Sega Megadrive mini

Lemming

So, looks like Sega are hitching themselves to the mini console bandwagon: Official Link

Release date is September 19th priced at £69.99 (which is what the NES & SNES minis went for at release, so €-equivalent will be similar).. Some games announced and I seem to recall reading - on tech radar I think? - that they're taking suggestions.

Despite owning an original (and still working Megadrive) I'm tempted to place a pre-order one given that Sega have said that AT-games will not be involved, although they have decliend to say who will other than it being a "trusted domestic supplier", for whatever it's worth. Sega's M2 developers are handling the software side of things.

Dublinandy2

It’s 85 euro in Smyths, amazon won’t ship to Eire. Not confident on parcel motel as this could be after brexit.

phily2002

Another one to add to the collection! Might just get through ff7 on the ps classic by the time this gets released!

Shapey Fiend

If I didn't have an MD and everdrive already I'd be hyped. It's not the cheapest but 40 games is a bit more generous than the competition and M2 being involved inspires a lot of confidence.

I hope they sell a million in Japan and we get a Saturn mini as a result cos I don't think the Saturn everdrive equivalent will be cheap/easy for a while yet and the Polymegas similarly pricey.

eddhorse

I'm just going to wait again until they drop to €50.

Cant be rebuying all these consoles for €100

Shapey Fiend

Everybody talking about the Psone getting discounted they're still looking for 100 europes in Harvey Norman.

DelBoy Trotter

I will definitely be looking at buying this

chopperbyrne

Only comes with three button controllers.

Sega shooting themselves in the foot.

Shapey Fiend

More nostaligia with the 3 button. Easier for the kind of casual people might be buying these things. If they're not putting Street Fighter on there people can live without it.

Lemming

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Only comes with three button controllers.

Sega shooting themselves in the foot.

The Japanese release has six-button controllers; assuming of course that quite a few of the Japanese-specific titles bundled require more than three buttons.

And what Shapey said above; no SF2 means people wont even notice.

DelBoy Trotter

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Only comes with three button controllers.

Sega shooting themselves in the foot.

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

More nostaligia with the 3 button. Easier for the kind of casual people might be buying these things. If they're not putting Street Fighter on there people can live without it.

Exactly what I was thinking as well. The casual gamers won't care that it is only a three button controller

Retr0gamer

They will when they realise the 3 button controller isn't very ergonomic and feels nasty to hold.

The Megadrive 6 button controller on the other hand is the second greatest console controller ever made, second only to the Japanese Saturn controller which was modeled on the Megadrive 6 button controller and it's fantastic d-pad.

o1s1n

Was using the three button pad last night for ages (I've a couple of really great quality ones that feel like they're new) and then switched over to the 6 button for some Alien Soldier and Ranger X.

As great as the 6 button is, I really do find it a bit on the small side. Same with the Saturn pad.

CiDeRmAn

I never got used to the six button pad at all.
And, as for this mini console, nothing to be lost in waiting to see what other peoples experiences of it are, then decide to jump.

So far, there hasn't been a mini console that hasn't been hackable, looking forward to seeing if this follows the trend.

€68 on Segashop.eu using code GOFAST15. Didn't advance far enough to check the shipping costs.

Stoner

6 button saga pad was my favourite for fighting games at the time. Much preferred it to the SNES controller too.

Chris_Heilong

It would have to have proper upscaling options and good sound for me to even consider it, at least they are doing it in-house for once. Will wait and see.

Censored11

Yeah its a real wait & see with this one.
I got all the Nintendo minis, love them after a good hacking.
After the Sony Playstation fiasco, trying to cash in on the mini trend, I hope sega don't try and pull a fast one. Please give us the proper machine to justify a pre order

Retr0gamer

M2 are on emulation duties so it will more than likely be superb.

Inviere

Retr0gamer wrote: »

M2 are on emulation duties so it will more than likely be superb.

Knowing this it was an insta-preorder. Can't wait to leave it on a shelf for all of time

Shapey Fiend

One downside that someone mentioned on Facebook is with M2's wizardry we can perhaps expect it not being as easy to hack as the other mini consoles.

People love hacking these things so much though I'm sure they'll manage it.

Retr0gamer

M2 might do specific emulation shells for specific games.

