Compatible with SEGA Genesis Cartridges What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? -3 on it that switches places with more Sonic titles and keeping the Sega Genesis game quantity at 40.Now we get to the cartridge slot and I had only had Joe Montana NFL Football '94,Dragon's Fury,and Dragon's Revenge.The one game that didn't.
AtGames has produced a large amount of Sega Genesis plug 'n play systems officially licensed by Sega, these systems usually include a large amount of built-in Genesis games and some of them even allow the user to use proper Genesis cartridges and play them via emulation, or even slots for classic Genesis controllers. While they may seem like promising products, they are very notorious for poor quality and always having the same problems.
Examples
- Sega Genesis Classic Game Console
- Sega Genesis Flashback
- Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Player
Why Most Of Them Suck
- Many of them (such as the 35th Anniversary one) have very poor build quality, in fact Luigitehplumber (an Admin on this Wiki) managed to destroy one of the models with no effort at all.
- Many of them are also made out of very cheap plastic, with the 35th Anniversary one being the cheapest.
- Absolutely horrendous off-pitch and ear-bleeding sound reproduction in all of the games. Fortunately, the HD version doesn't suffer from this problem.
- They often include shovelware for no reason other than to increase the amount of games included.
- Poor emulation. Using actual Genesis cartridges doesn't fix this.
- Random game breaking bugs.
- Frame rate drops are very frequent.
- Often the systems use frame skipping to try to hide the framerate drops but it's just as jarring.
- The Wireless controllers tend to be cheaply made and are often unresponsive due to using infrared technology. Fortunately, these were replaced with wired ones in 2017.
- Bland interfaces with clunky navigation.
- The handheld ones often have horrible screen resolutions.
- Some of them have RPG games, yet still have no save states or internal batteries, making them almost unplayable. This is unacceptable because the RPG games included take at least 20 hours to complete. That's why they invented the save feature in the first place, so you can shut down the console and resume playing.
- The pre-2017 systems only included composite video output, meaning they could fail to work on modern HDTVs unless you connected them to an upscaler, which typically cost several times more than the system itself.
Redeeming Qualities
- The consoles still have many great games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Ristar,Vectorman, and Mortal Kombat.
- The 2017 Sega Genesis Flashback HD improved the sound emulation compared to previous models, somewhat better controllers, and added save states.
- Some of them do allow you to play actual Genesis cartridges.
- Most of the newer ones include controller ports, allowing you to use actual Genesis controllers in place of the crappy stock controllers.
- The portable versions have a slot on the top that you can put SD cards containing ROMs in. You can also install the Neto Boot Loader onto the SD card to fix the sounds.
Sega has finally done the thing we've been waiting for since the launch of the Nintendo Classic; it has launched its own retro game console. The Sega Genesis Mini is Sega's offering and oo-wee are we excited to see what this little machine has to offer.
Let's have a look at what we know so far.
Retro royalty
Sega Genesis Mini
New Mini madness
The last console in the holy triumvirate is here. The Sega Genesis Mini, with its 40 games onboard, is shaping up to be an exciting proposition for any retro game fan.
What's new with the Sega Genesis Mini?
April 19, 2019: The next 10 games
Sega has announced the next 10 games in its 40-game lineup. Titles include Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — that makes sense, it's the best one — as well as cult favorites such as Earthworm Jim. Earthworm Jim is one of my favorite Genesis games, with its comic graphics and unique platform style. Its inclusion in the list makes me want this Genesis more.
You can find the full list of games in the games section below.
April 3, 2019: Preorder links updated
Sega has finally updated its website to include the proper preorder links. We have updated our links to direct you to Amazon. Not only will Amazon receive a large supply of Mini's it also has that wonderful two-day Prime shipping that we all love so much.
If you don't have Amazon Prime but you buy stuff from there at least once a month, it really is worth heading over here and signing up. You will get two-day shipping and a plethora of other great features.
What is a Sega Genesis?
The Genesis — also known as the Mega Drive in the world outside North America — is one of the greatest consoles from the golden age of cartridge gaming. Graphically superior to anything on the market before it, in 1989 it was the console to own.
When I was but a young lad, the Genesis seemed to be the pinnacle of gaming and underscored how Sega would be the undisputed king of games for the rest of time. Yeah, I was young and foolish ... but it was still amazing at the time.
What's in the box?
The Genesis Mini comes with everything you need to start playing straight away. Unlike the PlayStation Classic, Sega will include a power adapter along with a USB power cord. We haven't seen the back of the console so we don't know what type of USB it uses but it's likely to be Micro USB like the other mini consoles.
It also comes complete with an HDMI port, which is handy, as well two original-looking game controllers. Have I mentioned how much I love that all these mini consoles come with two controllers? It's such a great idea.
These controllers appear to use USB, much like the PlayStation Classic, which is good news and gives us hope that there may be a way to access the Genesis' emulator to have some fun with it.
What does it look like?
The Mini console looks to be an almost exact replica of the original 1989 release rather than the updated version — the Mega Drive 2 — that came along in 1993. It has the original on-off toggle that I loved as well as the reset button. It even has the volume slider, though who knows if the Mini will actually use it for that?
The reset button is likely to take you back to the game select screen but it isn't unheard of for companies to use buttons in new and interesting ways. Let's see what they do with it.
The only big changes to the front are the USB sockets where the old pin slots would have been. These house the new controllers, so they needed that cosmetic change.
What about the games?
Sega has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to give us the names of the 40 games that will be available 10 games at a time. This makes me a little sad but it's a good strategy to keep people interested until the launch date. The games we know so far are:
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Space Harrier 2
- Shining Force
- Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- Toe Jam & Earl
- Comix Zone
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Altered Beast
- Gunstar Heroes
- Earthworm Jim
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
- World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
- Contra: Hard Corps
- Streets of Rage 2
- Thunder Force III
- Super Fantasy Zone
- Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
- Landstalker
Again, there are going to be 40 games available on the Sega Mini. That's nearly double the offerings of any other classic console and gives us a lot of hope for some amazing games. California Games? Outrun? I can't wait to see what else is announced.
Where and when can you get it?
Used Sega Genesis
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9453757/at_games_genesis_menu.png "Classic")
Sega Genesis Mini Gamestop
Right now Sega is saying you can get the Sega Genesis Mini on September 19, 2019, and that preorders will be available soon. It seems that Gamestop has already jumped the gun, though, and are selling the Mini on preorder already.
Retro royalty
Sega Genesis Mini
New Mini madness
The last console in the holy triumvirate is here. The Sega Genesis Mini, with its 40 games onboard, is shaping up to be an exciting proposition for any retro game fan.
What do you want to see?
We all have our favorite retro games, and we all love them to distraction. Which games do you want to see from this console classic?
For me, I hope that California Games makes it on the list. I still have blister marks on my thumb from that game. Let us know what you want to see!
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Original Sega Genesis
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Original Sega Genesis Game Console
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