aliensyndrome

I picked one of these up recently, too (from a pawn shop for only £30). Initially, I had regrets. I thought it was hot garbage. Some of my carts had glitches, the scanline emulation was absolutely terrible and it had all the sound glitching and clipping that I'd read about from the previous model. I was just about ready to take it back when I discovered that they'd dropped a firmware update in early 2019 (to unlock the SD card and make other improvements). I used the custom one available at GBAtemp.net to preserve the Mega Drive branding (otherwise, the one on the Atgames website turns your machine into the Genesis version). What a massive difference it's made! As far as I can tell, all the sound glitches are history, cartridge compatibility has been much improved and the scanline emulation is loads better. The only issue I can see is that most in game sounds effects are almost always half to a full second late and it's very obvious. This isn't a deal breaker for me, but I do know it would drive some people to distraction. And if this is to prevent the music from distorting or glitching out, well then I can happily deal with it. About cartridge compatibility, it's still a mixed bag to be honest, but in an unexpected way. Games that I thought had no chance of running, PAL games like Probotector and compilations like Mega Games 1+2 seem to work just fine (I've only had chance to briefly test these games, however). But other games that I thought would work no problem don't (Splatterhouse 2, Street Racer and Road Rash 2 for example). My games are pretty clean so I don't think it's to do with dirt or anything like that. Weird. Still, it's no trouble to add the roms to an SD card and play them that way. Seriously, I'm shocked! An Atgames Mega Drive console that isn't a huge disappointment? Never thought I would see the day. It's a shame that they finally got it right after all these years only for Sega's own mini console to arrive and steal their thunder. That said, I do wonder how much the old Flashback and the new mini have in common internally. Could M2 have worked their magic and helped improve the code for the Atgames machines, too? And I wonder if we will see Atgames make future Mega Drive Flashbacks once Sega have sold enough minis to satisfy demand? Anyway, credit where credit is due. I have no regrets picking one up and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the SD card model to anyone (but you've got to do that all important update!).

It does sound like a fuse problem (or at lease one of your problems). You should really get yourself a multimeter, but in a pinch (on the Mega/Sega CD model 1) one way to see if the system is getting any power is to remove the RF shielding to access the CD drive and gently move the Laser away from the centre. Then re-attach the Genesis/MD to turn the whole thing on again and watch to see if the laser resets itself to the middle. That will at least tell you if the CD is getting power. I have a broken Mega CD 1, too. But it's some other problem I haven't been able to figure out (my system just hangs on the bios screen). These things must be Sega's least reliable consoles. If you do decided to go ahead and replace the fuse, practice soldering on an old broken circuit board or get a soldering practice kit off ebay. It's an easy repair, but there's still potential to mess things up if you don't know what you're doing.

Gotta say, I'm kinda intrigued by this. I've said before, I'm a fan of the console-on-a-chip approach because they tend to include both A/V and HDMI out options. I liked their Retron HD (even though I got a duff one from an unscrupulous ebay seller that I had to fix right out of the box). It's a curious mix of quality and crap but for the most part, it does the job. If I can get one for close to £45, I'll bite. I can't really justify splashing out on fancy FPGA machines when I have a perfectly good working Mega Drive sitting under a CRT television. But I think these cheaper Hyperkin clones can make decent second machines for taking to a friend's house or for playing on modern displays. Also, it plays Master System games! But as I don't currently own a converter for the Mega Drive, that's an extra £25 to add to the cost, so... It starts to look like less of a steal compared to the Mega SG. I'd like to see how the PAL compatibility holds up, too (the Retron HD was spotty at best with PAL NES games). And I think there's pretty much no chance this thing will play Virtua Racing or Super Street Fighter.

Anyone know much about this new Mega Drive Flashback release (listed here at UK retailer Menkind)? https://www.menkind.co.uk/sega-mega-drive-gold-edition?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8drLyrPS3gIV1PhRCh0UvAyHEAkYAiABEgLzhfD_BwE I didn't see any announcement or updates from Atgames about this. Does it have new internals, or is this just a simple face-lift for the European market? I must say, it's a big improvement in the looks department. The controller ports are off centre, as they should be and the white bezel around the power light looks smart. Atgames still managed to make it look a little cheap and cheesy however: There's an Atgames logo where a "Mega Drive SEGA" logo should be (I'll give them marks for being subtle with the branding, but it still shouldn't be there!), the gold "16-bit" looks merely printed on and there's a big ugly printed "MEGA DRIVE" slap bang under the cartridge port upsetting the understated aesthetics of the European model. But still, it's an improvement for sure. It has limited appeal to me if it still can't play Sega Master System carts with an adapter, but you've got to give them kudos for making at least some effort. I still don't get why it's so hard to copy the system detail for detail, though... Edit: I didn't realise that the US version of this was mentioned in the Hyperkin Mega Retron thread. Still, nice to see some localisation going on from Atgames. Hopefully it goes a little further than skin deep and it can play PAL region locked games. Also, no mention of SD card functionality in the system listed at MenKind.

