AT Games has another Ultimate Portable Game Player out - Mortal Kombat edition

[Tanooki]

I got a look at the box at Toys R Us today, it has a distribution/box date of July/2015 so it's something fresh and the handheld frame has been redone too, not just a recolorization of the fringe plastics like the others.

Have any of you ever seen or tried one of these to see if these deadbeats finally activated SRAM on there for battery games? I've really wanted one of these things again, but the save issue bothers me.

http://retroproducts.atgames.net/index.php/products/sega-genesis/ultimate-portable-game-player/ <-- that's the box, it highlights MK1+2 and 3

[SparTonberry]

I wouldn't expect it, given that none of the games save.
(I think Sonic & Knuckles can save by using the FRAM in Sonic 3 when connected, but can't save if played alone.)

[calgon]

Looks like it's just a re-skin. I know these are built on the cheap but it is still a little surprising that it's 2015 and they haven't attempted to fix the terrible sound

[Tanooki]

Yeah it probably is a reskin, but Im curious if anything at all has been addressed. I really wanted the last year model with megaman and super sf2, but wily wars is mega useless since it has no passwords just battery if I remember right. Seems so shady not to add something so common sense. I did read some version will run Contra, and the one I had years ago the first with the sd card support didnt.

[Az]

Ok..... so not only does the Sonic 1 box art on the front have back have the gigantic "NOT FOR RESALE" sticker on it (which is mind boggling itself), but the front screenshots they use for MK 1 & 2 are from the arcade versions? I'm in.

I would have never in a million years imagined them licensing these MK ports. You'd think that would be a nightmare. Capcom I can see, at least they own and published their Genesis IP's. Seems strange that Warner Bros would bother getting the rights to 20 year old Acclaim published ports of an IP they just recently acquired.

[Tanooki]

No doubt it is weird but it held it earlier ago. I also checked the manual on their website and it has a page dedicated to the three with the WB logo on each game with some legal drivel so they worked it out I guess. Yet the sonic part is kind of sad. WBs been blowing out MK this year even on the GOG and other download services.

[FieryReign]

They've got an arcade stick plug n play thing with Genny games and sd support that I'm slightly interested in. If the sound emulation is as bad as their portables then funk that. What kind of crappy emulator are they using? Seems ancient compared to what even cheap droid cellies are capable of.

[Tanooki]

They all use the Firecore emulator. ATGames just is a broker for a Chinese company who made the code and the systems and they seem to have little to no interest overseas, let alone at ATGames to bother addressing off pitch sounds in some games or even trying to patch out the halfassed lack of ability to save games (even on legit carts it won't work.)

[Az]

If you look at the picture of the unit itself (third pic in the website linked in the original post) the top has two light gray buttons(?) that aren't in the older units. The one on the left by the A/V out port is circular and the one on the right of the SD slot is rectangular.

These two buttons aren't on the previously released units, but they're not on the unit pictured on the box either. Does anyone know if they're actually on the console, or what they do?

One positive thing I can say about this is, at least with the older versions, the sound is a lot better than what their standalone "classic console" Genesis clone is. While the tunes on this sound a bit crappy and off key, that horrible thing was damn near ear piercing. I've gotta compliment the button layout and d-pad too. By no means is the d-pad perfect, but it's sadly the best d-pad put out on any console in the last 10+ years. Even though I can play an excellently emulated arcade version of SFII on the PSP I find myself playing the Genesis port of SSFII on this more often due to the 6-button layout and not having a cheese grater for a d-pad.

[Tanooki]

Wow good eye. I hadn't noticed that. If I didn't think I'd get busted at the TRU I'd go back there and crack one open just to see. ;) I totally agree with your post, the audio improved but still isn't right. The key thing is that the design of the system is comfortable and easy to use, it has no real problems that hold it back by design. The only failure is the firecore emulator which is like over 90% in compatibility, but that other 10% which I include games that can't save along with stuff that glitches out like Contra, keep it from being excellent. I'd think a company at it this long would just steal some public source genesis emulator and jack the save code and be done with it if they're too stupid to do it alone.

