New Genesis Flashback

[Atariboy]

I can't speak for this latest release, but in other AtGames products that I have, I leave the screw out after putting batteries in.

 

If these are designed where the battery door still snaps shut, just don't replace the screw when you're done.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Atariboy

[Krathoon]

I ran into a problem when playing a Castlevania: Bloodlines cart on this console. At the start of the Greece level, the player and enemies will not reflect in the water.

 

Aside from that, it seems like the built in games work really well. There does seem to be some popping on The Ooze intro music, but it is very minor.

 

A couple other carts, Toe Jam and Earl and Rocket Knight Adventures, also run great on it. I am wondering if the reflections will also fail on Rocket Knight though.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Krathoon

[molul]

If anyone wants to compile a list of concise "demands" and/or features that they think are not addressed by the current Genesis Flashback, I will be happy to pass those on. This will help inform some of the other changes we have planned for the 2018 model (keep in mind that an SD card slot is already being considered). Same thing for the Atari side (keeping in mind that cartridge and SD card slots are already being considered).

EMULATION: Get a perfect emulator like Genesis Plus GX already. I would buy this only if emulation is perfect for any game. Framerate issues in Sonic games are not acceptable

 

POWER SUPPLY: Micro usb data+power port. I read they're considering miniusb due to technical reasons. I think they could just add a micro to mini usb connector to fix that, couldn't they?

 

GAMES: Remove shovelware urgently lol.

 

GAMES: Don't mind abot built-in games line up if there's a way, like an SD card or USB port, to permanently add or import my games with covers easily. 40 Genesis games would already be a lot more than SNES Mini. Better few great games than just lots of games.

 

CONTROLLERS: Region-themed controllers. The genesis flashback 2017 has japanese controllers (a bit smaller than USA and Europe 6 button controllers). Europe controllers had a nice red Start button and grey d-pad and xyz buttons, which would be cool to keep

 

CONTROLLERS: Dpad and buttons are too high in the Genesis flashback wireless controllers.

 

CONTROLLERS: Bluetooth controllers.

 

CONTROLLERS: USB rechargeable battery in the controllers. No screws at least.

 

MENU: Standard menu navigation. B and C to move on the left menu is illogical. This can be easily well done. Start in left menu, move up and down on d-pad to scroll through options (by options I mean whatever the games are organized like: Sega, Mortal Kombat, etc), press A to select an option and move focus to that option's games, and now d-pad navigates through games. Press B to go back to left menu or A to start currently highlighted game.

 

MENU: games sorting: Mega Drive games, Game Gear games and Master System games. But I wouldn't add Master System or Game Gear games, honestly. If there's a way to add games (SD card), people can add GG and MS games.

 

MENU: Genesis games songs on the main menu. Or at least a song that resembles the Genesis sound.

 

LOOK: Put the atgames logo in the back. Sorry but it would objectively look better. I understand Atgames but a logo other than Sega's in the front makes the device look like another cheap clone. They can keep the logo in the box's front.

 

NAME: could call it Mega Drive Forever, like the Sega Forever mobile service.

 

This system could sell much much more than this year's. Many people want to buy this but the quality difference compared to Nintendo Classic Mini devices are stopping most of them. Current buyers are mostly people that don't actually love the Mega Drive.

[molul]

This is what I meant with the usb connector:

 

https://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/UUSBMUSBMF.B.jpg

Edited November 26, 2017 by molul

[Bill Loguidice]

This is what I meant with the usb connector:

 

https://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/UUSBMUSBMF.B.jpg

 

I believe we're switching to microUSB anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[Flojomojo]

"USB connectors make the man" -- said no one, ever ... but the choice of connector places a gadget in a certain time and price range.

 

USB B connector: printers and bulky stuff

Proprietary connector: Sony handhelds, some Nintendo. Ecch.

Mini USB: Blackberry phones, AtGames handhelds from the 2000's (and the time of the 30-pin iPod connector). Gets loose pretty quickly, but at least it's easy to tell which side is up. Feels old to me.