Jack burton

https://www.playthek.de/hardware-zubehouml-sega-mega-drive-mini-ohne-retourenrecht-sonderposten-accessories-pZZa1-2098971204.html

Anyone ever order off this site?

Inviere

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

One downside that someone mentioned on Facebook is with M2's wizardry we can perhaps expect it not being as easy to hack as the other mini consoles.

People love hacking these things so much though I'm sure they'll manage it.

At the price point it’s at though, the security really will be trivial for anyone with de skillz to find an exploit though. The question will be, can additional games be seamlessly integrated into the OS as they are on the Ninty consoles.

Retr0gamer

The Nintendo minis were coded by the U.K. Team who used an all purpose emulation solution.

M2 on the other hand have so far created emulation specific to each title to make them as accurate as possible. It might be tough to translate that to different games like on the Nintendo minis.

Inviere

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The Nintendo minis were coded by the U.K. Team who used an all purpose emulation solution.

M2 on the other hand have so far created emulation specific to each title to make them as accurate as possible. It might be tough to translate that to different games like on the Nintendo minis.

Indeed, this could be a case of stick with the original m2 lineup, or lose that and switch to a more general solution. Personally I’ve zero interest in hacking it, same with my Nintendo Minis. There’s other (far superior) solutions available, so no real need to mess with these.

Chris_Heilong

The full selection of games are impressive and a newly ported Tetris and Darius to boot. I would have left out Virtua Fighter, sonic spinball, Space Harrier 2(even at release this was bad) and maybe Alex kid and replaced them with Rocket knight, Ranger X, Soliel (crusader of Centy) and Alien Soldier.

But in all honesty who ever came up with the list of games has really good taste, made even better by the fact most of the games are Japanese made which usually during that period of time meant good Music and design.

Shapey Fiend

I was looking at footage of it at E3 everything looks great. They've even gotten a sort of alright looking 16:9 presentation that zooms in the picture rather than stretching the image. Still looks worse than 4:3, but nice feature for the people too clueless to not stick it to that.

o1s1n

I saw an interesting post over on reddit where someone noticed that some of the cover scans have wear on the side, as if they actually took an old cover and put it in a scanner.

Go here and check out the Vectorman cover

http://genesismini.sega.com/#gamebox-29

Earthworm Jim is the same

http://genesismini.sega.com/#gamebox-17

Wonder could they just no find a decent digital scan and though 'feck this, we'll just lash one in a scanner'

Jack burton

Big companies with all their resources are still ridiculously lazy sometimes.

Wouldn't surprise me if they just did a 10mp+ Google image search and found them

Greentree_uk

games list not great. no road rash 2, jungle strike, jamepond II better be hackable

o1s1n

Greentree_uk wrote: »

games list not great. no road rash 2, jungle strike, jamepond II better be hackable

It's an absolutely fantastic list and a great representation of what the console had to offer.

Road Rash II would have been nice though.

CiDeRmAn

o1s1n wrote: »

It's an absolutely fantastic list and a great representation of what the console had to offer.

Road Rash II would have been nice though.

It does have Road Rash II....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis_Mini#Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiVeJXjEdY

o1s1n

So it does!

Well then, I can now say it is the greatest list of games ever assembled in the history of humanity.

CiDeRmAn

I bought that one at full price back on release, I played it to death!
And, when I rebought the Megadrive a few years later, it was one of the first games I got all over again and was still the business.
It's probably on an even par, for me at least, with it's 3DO sequel.
I thought they overstretched with Road Rash III and the less said about the MegaCD Road Rash game the better.
Show, don't tell!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0J-1ST73-0

o1s1n

i had it back in the day too, managed to get it in a long line of trades which I still actually remember!

Was given Castle Illusion for Christmas from my grandparents when I was 8. Finished that and traded it in for Ghostbusters II (we had a local videoshop that let you trade games for five pounds)
Finished Ghostbusters and traded it in for Lemmings.
Lemmings was then completed and traded in for Mercs.
I swapped Mercs for Road Rash II with a mate.

Also agree on Road Rash III, never liked it. Just doesn't look and play right.

CiDeRmAn

It wasn't as tightly themed as RR or RR2, and they returned to the consistent West-Coast setting for RR on the 3DO, which is still a favourite, such a soundtrack!

Retr0gamer

I hate the GEMS megadrive sound driver but a lot of the EA games didn't sound that bad using it. Road Rash and Strike games sounded pretty good.

