FC Mobile II and Sega Digital Pocket - New Handhelds from Hyperkin.

[tofu]

If you're interested, then I could use some feedback on the games to be included inside the retroGEN console and handheld. Please bear in mind that we cannot insert the best sellers because that would hurt the retro SEGA cartridge market.

Also, redesigns of the FC Mobile v2.0 will not be done in time for Toy Fair in New York. You may have to wait until E3 to see all the changes. The buttons will eventually match Sonic_Wolf's layout, we're including a reset button, the color scheme and controllers/gun will change. Those are all positive changes but unfortunately because of time constraints and contracts with factories and distributors we were not able to update the NOAC.

This is my SEGA list so far:

Shining Force (I don't know this game, but I'm getting great feedback from it)
Columns (great replay value, but which Columns version? I believe the original was built into the Nomad, so including Columns I is what we'll probably go with)
Outrunners (best Outrun game, both highly replayable, sells decently and
would work on a small screen I think)
Ristar (overlooked but good game)
Comic Zone (not a great game, but hard to keep in stock due to the
uniqueness of it.)
Vectorman (both of these games are great ones)
Super Hang On (simple, yet great playing racing game, graphics would
definitely work for the screen)
Toe Jam and Earl (cult classic, still worth a bunch. I Don't know how it
would translate to the small screen)
Toki: Going Ape Spit (a very solid, unique platformer that would complement
Sonic / Vectorman / Ristar all really good)
Golden Axe (would translate well, but this cartridge sells well)
Streets of Rage (ditto the last one, better games than Golden
Axe, although both are very fondly remembered)
Gunstar Heroes (another game that has retained value and is very popular)
Virtual Racing (compatibility issues may force me to include this game)

[tofu]

They would probably do that so in order to sell it outside of North America, they could rebadge it a retroMegadriveMobile or something like that. It would be much cheaper and easier on the company.

It was designed to accept Megadrive cartridges and SEGA Genesis cartridges but I have not yet received a sample handheld to test yet.

[Tupin]

Yeah, if you can't get the actual Virtua Racing cart to work on it, just make it built in. The other games look good. As for the Megadrive compatibility, the slot already looks like the correct shape to accept the carts.

Sonic_Wolf's layout? That was the best one, awesome.

[thom_m]

If the battery life's good (and since it'll have an AC adapter ption), you can include Kid Chameleon. It's one of my favorite games on the system, and I think a lot of people like it too (taking from brazilian gamers, at least).

I don't know if it's one of the best sellers on the system, though. SEGA lets Tec Toy use it on their MD (and their handheld too, IIRC), so I guess it wouldn't be a problem.

[Tupin]

If the battery life's good (and since it'll have an AC adapter ption), you can include Kid Chameleon. It's one of my favorite games on the system, and I think a lot of people like it too (taking from brazilian gamers, at least).

I don't know if it's one of the best sellers on the system, though. SEGA lets Tec Toy use it on their MD (and their handheld too, IIRC), so I guess it wouldn't be a problem.

Hey, it would be a good break from the usual Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle.

Toki is a good choice also.

[thunderkid]

My vote goes to Landstalker. This is an awesome action/RPG game.

[Sonicwolf]

Barts nightmare would be cool. That game was pretty difficult but entertaining nonetheless.

[Tupin]

Barts nightmare would be cool. That game was pretty difficult but entertaining nonetheless.

I think any licensed title would be hard to do.

[j_factor]

The Genesis has such a good library of shooters, you really should include at least one or two. Doesn't Sega own the rights to the Thunderforce series now? If you can, definitely go for Thunderforce III and/or Lightening Force.

I would have to disagree with Outrunners... I thought the Genesis version was terrible, and I don't think the split screen would work well on a handheld. The original Out Run or Out Run 2019 would work better.

Other suggestions:

Kid Chamelon (seconded)
Shinobi III (strongly recommended)
Pulseman
Dynamite Headdy
Beyond Oasis
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Herzog Zwei
Gain Ground
Ecco the Dolphin
Ranger-X

[bangtango]

If you want something that represents Sega, you're going to have to include at least one Golden Axe, Sonic, Shinobi and Streets of Rage title. Perhaps it would end up being the worst game in each respective series (i.e. Golden Axe 3) but that isn't the point. The point is having games in there with a little name value.

Like it or not, when you have that many games built into a handheld unit, there are going to be at least one or two that flat out stink. It comes with the territory.


Other thoughts:

-Like it or not, I'm sure Altered Beast will end up in there somewhere.

-Might an Afterburner or Space Harrier game be used?

-Putting an unreleased game in there might not be a bad idea or if there isn't something unreleased then maybe a homebrew. Worked for the Atari Flashback 2.

-Throwing in something like Wrestle War, which never came out on the Genesis, could help as a "filler" game (face it this unit will have a few of those).

-Perhaps Sega could include a licensed game or two and find a way to remove all references to said license to have a generic port. Would be easy enough I think with something like Buster Douglas Boxing or the first Joe Montana Football. It might be real cheesy but you'd have another game or two for the list.

[Akito01]

I have to admit, I'd been following this thread for a while now, pretty much loving every minute of it. I got an FC Mobile a few weeks ago, and I've really grown to love it (despite the obvious button problem).

I'd even begun trolling eBay to rebuild my NES collection, to rebuy some games I'd sold away over 15 years ago, and to get ones I'd missed the first time around.

