New Analogue console: Mega SG

[Lastblade]

And sure, $250 is expensive but it seems to be a professionally created, well thought out console. I'd rather pay a large sum for quality.
If the Mega SG delivers, I will also get the Super NT.

Exactly. I don't understand the price complaint at all. This system allows you to play Genesis/SMS (and even Sega CD) games in HD with all the visual and audio options you want and as close to the original as possible. In some ways, it is even better because you can tweak different settings to suit your need.

If you want cheap, there are plenty of original systems but they will look like garbage on HDTV.

If you want cheap and looks decent on HDTV, get a clone but the visual and audio fidelity will take a hit.

Otherwise, you are left with either hooking an original system to CRT and not everyone is into that sort of thing. Even then to get decent picture you need to pony up for a component cable or go SCART, which will open up another rabbit hole of expense.

 

[beigemore]

Really enjoying mine so far. Picture and sound are great, and I really like how there are so many audio and video tweaks -- they're easy to change and you can immediately see/hear the results. I haven't tried using the Sega CD with it yet, but will hopefully get some time this weekend to do so.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

Exactly. I don't understand the price complaint at all. This system allows you to play Genesis/SMS (and even Sega CD) games in HD with all the visual and audio options you want and as close to the original as possible. In some ways, it is even better because you can tweak different settings to suit your need.

If you want cheap, there are plenty of original systems but they will look like garbage on HDTV.

If you want cheap and looks decent on HDTV, get a clone but the visual and audio fidelity will take a hit.

Otherwise, you are left with either hooking an original system to CRT and not everyone is into that sort of thing. Even then to get decent picture you need to pony up for a component cable or go SCART, which will open up another rabbit hole of expense.

The "price complaint" is that for $250 you can trivially get an OSSC and an original Genesis console, and that combo will play pixel-perfect on an HDTV with the minimum possible latency and maximum compatibility. Plus, having done that, you can then play other consoles too (NES, SNES, PSX, etc) without additional expenses.

Ultimately $250 isn't crazy for low-volume niche electronics, though. Making stuff is expensive.

 

[Lastblade]

This thing will be hacked soon so you can just load roms directly, and possibly load other cores, etc.

 

[fake]

The "price complaint" is that for $250 you can trivially get an OSSC and an original Genesis console, and that combo will play pixel-perfect on an HDTV with the minimum possible latency and maximum compatibility. Plus, having done that, you can then play other consoles too (NES, SNES, PSX, etc) without additional expenses.

Ultimately $250 isn't crazy for low-volume niche electronics, though. Making stuff is expensive.

I haven't tried it myself, but I doubt re-encoding over an OSSC could beat these types of chip-based hardware emulation things in terms of input lag. (Which is why I would probably buy one if I didn't have CRT access.)

 

[ShootTheCore]

I haven't tried it myself, but I doubt re-encoding over an OSSC could beat these types of chip-based hardware emulation things in terms of input lag. (Which is why I would probably buy one if I didn't have CRT access.)

The OSSC doesn't re-encode anything. It just repeats the horizontal lines that come into it 2X, 3X, 4X or 5X then sends them on to the TV. As such, it doesn't introduce any lag. Whereas the Mega SG will have some lag depending on what you set in its Buffering settings.

 

[fake]

The OSSC doesn't re-encode anything. It just repeats the horizontal lines that come into it 2X, 3X, 4X or 5X then sends them on to the TV. As such, it doesn't introduce any lag. Whereas the Mega SG will have some lag depending on what you set in its Buffering settings.

Ah, OK - I thought OSSC was just a cheapo Framemeister. But doesn't the conversion of an analog composite / s-vid / component signal into a digital signal that can be displayed on a modern TV introduce lag? When I've hooked up old consoles to new TVs, they vary between unplayable and mildly annoying.

 

[ShootTheCore]

Ah, OK - I thought OSSC was just a cheapo Framemeister. But doesn't the conversion of an analog composite / s-vid / component signal into a digital signal that can be displayed on a modern TV introduce lag? When I've hooked up old consoles to new TVs, they vary between unplayable and mildly annoying.

Analog signals can be directly converted to digital signals without introducing latency. The Retrotink is another analog to digital line doubler that lets you connect retro consoles without introducing any lag. However, modern HDTVs do indeed have more latency than CRTs because of other image processing they perform. Enabling "Game Mode" typically reduces some of that latency down, but even then, most modern HDTVs still introduce approximately 20ms of lag through internal processing. Also, there aren't any gaming upscalers that handle 4K resolution yet, so if you use a Retrotink or OSSC with a 4K TV, the TV will have to upscale the supplied signal to 4K at the cost of some latency.

Overall, you still can't beat CRTs for responsiveness, but at least the Retrotink and OSSC eliminate any latency between the console and the HDMI port.

