Mega Drive Mini 2

[RuySan]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:42 AM, Asaki said:

They sell a joystick, too.

Sure, but I was just discussing what would be more enticing of having in the box. Nostalgia is a big factor driving impulse buys, and the joystick plays heavily into it. Obviously, I have no idea about the economical side of it.

[Steven Pendleton]

Speaking of joysticks, there is one for the MD Mini 2

 

https://www.micomsoft.co.jp/xe1aj-usb.html

 

Insta-preordered because hell yes.

[Zoyous]

12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Speaking of joysticks, there is one for the MD Mini 2

 

https://www.micomsoft.co.jp/xe1aj-usb.html

 

Insta-preordered because hell yes.

I know that will work with After Burner II, but what other MD games support analog controls?

[Steven Pendleton]

1 minute ago, Zoyous said:

I know that will work with After Burner II, but what other MD games support analog controls?

Musha Aleste, Super Monaco GP II, and if you count Super 32X, After Burner Complete and Space Harrier. There are a few more, but those are the only ones I remember.

[Zoyous]

3 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Musha Aleste, Super Monaco GP II, and if you count Super 32X, After Burner Complete and Space Harrier. There are a few more, but those are the only ones I remember.

Wow, Musha Aleste supports analog controls? I never knew that! Still, quite a pricy controller for just a handful of titles... I wonder what its compatibility will be beyond the Mini 2. The first Mini's arcade stick works well with Windows at least, hopefully this will too.

[Atariboy]

I'm pretty sure Galaxy Force II is on the compatibility list and likely is a sure bet for making the cut. 

 

G-LOC for the Genesis and After Burner III for the Sega CD seem like likely candidates for supporting the original controller, but I'm less certain that I've seen those on the compatibility list. 

 

I suspect we'll get several more of these compatible games in order to justify the existence of the accessory. Luckily I have a soft spot for several of these stripped down Super Scaler ports like the Galaxy Force II conversion, so I won't mind seeing them pop up if this makes a western appearance eventually (I'm thinking 2023 if it happens, given that we're approaching a month since the Japanese announcement with no word yet of a western release).

 

Edit: Looking over the last round of announced games. I bet Night Striker and Star Blade also have analog support, which likely was a factor behind their inclusion here. 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Atariboy

[Steven Pendleton]

Since I have an analog controller and a ROM cart, I can go check everything...

 

if I wasn't so damn lazy, so forget about it lol.

 

Anyway, international version got announced. Yay, Sonic 3D Blast! I recently learned that there are weird crazy people who hate this game. How the hell can someone hate Sonic 3D Blast? That game is awesome. Looks like they fortunately fixed the US After Burner II box art, as well. That's been bothering me for almost 30 years, so I'm glad they finally fixed it after all this time! Sega's like "Kept you waiting, huh?" or something.

[Razzie.P]

It's on Amazon for pre-order now, but seems a bit more expensive (104 bucks) than I thought it was gonna be.

[Steven Pendleton]

29 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

It's on Amazon for pre-order now, but seems a bit more expensive (104 bucks) than I thought it was gonna be.

Compared to the cheaper original MD/Genesis Mini, I know it needs extra Blast Processing^TM to run the CD games, but it's weird that it's more expensive than the Mega Drive Mini 2 is, which is 10,978 yen. Even assuming 1 yen = 1 cent (which it isn't), the MD Mini 2 is cheaper. The yen hit its 24 year low against the USD about a month or so ago, so depending on what it is when it ships, it might actually be cheaper to buy the Japanese one unless Amazon decides to give you terrible international shipping rates.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[+jgkspsx]

6 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

it might actually be cheaper to buy the Japanese one unless Amazon decides to give you terrible international shipping rates.

Except (unless they allow you to select region like the TG Mini did) half the games will be unplayable for non-Japanese speakers.

 

Also it ships from Japan and costs $20 to do so. ?

