Sega Megadrive mini

Doge

Danick wrote: »

Thanks so much - I never knew it was possible to power it via usb.

You're welcome!

Its been possible since the Irish company MyVolts launched a successful Kickstarter for Ripcord a few years back.

Even before then they had a kind of prototype version of Ripcord specifically used to power the Korg Volca range of synthesisers and drum machines which were low powered, I have one of those also! Since then theyve made a lot of improvements and testing and now Ripcord is a thing!

Theres a a few accessories you can buy for Ripcord also including a pack of different barrel sizes which includes a polarity inverter. And also a "hot tip."

Which is a DC barrel you can plug in to the existing plug and tells you polarity with its bi colour led.

I actually did a review of Ripcord the day I received my Kickstarter reward and go through the accessories here,.in the most boring voice ever mind you. Need to work on that.

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

o1s1n

This would be really great paired with a 9 inch PVM running off internal batteries.

Doge

o1s1n wrote: »

This would be really great paired with a 9 inch PVM running off internal batteries.

I foresee myself bumping into o1s1n aka the retro gaming hipster on the train someday with a PVM running and batteries and a mega drive running off one of those ripcords, saying to me:
"handhelds with emulation?
BAH!
Sir, I'm a purist!"

o1s1n

Doge wrote: »

I foresee myself bumping into o1s1n aka the retro gaming hipster on the train someday with a PVM running and batteries and a mega drive running off one of those ripcords, saying to me:
"handhelds with emulation?
BAH!
Sir, I'm a purist!"

If I'm not mistaken, you have a BVM1454D? Not far off that yourself!

Chris_Heilong

I was watching game sack and a few other youtube channels have got their hands on one, A bit disappointed that there is a millisecond delay in sound and some of the frequencies in the sound are a bit harsher than a real Megadrive. So it will be a pass for me, I was really hoping for a cheap HD upscaled Megadrive experience

o1s1n

The Megadrive was all over the place with sound, there are a lot of variances based on board type. So it might sound like one of them...

Doge

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I was watching game sack and a few other youtube channels have got their hands on one, A bit disappointed that there is a millisecond delay in sound and some of the frequencies in the sound are a bit harsher than a real Megadrive. So it will be a pass for me, I was really hoping for a cheap HD upscaled Megadrive experience

Cheap and 100% accurate sound / modelling of the crappy amp and mixer in Mega Drives should not belong in the same sentence.

If you want to have that modeled accurately then the Mega SG by Analogue is your man.

Interestingly enough people go as far as modding their consoles with the Crystal Clear Audio Mod to replenish the lost frequencies in their Mega Drives due to the poor amp and mixer circuitry.

Modelling that amp and mixer would take a lot more system resources and up the cost,
and the guys at Sega probably want to make it as hifi sounding as possible.

Inviere

Doge wrote: »

Cheap and 100% accurate sound / modelling of the crappy amp and mixer in Mega Drives should not belong in the same sentence.

If you want to have that modeled accurately then the Mega SG by Analogue is your man.

Interestingly enough people go as far as modding their consoles with the Crystal Clear Audio Mod to replenish the lost frequencies in their Mega Drives due to the poor amp and mixer circuitry.

Modelling that amp and mixer would take a lot more system resources and up the cost,
and the guys at Sega probably want to make it as hifi sounding as possible.

It's more the audio delay I've read about that'll kill it for me.

Doge

Inviere wrote: »

It's more the audio delay I've read about that'll kill it for me.

Thats a shame. I wonder if they could iron it out in a firmware update.

B.A._Baracus

Whats the deal with these... emulation or a hardware? (i've heard both oddly enough so no clue now)

Jack burton

Doge wrote: »

Cheap and 100% accurate sound / modelling of the crappy amp and mixer in Mega Drives should not belong in the same sentence.

If you want to have that modeled accurately then the Mega SG by Analogue is your man.

Interestingly enough people go as far as modding their consoles with the Crystal Clear Audio Mod to replenish the lost frequencies in their Mega Drives due to the poor amp and mixer circuitry.

Modelling that amp and mixer would take a lot more system resources and up the cost,
and the guys at Sega probably want to make it as hifi sounding as possible.

Definitely want to give that crystal clear mod a whirl on one of my megadrives

KeRbDoG

Inviere wrote: »

It's more the audio delay I've read about that'll kill it for me.

Is it just me or does the lad in that video have very badly applied make up on?

Inviere

Doge wrote: »

Thats a shame. I wonder if they could iron it out in a firmware update.

Possibly. 11 frames of audio delay though, it's the kind of thing that once you notice it it'll break the experience (for me anyway). Think I'll pass on this one.

B.A._Baracus

Inviere wrote: »

Possibly. 11 frames of audio delay though, it's the kind of thing that once you notice it it'll break the experience (for me anyway). Think I'll pass on this one.