CiDeRmAn

So, the prevailing opinion is that if it's an M2 joint then it is likely to be a series of highly accurate but game specific emulators and unlikely to be hackable, unless there's a Retroarch option developed, and if it's not M2 the emulation is just going to p1ss people off and be hacked within the first day of release?

I think the device would be the perfect place for a Shmup games colletion, to be honest, from Thunderforce IV to Flying Shark and all points in between!

Danick

o1s1n wrote: »

i had it back in the day too, managed to get it in a long line of trades which I still actually remember!

Was given Castle Illusion for Christmas from my grandparents when I was 8. Finished that and traded it in for Ghostbusters II (we had a local videoshop that let you trade games for five pounds)
Finished Ghostbusters and traded it in for Lemmings.
Lemmings was then completed and traded in for Mercs.
I swapped Mercs for Road Rash II with a mate.

Also agree on Road Rash III, never liked it. Just doesn't look and play right.

Mercs is still one of my favourite games - I loved Road Rash 2 as well but I still play Original mode in Mercs even though I have a PS4, Xbox One and a Switch - it is still in my top 10 list of all time games. You are right Desert Strike would have been class - since M2 are programming it I'm fearful that it won't be hackable - would love to throw Midnight Resistance on it as well.

o1s1n

Danick wrote: »

Mercs is still one of my favourite games - I loved Road Rash 2 as well but I still play Original mode in Mercs even though I have a PS4, Xbox One and a Switch - it is still in my top 10 list of all time games. You are right Desert Strike would have been class - since M2 are programming it I'm fearful that it won't be hackable - would love to throw Midnight Resistance on it as well.

I have a Mercs PCB in one of my arcade machines that hasn't left since I picked it up a long time ago. Great thing about the arcade board over the Megadrive port (as amazing as it was) is 2 and 3 player. Such a shame the Megadrive game didn't at least have 2 player!

Shapey Fiend

Finishing Lemmings is an accomplishment. I always got stuck on some levels. Rented Ghostbusters a rake of times and the final level always did me in as well.

I'm just looking at Youtube and I COULD finish Mercs Original mode. That was very moreish with the unlockable characters. I was very fond of Midnight Resistance in the arcade I'd have eaten up that Mega Drive port if I'd known it existed.

GEMS was a really well designed tool, and there was plenty of good Mega Drive music made with it, it's just that the vast majority of people didn't take the time or make the effort to make custom sounds and just bunged a load of the preset instruments in there and called it a day.

Danick

o1s1n wrote: »

I have a Mercs PCB in one of my arcade machines that hasn't left since I picked it up a long time ago. Great thing about the arcade board over the Megadrive port (as amazing as it was) is 2 and 3 player. Such a shame the Megadrive game didn't at least have 2 player!

Picked it up on PS2 as part of the Capcom Collection - no original mode but got to play the 2 player version - pretty close to arcade I think.

DaveyDave

I was hoping this would be a bit cheaper than €85. I don't care for it, but I want it...

Doge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIyajV94J8c

super_furry

Still gutted that there's no Pirates! Gold. Hour for hour, I probably spent more on that game than any other 16 big release.

Shapey Fiend

Original menu music is a lovely touch. Look forward to the BGOllie cover.

Chicken George

DaveyDave wrote: »

I was hoping this would be a bit cheaper than €85. I don't care for it, but I want it...

I want it too but price is a bit steep.
I'll wait until it's discounted. 85 to sit in a drawer with my nes&snes minis doesn't add up for me anymore with these novelties...

McDermotX

Notice PlayAsia have allocated more preorder stock on the Japanese model.

Add on 20 quid + probable customs to that 78 euro though.

super_furry

Chicken George wrote: »

I want it too but price is a bit steep.
I'll wait until it's discounted. 85 to sit in a drawer with my nes&snes minis doesn't add up for me anymore with these novelties...

Yeah that €85 also ignores the fact that you need to spend another €20 or so for a six-button controller.

Kidchameleon

super_furry wrote: »

Yeah that €85 also ignores the fact that you need to spend another €20 or so for a six-button controller.

Personally, I am glad they are shipping it with 3 button controllers. I want the "proper" Megadrive experience. As far as I can see there are only two 6 button games on that list of 42.