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.

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.

Well, some of my PAL games are region locked and optimised for PAL hardware (meaning they will have issues running in NTSC hardware). And some of them are getting rarer and more expensive by the day, though I don't think I spent more than £20 on most of them when I bought them, so it wouldn't be easy to replace them with NTSC versions. I'm not spending £40-100 on a copy of Contra Hard Corps when I have a perfectly good copy of Probotector already. It's not that I want to restrict myself, it's just that I'd like to be able to play my optimised PAL games alongside the unoptimised PAL games that will work fine at full NTSC speed (Like Golden Axe, for example), all with the same machine. If the Flashback can do that, I'll buy one. I'll be stunned if it does. An emulator that Atgames have programmed in a year (maybe two) can't possibly be as feature rich as fan emulators that have been in development for over a decade, can it..? It could be NTSC only like the SNES mini's emulator (which is fine for a plug and play with a set number of games). Single chip Hardware clones, like the NES compatible RetroN HD, can play some of my PAL optimsed games but not all of them (it has trouble with Rare developed games). But at least it can play some of them. With emulation based clones, this incompatibility shouldn't be an issue if Atgames have put in the effort.

It certainly is! But it was the dinky form factor as much as anything else that attracted me to that particular clone. I've found one at £45 for sale here in the UK, which is almost cheap enough to get on impulse (regardless of the compatibility issues). But anyway, I think Bill is right. These clone makers will probably all have to move over to some form of HD output eventually. My preference is for something more like the RetroN HD. I know a lot of people here trashed it, but despite some issues with sound, colour, build quality and compatibility (So yeah... Everything) I don't think it's all that bad. In concept at least, it should be the best of both worlds. I guess I like the option to use a console on an old CRT as well as on a new HD display. I know there are some compromises with this approach, but I honestly think the picture coming out of the RetroN HD is decent enough (weird colour notwithstanding) and the lag doesn't seem to be as bad as some people make it out to be. Sadly, few clones seem to tick all my boxes: HD + SD, PAL compatibility, actually works as well as the real thing and isn't crazy expensive. Maybe the Super Retro Trio plus will do the job? Anyway, I'm still waiting to see how the Mega Drive version of the Flashback fairs. Hopefully won't be too long before somebody in a PAL territory can test out some carts (that somebody might even be me). Worst case scenario: it doesn't play region locked games at all (most likely I think it will play them, but they'll be glitchy because they're running at 60hz).

If Atgames are short of inspiration, I found a review on youtube for this adorable looking clone called the MD Compact. I'm sure they can "borrow" inspiration from the form factor. This is really what the original Atgames Mega Drive should have looked like. And it would be very easy to localise for each region too, with red buttons for PAL, black for North America and all the logos in the right place (I know Atgames have a big Asian presence, but do they release in Japan?). From the video, it clearly has better sound reproduction than the "official" clone, too (I sometimes wonder if Atgames intentionally borked the sound to keep Yamaha off their back, especially now those Brazilian guys came up with a fix for the sound issues). I'd snap one of these up if it had HD capability or better PAL compatibility (It's obviously not intended for our market), but I can't justify the purchase of a SD MD clone when I still have a perfectly functional original, no matter how much I might like it.

Here's my wish list for the next version: 1. I'm hoping for greater Master System compatibility in the future. It may be too expensive to go the cartridge slot route and others have already mentioned SD card support, so I'm thinking adding SD card support to the SMS side of the emulator would be the easiest way of doing this? 2. Some way to switch between NTSC/PAL modes for better compatibility in PAL regions. The console war was arguably more one sided in certain parts of Europe, with the MD outselling the SNES, so surely it would make good business sense to keep PAL gamers happy where nostalgia is high for Sega's consoles? Most of the well known fan made emulators have 50hz modes and I know even some previous Atgames Mega Drives had region PAL/NTSC switches. Hyperkin and Retro-bit also produce clone consoles with PAL/NTSC switches to help improve compatibility (it doesn't have to be a physical switch of course, just a selectable menu option for loading PAL cartridges or SD card roms). 3. Aesthetics. One of the great things about the NES/SNES minis is the fact that they come in miniaturised versions of their original packaging. The machines themselves look great too, mimicking their older predecessors almost exactly. All of this adds to the warm nostalgia we get from these devices, which is partly what these plug and play systems are all about. So why can't Atgames do the same? I can't get those nostalgic feels for a console that doesn't really look like my European PAL model 1 Mega Drive (understated and classy, it's the best looking model imho). Instead I'm going to get a system modelled on an inaccurate US model 1 Genesis that, because of the way the logos were printed, still fails to satisfy US gamers with its looks. Yes, the new Flashback is a huge improvement in terms of looks from the generic famiclone boxes of previous generations, but there's still something a bit off about the design. I agree with others who think copying the model 2 is the way to go. That way, it would also be really easy to localise each console for each region (swapping out black buttons for red ones and printing the region appropriate logos). They could also reduce the plastic they use by making it smaller altogether and they wouldn't have to mess around with the controller port locations because they're already accurate (it kinda bothers me that they're not where they should be in the Flashback). 4. An expanded library of Sega games and no bonus games at all. Revenge of Shinobi, Super Hang-on, Space Harrier II, Outrun, Super Fantasy Zone and the Streets of Rage series should all be on the flashback.

