Would you buy a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis "Mini"?

[molul]

Been talking about this with some friends, and I'm a bit surprised that many people consider that a Mega Drive Mini wouldn't be as successful as the NES or SNES Mini. I can help but wonder why, as back in the 90's both consoles sold more or less the same, therefore the target audience (30 to 45 years old people who owned a Mega Drive) should be similar. 

I wouldn't and won't buy the AtGames Genesis Flashback as I consider it a flawed product (better than previous versions, but still bad). I've bought the SNES Mini and it's almost perfect. The only imperfection is the games selection, which you can easily fix if you hack the console. A Sega Mega Drive Mini with 20 games and the possibility of adding more games, would simply be a dream come true.

So there goes the question: would you be interested in a retro plug n play Mega Drive mini (if it was as well done as the SNES Mini, I mean)?

[Solister]

No.

Well, firstly because It's almost sure that would not be sold here in Brazil, or if, by a very expansive price. And I also don't see many reasons to buy when you could have a full collection of Free Games at my Cellphone with SEGA Forever. Even for other titles, SEGA have a lot of collections for many consoles, so it would be just you pay for one of those collections and play it.

This without talking about emulators and raspberry pi, which almost made Genesis playable in any old piece of electronic.

[Tracker_TD]

Personally speaking, probably not. I already own 6 Mega Drives, and I don't particularly need another.

That being said, I think it'd be a great idea - from what I've heard, the AtGames consoles actually do really well despite how shoddy they are, so a proper version with a good amount of love and care put into it would be great. Even bearing in mind emulators and Raspberry Pi and the like, that didn't stop the NES and SNES Minis selling millions. The CEO of Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy) also stated he'd like to see one recently, and having their titles on board would be practically worth it alone. 

[molul]

2 hours ago, Solister said:

And I also don't see many reasons to buy when you could have a full collection of Free Games at my Cellphone with SEGA Forever. Even for other titles, SEGA have a lot of collections for many consoles, so it would be just you pay for one of those collections and play it.

This without talking about emulators and raspberry pi, which almost made Genesis playable in any old piece of electronic.

I see your point. The reasons, in your case would be:

• Not having ads (because if you're playing Sega Forever for free, you're seeing ads).
• Playing in your TV (you're currently playing in a phone). 
• Play with a perfect Mega Drive 6 buttons controller replica (wether you play on your phone or in a console).
• Not having to configure anything (the Raspberry Pi needs some hours to get it working).

If these are not enough for you it's ok, but the console would give you a few things you don't have yet  (another issue is wether you're interested on it).

 

51 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

Personally speaking, probably not. I already own 6 Mega Drives, and I don't particularly need another.

That being said, I think it'd be a great idea - from what I've heard, the AtGames consoles actually do really well despite how shoddy they are, so a proper version with a good amount of love and care put into it would be great. Even bearing in mind emulators and Raspberry Pi and the like, that didn't stop the NES and SNES Minis selling millions. 

Lol, 6 Mega Drives XD I have only one, but can't plug it to my TV.

The AtGames console is much better than previous iterations, but emulation is far from perfect, which is difficult to understand. The main issue is the framerate and sound problems (sound is almost perfect but still a bit distorted), but there are many other things to fix: the shovelware, the terrible menu, the ability to hack it (yes, this is not an actual feature XD), the controllers with AA batteries with a screw to access them... If someone hacked it to install Retroarch and add my own roms (and remove those I don't want to see), I'd buy it right now even when I think it's quite expensive.

Yes, the NES and SNES Mini sold a lot because unlike the Raspberry, you don't need to do anything but turn it on, and also you get to play with the original gamepads. I don't feel the same playing Dynamite Headdy with an XBox 360 Controller, honestly. And 8bitdo is still not willing to make Mega Drive 6 button pads.

 

51 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

The CEO of Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy) also stated he'd like to see one recently, and having their titles on board would be practically worth it alone. 

