phoenixdownita Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 To be fair to the reviewers, they could have possibly played the games that weren't jacked up on the hardware and not any of the ones that were. There were a small percentage that were fine. I understand a reviewer is not a tester at the same time thoroughness is an important trait if you want to be believable. If they were just skimming over a couple of games during the process they were not doing their job of "reviewing" .... but it is what it is, the important part is that the unit can be setup so it runs at the correct speed etc... I didn't know it was a "dump&play" setup for external carts, I understand why that would be, likely not the product for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Don't they release one every year or two? I swear the local discount stores are filled with them... Yes, and they're going to release the old SD stuff again. See the links in my signature for a rundown of this year's lineup. It's needlessly confusing, but maybe having all these choices will help them cover the spread of potential customers. I know I was ready to get the "high end" Sega and Atari TV consoles, but we just learned that the HD Sega has problems (fixes expected) and the Atari Activision set isn't available for review or preorder yet. The current portables are the same or better than the portables coming out. If you want an HDMI TV console, hold off until they're ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Graphical glitches like Fat Harry are much easier to spot than skipped frames or wrong audio pitches, especially if you aren't intimately familiar with the original game being displayed. Then you may have reviewers who are too busy talking instead of looking and listening or neglect to mention certain issues because they don't want to alienate companies that supply them review units in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Is Fat Harry a thing anywhere else, or is it "new and exclusive" to this product? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaWarrior Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I really hope your right Bill With ATGames track Record of messing up, They can'r afford to have Bad Press with there products Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHufnagel Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 (edited) If this is just a problem of sending out defective consoles for review, then ATGames better get with those reviewers and send them non-shit consoles. The reviews are really bad and getting a lot of publicity. But seeing how they've been pumping out shit Genesis clones for nearly a decade, I have a strong feeling that what was reviewed is what consumers are going to get. I agree with Rich at ReviewTechUSA in that Sega would be better off making their own clones. Or at least designing them and have a quality manufacturer make them. I'm really disappointed with these reviews. I really wanted to get one. I even told my wife to buy one for my birthday this fall. Looks like I'll just keep playing the Steam versions on my HTPC. Edited July 30, 2017 by MCHufnagel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Expect Fat Harry to be a very short-lived phenomena... Again, the proof will be in the pudding as they say, but fixes are being worked on as we speak. It was a serious, unforgivable mistake letting review units out in that state, but all that can be done now is to correct it and move on. If positive word spreads after the fixes are in place and the new units distributed, great, if not, then again, it's no one's fault but their own. That's business. It's only REALLY bad when you don't correct your mistakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good_Times Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 All this "Fat Harry" talk is gonna send this guy into one hell of a jealousy spiral! I'm holding out for the 'Fat Harry/Dirty Larry/Crazy Larry/Dirty Mary/Dirty Harry' crossover, personally.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 That is unfortunate on oh so many levels. First the most obvious is bad for AtGames that now is in damage control, at least the fault was found before too late, hopefully the HW is plenty capable of run everything at the right speed, with the right pitch and stutter free (which in HDMI world means though accelerating ever so slightly the master clock of the emulated system). The second and most pernicious for me has to do with the reputation of some YT content creators .... a couple of them actually were positively impressed by the product (which is good) but saw none of the faults .... how is that even possible? Considering they call themselves retro-this-expert retro-that-expert it really recast their so called "expertise" into a whole new light. If you are calling me out go ahead and do it. I dont think it was a bad product. For the casual gamer who wants to play some Sega games this is not a bad choice. My unit was not defective like others. I did not experience sound issues whatsoever. My power button was not messes up. I play tested the unit over 10 hours. If you want to listen to garbage reviews like Cnet and others go ahead. Maybe better you do a review and see how easy it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 