Plug N Play

[saverofgames]

I just noticed there is an plethora of plug n play systems out there. I want to know if they are worth it, and how well do they emulate games? Does anyone in the community here own one or several? Which are ones to get/avoid?

[yarjr]

The flashbacks are nice, particularly the flashback 2 that you can mod to play real carts, but as for plug n plays the only one that interests me is the Commodore 64 plug n play because its very easy to mod into a full C64 system!

[Greg2600]

Most of them were made by Jakks Pacific, and are not worth more than 10-15 dollars each. The various NAMCO sticks featuring Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, etc. are nice. The Jakks licensed ones are usually original games. I have the Star Wars, Scooby Doo ones, a few more I think. The games aren't that good though, but they look cute.

 

The Atari Flashback 2 and up are very nice. The first 1 was crud. Most of the Genesis ones are crud.

[saverofgames]

Most of them were made by Jakks Pacific, and are not worth more than 10-15 dollars each. The various NAMCO sticks featuring Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, etc. are nice. The Jakks licensed ones are usually original games. I have the Star Wars, Scooby Doo ones, a few more I think. The games aren't that good though, but they look cute.

 

The Atari Flashback 2 and up are very nice. The first 1 was crud. Most of the Genesis ones are crud.

I love my flashback 2, Hoping to get the flashback 4

[Algus]

I have a very old Pac-Man arcade stick that I won from the lottery about ten years ago. It is pretty decent. It's still the main way I play Bosconian. I also have an AT Games Arcade Ultimate Portable which isn't a true plug-n-play (though it can be connected to an external display). The emulation is off and it doesn't support save games despite taking an SD card (exclusively for playing ROMs you put on the card yourself) but it plays Genesis games and there are plenty of fun Genesis games that make for a decent portable experience as well.

 

I believe AT Games is the main source of the Genesis plug-n-plays (they have a consolized one too they are selling right now) and they've also done the Flashback 4. More info/reviews:

 

Atari Flashback 4 Review

Atari Flashback 4 Deluxe Review

Sega Genesis Classic Console Review

Sega Genesis Ultimate Game Player Portable Review

[gamecat80]

I've had my AtGames SMS/GG POGA plug-n-play w/30 games for almost 2 weeks now. It is excellent for the money I find myself playing Quartet, Columns, Penguin Land and the Alex Kidd games the most. The Sonic games are fun too and look great. I've probably put over 30 hrs on it so far and it's still on it's first set of batteries, so it's very good on battery life. Picture and sound are crystal clear.

I highly recommend it as a good, accurate sampling of SMS & GG games.

 

I also recently bought one of those C64 plug-n-plays. I've read good things about it. Will see how it is once it arrives.

 

My best friend has several of those Jakks Pacific plug-n-plays; he seems to like them. I've played them once or twice while over there. One of them has Ms Pac-Man, Galaga, Mappy, etc. I understand that one to be arcade-perfect.

 

So the above are some good ones to look for. The Radica Genesis models seem to look good graphically but have thin/distorted sound. From the linked reviews in Algus' post, the newer AtGames Genesis models seem to be better than the Radica Genesis models.

The DreamGear plug-n-play stuff has a lot of simple public domain/generic games, and a lot of repeated racing & flying-shooter games with slightly different colors/sprites. Some games are OK; some are meh.

 

The good thing about most/all plug-n-plays is that they tend to have better, clearer picture quality than the original hardware

[jhd]

As noted above, the licensed Namco sticks are generally very good.

 

The Activision 10-in-1, in contrast, has a rather odd selection of games (such as Boxing, Tennis, and Freeway). I do not much care for it.

 

There are many, many licensed titles for everything from Barbie to Star Wars; I have not played any of those models so I cannot offer an opinion on those.

 

You mght also consider a Famiclone. The Power Joy III is quite common (if of questionable legality) and there are some decent games included.

[onmode-ky]

I've noted this before in another topic, but if you're specifically interested in plug-n-play systems which contain retro games, I do keep a page at my website which lists which games are reproduced on which systems. It could be helpful if you're trying to determine whether a specific game has had a plug-n-play release. I don't have complete AtGames coverage, though; over the years, they put out so many SMS and Genesis/MD releases, with such poor differentiation and documentation, that I didn't try to sort it all out. Also, I don't cover any unlicensed releases.

 

onmode-ky

[gamecat80]

^

Thanks for the link to your page. Looks like the C64 plug-n-play I got was the first version, judging by your list. It arrived the other day. Great system The only "quibble" I have with it is that a couple games (Jumpman Jr. and Impossible Mission 2) are not always responsive with the joystick movements. Otherwise, it's impressive and "feels" better-made than the AtGames POGA.