Could you please post a link of Mr Masato Maegawa's statement? I admire him & Treasure so much  I contacted Nazo^2 Suzuki a few months ago and he said Treasure shut down. Such a shame

 

[EDIT] Nevermind. Found it: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/treasures_masato_maegawa_wants_sega_to_make_a_mega_drive_mini

[Tornado]

I have an X'Eye and a Mega Everdrive, so no; but Sega has been making officially licenced shitty Gennys for far too long for it to have any market impact equivalent to Nintendo.  Sega jumped on the bandwagon all the way back when the Atari Flashback came out, so anyone who wanted one probably would have bought one by now.

[Mr Loopone]

If it is like those AtGames things then no. If it a well done emulation job, then maybe if the price is right however it is unlikely.

The problem being is strangely outside of PC/unofficial emulation, the emulation of the system hasn't been really good enough and at best its okay. Sega's own emulators that they used show its problems from the sound to graphical glitches/layering problems/saving issues to non-working games, their own documentation is known for having mistakes that even affect games that were released on the console. Even the almighty M2 have problems regarding Mega Drive emulation, usually its YM2612 sound chip. There would have to be an incentive to buy the thing considering unlike the NES/SNES minis, the AtGames/Tec Toy Flashback machines already put some well regarded games on those from the usual Sonic, Streets of Rage [in the past], Shinobi 3 to even Phantasy Star IV! It would have to go deeper into its library for someone outside of the casual market to buy it. SNES Mini for example has Star Fox 2 so maybe something like Virtua Racing aka the one game that has problems on emulation/some hardware due to the SVP chip* and unreleased games such as The Stickman is Back if they still exist since Sega was known for not always keeping their stuff. The Treasure games might be one to some, similar thing to Thunder Force IV.

* - Some hardware being the Genesis 3 and some MD hardware level clones. Virtua Racing Deluxe on the 32X is a better version of the game however Sega rarely references the add-on and don't think that they emulated those. It would be novel to make a mini 32X and a mini Mega CD that you can plug into and unlocks extra games such as Sonic CD.

A Saturn mini or a Dreamcast mini might be more desirable thinking about it and I would actually buy both. The machines while are less known than the Mega Drive do have a cult following that would happily buy either with a good library. For the Saturn they could have Sonic Jam/3D, Sonic R, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Daytona Circuit Edition or Sega Rally, Fighters Megamix and Panzer Dragoon Saga while the Dreamcast could have Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Jet Set Radio and its numerous arcade ports, if Capcom teams up even better. Panzer Dragoon Saga is alone a big incentive to buy a Saturn mini and probably would sell out its shipment, same thing for Shenmue for the Dreamcast mini. The problem being is that will a small device be powerful enough to emulate both in the future?

[Somethinghedgehog]

If it  was made by sega and had the best genesis games on it I would more than likely buy it.

[molul]

44 minutes ago, Somethinghedgehog said:

If it  was made by sega and had the best genesis games on it I would more than likely buy it.

I wouldn't actually mind about the games selection if it was hackable like the SNES Mini. Also, "the best Genesis games" is a really subjective thing. One thing I'm sure: it would be much more difficult to select the games than in SNES Mini. To me, these should be included:

Spoiler

 

1. Aladdin
2. Alien Soldier
3. Columns
4. Comix Zone
5. Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
6. Dynamite Headdy
7. Earthworm Jim
8. Earthworm Jim 2
9. FIFA 95
10. Golden Axe
11. Gunstar Heroes
12. Mega Bomberman
13. Mickey Mania
14. NBA Jam
15. Out Run
16. Revenge of Shinobi
17. Ristar
18. Rocketknight Adventures
19. Samurai Shodown
20. Shinobi III
21. Soleil
22. Sonic 1
23. Sonic 2
24. Sonic 3
25. Sonic & Knuckles
26. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
27. Sonic 2 & Knuckles
28. Sonic Spinball
29. Sonic 3D Blast
30. Story of Thor (Beyond oasis)
31. Streets of rage 1
32. Streets of rage 2
33. Streets of rage 3
34. Super Street FIghter II
35. Tiny Toons Buster's hidden treasure
36. Virtua Racing

 

 