Here's the thing... This is most likely gonna get hacked and a lot of people will buy this for that reason. So if it is an issue i'm sure someone smart will come along and make a fix for it while you dump every sega mega drive rom in existence on it :pac:

Inviere

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Here's the thing... This is most likely gonna get hacked and a lot of people will buy this for that reason. So if it is an issue i'm sure someone smart will come along and make a fix for it while you dump every sega mega drive rom in existence on it :pac:

100% it will be hacked. But I've enough gubbins here that will run Sonic the Hedgehog, I don't need another one

Jack burton

I still don't understand how companies let stuff like that audio delay happen. I'd have thought something like that would be a major issue

Retr0gamer

Surprised this is a thing as M2 are usually really great at replicating Megadrive audio, even giving a choice of high definition and later model Megadrive audio in their 3DS ports.

quaalude

Doge wrote: »

You're welcome!

Its been possible since the Irish company MyVolts launched a successful Kickstarter for Ripcord a few years back.

Even before then they had a kind of prototype version of Ripcord specifically used to power the Korg Volca range of synthesisers and drum machines which were low powered, I have one of those also! Since then theyve made a lot of improvements and testing and now Ripcord is a thing!

Theres a a few accessories you can buy for Ripcord also including a pack of different barrel sizes which includes a polarity inverter. And also a "hot tip."

Which is a DC barrel you can plug in to the existing plug and tells you polarity with its bi colour led.

I actually did a review of Ripcord the day I received my Kickstarter reward and go through the accessories here,.in the most boring voice ever mind you. Need to work on that.

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

Cheers Doge!
I’m a long time Boardsie who works for myVolts so if anyone has any questions about Ripcord, and what else it can power, hit me up.
I just happened across this thread as I’m also a retro gaming fan - the original Megadrive is one of the greatest consoles of all time, IMO.

Chris_Heilong

Jack burton wrote: »

I still don't understand how companies let stuff like that audio delay happen. I'd have thought something like that would be a major issue

The issue is all these mini consoles come on very weak hardware, a rasberrypi 3 would blow them out of the water and all of them have sound delay, the Nes mini SNES mini and the Megadrive mini.

fmul9798

Cancelled my order once I heard about the audio delay. I wonder of it might be fixed with an update, or is it pretty much "that's it, take it or leave it"

horgan_p

fmul9798 wrote: »

Cancelled my order once I heard about the audio delay. I wonder of it might be fixed with an update, or is it pretty much "that's it, take it or leave it"

The only updates will be from the hacking community

Inviere

fmul9798 wrote: »

Cancelled my order once I heard about the audio delay. I wonder of it might be fixed with an update, or is it pretty much "that's it, take it or leave it"

Same. Such a shame as it otherwise seems like a cracking little 'console'.

Dr Bob

Yeah the audio might'nt have put me off , but theres too many good games missing from the lineup for me ( I know licencing doesnt work that way but I was hoping being M2 it'd have their port of Gauntlet/Gauntlet IV , also Slapfight MD is on the japanese version but not the ROW one .. doh!)

B.A._Baracus

How bad is the audio delay? minor or something really noticable?

Retr0gamer

100 ms lag I think according to Digital foundry

Chris_Heilong

So there has been some progress on the hacking end of things. They discovered the aritecture is prtty much the same as the SNES mini but with the CPU under-clocked to 1 ghz.

Chris_Heilong

This guy also did tests on the sound and lag, 4 frames of audio delay and 3-7 frames emulation delay which this guy found to be the same as a Raspberry-pi.

Shapey Fiend

Whatever way I've set up my Pi 2 the input lag is horrendous. My sons always trying to get me to play Mario on it and I simply can't. It may be my television causing it I'm not sure.

I thought the Retroarch peeps were talking about runahead latency now that's better than the original hardware. Whatever that is I want it.

Chris_Heilong

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

Whatever way I've set up my Pi 2 the input lag is horrendous. My sons always trying to get me to play Mario on it and I simply can't. It may be my television causing it I'm not sure.

I thought the Retroarch peeps were talking about runahead latency now that's better than the original hardware. Whatever that is I want it.

I would say it is your TV, make sure to set it to game mode as that will turn off all the filters, The lag on the Pi is really not bad at all but when I brought it to my mothers house during christmas their TV added so much lag it was unplayable for me.

Inviere

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

Whatever way I've set up my Pi 2 the input lag is horrendous. My sons always trying to get me to play Mario on it and I simply can't. It may be my television causing it I'm not sure.

I thought the Retroarch peeps were talking about runahead latency now that's better than the original hardware. Whatever that is I want it.

Set your TV onto Game Mode (turns off all post-processing etc), this will help reduce lag. You'll need a Pi 4 to use runahead, it's very cpu intensive. I'm the same with emulation on a Pi, the lag/latency always bothered me.