Hyperkin is at it again.

[0078265317]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/9/24029916/sega-genesis-emulator-cartridges-handheld-hyperkin-95-mega-drive

 

Not sure the cost will be or how good it will be however.

[Flojomojo]

Heheh that’s cheeky. Like a modern day Nomad. 
 

Since it’s just emulation anyway (the cartridge data gets dumped to the system rom) I think I’d prefer something less bulky, but I like the look of this. 

[SegaShooters]

It's something like 5 years ago at this time that Retro-bit and Sega announced a new Nomad prototype.

Another one for the "vaporware" column in video game history.

Reminds me back in the early 90's when a SNES CD-ROM was announced...

[Zoyous]

2 hours ago, SegaShooters said:

It's something like 5 years ago at this time that Retro-bit and Sega announced a new Nomad prototype.

Another one for the "vaporware" column in video game history.

Reminds me back in the early 90's when a SNES CD-ROM was announced...

That SNES CD-ROM was in development with Sony as early as 1988 and eventually led to the development of the PlayStation. The development was initially intended to result in an add-on for the SNES, as well as a standalone Sony console called the PlayStation that would play CD-ROMs and SNES cartridges.

 

As for the Retro-bit Nomad, I thought it was an odd announcement at the time because it's easier to have larger screens now in a handheld. I'm not sure of the market for a cartridge-based handheld now... it mostly seems like a novelty. For me the SteamDeck surpasses all other handhelds for retro gaming, even though I do have quite a lot of Genesis cartridges.

[Tanooki]

Just to pause a moment on this and think, SNES CD is real, the SNES Playstation was made, but history didn't release it.  It came out in more recent times Sony tried to put the screws to Nintendo by having contract terms that would get 100% of the licensing fees for any game made on CD to go to them, 0% to Nintendo,  Yet, due to Nintendo policy on that hardware (like NES) largely they did ALL the in house pressing of media, packaging, shipping, distribution etc.  Imagine if Nintendo had not caught that or figured whatever?  They'd have been largely bled dry as most games would go out on a disc to save a bundle vs chip, silicon and plastic costs.  Or conversely, what if Sony weren't greedy assholes and profit split the licensing fees on optical 50/50 which should likely have been the right thing to do.  The Playstation by name would have never existed, or at least a Nintendo Playstation would have post-SNES and had Sony been fine keeping the partner ship going dwell on that, or had they been like...meh and entered later around the time of the DC or PS2 era with their own DVD drive console.  That landscape would have been stunningly different.

[Cynicaster]

I absolutely cannot understand what the point of this thing is.  If you're just going to dump roms and emulate anyway, why not pick up an Anbernic handheld (or similar) for about the same price, and get your Genesis emulation fix that way instead?  It saves you the objectively silly hassle of carrying around a box of bulky cartridges in 2024, and also enables you to emulate dozens of other platforms as well.   

 

If it were some kind of actual Genesis hardware or FPGA then - even if I personally would never bother carrying Genesis carts around with me in 2024 when emulation is so good - at least such a gadget would be doing something a bit more novel for those who want to eliminate input lag and be as authentic as possible on the go.

 

What next?  A coffee maker where you put whole beans in the top to "enjoy the experience" of doing so, while the coffee maker does nothing with those beans and brews you a cup of Folgers crystals in the background?    

 

  

 

 

 

 

[Tanooki]

I think you're missing the point.  You're not the target market.  You're the anti-target making that comment.

 

It's meant for people who do have original carts and want to use them, and they want to largely use them on the go or at least in a comfy chair/space that isn't tied to a tv, yet to appeal to the SWITCH style minded types you get the dock with controller ports to go that route too.  That's the market.  ANd since they're cheap, they'll find it far easier to run an emulator and dump the contents of the cart than paying up on a FPGA or farming out some crap sega on a chip which usually have been historically sketchy, awful really, when it comes to audio and they want to look better than that at face value.

 

If someone were just getting a console to then get the experience but not eat it, then you're into flash kits.  And if that's too much, then yes, damn right, get the Anbernic they're great.

[roots.genoa]

Also, some people care about legality. I know, it's incredible.

[Cynicaster]

Well yeah, clearly I'm not the target market.  And I also understand that the rom-dumper method is the only viable solution in this price range.  

 

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

It's meant for people who do have original carts and want to use them, and they want to largely use them on the go or at least in a comfy chair/space that isn't tied to a tv, yet to appeal to the SWITCH style minded types you get the dock with controller ports to go that route too.  That's the market. 

