Mega drive/genesis console clones

[Clinton]

Hello anyone that can help me. looking for opinion's on which is the best sega mega drive/genesis clone console that can play original cartridges. I dont own 1 but thinking of buying 1. The 2 that seem most popular are the Analogue mega sg and the AtGames sega genesis flashback. I can't find anything on YouTube that the 2 have been directly compared. I think hyperkin retron hd may have been another. Which is best? Even if it's none of those 3 please comment. My apologies if this site is against clone consoles altogether.

[envytomdead2]

The mega SG is premium and very expensive, Atgames, while not as bad as everyone says, is the bottom of the barrel. A lot depends on what you are looking for. 

 

The Hyperkin Mega retron HD is pretty good for the price. Plays virtual racing. However if you are looking for it to play master system games in NTSC over HDMI, this system has issues with colors.  I have this one 

 

Gamerztek mini gen hd - I have read good reviews for this one seems similar to the mega retron HD except it cannot play virtual racing but I believe it doesn't have issues with master system NTSC

 

Super retro Trio+ - this is a 3 in one system nes, SNES and Genesis. I have seen some reviews that were favorable. The problem with this one is that it doesn't have an aspect ratio switch so if your TV doesn't do it, you are stuck with 16:9.

 

The other thing to consider is that anything other than mega SG will have a little bit  of lag. You might not even really perceive but it's there. I like my mega retron HD as a quick plug and play but if I really want to play for real, I use original hardware/HD retrovision cables/ retrotink 2x.

 

 

 

 

[Tanooki]

That's a bit harsh calling atgames bottom of the barrel, largely sure it is, but there are late end game shades of gray...in particular the unit that squeaked out as their contract was killed so Sega could get their mini out.  The 2018 (2nd year) genesis flashback that uses android isn't crap, the first had some problems but wasn't awful like the firecore garbage of the decade earlier.  The v2 uses GenesisGX Plus or if you want, you can re-flash it with Picodrive too very easily.  The emulator there easily matches the quality of the one m2 did for sega, and yet, the atgames one can use your actual genesis and md game libraries of real carts making it a true HD genesis that won't cost you $200 like the Mega(which I own.)

 

Depending what you want to flash to the 2018 model, there are updated jailbroken genesis gxplus and picodrive firmwares that'll get you into stuff like 32x, sega cd, game gear and master system.  That tops any of the others.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Tanooki

[envytomdead2]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

That's a bit harsh calling atgames bottom of the barrel,

Bottom of the barrel was a bit harsh, I just meant that of the hardware clones , they are the least desirable. I actually use my portable quite a bit with the sound down of course!