New Genesis Consoles ETA: Summer 2009

[T2KFreeker]

Mini Review on Innex Firecore. (This is not the handheld)

The system is tiny. Smaller than the Genesis 3, but stays in place better due to better rubber feet on the bottom. The control pads are not that bad as they mimic the Genesis six button pad, although it is a cross between the one that came with the Genesis 3 and original six button arcade pad, but has no "Mode" buttons. It has a PAL/NTSC switch on the back and also has a cart slot that fits Japanese Mega Drive carts. The system will also take actual Genesis pads. I have over 200 Genesis carts and tested all of them. The only two that did not work were Super street Fighter II and Virtua Racing.

There are two down sides here though. The system only supports Mono sound and also, the sound emulation is not right. They must not have used a Genesis sound chip or even a proper emulation as it does not sound right. Still, if you do not have a Genesis and want one, it's worth it. It also comes with 20 games built in.

They Are:
Sonic & Knuckles
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Gain Ground
Arrow Flash
Shinobi III
Ecco Jr.
Ecco The Dolphin
Golden Axe
Crack Down
Altered Beast
Flicky
Decap Attack
ESWAT
Alien Storm
Shadow Dancer
Columns III
Sonic Spinball
Jewel Master
Kid Chameleon
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

The included games actually sound fine, for the most part. Rather odd.

As for the portable, it has been delayed until later this month as they are trying to get as close to 2100% compatibility as they can. That's mwhat I was told anyway. Hope that this helps out a bit.

[Akito01]

I'd be very curious to see how the Innex console compares to the HyperKin Sonic head. I've already pre-ordered the Innex portable, but I don't have a dedicated Genesis console to play games on my TV.

[nhm]

Doesn't sound good for the portable. They'll probably be LUCKY to have it out by the end of the month.

1. They still haven't finalized the compatability.
2. Once they finalize the compatability, they start production. I'm sure this is somewhere in China.
3. After they are made, they have to be shipped to the US. I think if they got their compatability down tomorrow, they might make the end of the month. Hopefully Hyperkin will have theirs out soon. They have said "early" September from the get-go. I prefer companies that under-promise and over-deliver.

[T2KFreeker]

I couldn't tell you where this is going. Like I said, it's a mini review and the full review will be in an upcoming issue of Classic VGM.

[Lerxstnj]

Super Street Fighter II is one of the few carts I actually own. I wonder why that one doesn't work.

[kedawa]

It uses bank swapping to get by the 32MB cart size limit.
I think it'll have trouble with that new RPG as well, Pier Solar, or whatever it's called.

[T2KFreeker]

Like I said, I believe that is why they waited on the Handheld so they could get it working. I will hopefully know more soon.

[T2KFreeker]

As far as I have heard, it looks like Super Street Fighter II is going to be a no go also. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as getting the Bankswitching working properly on a Genesis on a chip is probably going to be Hell anyway. I know there have been some changes with the Hyperkin systems as well, but I do not have the details, sadly. Maybe Tofu can stop by and make a comment about it.

[kai123]

Honestly the only thing that interests me out of all of this is the sd in a genesis cart. Everything else seems to have a first party equivalent.

[tofu]

Super Street Fighter II will not work. Neither will Virtua Racer.

Pier Solar, Beggar Prince, Legend of the Wukong will work.

Multiple data bank switching is not the reason. I am not an engineer so I'm just passing on the information I know.

Before any asks, the Watermelon - juicy development team has been in contact with AtGames at some point. AtGames has assured me that Pier Solar will work. I sent my copy of Beggar Prince to AtGames four weeks ago and it will work.

[Akito01]

http://video-game-central.com/sega-g...-retrogen.html

This can't be right, can it? After the earlier news about the delay? They seem to imply that they have it, since they've changed the 'pre-order' sign to 'new', and claim that it ships next day. On the other hand, this is where I pre-ordered, and I haven't gotten any email that its been sent or anything. Seems a little sketchy, at any rate, though it could just be a mistake on their website. Bit of a harsh tease for those of us who've been waiting on these, I dare say.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Well last I heard from Innex they were stuck in customs, but they expect to have them in this week (when I talked to them on Tuesday). Of course the week is now over and I haven't heard anymore news. So they probably told VGC the same thing and VGC just took their word for it and marked them like they were in stock. I've learned many times now that these manufacturers are always wrong on their ETAs.

[nhm]

Yep. I have management experience in manufacturing, and if the company doesn't have the items on hand, you might as well consider it non-existant. I don't know if I'd believe the "stuck in customs" line. Sounds like a convienent excuse. I talked to a rep at Hyperkin today, and they said that they didn't know exactly when they would come in. My completely uninformed guess is that the final compatability kinks are being worked out. I think that both Innex's and Hyperkins systems are largely the same. If one is delayed, they both are delayed. That's just my guess.

Well last I heard from Innex they were stuck in customs, but they expect to have them in this week (when I talked to them on Tuesday). Of course the week is now over and I haven't heard anymore news. So they probably told VGC the same thing and VGC just took their word for it and marked them like they were in stock. I've learned many times now that these manufacturers are always wrong on their ETAs.

[ooXxXoo]

Well, might as well and say it now..I predict that any of the long awaited Atgames related new Sega clone products, including the home consoles and portables, regardless of the distribution companies will be crap....They didn't fixed the high pitch sound, and the compatibility is about the same of the older Atgames "MegaDrive"...Althought some how they managed to get Street Fighter II working (but of course they had to, since the hand helds have a 6-button layout).....

Heard it for yourself, sounds like an overclocked Genesis... Beastech has other interesting videos related to these new Atgames systems while doing some more testing, what a shame .....:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZKCz...eature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIfwrgxahjs

...Great!..Just what we needed..
...
...

[NayusDante]

Just for the record, I have the same directional difficulties with Ms Pac-Man on my real Genesis. The high sound pitch is certainly annoying, though.

[StoneAgeGamer]

My completely uninformed guess is that the final compatability kinks are being worked out.

Unfortunately this is not the case since the media samples for the Innex version have already gone out.

[T2KFreeker]

Unfortunately this is not the case since the media samples for the Innex version have already gone out.

That's weird because as far as I know, the handheld systems are not in hand, that includes the Media Demo units. I am media and have been told that they are not ready.

[Melf]

Same here. I got a Firecore and MD portable, but no Retro Gen.

[megasdkirby]

Saw the Firecore vid...what a shame that sound was not perfected. One would think that after all this time, companies would be able to do it perfectly...yet nothing.

[StoneAgeGamer]

That's weird because as far as I know, the handheld systems are not in hand, that includes the Media Demo units. I am media and have been told that they are not ready.

My mistake I read that they were shipping yours out awhile back. Going back now I see that you are still waiting.

This is why I hate doing pre-orders, but I'm forced into it to keep up with competition. Manufacturers are never right on their ETAs and seem to constantly lie to you (whether on purpose I don't know) to keep you dangling. Hyperkin has been pretty honest this time, but still sucks to not have them when you were told you would get them originally.

So then I have customers getting mad at me because nothing is shipping. Which I understand because when you pay money and see nothing, especially when you were told it gets frustrating real quick. This is why I normally give out some swag with my pre-orders as a reward I guess for pre-ordering.