^^ This is the part that baffles me, that there is actually a market defined by these parameters.  "Here's what I need.  I have a lot of Sega Genesis cartridges and I'm looking for a cheap Switch-like device that I can plug the cartridges into and pretend that the ensuing emulation provides any meaningful differences from the emulation performed by dozens of comparably-priced retro emulation handhelds, other than the fact that I have to carry cartridges around and perform the pointless ritual of inserting them into the device rather than using a slick software front-end to load the games from a tiny ROM file stored on a micro-SD card."

 

Whatever yanks one's crank I guess...?

 

 

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, Cynicaster said:

Well yeah, clearly I'm not the target market.  And I also understand that the rom-dumper method is the only viable solution in this price range.  

 

^^ This is the part that baffles me, that there is actually a market defined by these parameters.  "Here's what I need.  I have a lot of Sega Genesis cartridges and I'm looking for a cheap Switch-like device that I can plug the cartridges into and pretend that the ensuing emulation provides any meaningful differences from the emulation performed by dozens of comparably-priced retro emulation handhelds, other than the fact that I have to carry cartridges around and perform the pointless ritual of inserting them into the device rather than using a slick software front-end to load the games from a tiny ROM file stored on a micro-SD card."

 

Whatever yanks one's crank I guess...?

 

 

I think it is a matter of people still not really knowing their options.  More and more, I see people saying stuff like "I can't figure out how to update the firmware" or "I couldn't ever figure out how to put games on it."  They aren't going for a handheld with emulators.

 

This device uses tech and methods that Joe 40 Something already knows.  So, he buys it, plays it for 6 hours over a month after he gets it and then probably shelves it forever.  Whim and impulse satisfied.

[Tanooki]

2 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

Well yeah, clearly I'm not the target market.  And I also understand that the rom-dumper method is the only viable solution in this price range.  

 

^^ This is the part that baffles me, that there is actually a market defined by these parameters.  "Here's what I need.  I have a lot of Sega Genesis cartridges and I'm looking for a cheap Switch-like device that I can plug the cartridges into and pretend that the ensuing emulation provides any meaningful differences from the emulation performed by dozens of comparably-priced retro emulation handhelds, other than the fact that I have to carry cartridges around and perform the pointless ritual of inserting them into the device rather than using a slick software front-end to load the games from a tiny ROM file stored on a micro-SD card."

 

Whatever yanks one's crank I guess...?

 

 

Well the market is there and substantial.  Sure the core is emulating the hardware functions, and going as far as being a DRM-ish rom dumper at that, but it still is on outward appearances running the games they actually own, and for a moment they are when dumping it or writing back any saved game battery data.  There are choices that emulate, and there are those who use a cruddy system on a chip setup and I doubt many realize which is which outside of a niche of a niche who nerd out out semantics.  To the normal 95% of people who would give a crap at all, it runs their games, that's their market.  Sure they could have bought a ROM running chinese thing, but that won't by appearances run their cart.  I wouldn't buy one that runs them, I have a nomad, and on the SNES side until it broke I had a Supaboy S which has an stunningly accurate core.  These hyperkin etc things usually are just casual props to play with and if it's impulse buy territory all the easier to move it, that's what they appear to have done here while crossing over into Switch esthetics due to the dock n tv play mechanics.

 

Personally while I have flash kits, I still use carts 99% of the time.  Those choices to find a game, play a game, and stick to a game are exceptionally easier and more motivating than some stupid menu fuckery where I can hit a button as soon as something goes south and onto the next with boredom fixed at the flick of a finger.  That stuff in itself is a cancer to game playing sustainability.

[Razzie.P]

7 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

What next?  A coffee maker where you put whole beans in the top to "enjoy the experience" of doing so, while the coffee maker does nothing with those beans and brews you a cup of Folgers crystals in the background?    

 

  

 

 

 

 

Patent that brilliance now or regret it when it actually happens.

[Madwindoman]

16 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Patent that brilliance now or regret it when it actually happens.

I was thinking the same thing. If it plays original Sega carts I’m in

[0078265317]

Here is another one.  Looks like they are popping up all over.

 

https://www.timeextension.com/reviews/ips-16bit-pocket-md-hd-a-genesis-mega-drive-handheld-that-plays-carts

[Austin]

1 hour ago, 0078265317 said:

Here is another one.  Looks like they are popping up all over.

 

https://www.timeextension.com/reviews/ips-16bit-pocket-md-hd-a-genesis-mega-drive-handheld-that-plays-carts

I never thought I would ever say this, but I think I'd actually prefer the Hyperkin version.