This would cover platformers, RPG, sports, puzzles, action, racing, fighting, beat'em up... Well, I'm not a shoot'em-ups fan, and many sports are not there. Vectorman 1 and 2 is missing as well (not a fan as well). And there are some other RPGs I didn't include due to not having played them. That list would be my personal favourites list. A more realistic list would be:

Spoiler

 

1. Columns
2. Comix Zone
3. Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
4. Dynamite Headdy
5. Golden Axe
6. Gunstar Heroes
7. Out Run
8. Revenge of Shinobi
9. Ristar
10. Shinobi III
11. Soleil
12. Sonic 1
13. Sonic 2
14. Sonic 3
15. Sonic & Knuckles
16. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
17. Sonic 2 & Knuckles
18. Sonic Spinball
19. Sonic 3D Blast
20. Story of Thor (Beyond oasis)
21. Streets of rage 1
22. Streets of rage 2
23. Streets of rage 3
24. Virtua Racing

 

 

 

Because I doubt Capcom, Konami or Disney would let Sega use their games. Not a problem if the console was as hackable as the SNES Mini, of course

[Somethinghedgehog]

1 minute ago, molul said:

I wouldn't actually mind about the games selection if it was hackable like the SNES Mini. Also, "the best Genesis games" is a really subjective thing. One thing I'm sure: it would be much more difficult to select the games than in SNES Mini. To me, these should be included:

1.   Reveal hidden contents

    

   1. Aladdin
   2. Alien Soldier
   3. Columns
   4. Comix Zone
   5. Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
   6. Dynamite Headdy
   7. Earthworm Jim
   8. Earthworm Jim 2
   9. FIFA 95
   10. Golden Axe
   11. Gunstar Heroes
   12. Mega Bomberman
   13. Mickey Mania
   14. NBA Jam
   15. Out Run
   16. Revenge of Shinobi
   17. Ristar
   18. Rocketknight Adventures
   19. Samurai Shodown
   20. Shinobi III
   21. Soleil
   22. Sonic 1
   23. Sonic 2
   24. Sonic 3
   25. Sonic & Knuckles
   26. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
   27. Sonic 2 & Knuckles
   28. Sonic Spinball
   29. Sonic 3D Blast
   30. Story of Thor (Beyond oasis)
   31. Streets of rage 1
   32. Streets of rage 2
   33. Streets of rage 3
   34. Super Street FIghter II
   35. Tiny Toons Buster's hidden treasure
   36. Virtua Racing

    

    

This would cover platformers, RPG, sports, puzzles, action, racing, fighting, beat'em up... Well, I'm not a shoot'em-ups fan, and many sports are not there. Vectorman 1 and 2 is missing as well (not a fan as well). And there are some other RPGs I didn't include due to not having played them. That list would be my personal favourites list. A more realistic list would be:

1.   Reveal hidden contents

    

   1. Columns
   2. Comix Zone
   3. Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
   4. Dynamite Headdy
   5. Golden Axe
   6. Gunstar Heroes
   7. Out Run
   8. Revenge of Shinobi
   9. Ristar
   10. Shinobi III
   11. Soleil
   12. Sonic 1
   13. Sonic 2
   14. Sonic 3
   15. Sonic & Knuckles
   16. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
   17. Sonic 2 & Knuckles
   18. Sonic Spinball
   19. Sonic 3D Blast
   20. Story of Thor (Beyond oasis)
   21. Streets of rage 1
   22. Streets of rage 2
   23. Streets of rage 3
   24. Virtua Racing

    

    

 

Because I doubt Capcom, Konami or Disney would let Sega use their games. Not a problem if the console was as hackable as the SNES Mini, of course

yeah , if it was hackable that would be great. Also you have good taste in games

[molul]

1 minute ago, Somethinghedgehog said:

yeah , if it was hackable that would be great. Also you have good taste in games

Thanks! I've been making Mega Drive compilations for nearly 20 years (in all my computers, PSP, Android tablets, Android TV...), revisiting the whole catalog from time to time to find another unknown gem (nearly impossible at this point). I'm a bit biased by platformers but I enjoy many other genres. 

Sega could actually use me as project manager for a Genesis Mini XDD