The big mystery with AT Games is that no matter how many attempts they've had at putting out a Mega Drive system, they simply can't get the emulation right. You'd think - just given the laws of chance - they'd have managed to get it right at least once!
Especially considering emulation for the Genesis/Mega Drive has existed for almost 20 years, and decent emulators have existed on ARM architecture for at least half a decade. Not to mention they have full licensing support from Sega themselves.
The reason a Raspberry Pi can have a better emulator is because you can get one of the open source ones that have a billion manhours put into it to get the sound right. When ATgames makes one of these they have to develop their own emulator, or license someone else's, and it's extremely rarely happened that someone has licensed a fan-made emulator. Alternatively you can do like Hyperkin and just piss all over the people who made an emulator by using their source code without permission.
There seems to be quite a lot of frame skip on the Sonic games, which should run at a solid 60. Is this how it plays or is it how you're capturing the video? Depressing if the former as it suggests that the hardware isn't powerful enough.
It’s just so strange - hardware on this emulator device is literally thousands (!!!) of times faster than the original Megadrive, and it still sucks on emulation. It’s just pure laziness if the programmers!
I can't understand how you can say it is not that bad when it clearly has issues doing what it was supposed to. Playing Megadrive games, the stuttering or frame dropping which seems to be the case with every game is just unacceptable. It is emulating an almost 30 year old system and fails at it. That is completely unacceptable imo, and this system is just a piece of rubbish.
I play the SMD Flashback for 2 months now. There are no issues, that annoy me and I have lots of fun, having many of my favorite titles all in one place, working just fine and including a save-option. Maybe for you this is "a piece of rubbish", but not everybody has the money or space to collect tons of cartridges and not everybody wants to load illegal copys of his favorite games on a raspberry pi. So there definitely is a large enough group of customers out there for which a "console" like this satisfies all their needs. No need to be a snob about it. ;-) Greetings from Germany!
To hear people tell it though this thing will kill your pets and take a dump on your grandmother's grave. It's not even close to that bad. It's just not good.
Comparing this thing to the SNES Mini isn't quite fair. The Mini is manufactured by Nintendo themselves. This is third party licensed. Of course the Mini will be better quality. That said, I think Sega would benefit greatly from designing their own retro console that was capable of playing all official Genesis/Mega Drive games, Master System games, Game Gear games, and possibly even 32X games. It would be harder to do Sega CD just because the inclusion of an optical drive in one of these things starts straying too far from the concept of a small, inexpensive box to play your retro games. I know Sega is "out of the hardware market", but this probably wouldn't even be much of a stretch for them since all of these systems ran on essentially the same hardware and it's not like Sega would be working from scratch.
It's perfectly fair. They're both the same type of product made for the same demographic. Sega chose to license out their name and games on a subpar product. Even they've realized it's a bad idea because they're dropping AtGames in the design of their new mini.
honestly guys just get the real model 1 and a frame master. at games has been nothing but disappointment although i have to admit there audio is better then before.
Don't get me wrong, ATGames genesis/ Mega Drive products have always been spotty, and this one is no exception in many regards. But it is nice to see a fair review of this product without bashing it wholeheartedly. It is a shame that there isn't a higher quality Genesis throwback system though. Though I have to say, ATGames latest Atari Flashback is pretty nice.
schtive81 to be honest because this one has some redeeming features here and there with atgames this the best you can get from their quality in console emulation
Not saying the system isn't a good entry level for someone who's not big into this, but your "raspberry pi in a black box" idea honestly works better for that as long as you've got the patience for figuring out retropie. My pi3 struggles a little with some SNES games but it's pretty spot on for Genesis/MD when I've tried it.
I have yet to see a SNES title that really strains my pi3 model B lol.(Seen a couple frames dropped in games that used the SuperFX chip.) A RetroPi build with a NesPi case is WORLDS ahead of this piece of junk for $100+ US dollars.
Sega Genesis audio emulation wasn't extremely good only until recently. The most recent emulators go a great job, but the older one always fail proper GEMS emulation. The most known improper emulation is probably is Comix Zone Episode 1, Page 2-2. ua-cam.com/video/WEvnZRCW_qc/v-deo.htmlm30s
@@dizzym9554 Yeah, it may not be Genesis Model 1 music, but it's miles ahead of the dumpster fire that was the FireCore-based AtGames devices. Those things were...*shudders* I got one for Christmas, and wasn't prepared for the ear rape I was submitted to.
Ha ha ha ha ha! Snes Classic can be modded to play 80% of the Snes library, emulation is spot on and doesn't have dropped frame or bad sound emulation, but keep talking outta your ass XD
I have to say that this is probably the most fair review I've seen since I got mine. A lot of the complaints it's gotten have felt a bit harsh after actually using the device. And the unofficial games are horrible. I've tried to play through them all and if the horrible, short, repetitive songs doesn't make you quit, the horribleness of them will. One of my bigger complaints is that I cannot figure out how to either reset the thing or delete save states. It annoys me to be asked repeatedly if I'd like to load my state, but if you don't use slot 1, it will not ask you. It has no official support for adding any extra games, but upon disassembly, people have found out that it is running android and has a USB port. Using ADB, they were able to add roms to it, so that might be something to look for if you purchase one.
6 років тому+4
The irony is you can load Mega drive roms onto the SNES Mini and it plays them flawlessly.
i had 2 AT genesis consoles, both varied pretty heavily. 1 had a sd card inside that i was able to put more games on, and the other was a single solid chip.
