MantaNZ Posted March 28, 2019 Author Share Posted March 28, 2019 Can you save your game with the x3 cart? Only on games that have battery backup etc. There are no save states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) Can you save your game with the x3 cart? SRAM on the X3 is shared with the memory used for ROM space. So when you're done playing you should hit the reset button and it'll write the game save to the SD Card. On the X5 and up, SRAM is a separate memory space that gets written to the card automatically. It's a super-minor thing. To save $50 USD I think it's OK. I went with teh X5 because I also needed it for Sega CD saves. If you aren't using a Sega CD (not possible with this thing) then an X3 is a good choice. edit: and MantaNZ is right, no save states on anything less than the X7. Edited March 29, 2019 by derFunkenstein 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 I have one of these now, and I've been playing it extensively over the last week. It's a nice, cheap option. Looks good on a big tv, though like most of these, I'd prefer a slightly better upscaler. The console itself feels sturdy, solid, and of quality build. In addition, it literally plays everything I throw at it, so there's that. Combined with one of the new 8-bit do pads, this thing is the first modern console clone I can see using as a daily driver. It's not perfect, but for $30 on Amazon? It's pretty damn close for the price range for a modern clone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envytomdead2 Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) The only thing that has kept me from buying one of these is the wonky master system support. I have heard master system games only work properly in composite. I'm not sure how that would look on an HD tv. If I do buy a clone console it would probably be a mini gen HD or retro-bit trio plus because of better master system support. At least that is what I have read. Mega SG is too much money when I still have a functioning CRT. To be honest I don't mind my Genesis running through my cooldigital av2hdmi 16:9/4:3 converter. Edited March 29, 2019 by envytomdead2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envytomdead2 Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 I'm curious does anyone know what the composite output is like? Is it better than a Genesis 2. I have heard this is the best budget Genesis but the master system games only work properly through composite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 (edited) I'm curious does anyone know what the composite output is like? Is it better than a Genesis 2. I have heard this is the best budget Genesis but the master system games only work properly through composite. Yeah it's not bad, actually. I use mine on a CRT. There's no jailbars to speak off. Any artefacts are caused by my TV (it has some colour bleeding) or the difference in refresh rate between TV and camera. As far as AV out goes it's really good. EDIT: I should add that since I now own one of these I'm pretty happy with it. Sound quality isn't amazing but it's certainly better than what I had back in the day. The music/effects are spot on it's just not as clear as you'll get with an emulator or the Mega Sg. It's probably comparable to the Genny 2. I'm over the moon with performance however. Plays everything great. Yes it has that pixel crawl issue with games of a certain resolution but I haven't noticed it on the CRT so it maybe only affects the HDMI output? Also, there is zero lag on the CRT. It feels like playing it on an official console, only the image quality is better (no colour banding). For the price, it's a bloody good system. Even supports Virtua Racing and Everdrives. ANOTHER EDIT: The packaged controller is nothing short of fan-f@%&ing-tastic! Edited April 7, 2019 by MantaNZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 Okay, I have discovered an issue with Sega Master System emulation. Some games run well but California Games and Lemmings both have major sprite glitching so I'm guessing many other titles will too. This guts me as I was planning on using it for my SMS playing. Think I'll bite the bullet and get a Mega Sg. Or possibly just a region modded Mega Drive. Still very happy with SMD performance though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envytomdead2 Posted April 26, 2019 Share Posted April 26, 2019 I wonder how the retro bit trio or gamerz tek mini gen HD compare to this on master system comparability Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 Yeah I'd like to know too. I've tried a few more and the Retron sucks for SMS. Don't even consider it for that. It is a brilliant Mega Drive though. I might pick up a Super Retro Trio. Only thing is the Genny side of things is only mono audio I believe. Might have to bite the bullet and go Analogue but it's a big outlay - especially with shipping to NZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insertclevernamehere Posted April 27, 2019 Share Posted April 27, 2019 Yeah it's not bad, actually. I use mine on a CRT. There's no jailbars to speak off. Any artefacts are caused by my TV (it has some colour bleeding) or the difference in refresh rate between TV and camera. As far as AV out goes it's really good. EDIT: I should add that since I now own one of these I'm pretty happy with it. Sound quality isn't amazing but it's certainly better than what I had back in the day. The music/effects are spot on it's just not as clear as you'll get with an emulator or the Mega Sg. It's probably comparable to the Genny 2. I'm over the moon with performance however. Plays everything great. Yes it has that pixel crawl issue with games of a certain resolution but I haven't noticed it on the CRT so it maybe only affects the HDMI output? Also, there is zero lag on the CRT. It feels like playing it on an official console, only the image quality is better (no colour banding). For the price, it's a bloody good system. Even supports Virtua Racing and Everdrives. ANOTHER EDIT: The packaged controller is nothing short of fan-f@%&ing-tastic! Wow! Tanglewood is on there. It plays homebrews? I know the Retron 77 doesn't play Atari homebrews and assumed the same situation applied for MegaDrive/Genesis homebrews on their Genesis clone. Do you have other homebrews that it plays? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 Wow! Tanglewood is on there. It plays homebrews? I know the Retron 77 doesn't play Atari homebrews and assumed the same situation applied for MegaDrive/Genesis homebrews on their Genesis clone. Do you have other homebrews that it plays? It's a hardware clone, not an emulation box so it should pretty much run anything you throw at it. Tanglewood is the only one I have to test but I know this console even runs Virtua Racing, which most clones don't. I honestly highly recommend it as a Mega Drive - turns out input lag via HDMI was my TV too as it works great on my PC monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 It's a hardware clone, not an emulation box so it should pretty much run anything you throw at it. Tanglewood is the only one I have to test but I know this console even runs Virtua Racing, which most clones don't. I honestly highly recommend it as a Mega Drive - turns out input lag via HDMI was my TV too as it works great on my PC monitor. Yes, this. It's very compatible. Both myself and John Hancock have large genesis collections, and this plays everything we've tested on it. The only thing I have seen in not run were a couple of obscure Euro SMS games through a new, 3rd part Master System adaptor... and that could well be the adaptor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 I'm over the moon with performance however. Plays everything great. Yes it has that pixel crawl issue with games of a certain resolution but I haven't noticed it on the CRT so it maybe only affects the HDMI output? The pixel dot crawl? Are you talking about the little line of dots that appears on the bottom of the screen that appear to change colors and flicker? If so, that is totally normal and even a real Genesis/Megadrive does this. I don't know the exact reason, but it has something to do with the color DAC hardware and these dots were done on purpose as part of the programming tricks so get the colors or effects to render quicker on the screen I believe? You don't see it on your CRT because those dots appear outside the viewable area of most CRT screens and are in fact in the Overscan area. Modern flat panels on the other hand show the entire screen and that is why you see those dots through HDMI. They don't really bother me since they aren't in the main game play field of view. Also with my OSSC, I'm able to mask them out on the profile I created for the Genesis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 The pixel dot crawl? Are you talking about the little line of dots that appears on the bottom of the screen that appear to change colors and flicker? If so, that is totally normal and even a real Genesis/Megadrive does this. I don't know the exact reason, but it has something to do with the color DAC hardware and these dots were done on purpose as part of the programming tricks so get the colors or effects to render quicker on the screen I believe? You don't see it on your CRT because those dots appear outside the viewable area of most CRT screens and are in fact in the Overscan area. Modern flat panels on the other hand show the entire screen and that is why you see those dots through HDMI. They don't really bother me since they aren't in the main game play field of view. Also with my OSSC, I'm able to mask them out on the profile I created for the Genesis. No, not that. As you say, that’s normal. I’m talking about how some games (I think those that run at 256px wide) aren’t scaled properly and every nth pixel column is double wide, resulting in a weird shimmering effect when scrolling. It’s common in emulators too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 (edited) Yes, it only affects HDMI output. It's an issue with the scaler, which isn't used on a CRT. I bet for use on a CRT it's pretty decent. But they certainly aren't selling it that way, and the "HD" part of "Mega RetroN HD" needs some rethinking. Edited May 4, 2019 by derFunkenstein Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 Yes, it only affects HDMI output. It's an issue with the scaler, which isn't used on a CRT. I bet for use on a CRT it's pretty decent. But they certainly aren't selling it that way, and the "HD" part of "Mega RetroN HD" needs some rethinking. Ah cool, thanks for the clarification. Yeah it’s really good on my CRT. I’m also wondering if it’s my Power Base Mini which is giving me issues with the SMS games and not the Retron itself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
envytomdead2 Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 Yes, this. It's very compatible. Both myself and John Hancock have large genesis collections, and this plays everything we've tested on it. The only thing I have seen in not run were a couple of obscure Euro SMS games through a new, 3rd part Master System adaptor... and that could well be the adaptor. So are you saying for NTSC master system games run fine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmr_md Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 I've tested some games yesterday using a cheap Everdrive and I was somewhat disappointed with this clone. It still worth the $30, but I was expecting more after reading the reviews and comments here. The good news is that it ran everything I've tried to load (ROMs or Genesis cartridges). Everdrive had a garbled screen but it works if you press the reset button. Master System games will only work using the HDMI output if you set the region switch to PAL, and this affects the sound/speed of the games. If you set to NTSC, the colors are messed up and there are some bars in the screen - looks like an issue with the HDMI scaler as noticed by derFunkenstein. The same games work just fine in NTSC if you use the AV output. The audio output for Genesis games IS NOT true stereo. Sonic