New Genesis Flashback

[aliensyndrome]

Lots of these clones have an "oversees" mode, but I think it's just a region switch for Genesis games.

 

Anyway, you're missing out. Import a copy of Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament, it's great. It has two controller ports built into the cart itself, meaning that in some game modes you can play with 8 people using just four controllers. It's still a great party game even to this day. Super Fantasy Zone, while also released in Japan, is probably easier to pick up from PAL territories and is well worth a look, too. It's not as cheap as it used to be, sadly.

 

I can't find any information on the chips or processors used inside the Flashback. I'm not a technical guy anyway, so wouldn't know what to make of the information if I could. But I guess the possibilities will be limited by how much processing power the console has to play with. If the inconsistent performance is down to the Atgames custom emulator and not the hardware it's running on, presumably it could handle a lot of different systems. Personally, I just want it to be able to play more MD and SMS games.

 

I thought about adding games from other systems to my SNES mini, but playing other systems with a SNES controller would just feel wrong to me. I like to keep things kinda authentic.

[MantaNZ]

 

I thought about adding games from other systems to my SNES mini, but playing other systems with a SNES controller would just feel wrong to me. I like to keep things kinda authentic.

 

Same. I just added a few extra games to both my NES and SNES Classics and I must say they've turned me off my Raspberry Pi. I loved that thing until I played the Nintendo Classics. Turns out the Pi has a bit of input lag. I did wonder why Mario Kart didn't feel as fluid as I remembered. lol. For other systems I just load emulated games directly from Steam Big Picture. GOODBYE PI! Edited November 8, 2017 by MantaNZ

[Hydro Thunder]

Got my AtGames Genesis FB ordered from Best Buy, should arrive on Wednesday. Please please please play Rock n' Roll Racing and Streets of Rage 2 and 3. *fingers crossed*

[onmode-ky]

I'm not a regular participant in this thread, but I felt I should jump in here to try to head off some misinformation at the pass. So far, I've seen two YouTube videos in which people have opened up their Genesis Flashbacks and reported that the chips on the board include a 2-gigabyte RAM module and a 16-gigabyte flash memory module. These amounts are incorrect. Memory chips are described in bits, not bytes; the datasheets for the chips in question show that they are 2 gigabits of RAM and 16 gigabits of flash memory. Thus, 1 byte being 8 bits, the correct data for the Genesis Flashback are 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM for working space (same amount as in the NES/SNES Classic Editions) and 2 GB of NAND flash for game image storage (4x the amount in the NES/SNES Classic Editions).

 

And that's all I've dropped in to say. Carry on!

 

onmode-ky

[derFunkenstein]

That doesn't do PAL either. But I've watched a few reviews of it and it seems pretty neat.

 

Anyway, I learned something interesting about the new Flashback that I'm not sure many are aware of. According to youtuber RoXolid Productions, this console actually has a microUSB port on the board inside the case. He contacted Atgames concerning some performance issues he was having with a Flashback he was able to buy ahead of the official launch and they apparently sent him a firmware update, which he then used to update the software via the microUSB on the console's board. If this is true, then it means hackers may find ways to add more games and features to the Flashback, much in the same way the NES and SNES minis have been hacked.

 

Suddenly this console's become a lot more exciting.

 

Whoa. I haven't been around for a few days and this is the first I heard of it. The audio in his video sounds much like the stuff that Bill posted on Armchair Arcade, so I'm not holding out hope that the 2017 model will get any better. But I'd be interested in see what hackers do with it.

Edited November 15, 2017 by derFunkenstein

[doctorclu]

To clear up any confusion, this is new emulation on a new hardware platform. This has true 720p output and looks and sounds the way it's supposed to, along with additional special features, including rewind and save states, which also works on any cartridge you insert. Reviews of all the AtGames products should hit on the 28th once the embargo is lifted. That's also when pre-order details will be revealed.

 

And to answer the emulation question, it's an original creation by the aforementioned Marat. There is no re-use of others' code. Say what you will about AtGames, but they don't take things without explicit permission.

 

Say what I want? Ok. When AtGames is not reshelling something for the third year in a row, they come up with great retro products.

 

I still think the Atari Flashback Portable was genius. Shame they didn't listen what the fans wanted or identified as problems in emulation and release another unit the second year with most of the same problems. That was a pity.

 

But when AtGames actually does get off their rump after coasting a year here and there, they make good product.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Say what I want? Ok. When AtGames is not reshelling something for the third year in a row, they come up with great retro products.