Streets of rage 1 & 2, and sonic 3 were left out due to copyright issues. The composer actually owns the rights to some of the tracks in those 3 games.
I think the red LED is for showing if the power adapter is connected correctly because the LED went off when you pluged the power adapter into the "Mega Drive/Genisis" Greetings from Germany ~Thomas
Think I'll stick with my Megadrive X russian clones, they do as good a job as a Genesis 3 with it's mono sound and composite video but has all the switches for different regions and runs my Mega Everdrive!
Interesting they managed to get that cartridge loading system working on Android (seems to be what they’re using on it judging by the cartridge loading bar and the round pop up text at the bottom of the screen at times). Wonder how they managed that?
My old Megadrive went on the fritz and lacks sound whenever the screen shows graphics (black screen/sound on and graphics on/sounds off), so i bought the small AtGames Megadrive chip clone and can't complain. It will never be a Sega but as a casual gaming device it's not to bad. I spent my childhood playing bootleg Famicom-copy consoles like the Konami Famicom so compared to that, i'm not to disappointed. AND my girlfriend got hooked on playing the Sega games so it worked beyond wonders. Would like this fullsize version and will likely buy it when found. Great video!
Born in the UK in the 80's and i have never seen scanlines on a CRT. Is it an American thing? I do recall seeing lines on TV that were shown on TV from the states but never on a UK set.
The obvious presence of scanlines that you've observed in footage of American TV sets is an artifact related to the filming process. They weren't nearly as noticeable in real life (though they might have bothered you more than they did me, just as I found a 50Hz CRT's flicker unbearable).
Here in America, our SNES minis did come with a Nintendo brand wall brick and charger in the earlier production runs. The later ones didn't include the wall brick. Thanks for the Reviews, Monsieur Nostalgia Nerd
You can get stereo sound from the Mega Drive on the Mk1 version with the right RGB lead, it has a extra lead that plugs into the audio jack in the front of the console via the SCART socket.. I would stick with my original hardware (other option for stereo sound on the original Mk1 Mega Drive is if you have a Mega CD attached) use jack cable from Mega Drive to Mega CD and then a audio cable to a HIFI or TV if has inputs.. Does not work with the Mk2 Mega Drive.
Yes, the OS is Android. The one I have has Monkey King 3.6 processor is actually a re-branded Rockchip RK3036 SoC with a dual core Cortex A7 processor and Mali-400MP GPU, and the system runs Android 4.4.
the sound was very weird compared to the real hardware, and the colors looked less bright. this thing might be convenient for somebody that just wants a quick nostalgia fix but anybody that's serious and want to actually play the games should get a real megadrive and plug it to a crt tv.
Got one for Christmas, been playing it for a couple days now--honestly, they must have updated the console, because this one is nowhere near the trash that most have made it out to be. The emulated sound has been *CORRECTED*! They've been working at that ever since the first ATGames handhelds. There is a *slight* trigger lag on the buttons, but once you play a few levels you don't notice it. I enjoy the system personally.
HDMI spec says it has to supply at least 55mA of +5V and a lot of TVs and such provide at least 100-150mA for powering active devices, like HDMI to VGA converters.
For what it is at that price point its not a bad unit. Considering its just an emulation box with a £9 processor its doing a fairly good job. Ive still got my genuine MegaDrive. I replaced the cartridge slot with a modern more hard wearing one, replaced a few capacitors and its as good as the day it was made.
Hey there Nostalgia Nerd, I'm curious if this iteration of the AT Games Genesis works with Battery back up cartridges. I have the previous 80 games AT Genesis (the small round looking one) When I tried to play my copy of Shining Force 2, it would load my saved data just fine, but after I had tried to save and reload the data playing on the AT console. that didn't work.
Super Magic Drive niiiiiiice :P What size is yours? I have a 24mbit model, I'd love to upgrade it but it's almost pointless in this day and age. I was gonna make a video on it years ago but proper edited and professional-looking videos for youtube are way more time-consuming and labor intensive than they seem on the surface. I'm too lazy, so all my quirky game stuff just hides in miscellaneous storage boxes.
Great review, I have been wondering if this thing was as bad as I heard. It seems like a fairly capable substitute for the real thing and/or if you want HDMI output for your Genesis/MegaDrive collection. The only thing I am wondering about is if this thing is hackable like the NES and SNES classic to allow more roms to be loaded onto it.
Being able to play the original software means alot. But as your video showed not everything is On-Q especially with the audio and the small lag as compared to to the original hardware and thanks for pointing that out. As for the SNES mini, there is a lot to be desired with the absence of a cartridge Port. To me personally a lot was left on the table and the desirability suffered cause of. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for the info.
i cant understand how a retrogamer can review this sor2 abomination sound as not bad why youtubers are so afraid to give negative reviews to terrible things like this
Arthur Collector well said! I returned mine at Target back in December....we hated it! Froze and crashed multiple times during gameplay with regular games included. Sonic 2 (on 2 player mode) looks like shit. Poor emulation and choppiness is not exaggerated as this unit is a foul played version of a hit 16 bit enjoyment from the past.
I still wish more people made products like this tho. I personally own a genesis but I like that clone systems like this are including original cartridge slots instead of just built in games.
HDMI has the ability to power devices. I found out the hard way when my PC was powered off and unplugged but the connected tv was powering my graphics card lighting.
I was gonna buy one of these. Then I figured out how to use rom emulators on my Mac. That openEmu is a god send. Best thing I've ever put on my computer. Hands down.
