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What do you think of the Nomad?


Steven Pendleton

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I love the Nomad. Nomad + MegaSD is awesome. Why does nobody talk about how awesome it is? I imagine it has to do with the fact that it was never released outside NA, is region locked, and usually Japanese carts do not fit (only my Japanese Sonic 1 cart and my Gleylancer reprint fit somehow. Gleylancer is a tight fit, though. Sonic fits more or less perfectly. None of my other carts fit, though).

 

Anyway, what do you think of the Nomad? Do you like it or do you think it's terrible?

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I can think of a few reasons why people don't talk about it (many of these are the same reasons people don't talk much about other handhelds, like the Game Gear):

  • Big/bulky/inconvenient to use in this day and age.
  • Awful screen without a mod.
  • Most-likely to be tethered to a wall via an A/C adapter, limiting its portability.
  • Easy to emulate Genesis/Megadrive on a smartphone and use a secondary controller (or controller attachment that wraps around the device).

I like the Nomad, but I don't find much point in using it in this day and age. To be fair, I don't do a lot of handheld gaming in general. When I do, I use a Switch or DS/3DS.

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13 minutes ago, Austin said:

I can think of a few reasons why people don't talk about it (many of these are the same reasons people don't talk much about other handhelds, like the Game Gear):

  • Big/bulky/inconvenient to use in this day and age.
  • Awful screen without a mod.
  • Most-likely to be tethered to a wall via an A/C adapter, limiting its portability.
  • Easy to emulate Genesis/Megadrive on a smartphone and use a secondary controller (or controller attachment that wraps around the device).

I like the Nomad, but I don't find much point in using it in this day and age. To be fair, I don't do a lot of handheld gaming in general. When I do, I use a Switch or DS/3DS.

Yeah, the screen and battery life are both not great at best. I got to try a PC Engine GT for a few minutes in a store a few months before I got my Nomad, and I think the GT has a nicer screen even though it released 5 years earlier. GT's screen is definitely not perfect either, but better than the Nomad's screen.

 

As I don't have a smartphone, Nomad is my only way to bring my favourite home console's library outside the home as a portable except for those games released on the Switch/(3)DS/PSP/Vita, and I am honestly not sure if the Vita and PSP even got any of them. I tried the SNES emulator on my hacked PSP go a few years ago and it ran horribly. I don't expect that MD/Genesis emulation would be much better, but I might be completely wrong and the SNES emulation could have improved since I tried it. The Sonic collection on DS is okay, but it has some issues. Totally playable, but not optimal. The Switch is truly a great system, though, and I love it.

 

Even after all of this, I do enjoy the Nomad a lot, but I love handhelds in general and usually prefer them over home consoles, although I'm really not sure why. Never really saw much in the Game Gear, though. One of my friends had one around 1997 that I tried and I was like "No thanks", especially after he told me how horrible the battery life is.

 

Eventually I'll get around to sending it to Mobius Strip Tech to get the RGB screen and triple bypass mod and maybe a recap, but I'm kind of hesitant to spend another $400~$500 on the Sega Nomad of all things.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got one back in 2004 or so, and it was okay, but it has all the drawbacks previously mentioned. Today it needs a new screen and probably needs recapped at a minimum. And then you're still either chewing through AAs (rechargeable or otherwise) or you're tethered to the wall. 

 

The best way to play Genesis / Mega Drive games on the go without a smartphone is the Genesis collection for the Switch (which I have and it's not bad), but you're limited in the games you can play. 

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I have a Nomad that I modded with a cheap composite LCD years ago. I also adapted a camcorder battery and charger to work with it. I'm really surprised at the battery life I get using the camcorder battery.

 

I sometimes use my Nomad if I'm in my bedroom and want to play something before going to sleep, but it does sit mostly unused these days.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I was looking for one awhile ago when they were cheaper.  I like the idea of a portable Genesis to just kick back with and play.  But I'm spoiled by modern technology and I'm certain that the small screen and short battery life would drive me nuts.  I would pass up a good deal though.

 

I'm hoping that a decent clone hits the market.  There had been some low quality ones in the past with BAD sound.  I heard the retro bit was making a Nomad clone, I hope it still going to happen.  

 

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3 hours ago, homerhomer said:

I was looking for one awhile ago when they were cheaper.  I like the idea of a portable Genesis to just kick back with and play.  But I'm spoiled by modern technology and I'm certain that the small screen and short battery life would drive me nuts.  I would pass up a good deal though.

 

I'm hoping that a decent clone hits the market.  There had been some low quality ones in the past with BAD sound.  I heard the retro bit was making a Nomad clone, I hope it still going to happen.  

 

Despite what some others incorrectly say about it, the Nomad is 100% perfectly usable in its stock configuration provided that it's not broken or something. I love to hide under every blanket I own in bed with my stock Nomad and the MegaSD on cold nights. Best to leave it plugged in at home so you don't waste the battery, though. It also produces beautiful RGB video that is far superior to my VA4 Japanese Mega Drive both with and without the Super 32X, so get the HD Retrovision cables or the RAD2x and you can enjoy it on your TV kind of like the Switch but way less high-tech.