Micro USB: Android phones from the 2010s. Ubiquitous, a little annoying because it's hard to tell how to insert it.

USB C: Nintendo Switch, new Android phones, MacBook. Backwards compatible dongles everywhere. Sigh.

 

USB C connectors are nice because they are reversible. In a year or two, everything else is going to feel old fashioned, like floppy drives in the early 2000s. I guess MicroUSB is better than Mini, though.

[molul]

USB C would definitely be the best, but at least a micro usb over mini would be "mandatory".

[molul]

Btw, I would actually offer Sega some deal so next year's console is officially published by Sega, but manufactured by AtGames. This would make the device look a lot more attractive (if everything is done well, especially emulation), and would make more sense to call it Mega Drive Forever to engage with the retro gaming initiative for mobile. That, and the fact next year marks Mega Drive's 30th anniversary, is a gift for any marketing department ^_^

[Atariboy]

Why would it make it look more attractive? The box already says Sega Genesis in big letters, with Sonic also prominently displayed.

 

Other than say someone at AtariAge and the like, it's already going to be viewed as an official product by the casual buyers that surely represent the vast majority of the sales that AtGames makes. In fact judging by the box art at Best Buy, it doesn't even have AtGames displayed anywhere on the front of the box.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Atariboy

[molul]

Well, I know many people, both personally and in retro forums, who dismiss this product for being delivered by AtGames. If it was officially made by Sega, to many people it would read "much better quality, as it's official". Not many people take "licensed" as positively as "official".

 

Not trying to state it as universal truth, but it's what I've seen.

 

AtGames' biggest problem, in my opinion, is that SNES Mini exists and it has set a high quality standard.

Edited November 26, 2017 by molul

[Atariboy]

I don't disagree, but like I said in my post, people that hang out at classic gaming forums aren't the type of customer that AtGames is trying to woo.

 

The average person that sees an AtGames plug and play on a store shelf as they're Christmas shopping has never heard of AtGames. I bet there's even repeat customers that have never really looked the box over for any of their devices and discovered that what they bought wasn't actually produced by Sega or Atari. They also don't view these issues in the same light as those of us that regularly play with original hardware to this day do, or necessarily even pick up on something like the frame skip in Sonic 1 on the Flashback HD.

 

And with the people that you're talking about, the AtGames prejudice would continue for many anyways. They've decided, perhaps without ever even touching one, that it's trash and as long as AtGames is involved, it's going to be trash. Just go to NintendoLife and other outlets for instance and read the comments when something like a gameplay video is posted in an article about this product, and see how they go on and on about how awful the audio is and how it's pitiful how they never make any improvements.

 

Yet it's likely so close in the audio department this year that most of these Genesis/Megadrive experts would fail the Pepsi Challenge were they tasked with identifying original Genesis audio from Genesis Flashback HD audio.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Atariboy

[molul]

I think these 30 games would be very acceptable for a 30th anniversary Mega Drive (it's been really tough to narrow it down to 30, but if it was easy to add more roms, then the missing games wouldn't be that missed):

 

Altered Beast

Castlevania: Bloodlines

Columns

Comix Zone

Dynamite Headdy

Ecco The Dolphin

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Ghouls 'N' Ghosts

Golden Axe

Gunstar Heroes

Kid Chameleon

Phantasy Star 4

Revenge Of Shinobi

Ristar

Rocketknight Adventures

Shining Force 2

Soleil

Sonic 1

Sonic 2

Sonic 3

Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic Spinball

Streets Of Rage

Streets Of Rage 2

Super Street Fighter 2

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Vectorman

Virtua Racing

 

 

Tried to cover the best, the most emblematic, the most genres possible, and some hidden gems I'm sure many will disagree, of course.

[Krathoon]

You might as well get the Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection. It was well polished.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic%27s_Ultimate_Genesis_Collection

[molul]

I don't disagree, but like I said in my post, people that hang out at classic gaming forums aren't the type of customer that AtGames is trying to woo.