 

I still think the Atari Flashback Portable was genius. Shame they didn't listen what the fans wanted or identified as problems in emulation and release another unit the second year with most of the same problems. That was a pity.

 

But when AtGames actually does get off their rump after coasting a year here and there, they make good product.

 

I 100% get the feeling, but it's not always as straightforward as "coasting,", i.e., not wanting to do something. Again, though, from the outside, I can totally see how it seems like that. Bigger changes are indeed planned for 2018 if that's any consolation, and obviously they're constantly trying to negotiate with existing and new partners (it's a particular challenge with some of the Japanese companies, who obviously do things very deliberately).

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

Say what I want? Ok. When AtGames is not reshelling something for the third year in a row, they come up with great retro products.

 

I still think the Atari Flashback Portable was genius. Shame they didn't listen what the fans wanted or identified as problems in emulation and release another unit the second year with most of the same problems. That was a pity.

 

But when AtGames actually does get off their rump after coasting a year here and there, they make good product.

Rumor has it that this year's release of the Atari portable has improved compatibility with the original roms over last years model?... If true, then that would seem like something was done to try and mitigate some of the issues of last years version.

[Bill Loguidice]

Rumor has it that this year's release of the Atari portable has improved compatibility with the original roms over last years model?... If true, then that would seem like something was done to try and mitigate some of the issues of last years version.

 

It's not a rumor, but it was just emulation improvements for the built-in games. For instance, Galaga Galaxian didn't play correctly until this year and other games had some display tweaks. If those improvements improved non-built-in games, I can't say, since I haven't done the testing.

[doctorclu]

 

It's not a rumor, but it was just emulation improvements for the built-in games. For instance, Galaga Galaxian didn't play correctly until this year and other games had some display tweaks. If those improvements improved non-built-in games, I can't say, since I haven't done the testing.

 

'Bout to say, they finally ported Galaga to the Atari 2600?! I was about to hunt down one of these units for... oh... nevermind, just Galaxian.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

It's not a rumor, but it was just emulation improvements for the built-in games. For instance, Galaga Galaxian didn't play correctly until this year and other games had some display tweaks. If those improvements improved non-built-in games, I can't say, since I haven't done the testing.

Oh I know it isn't rumor...I was trying to make a point that it wasn't the same as last year's model and was trying to be funny about it but failed in that endeavor. Berzerk was one of the games that didn't work normally on last years model unless you grabbed a patched version of it that would work. So it does make me curious what other games might work now that didn't before.

[Devilotx]

So as we've seen, this device has not only a USB port, but a USB port that can power the device, yet it has a single barrel connector.

 

That being said, has anyone heard of someone working to open this thing up to flashing more roms? ala the NES/SNES Classics? I know this is obviously a bit more under the radar, but I've got this thing sitting in my closet to give to my wife for Xmas, and I'd love to flash a few of her favorite games to it.

[SignGuy81]

So as we've seen, this device has not only a USB port, but a USB port that can power the device, yet it has a single barrel connector.

 

That being said, has anyone heard of someone working to open this thing up to flashing more roms? ala the NES/SNES Classics? I know this is obviously a bit more under the radar, but I've got this thing sitting in my closet to give to my wife for Xmas, and I'd love to flash a few of her favorite games to it.

 

 

Well, at least with this, unlike the NES/SNES Classics, you can get the carts of your wife's favorite games. But the convenience of not having to get up to change carts would be nice too though so I can still see the need for the hack.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

So as we've seen, this device has not only a USB port, but a USB port that can power the device, yet it has a single barrel connector.

 

That being said, has anyone heard of someone working to open this thing up to flashing more roms? ala the NES/SNES Classics? I know this is obviously a bit more under the radar, but I've got this thing sitting in my closet to give to my wife for Xmas, and I'd love to flash a few of her favorite games to it.

Yes this has been attempted as it is confirmed to run on Android and some version of 4.x Android. So far I think only basic reading of the files onboard have been possible as the actual locations for where the game roms hasn't quite been discovered.

[Flojomojo]

Yes this has been attempted as it is confirmed to run on Android and some version of 4.x Android. So far I think only basic reading of the files onboard have been possible as the actual locations for where the game roms hasn't quite been discovered.

 

Do you have a link that confirms it's Android? I see this video, but he provides no evidence other than being able to read out a portion of the flash and a wild-ass guess. I'm not convinced yet.

