Mega Drive Mini 2 Announced (Includes Mega CD Games)

Goddamn, I was wrong... I'm guessing a SOC capable of Saturn is still too expensive to make sense.

Mk2 looking good tho, considering they already have the mold for it, a Genesis 2 will most likely come out I guess, in fact there's even more reason for it to come out due to it having the 6 Button pad (japan already had the 6 button pads from the beginning).

Now, I wonder what could they bundle with it, as there are less Mega CD games here compared to Japan. Maybe some 32x?

Also, seems to be. There's a video on their homepage for the thing which lists all the games individually and it's looking like regular CD Version.

 

It looks it anyway that was the original title screen with the 1993 copyright. The PC version has 96 attached and the remake removed the copyright (Origins readded the copyright but more in the style used in Sonic's 1, 2, and 3)

 

I wonder how much open source tech will be in the mdmini2

 

Saturn mini would be dope, but yeah, I figure the tech isn’t quite there yet even without the semiconductor shortage.

The mini 2 is a great announcement though and I’m really glad they’re including CD games. Just hope they confirm an American release soon - the Famitsu interview says they’re planning it, but focusing on Japan right now with the shortages.

 

Cool nugget from this: The new system includes a setting to emulate the sound hardware from either a Model 1 or a Model 2.

 

I'll try to pick up the JP, US, and Asia versions again. I NEED Snatcher and Popful Mail on an American unit though.

 

I've always wanted SEGA to rerelease more Mega CD games, so this looks very cool indeed and will definitely pick this up if it gets a UK release.

 

Seems pretty cool. If this comes out in the US I wonder if they'll use previous official English translations. Though I'm not sure how that would work with Popful Mail since Working Designs is long gone.

 

So they solved the problem of not having enough Mega CD games to fill out the library by reaching into the MD library. Good thinking.

I'm curious to see how a Western release handles the Working Designs games. I highly doubt WD retains any sort of publishing rights (no company is going to give them indefinite publishing rights like that), but WD presumably has copyright over its original translation. Is a new, more accurate translation too much to hope for?

 

And if they keep the Working Designs translation, is Mail still going to call Slick a retard?

 

With voice acting involved? Highly doubt it.

Still disappointed it just isn't a CD mini by itself though. I think there are enough games. Could have had all CD 33X games on the thing aswell.

 

I think it’s possible that Gaijinworks holds some sort of authority over the Working Designs copyrights, since Victor Ireland (founder of both) once said he was trying to get the legal go-ahead to put the Lunar games on PSN well into the Gaijinworks days. Now, of course, that never happened, but maybe a bigger company like Sega could get all the ducks in a row.

Of course, even if any Working Designs games did make it on, I would immediately mod the system to replace them with the Unworked Designs versions.

 

And you also know if / when it does come to the west it’ll omit the extras and then people will be selling them on eBay for thousands (not that anyone seems to buy them).

 

This Famitsu article with Okunari (in Japanese) has some good details.

• 20 of the 50(+) titles will be Mega CD titles.
• This is M2's first time doing Mega CD emulation. They had quite a few problems with it, which is why they're only including 20 Mega CD titles. Adding more would have taken too much time (they have to meticulously check each title).
• There will be no 32X titles included. "If we could easily emulate the 32X's two CPUs, then we could just go ahead and release a Saturn Mini." -Okunari
• Virtua Racing is the SVP version. M2 started work on emulating the SVP when the first Mega Drive Mini came out, but they soon gave up. They've now finished it.

I hope this helps set some expectations around a possible Saturn Mini. M2 was struggling to handle the Mega CD emulation in the target time frame since they had never done it before. A Saturn Mini would be such a colossal project in comparison - in addition to the added hardware cost.

 

Is it bad to say that besides Knuckles Chaotix and, albeit somewhat redundant thanks to this release, Virtua Racing Deluxe, I wouldn't mind skipping the 32X altogether in favor of a Saturn Mini or some sort of Saturn digital game collection in the future?

 

I feel like they could have been given more time to make more CD games compatible.

Do we know when they started development on the Mini 2?