Updated Sega Mega Drive Arcade Ultimate Handheld Features Save State Support

But the sound emulation will sound like arse, right?

Wow, we can actually finish "Phantasy Star IV"!

Is Sega fine with this?

Still can't believe Sega have nothing on the VC,it's not right.

@Damo Good then.
@OorWullie Yep, Wii U's VC is depressing.

I've purchased a couple At Games devices in the past but returned them due to the quality of the software and hardware. There's better solutions for Genesis on the go... Like the Nomad for instance

Save and load. Would have been pretty funny if you could save your games but not load the save file afterward, glad they spelled that out.

I was in TRU on Friday and there is an entire section of these all in one retro consoles across from Skylanders. If Nintendo wants to regain some market share they should consider an NES version. The vast majority of people don't want to pay $5 for 30 year old games when they could be spending that on newer Indie games and stealing the ROMs for free. Too many free and 99c games in the world as well.

when I first saw the above photo on my tablet I thought it was the NX, which for awhile I considered the possibility it could be such a 3rd pillar retro machine beside the Wii U and 3DS. Let's face it, Nintendo, despite a couple of excellent HD games, hasn't done very well at releasing them in a timely manner, as launch title Pik in 3 was 10 years in the making and even borderline retro looking Star Fox Zero has slipped from its Nov 20th date, and nobody knows where 2015 Zelda U has gone. I'm not believing 2016 either with as little as they've shown. So why not make some quick money with a cheap retro console while they try to figure out HD? And if NX is a new high end console, they should at least consider some serious NES marketing like PS+ or Retro 30 for $30 disc. They want to change their in store marketing to Nintendo, they should go all out on the brand and become a relevant retro dominating machine.

@OorWullie Sega didn't believe anybody wanted unaltered classic games on new systems. So when Nintendo came along offering to pay for them they laughed and took the money. The virtual console kicked off and sega decided it would make far more money doing it themselves. Its why the 3DS got the GameGear games and nothing else other than sega made 3D classics.

My hope is that Nintendo has been more forward thinking with licencing the VC on Wii U and it passes on to the NX.

Too bad they didn't fix the audio. I've played the TV version, and the emulated music sounds awful.

They made some pretty good plug n plays. What's all on this? If its got Greats like Ecco the Dolphin, Toejam and Earl 1 and 2, Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Streets of Rage sign me up!

But can it run Contra Hard Corps? So far none of these systems have been able to run it without graphical glitches.

sega should release a handheld where you can download more titles, they have loads of good GBA games they could put in as well as new ones like sonic 4

Well that took them forever and like...a billion different models or something.
But huh, this thing existing is probably the reason why Stuart Ashens was able to get the previous latest model for less than 20 quid.

The sound emulation on these is aaawwwful! They need to sort out the emulation before anything else.

@TossedLlama Don't forget the six AA batteries required for three hour's of gameplay.

@Crumpet123
They're not very keen on releasing their own hardware anymore sadly. I believe there was a handheld a short while back called the gamegadget that would have it's own browser based online shop where you could buy ROMs of different games. The goal was to give devs another outlet to resell their old retro games and Sega was an early supporter, but it flopped pretty badly and pretty quickly.

I had the blue and black one that came with a foreign copy of Super Street Fighter 2 and Mega Man Wily Wars. Half the ROMs I plugged in didnt work. It didn't save. Full titles of games were illegible. Well, if this one can get Wily Wars. Then I might give it a second chance.

@rjejr
With the NX, I really dont want any Virtual Console, unless its all a free transfer. I honestly think Nintendo should just make a separate console called "The Virtual Console." Solely just for their classics. eShop and cartridge support. I dunno. If I invest in another Nintendo system, itd be solely for new games.

Oh wait. That was the original Wii, just no carts. Lol

@OorWullie Yeah, I would die if they released Super Street Fighter II as a VC release!

@kupocake Quite right, I think the awful sound emulation was the 'big failing' before save states.

I have a question, I keep seeing a model with this color scheme all over the internet with Mortal Kombat 1-3 included. But none of the feature lists or even the manual say if it supports saving or stave states.

Anyone have any idea if this model supports save states?

Nice! I have the original genesis model (with 40 games) and I liked it aside from lack of saves and horrible sound quality.

@OorWullie japan has sonic advance on Wii u virtual console. But not anything else.

@Captain_Gonru - "NX bundle that looks like an old NES, and comes preloaded with a bunch of classics, I'd be cool with that."

Isn't that what I said? picky picky picky NX + VC+ = win.

@Damo
Do you know if FunStock will be the only retailer selling this?