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Look at this video here:

 

[+OLD CS1]

Well, what the heck. I figure I will throw in my US$.02 (worth less or worthless, take your pick, in England and Euroland) on the Sega Genesis Flashback, too. (If I make any changes it will be to fix type-os and formatting, not content.)

 

https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/entry/14351-spending-some-time-with-the-sega-genesis-flashback/

[jkgamer]

So I've had a few days to tinker with this new ATGames device and I must say it's been great fun. Not only can I confirm that it is running a version of Android 4.4.4, but I can also provide details on how to roll your own ROMs and add them to the device.

 

I should state that tinkering around inside one of these can be a bit risky. You could delete vital files and render your ATGames Genesis device a brick. I'm presenting this information for those of you who are more adventurous and/or have a bit of experience messing with the Android debugger. I am not responsible if you follow these instructions (or don't) and brick your system. You've been warned.

 

Getting Inside

The first thing we need to do is disassemble the unit and get access to the mini-USB connector inside. There are 7 screws that hold the case together, two are exposed, four are underneath the rubber feet, and one is under the label. Obviously, opening up the unit is going to void any warranty or chance to return it to the store. After unscrewing all 7 screws, carefully separate the top and bottom halves, not pulling too hard as there are hard wired connections that need to remain in place. After opening the unit in clam shell fashion, you should see the motherboard exposed with the mini-USB port. You will also notice a wire that appears to have become disconnected from being too rough on opening the case. Do not worry, that wire doesn't connect to anything other than the motherboard. It is the antenna for the wireless controllers. Before connecting up to your PC, be sure to unplug the power from the unit. When you plug the USB cable into your PC, it will power on without the AC adapter. It also will remain on as the on/off switch only applies to the AC adapter.

 

Connecting and Exploring

After you've connected the unit to your PC via the USB cable, your PC should detect that an "ADB" device has been connected, but most likely won't contain the proper driver for it. One clue as to the driver is that it comes up and starts searching for an "rk3036" driver. This suggests that the ARM processor inside the unit is from RockChip, even though the CPU chip itself is silk screened with MonkeyKing 3.6. After scouring the interwebs and numerous attempts and storing generic USB ADB drivers, I found this RockChip repository on github (https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkbin/tree/master/tools/DriverAssitant_v4.5). These are the correct drivers, although I only got them working after starting over with a clean system and installing them fresh. It seems previous attempts and installing the generic drivers somehow messed up my system so that it would no longer accept the proper drivers. I also installed Google's Android Studio which can be downloaded at (https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html). This is necessary so that you can run the Android Debugger and explore the contents of our new toy. After getting the drivers installed and Android Studio up and running, you will need Java too, I was able to pull up a DOS command prompt and type "adb devices". Sure enough, I was now able to see that the device was present and typing "adb shell" had me sitting at an Android prompt where I could start exploring its file system.

 

Where the ROMs are

Browsing through the various Android/Linux type files, I couldn't seem to find any ROM files, however there was a very large file named "com.atgames.menu.hal.obb" about 91MB in size. A little more research and I was able to discern that this was in fact a sort of disk image file that could be mounted under Android. This file is actually located in two places, "/system/preinstall/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb" and "/sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb". The first appears to be in case you need to recover your original version, which I did have to do at one point. The second is the one that we will actually pull to our PC and modify before building it back up and pushing it on to the device with new ROMs. The OBB file is generated/dumped via a batch file that comes with the Android SDK. However, my initial attempts to dump the contents of the OBB file would fail with a java exception about 75% of the way through. -sigh-. So I pulled up the file with a hex viewer and discovered that it appeared to be a FAT32 disk image. I already own a copy of "WinImage" (http://www.winimage.com/download.htm), so I decided to see if that would open the file. Sure enough, it worked. I was able to use WinImage to extract the entire contents to a folder on my PC. Among the files in that folder were other folders containing the box art PNGs, gzipped cartridge rom images, and a configuration file that I will detail later.

 

Getting the ROM images onto your PC

In order to extract the contents of the OBB file, we first have to get the file onto our PC. You can do this by bringing up a DOS command prompt, changing to the directory location that you wish to copy the OBB file to and executing the following command.