 

The average person that sees an AtGames plug and play on a store shelf as they're Christmas shopping has never heard of AtGames. I bet there's even repeat customers that have never really looked the box over for any of their devices and discovered that what they bought wasn't actually produced by Sega or Atari. They also don't view these issues in the same light as those of us that regularly play with original hardware to this day do, or necessarily even pick up on something like the frame skip in Sonic 1 on the Flashback HD.

 

And with the people that you're talking about, the AtGames prejudice would continue for many anyways. They've decided, perhaps without ever even touching one, that it's trash and as long as AtGames is involved, it's going to be trash. Just go to NintendoLife and other outlets for instance and read the comments when something like a gameplay video is posted in an article about this product, and see how they go on and on about how awful the audio is and how it's pitiful how they never make any improvements.

 

Yet it's likely so close in the audio department this year that most of these Genesis/Megadrive experts would fail the Pepsi Challenge were they tasked with identifying original Genesis audio from Genesis Flashback HD audio.

I totally get you, but imho, that casual audience is already conquered. The not so casual audience could buy this with the appropriate effort from AtGames. And casual buyers that already have an AtGames Mega drive, could buy another one if it was really better.

 

I mean, this device could be perfect. This is always more money. Mega drive's 30th anniversary could be the year that AtGames gets it's image restored.

 

This is not very polite, but if they allowed a way to easily install Retroarch's Genesis Plus GX, they could repeat this year's emulator and invest in other areas like materials, controllers, UI...

Edited November 26, 2017 by molul

[molul]

You might as well get the Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection. It was well polished.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic's_Ultimate_Genesis_Collection

That's quite good I have the PC collection, which I think is the same.

 

For the sake of marketing, I'd narrow it down to 30 titles (for the 30th anniversary), if there was an SD card slot or easy hack to add games through USB. If not, I could think of 70 great titles that deserve being in the system.

[Flojomojo]

Why only 30? Are you Nintendo or something?

[molul]

Why only 30? Are you Nintendo or something?

Hahaha. Nono, like I said it was just to match the "30" as of "30th anniversary". It's not actually important, and if buyers could easily add roms, I wouldn't really mind the line-up. That is, as long as there's no shovelware

Edited November 26, 2017 by molul

[molul]

To be fair, there are a few things AtGames has done right this year:

 

-HDMI.

 

-Better emulation (though still not perfect).

 

-The console case is beautiful. Not sure how the materials feel, but I wouldn't change a thing. I really hope they don't change this next year.

 

-Better menu (with its issues, but better than previous models).

 

-Controllers connectivity. Although they kept the Mega Drive Model 3 design, while I personally think the most emblematic was this one:

 

 

 

 

I was a bit disappointed by this year's model flaws, but I'm confident about next year. Many changes are easy to implement: removing shovelware is easy, microUSB data+power port seems already in place, menu is easy to fix... I'm only actually "worried" about emulation (hope they can arrange something fair with Genesis Plus GX's author) and SDCard port (I'd discard it due to manufacturing costs if adding games from PC through USB was easy). My requests regarding controllers wouldn't be very important as I have wired Genesis controllers.

 

I'd suggest getting some inspiration on the original console boxes for next model's box and UI, especially the grid. Go "full nostalgia" mode:

 

 

 

[Hydro Thunder]

Just to be completely explicit about this ...

 

Sofa, you don't have this one, do you? That's the one that uses infrared (line-of-sight) controllers. This has been around for many years and people hate it because the sound sucks.

 

sega-genesis1.jpg

 

This is the Flashback, with radio frequency controllers.

 

sega_mega_drive_flashback_hd_classic_console_5_.jpg

 

Sega/AtGames could do a better job of differentiating their products. The SD one shouldn't even be on the market anymore. I guess it sells because it's cheap?