That's a pretty impressive collection! I have about 50 at most, which is part of the reason why this Flashback console is tempting me. Just for the RPGs alone, I think it would be worth the price (and since they're unlikely to have performance related issues, I imagine they'll run perfectly). I'm sure once fans get their hands on the console we'll have a better idea how the compatibility holds up. I'd love to know if the Mega Games series of carts load (10 of my games are on compilation carts). I doubt it... I won't know until someone in Europe picks up a Flashback. TBH, I'd be anxious testing out battery back up games in this thing, just in case it somehow wipes the old save files away. But not knowing exactly how battery back up worked in the old days, I don't know if the console will also load the old save files into memory too. Might be interesting to find out. Hey, tolerable is a huge step up compared to the previous models.

I don't know, it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag as far as choppiness goes. Sonic does look to be stuttering a little but Vectorman seems OK to me (though I'm not familiar with the game). I think it's tolerable, but not perfect and certainly not up to the standards of the SNES mini. It's interesting that the Kotaku review mentions 3-button controller support when the Polygon review seems to suggest the opposite! They can't both be right... Perhaps polygon didn't bother testing a 3-button pad? Anyway, a lot of people I'm sure would like to know how well this thing plays actual cartridges, particularly some of the more common games (after all, that's really the major selling point of this thing). Strange that not many reviewers so far have tried as many carts as they can. Two of the reviews I've read complained about certain games not appearing on the system (like Streets of Rage, for example) yet they still didn't bother to see if a physical copy of the game will work in the machine. A shame really, because I can't think of a better game to test the Flashback's upgraded sound emulation.

Bill, I have a question that I didn't think to consider before (I'm not sure you'll be able to answer, but I'll ask anyway...). Are all the Flashback consoles exactly the same, no matter where in the world they're intended to be sold (just like the SNES mini)? By this I mean do you think the European Flashbacks will be localised to better play PAL region games? I ask because I believe quite a few of my favourite Mega Drive games had some degree of PAL optimisation (Thunder Force 4, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ranger X, Streets Of Rage 2 and 3, most European developed games and possibly more I'm not aware of). I hope so, because it might limit the appeal of these new machines if the emulation software isn't able to account for regional differences. I doubt this was a problem with the classic console because as far as I know, the EU version runs at 50hz. I'm looking at the upcoming Super Retro Trio+ as a possible HD Mega Drive console, but the Flashback appeals because it has quite a few hard to find, expensive games that I don't currently own. It's definitely still a contender, but I wonder if it would be better to treat it as I would a typical plug and play console and consider the cartridge slot more a bonus feature. Edit: Oh, I also wanted to know if it's true 3 button controllers still don't work with the machine? Some reviews I've read seem to suggest they don't, which is crazy considering that's the controller model most people are likely to have in their attic/garage/closet.

I can't find anywhere to pre-order a Mega drive flashback here in the UK, either. Mysteriously, I can't seem to find the console listed anywhere, which probably means pre-orders are already sold out. I'm sure it was listed a few months back in the usual places. There is a retailer already selling the "new" old version of the console, though (Argos). That seems to be priced at £60 (about $80), which doesn't bode well for the Flashback to cost £80 when it finally comes out. I mean, why would anyone buy the old version when the new and improved version is only an extra £20 more? I'm hoping Argos are just doing that to make the older version of the classic console seem like a really good deal as they try to shift old stock (the old version is currently on sale for about £40) and they'll drop the price of the new classic console when the Flashback arrives.

Oh well... It's not too much of a disappointment. Given the lack of general interest in the system, it's understandable they wouldn't be interested in implementing this feature in any future revisions. It's great (and unexpected) to be getting any Master System games with the system at all. If we're lucky, perhaps Atgames might produce an upgraded version of the handheld Master System/Game Gear with an SD card slot. But then again, this is probably just as unlikely as support for Master System games in the new Flashback. But who knows? I'm surprised they've made this new Flashback model at all. Good to hear they're sorted out the issues, too.