possible. Even if it came with 20 games built in, if those games consisted of Shenmue, MSR, PowerStone, Soul Calibur etc. I'd be on board.

The DC was fairly advanced for its day so it would make sense when connecting to modern TVs etc, but as I mentioned previously SEGA have whored their IP's out to pretty much every platform under the sun, they've essentially been flogging a dead horse for the last 20yrs with Sonic, whereas Nintendo (whatever you might think about them) have protected most of their older IPs to the point when you come to something like a mini NES which actually means something to people.

[melancholy]

Here is a great video of the audio problem I was talking about. Just listen to that music and sound effects.