The ATGames SEGA consoles aren't the worst things ever, but at a price of $80, people expect something that feels more professional than a console that feels like it was made by an amateur hobbyist. The NES and SNES Classic Edition consoles feel like they were made by people who truly care about giving gamers a quality retro experience, with a good selection of games that represent what made those consoles so great during their time, a charming user interface, and a quality physical case. They properly give gamers a retro experience that's worth their time. The ATGames SEGA consoles, however, feel like they just did the bare minimum they needed to, and nothing more. The selection of games is sub-par, the user interface looks boring, and the physical case feels cheap. And for $80, doing the bare minimum isn't good enough, especially when the SNES Classic Edition can do so much better for the same price. ATGames needs to put much more effort into making a worthy retro experience for their SEGA Mega Drive Mini, they need to work with SEGA to include a quality list of games that properly represents what made the SEGA Genesis such a great console, and they need to make a user interface that's more charming than the barebones one they've been using for all their consoles. People want a retro experience that's worth their time, and the SEGA Genesis is more than deserving of a better quality than the lackluster one that ATGames has churned out for years.
Maybe that’s the whole reason SEGA booted AtGames off there actual mini console and taking another year to develop it for a global release. At Games is a shovel ware company who will try there damnest to get people’s money. Even going as far as tricking influencers into saying there garbage plug and play consoles actually use arcade quality roms when consumers got home console roms. Just hope that the 2019 one is good.
How does this thing handle 50/60 hz? Do you have the option to switch between them? SoR2 seemed either like the machine was struggling to keep up, like you said, but it also was similar to how PAL games run at 50hz with the slower speed.
+Dibbs of the Grig Gaming Good question: I fear it ignores 50Hz all together and runs everything in 60Hz, but I think that means it won't play alot of the PAL region locked games made by Capcom and Konami. As someone said above, there appears to be no PAL localisation, yet it's bearing the European PAL Mega Drive logo.
the sega genesis is the console i grew up with. playing sonic 1 and 2, sonic spinball, rocket knight adventures, clay fighter, and desert strike were my favorite games.
Nintendo did include a USB wall adapter with the (ugly) North American model, presumably because the US and Canada use a single style of power socket for this type of device. Your model is distributed to numerous countries with multiple power socket styles in use, so the added cost of localization (which would have been passed on to the consumer) probably made this impractical.
Hi. One question ... I see that you have the diskette drive of the super Magic Drive. Do you know where to get it? I have a unit in good condition but without the cable and without the floppy disk drive? Thank you ;-)
I have the same system and I have 15 or 20 sega games(cartridges) it will say loading cartridge game on the menu screen but then nothing happens and I can't play it ? Please help
My question about all of these systems is do they solve the controller lag issues? I tried emulators and the games dont "feel" right. I dont remember simple games like Mario or Sonic being so hard. I thought it was me until I got a chance to play a sega genesis on a friends tv and sonic became the game I remember from past.
This is the best AT Games Megadrive console so far...... most built-in games play well, and the few other cartridges I've tried so far have worked perfectly! The on-screen display is now nice and auto-crops the games to run in 4:3 ratio, and they all seem to scale well up into 720p HD, and sound good too - and of course don't have that old analogue screen-buzz sound that was always present even when using RGB Scart cable..... I know this console won't run some games even like "Sonic 3", but overall, it's a great way to get into Sega gaming for newcomers - having the old Master System and Game Gear games here too.... but the fact that most Megadrive cartridges also work, makes it a great HD system for general use too for Megadrive fans, and it looks great, and sounds good too - no buzzing from analogue sources, and good to see that AT-Games have sorted out most of the sound emulation problems too!
GamingDude800: No. No, it doesn't. Have you tried this model? This isn't like the older versions using a totally different emulator that did have frame-drop issues, and horrible sound. This one is solid. Looks good, and sounds good, and via HDMI too... it may not be 'perfect', but it's far better than what went before... and until Sega themselves release a "classic" type console to try and match Nintendo, then this is about the best available - and it's very good.....
I am a pretty big fan of the Genesis hardware, and I just say... not bad for an AtGames console. Not anything super amazing, but still better than other previously available systems. You'd get a lot more fun out of this than an Xbox 1, at least the Genesis/Mega Drive no longer has working internet to suck microtransactions out of people.
The app is free at the Windows Store, it will not "mess up" with you're Xbox One. BTW, PC emulators are aways a thing,k any shitty notebook can handle'em, just plug one at the TV, buy some USB pads and have fun, bro.
@Turd Ferguson Dude, i played Gens32 in 2003 on a Pentium III 700Mhz with 128MB of memory. I used Windows 98, then switched to XP and everything still worked fine. Played a lot of SNES too.
Excuse me, does this console works with all mega drive sonic cartridges, with the two cartridge of Earthworm Jim and with Sonic 3 inside Sonic & Knuckles cartridge?
Hey thanks for pointing that out that it doesn’t work with the manacer despites this unit has composite out, because the emulator just simply messes up those timings sothat the game just cannot read in time for what it’s looking for. You are the only one brave enough to test out the manacer on this emulator based machine. So the conclusion is getting a lightgun work with an emulator is just simply impossible because of screwed up timings. Whoever knows that a quantum computer could do that but i doubt about that. Again thanks alot for pointing that out👍👍
Yeah i have an old "at games" megadrive type that AVGN reviewed....the sound was bloody awful. Insulting in fact. This looks and sounds much improved albiet not perfect by a long shot.