[+jgkspsx]

On 6/25/2022 at 10:42 AM, Zoyous said:

I know that will work with After Burner II, but what other MD games support analog controls?

Mega Drive:

After Burner II

Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II

Fastest 1

Galaxy Force II

Musha Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Ellinor

 

Mega-CD:

After Burner III (JP only)

Night Striker

Star Blade

 

32X:

After Burner Complete

Space Harrier

[Atariboy]

Would be cool to see M2 patch G-LOC from their Sega Ages line on the Switch to support this analog flight stick/throttle combo.

[Steven Pendleton]

54 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Except (unless they allow you to select region like the TG Mini did) half the games will be unplayable for non-Japanese speakers.

If it's like the previous one, they'll have all 3 regions' ROMs on there. Maybe not for the CD games since those are huge, but there you go.

 

54 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Also it ships from Japan and costs $20 to do so. ?

Okay. 10978 yen as of right now = $79.24 USD + $20 shipping = less than the cost of the US version before shipping, so yeah, it's cheaper to buy the Japanese one, shipping included, than it is to buy the US one without shipping.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Not sure why a more powerful mini is needed for the CD games? I have my original Genesis mini soft modded with Project Lunar on it I believe and by using a small low profile flashdrive in port 2 on the console, I'm able to play all of the SegaCD games I wanted by having it use a different emulator for those games.

 

So the actual hardware they used for the first Genesis Mini was able to handle the Sega CD games just fine. It is just that the initial emulator they developed for it wasn't able to but again, the actual FPGA being used was able to handle it just fine.

 

For me I'm very much on the fence on this one. Again I soft modded my original Genesis mini and it has all of the games I would likely want to play on the go if I took it with me anywhere already with a nicer and customizable UI in place etc. If they were to include the US release of Snatcher on this new model, then that would make it worth the pickup.

[Hydro Thunder]

Well since it seems highly unlikely that they would release Virtua Racing Deluxe alongside the Genesis VR (a shame and poor choice IMO)... I'm REALLY, really hoping for Shadow Squadron.  Past that, IDK, what are others hoping for from the 32X?

 

Buying it immediately in any case for Shining Force CD, so the rest is gravy, just saying there's at least what, 27 more games to be announced?    

 

Oh, and pretty pretty please, Snatcher and Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Darkside for CD.  And also Lords of Thunder, Dungeon Explorer, Road Rash, Vay, and Final Fight CD. 

[Austin]

43 minutes ago, Hydro Thunder said:

Past that, IDK, what are others hoping for from the 32X?

None? There has been no hint given that anything 32X will be on this.

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Not sure why a more powerful mini is needed for the CD games

More powerful, not necessarily, but it requires a lot more storage.

[Atariboy]

4 hours ago, Austin said:

None? There has been no hint given that anything 32X will be on this.

I believe that not only have there been no hints of any 32X inclusions, but that they've even outright stated that there will be no 32X games due to hardware limitations. While I'm not entirely sure that I buy that this can't emulate the 32X reasonably well to M2's satisfaction, it was tossed into a statement that included Saturn and Dreamcast games where it's tough to cast doubt on their statement.

 

Their old 3DS Sega 3D Classics interviews constantly talked about the miracles they initially dismissed as possible with that hardware like 60 fps in Galaxy Force II, that they ultimately pulled off successfully. With so many impossible games having been made possible by them through the years, my money would be on M2 succeeding if they had made the decision to pursue 32X emulation on the Mini II's hardware, even if they initially had dismissed it due to technical limitations.

 

I imagine the biggest roadblock to the 32X isn't so much the hardware guts needed to emulate it at an appropriate price point, but that it's a lot of extra work, the pool of likely game candidates if they make the investment to emulate it is small, it's a bit more western-centric than M2's typical Japanese focus, and most of all it's simply not needed. Sega CD support is their big selling point here and it seems to be accomplishing the job of getting people noticing this.

