Hi, I am new. I would like to buy a Megadrive clone console, the best one I have seen seems to be the Mega Retron HD, but I would like to know if there is something that I can also use as a media player, at the very least to watch photos and listen to music. If I can also use it to watch videos it's a very welcome plus but not that necessary. Anybody know something like that? Many thanks!
I don't think there's a modern solution to what you need. Maybe the Polymega may be up your alley? It's not a clone, but the Pioneer LaserActive maybe the only thing I can think of, which is somewhat similar to the Polymega as you can get a Sega expansion module for it and play Genesis/Mega Drive and music CDs on it. Not sure about watching photos unless you can convert them into a Sega CD format or something.
Maybe I'm being thick. But wouldn't a PC fit your description the best? Yeah sure the Mega Drive side is not hardware based, but emulation is surely solid enough for your needs?
I showed this topic to a few people about a week ago - in part because of how confusing the overtly narrow superlative the question presents, but someone - that I thought would post, but didn't - just suggested using a Raspberry Pi.
I got to thinking again, and I was wondering why on earth you would need something to both play Genesis games and to look at photos and play music, and I remembered a device a friend gave me a LOOOOONG time ago called the GP2X. As the original is outdated here are some specs on the Caanoo: Would that satisfy your needs?
I wonder if you'll be able to use the upcoming MegaSD cart to load images of CDDA audio and play it through the FPGA sega CD core on the cart. That would, be in a way, a media player for audio. At which point, an Analogue Mega SG with the MegaSD would be probably the closest you'd be looking for... at nearly $500 tho.
Of course I don't "really NEED" this, it is just something cool of course I have a PC and I can use it that way but I just hate mouses and keyboards. I use my PC for gaming, but I'm always searching for good alternatives with a more cool and pleasant interface (based on gamepads) because mouse and keyboard are very sad for me and the overall experience is slightly worse being forced to use them to launch the games and use the computer interface. Thank you for the replies anyway.
I tried it but it slow down my system too much. I would like a lot something like that but at least for now it is not fast and optimized enough for me.
What's wrong with a television remote for controlling video? Plex, VLC, Chromecast, Youtube TV App etc?
I don't know much about it except the fact that in every video I have seen about those things people always built it themselves, and I don't feel comfortable enough to do something like that. Is it possible to find devices like that already built up and ready to use?
There's multiple Raspberry Pi bundles that have the operating system pre-installed, and the machine installed inside a solid shell. I should probably let others field where to find those bundles, however. Also depending on where you live.
I live in Europe, I would not want to pay a bigger price to import something than the price of the object itself lol :P
The Raspberry Pi is made in South Wales. =P You'd just need to buy that, an SD card, and download an OS image.
Owner of multiple RPis here (you can never have too many) and the build process is literally buying a case, a board and an SD card, slapping them together and hooking up the cables. It's easier than Lego. Install RetroPie and you're all set for playing (at least some) media or playing ROMs. The only tools you need are your hands and a way to load the image to the SD card. It takes less time to do it than it took me to write this post so far. Retroflag even makes a "Megapi" case that *dramatic pause* looks like a Mega Drive. I'd be surprised if Amazon in your region doesn't stock suitable bundles. It kinda sounds like you're trying to make this harder than it needs to be.
The first time that they told me I had to open my pc to clean it I felt a bit scared lol :P I'm just not very comfortable about those things. But now I got used to it and I will see if I can do a further step and get enough confident to build something myself. It would be satisfying. I still find it hard to believe that it is easier than Lego anyway. :P
