Sega MegaDrive/Genesis lives again, in Brazil! Brazilian outfit Tectoy has won the right to manufacture new versions of Sega's 16-bit MegaDrive console and is taking pre-orders for the venerable gaming machines. Known as the Genesis in some parts of the world, the MegaDrive used cartridges and this reproduction will support that medium. To drag the MegaDrive into the 21st …
I've heard that the insides actually contain an ARM CPU emulating a MD/Genesis (not unlike what's inside Nintendo's offering), plus additional hardware to convert the mapping of physical cartridges to a filesystem compatible with the emulator. Not really that great given that this means that peripherals like the Sega/Mega CD and 32x won't work.
Honestly, I'd prefer pulling my old MD clone out of the closet and use that instead.
Interestingly, NXP still does make 68000 CPUs, as does Zilog with the z80. Wonder if the remaining PSG and YM OPN is still being produced, because apparently, the heart(s) of the Genesis is still readily available off the shelf.
I don't think it's emulation, no.
TecToy know their stuff with regards to the MegaDrive, as they were the Brazilian distributor for the MegaDrive back in the 90's, as well as distributing several other Sega consoles.
According to the official website for this console - (translation needed), the processors (68000 and Z80) are integrated into a single chip. That doesn't sound like emulation to me, rather a SOC. Hopefully it'll be a better implementation than the terrible ATGames version.
So, this looks like a replica of the original, rather than what Nintendo have done with the mini-NES (which I get to pick up from the store tomorrow), seems to be a lost mark, they could shrink the console, still make it cartridge compatible but increase features and decrease floorspace (plus USB the controllers for PC/phone use aswell)
"plus USB the controllers for PC/phone use aswell"
plus Genesis the iPhone for headphone use aswell.
If you really take a look at the Genesis's design, it's pretty slick. I'm thinking about putting an itx mobo in it, turning the cart loader into a phone charger and calling the modern PC done and dealt.
... but they dropped it in the last minute.
I'm from Brazil, and watched closely as the relaunch hype unfolded in other media, and HDMI output was being speculated. It had RCA output, but in a 8-pin DIN connector. Check the connector at:
http://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnovelties/sega-master-system-1/264-sega-mega-drive-1-genesis-rca-cable-with-stereo-sound.html
I could see the host of problems when handling such a low resolution and parsing it up to the minimum resolutions available in HDMI. Not to mention that the video output was actually coded in 15-bit color space, as many emulators could attest. I think that just upscaling the signal to HDMI would be more expensive than the whole console.
Anyway, great console.
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