@Turd Ferguson I have an atgames SEGA Genesis. It works fine. I copied about 200 ROM files to a SD card and insert it into the machine and can play them without problems. It can even download the ROM from a cartridge and play it. The only problem is that the controllers are wireless and need 2 AAA batteries, which will last 1 month. I don't have a original SEGA controller but I will try to buy one someday and plug it into this atgames. It came with 100 games but I think about 80 are SEGA Genesis/MEGADRIVE, a few are Mastersystem, a few are GameGear and 10 or 15 are some no name games.
I wish you uncased the master system conver to be able for testing it out but sadly you didn't so it's still a question remaining left whether a master system convertor will work or not .
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but is it refusing to load any cart with custom chips as it has to pull the game to its own work ram? Presumably even simple additional chips like save functionality wont run, that must be why Sonic 3 isn't a built in game?
I would ask; Have you tried a Pro Megamaster (basically a 3rd party Master System Converter, that doesn't need extra leads) in the Flashback or other Mega Drive Clones?
The big mystery with AT Games is that no matter how many attempts they've had at putting out a Mega Drive system, they simply can't get the emulation right. You'd think - just given the laws of chance - they'd have managed to get it right at least once!
Martin H now to be fair, they have come closer than a lot of other cheap console clones. A number of more expensive ones too
Especially considering emulation for the Genesis/Mega Drive has existed for almost 20 years, and decent emulators have existed on ARM architecture for at least half a decade. Not to mention they have full licensing support from Sega themselves.
Strider VM that IS sad, android is better
Strider VM i would not, android is really it’s own thing regardless of how it started.
The reason a Raspberry Pi can have a better emulator is because you can get one of the open source ones that have a billion manhours put into it to get the sound right.
When ATgames makes one of these they have to develop their own emulator, or license someone else's, and it's extremely rarely happened that someone has licensed a fan-made emulator.
Alternatively you can do like Hyperkin and just piss all over the people who made an emulator by using their source code without permission.
The Air Hockey "Bonus game" is actually an official TecToy Brazilian release. I find that interesting.
nice fact
I have a atgames portable genesis model from 2016 that has a few more tectoy games
Yeah, Sega was and is popular here, so they gave permission to TecToy to manufacture consoles and games.
Its probably been said a thousand times in the comments but the USA version of the Snes Classic came with wall adapters.
a wall adaptor? what do they 'adapt' a wall into? a floor, or ceiling perhaps?
@@KarldorisLambley as in the plug for the charger. The brick that goes into the socket
It's Android, could tell by the boot logo, the message box and that loading bar.
Lako
THIS LOOKS SHOPPED / I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME.
Die Gutesten
😂
@Die Gutesten Look, I found the guy who didn't get the joke.
i mean yea, its Linux. nobodys trying to hide that
Wait, is it Android or Linux? These aren't the same thing.
Not Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker compatible!!! That's a pass then
man i love simple jokes. this actually made me laugh out loud.
its actually a really good game
Lmfao
6:23 Oh hello, it's the Android System user-interface! I guess this is running Android! That's going to add a lot of overhead in itself.
Ahhhhh, good old Android.
At least gives you a nice platform for reverse engineering. At least you can put a better emulator inside yourself :D
Or at least deleting all of the unofficial games and adding some of the missing ones, like Sonic 3
I guess Sonic 3 wont work because of the custom chips for the save feature???
I got original Megadrive, a CRT TV, original games, that can’t be beaten, play them as they were intended, that’s just my humble opinion :-)
Jay Ash most old games can't be beaten anyway.
Golden Grenadier Yes they can -_-
ben. PAL ruined so many games with its slow down.
im not being a dick, i own lots of original pal sega shit, but its true
Shame you can't nowadays as CRTs are hard to find these days and even when you do they are stupidly expensive
There seems to be quite a lot of frame skip on the Sonic games, which should run at a solid 60. Is this how it plays or is it how you're capturing the video? Depressing if the former as it suggests that the hardware isn't powerful enough.
The machine has frame skip issues.
Ah that's a shame. Still not too bad and it depends on the game also of course.
I've had one for a while now and I notice it mostly on the faster paced games, mostly Sonic titles, though I have not fully tried all of them yet.
John Daniel Not good for racing or Sonic games. Can't play OutRun which slows the console down which is disappointing.
It’s just so strange - hardware on this emulator device is literally thousands (!!!) of times faster than the original Megadrive, and it still sucks on emulation. It’s just pure laziness if the programmers!
I can't understand how you can say it is not that bad when it clearly has issues doing what it was supposed to. Playing Megadrive games, the stuttering or frame dropping which seems to be the case with every game is just unacceptable. It is emulating an almost 30 year old system and fails at it. That is completely unacceptable imo, and this system is just a piece of rubbish.
I play the SMD Flashback for 2 months now. There are no issues, that annoy me and I have lots of fun, having many of my favorite titles all in one place, working just fine and including a save-option. Maybe for you this is "a piece of rubbish", but not everybody has the money or space to collect tons of cartridges and not everybody wants to load illegal copys of his favorite games on a raspberry pi. So there definitely is a large enough group of customers out there for which a "console" like this satisfies all their needs. No need to be a snob about it. ;-) Greetings from Germany!
