Mini Consoles: Do you have one? Want one?

Chimpzy

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Speaking of mini consoles...


They're doing a Game Gear Micro. Emphasis on the Micro. It's only 80x43mm (3.15x1.7 inch) and equipped with a absolute unit of a 1.15 inch screen. It's slated to cost about $50, available in 4 colours, with each color coming with 4 different built-in Game Gear games. That's right, 4 whole games per variant. Screen too small? No problem, there will be a magnifying glass peripheral, which you can get if you pre-order all 4 colors from the same store. Instead of eating 6 AA batteries, it'll only devour 2. Currently only announced for Japan tho.

This is amazing. It's so very, very Sega.
 
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thebobmaster

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Wow. That's...how do you go from something that's actually a good quality mini console like the Genesis Mini to...that? I mean, I don't think I could even play it without the peripheral, so I guess I'd have to preorder all 4. Which would cost me $200, apparently. For 16 games. Doing the math, that's $12.50 a game.

Yeah, no.
 
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Chimpzy

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Wow. That's...how do you go from something that's actually a good quality mini console like the Genesis Mini to...that? I mean, I don't think I could even play it without the peripheral, so I guess I'd have to preorder all 4. Which would cost me $200, apparently. For 16 games. Doing the math, that's $12.50 a game.

Yeah, no.
I know, right? At first I thought it was a joke, but then I remembered Sega's history and it started making a weird kind of sense. It's a classic "the fuck are they thinking?" style decision, the kind they made repeatedly and which got them booted out of the console wars. I can scarcely fathom a move more Sega.
 

laggyteabag

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Nah, not my thing.

My girlfriend's nephew has a Genesis mini, and aside from about 20 seconds of nostalgia from when I had a Genesis as a kid, I came to realise that retro gaming really wasnt for me.

And honestly, i'd much rather just emulate a game using the hardware that I already have, instead of forking about £50+ to do the same, but worse.
 
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gorfias

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I have a SNES Classic. It was an impulsive Xmas buy in 2018. Wish Nintendo had put more games in it or, in the interest of artificial scarcity, at least let you pick the ones you want. But I'm not complaining, I got it dirt cheap and it looks cute in the living room.
Once I'm done over playing the games, which may be never, and I'm sick of what is on there, I'll risk bricking the thing with this:

 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Nah, not my thing.

My girlfriend's nephew has a Genesis mini, and aside from about 20 seconds of nostalgia from when I had a Genesis as a kid, I came to realise that retro gaming really wasnt for me.

And honestly, i'd much rather just emulate a game using the hardware that I already have, instead of forking about £50+ to do the same, but worse.
It does seem like the emulation on the mini, at least the SNES mini has more slowdown then on the original hardware, or emulation through other means. *cough*
 
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gorfias

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It does seem like the emulation on the mini, at least the SNES mini has more slowdown then on the original hardware, or emulation through other means. *cough*
I got Project 64 for my PC but when I go to download a ROM, my anti-virus software stops me. Might just be a glitch of the AV (Sophos).
 

Chimpzy

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It does seem like the emulation on the mini, at least the SNES mini has more slowdown then on the original hardware, or emulation through other means. *cough*
Afaik, the emulation on the SNES mini is actually pretty accurate, albeit with a 2 frame input lag, and some games running slower overall for some reason like Star Fox. Of course, a cycle-accurate emulator, like bsnes or Higan, is going to crap all over it. Those have the option to run most games with no slowdown at all, something the real hardware never could. Of course, they also require way beefier hardware than the dinky system-on-a-chip they put in the SNES mini

Once I'm done over playing the games, which may be never, and I'm sick of what is on there, I'll risk bricking the thing with this:
Fun fact, you can install PCSX Reloaded on a hacked SNES Mini, the same emulator used in the PSX Classic. Except the games run better on the SNES Mini.
 
