Frankie_Says_Relax
11-26-2010, 10:45 PM
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/FrankieViturello/Gopher.jpg
Based on the extremely similar design to past plug & play Genesis portables, like this one here...
http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/pa1130982.jpg
...when I picked up the box for AtGames portable "Gopher" Genesis/Mega Drive I turned and said to Joe "It's a shame they don't make these with the ability to load games on via SD card like that controller I bought last year."
See this thread - http://box422.bluehost.com/~videogc7/forum/showthread.php?t=137671
http://www.dealextreme.com/productimages/sku_30606_1.jpg
Joe laughed and said "They do, it does!" ... I looked down at the box and saw the description: "SD CARD SLOT FOR FIRECORE GAME CARDS AND MORE DOWNLOADS" and Joe went on to confirm that it's fully compatible with Genesis and Mega Drive .BIN formatted ROMS.
I didn't miss a beat in buying it, and after a few very enjoyable hours with it I can confirm that it was money very well spent.
The device is about as wide as a PSP Go, and about as thin or slightly thinner than a PSP 3000.
It's black with safety color orange highlights, It's made of a very nice textured plastic and feels very sturdy.
It has a USB rechargeable built in battery (the manual claims about 3-4 hours on a charge), TV out capabilities, a headphone jack and very interestingly a wireless controller receiver for a 2nd player controller! (I'm not sure if that item is available yet.)
The control pad and six buttons are responsive and you can pull off fireball and uppercut moves easily in Street Fighter II.
Like the Hyperkin's Gen Mobile, it has an on-board menu (the same one actually) that sports 20 built in Genesis classics. Also like the Gen Mobile, the screen resolution on the 4 inch screen is bright and sharp and suffers from no blurring, also also like the Gen Mobile the brightness is set solid, you can't adjust it.
IMO The biggest draw to this device is that you can fit a Genesis Full-Set (.BIN formatted roms) on a 2 Gig SD Card.
The only Genesis rom that I found wouldn't boot was Virtua Racing. Everything else seemed to run with no major issues ... or none that were immediately apparent. When you're emulating there's always things that crop up that aren't completely obvious at the start. Generally speaking the thing seemed to have a high level of compatibility.
Unlike that Genesis/MD Controller that I have, the rom menu is MUCH MUCH faster when scrolling through the games.
Now, the drawbacks...because these things are never ever perfect.
Sadly unlike that controller, the device doesn't have any capability to maintain battery-backup save data, so any game that requires a battery save feature isn't going to be able to handle that. You can play those games but you can't save progress. No sprawling RPGs or hundred game sports seasons to be had here. Sorry!
Also, as is very common with Genesis clones, the sound emulation is a bit off. In most cases the key that the music plays in is off an octave, nothing that distracts wildly from the playability of any game, but it can be noticeable. In some cases it seemed as if the audio was a bit slower than it should, but I didn't feel that there was any noticeable slow-down in the actual games.
Also, while it charges fine via USB, it doesn't come with an AC adapter or USB AC adapter head. In this day and age I think every single one of us has a multitude of USB ports to charge from ... but it would be nice if they had included something for AC charging.
Other than that, the thing functions like a champ and is a good addition to any Genesis/Mega Drive enthusiast's collection!
Based on the extremely similar design to past plug & play Genesis portables, like this one here...
http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/pa1130982.jpg
...when I picked up the box for AtGames portable "Gopher" Genesis/Mega Drive I turned and said to Joe "It's a shame they don't make these with the ability to load games on via SD card like that controller I bought last year."
See this thread - http://box422.bluehost.com/~videogc7/forum/showthread.php?t=137671
http://www.dealextreme.com/productimages/sku_30606_1.jpg
Joe laughed and said "They do, it does!" ... I looked down at the box and saw the description: "SD CARD SLOT FOR FIRECORE GAME CARDS AND MORE DOWNLOADS" and Joe went on to confirm that it's fully compatible with Genesis and Mega Drive .BIN formatted ROMS.
I didn't miss a beat in buying it, and after a few very enjoyable hours with it I can confirm that it was money very well spent.
The device is about as wide as a PSP Go, and about as thin or slightly thinner than a PSP 3000.
It's black with safety color orange highlights, It's made of a very nice textured plastic and feels very sturdy.
It has a USB rechargeable built in battery (the manual claims about 3-4 hours on a charge), TV out capabilities, a headphone jack and very interestingly a wireless controller receiver for a 2nd player controller! (I'm not sure if that item is available yet.)
The control pad and six buttons are responsive and you can pull off fireball and uppercut moves easily in Street Fighter II.
Like the Hyperkin's Gen Mobile, it has an on-board menu (the same one actually) that sports 20 built in Genesis classics. Also like the Gen Mobile, the screen resolution on the 4 inch screen is bright and sharp and suffers from no blurring, also also like the Gen Mobile the brightness is set solid, you can't adjust it.
IMO The biggest draw to this device is that you can fit a Genesis Full-Set (.BIN formatted roms) on a 2 Gig SD Card.
The only Genesis rom that I found wouldn't boot was Virtua Racing. Everything else seemed to run with no major issues ... or none that were immediately apparent. When you're emulating there's always things that crop up that aren't completely obvious at the start. Generally speaking the thing seemed to have a high level of compatibility.
Unlike that Genesis/MD Controller that I have, the rom menu is MUCH MUCH faster when scrolling through the games.
Now, the drawbacks...because these things are never ever perfect.
Sadly unlike that controller, the device doesn't have any capability to maintain battery-backup save data, so any game that requires a battery save feature isn't going to be able to handle that. You can play those games but you can't save progress. No sprawling RPGs or hundred game sports seasons to be had here. Sorry!
Also, as is very common with Genesis clones, the sound emulation is a bit off. In most cases the key that the music plays in is off an octave, nothing that distracts wildly from the playability of any game, but it can be noticeable. In some cases it seemed as if the audio was a bit slower than it should, but I didn't feel that there was any noticeable slow-down in the actual games.
Also, while it charges fine via USB, it doesn't come with an AC adapter or USB AC adapter head. In this day and age I think every single one of us has a multitude of USB ports to charge from ... but it would be nice if they had included something for AC charging.
Other than that, the thing functions like a champ and is a good addition to any Genesis/Mega Drive enthusiast's collection!