I won't lie, if this one is (MK1-3 ver) identical other than the 2 random buttons and coloring from the last years model with Super SF2 and Mega Man on it, I'd probably still just buy that and find a cheap 1GB SD card somewhere. It's an awesome time pisser shelf toy which still handles almost anything you throw at it admirably.


DUDE! Go back to the page, right click the image of the handheld, do a view image (in firefox) then use the mouse roller to zoom that sucker to maximum) I can make out the word SAVE over the top of that mystery button on the right. HMMMM...

[Flojomojo]

I've been burned by "new" versions of the old Firecore handheld before. I suspect they're all 99.9% identical to the orange one I bought in 2008 for $40, with the exceptions of a few custom ROMs flashed to justify a different box printing.

The PDF manual linked from the product page, dated 2015, doesn't say anything about those extra buttons. I can almost see a fuzzy "SAVE" there too, but that could be my wishful imagination at work. Or maybe it's a "battery save" function in that it turns off the screen but not the CPU, like a sleep mode?

The sound is bad, but not so bad not to be worth $40. If you like old games though, I think your money is better spent on a GPD XD, which has 3DS/Vita controls, wifi, touch screen, clamshell lid, better graphics, and a zillion different emulators to install. Yes, it costs 4x more but it's easily 10x better.

[Tanooki]

I get your argument, and good point, could be a battery save that while useless would almost make sense considering the source.

I wouldn't want the other, it's an emulation box I'd have to put more effort into it than I'd want to, especially at 4x the price as you put it. I really don't use emulators much anymore, but I miss having that thing around other than the no save which is why I don't have one. I didn't mind the audio being hit and miss by the game. I just would like a cheap handheld to play some Sega 16bit games on without having to go and buy all the damn carts again I used to own along with a Nomad. With a save feature, if it is one, it's a nice solid compromise for the price.

I'm more surprised I can not find one review or one place selling it online, at all. I wouldn't know it existed had I not saw it on the shelf at TRU when I posted this.

[Flojomojo]

TRU online has it for preorder, $45
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=62142346
Note that there are no extra buttons on top in these images. That doesn't prove anything, of course.

Amazon sellers have several of the previous versions, which I suspect are pretty much the same thing.

We've seen elsewhere that the AtGames "Titan" emulation board powers their other retro "Flashback" products.

Tanooki, we must agree to disagree. I see the value of a cheap & easy "disposable" device, but since it's so easy to emulate Genesis/Megadrive well, I prefer something nicer and am willing to pay to have it done right. That said, if they finally added savageness to this old handheld, I'm all over it.

[Tanooki]

I know we don't agree. I didn't grow up with Sega, my brother got the Genesis, and as a kid I considered him a traitor in the 90s and bagged up his Nintendo stuff and claimed it as mine as a result. :P Late 90s into the 00s I ended up with every system sega made other than the pico. I have an attraction to it, but nothing like what I had as a kid. I also am more tolerant to some off key tones or sfx from an emulator because it was a secondary thing to me, plus I also grew into the emulation scene in the 90s and I'm used to less than perfect so it doesn't bug me. When I see $40 vs $120+ and it gives me all I would want, that's fine. I'd never use the bigger thing, far too wide open to all sorts of stuff, and I'd fall into my personal trap of loading it up like a flash kit and then using nothing more than 5min each and feeling I wasted my time and money. Having this Sega I could do the same without control, but the base unit has 40 solid games and 40 homebrew mostly turds too, so it is semi-closed if albeit self imposed.

I did see that at TRU with their stock image. I'm tempted to go to the store and open the box and see for myself. I'd buy it if it had the button just to test it, and if it sucked I'd just return the thing since it's not a game card/disc they can't play that video game garbage of no returns. I think we do ultimately agree, it's not perfect, but if they added saves, even if it's some save state setup instead of it being natural to the game menu, so what...I'll take it. The SD card gives no excuse not to have a write back to it for that purpose.

Maybe I will just have to bite the bullet and be the guinea pig as no one has it anywhere other than one ballsy thief from TRU on ebay. Dude is selling it for under their retail price online now, he's wearing his TRU shirt and snapped pics of the box standing at the shelves in the store. They get a 10% discount, so even at $40 + shipping, he'd take a loss with 1 bid so that's all kinds of fishy.