 

Maybe the 3rd time around if this sells well (Although I doubt it will be styled to look like Majesco's Sega Genesis 3, lol). 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Atariboy

[Greg2600]

In terms of the CD library, wasn't the first Genesis mini hackable immediately for usb stick storage?

[Zoyous]

5 hours ago, Atariboy said:

I believe that not only have there been no hints of any 32X inclusions, but that they've even outright stated that there will be no 32X games due to hardware limitations. While I'm not entirely sure that I buy that this can't emulate the 32X reasonably well to M2's satisfaction, it was tossed into a statement that included Saturn and Dreamcast games where it's tough to cast doubt on their statement.

Yes, essentially Yousuke Okinari said that thee will be no 32x games on this; Sega CD is the main additional focus. He explained that due to the dual processor setup of the 32x, it was enough of a challenge that, if they did make the necessary investment in hardware/software resources, they would simply opt to skip the 32x and proceed to the Saturn - also a dual-processor console, but one which is much more popular.

 

He also made a few other statements I found interesting. The original MD Mini and the Game Gear Micros have been huge successes. A possible second wave of GG Micros was canceled due to the chip shortage - they would have been 1.5x as expensive. The MD Mini 2 was not originally planned/expected to be possible. Due to the chip shortage, it has to be a smaller production run than the first MD Mini, so the game selection is tailored a bit more to hardcore fans (he also advised interested persons to pre-order due to the smaller numbers being manufactured). The focus is on the Japanese market, although he acknowledged that the first MD Mini sold better in the US and Europe, they wanted to do something special for their domestic market. You will be able to toggle between MD and MD2 sound emulation. Lastly, he said he now conceives of the mini consoles as an ongoing series, but of course future releases will depend on MD Mini 2's success.

[Atariboy]

10 more games have been confirmed for the Japanese version.

• Fatal Fury 2 (Mega Drive)
• Final Fight CD (Mega CD)
• Harimanada (Mega Drive)
• Lunar The Silver Star (Mega CD)
• Lunar Eternal Blue (Mega CD)
• Majandojo (Mega Drive)
• Spatter (Mega Drive)
• Super Street Fighter II The New Challengers (Mega Drive)
• Tatsujin (Mega Drive)
• Wondermega Collection (Mega CD)

Several of these will likely not make it out over here (Harimanada for instance seems to be a JRPG that didn't get localized), but I hope Final Fight CD and Truxton make the cut for the western version. I don't have a clue what Majandojo is (Is it something newly made for the Mini II?) and I'm assuming Spatter is a new port by M2 of the 1984 Sega arcade game (Looks charming, so I hope it's included over here).

 

I like that the US version is giving some attention to Sega's 16-bit racers, although I'd happily swap the lackluster port of Outrunners for something else like Outrun 2019. That underrated racer was included on the original Mega Drive Mini in Asia, but left off the Japanese and western releases and has yet to be announced for any iteration of the Mini II. While it hopefully gets announced for the Mini II, I wonder if the rights issues are a bit convoluted for it.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Atariboy

[Steven Pendleton]

Most importantly, they added an optional fix for the music in Tatsujin, which Toaplan messed up when they made the port because they had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

[Tanooki]

Those new lists of games for the mini 2 looks good, and largely are in english or have english releases so that does help give some idea if this came here what would continue to exist on there.  But we also really have no idea if they'll make a unique one this go around or pull a Konami and dump it all within storage.  It would have to come down to how big the chip is they put in this time around as the last while capable of CD probably didn't have much storage to handle more than a few CDs right?

[Steven Pendleton]

I just now realized that they really should have made this a Wondermega RG-M1 Mini. That would have been extremely awesome. Oh well.

[Asaki]

On 7/13/2022 at 1:30 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

Yay, Sonic 3D Blast! I recently learned that there are weird crazy people who hate this game. How the hell can someone hate Sonic 3D Blast? That game is awesome.

Hopefully they'll put the newer version of the game on there. I already loved the game, but the update is that much nicer.