 

[oliverclaude]

Overall, you still can't beat CRTs for responsiveness, ...

...but you can at least match them with certain older plasma monitors.

 

[Niko]

Analog signals can be directly converted to digital signals without introducing latency. The Retrotink is another analog to digital line doubler that lets you connect retro consoles without introducing any lag. However, modern HDTVs do indeed have more latency than CRTs because of other image processing they perform. Enabling "Game Mode" typically reduces some of that latency down, but even then, most modern HDTVs still introduce approximately 20ms of lag through internal processing. Also, there aren't any gaming upscalers that handle 4K resolution yet, so if you use a Retrotink or OSSC with a 4K TV, the TV will have to upscale the supplied signal to 4K at the cost of some latency.

Overall, you still can't beat CRTs for responsiveness, but at least the Retrotink and OSSC eliminate any latency between the console and the HDMI port.

Actually alot of newer TVs 2017+ have subframe (<16ms) response times, my TCL is like this.

 

[100proof]

The "price complaint" is that for $250 you can trivially get an OSSC and an original Genesis console, and that combo will play pixel-perfect on an HDTV with the minimum possible latency and maximum compatibility. Plus, having done that, you can then play other consoles too (NES, SNES, PSX, etc) without additional expenses.

Ultimately $250 isn't crazy for low-volume niche electronics, though. Making stuff is expensive.

Exactly. This isn't the old days when he was charging $600 for chunks of carved wood or Apple-grade airplane aluminum. However, $250 (with shipping) for a clone console is still silly no matter how well made it is. It's the difference between laughably overpriced hipster crap and a mildly overpriced luxury item for people who aren't willing to put in the minimal amount of effort to build their own cheap emulation machine or go the OSSC/original console route.

To each their own, though.

 

[RAZO]

Exactly. This isn't the old days when he was charging $600 for chunks of carved wood or Apple-grade airplane aluminum. However, $250 (with shipping) for a clone console is still silly no matter how well made it is. It's the difference between laughably overpriced hipster crap and a mildly overpriced luxury item for people who aren't willing to put in the minimal amount of effort to build their own cheap emulation machine or go the OSSC/original console route.

To each their own, though.

Why so mad?

Maybe some people want a easy plug and play solution that works really well and don't want to mess with upscalers. I've been there and done that.

There are people paying $500 for a flash cart. You could build a cheap rom box and play the same games.

I'm not mad at them.

 

[Kiel]

Why so mad?

Maybe some people want a easy plug and play solution that works really well and don't want to mess with upscalers. I've been there and done that.

There are people paying $500 for a flash cart. You could build a cheap rom box and play the same games.

I'm not mad at them.

Right. I have original hardware and scalers, pvms, a pi set up, and the super nt and mega sg. I ain’t mad.

 

[fake]

Right. I have original hardware and scalers, pvms, a pi set up, and the super nt and mega sg. I ain’t mad.

This is the true way to go.

 

[GhostSeed]

Digital Foundry review

 

[Kid Panda]

Digital Foundry review

I'm not watching that with the frame counting dickwad.

 

[xb74]

Did not realise it needs a D/A converter to run on crts. In any case, nice take on a classic console.

 

[Neo Alec]

I'm not watching that with the frame counting dickwad.

lol? DF is very useful and informative, especially if you have both an Xbox and PS console and aren't sure which version of a game is the better one to buy. John is a standup guy who generally knows his shit.

 

[Kid Panda]

lol? DF is very useful and informative, especially if you have both an Xbox and PS console and aren't sure which version of a game is the better one to buy. John is a standup guy who generally knows his shit.

He's a pretentious asshole that judges his enjoyment of a game based on framerate. Fuck him.

 

[RAZO]

He's a pretentious asshole that judges his enjoyment of a game based on framerate. Fuck him.

Lol

 

[ShootTheCore]

The Jailbreak is out for the Mega SG - not an April Fools Joke. It also supports ColecoVision ROMs which I swear is also not an April Fools Joke.

https://github.com/SmokeMonsterPacks/Mega-Sg-Jailbreak

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

Colecovision, the other Sega console.

 

[Lastblade]

He's a pretentious asshole that judges his enjoyment of a game based on framerate. Fuck him.

I hope he rates his wife's performance based on her fps.

 

[Neo Alec]

He's a pretentious asshole that judges his enjoyment of a game based on framerate. Fuck him.

It's his job, and he's quite knowledgeable about games in general. The only questionable thing is his intense love of Sonic Mania, while the original MD/Genesis releases are still readily at hand, and truly revolutionary for their time.

 

[fake]

It's his job, and he's quite knowledgeable about games in general. The only questionable thing is his intense love of Sonic Mania, while the original MD/Genesis releases are still readily at hand, and truly revolutionary for their time.

Sonic Mania is a lot of fun.