Considering that I just dropped the cash to buy an Analogue NT, I assume Nintendo will start a reproduction of the NES for about $500 less than what I just paid. That's usually my luck.

@Captain_Gonru OK, went back and reread my post, this part should have been written better:

"And if NX is a new high end console, they should at least consider some serious NES marketing like PS+ or Retro 30 for $30 disc."

So you would still have a PS4/X1 powered console, but it would have NES built in either like Retor's 30 or a PS+ type service where they would all be avialbe for $5 per month.

Nobody buys DVDs anymore, they Netflix etc, nobody buys CDs anymore, they Pandora etc, soon nobody will buy games anymore, we'll just rent them. Now I really don't like PS Now streaming in the crowd lagginess, but let us DL and play the games in full, which I've done w/ many a PS+ game over the years. Stop paying, stop playing. Worked perfectly. But Nitneod should not be selling individual NES and SNES games at this point for $5 or $8, just bundle them all already. Sony and MS both charge for online, that would be Nitneod's way of doing that, unlimited NES games. Before they fade into irrelevance.

@Captain_Gonru "$2-3 each"

Still better than $5 each, and you are getting a bunch at once. If Rare put them up individually maybe only 7 or 8 would sell at $1 each, but people are willing to pay $30 for the bundle. Like I paid $10 for the Humble Nindie bundle b/c it was $10 for 12 games but I don't think I've played even 1 yet, but I got suckered in by the quantity for the price. So I think Ninnteod could make more money by offering bundles, or a rental service, than their $5/$6 per pop.

I think the rest of my post was less about a digital only future and more about a rental only past. NES and SNES games aren't sold on cartridges anymore, they really are only viable as digital downloads, therefore we really only are renting them, b/c we can't resell them or trade them in like we can w/ cartridges. And since I can't buy the games physically I might as well just rent them.

The world is transitioning to digital only, indies are seeing to that. Wii U almost certainly has more digital only games available than those on disc as 3rd party support fades away. And almost all toys to life. I wonder how long before the toys to life start carrying the games inside them? Not all the games on all the toys, but the starter packs. Like Chibi Robo on 3DS, just stick a 2GB chip inside the guy - I doubt the game is any larger than that - and do away w/ the cartidge. All those portals plug in via USB anyway, just download the game from there.

Toys aside, all digital is coming. But I'm with you, it will be the end of gaming for us, but my kids, and all the other kids growing up on iOS and Android. which is ALL digital only, won't miss physical, downloads are all they know.

They've already taken down the page and replaced it with the old one .....

DAMO! — I have the US release of this which was manufactured in July 2015 (says it on the box) which has MK1-3 featured as the new stuff within. Their website shows the white hand held in your picture above with the SAVE button on top of it. It's a lie.

I bought it about a month ago at Toys R Us when they finally came in, that button is NOT on there. They also still have excluded Sonic 3 since that game uses a save battery. Any game default on the system has no save mechanics.

I have yet to plug a SD card into it and try something like Sonic 3 to see if it's there, but any reports I've come across have shown they have NOT added saving into the system still. I was mostly tempted to remove it, but I mostly bought it just to mess with when I was bored so it stays in my desk. They have not corrected most the sound issues, it's still so-so in some games, but I had the first with the SD slot from 5 years back and it does sound a little nicer. I've not tried out Contra which was broken on the old one I had to see if it works on this.

@tanookisuit
Was just about to order one until I saw a customer review on Toys R Us saying that you still can't save games. Guess that means I'll just continue waiting :/

Wish Sega could just come out and make a new handheld themselves. These devices are too cheaply made, and my Nomad is too bulky to carry around.

Not worth your time. I've purchased a couple Atgame handheld and the build quality is terrible. Also their mega drive sound emulation is bad.

I just picked this version up at CM games.. Any idea how to access the save/load feature. I have this exact model and still can't seem to save my Sonic/Knuckles progress.

@NatePeckinpaugh

You can't save, even on this latest device. The website doesn't mention anything about being able to save games. You need to ask Nintendo Life for your money back?

http://staging.atgames.net/index.php/products/sega-genesis/ultimate-portable-game-player/

@Damo

Have you personally bought or played a Sega Mega Drive Arcade Ultimate Handheld that can save? I know this article is a year old so I am hoping there are some updates. The latest version I see is a 2015 model (Amazon.com). Is this the one that was updated?

Oh how I wish this were true. I bought this exact newer white version, and I can find NO way to save through the system. Save states would be amazing, but alas, it doesn't seem to be so. I've reached out to Atgames a few times, and they have never responded back.