back to article The law of run Nintendo consequences: Sega brings out mini Mega Drive / Genesis

Veteran game maker Sega announced it was getting back into the hardware game at the Sega FES 2018 event over the weekend, with a shrunken version of its classic Megadrive (or Genesis) console. In an announcement in no way connected to the success of Nintendo’s SNES Mini, Sega might well have been inspired by the tried and …

  1. Craig 2

    Totally missed opportunity on the name.... "Mini Mega" sounds much cooler IMHO :)

    1. Tom Servo

      In this Age of Enlightenment

      it should be called MicroMegas.

      *Waits for any response from philosophy grads.

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: In this Age of Enlightenment

        Since Mini and Mega cancel each other out, why couldnt they just name it The Drive?

    2. Mark 85

      Simplify it more.... "Fun Size". There might be a trademark battle for that though.

  2. Z80

    I'd hope for games like Toe Jam & Earl, James Pond 2 and Devil Crash. I expect games like Altered Beast, Golden Axe and Golden Axe 2

    1. James 51

      In the couple of classic collections it is those games turning up again and again (PSP and 360). Guessing it's a licensing thing.

    2. Steve K

      Puggsy also please!

      Puggsy also please!

    3. WraithCadmus

      Streets of Rage has got to be up there, and inevitably there'll be some weird shit from the back catalogue no-one remembers like Gain Ground.

    4. 2Nick3

      Put in Road Rash and I'll be pre-ordering for sure!

      1. WraithCadmus

        Road Rash was great (if a little low on framerate by modern standards) but it's owned by EA. Only things we can expect on here are first-party titles.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mini Mega Drive

    isn't one of those stupid things made by BMW? You know the "Mini" that's bigger than a Transit van.

    1. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: Mini Mega Drive

      It's no miniature giant space hamster though.

      (Go for the eyes, Boo!)

  4. Teiwaz
    Coat

    Smaller and Far away....

    even smaller scale with the aid of a Raspberry Pi.

    Why stop there?

    Why not credit sized? Or a Sega Mega Drive drive that can be fitted nasaly Sega Nasal Drive

    or in the ear, Mega Seg-Ear Drive

    1. ArrZarr Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Smaller and Far away....

      Load the ROM with unreadable memory and you'd have a Mega Segfault Drive

    2. Nicholas Nada

      Re: Smaller and Far away....

      For a truly portable gaming experience, you'd want a Segway Megadrive.

    3. the spectacularly refined chap

      Re: Smaller and Far away....

      Can't help but be reminded of HHGTTG.

      Do people want fire that can be fitted nasally?

      1. Aqua Marina

        Re: Smaller and Far away....

        Sega Microdrive!!!

        Ok so they might need a chat with Sir Clive first about the name.

  5. Blockchain commentard

    Google 'raspberry pi sega case' and you'll see people have already being putting pi's in Sega looking cases for a while. It's be funny if this is how Sega is building theirs !!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I've ordered the nes pi case off ebay, seven whole pounds.

  6. Dz

    Pah, but i'm bored with all the emulated hardware after playing with it for years on years so now i've started buying all the originals right when everyone is going for the minis.

    It gives me a special nostalgia glow that emulators or emulated hardware simply can't compete with.

    If you need me i'll be watching 80/90s TV adverts on YouTube.

    1. ThomH

      You're helping retro hardware to live on. And on. And Ariston.

      1. AIBailey

        Now I have the music to the GameBoy version of Robocop in my head.

      2. Frumious Bandersnatch

        You're helping retro hardware to live on. And on. And Ariston.

        'ello Tosh, got a Toshiba?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's got a widget...

    3. Mage Silver badge
      Windows

      special nostalgia glow

      You'd be wanting to buy some of my (working) CRT based TV sets then. Not that I'm particularly selling, they are in the attic and shipping is costly.

    4. defiler

      i've started buying all the originals right when everyone is going for the minis.

      Snap. The lad like his retro games, so I just organised a SNES. Thought about the Mini, but it doesn't take carts so that's a bit of a waste. Looking forward to Play Expo now - he'll be coming along this year!