[Az]

The sound is bad, but not so bad not to be worth $40. If you like old games though, I think your money is better spent on a GPD XD

The version I own of this is the blue & black one with the SD card slot, which AFAIK was the one before the Capcom release. I gave around $20 for it online used. I own many other devices that can emulate the Genesis much better; PSP, JXD Gamepad Tablet, Android phone, even DS/3DS to an extent via flashcart. All of those play the games much better but the d-pads are pure garbage and completely ruins the experience for me. By no means am I some type of purist snob, but having so much experience playing MD games with the heavenly 6-button controller has spoiled me.

I don't know if I mentioned it on this forum but stay far away from the knockoff versions of this console. You can tell it's a knockoff because it includes 100+ ROMs and also plays MP3s. It's the exact same on the outside but internally the processor they use is about 1/2 the speed of the one used in the "official" Gopher, which results in every single game being literally unplayable. I don't mean unplayable as in a slight frame skip here and there noticed by an elitist prick, I mean all 100 games (plus whatever you put on the SD card) are a slideshow mess. A dead giveaway is on the GUI where it normally says "Firecore" in the top right it says "Firecord". If you think AT Games products are shit then just try their lower quality knockoffs!

[InsaneDavid]

These aren't supposed to be on a sales floor until 9/15 (same strongarm BS tactics are being used by jackasses trying to get them early as with the Colecovision and Intellivision Flashback last year) and they are just as crappy as they've always been. Put your money back in your pocket and send a message to AtGames that if they do it right then people will pay a premium price but on the flipside we're tired of their yearly round of electronics garbage. $20 value AT MOST.

[Tanooki]

You are right about that, I was back at TRU today and it and the tag for it was gone. I lookedall over like twice, then fired up safari on my iphone and their website said preorder with a 9-21 date for release. I guess it was an accident it was out. I was going to try and sneak a peek inside the box and see about that save button.

[Flojomojo]

Well, I guess we can check it out legitimately soon enough. The regular Firecore is OK for what it is, but it really should be better after all this time. I tried one of the ripoffs and it's exactly as Az describes, way worse than the flawed original and not worth getting at any price.

[Tanooki]

I've heard that too and see clips in the past, they're bad.

I get atgames isn't the best to like when it comes to at least the Sega stuff, they're lazy and don't update much of anything at all in their code. They do very minor stuff, either intentionally, they tweak a ROM on the device like the SSF2/MMWW version(if that's what they did), or some parts upgrade automagically changes something for the better -- YET they still (or have they?) have not added basic save function support.

I know it's not perfect, and I know the sound is right in some, a bit off in some others, and in a few games bad if you know what you're listening for. I liked the one I had, but the saving did me in as I really wanted to play Mega Man, Alisa Dragoon, and take a fresh crack at Phantasy Star2 which I haven't since the GBA collection package, and would like to try out PS4 which I never have -- can't with the thing with no saves. That aside I had a lot of fun with the games that worked and it was cool having the castlevania game in my pocket as well. For $45~ that it goes for I have no problem paying that considering what I can get out of it as I do not have the time, the money, or the room to rack up a bunch of Genesis carts again and I really don't want to. I think in time due to the Retron5 I may grab up Star Control, Dune, Virtua Racing, Castlevania, Ghouls n Ghosts, and maybe like 1-2 others but I just don't have the need or motivation to going on a year now that thing has been around.


I think I may just do the community the service and guinea pig it once I see it again as no one at all is covering it. TRU stupidly pulled it, and one of their employees stole one, shoved it on ebay for $40 and took the pics in their TRU shirt with a mobile phone next to the shelf it was on too while at work (ballsy) -- search it, it's there. If I could get into the box and see if that save button was there, that would be all the motivation I'd need to trust in a test drive, though if I could just return it, since it's not loose games, that would be fine too.

[Steve W]

What shocks me is that they didn't even bother putting Eternal Champions onto the machine. If you're making a portable with fighting games as a focus, and since they've got a license for Sega titles already, it seems fairly obvious especially considering Sega's 2D take on Virtua Fighter 2 is on there as well.