 

You can mod the hell out of the Nomad if you want to, but it's fine just the way it is. I will go ahead and warn you that it has some audible noise in the speaker, headphone jack, and even the AV out, but maybe there is a mod that can fix this. I will not deny that the Nomad has problems. Still, my Nomad gets more use time playing games than my PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Super Nt, Super Famicom, PC Engine, Vita, PSP, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS combined, and the system is highly enjoyable unless you hate Genesis/Mega Drive games.

 

Unless watching Star Trek BDs counts. Then the PS4 gets first place just as a media player, but as a video game system, the only things that currently get more use than the Nomad are my Mega Drive tower, Switch, and Mega Sg.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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12 hours ago, homerhomer said:

I was looking for one awhile ago when they were cheaper.  I like the idea of a portable Genesis to just kick back with and play.  But I'm spoiled by modern technology and I'm certain that the small screen and short battery life would drive me nuts.  I would pass up a good deal though.

 

I'm hoping that a decent clone hits the market.  There had been some low quality ones in the past with BAD sound.  I heard the retro bit was making a Nomad clone, I hope it still going to happen.  

 

 

I was told the new Nomad would be up for sale by the 2020 Holiday season - I really hope so.

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I'm really interested in the Retro-Bit Nomad, but I wonder about its quality. I definitely don't expect Retro-Bit to salvage parts from old systems to create their new Nomad and I also don't expect an FPGA system, so I'm guessing that it will probably just be a software emulator like the Retro Duo. Still, at least the Retro Duo seems to have excellent compatibility with Sega games:

 

 

 

Kevtris did say that the Pocket is powerful enough to run a Genesis core, though, so the Pocket would probably be the best solution overall. Source:

 

 

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There was a time when I was super interested in getting these old handhelds, but it's way more practical to just emulate them on PSP. Don't have to be tethered to a wall or spend a small fortune on batteries.

 

Don't own a Nomad, but I do have a Game Gear. It's big and bulky, but I find it quite comfortable. Unfortunately, the screen is messed up, and it's not really worth it to fix it. Selling it on Ebay isn't really an option either since I would probably lose money after shipping.

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I just discovered a new and interesting use for the Nomad today. Combine it with a flash cart of your choice and some studio monitor headphones and you have a wonderful music player. Sound emulation for this system even now is still bad in some places (Genesis/Mega Drive Mini can't play Comix Zone track 5 correctly. My Nomad does!). People will say that the YM3438 is crap compared to the YM2612 and some of them are, but the one in the Nomad kicks ass. At least the one in my Nomad does. It holds up extremely well to even my Japanese VA4 Mega Drive's YM2612, even with my professional studio monitor headphones.

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  • 8 months later...

I owned the Nomad as a child, infact my folks bought us two (one for my little brother, RIP) and one for me. I sold mine recently for about 350 bucks to some guy in Florida. As a system, it was excellent, when I used to skip school and goto work with my dad (he was a travelling salesman), I would play Shadow Run pretty well all day long because it had a car lighter plugin. Otherwise the battery life sucked and it would eat through double A's constantly. The other problem the Nomad had was if you shook it too much, it had a tendency to crash the game, this wasn't a BIG deal with RPGs though because you could just save the game. I completed Mega Lo Mania(Nomads) on it and Buck Rogers Matrix Cubed. The system was awesome. Not sure why you'd want to play it today though but I know you guys aren't really into emulation. I only just NOW realized that you could play the thing with an AC Adapter, my god this would've saved my parents a ton of money.  

 

Now I just use mine to test Sega Genesis games before I sell them. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I just got a Nomad for Christmas from my wife. She was so happy! She told me that it has a brand new LCD screen! 

 

Well, unfortunately whomever replaced the LCD screen used one of those whereby it says AV2 in the corner for 15 seconds. 

 

It works really well with the AC adapter but only flickers with the GameGear battery pack (which, by the way, has a new battery thanks to Game Gears 4 You on etsy). I don't think the battery pack provides enough voltage to power this new screen.

 

So its cool, but not portable. ?

 

If anyone has any ideas as to how I can make this portable, you'd have my undying gratitude.

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7 hours ago, Baron Von Jerkface said:

So I just got a Nomad for Christmas from my wife. She was so happy! She told me that it has a brand new LCD screen! 

 

Well, unfortunately whomever replaced the LCD screen used one of those whereby it says AV2 in the corner for 15 seconds. 

 

It works really well with the AC adapter but only flickers with the GameGear battery pack (which, by the way, has a new battery thanks to Game Gears 4 You on etsy). I don't think the battery pack provides enough voltage to power this new screen.

 

So its cool, but not portable. ?

 

If anyone has any ideas as to how I can make this portable, you'd have my undying gratitude.

You're using the Game Gear battery pack on the Nomad? Interesting. Anyway, you can try this one: https://laserbear.net/shop/ols/products/sega-nomad-18650-lithium-battery-pack

 

For portability, I just wrap mine in a towel and put it in my backpack. It's great to pull it and Sonic 3 & Knuckles out on the train and then everyone looks at me like I'm insane or something!