 

adb pull /sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb

 

Once it has finished copying and the prompt returns control back to you, you can then open up WinImage and open the file there. You may have to set the "Files of type:" to "All files (*.*) in order to browse for the .obb file. After opening the file, right click on the root folder in the left pane and select "Extract". Choose your storage path and make sure you've elected to "Extract with pathname". This gives you the entire contents of the obb folder which we can use later to create a new .obb file to upload to the Sega Genesis HD (2017). Looking through the extracted files you will see a Genesis folder, a Gg folder, and a Sms folder. This is where the ROM cartridge binaries are stored along with their title box art PNGs. The ROM binaries are all compressed with gzip. I used Cygwin to compress and decompress the ROM binaries and compared them to my backup archives. There may be other tools out there to gzip compress the binaries, but I'm just informing you of what worked for me. The PNGs appear to have all been created with Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. The dimensions of the box art files is 214 x 300 pixels WITHOUT an ICC Profile in the image. (Adobe Photoshop Elements 18 has an option when saving a PNG (Color: [ ] ICC Profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1) which I had to uncheck in order for the PNGs to work with the unit.

 

Adding Your Own ROM Binaries

Once you've extracted the contents of the OBB file, you can start copying over gzipped ROM binaries of your own. My suggestion would be to start with a single ROM binary. If you do not include a box art PNG image with the same main filename (i.e. mygame.bin.gz + mygame.bin.png) it should just use the unkown_game.png. If you do decide to add your own box art and it doesn't like the particular PNG format that you saved it as, you will most likely be greeted with a continuously "Loading..." screen instead of a cartridge selection menu. If that happens see the recovery section below. Once you have added your binaries and PNG artwork, we have to edit the all-games.ini file located in the atgames folder of our extracted OBB files.

 

The alt-games.ini File

This part rivals the preparing of the box art as to being a pain in the arse. Every game cartridge must have an entry in this file in order for it to be recognized by the system. If you are only adding one or two binaries, not a big deal, adding 57 binaries, excruciating. The files is a plain generic text file that contains many entries in the following format.

 

[Game Title]

File=atgames/Genesis/GameTitle.bin.gz

Platform=Genesis

Genre=Sega

Description=The best Genesis game ever.

Dpad=Directional movement

Start=Start, pause

A=Action

B=Backup

C=No function

X=No function

Y=No function

Z=No function

 

The above sample entry should be mostly self explanatory. It starts with the game's title inside the square brackets, followed by the path in the OBB file structure to the binary itself. In this example, the game is being added to the Genesis folder. Just an FYI, I haven't seen anything that restricts Genesis, Master System, or Game Gear files to a specific folder. In fact, the Sms folder contains both Sega Master System titles and Game Gear titles. I even thought about cleaning it up, but I left it out. The Genre determines whether it shows up in the Sega Games (Genre=Sega) section, the Mortal Kombat (Genre=mk) section or the Bonus Games (Genre=Arcade) section. The rest of the fields are just documenting the title. As you scroll through the all-games.ini you may notice that there are entries that are preceded with hash tags. The hash tag simply comments out that line in the file and the menu system ignores those lines.

 

Rebuilding the OBB file and pushing it back to the Sega Genesis HD (2017)

Once we've got all our binaries added, all of our box art added, and we've finished adding the all-games.ini entries for each title, we are ready to rebuild the OBB file. This is where the Android SDK jobb batch file comes in. Open up a DOS command prompt and change to your Android SDK tools bin directory. Mine is C:\Android\SDK\tools\bin, yours will probably be something else since I changed the default location when installing it. Android doesn't like spaces in file paths, so I usually won't install to the "Program Files (x86)" folder. If you have trouble executing these commands, you may need to reinstall your Android SDK into a path free of spaces. Once you are at the correct directory, you should see a jobb.bat file there. You can rebuild the .obb file by executing the following command at the prompt.

 

jobb -d /OBBImageFolder -pn com.atgames.menu.hal -pv 1 -o com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb

 

OBBImageFolder should be the path where you extracted the original OBB image files and added your customizations. Again, avoid placing the folder in a path requiring spaces, if you do have spaces, try enclosing only the path in quotation marks. The OBBImagFolder should contain the atgames folder only. Inside the atgames folder is where your Genesis, Gg, and Sms folders should be located. If you were to open the .newobb file in WinImage you should see atgames in the root folder of the image. This is important, if you get this wrong, you will probably end up with the cycling "Loading..." screen.

 

Now that we have rebuilt the .obb file (com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb), it's time to push it back onto the Sega Genesis HD (2017). Execute the following command at the DOS prompt from the same folder where your new obb file exists.

