Sega is keeping mini consoles alive

ah what a fantastic console that was. Still remember first time playing Soul Caliber, thinking how the graphics was possible. (not to mention all the cool characters like Sung Mina, Yoshimitsu, Cervantes...)

Yes. Just the brand-new high quality controller would be worth the asking price for use with PC emulation.

6th gen mini consoles seem unlikely for a variety of reasons.

There's the more powerful hardware needed, which will push the price up, along with the more complex controllers, which basically won't be any cheaper to make now than they were at launch.

Then there's storage. If people are expecting 30-60 games, and all of those games are a gig each, you're probably going to need a 64GB micro SD card, which is another increase to the BoM bill. The PS Classic probably avoided putting too many multi-disc games and analogue sticks for this reason, but you can't ignore this in the 6th gen.

The big killer is going to be licensing costs though. 5th gen and earlier games generate basically no revenue. Even the more popular ones only sell for $5-$10 when they're rereleased, and most don't sell at all. By the 6th gen though, the basic level of graphical fidelity is high enough that "HD Remasters" are now a thing that you can sell for $30 each, or maybe $60 as a trilogy and can be produced for very little upfront investment. This makes convincing rightsholders to license inclusion of a game for probably $1 per unit a hard sell, as for most of them, that's severely undercutting themselves with the same target audience.

> Modding the old dreamcast is a hassle

What? The DreamCast is one of the easiest systems to mod, assuming you mean replacing the optical drive with an ODE. You don't need to solder anything.

Besides, the mini would just be an emulator anyway.

I think it's pretty understandable why they didn't bother: analog controllers, licensing issues with rare games and finally, they'd rather people just buy the online expansion pass and play multiplayer Switch instead.

The Mega Drive Mini 2 is a complete unit that retails for $99 including 60 games. Just the DE-10 nano alone is more than double that, and a full MISTer kit probably can't be had for less than $400, and you still have to (legally, of course, and those retro carts ain't cheap, and you're going to need to buy some adapters to dump the ROMs). "I'm more compelled by this thing that's at least four times the price, probably more" isn't really saying much.

The Sega machine has a correct controller and much cheaper than a mister. Both are great options depending on what your are looking for.

The fixed selection of games on them means that if your goal is to play the games legally, the cost is either very reasonable or effectively infinity, depending on what you want to play.

Post-composite and pre-cd hardware doesn't really need to be all that expensive, if you don't go wild with modding (and use something like a retrotink to upscale composite directly, regardless of console). But of course some games are quite expensive. CD consoles and games do fail a lot more, though.

Modern Vintage Gamer says this mini is awesome. A great deal for $99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgb6alm3M1M

In my recollection is was Sonic. And the uncensored Mortal Kombat.

I had a SNES and the suite of EA Sports games + NBA Jam - were there different brands/variants on Sega?

Both Mega Drive Minis are handled by M2, so I would expect the emulation to be excellent based off of that (M2 has something of a reputation in gaming circles for producing extremely accurate emulation/ports with lots of quality of life features that their competitors sometimes lack)

Most lag is typically caused by processing in modern flat-screen TVs, not by the emulator. Some TVs have a faster "Game Mode" though.

Assume that the emulator will add one frame of lag. The code in 16-bit console games was typically synchronised with the raster beam.

If the gamepad adds lag compared to the original is something that someone would have to measure to find out. It depends on the USB version and on how the gamepad's microcontroller is programmed. But in 6-button games, the result from reading an original 6-button controller was typically used first in the next frame anyway because of the weird timing in its protocol.

Same, but it was branded Mega Drive in Europe. My kids sometimes play the Sonic games on it.

Convenience, original style controllers, reliability, fun.

Most people can't legally acquire the games to play on a PC emulator. This provides a large number of games for a reasonable price, a plug-and-play experience on an actual TV, and a controller.

(Also, these devices can usually be hacked to play your own ROMs.)

You get a curated experience with a bunch of good games, and an authentic controller.

Additionally, the Genesis Mini 2 (one of the minis discussed in the article) comes with a bunch of games that you can't find elsewhere. There's brand new Genesis ports of Fantasy Zone, Super Locomotive, and Patter (old arcade games from the 80s), there's old unreleased games (Star Mobile and the English version of Rainbow Islands Extra), and most impressively, there's brand new versions of Space Harrier 1 and 2 for prototype Genesis hardware that supported sprite scaling (it got cut out of the retail hardware because the functionality took up too much die space). If you're not a Sega fan you might not care about any of this, but there's lots of new stuff for the fans even if they've played all the previously released games.

I bought the Genesis mini as well as the SNES mini because they look cool on the shelf over my desk. I've played them a little but mostly it's just a nostalgic conversation piece.

You're basically paying for well-integrated software (sometimes even exclusive), and the assurance that it's 100% legal. So, in a sense, yes.

The form factor is a nice gimmick and fuels nostalgia for people who played these games as kids.

I have a SNES mini, but it’s mostly collecting dust by now. I simply don’t have the time with 2 young kids, and to be honest: I underestimated how limiting it is to have to use the family tv for this. Much more convenient to do some handheld gaming in the sofa on a phone or tablet…

The collection of games is curated so yes it’s a nice selection but in my case I mostly just played Mario and Zelda.