7 hours ago, Omega-TI said:

I don't remember Nomad having an LCD display.  ;) 

 

Nomad.thumb.jpg.4db77eef45209119ae0bfe4b663c79f2.jpg

lol. I just got to The Menagerie Part 2 last night, so I'll be at this point shortly.

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I like the way the nomad looks and I like the idea of the nomad, but in the modern day with so many good alternatives, playing games on the nomad is kind of a hassle. And for all the thought that playing a game on real hardware will always better than emulation, that gets bungled in the case of the nomad due to the size and quality of its 90s era screen.

 

Fun fact, I think I read in one of the atariage forums that the guy who designed the Nomad's plastic shell also designed the Atari Jaguar's shell.

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19 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:

Fun fact, I think I read in one of the atariage forums that the guy who designed the Nomad's plastic shell also designed the Atari Jaguar's shell.

Ira Velinsky also designed the VIC-20/C64, XE and ST cases to name a few. It seems like he was brought into Atari Corp from Commodore and then went to Sega of America after leaving Atari. Here's a thread with some of his other designs: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/251050-detailed-information-on-ira-velinsky-and-other-atari-designers/

 

 

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Main problems I had were an apparently slightly flaky power connector (it could have been the wire, sticking up vertically doesn't help, but it only has to disconnect just once!), and problems running from battery. It really doesn't work with NiCd/NiMH batteries because of the lower voltage, and they last almost no time. (At least it's not using a 7805, or it would be even hungrier!) That's probably why the Game Gear battery pack won't work. It really needs a 7-cell battery pack for NiMH. A lithium pack ought to be great. I suppose replacing the voltage regulator with something more efficient would be good too.

 

And it's just so stupid chunky, like an Xbox Duke controller. I know it had to be that big back in the day, but it's still on the upper limit of acceptable.

Edited by Bruce Tomlin
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Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I ordered one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nomad-Lithium-Pack-for-the-SEGA-NOMAD-NEW-BY-AMGamer/254755101455?hash=item3b50965b0f:g:gGUAAOSwLjNezYA9 I described my problem and the seller said for sure that it'd work... it hasn't arrived yet. It's shipping very very slowly. 

 

I have another question for everyone: Is there a list or something that would indicate what games don't work for the NOMAD? So far, I've discovered that my copies of Zany Golf and Fatal Rewind don't work at all, and my copy of Sonic and Knuckles turns on, but glitches pretty much as soon as you hit any buttons (all of these games work fine on my Genesis), but I'm wondering if there's more. 

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23 hours ago, Baron Von Jerkface said:

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I ordered one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nomad-Lithium-Pack-for-the-SEGA-NOMAD-NEW-BY-AMGamer/254755101455?hash=item3b50965b0f:g:gGUAAOSwLjNezYA9 I described my problem and the seller said for sure that it'd work... it hasn't arrived yet. It's shipping very very slowly. 

 

I have another question for everyone: Is there a list or something that would indicate what games don't work for the NOMAD? So far, I've discovered that my copies of Zany Golf and Fatal Rewind don't work at all, and my copy of Sonic and Knuckles turns on, but glitches pretty much as soon as you hit any buttons (all of these games work fine on my Genesis), but I'm wondering if there's more. 

Sonic and Knuckles worked fine on my nomad. I also played it connected to Sonic 3 on my nomad with no glitches.

 

I think officially, the nomad might have some trouble working with some of the earliest EA games and unlicensed stuff like Accolaid games. I think this is more to sega adding more security features to its genesis consoles compared to the earliest model 1 genesis systems though, and not specifically a nomad issue.

 

I had about 20 games back when I had a nomad and they all worked, including some EA games like Marble Madness and Blades of Vengeance.

Edited by sirlynxalot
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On 1/24/2021 at 5:01 PM, sirlynxalot said:

Sonic and Knuckles worked fine on my nomad. I also played it connected to Sonic 3 on my nomad with no glitches.

 

I think officially, the nomad might have some trouble working with some of the earliest EA games and unlicensed stuff like Accolaid games. I think this is more to sega adding more security features to its genesis consoles compared to the earliest model 1 genesis systems though, and not specifically a nomad issue.

 

I had about 20 games back when I had a nomad and they all worked, including some EA games like Marble Madness and Blades of Vengeance.

I think you're right. I've had some problems getting some of the ubiquitous games like SOR to work, but with perseverance (and a lot of blowing into) got them to work, including Fatal Rewind. Zany Golf won't work though, and I bet it's like you said, it's one of the earliest third party games. I've been meaning to try Budokan, but I can't imagine ever taking that with me to play on the go. 

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22 minutes ago, Baron Von Jerkface said:

blowing into

Don't do that. That damages them because of the moisture. This is how you clean your games the proper way:

 

Alternatively, use isopropyl alcohol. Actually... just use isopropyl alcohol and nothing else.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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