 

Btw, I can help with the AtGames POGA 30 games list if ya want......or you can just buy one

Edited September 21, 2013 by gamecat80

[AtariLeaf]

I've had a few of these pnp's over the years but only currently have three - Namco wireless with 7 games, the C64 unit which apparently can be expanded to a full c64, and the radica space invaders which has some great ports of qix, phoenix, and colony 7. All 3 I consider to be standouts in the crowded pnp field. I would also add the Atari paddle controller, which I used to have and would like again.

[onmode-ky]

Btw, I can help with the AtGames POGA 30 games list if ya want.

I'll take you up on that offer. In fact, the POGA model illustrates the problems I have with tracking AtGames. I don't even have it in the plug-n-play lists that I keep both at my website and in the Comprehensive Listing topic here in the Dedicated Systems subforum. That's probably either because I thought it was just a renaming of a previous release (though I see now that this one has 30 games, not 20 like the first SMS/GG releases) or because I couldn't tell at the time if this was actually released (there are some things listed at AtGames' site that don't seem to have made it out to consumers). The POGA's listing at their website doesn't even use the name "POGA," despite their picture of the packaging clearly having that name on it. On top of that, if you search "sega poga" on YouTube, there are no results for this product, and what you get instead is a different product with that name, a handheld system that takes Genesis cartridges. So, is there more than one POGA? Is it a product line, not a single product? Or is it just a poorly thought out reuse of a name?

 

Anyway, is there a date anywhere on your POGA or its packaging? I'd like to know at least the year of release, so I know where to stick it (my lists are chronologically ordered). If I were to guess, I'd say 2010, but that's just conjecture. If you're comfortable opening up the unit, there's probably also a date printed on the PCB.

 

onmode-ky

[gamecat80]

I checked and there is no date to be found on the packaging or console itself. However, I bought it new off ebay and there are several dealers on there selling them new. It is usually listed as AtGames SMS/GG POGA plug-n-play w/30 games....or something to that effect. It is a yellow plug-n-play "console" controller with 'AtGames' clearly printed on the front. I also opened it up today and saw the date in the upper left corner on the PCB: 2009-06-26.

Seems to me that it's like the Sega FunPlay 20-in-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdiF9ZAPr54 .......but with 30 games instead.

 

 

Here is the list of the 30 games on the AtGames POGA.

 

1 - Alex Kidd High Tech World

2 - Alex Kidd in Miracle World

3 - Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

4 - Assault City

5 - Astro Warrior

6 - Aztec Adventure

7 - Baku Baku Animal

8 - Bomber Raid

9 - Columns

10 - Dragon Crystal

11 - Fantasy Zone

12 - Fantasy Zone Maze

13 - Gain Ground

14 - Global Defense

15 - Kung Fu Kid

16 - Mean Bean Machine

17 - Opa Opa

18 - Penguin Land

19 - Putt And Putter

20 - Quartet

21 - Ristar

22 - Snail Maze

23 - Sonic Chaos

24 - Sonic Drift 2

25 - Sonic Blast

26 - Sonic Spinball

27 - Sonic Triple Trouble

28 - Super Columns

29 - Tails Adventures

30 - The Ninja

 

 

There are about 50 game level selections on the menu, with at least 20 of them being for the Sonic and Baku Baku Animal games.

[onmode-ky]

Thanks for your help! Is that how the games are listed in the system menu (I kind of expected them to put the Sonic games at the front, as they've done on some other units)? I notice that some of the titles have been shortened, which I'm guessing is to make them fit on the menu screen. I'm confused about Opa-Opa, though; this was the Japanese title of Fantasy Zone: The Maze, but that title already appears earlier in the list. What's the title of the actual games that load when you pick these two selections from the menu? Are they really the same game, with regionally different title screens? Or is maybe one of them Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa?

 

Seems to me that it's like the Sega FunPlay 20-in-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdiF9ZAPr54 .......but with 30 games instead.

FunPlay, eh? Yet another brand under which the SMS/GG 20-in-1 appeared (though you never knew if the game selection got changed each time). These first appeared in late 2006, the very first one to attract attention being the Coleco-branded model (noteworthy because they were being sold in Target stores). Another brand at around that same time was PlayPal. All of these are by AtGames, just licensed out.

 

onmode-ky

[gamecat80]

^ Yeah, they are listed like that alphabetically in the menu. Some of the titles are actually shorter on the menu.........ex: "Alex Kidd High Tec" or "Alex Kidd Miracle", etc.

 

There are actually about 50 or so "titles" you can click on in the menu, so it looks like a lot more than 30 games.....but there are just 30 actual games. You can select different levels (titles) in the Sonic games and Baku Baku Animal games. There are 7 pages in the menu.

Kinda misleading and confusing at first.......they advertise the 50+ game level selection more than the 30 actual games...

 

The Opa-Opa game is indeed Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa. So there are actually 3 Fantasy Zone games on the POGA: Fantasy Zone, Fantasy Zone II (Opa-Opa) and Fantasy Zone Maze.

 

Yep.....at the bottom of my package and on the manual, it says "Distributed by AtGames under license from SEGA corporation".