[Tanooki]

Maybe they don't work? I'm fairly certain since I didn't like either I did not try them when I had the original unit with the SD card slot added to it from like 5 years ago. I know they've been slightly improved because some games it hated do work with specific tweaks I guess.

[MeTmKnice]

So, where is the chase, and how do I cut to it?

[Tanooki]

Here's the chase. They finally unblocked selling these again mid-week. I went and paid some spare cash I had and grabbed one late this morning. The Save Button is a misrepresented lie on their website as it's not there on the unit or on the box itself. I only had time to mess with Columns so far, but my recollection of the old one I had (first with SD card) didn't sound quite as nice. Obviously I need to put time into the various other games and throw a few on the SD card but I think it has been slightly upgraded, but I have no doubt it won't save still. I'm not happy with that bit, but at the same time I mostly just wanted it to screw around with here and there and not to sink big time into RPGs, though DUNE would have been nice as would Mega Man Wily Wars. I did find someone made a hack for that game that unlocks the full game from the start with a custom rom so that would solve that problem.

I will in time make another post here sooner than later when I can get a little time on it.

I've had a busy annoying day though. I got my replacement frontlit GBC in the mail along with the 40pin cable converter for my GBA. The GBA took hours to do because the plastic case was screwing me up a lot, but it works well. I did melt the GBA screen plastic cover so I had to replace it for $5 on ebay (be here next week, OEM one too) but it'll be slick once it's in. The GBC again was fubar, dude is claiming the heat or whatever is jacking up the LOCA but it appears to be improperly done with not enough as it has spidering and ghosting, also a trapped bit of something between the panels so it's a little warped around it with a white spot on it (dust I guess.) It's going back, no more replacements. Once I'm credited I'll just order a kit and do it myself as I'm fed up and handheld legends has a nice package of loca, panel, glass screen for under $30.

[calgon]

Has anyone messed around with the new re-skin? These are on sale very cheap at dollar general and as terrible as they are I'm sort of tempted

[Tanooki]

Aside from throwing a sd card in mine I have and pretty sure I spelled it out in an earlier post. If save games and moderately wrong octave audio in some games would anger you or ruinthe fun avoid otherwise its worth it at least for the portable. If it's the console version with the cart slot that's a harder sell even with the pack in games vs buying a used genesis and games lot off eBay or locally instead.

[Az]

Did some last minute shopping today and ran across this portable and their standalone console that now comes packed with the three MK's, both $59.99. To actually look at it is to see truly how unprofessional AT Games is. Not only are the 3 screenshots of the MK games (used on both versions) from the friggin' arcade game, but the back of the box doesn't even feature the correct MK boxes. Instead of the real MKII box it uses a full page print ad Acclaim ran that features screenshots from different systems, all squashed into the dimensions of their other box covers. I really don't understand how Sega is OK with such shoddy workmanship of their licenses. Well, SoA I can see, but not SoJ. You'd think someone in the company would see (or better yet play) this garbage and yank back the license in a heartbeat. Even more amazing that other companies like Capcom or WB are stupid/greedy enough to go along also.

Has anyone actually played either of these? I wonder if WB altered the ROMs to remove references to Probe or Acclaim.

Which brings up another point, how the hell did WB wind up with the rights to ports of their IP they didn't even develop? I might be able to understand 3 or UMK3 since Midway/Williams/Whoever at least distributed that themselves, but the first two?

[Tanooki]

I own the handheld, the box on that does have the MK2 ad instead of box, pretty dumb yet really never noticed it either until you brought it up. I just double checked, as I thought the ROMS are pure, no tweaking so PROBE and Acclaim are still on there. I'm not sure I'd call them entirely unprofessional, but I would 100% call them cheap and lazy. I don't know if you're in an area for the holidays that hiked the price, but that console and handheld should MSRP at the $40-45 mark, not $60. I got it when it came out if you recall my earlier posts and noted that price around there back then. I've since seen it pop up at Walgreens and other spots still in that range.