 

No, I don't have the old one, I have the HDMI blue one with the lovely blue box. I have a feeling the earlier post addressed it re: stuff in the way, but I really didn't feel like the range was very good. I will give it some more time (but have in the meantime switched to an extension cord / original six-button, which is just such a joy... ). And indeed, the one controller being completely unable to connect with the system is a definite defect and I am considering taking it back to Best Buy for replacement...but OTOH I am lazy, don't ever play multiplayer, and may end up only using one of the two wireless controllers sparingly anyway. So I'll see about that.

 

Good news for people who have similar gaming tastes to mine: Had no problems at all so far with 15-minute plays of the cartridges for Streets of Rage 2 and 3, and Adventures of Batman & Robin. Quite glad, these are some of my all time favorites.

[molul]

I wonder why did they leave Streets of rage 1, 2 and 3 out of the built-in games list. I thought it was due to emulation being very bad, but the cartridges seems to work fine.

[Jess Ragan]

What this needs is the ability to rewrite the interface as well as add ROMs. I've heard the GUI in this thing is pretty terrible... very counter-intuitive.

[molul]

It's something you have to get used to, which is always a really wrong approach. It might make navigating faster but it's not intuitive.

[Bill Loguidice]

I wonder why did they leave Streets of rage 1, 2 and 3 out of the built-in games list. I thought it was due to emulation being very bad, but the cartridges seems to work fine.

 

It hasn't been available to license for a few years. We're trying again for next year.

[Bill Loguidice]

What this needs is the ability to rewrite the interface as well as add ROMs. I've heard the GUI in this thing is pretty terrible... very counter-intuitive.

 

It's not immediately intuitive for one part of the main menu, but it is arguably a better way of doing it considering the number of categories available. There's no perfect interface. Regardless, I'm sure it's going to revisited for 2018 like everything else.

 

Anyway, in terms of this year's interface, the only non-intuitive part is navigating up and down between the categories (using B and C buttons, which are indicated by the guide in the lower left corner of the screen). Every other movement/action is as normal as you could ever expect, with just the d-pad and A button for primary movement/accept. And even though I'm more or less indifferent to how the interface was designed (I was also OK with the original version of the interface before this change), I still challenge anyone to legitimately say it's any type of deal-breaker or genuine nuisance.

[molul]

 

It's not immediately intuitive for one part of the main menu, but it is arguably a better way of doing it considering the number of categories available. There's no perfect interface. Regardless, I'm sure it's going to revisited for 2018 like everything else.

 

Anyway, in terms of this year's interface, the only non-intuitive part is navigating up and down between the categories (using B and C buttons, which are indicated by the guide in the lower left corner of the screen). Every other movement/action is as normal as you could ever expect, with just the d-pad and A button for primary movement/accept. And even though I'm more or less indifferent to how the interface was designed (I was also OK with the original version of the interface before this change), I still challenge anyone to legitimately say it's any type of deal-breaker or genuine nuisance.

Hehe, I agree it's not a deal breaker Although honestly it feels weird. B and C buttons are on the left side of the controller and you use them to control the left menu, while Dpad is on the left side of the controller and you use it for navigating through the games, which are on the right side of screen.

 

With little effort, they could change it to a more natural and standard flow: start on the category menu (at the left) using d-pad for going up and down on the categories, press A to enter a category, and then d-pad would be used to navigate through games, A to show a game's options, and B to go back to the categories menu. While this might be slower than current UI navigation, it would feel more natural.

 

Regarding categories, maybe an alphabetical range order would be nicer than current organization, so categories would be, for instance:

 

-Cartridge

-Favourite

-Recent

-A-H

-I-P

-Q-Z

 

"Bonus games" category is expected not to be there next year, and "Sega Games/Sonic Games/Mortal Kombat" looks weird as categories. Genres would likely be the right approach, but sometimes genres are not totally clear and it's easy to mark many games as just "adventure" or "action". Alphabetical ranges sorting seems more neutral, and at the same time it lets you quickly browse through games.

 

I'd also suggest some "2 player" filter for all games. Or at least an icon to easily distinguish them.

 

 

 

It hasn't been available to license for a few years. We're trying again for next year.

Oh, I didn't know Sega games licenses could be a problem. Thanks for the info