If you are calling me out go ahead and do it. I dont think it was a bad product. For the casual gamer who wants to play some Sega games this is not a bad choice. My unit was not defective like others. I did not experience sound issues whatsoever. My power button was not messes up. I play tested the unit over 10 hours. If you want to listen to garbage reviews like Cnet and others go ahead. Maybe better you do a review and see how easy it is. You, or this guy: Can we confirm this? According to Bill all units had issues, if yours did not then maybe it's the only review that counts, would you agree? Wrt this, I am not even sure what to say .... if the facts have it that all units are defective and you couldn't tell in the least something must be wrong on how you reviewed it, your stated 10 hours should be enough to see some of the issues. If instead we can confirm that you have a correct/fixed unit then as I said your review (and that guy likely) is the only one to listen to. PS: I am not sure what "easy" has to do with anything in your last sentence, but at this time it is most important to establish if your unit was fixed/correct, not only wrt your review content but as to attest that AtGames has a product that is not .... well the rest of the reviewers use the word "garbage". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 You, or this guy: Can we confirm this? According to Bill all units had issues, if yours did not then maybe it's the only review that counts, would you agree? Wrt this, I am not even sure what to say .... if the facts have it that all units are defective and you couldn't tell in the least something must be wrong on how you reviewed it, your stated 10 hours should be enough to see some of the issues. If instead we can confirm that you have a correct/fixed unit then as I said your review (and that guy likely) is the only one to listen to. PS: I am not sure what "easy" has to do with anything in your last sentence, but at this time it is most important to establish if your unit was fixed/correct, not only wrt your review content but as to attest that AtGames has a product that is not .... well the rest of the reviewers use the word "garbage". All I can say that I did not get a defective unit from what I played. The main issue I saw was lag using the wireless controller on the menu. The games played pretty good and sound was definitely better than previous Atgames releaeses. There was not a noticeable hiss or pop. I just get frustrated when people think I got paid to say what i did. If getting paid a reviewer copy to put in 30 hours of work on a review is being paid then I guess there is that. I cant speak for other channels, but appears that my perspective of the console is different than some. I am not a sensational reviewer. I dont bag on things excessively for views. I tried to review the console from the perspective of someone who would want to relive some classic games of their childhood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 All I can say that I did not get a defective unit from what I played. The main issue I saw was lag using the wireless controller on the menu. The games played pretty good and sound was definitely better than previous Atgames releaeses. There was not a noticeable hiss or pop. I just get frustrated when people think I got paid to say what i did. If getting paid a reviewer copy to put in 30 hours of work on a review is being paid then I guess there is that. I cant speak for other channels, but appears that my perspective of the console is different than some. I am not a sensational reviewer. I dont bag on things excessively for views. I tried to review the console from the perspective of someone who would want to relive some classic games of their childhood. I did not intend to hint/suggest that you were paid to say what you said. I wouldn't care one way or another even if it was the case. I was coming from this statements: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/266499-new-genesis-flashback/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3816880 To be completely honest that review was the first review of yours I ever saw, I must have heard of your work but never really seen any before this one. In the end I surely hope the fixed batch mentioned by the post above does come out and shows that the unit is finally good .... over at sega-16 they are not that hopeful given the 10Y of history prior. Time will tell on this one. Obviously if it turns out you have/had a different unit also it would be great for the product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TokyoBatman Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 John, You seem to be a glass is half full type of person and I respect that. You went into the review looking at the positive aspects of the system for who would likely be the target purchaser in your opinion. I'm wondering if atgames is trying to sell this above the casual/novice player though and trying to capture the deeper retro market. Judging by your game footage, it appears that you do have a faulty unit or let's say, not the unit atgames wants to put out to the public. A sure test for you to experience the issues more noticeablely is by putting on Sonic games. Also test the double button press issue to wake. You'll