 

adb push com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb /sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal/

 

(Be sure to include the forward slash at the end of that command, you could also use /sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal/com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb as the destination parameter, but we've done enough typing, let's save a few keystrokes.)

Now you've got your new ROMs on the system, but they still can't be accessed yet. For that you need to follow the next section's steps.

 

Swapping OBB files via ADB Shell

Now we need to go in and remove the old obb file and rename the new obb file to take its place. However, since the com.atgames.menu.hal.apk application is always running, you can't simply push your new file up to the system with the original file name. Doing so, almost always results in a corrupted com.atgames.menu.hal.obb file result. This is because the menu application is constantly accessing that file. The best way I have found to get around this is to start a game from the menu (it doesn't matter which one) and then launch the Android debugger with the command

 

adb shell

 

Once your in the debugger and the game is running, you type the following at the root@rk3036: prompt (Android prompt) so that we can find out which process id to kill to stop the menu app.

 

ps

 

This should give you a list of all processes that are currently running on the unit. Look for the com.atgames.menu.hal entry on the right side of the list and it's corresponding process ID number which is in the second column from the left. For example: My current listing shows that com.atgames.menu.hal process ID is 588. This can and will most likely change between sessions, but for now, we just want to kill it so we can swap out the obb files. Type the command

 

kill 588 (or whatever your process ID was)

 

Now we need to change to the folder that contains our OBB files. Use the following command

 

cd /sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal

 

follwed by:

 

ls -al

 

You should see both the original com.atgames.menu.hal.obb and our newly uploaded com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb files. We need to remove the original now that the menu is no longer running. You can do this with the following command:

 

rm com.atgames.menu.hal.obb

 

Just to make sure it's gone, because sometimes parts of it remain or are recopied by the OS, do another ls -al and see if it is really gone. If not repeat the rm com.atgames.menu.hal.obb. I've never had to do this more than twice. It may have something to do with timing and one of the other processes tries to put it back, I'm not sure. But it needs to be gone before we rename our new obb file with the following command:

 

mv com.atgames.menu.hal.newobb com.atgames.menu.hal.obb

 

Perform another directory (ls -al) to make sure you got the name right. You might also want to verify that the size of the file matches the size of the file on the windows side.

 

Voila!

It's now time to exit out of the shell and reboot the unit. Go ahead and type exit to get out of the shell then issue the following command at the DOS prompt:

 

adb reboot

 

If everything went just right, you should now be presented with the game selection screens including your added binaries.

 

LOST.DIR

Because the original obb file appears to get recopied/reconstructed by the OS, you may want to check the /sdcard/LOST.DIR folder after rebooting a fresh change. This is because the system will run a check disk when it starts up and any bad files/chunks that are found will be placed in here. It is safe to use the adb shell to "rm *" all of those files. I need to see if there is a way to truly suspend the system so that it doesn't keep trying to replace the original file. Once you've renamed the new file the same as the original, it won't overwrite it, but if it doesn't see the original filename in that folder, it thinks something is wrong and it needs to restore it.

 

RECOVERY

If you get locked into a cycling "Loading..." screen, you should still be able to connect up to the unit via the adb shell. While I haven't seen a situation where I have not been able to connect via the debugger, be aware that if you go beyond messing with the obb file, I can't make any guarantees that you won't brick your system. The Android Debugger runs software on both sides in order to work (PC and Android) and if you kill a required file or application on the Android side, there's no telling if you can reset it to come back. There is a button on the motherboard to reflash an entire firmware image, but I haven't been able to dump an original or full firmware image to restore from and I doubt ATGames will provide us with one. That being said, if you just managed to screw up the obb file, it's rather simple to get back to working condition. Remember at the beginning I mentioned that there were two locations where the original obb file was stored? Well we just need to copy that obb file over are failed one. The only problem this time is that we won't be able to kill the "com.atgames.menu.hal" process, because it will just restart itself since we aren't running one of the emulators. So to restore back to working condition the following command from inside the adb shell should work:

 

cp /system/preinstall/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb /sdcard/Android/obb/com.atgames.menu.hal/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb

 

That should get you up and running again. I would also clean out the LOST.DIR directory as mentioned above after rebooting before attempting again. If you fail to do so, you will find that it won't take long to run out of flash memory space. BTW - Someone earlier in this forum stated that there are 2GBs of flash memory available for ROM binaries. Well the fact is that while there is 2GB of flash memory in the unit, only 949.0MB is partitioned for the /sdcard folder, so we have just under 1 GB for binaries and box art.