To hear people tell it though this thing will kill your pets and take a dump on your grandmother's grave. It's not even close to that bad. It's just not good.
overcooler I've had mine for a week and have no issues with mine. stop belly aching bitch
Completely agree dropping frames is unacceptable!
only the preview models did that shit, FOOL
Comparing this thing to the SNES Mini isn't quite fair. The Mini is manufactured by Nintendo themselves. This is third party licensed. Of course the Mini will be better quality. That said, I think Sega would benefit greatly from designing their own retro console that was capable of playing all official Genesis/Mega Drive games, Master System games, Game Gear games, and possibly even 32X games. It would be harder to do Sega CD just because the inclusion of an optical drive in one of these things starts straying too far from the concept of a small, inexpensive box to play your retro games. I know Sega is "out of the hardware market", but this probably wouldn't even be much of a stretch for them since all of these systems ran on essentially the same hardware and it's not like Sega would be working from scratch.
if they were smart they'd license Kega Fusion from Steve Snake
Its very fair to compare them, as Sega released this as an answer to Nintendo's offering.
They are competitors ffs, why is it unfair to compare them?? Catch a grip.
We are comparing the product, no one carea how it's made
It's perfectly fair. They're both the same type of product made for the same demographic. Sega chose to license out their name and games on a subpar product. Even they've realized it's a bad idea because they're dropping AtGames in the design of their new mini.
I've got a Mega drive II converter you can try on it if you wish?
I know Retro Freak is probably the best way to play classic games with carts or roms and has lots of decent features.
Larry Bundy Jr I appreciate the gesture, but the inclination has passed.
That would be great.
honestly guys just get the real model 1 and a frame master. at games has been nothing but disappointment
although i have to admit there audio is better then before.
Joe from Game Sack already tried using one, it didn't work.
Don't get me wrong, ATGames genesis/ Mega Drive products have always been spotty, and this one is no exception in many regards. But it is nice to see a fair review of this product without bashing it wholeheartedly. It is a shame that there isn't a higher quality Genesis throwback system though.
Though I have to say, ATGames latest Atari Flashback is pretty nice.
schtive81 to be honest because this one has some redeeming features here and there with atgames this the best you can get from their quality in console emulation
I've always been interested in these. I do own original hardware, but the idea of it being region free sounds very appealing
The music is so... Unacceptably bad. Libretro emulators on Android sound much better, so you can't really chalk that up to emulation entirely
Not saying the system isn't a good entry level for someone who's not big into this, but your "raspberry pi in a black box" idea honestly works better for that as long as you've got the patience for figuring out retropie. My pi3 struggles a little with some SNES games but it's pretty spot on for Genesis/MD when I've tried it.
I have yet to see a SNES title that really strains my pi3 model B lol.(Seen a couple frames dropped in games that used the SuperFX chip.) A RetroPi build with a NesPi case is WORLDS ahead of this piece of junk for $100+ US dollars.
Sega Genesis audio emulation wasn't extremely good only until recently. The most recent emulators go a great job, but the older one always fail proper GEMS emulation.
The most known improper emulation is probably is Comix Zone Episode 1, Page 2-2.
ua-cam.com/video/WEvnZRCW_qc/v-deo.htmlm30s
Yeah, difficulty in emulating the FM synth chip properly is why I caved and bought a Genesis a few years back.
@@dizzym9554 Yeah, it may not be Genesis Model 1 music, but it's miles ahead of the dumpster fire that was the FireCore-based AtGames devices. Those things were...*shudders* I got one for Christmas, and wasn't prepared for the ear rape I was submitted to.
Sega should never have licensed this entire market out to AtGames. So much wasted potential, especially in a post NES/SNES Classic world...
Well at least now they also have a license with Retro Bit, although the developers of RetroArch aren't to happy about it.
And yet the games run like shit on here, choppy framerate and bad sound, yeah "so much better". Apologist.
Ha ha ha ha ha! Snes Classic can be modded to play 80% of the Snes library, emulation is spot on and doesn't have dropped frame or bad sound emulation, but keep talking outta your ass XD
Was it a license or a exclusive license? If it's not exclusive SEGA could still come out with a slimmed down console.
No, but they could've used a company that actually made good products
I have to say that this is probably the most fair review I've seen since I got mine. A lot of the complaints it's gotten have felt a bit harsh after actually using the device. And the unofficial games are horrible. I've tried to play through them all and if the horrible, short, repetitive songs doesn't make you quit, the horribleness of them will. One of my bigger complaints is that I cannot figure out how to either reset the thing or delete save states. It annoys me to be asked repeatedly if I'd like to load my state, but if you don't use slot 1, it will not ask you. It has no official support for adding any extra games, but upon disassembly, people have found out that it is running android and has a USB port. Using ADB, they were able to add roms to it, so that might be something to look for if you purchase one.
The irony is you can load Mega drive roms onto the SNES Mini and it plays them flawlessly.
The stuttering would seriously annoy me, and I'm not even an enthusiast
Yeah me to, sound and music is a huge deal to me
Agreed. Any stuttering is the difference between perfect or broken.
Yeah the stuttering is just a huge deal breaker for me
@@adamrocks133 yep especially with Streets Of Rage 2
3:43 Wait, the European version of the SNES Classic / Mini didn't come with a wall adapter? Because the US one certainly did
I had this console when it came out and I loved the headphone input ! Those simple ones with black cushions .. o man we’re is the time
i had 2 AT genesis consoles, both varied pretty heavily. 1 had a sd card inside that i was able to put more games on, and the other was a single solid chip.
Streets of rage 1 & 2, and sonic 3 were left out due to copyright issues. The composer actually owns the rights to some of the tracks in those 3 games.
I currently have a problem where on sonic it slows down MAJORLY. Where the music and the frame rate drops.
A really good review dude.
