Mega Drive Mini 2

[Razzie.P]

uh oh... shots fired   ?

 

 

I thought the first was pretty awesome, and M2 being involved pretty much guarantees that I'll buy this one.  I'm really interested in seeing how they can load it down with games that help "represent" the console without double dipping from the first one.

[RuySan]

5 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Agree to disagree on that.  Retroarch...shite, it's just emulated piracy not supporting the original game makers which I think at least to some should mean something.  I'd rather have an authentic release that a fat steaming dump of roms that have no value in the slightest.  No value, no cares, no interest, no long term use... slide show gaming with no value until boredom sets in.

These games are more than 30 years old, do you think how many of the team that made them will earn anything? Besides, the 1000s of dollars "value" is about physical releases, not the roms that come inside this emulation box. Which let's face it, it's emulation, and will be worse than on Retroarch most certainly.

 

My dad spent all his life on the high seas as a swordfish fisherman. Quite a dangerous profession, and yet never recalled him claiming extra money for a fish he scored more than 30 years ago. These companies argue against piracy, but always end up using emulators made by the community. I know guys who were part of the team which made the first versions of MAME, and Capcom was one of the developers who were most "protective" of their IP, and yet....these days they release their old catalogue running on Finalburn. If it wasn't for emulators and the community behind them keeping the old classics alive, these companies wouldn't have seen the value in old IPs.

[roots.genoa]

1 hour ago, RuySan said:

and yet never recalled him claiming extra money for a fish he scored more than 30 years ago

Well, maybe because nobody eats 30-year-old fish. People play 30-year-old games though. ?

[Tanooki]

2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Well, maybe because nobody eats 30-year-old fish. People play 30-year-old games though. ?

Exactly, big difference and utterly unrelated.  If someone wants to justify piracy that's fine, but decades old imagined seafood isn't going to win the day.

 

Whether the people still work for whatever company or not isn't relevant, they didn't own their work then either or get kickbacks from it, they were grunts getting a paycheck when it comes down to it.  When I said that I mean Sega and the developer/publisher of said games letting them breathe again once more.  Take for instance that Magical Tarorutokun game, Game Freak made that, you know, the Pokemon people, so they'll get some piddly cut of the profits off this device as well.  In this case though given the main designers then are the heads of the company now I guess they will get their share at least.

 

What I do agree with is the emulator commentary, those who threw it, helped out, the developers who even stepped up as it wouldn't make much of anything here possible largely speaking.  There were cases of re-releases and upgrades pre-emulation like Mario Allstars, but it wasn't normal.  I was part of that community in that 90s, hell of a half decade there from 95-00 when things just exploded.

[Hydro Thunder]

Buying a copy of Panzer Saga for $1k off eBay nets the original team of designers exactly how much again?

 

I actually see the point about the case design, depending on where you place it in your home it could be a real determinant of its value to you.  It’s a reasonable point in theory though - if they’re going to release Minis, those with access to the Roms are still part of their target market.  They need to make them attractive in more ways than simply “now you can play these games, which you surely couldn’t have found a way to do previously!!”.  
 

Also, didn’t the SNES Mini run RetroArch?  I thought I saw some jokes around about the RA devs suing Nintendo over it

 

 

[CapitanClassic]

I wonder if 10,978円  translates to $80 USD (current conversion puts it at $82)?

If so, it makes each of the games $1.60, which is much better than the Sony Playstation Classic $5/game. As long as the remaining game selection is good, I dont see why this wouldn't succeed.

 

[Tanooki]

3 hours ago, Hydro Thunder said:

Also, didn’t the SNES Mini run RetroArch?  I thought I saw some jokes around about the RA devs suing Nintendo over it

 

Not unless you hakchi'd it.  Nintendo's euro office has a division amusingly called NERD  (I think it's Nintendo of Europe Research and Development) who created the emulator for both the NES and SNES mini systems, but also the emulators they've used in various other things going back I know of as far as the original virtual console, perhaps earlier I think the NES mini consoles hiding as software in the Gamecube Animal Crossing.

[NE146]

12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

...but since the piece of plastic (you could hide if it's that big of an issue) isn't cool looking it's a pass?

Well to be honest that to me is a big part of the attraction of these things.. i.e. less to play them and more to have them. e.g. I love the cute little Genesis Mini but admittedly I haven't played it even 5 seconds. ?

 

I won't be able to help getting this one too of course.. there's no way to resist  But with zero shortage of options to play Genesis games anymore, it'll probably be more for collecting/just-to-have.

