Seen those mini Genesis consoles with 80 games built in for $40? Yeah, don't bother, they suck.

[joshnickerson]

I picked up one of these because it seemed like a good deal... 40 mostly good Genesis games (and 40 crappy flash games, but whatever) in one unit, PLUS the ability to plug in your original Genesis controllers and game carts? Sign me up! But it wasn't until I got it home and started up Sonic the Hedgehog I discovered the fatal flaw...

The sound chip SUCKS!

The Sonic theme was unrecognizable, it literally sounded like a completely different tune. Sound effects were even worse. I tried several games and they were all horribly off. Seriously, you'd have to TRY really hard to screw up the Genesis sound chip. I've got fami-clones that have more faithful sound emulation.

Plus, I'm not sure if it was my unit or not, but to get back to the game select menu, you press the menu button... except in my case, it would take me back to the menu and then freeze up, forcing me to flip the power switch off and on again to be able to select a new game.

So yeah. It sucks. Maybe if you're deaf, or just don't care about the sound quality, but otherwise, STAY AWAY.

[Emperor Megas]

I haven't even seen them before. I wonder who clones are so notoriously bad? Seriously, I don't understand it. Especially in the cases when many have cheap DIY fixes that make far more serviceable.

[joshnickerson]

Behold the beast. Stay away!

[Tupin]

Yeah, I really don't know how you mess up the sound so badly.

We're kind of leaving the age of the clone system in general, anyway. The systems that came out between the point where you could put everything on one chip to the ones that just run Linux and emulate didn't exactly create the best clones. The early Famiclones were so good, they either based themselves off of a legit system, or just stole board designs direct from the original. Either way, it made it so it was more accurate.

[Oldskool]

Would you say it is the same or worse than other AtGames Genesis clones?

Sometimes I wonder when people say "Oh Genesis sound sucks" it's because they listened/played the game on a clone or a cheap tv set. I really start to wonder how many people are left in this world that have their original Genesis hooked up to a really nice stereo system with a good sub. The difference is astounding.

[Gameguy]

Behold the beast. Stay away!

Isn't that the Sega Firecore? It's supposed to be region free with a NTSC/PAL switch from what I've heard. It originally came with 20 built in games but it looks like they added a bunch, it otherwise looks exactly like the Firecore and it's also by ATGames. It's officially licensed by Sega.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Isn't it sort of dubious to call this a clone if it is officially licensed by Sega? Since Sega approves it, and it has the Genesis name it should count as a variant of the system rather than a clone. It may have radically different hardware from the Megadrive, but so have other revisions of systems that are counted as "real" versions.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Isn't it sort of dubious to call this a clone if it is officially licensed by Sega? Since Sega approves it, and it has the Genesis name it should count as a variant of the system rather than a clone. It may have radically different hardware from the Megadrive, but so have other revisions of systems that are counted as "real" versions.

Splitting hairs really.

Sega may license these, but they're FAR closer to UNLICENSED clone hardware than they are to genuine Genesis or MegaDrive hardware.

Any other licensed "variant" in the era of the Genesis/MegaDrive being commercially produced hardware (Genesis 3, JVC X-Eye, Laseractive, etc.) never came close to the compatibility and A/V issues that these Firecore based systems have.

The most appropriate terminology IMO would be "licensed clone", since that's really what they are.

They're not designed or Q/A'ed with the stringency and compatibility testing that any other previously licensed Sega system ever had.

[hbkprm]

might get that for family for xmas

[CelticJobber]

I bought an AtGames Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Player for $25 on Thanksgiving. It works pretty good on most games, with a few exceptions. They used the Japanese version of Super Street Fighter 2 as one of the built-in games, for some reason.

When adding games with an SD card it has to be formatted as FAT32 and you can only use ROMs that are formatted as .gens and renamed to .bin (.smd files won't work). Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 work fine, but MK3 and UMK3 have wonky controls and you can't perform special moves.

Revolution X won't work at all, neither will Back To The Future 3, Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, or Ms. Pac-Man. Fatal Fury 2 gets to the title screen but crashes when you try to start and have a match.

WWF Super Wrestlemania seems to run alot faster than normal (the other WWF games seem to work fine, aside from lack of 6-button support for Royal Rumble and Raw, and muffled/garbled speech in Wrestlemania Arcade).

The Sonic and Streets of Rage games which are built in all seem to work fine with little to no audio or other issues. Sonic 3 and Sonic 3D Blast also work great (but they're not built-in, so you have to add them).

[phreak97]

Ive played the @games clone at a couple of partys, admittedly with loud music playing, but it seemed pretty good. I do have low expectations from clones though

[ArcadiaExeter]

i would never buy anything that has games "built in".

[MASTERWEEDO]

i would never buy anything that has games "built in".

Sega Master System?

[Oldskool]

What's ironic about it is that the original game consoles did all have their games built in - it wasn't until years later that a cartridge slot was added.