Sadly, this brings me to my only really serious complaint, which has to do with compatibility. I already had Mega Man 3 and Battletoads in my collection, and was dissappointed that they wouldn't work properly (or at all in MM3's case). I just recently got Iron Tank, and discovered that the game pretty much freezes in the FC Mobile whenever I try to bring up the select button menu. And then there was Startropics with it's very odd issues regarding playback on the LCD screen.

But, overall, I really really do like the FC Mobile, and when I heard about the FC Mobile 2, I kinda got excited. Because the most recent revision of the RetroDuo seems to have a version of the NOAC that solves many of the existing compatibility errors, I was really hoping that that chip would appear in the new mobile player as well. I mean, that would have been a day one buy for me.

As it is, I suspect I'll have to sit back and see if there's ever an FC Mobile 3. On the positive side, I'm actually really looking forward to the retroGENmobile, as I sold off my original Genesis a very long time ago, and I'd enjoy being able to build up a new collection of Genesis games again. The fact that a portable SNES is 'in the works' also makes me very happy, even if it is a long while off.

It's brilliant that Hyperkin is putting together these devices, and I really appreciate that they're doing that, but it breaks my heart a little bit to hear about the FC Mobile 2 NOAC thing.

[tofu]

... but it breaks my heart a little bit to hear about the FC Mobile 2 NOAC thing.

I'm sorry to bring you the bad news, it's my wish to someday be part of the company that finally conquers the NES compatibility issue. As it is right now I'll be attending the Midwest Gaming Classic with the intention of buying every single NES/Famicom cartridge that we have compatibility issues with.

If you would like to contribute, I am building a list of games which are currently not compatible with my company's NOAC:

After Burner
Battletoads (the game hangs at the second level, however, if warps are used, this is passable and the rest of the game works perfect)
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Cheetahmen II
Challenge of the Dragon
Crystal Mines
Dragon Warrior II
Gemfire
Iron Tank
Laser Invasion
L'Empereur
Paperboy
Pipe Dream
Mad Max
The Krion Conquest
Uncharted Waters
Blades of Steel
Duck Tales
Gargoyle's Quest 2
Ghosts n' Goblins
The Guardian Legend
Ice Hockey
Ikari Warriors
Mega Man III
Pro Wrestling
Rad Racer
Rescue - The Embassy Mission
Spy Hunter
Stealth ATF
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet
Tiger Heli

[Tupin]

Ah, the catch for me there is incompatibility with Ice Hockey.

I'll get it no matter what, though.

[Sonicwolf]

My attitude towards all clones is that perfection is pretty much irrelevant and people should appreciate the ability to play most games on a new system. I mean, even with those games not working, there are still hundreds that do work. People sometimes expect too much of these clone systems. As long as a good majority of the games work, Ill buy it.

[Akito01]

It's a bit off-topic but if you guys have reasonable requests for a new product that'll be marketable to the general retro-gaming public I'd be happy to hear those as well.

I just remembered that I wanted to answer this ages ago.

I don't know if this is a reasonable request, or just crazy, but I'd love something that could play the old TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine CDs and SuperCDs. Granted, it didn't take off in North America, but the PC-Engine was pretty huge in Asia, and there wasn't any sort of region lock out on the CD-Roms between systems.

I still have my TurboDuo (the NA version of the PC-Engine Duo), but it suffers from a common problem with the system where the sound doesn't always work because of bad capacitors. It'd be very cool to have something that looks like a portable CD player, but probably a bit larger, that I could hook up to my TV to play my collection of SuperCD games.

[Sonicwolf]

I still say the best new clone portable would be a Super Nintendo Entertainment System and then someday, a PlayStation portable.

[Tupin]

I still say the best new clone portable would be a Super Nintendo Entertainment System and then someday, a PlayStation portable.

Heh, can't wait for the day we get clones of modern systems.

The cycle seems to go like this:
1. System is cloned for first time, bad compatibility
2. Clone goes through several changes, compatibility gets better
3. Clone technology gets small enough to make a portable, but with problems
4. Problems are fixed, clone keeps getting smaller and smaller

Really, the only limit for how small a clone system can be is the media it uses.

[Leo_A]

Off topic, but I wonder if we would ever see clones of more recent consoles? More modern consoles aren't just hardware, but also include software in the form of such things as operating systems, unlike earlier consoles like the SuperNes

Some earlier consoles certainly had software too, such as the Colecovision and Intellivision, but their bios or whatever you'd call it certainly would be many levels simpler than what we see in more modern consoles.

So unless that's reverse engineered, I would think that work would be protected by copyright much longer than the patents for hardware would be. So I'm not sure we're ever going to see legal, non licensed clones of systems like the N64 and PSOne.

Anyone that actually knows what they're talking about out there that could clarify that?

[Sonicwolf]

A PlayStationOne portable and Nintendo 64 portable would be the best. I would buy them both in a flash. Eventually companies will figure out how to make there own OS's to run these games on clone systems.

[tofu]

I just remembered that I wanted to answer this ages ago.

I don't know if this is a reasonable request, or just crazy, but I'd love something that could play the old TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine CDs and SuperCDs.

I think these are already available on the Wii virtual console. Not to be a killjoy but that means, at least to me, that the most popular console of all time has this readily available and there's not much of a North American following either...

If you can convince me otherwise I'm still open to the idea.