know for sure then. Anyhow, I think you are an honest guy. You aren't trying to deceive people. Some things like frame drop and frame skip can easily go unnoticed if you aren't specifically paying attention or focused on it. It would be nice for atgames to give you a fixed unit to compare. I heard that they are also fixing things like fat Harry on the Atari flashback. It would be nice of them to give reviewers fixed units of that as well. As you said, you put tons of hours into these reviews and that would be a sort of payment towards that time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaWarrior Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 I wonder why Virtua Racing & Super Street Fighter II won't run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Virtua Racing uses a special processing chip called the Sega Virtual Processor, like of like the SNES SuperFX chip. The emulation or GOAC inside the atgames products cannot handle the chip. SSF2 is a 5MB game and requires a little extra hardware inside the cartridge to interface with the Genesis. I also think that Sonic and Knuckles with another Sonic game will fail on this device. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaWarrior Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 But if AtGames using a diifferent emulator this time around, It should run Like many Emulators on the PC, Xbox & the Wii emulate Virtua Racing & Super Street Fighter II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 (edited) Like many Emulators on the PC, Xbox & the Wii emulate Virtua Racing & Super Street Fighte But there's no PC inside one of these consoles. Sega made some hard to emulate systems... The Sega Master System is probably the easiest to emulate, but it keeps getting ignored. An SMS-Mini should be easy to make; it would most likely be able to play Colecovision games as well, and the system DID do well in South America and GB/UK... so it's not like there's no market... just maybe too many Asian cheapo-units already out there. But I'm sure many collectors in those regions, and North America, would like an SMS-Mini, and the main thing about it is, it seems it would be easy to do rather than these failed Genesis clones. and not that it's a BIG deal, but why do the Genesis clones always ignore the Sega CD/32X? They had some good games too... oh yeah, they can't get the base Genesis itself right yet... a Good PC and GENS is really the only option right now, and I remember it was a long time before they had "every" game running "perfectly" on PCs. (note the quotes...) How about SegaSaturn... they ever figure that beast out? (Don't keep up much with emu these days) Even if you could/can emulate a Dreamcast, can't emulate the controller; or rather VMU, I guess have it show up on screen or something, but that ain't gonna work well for Sonic Shuffle (a classic, am I right ) and those are already limited. (ARE people out there playing DC via emulation?) Jeez.. i just noticed.... the Dreamcast is near 20 years old... that's about how old the Atari was when AA started, and both occurred around the same time... puts thing into perspective... a weird perspective... how many times am I gonna edit this... but I've wanted to ask this for a while: anyone else feel weird typing "AA"? I know we mean AtariAge, but that's never what I think when I read or type it. Edited July 31, 2017 by Torr 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Alcoholics Anonymous and AtariAge are pretty much the same thing, for some people. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 (edited) Granted I do not have one of these to review, but there are a few things I would have tried to do had I had one: I would have tried different length HDMI cables and different ways to connect the HDMI to verify HDMI specs I would have tried to use different games from bitd. Various EA titles, games with saves to see if they work, different home brews I have access too...etc. I would have timed the length of time it took for different games to get dumped. So I would know that something like Sonic might take 10 - 15sec vs PS4 assuming it would work likely takes longer, so that I could know an average of how long it takes to get to a playing state with cart games. I would have researched and found games known to have issues with the previous ATgames clones both in sound and other ways and compared as much as possible. I would have recorded the audio on games that were suspect in audio vs actual as much as possible. I know I'm talking about a weeks worth of stuff here, but I guess these are the kinds of things I would have done if I had one and are the items of interest to me. As for John's review, I believe he did review it in the sense that the console is targeted to the casual market and not to us collectors. After all, if we really play Genesis that much or have an interest in doing so, then we would only want an actual console anyway in which to play the games on in most cases. I know that for me, something like this would never replace my actual Sega setup in my house. But for those getting started who might not have that much to initially invest, I can see how this would be appealing. But only if that experience is somewhat accurate to the real deal. Edited July 31, 2017 by -^Cro§Bow^- 