I have the thing at 1:47 that came in a red box and the audio is slow in every game, but it's also lower pitched! Have you noticed that?
we call it "seaga mega drive" in Australia
I think the red LED is for showing if the power adapter is connected correctly because the LED went off when you pluged the power adapter into the "Mega Drive/Genisis"
Greetings from Germany
~Thomas
ABC DEFG It actually can power through a usb cable off its main board. The usb type B input is inside the shell unfortunately.
What's up with the faux _Star Fox 2_ cart on that SNES Mini? I'm loving it. Where can I get one?
DrunkyMcSwervencrash I made it 😃 files up on thingiverse.
Think I'll stick with my Megadrive X russian clones, they do as good a job as a Genesis 3 with it's mono sound and composite video but has all the switches for different regions and runs my Mega Everdrive!
Interesting they managed to get that cartridge loading system working on Android (seems to be what they’re using on it judging by the cartridge loading bar and the round pop up text at the bottom of the screen at times). Wonder how they managed that?
Anyone can access the Android and Linux kernel sources. It is easy to get raw access whatever is connected to the system if you have root access.
Where did that little Starfox cart come from ?
I was wondering the same thing
My old Megadrive went on the fritz and lacks sound whenever the screen shows graphics (black screen/sound on and graphics on/sounds off), so i bought the small AtGames Megadrive chip clone and can't complain. It will never be a Sega but as a casual gaming device it's not to bad. I spent my childhood playing bootleg Famicom-copy consoles like the Konami Famicom so compared to that, i'm not to disappointed.
AND my girlfriend got hooked on playing the Sega games so it worked beyond wonders.
Would like this fullsize version and will likely buy it when found.
Great video!
9:02 he's like 'delet this'
Superportvein Somebody actually made one of him.
Strange, I bought the SNES Mini here in Mexico, which is the USA model, and that one does come with a outlet connector, which you can plug the USB in.
Born in the UK in the 80's and i have never seen scanlines on a CRT. Is it an American thing? I do recall seeing lines on TV that were shown on TV from the states but never on a UK set.
There are scanlines on a PAL CRT but they're not as pronounced as NTSC because there are 100 more lines of resolution with PAL.
You need a decent studio monitor with RGB input to really get a feel for the scan lines.
Ah that'll be why i had never seen it on our sets growing up
The obvious presence of scanlines that you've observed in footage of American TV sets is an artifact related to the filming process. They weren't nearly as noticeable in real life (though they might have bothered you more than they did me, just as I found a 50Hz CRT's flicker unbearable).
I use to hate scan lines on the old retro consoles. and still do. than goodness for modern TV's and emulation. Just my personal preference
Love your channel, you are the Techmoan of video games
Here in America, our SNES minis did come with a Nintendo brand wall brick and charger in the earlier production runs. The later ones didn't include the wall brick. Thanks for the Reviews, Monsieur Nostalgia Nerd
You can get stereo sound from the Mega Drive on the Mk1 version with the right RGB lead, it has a extra lead that plugs into the audio jack in the front of the console via the SCART socket.. I would stick with my original hardware (other option for stereo sound on the original Mk1 Mega Drive is if you have a Mega CD attached) use jack cable from Mega Drive to Mega CD and then a audio cable to a HIFI or TV if has inputs.. Does not work with the Mk2 Mega Drive.
That is android, I assume a custom version, but you can tell with the boot logo, toast msgs, and that options menu
What you've got there is something running Android 2.3, I recognise the loading bar and notification bubbles from my old phone.
Yes, the OS is Android.
The one I have has
Monkey King 3.6 processor is actually a re-branded Rockchip RK3036 SoC with a dual core Cortex A7 processor and Mali-400MP GPU, and the system runs Android 4.4.
the sound was very weird compared to the real hardware, and the colors looked less bright.
this thing might be convenient for somebody that just wants a quick nostalgia fix but anybody that's serious and want to actually play the games should get a real megadrive and plug it to a crt tv.
Nice vid thanks for the review. What’s the track you play at the beginning??
Got one for Christmas, been playing it for a couple days now--honestly, they must have updated the console, because this one is nowhere near the trash that most have made it out to be. The emulated sound has been *CORRECTED*! They've been working at that ever since the first ATGames handhelds. There is a *slight* trigger lag on the buttons, but once you play a few levels you don't notice it. I enjoy the system personally.
Hello! Great and very complete review!
Don't you know if the "Sega Genesis 4-Player Adapter" by EA sport works with this console?
HDMI spec says it has to supply at least 55mA of +5V and a lot of TVs and such provide at least 100-150mA for powering active devices, like HDMI to VGA converters.
For what it is at that price point its not a bad unit. Considering its just an emulation box with a £9 processor its doing a fairly good job. Ive still got my genuine MegaDrive. I replaced the cartridge slot with a modern more hard wearing one, replaced a few capacitors and its as good as the day it was made.
Where can I get a super magic drive?????
Ebay? I don't think they've been made for like 15-20 years.
I have one of the systems shown at 1:50 and the audio plays too slowly and at the wrong speed.
Hey there Nostalgia Nerd, I'm curious if this iteration of the AT Games Genesis works with
Battery back up cartridges. I have the previous 80 games AT Genesis (the small round
looking one) When I tried to play my copy of Shining Force 2, it would load my saved data just fine, but after I had tried to save and reload the data playing on the AT console. that didn't work.
Wait, why/how does your SNES Mini have a StarFox 2 cartridge in it?
Where does one get a PAL Star Fox 2 half cart for our Mini?