 

Summary

I hope this helps anyone wanting to hack into their new ATGames Sega Genesis HD (2017) units. And I hope that no one ends up bricking their system. I've tried to cover as much detail as possible, if you find something missing, feel free to let me know. And if you are a more experienced Android developer and have some pointers on how to avoid the issue with the LOST.DIR, I would welcome that feedback as well. BTW - I wouldn't try replacing the /system/preinstall/com.atgames.menu.hal.obb file with your new one as you may never be able to restore if you do. It's not that easy to replace it anyway as the /system folder is mounted as ro shortly after booting the system. There are ways to remount that as rw, but I see no real reason to do that as I haven't even come close to filling this thing up yet. Also, if you still can't get your system running after restoring the original obb file, you could try executing the shell script located in the /system/preinstall folder (./setup.sh from within the adb shell and that directory.) BTW - Looking at the setup.sh script, it appears that the Atari Flashback 8 Gold uses the same chipset/script for it's install, but the FCC images of it's motherboard does not show a USB connector, only some solder points to presumably add one. Good luck and have fun!

Edited November 22, 2017 by jkgamer

[Flojomojo]

Wow!

 

If anyone cares about old genesis games, it should only be a matter of time before someone builds a one-click installer for reflashing the firmware with more ROMs.

 

This is why these things need an SD card slot. :-)

[Hydro Thunder]

Initial impressions for me:

Bad start...you have to open the controllers' battery ports with a tiny screwdriver and use AAA batteries which aren't provided. After stumbling around to find both the screwdriver and the batteries (which I had somewhere in the house), I discovered that one of my controllers lights up but won't connect to the system any way any how (after many restarts, flipping the P1 / P2 switch, anything I could think to do). Fortunately the 2nd controller provided does connect. But really, having to screwdriver open the battery hatch every time the batteries run low? That's just poorly thought out. I don't think I've had to unscrew a battery hatch on a controller in many years; should be a spring or flip slider like every controller or remote made since 2012 or so

As to how well they work, well. I guess I was expecting better. I kept causing the system to pause or it would just stop reading my inputs if I lowered the controller at all. And if I don't have freedom of movement with the controller, wth is the point of it being wireless? So sure, I will be using a Genesis controller with an extension cord...but I was really hoping & looking forward to playing wirelessly and care free from the couch and that expectation has not been met.

 

But anyway, once I got used to the controller business...I did get some good news. It does play Rock n Roll Racing from cartridge. So I enjoyed that for a good hour or so, my favorite 16-bit game.

I don't have a "buy it!" or "don't buy it!" vote just yet, I'm in the middle at this point. I'll give it some more time after the holiday and test Streets of Rage 2/3, Skeleton Krew, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Adventures of Batman & Robin, and Dragon's Fury and report more impressions.

[Bill Loguidice]

The screw thing is a legal requirement because it's classified as a toy. This way children won't choke on the batteries.

 

There should be no issues with controller range and connectivity unless you bought an old model with infrared controllers. If you didn't and have the HD model, bring it back and get a new unit. Either way you should obviously have two working controllers.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

And the controllers are blue tooth or some form of RF now correct? So they shouldn't rely on line of sight to operate. But likely have distance restrictions and naturally stuff in front of the unit or I should say a barrier between the FB HD and your controllers could cause some communication issues.

[Bill Loguidice]

And the controllers are blue tooth or some form of RF now correct? So they shouldn't rely on line of sight to operate. But likely have distance restrictions and naturally stuff in front of the unit or I should say a barrier between the FB HD and your controllers could cause some communication issues.

 

Yes, 2.4 Ghz, similar to Bluetooth. Range has been tested to 30 feet or so without issue, but obviously that distance will vary depending upon the conditions you cited.

[Flojomojo]

Just to be completely explicit about this ...

 

Sofa, you don't have this one, do you? That's the one that uses infrared (line-of-sight) controllers. This has been around for many years and people hate it because the sound sucks.

 

 

This is the Flashback, with radio frequency controllers.

 

 

Sega/AtGames could do a better job of differentiating their products. The SD one shouldn't even be on the market anymore. I guess it sells because it's cheap?

[Bill Loguidice]

Retailers want an inexpensive option. It was not possible to make the HD console inexpensive this year. Anyway, the current version of the SD consoles on the shelves only have wired controllers. They don't even support infrared controllers anymore.