[XCubed]

Has anyone seen or even heard of this??

http://www.groupon.c...img&d=deal-page


So would this be considered the Genesis 5 (due to finding the Genesis 4 on the wiki)?

The most interesting thing about this is that it takes all the original carts and that there are wireless controllers, yet there are actual ports.

[Graxer]

That looks almost identical to the Blaze Mega Drive which has been on sale in the UK for a few years. Looking into it further it seems to be called the Sega Firecore in the US and has been on sale since 2008. (If Wikipedia is to be trusted)

http://en.wikipedia....e#Sega_Firecore

From what I have heard in the past, the sound emulation on these things isn't very good.

This post has been edited by Graxer: 17 June 2013 - 11:21 AM

[Overlord]

Yeah, that's an Atgames system. They play alright... but anyone who's ever used a Mega Drive will wince the first time they hear one of these.

[Black Squirrel]

Arcade Classic

AtGames and friends do an inconsistent job when it comes to names, but Wikipedia is wrong. Sega Retro is generally better when it comes to Sega-related matters.

[Blaxer]

Funnily enough, I actually seen a whole shelf full of these in my local pharmacy store the other day at my moms. I have also seen how this thing plays too. it plays like that of a pal version of the megadrive and the sounds are way off than what they should sound like. still cool that they made another genesis though, not to mention that it's also compatible with the official cartridges and controllers too.

This post has been edited by Blaxer: 17 June 2013 - 03:01 PM

[tokumaru]

Compatibility with original carts is a rare thing these days, since most of these consoles are based on (bad) emulation, so that's a big plus. I'll take a bad hardware clone over bad emulation any day. I wonder if it works with the Everdrives, and whether it has support for Master System games.

[ICEknight]

tokumaru, on 17 June 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

Compatibility with original carts is a rare thing these days, since most of these consoles are based on (bad) emulation, so that's a big plus. I'll take a bad hardware clone over bad emulation any day.

Aren't these emulation-based as well, though?

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 17 June 2013 - 04:38 PM

[tokumaru]

ICEknight, on 17 June 2013 - 04:37 PM, said:

Aren't these emulation-based as well, though?

I guess not, since they use original carts. Unless they dump the carts every time before running the games, which would mean that carts with co-processors (Virtua Racing) or bankswitching (Super Street Fighter II) wouldn't work. It's not impossible, but I find it unlikely.

[Donnyku]

but can't you use a cart with an emu? Doesn't the Retrode or whatever it's called work like that?

[KeebeeNacho]

My little brother actually has one of these.

I haven't seen him play anything besides Sonic, though. But with the Sonic games, the colors are wonky, and the sound effects are garbled.

Edit: Nope nope nope nope. I was wrong about the music. So very, very wrong.

This post has been edited by KeebeeNacho: 18 June 2013 - 09:31 AM

[tokumaru]

Donnyku, on 17 June 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

but can't you use a cart with an emu?

An emulator can't access data directly in a ROM chip, it would be too complicated to have a modern computer (I.e. one fast enough to simulate a whole MD/Genesis) interface with the slower ROM chips in real time.

Quote

Doesn't the Retrode or whatever it's called work like that?

I'm fairly sure the Retrode dumps the game to its internal memory and serves it as a file to the emulator. The emulator then loads the contents of this file to its internal memory, and the cart is not used at all during actual gameplay.

EDIT: Don't you love how this forum turns all lowercase I's into uppercase? I know it's annoying to see people referring to themselves with a lowercase I, but it's equally annoying to not be able to use lowercase I's at all!

This post has been edited by tokumaru: 17 June 2013 - 05:36 PM

[ICEknight]

Donnyku, on 17 June 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

but can't you use a cart with an emu? Doesn't the Retrode or whatever it's called work like that?

Yes, it does.

[Chilly Willy]

These consoles are using a low-power ARM SoC and running an emulator. Accessing real carts from an emulator is really no different than accessing BIOS rom, you simply may have a different number of wait states in the bus-cycle than for ram or bios accesses.

[ICEknight]

Wait.

KeebeeNacho, on 17 June 2013 - 05:14 PM, said:

Also, S3 and S&K seem to have different soundtracks, the ones the PC ports had, I think.

Wait wait wait, what?

[Sodaholic]

ICEknight, on 17 June 2013 - 11:41 PM, said:

Wait.

KeebeeNacho, on 17 June 2013 - 05:14 PM, said:

Also, S3 and S&K seem to have different soundtracks, the ones the PC ports had, I think.

Wait wait wait, what?

Yeah, this. Go confirm it, although unlikely, it'd be pretty neat if there were official SMPS versions of the PC music.