Super Magic Drive niiiiiiice :P What size is yours? I have a 24mbit model, I'd love to upgrade it but it's almost pointless in this day and age.
I was gonna make a video on it years ago but proper edited and professional-looking videos for youtube are way more time-consuming and labor intensive than they seem on the surface. I'm too lazy, so all my quirky game stuff just hides in miscellaneous storage boxes.
Did the SNES classic not come with a wall plug in the UK? I got a USB wall adapter here in the US for both the NES and SNES.
nice video sir. was wondering what your feelings were on the new RETROBIT RETRO ARCADE System
Great review, I have been wondering if this thing was as bad as I heard. It seems like a fairly capable substitute for the real thing and/or if you want HDMI output for your Genesis/MegaDrive collection. The only thing I am wondering about is if this thing is hackable like the NES and SNES classic to allow more roms to be loaded onto it.
I wouldn’t call it fairly capable if it can’t even run at a full framerate.
Being able to play the original software means alot. But as your video showed not everything is On-Q especially with the audio and the small lag as compared to to the original hardware and thanks for pointing that out. As for the SNES mini, there is a lot to be desired with the absence of a cartridge Port. To me personally a lot was left on the table and the desirability suffered cause of. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for the info.
I love Colin's banter in the shop - "What do you want?", "Give me the money" 😂
What was the music you used
i cant understand how a retrogamer can review this sor2 abomination sound as not bad
why youtubers are so afraid to give negative reviews to terrible things like this
Ive never had the issue he was having on mine. Might just be Sor2, all the other games worked fine, with no frame drops.
Arthur Collector well said! I returned mine at Target back in December....we hated it! Froze and crashed multiple times during gameplay with regular games included. Sonic 2 (on 2 player mode) looks like shit. Poor emulation and choppiness is not exaggerated as this unit is a foul played version of a hit 16 bit enjoyment from the past.
He probably got sent it for free by AtGames
I still wish more people made products like this tho. I personally own a genesis but I like that clone systems like this are including original cartridge slots instead of just built in games.
How did you put this cartridge on 14:12 ?
3:20 makes me wonder what kind of shoddy soldering job on the circuit board is inside that thing if an HDMI connection causes the power LED to glow.
HDMI has the ability to power devices. I found out the hard way when my PC was powered off and unplugged but the connected tv was powering my graphics card lighting.
I was gonna buy one of these. Then I figured out how to use rom emulators on my Mac. That openEmu is a god send. Best thing I've ever put on my computer. Hands down.
The ATGames SEGA consoles aren't the worst things ever, but at a price of $80, people expect something that feels more professional than a console that feels like it was made by an amateur hobbyist. The NES and SNES Classic Edition consoles feel like they were made by people who truly care about giving gamers a quality retro experience, with a good selection of games that represent what made those consoles so great during their time, a charming user interface, and a quality physical case. They properly give gamers a retro experience that's worth their time. The ATGames SEGA consoles, however, feel like they just did the bare minimum they needed to, and nothing more. The selection of games is sub-par, the user interface looks boring, and the physical case feels cheap. And for $80, doing the bare minimum isn't good enough, especially when the SNES Classic Edition can do so much better for the same price. ATGames needs to put much more effort into making a worthy retro experience for their SEGA Mega Drive Mini, they need to work with SEGA to include a quality list of games that properly represents what made the SEGA Genesis such a great console, and they need to make a user interface that's more charming than the barebones one they've been using for all their consoles. People want a retro experience that's worth their time, and the SEGA Genesis is more than deserving of a better quality than the lackluster one that ATGames has churned out for years.
Couldn't agree more. Fuck AtGames.
Maybe that’s the whole reason SEGA booted AtGames off there actual mini console and taking another year to develop it for a global release.
At Games is a shovel ware company who will try there damnest to get people’s money. Even going as far as tricking influencers into saying there garbage plug and play consoles actually use arcade quality roms when consumers got home console roms.
Just hope that the 2019 one is good.
Happy new year from a fellow norfolk person !
Fair review but I prefer the original hardware. I get all that I need with an Everdrive.
How does this thing handle 50/60 hz? Do you have the option to switch between them? SoR2 seemed either like the machine was struggling to keep up, like you said, but it also was similar to how PAL games run at 50hz with the slower speed.
+Dibbs of the Grig Gaming Good question: I fear it ignores 50Hz all together and runs everything in 60Hz, but I think that means it won't play alot of the PAL region locked games made by Capcom and Konami. As someone said above, there appears to be no PAL localisation, yet it's bearing the European PAL Mega Drive logo.
There is a way to hack it and add all your own games, but you run the risk of bricking your system, apparently
the sega genesis is the console i grew up with. playing sonic 1 and 2, sonic spinball, rocket knight adventures, clay fighter, and desert strike were my favorite games.
Nintendo did include a USB wall adapter with the (ugly) North American model, presumably because the US and Canada use a single style of power socket for this type of device. Your model is distributed to numerous countries with multiple power socket styles in use, so the added cost of localization (which would have been passed on to the consumer) probably made this impractical.
My brother heard a guy call those little power supplies Wall Warts. I like that,kinda funny.
I don't find the us snes ugly I do however find the us controller ugly with those smartie looking buttons (not the chocolates)
Does Pier Solar work on this?
Are the Game pads rechargeable..?
Hi. One question ... I see that you have the diskette drive of the super Magic Drive. Do you know where to get it? I have a unit in good condition but without the cable and without the floppy disk drive?
