Live In The UK? You Could Find A Sega Mega Drive In Your Stocking Come Christmas Morning

I got one of those lying around somewhere. Megadrive carts work, but are stubborn to insert & remove. Maybe it's just mine, I dunno. Oh, & it outputs audio in one channel only I think.

@GammaNoises Also my inner pessimist tells me this is it. The start of the retro mega drive craze. With good time, buying mega drive carts will be as tedious as trying to buy snes carts at an affordable price. I could be wrong, & I hope I am.

Yes, enjoy the glory days of slow 50Hz European Mega Drive games.

Of course, the Mega Drive Collection for PS360 is still £15 in CeX...

Speaking of Christmas, I got one of these last Christmas.
Not worth it. Sound quality is absolutely terrible and controllers are horribly built (although you can use regular Genesis controllers if you own them). Only buy it if you're willing to play with the sound off and own a regular controller. Although honestly, you might as well pick up a regular Genesis instead.

I need someone to make a new MultiMega/CDX with built-in Snatcher.

I have one, my sibling's babysitter gave it to me for my birthday last year.

@GammaNoises can't be more expensive than NeoGeo.

@Angelic_Lapras_King And the PS360 version has Phantasy Star and Golden Axe Warrior on as unlockable Master System games. Both worth a play!

@GammaNoises I imagine that this won't be it - a lot of these clone systems come pre-loaded with the games the average person cares about - the Sonics, the Streets of Rages, the games people have nostalgia for and are likely buying these systems to play. Nobody's going to waste their money buying any old cart when the games they're here for are part of the asking price; and anybody looking for the more obscure/expensive stuff will likely already be a part of the Mega Drive collectors market anyway.

@RupeeClock If it's manufactured by ATGames, then it generally uses the same godawful Firecore System-on-a-chip they've always used - in which the sound emulation seems to be based off of an ancient emulator's codebase, and outputs sounds a whole octave higher than they're supposed to be.

Well, I still have my model 1 Mega Drive, and I'm happy with it and my 50Hz games.
Though I wonder if this is compatible with stuff like Master System converter unit (because I belive it lacks any expansion ports for the Sega Mega CD/32X connectivity).

@Waninoko I'm not an expert, but I'm under the impression that the emulator these clone systems use cannot recognise any cartridge reliant on extra hardware built-in to it; which rules out both the Master System Power Base Converter and Virtua Racing.

@tudsworth
And you're totally right my friend, I totally forgot it's (most likely) a SoC architecture thing. I doubt any engineer spent their sweet time handling all of the 32X/CD hardware calls, especially in a £40 thingy.
And if it's the Firecore SoC you mentioned earlier, then I have some serious doubts about the compatibility.

This may be a piece of junk hardware w/ mono sound and poor controllers, but that's why these are $40 for 80 games. Trying to buy these on VC at $5 per game would be $400.

Baby boomers like nostalgia, they aren't buying these for exact replicas of older games, they are buying them to play for 15 minutes and forget about. Maybe show their kids.

Personally I prefer the portable w/ TV out.

If NX was simply a portable w/ TV out w/ 50 NES and SNES games for $50 they could probably sell a billion of them. As far as I can tell Ntineod has never done retro hardware or game packages. So much money to be made there w/ very little investment.

Whoever has to read the Daily Mail to find these articles should get extra time off over Xmas to compensate for the distress.

I have the SD card handheld one and the audio is waaaay off, like incredibly out of tune and abrasive. Anyone know if its the same case with this?

This looks just like one I got for Christmas a few years ago, I was incredibly disappointed, it's nice for people who have a lot of cartridges I guess, but the emulation (sound specifically) is bad, like really bad. Especially after going from Sonic Mega Collection and Virtual Console, it's a big step down. As you can see from the picture it's mono+composite only.

Does the new one have some kind of fix for the save glitch the old ones had? I bought one of these for my fiance last Christmas, and although the sound was wonky the big disappointment was that they can't actually support saves to the cartridges.

But they're also not region-locked, so that's pretty cool.

@Damo
Apparently the Hamy HG-806 uses a Genesis-on-a-Chip for real hardware emulation, making it a true clone (probably the only one left) and better than these crappy software emulated things. It's a handheld though, so not very interesting for people who want multiplayer on the TV.

@World
None of consoles made by AtGames have a save function. It's just not supported by their crappy FireCore SoC and emulator.
A while back they did announce that they would be adding save functionality to this year's handheld update, but that turned out to be a lie.

Wow a 400% jump in sales must be great from the almost 2 decades of 0%.

Wait... there was a Daily Mail article which didn't claim that video games were a disgrace that made all of their players violent? Stop the presses!!!

Terrible clone system! Just buy a real Megadrive or splash out on a retron 5 for save facilities.

The Daily Mail? ewww!

I've seen these along with these as well

And I've really considered getting them but it seemed way to good to be true.

Especially since I have always been curious how these controllers work.

Yuck, I hate these clone systems, the sound and picture accuracy are usually terrible. The d-pads are often unresponsive, sharp edged travesties too.

Your best bet is to buy a real MegaDrive on eBay and get a Mega EverDrive to play all your old games with 100% accuracy (I think Virtua Racing is the only incompatible game for the obvious reason).

@HawkeyeWii
Even back then, the controllers for the Colecovision it was a low point compared to Atari 2600 joysticks. The side buttons are your main buttons and they are horribly squishy. I did like how great the graphics were compared to 2600, and have nostalgia for a couple games, but that knob on top doesn't read rotating, it's just a joystick. Better than Intellivision's horrendous circle pad thing. Thanks for fixing home consoles, Nintendo!