is the best game to test, and you will notice that only the first (or the second) ring you get will play a sound, the other is mute. The results are the same in HDMI and AV. They've set one of the channels to the right speaker (I can hear Sonic jumping and the part of the music) with unbalanced volume, but it plays totally different from a real Genesis or an emulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 So are you saying for NTSC master system games run fine? The ones we tried, yes, with two different converters. That said, I'm not much of an SMS fan (sold my set years ago), so that wasn't the focus. But it played everything we threw at it. And from what John said, everything he has on his own as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 The audio output for Genesis games IS NOT true stereo. Sonic is the best game to test, and you will notice that only the first (or the second) ring you get will play a sound, the other is mute. The results are the same in HDMI and AV. They've set one of the channels to the right speaker (I can hear Sonic jumping and the part of the music) with unbalanced volume, but it plays totally different from a real Genesis or an emulator. Interesting... I didn’t notice that on my Loewe stereo CRT. Perhaps it would have been easier to tell on a stereo system. Thanks for the info. Anyway, the lacklustre Master System performance has led me to buy a 50/60hz modded Mega Drive. I’ll still keep the Mega Retron though for play on my LCD monitor. Interestingly, no one has mentioned the sprite glitches with Master System gameplay, so I’m guessing I either have a faulty machine or that my Power Base Mini is faulty. I guess I’ll know once the Mega Drive gets here. I hope it’s not the converter cart as I REALLY want to play my SMS collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I've tested some games yesterday using a cheap Everdrive and I was somewhat disappointed with this clone. It still worth the $30, but I was expecting more after reading the reviews and comments here. The good news is that it ran everything I've tried to load (ROMs or Genesis cartridges). Everdrive had a garbled screen but it works if you press the reset button. I tried very hard in this thread to save you that $30. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmr_md Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Interesting... I didn’t notice that on my Loewe stereo CRT. Perhaps it would have been easier to tell on a stereo system. Thanks for the info. Anyway, the lacklustre Master System performance has led me to buy a 50/60hz modded Mega Drive. I’ll still keep the Mega Retron though for play on my LCD monitor. Interestingly, no one has mentioned the sprite glitches with Master System gameplay, so I’m guessing I either have a faulty machine or that my Power Base Mini is faulty. I guess I’ll know once the Mega Drive gets here. I hope it’s not the converter cart as I REALLY want to play my SMS collection! I noticed the issue with the sound because I have a 10" monitor with only the right speaker working to test my devices, and I've played Sonic so much that I know the sounds by heart. After I noticed the difference, I've plugged a stereo headphone, tried to plug in my TV/HT with HDMI and composite cables, but I had the same results... Your power base is good. I can see the same glitches with the Everdrive, Sonic 2 has some glitches on the top the screen. I tried very hard in this thread to save you that $30. :lol: I still think it worth $30 if you want a clone 'just-in-case', or if your TV doesn't support the HD Retrovision cable. Your review is very good but I had slightly different results. The controller is crappy, the dpad is unusable and I needed to plug my m30 to play. The sound in the thing is funny, the left speaker is muffled and and the PSG channel (drums, synth and some sound effects) can only be heard on the right speaker and louder than usual, causing the lack of balance. The PSG channel is supposed to be on the center channel and at a lower volume. If you play Sonic & Knuckles you will notice the right channel doesn't have any music. I'm wondering why they chose this approach... maybe the GOAC has 3 separate audio outputs(L-R-PSG) and they just picked 2? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 . The controller is crappy, the dpad is unusable and I needed to plug my m30 to play. Interdasting. Me thinks you got a dud. My controller is fantastic. I’ve played right up to the last stage in Shadow Dancer with it and it didn’t skip a beat. It feels super nice and the d-pad is brilliant. And while I may have missed some a/v discrepancies with the console I am VERY fussy about control pads. I also have the GN6 pads - they’re okay but a bit too stiff IMO. Still good as far as third party ones go. I never had much luck with 8bitdo - the d-pads register odd directions from time to time. I know there are fixes but I’m lazy. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derFunkenstein Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) The controller is definitely "hit or miss" at the very best. The D-pad on the one I got was also terrible. Very touchy on diagonals. I'd be running along with Sonic and then suddenly duck and spin. And Hyperkin wants to sell that controller for $20 by itself. No thanks. Their cheaper, better GN6 is all you need if you can't get an official reproduction. Even the Retro-Bit repros are cheaper. Edited May 10, 2019 by derFunkenstein Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaNZ Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) Odd... Ive not had those issues. Ill have to chuck Sonic in and have a go though. Oh and apparently the Retro-Bit ones are identical to the GN6 down to the PCB. So yeah, GN6 is probably the way to go. Bit sad to hear of all the d-pad issues with the new official Saturn controllers too. Makes me wonder which el cheapo theyre just rebranding. Edited May 10, 2019 by MantaNZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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