 

 

[Hydro Thunder]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Not unless you hakchi'd it.  Nintendo's euro office has a division amusingly called NERD  (I think it's Nintendo of Europe Research and Development) who created the emulator for both the NES and SNES mini systems, but also the emulators they've used in various other things going back I know of as far as the original virtual console, perhaps earlier I think the NES mini consoles hiding as software in the Gamecube Animal Crossing.

Oh, you are probably correct.  And yes of course I hakchi'd it!  You think I am going to pass up playing Rock n' Roll Racing?!?! And guilty pleasure Justice League Task Force (early Blizzard stuff, heh).  Oh and MKII.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Nintendo's euro office has a division amusingly called NERD  (I think it's Nintendo of Europe Research and Development)

Indeed, and they're French. ? Before being acquired by Nintendo (and some time after it), they were called Mobiclip and provided video codecs for Nintendo systems; you may remember their logo at the beginning of prerendered videos in 3DS games for instance.

[Tanooki]

11 hours ago, NE146 said:

Well to be honest that to me is a big part of the attraction of these things.. i.e. less to play them and more to have them. e.g. I love the cute little Genesis Mini but admittedly I haven't played it even 5 seconds. ?

 

I won't be able to help getting this one too of course.. there's no way to resist  But with zero shortage of options to play Genesis games anymore, it'll probably be more for collecting/just-to-have.

 

 

Oh I get it, at points over time I've had(have) a Nomad, had a Genesis model 1 and 3(given to me.)  But right now it's just Nomad for lazy moments and the Mega Sg.  I care about the games, and delivery, not the curb appeal.  Yet all that, it can't do CD without a big of a nasty cost I won't deal with, so this Mini2 legal device kicking back some coin to the developers I'm all for if I like the final roster of optical choices.

10 hours ago, Hydro Thunder said:

Oh, you are probably correct.  And yes of course I hakchi'd it!  You think I am going to pass up playing Rock n' Roll Racing?!?! And guilty pleasure Justice League Task Force (early Blizzard stuff, heh).  Oh and MKII.

I have no doubt, I would have too, since I have a spare here (technically) a my kid has one I got her, and I've seen them pop up for $50~ in recent times.  But with a hidef nes kit in a top loader and an everdrive, I just never saw the point or I would have.  I've helped others set them up it's a snap and worthy.  I need to get RnR racing back in time, recently got Blackthorne in a trade.

7 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Indeed, and they're French. ? Before being acquired by Nintendo (and some time after it), they were called Mobiclip and provided video codecs for Nintendo systems; you may remember their logo at the beginning of prerendered videos in 3DS games for instance.

Yes I do, they're great at what they did both as a pack of NERDs but also their visual work in videos on the DS/3DS as mobiclip as they got some really good quality out of limited space.

[+jgkspsx]

I sure hope they bring it west because that stellar lineup ain’t gonna do much good for non-Japanese speakers.

 

(please please please please Snatcher)

[+jgkspsx]

On 6/3/2022 at 1:39 PM, Atariboy said:

M2 is likely again at the helm and is including some newly developed ports (They did the same thing with the TurboGrafx-16 Mini with Fantasy Zone and several others).

Wait. Fantasy Zone came out on the Turbografx in the US. What newly developed game was on the TG/PCE mini?

[Atariboy]

M2 wasn't satisfied with the original port. Fantasy Zone, Gradius, and Salamander all received much more arcade accurate ports by M2 for the Mini as hidden extras. They're accessible by highlighting the back in the day version in the game selection menu and then holding select when booting the game up. 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Atariboy

[+jgkspsx]

1 hour ago, Atariboy said:

M2 wasn't satisfied with the original port. Fantasy Zone, Gradius, and Salamander all received much more arcade accurate ports by M2 for the Mini as hidden extras. They're accessible by highlighting the back in the day version in the game selection menu and then holding select when booting the game up. 

 

 

Whoa! I never tried that.

… not sure I want an arcade accurate port of Salamander, though.

[Steven Pendleton]

Aren't they just ROM hacks with color and sound that are closer to the arcade versions?

[Atariboy]

56 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Aren't they just ROM hacks with color and sound that are closer to the arcade versions?

No, they're not just recoloring hacks with some changed audio. They don't appear to reuse any assets from the original ports. Everything that I can see and hear as well as the gameplay is different across all three.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Atariboy

[RuySan]

We all know that nostalgia is a great way to make money, so I wonder that in a 5 or 10 years or so, we'll be seeing FPGA official recreations of classic machines. It's obviously the next step (as long as the semiconductor crisis gets solved). I would kill (not quite...but you get the idea) for a new proper Amiga 500 (only if the IP's weren't own by vultures). But Sega and Nintendo will be certainly churning out new retro machines every now and then from now on.