I've seen these sold in the United States at Dollar Stores.

"According to UK newspaper The Daily Mail" is where I stopped reading.

@HawkeyeWii not a bad little package the colecovision one. Hopes hoping they do a new edition with way more than the 60 games on this. That being said this one has a least 2 dozen classics in there! I have the Atari and intelivision one. I like the intelivision the least but love astrosmash!!

I got one of these three years ago, I was working at the store and was able to get it half off, I ended up with the edition they decided to recall due to some of the games that were on there (I can't remember which ones it was recalled for, but I know it had to due with a Mega Man game on there) But it was pretty nice, solid collection of games on there.

@rjejr Nintendo doesn't do that because they are not a third party game company. They are still a first party game manufacturer and publisher and thus had to continue focus on the current gen rather than going back to the past. Had Nintendo do what Sega did then we would probably get emulation collection of their old craps rather then new stuffs on the 3DS and Wii U. Anyways if you just want retro games there's a whole bunch of illegal Chinese multi carts filled with NES and sometimes Super NES roms on there if you're lucky which would work with any real or clone consoles. Just don't expect them to work 100% as they are not of the same quality like Nintendo.

@CrazyOtto I recently bought one for $20 a few months ago. Thought it was okay, the Genesis games were good, the 40 other games are just junks and clones of license games. The wireless controllers are garbage, I basically threw them in the trash immediately after finding out that the signal sucks. Instead I just use my real Genesis controllers to play it. Of all the games I test on it only seven games doesn't work:

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
• Greatest Heavyweights
• Animaniacs
• Super Street Fighter II
• Virtua Racing
• Technocop
• Pier Solar

@retro_player_22 The fact there are so many illegal ROMs out there means there is a market for old NES and SNES games. An dwhat you are saying about them continuing to make new hardware makes sense, but why not make some $ w/ a Rare Replay disc. Look how well NES Remix sold, and that's just bits and pieces. People are always begging, literally begging, Nintnedo for more VC games. There is a huge market for old Nintendo games yet they fail to monetize that demand. And the more they go with free-to-start the harder it will be to convince people to pay $5 or $6 for 1 old game. Best to sell them now. If Sony can emulate a lot of old PS2 games on PS4 surely Nintendo can emulate NES and SNES games on NX.

I have one of these, it's great for simple plug and play, (no more dealing with analog coaxial cables) but you will want to thrust something stabby into your ears when you hear how this thing butchers Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage, among others. Surprisingly though, it emulates the sound fine on Road Rash 2, which is all I really play on it anymore other than the on-board games.

@rjejr They could but you know Nintendo doesn't like making compilations of games they release. A lot of those Sony and Microsoft titles on compilation and digital media are from third party companies and those could be released with no prob. Rare Replay and the Sega Genesis Ultimate Collection are good compilation packages but both are from companies that are no longer are in competition in the gaming industry. Same thing with games from Capcom, Konami, SNK, etc. The only way Nintendo could release a retro collection like that is if they went third party and want to make quick cash otherwise what they are doing (releasing new titles and continue to slowly release classic digital games) now already benefits them.

The NES Remix titles were just marketing ploy in attempt to advertised their old games, they'll never offer a collection on disc with over 50 NES and Super NES games, instead they want you to buy those title individually at few dollar a pop. Also you mention "As far as I can tell Ntineod has never done retro hardware or game packages " doing what other companies already did was never Nintendo's thing, they want to be different, not the same as everyone else. I'm sure that at one point in Nintendo's history that they will make compilations of games or retro hardware but until they become like the rest, they aren't doing that as what they are doing now already benefit even if their current home console is failing.

I have it.

The sound is higher pitched because badly made.

Surprising to a point, but also not given the time of the year and the amount of quality Sega titles listed within. ATgames is 100% emulated. Overall I'd say their emulator is around 85% right, the other 15% for primarly 2 damning problems with it. 1. The audio has an octave problem in enough games where it's off but if you didn't know the original (or don't care much) it's not a deal killer. 2. Though is a deal killer if you get their SD card using handheld or the device in this page with the cartridge slot — it can't do save games, even on real carts it will not save new data which is beyond stupid. Don't think for one second you can enjoy Phantasy Star 4 on this or oddly their dumb concept of Mega Man Wily Wars on previous years handheld since it's battery too.

All said though there are few other games that will have some slight graphical issue but not breaking, very few break, and while I haven't tried out Contra yet on the 2015 Mortal Kombat unit(have it, no spare SD card) the original SD using one from like 5 years ago had a scrolling background problem that broken the playability of it.

For the price it's not terrible and will get the job done on most the games, and if you're not an old school Sega player or are less uptight about it the audio won't be a problem either. They badly need to update that emulator core, even if not for the audio, but there's no excuse for battery games not to write a save to a SD card or an original save chip on cart as it's embarrassing.

@HawkeyeWii Do yourself a favor, fire up google and look up Atari Flashback 2. Not the 2+ just the AF2. That ONE ATGames 'clone' system isn't an emulator for once. It's actually a true 2600/VCS on a chip. It's so accurate on the board inside there are instructions to wire up a cartridge slot to the thing so you can play any manufactured 2600 game on it. Seriously.

The thing is a tiny re-released 2600, can take real games if you add a slot (can be bought at Best Electronics) and uses all the original various controllers the old console had as well. I've considered off and on for some years now either doing it myself or paying someone to wire up a AF2 given the age of the old Atari consoles.

@retro_player_22 Not being able to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles on it ruins it for me. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined is the face of the Genesis/MD IMO.