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Granted I do not have one of these to review, but there are a few things I would have tried to do had I had one: I would have tried different length HDMI cables and different ways to connect the HDMI to verify HDMI specs I would have tried to use different games from bitd. Various EA titles, games with saves to see if they work, different home brews I have access too...etc. I would have timed the length of time it took for different games to get dumped. So I would know that something like Sonic might take 10 - 15sec vs PS4 assuming it would work likely takes longer, so that I could know an average of how long it takes to get to a playing state with cart games. I would have researched and found games known to have issues with the previous ATgames clones both in sound and other ways and compared as much as possible. I would have recorded the audio on games that were suspect in audio vs actual as much as possible. I know I'm talking about a weeks worth of stuff here, but I guess these are the kinds of things I would have done if I had one and are the items of interest to me. As for John's review, I believe he did review it in the sense that the console is targeted to the casual market and not to us collectors. After all, if we really play Genesis that much or have an interest in doing so, then we would only want an actual console anyway in which to play the games on in most cases. I know that for me, something like this would never replace my actual Sega setup in my house. But for those getting started who might not have that much to initially invest, I can see how this would be appealing. But only if that experience is somewhat accurate to the real deal. Yeah, last night I went back and tried to play some additional games on it. I played Mega Man Wily Wars, Streets of Rage 2, and Sonic. I did not notice sound issues, and all three were totally playable. As for frame drops, I did not notice any major issues. For me I was not expecting a 1:1 perfect emulation and was forgiving, since it plays nearly the entire Genesis library. Totally reviewed it to a person who is a casual gamer and collector. The rest of us will be playing games on original hardware so I focused on what the whole package offers vs picking apart technical aspects that only a few would care about. Since it looks like Atgames will be updating the reviewer copies of these units, I hope to do a follow up video for everyone. Again I apologize if I came across agitated earlier. I do want to do my best reviewing these products and have people believe that I am doing so with objectivity 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TokyoBatman Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 (edited) John, Your character, enthusiasm, and integrity stand out in your reviews! I know that a lot of people hit you hard on not highlighting some of the issues with the Genesis flashback, but to each their own. You put the time in and gave your thoughts. I appreciate that as well as many others. Keep doing what you're doing! It will be cool to see a comparison video when/if you get the fixed/updated version. Keep your head high and thanks for your continued contributions to the retro community! Edited July 31, 2017 by TokyoBatman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerSpaceFan Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 How about SegaSaturn... they ever figure that beast out? (Don't keep up much with emu these days) Since you asked, I just posted a video about uoYabause which is very very good Saturn emulation...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aUauZ4_XEA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 (edited) Yabause stands for "Yet Another Buggy And Uncomplete Saturn Emulator." I don't believe it's meant to be pronounced. And yeah, it's about as good as it gets when it comes to the PC. Edited July 31, 2017 by derFunkenstein 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerSpaceFan Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 Yabause stands for "Yet Another Buggy And Uncomplete Saturn Emulator." I don't believe it's meant to be pronounced. And yeah, it's about as good as it gets when it comes to the PC. Ah-HA! Thanks man, I always wondered why the odd name. And it's sad I didn't think it was one of those "Yet Another"s considering I own YASI for Vectrex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 (edited) Ah-HA! Thanks man, I always wondered why the odd name. And it's sad I didn't think it was one of those "Yet Another"s considering I own YASI for Vectrex. You betcha. By the by, it looks like none of those games are running at full speed on your phone. Radiant Silvergun and Final Fight Revenge, in particular, are both very obviously slower than they are on real hardware. Amazing it runs at all on ARM hardware, though. LOL I don't want to pull this too off-track, though, since we're supposed to be talking about the Genesis Flashback. My mom and dad thought one of the older AtGames devices with the IR controllers would be a fun gift for me at Christmas a couple years ago. This thread made me pull it out again last night. I still can't believe how bad it sounds. LOLOLOLOL Edited August 1, 2017 by derFunkenstein Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.