Hey there! As everyone must know by now, the Master System still is massively popular here in Brazil. Nowadays, the PS2 and XBOX 360 are dominating the market, although the SMS is the cheapest, go-to console to give as a gift for children. So, my little brother recently got a Master System. But it's not the Tec Toy Master System you're probably used to! Take a look at this: Well, you guys know those console-in-a-chip style stuff shaped like controllers? It's one of those. It has 30 games and also comes in blue. Apparently, it's a Tec Toy version of the Poga console from AtGames. Thanks, Black Squirrel! It has the usual 8-bit system cables - L-Sound (Mono) and Graphics. The difference is that the cables are long - VERY long, that is. The usual current Tec Toy logo appears at the boot screen, but... OH NO, IT CAN'T BE! IS IT... Yes, the dreaded/infamous AtGames logo is present in the menu screen - more on that later. Also, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, Tails' Adventures and Ristar, never released in cart form for the SMS, are playable, and TT and Drift 2 don't use the Retro-made versions, as there is no graphical garbage around the screen. Interestingly, Snail Maze, the "secret" game pre-loaded into the BIOS of early Master Systems, is among the 30 games playable, even including the original SMS boot screen! This means that the "Snail Maze" present in this console actually is the 1.0 version of the original SMS BIOS! Neat, huh? And now, about the AtGames stuff. The emulation is pretty good, and the only problem with it is that the PCM samples in the Sonic games (only in the Sonic games, mind you) have a much louder pitch, especially in Chaos, where the sound is much faster than usual. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars and other games that use PCM samples don't suffer with it, though. It's probably a GG-to-SMS porting problem, as the version of Chaos used is the GG one, not the SMS one! It's a really weird pick, as Chaos was previously released in cart form for the SMS. Maybe they lost the SMS ROM, or think the GG version is "superior"? It's really odd how the product is obviously made by Tec Toy here in Brazil, but uses the AtGames logo in the menu screen. Maybe Tec Toy just made the shell, and AtGames made the hardware? It's really strange, seeing how Tec Toy produced 100% Made in Brazil Mega Drives and Master Systems back in the day, although this isn't the first time it happens. Take a look at this: This is the Mega Drive Play, a portable MD with 20 games in it. Looks/sounds familiar? EDIT: Got some help from Black Squirrel, and checked out wich version of Chaos is used.
Tectoy distribute AtGames products in Brazil... though they also make software... and yeah it's confusing. What you have there is a "Poga", so it's not strictly a "new" device. The problem with AtGames products is that there's a dozen distributors all over the world, and each give the systems their own branding. Due to the fact most of these consoles are marketed as "MEGA DRIVE HANDHELD" or something equally generic, it's a challenge to document all the variants, particularly when they only have short production runs. The Tectoy/AtGames relationship is a weird one and I don't fully understand it. I suspect some of the technology behind AtGames stuff comes from the many re-released Mega Drive/Master System consoles Tectoy put out in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Thanks for the help, BS! Could someone update the wiki article on the Poga? I don't have the resources to do a clean pic, and I don't have the case for the console anymore.
Would those unreleased SMS sonic ports just be upscaled GG using the console-in-a-chip emulator? or are they real SMS ports? We need to rip those
Apparently, they're only upscaled GG games, as there's a black border around the screen in all of them. This probably also explains the PCM oddities and the faster sound in Chaos.
I was just assuming the difference in speed he was talking about had something to do with 50 and 60 Hz changes... =|
Some Master System games will have been built with 50Hz in mind, and therefore run too fast on a 60Hz machine. There's also some which apparently won't boot at all but I don't know the specifics behind that.