      1. Aqua Marina

        This years play expo has been cancelled I believe. However they are having one at the Blackpool winter gardens instead.

    5. Michael Habel

      We heard that you like to watch Ad's on YouTube, so we added even more Ad's for you. So the Advertisers can advertise to the Advertisers.

  7. ThomH

    So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

    E.g. here.

    Those are just emulators in a box and not especially great ones as they suffer, like many old Mega Drive emulators did, from audio issues because the author approximated the relationship between the Z80 and the 68000. But on the plus side, there's a model that comes in a nice handheld size, and accepts an SD card for additional games, which would be a lot more effort to reproduce using a Raspberry Pi.

    1. Clockworkseer

      Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

      I suspect an official Sega version will have any sound problems that crop up in emulation ironed out. Well, you'd think they will, anyway.

      1. defiler

        Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

        I suspect an official Sega version will have any sound problems that crop up in emulation ironed out.

        Or they'll just ship a set of games that don't exhibit the problem, with no way of adding more...

        1. Captain Scarlet

          Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

          Its probably what AtGames has sold for years and years just rebranded, no idea why AtGames can't get the sound right (Although might be down to having to emulate two seperate sound chips) but if its just as bad there is no point.

          Nintendo small consoles have been way better in emulation which as a Sega fan hacks me off (Especially when emaulators as old as the dos based Gens managed to get it spot on)

    2. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

      AtGames also has another version of the same thing here. Perhaps one is a US version and the other isn't? No idea but I do remember seeing that particular one on store shelves last Christmas. It's also considerably less expensive than the version you cite although I'm uncertain why.

      1. ThomH

        Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

        Having hastily performed some ninja research: the older ones are composite only. The 2017 model supports HDMI. All are software emulators and the newer ones — they've been doing these for almost a decade — are built atop Android. I couldn't find specific information on the older machines, but the HDMI model allegedly features the emulation work of Marat Fayzulin, who wrote a lot of '90s-style emulators* back in the '90s, but fell of the public radar after that. From LinkedIn it looks like he went into Intel to write emulators for upcoming Intel architectures, so I'm sure he's not still writing '90s-style emulators. Nevertheless, reviews of it are pretty dire but a member of the company on AtariAge insists it's because an unspecified manufacturing error caused audio, frame rate and graphical glitches in all the review units but has been resolved since. Draw your own conclusions.

        At least putting it out again will invite fresh reviews, to verify that claim.

        * in the sense of inaccurate as dictated by available processing. Usually involves pretending that instructions are atomic, that different ICs actually take turns to run for prolonged periods, etc.

    3. J. Cook Silver badge

      Re: So exactly what they've been letting AtGames sell for years?

      "But on the plus side, there's a model that comes in a nice handheld size, and accepts an SD card for additional games, which would be a lot more effort to reproduce using a Raspberry Pi."

      Well.... It should be possible to stuff a Pi under a modest sized screen, bung in some controls on a board on either side, and slap a battery pack on the back of it all to run it.

      As far as a plug in model, shoot- there are companies selling RetroPIE kits in your choice of nostalgia-inducing cases on amazon for a while now; I was half tempted to buy one until I looked at the price.

  8. Jason Hindle

    Never had the Mega Drive

    Went SNES instead. But we still have a Dreamcast!

  9. Mateus109

    Mini Amstrad Mega PC

    Meh, I'll wait for the Amstrad Mega PC to be re-released.

  10. ashton

    Meh those are just emus, the reverse engineered remakes like super nt are the shit.

  11. Nimby
    Coffee/keyboard

    The road to nostalgia is paved with good inventions.

    Now I miss my Nomad! (I wonder whatever happened to it.)

    I think I will need to pick up a Lazy Susan at a garage sale for the collection of these mini retro consoles. (Or a Sit 'n Spin.)

    Here's hoping the Sega isn't just an emulator. Has anyone contacted Mattel about the Intellivision? Atari?

    I wonder how difficult it would be to write new content... New old content? Err ... actually, opposite of "new old stock", so maybe reverse that to old new content? What is the phrase for new software on old old old hardware?

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