The Analogue Mega SG wins the retro gaming console war

There's never been a better time to be a retro video game enthusiast. Playing old video games on modern screens used to require elaborate cabling and detailed electronics knowledge, or you would have to wade into dodgy ROM sites and tinker with confu...

‘ToeJam & Earl’ is more Diet Coke than fine wine

When I was young -- and I mean young, around six or seven -- my extended family would get together at my grandmother's house nearly every Sunday. And often on those days, for at least an hour or two, my cousin and I would play on her Sega Mega Drive...

These circuit boards turn your classic game controllers wireless!

You’ve been using them for years, pretty much your entire childhood, and then something else comes along the way and your favorite game console from the 90s goes into a box in the garage. 8BitDo, the company notorious for reviving legacy gaming tech and taking us on a journey that fuses nostalgia with the future, wants to bring back those classic controllers, but tweak them for the present. Their mod kits are available for most legacy controllers, from the NES and SNES classics to the originals, to even the Sega Mega Drive. The kit involves opening up the old controllers you have lying around and simply switching the printed circuit board on the inside for 8BitDo’s redesigned circuit boards. The minute you do, you now have a new controller that is compatible with mobile platforms, Windows, MacOS, Steam, Raspberry Pi, and even the Nintendo Switch! And what’s more is, the new PCBs in your controllers turn them wireless!

The idea is that you’ve spent hours, if not days, with your hands wrapped around those controllers and your hands, even though they’ve grown over the years, recognize those familiar contours and still know their way around them. 8BitDo’s mod kits don’t just take your hands and brain on a ‘feels trip’, they also turn an obsolete product into something that you can and definitely will reuse for probably another 10 years!

Designer: 8BitDo

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The Sega Genesis Is Being Manufactured Again

The SEGA Genesis (aka SEGA Mega Drive) was one of the best gaming consoles back in the early 1990s. What you might not know is that this retro console is still really popular in Brazil for some reason. Apparently,the Mega Drive still sells about 150,000 units per year in Brazil. Weird.

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That is in the ballpark of how many PS4 game consoles are sold in the country in the same period. That’s why a Brazilian company called Tectoy has announced that it will begin making the Mega Drive again. These new production consoles will be officially licensed and as far as we know, completely compatible with original game cartridges.

The new, limited edition version will look almost identical to, and play just like the Mega Drive that was launched in 1989. In addition to the cartridge slot, it will have 22 games pre-installed in internal memory and will ship with an original style 3-button controller. HDMI outputs are not on board, however, only PAL-M composite video and RCA audio jacks. The console will cost about $138(USD).

Here’s the list of included games:

  1. ALEX KIDD
  2. ALIEN STORM
  3. ALTERED BEAST
  4. ARROW FLASH
  5. BONANZA BROTHERS
  6. COLUMNS
  7. DECAP ATTACK
  8. E-SWAT
  9. FATAL LABYRINTH
  10. FLICKY
  11. GAIN GROUND
  12. GOLDEN AXE
  13. GOLDEN AXE 3
  14. JEWEL MASTER
  15. KID CHAMELEON
  16. LAST BATTLE
  17. OUT RUNNERS
  18. SEGA SOCCER
  19. SHADOW DANCER
  20. SHINOBI 3
  21. SONIC 3
  22. TURBO OUTRUN

Looks like SEGA is really making a comeback, at least in one country. Many of the games are classics, so it isn’t a complete surprise.

[Geek via Slashgear]

SEGA Mega Drive Classics to Add Support for Mods: Altered Bits

SEGA Mega Drive Classics is a Steam collection of Mega Drive (aka Genesis) games ported to Windows. On April 28th, it’s going to receive a free update that adds an interactive launcher called the SEGA Mega Drive Classics Hub. That’s going to be fun for about 5 minutes, but it will also come a gift that will keep on giving: mod support for every single Mega Drive game via Steam Workshop.

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Okay, I might have been too harsh on the launcher. It’s a low poly rendition of what a SEGA fan’s bedroom might have looked like in the ’90s. There are video game posters on the wall, a Mega Drive, a shelf of cartridges where you select the games, and a CRT TV that displays the games.

The update will also add “optional graphic enhancement filters”, the ability to save anywhere and full keyboard and controller support. But the Steam Workshop support is literally game-changing, opening the floodgates to legally modified Mega Drive games. Fortunately, you don’t need to buy the entire catalog to get the update; owning any one of the games will do.

DAE Ecco the Dolphin ENB?!

[via SEGA via The Next Web]