[Cynicaster]

12 hours ago, Madwindoman said:

I was thinking the same thing. If it plays original Sega carts I’m in

It will play Sega carts, charge your fit-bit, and have wi-fi.  

 

 

[Tanooki]

Ugh that sucks Columbus Circle tends to do better, but that's hardly doing better.  Shame, I mean it can't be that hard to outdo the Nomad by this point so that's pathetic.  I wanted their original, until I saw the faults, now it's faulted and high res, yay...not.

[eightbit]

Meh....another emulation console handheld. Not excited in the least.

[M-S]

I don't know where in the article it mentions that it dumps the ROM and emulates it, it looks like one person said it without checking and everyone else just assumed he was correct, this is most likely a Genesis-on-a-chip console, which isn't emulation.

If this uses the same chipset as the one from Columbus Circle, the audio could sound quite good if they balance the channels well: 

I decided not to buy it because I knew that either Hyperkin or Retro-Bit would be doing something similar but with higher quality(I hope), at around 120$ dollars it probably is going to at least have better controllers, but being realistic I'm almost sure the technology is going to be a carbon copy of the Mega Retron HD just in a different form factor. Hyperkin is not the kind of company that would listen to consumer feedback.

On 1/12/2024 at 3:16 AM, Austin said:

I never thought I would ever say this, but I think I'd actually prefer the Hyperkin version.

It seems like most of Hyperkin's products are just the ones from this company only in a better shell, so I guess it makes sense.

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, M-S said:

I don't know where in the article it mentions that it dumps the ROM and emulates it, it looks like one person said it without checking and everyone else just assumed he was correct

It was indeed not mentioned but that's how every Hyperkin systems worked in the past, so it's not crazy to assume it will be the case again.

[M-S]

Only the Retron 5, the 77 and the Sq did that. Their NES, SNES and Mega Drive consoles all use ASICs.

[Tanooki]

What was the quality on their Genesis ASIC though?  The Supaboy S and later variants were spot on with even the quirkiest SNES games that did strange screen stuff, 100% with flash kits too including MSU-1.  Genesis ASIC tend to have some form of crap audio issues and won't run Virtua Racing either.

[M-S]

On 1/21/2024 at 1:16 AM, Tanooki said:

the quirkiest SNES games

I didn't think I would hear this combination of words here anymore.

The Mega Retron HD is one of the only clones that can play Virtua Racing, although it has the same ASIC as almost every single other clone, the audio isn't that good since apparently the FM and PSG audio channels are very unbalanced compared to an original system, shadows and highlights also don't appear through the HDMI output, so they will only appear on the screen if it uses the RGB output.

[Tanooki]

6 hours ago, M-S said:

I didn't think I would hear this combination of words here anymore.

The Mega Retron HD is one of the only clones that can play Virtua Racing, although it has the same ASIC as almost every single other clone, the audio isn't that good since apparently the FM and PSG audio channels are very unbalanced compared to an original system, shadows and highlights also don't appear through the HDMI output, so they will only appear on the screen if it uses the RGB output.

Yeah I know, it's now aggravatingly a qwkirky word sadly.  But basically what crosses my mind is the aggravating crap that never worked right for over a decade in SNES9X and earlier stuff, zsknight finally cracked things with bsnes, then any other oddities yet when byuu did his magic.  There's this one like isometric(I think it was) view higher res mode attack chopper game STG or something, emulators couldn't handle doing the shadows in that, crappy system on a chips failed on it too.  Some other high res mods, the yoshi's get fuzzy tripping out stage is another and so on.  Supaboy S and since nailed that down hard on that core, whatever chinese sweatshop they found that flogged those children in the mine to make their products did well on it.  I utterly hate clones, a supremely short list of them I'd give any care or kindness to.  Supaboy S, the old 8bit pocket and now the 8bit pocket plus could effectively nail down most special high mappers and plus actually does, it's quite on point.  Those I'd direct anyone to take a swing at who want a nice 8/16BIT Nintendo handheld that also can be jacked into a TV.

 

I never found a Sega one that didn't have retched audio in some tones, nor would handle the heavy one there Virtua Racing either, so in time i eventually just traded into a Nomad a couple years back instead.

[M-S]

Curiously, it seems like in the last 10 years all SNES and Sega clones have had the same TCT chip brand, so the bugs being fixed must have been something in the PCB itself, from what I have seen and posted on the other thread the audio issues should be easy to fix, so I don't really know why only modders have done it. But if Hyperkin implemented the V.R. fix in the Mega Retron HD maybe it's not impossible for them to improve the audio on the '95.