Thank you ;-)
Why did the box show a av out?
Whoa they included the original Phantasy Star ... thats rare for compilations
Sadly, they got mishandled by AtGames.
I have the same system and I have 15 or 20 sega games(cartridges) it will say loading cartridge game on the menu screen but then nothing happens and I can't play it ? Please help
My question about all of these systems is do they solve the controller lag issues? I tried emulators and the games dont "feel" right. I dont remember simple games like Mario or Sonic being so hard. I thought it was me until I got a chance to play a sega genesis on a friends tv and sonic became the game I remember from past.
What was that cart in your Snes mini? Is it a mock cart?
This is the best AT Games Megadrive console so far...... most built-in games play well, and the few other cartridges I've tried so far have worked perfectly! The on-screen display is now nice and auto-crops the games to run in 4:3 ratio, and they all seem to scale well up into 720p HD, and sound good too - and of course don't have that old analogue screen-buzz sound that was always present even when using RGB Scart cable.....
I know this console won't run some games even like "Sonic 3", but overall, it's a great way to get into Sega gaming for newcomers - having the old Master System and Game Gear games here too.... but the fact that most Megadrive cartridges also work, makes it a great HD system for general use too for Megadrive fans, and it looks great, and sounds good too - no buzzing from analogue sources, and good to see that AT-Games have sorted out most of the sound emulation problems too!
GamingDude800: No. No, it doesn't. Have you tried this model? This isn't like the older versions using a totally different emulator that did have frame-drop issues, and horrible sound. This one is solid. Looks good, and sounds good, and via HDMI too... it may not be 'perfect', but it's far better than what went before... and until Sega themselves release a "classic" type console to try and match Nintendo, then this is about the best available - and it's very good.....
I never had any trouble with this system?.
Now you have to do one for the legit Sega one coming out this year.
I am a pretty big fan of the Genesis hardware, and I just say... not bad for an AtGames console. Not anything super amazing, but still better than other previously available systems. You'd get a lot more fun out of this than an Xbox 1, at least the Genesis/Mega Drive no longer has working internet to suck microtransactions out of people.
But you can emulate Genesis on Xbox One, just download the app in the Windows Store and you're good to go.
You can, or you can have an atgames Megadrive/Genesis and it has games on there without messing up your xbone
The app is free at the Windows Store, it will not "mess up" with you're Xbox One. BTW, PC emulators are aways a thing,k any shitty notebook can handle'em, just plug one at the TV, buy some USB pads and have fun, bro.
Dickjoke Dandy on that cool, i didnt know you could do that.
@Turd Ferguson Dude, i played Gens32 in 2003 on a Pentium III 700Mhz with 128MB of memory. I used Windows 98, then switched to XP and everything still worked fine. Played a lot of SNES too.
Excuse me, does this console works with all mega drive sonic cartridges, with the two cartridge of Earthworm Jim and with Sonic 3 inside Sonic & Knuckles cartridge?
Do the save states and rewind work on the cartridge games?
Yes.
Hey thanks for pointing that out that it doesn’t work with the manacer despites this unit has composite out, because the emulator just simply messes up those timings sothat the game just cannot read in time for what it’s looking for.
You are the only one brave enough to test out the manacer on this emulator based machine.
So the conclusion is getting a lightgun work with an emulator is just simply impossible because of screwed up timings.
Whoever knows that a quantum computer could do that but i doubt about that.
Again thanks alot for pointing that out👍👍
Can we put patches on the console and load them from the cartriges ?
Yeah i have an old "at games" megadrive type that AVGN reviewed....the sound was bloody awful. Insulting in fact. This looks and sounds much improved albiet not perfect by a long shot.
I've seen the machines where the pitch & key is off. They're like something out of a dystopian horror film.
@Turd Ferguson
I have an atgames SEGA Genesis. It works fine. I copied about 200 ROM files to a SD card and insert it into the machine and can play them without problems. It can even download the ROM from a cartridge and play it.
The only problem is that the controllers are wireless and need 2 AAA batteries, which will last 1 month. I don't have a original SEGA controller but I will try to buy one someday and plug it into this atgames.
It came with 100 games but I think about 80 are SEGA Genesis/MEGADRIVE, a few are Mastersystem, a few are GameGear and 10 or 15 are some no name games.
What kind of roms do you use? Does it only work with rom sega genesis or can it read other console saw type master system? NES / SNES?
How did you get your SNES Mini to look like that?
I wish you uncased the master system conver to be able for testing it out but sadly you didn't so it's still a question remaining left whether a master system convertor will work or not .
honestly, your review me respect this console more. they actually put real effort in this.
damm you have lots of stuff laying arround, this is the definitive test drive for this hardware
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but is it refusing to load any cart with custom chips as it has to pull the game to its own work ram? Presumably even simple additional chips like save functionality wont run, that must be why Sonic 3 isn't a built in game?
Does It supports the sega Power base converter?
can you play sonic and knuckles lock on games? knuckles in sonic 2 and sonic 3 and knuckles?
3:40 uhhhh they DID include a wall plug, I just used one with my SNES mini yesterday.....
This reminds me of a single platform "Retron 5"...didn't they get into trouble for the rom being dumped like that?
They were selling the same thing at a family dollar here in Las Vegas for $39.99 usd
Have you try Castlevania bloodlines on that system?
I would ask; Have you tried a Pro Megamaster (basically a 3rd party Master System Converter, that doesn't need extra leads) in the Flashback or other Mega Drive Clones?
What is with that faux cartridge on your SNES mini?