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gorfias

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Afaik, the emulation on the SNES mini is actually pretty accurate, albeit with a 2 frame input lag, and some games running slower overall for some reason like Star Fox. Of course, a cycle-accurate emulator, like bsnes or Higan, is going to crap all over it. Those have the option to run most games with no slowdown at all, something the real hardware never could. Of course, they also require way beefier hardware than the dinky system-on-a-chip they put in the SNES mini

Fun fact, you can install PCSX Reloaded on a hacked SNES Mini, the same emulator used in the PSX Classic. Except the games run better on the SNES Mini.
Almost worth bricking just to do stuff like this! To get FF7, 8, 9 and more... never played them as I had the N64 and during my salad days, I stuck to one console only. (There was a PS1 classic that at one time cost only $20... up now during the lock down. I hear you can do crazy stuff with it too, as long as you are willing to risk bricking it.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Afaik, the emulation on the SNES mini is actually pretty accurate, albeit with a 2 frame input lag, and some games running slower overall for some reason like Star Fox. Of course, a cycle-accurate emulator, like bsnes or Higan, is going to crap all over it. Those have the option to run most games with no slowdown at all, something the real hardware never could. Of course, they also require way beefier hardware than the dinky system-on-a-chip they put in the SNES mini
I don't know, at least one the one I have it really does seem to have more slowdown, plus I get this weird sound error with my sound bar, certain snes music pitches play odd on it.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Once I'm done over playing the games, which may be never, and I'm sick of what is on there, I'll risk bricking the thing with this:

I don't think I will. I'd risk it if I had another one to experiment on, but due to artificial scarcity that's scalper territory by now.
 
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Dalisclock

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If I could choose to what games I wanted install on the damn thing, maybe, but most of them are "Here's a package of games based on whatever criteria we happened to pick". I mean, yeah, that's the point of a collection, but most collections aren't baked into the console with no other options.Say, if I purchase the SNK 40th anniversary collection or the Konami Contra collection, I can pop it in and out of the console/load it up on the PC as I want and then play something else when I'm done.

As it stands, I could just emulate the games myself or buy a themed collection and get the games I actually want.
 

Dreiko

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For me it's always about the games, not the systems you play them on. I see absolutely no value in a console that can play the same games but just take less space than the one I already own. This seems to be aimed either at the collector crowd or those people who aren't as much fans of games but will try a new thing due to its fad value or what have you but aren't invested enough to own these games in other systems already or maybe are just super young and never got to own a genesis/ps1 and don't own a pc that can emulate games nor a ps3/4 that can play them.


Oh and I dunno about the other ones but the ps1 mini is just running on some emulator and isn't like the real ps1. Tekken 3 on it plays laggily and combos don't work on it like normal.
 
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Chimpzy

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Oh and I dunno about the other ones but the ps1 mini is just running on some emulator and isn't like the real ps1. Tekken 3 on it plays laggily and combos don't work on it like normal.
All the mini consoles are basically running roms on off the shelf system-on-a-chips doing software emulation. Some are better than others, but none actually use any original hardware. Not even high end clone consoles like Analogue's stuff are true reproductions. Pretty sure that's not even possible anymore. Those production lines have long been mothballed and whatever stock might be left, if any, most definitely won't cut it.
 

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I forgot to mention this, but the big advantage of the Sega Genesis Mini, is that you change the language to Japanese or anything European (most games have a lower framerate or are heavily censored in Castlevania's and Contra's case), you can play different versions of those titles. These can make the games easier or harder. For example, in Contra Hard Corps, you can take 3 hits before dying in the Japanese version. While in other versions, it's standard 1 hit and you are dead. That made the game more difficult than it needed to be. Or you get to see the differences between stories in each region.

The advantage for the Neo Geo Mini is that you are basically getting nearly the entire catalogue of NG games from SNK. Without having to go through compilation packs on different consoles, digital services, or paying big green for the original hardware.
 
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Kae

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They are cute and I like them, but ultimately they are far too over-priced for something that can be accomplished by emulating those same games and playing them with a good quality joystick, specially since there are some fairly affordable good quality bluetooth replicas of those controllers.

So I like them, but I probably wouldn't have one, if I were to invest in something of that style I'd probably go with one of those portable emulation consoles, since they at least provide functionality my PC can't provide.