[Asaki]

3 hours ago, RuySan said:

I would kill (not quite...but you get the idea) for a new proper Amiga 500 (only if the IP's weren't own by vultures).

I presume you've seen this already and just don't consider it to be "proper"? https://retrogames.biz/products/thea500-mini/

[+jgkspsx]

3 hours ago, Asaki said:

I presume you've seen this already and just don't consider it to be "proper"? https://retrogames.biz/products/thea500-mini/

Those are the vultures he was referring to.

[RuySan]

Those are the vultures he was referring to.

Not quite. The vultures are Cloanto (who owns the kickstarts) and whoever owns the Commodore and Amiga brands these days.

This A500 looks nice, but lacks any official branding, has a controller instead of a joystick and the games lineup is terrible. And the emulation is only good enough for the included games. Anything added to the machine is hit and miss.

It's cool that brought some discussion back of the original machine (specially among Americans), but it's not what I really wished for.

[+save2600]

6 hours ago, RuySan said:

This A500 looks nice, but lacks any official branding, has a controller instead of a joystick and the games lineup is terrible. And the emulation is only good enough for the included games. Anything added to the machine is hit and miss.

Disagree about the emulation... do you actually own one of these? It's great, plenty of power under the hood and believe it has run most everything I've thrown at it with nary a hitch - usually remedied by configuring the input ports. Speaking of which, the mouse and controller are excellent too, and let's face it... many/most of us are used to gaming on a Genesis pad for its two button play all these years. For me, the CD32-like gamepad is a much more welcome addition than a cheap feeling, easily broken (looking at you C64 Mini) or obnoxiously loud clicky joystick. ?
 

As someone that's not normally into emulation and gaming on LCD screens, I'm really impressed (input lag is super low here too, which means the pinball games are playable for a change) with the overall quality and experience of this little machine. 
 

 

...nice review if interested:

 

[RuySan]

7 hours ago, save2600 said:

Disagree about the emulation... do you actually own one of these? It's great, plenty of power under the hood and believe it has run most everything I've thrown at it with nary a hitch - usually remedied by configuring the input ports. Speaking of which, the mouse and controller are excellent too, and let's face it... many/most of us are used to gaming on a Genesis pad for its two button play all these years. For me, the CD32-like gamepad is a much more welcome addition than a cheap feeling, easily broken (looking at you C64 Mini) or obnoxiously loud clicky joystick. ?
 

As someone that's not normally into emulation and gaming on LCD screens, I'm really impressed (input lag is super low here too, which means the pinball games are playable for a change) with the overall quality and experience of this little machine. 
 

  Hide contents

...nice review if interested:

 

Sorry for derailing the conversation:)

 

I do not own one A500, but since it's not everyday that a new "amiga" gets released, i did my due diligence. Most reviews are positive, at least the earlier ones, but opinions on the forums (such as in the EAB and Lemon Amiga forums) are quite mixed, and plenty of people complain about input lag.

 

Still, It's cool that it got released and I get the choices that were made. Having a good joystick would make it much more expensive, as it would having access to the most iconic Amiga games. Top Amiga publishers are probably expensive to licence from. Psygnosis belongs to Sony, Core Design belongs to Square-Enix, Factor 5 just released their Turrican compilations on the switch. But they had a chance to include some of those top later day Amiga exclusives that went under the radar for most people, such as Shadow Fighter, Ruff n'Tumble, Fighting Spirit and Lionheart.

 

In the end it kind of bothers me the lack of consistency. It's called A500 mini, and yet, it has AGA games, and has a gamepad that looks like the CD32. The lack of official branding kills it a little. Imagine if the Megadrive Mini was called MDmini, or something.

 

As for using Megadrive pads on the Amiga, "up to jump" on a controller is a crime against humanity :). I did use a Master System pad (the cool Commander one) for the ocasional game that supported it, such as BC Kid. I never met anyone else who did it, and have been in some Sensible Soccer tournaments back in the day, with loads of people and their joysticks. Now I'm feeling nostalgic...I miss those days.

Edited June 10, 2022 by RuySan

[roots.genoa]

40 minutes ago, RuySan said:

plenty of people complain about input lag

People are always complaining about input lag... But most of the time they don't know how to set their TVs. ?

I'm not a fan of the Amiga but I think you're also a little harsh about the "terrible lineup". To be honest I was really wondering how they would come up with a decent lineup since there are no "first party" games on the Amiga, so you have to rely strictly on licenses, which can cost a lot. And considering the difficulties, it doesn't seem that bad, with a lot of variety. Just my 2 cents, though.

[Asaki]

16 hours ago, RuySan said:

This A500 looks nice, but lacks any official branding, has a controller instead of a joystick and the games lineup is terrible.

They sell a joystick, too.