I call them cheap because for the same price as it has been for years, now they removed the USB cable to charge it with which was a punk move, thankfully I had a spare usb power cable+power jack from a dead phone with perfect power flow for it. I call them lazy because of the cheapness of the overall box but primarily since they do microscopic updates to their emulator yet clearly leave most the audio problems and NO SAVING even on the console to games with battery save BROKEN. That really is so damn stupid it's stunning. All said though if you get it for what it retails for, given the Sega games in there, and the SD card .BIN file support on the portable it's worth it entirely to have most the Genesis library in your pocket, but that's it.

WB got the right to MK because when Midway folded, their IPs went up for sale and auction and WB picked up the entire MK franchise game library and all along with all other MK related rights and some other IPs as well (quite a few actually.) Probe/Acclaim made the games under license with Midway but ultimately Midway owned their code, their music, their graphics, characters, etc. They were just code jockies doing the work Midway was too lazy to handle in the 90s until they took up the work with MK3/UMK3.

[Az]

Probe/Acclaim made the games under license with Midway but ultimately Midway owned their code, their music, their graphics, characters, etc.

I just found that strange since I've never heard of a company releasing ports of their own original IP's that were licensed out to be developed and published by totally unrelated companies. In fact I can't even think of any example of this ever happening in the past. So many arcade ports are lost in time due to licensing issues and it often takes a small miracle (somewhat like the Ubisoft/Konami deal) to ever see them again.

Lots of cool reworked ports or better yet AST's will never be seen again, like Sega's Final Fight or Hudson's Neo-Geo ports.

[Tanooki]

I totally agree, lots of lost better things to keep around than MK1-3 of all things for Genesis. It's just an emulator and they're cheap so it's no surprise they'd go the path of the least resistance (cash and effort.) I just wish they'd fix the SRAM issue and sound and it would be amazing for what you paying for given the SD card capabilities of it. The thing is, for all that's lost, anything considered lost on Genesis has I'd bet a 90% chance of working on that thing so at least that's something considering Sega gave their blessing to advertise such a feature and include it.

[SparTonberry]

I would suspect usage of old company logos in digital rereleases of games might be a game-specific concern.

I know when Ghoul Patrol was released on Wii Virtual Console, LucasArts left in the JVC logo even though Victor/JVC's game game division was spun off (into Marvelous) I don't how many YEARS ago. Early 2000s, maybe?
I didn't download ZAMN since I own an actual cart, but I wouldn't be surprised if they left in the Konami logo, despite that I think LucasArts alone published VC ZAMN.

[Tanooki]

It's all contract based it really is. I remember when I worked at Midway when they'd make a game most times they just did a PS2 version, then they'd shop around for the best and cheapest contract they could get, shovel the game to them, and have them create a port of it for GC and xb. I recall the deal with it was, they'd get recognition on the legal page and a splash screen, but they owned nothing of their work and it was 100% property of Midway to do with as they pleased. I would image it's probably a standard-ish contract when you farm out work to another company they get paid but lose all rights to the work since the code is all derivative of the original and they just re-write as needed to work on various other consoles. So in this case conveniently being Midway (now WB) they hired some coding chimps for the cheapest price possible, and Probe and Acclaim are known for being cheap and mostly shoddy games as it is, had them do the conversion, paid them off, and that was the end of it. When Midway folded WB got the assets in the buy out and that's why this stuff is highlighted as-is with no tweaks to the ROMS on the atgames systems.

[Az]

Noticed the 2016 version selling like gangbusters and pimping the inclusion of the 2 Phantasy Star games as "more RPG's" in bold print for both of their Sega clones. How and how well does it (or the console version) support saves now?

I finally got around to trying Segaman's mod for these that fixes a some sound issues. It's a definite improvement (maybe huge depending on the game) and worth the tiny inconvenience of loading up.

[BlastProcessing402]

Noticed the 2016 version selling like gangbusters

Probably to people unable to buy the NES classic and getting this instead of paying ebay markup.

[Tanooki]

No doubt, also maybe a few Sega fans who wanted a crack at those RPGs on the go since those hacks tooled around and specifically made it only so those few RPGs could be saved (yet at the cost of the Streets of Rage franchise which seems like an unfair trade off.)