In retro-related general gaming press I've noticed this extremly recurring compulsion to add in some unneccessary disclaimer or back-handed compliment when talking about the Genesis or games for it. Stuff like "this is pretty good, for being on Genesis". I see it happen so many times it makes me wonder why they don't think about what an utterly redundant statement it is. It gets really grating after a while. I can't think of any other system that gets treated this way in retrospect.
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Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Appreciation Thread: Alien Storm > Golden Axe
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
In retro-related general gaming press I've noticed this extremly recurring compulsion to add in some unneccessary disclaimer or back-handed compliment when talking about the Genesis or games for it. Stuff like "this is pretty good, for being on Genesis". I see it happen so many times it makes me wonder why they don't think about what an utterly redundant statement it is. It gets really grating after a while. I can't think of any other system that gets treated this way in retrospect.
theSlacker
Member
To be fair, for stateside people, there is little chance that they ever got to see or even know about how good it looks in RGB. I really am amazed by it myself. I'm sure I've said this before, but it is the biggest upgrade from non RGB to RGB out of all the systems that I have.
sixteen-bit
Member
Yeah not only is the composite minced ass, but the RGB is a step above its contemporaneous platforms to me. The gulf is immense.
Some people like the color bleed on composhit since the dithering reads better, but it's just not worth it to me.
Some SNES folks still salty about Genesis marketing after 20 years.
IrishNinja
Member
ah, awesome! also hey man, didn't know you were here as well as sega-16...thanks for this, and also your facebook link seems to be down?
hear, hear
*sigh* yeah, its tiring but i really only mind these days when it's say someone from retronauts. forums/YT personalities are a low bar for the most part, but if you've written/spoke on the subject for venues like that, i really hate hearing it...Bloodlines, Strider, Rocket Knight, so many games you get that "really impressive for not looking like 3 colored shit and sounding tinny" etc etc type've ignorance.
Gunstarheroes
Member
By the way, if i haven't mentioned already, i work for 8 Bit Evolution now, and we do Genesis repros, and man i've learned about so many cool, weird pirate games through working here the past few weeks.
IrishNinja
Member
that's cool gunstar - name some, always looking to dump more stuff on my everdrive
IrishNinja
Member
hey man there was
there was some stuff
there was some stuff
Gunstarheroes
Member
My personal fav was a beat-em up called Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan. Its pretty solid all things considered, enough that i played through the entire game.
D.Lo
Member
Don't get carried away.
It's not a marvel of engineering, just a decently amplified RGB signal. It's also unbalanced, a good output but finnicky, with a very weak sync signal and messed up composite if using that as sync. If your screen doesn't compensate for the weak or messed up sync signal you get dropouts. I've had no end of trouble with Mega Drive and Master System on the Framemeister, and my old CRT got dropouts too. Many people (me included) have to use sync strippers and/or sync boost circuits in their scart cables.
Heck companies like micomsoft released sync boost devices back in the day to deal with this issue, like the XMD series.
Also only a couple of models are really good, particularly for audio, the vast majority of Mega Drive consoles were borderline clone consoles, dozens of board revisions cheaply made in whatever third world manufacturer would churn them out cheapest. The good edge the MD has in the particular type of audio it excels at is completely gimped by the muffled audio of 80-90% of the released consoles. So of course people don't rate something highly when it's extremely unlikely they have ever actually heard proper MD audio.
IrishNinja
Member
what are dropouts? my retro_console_accessories cable has given me zero issues so far on genesis, most i have to put up with is the ever-present overscan which at least the mini has a few filters to diminish it.
D.Lo
Member
On a crt you get a sort of screen tear type thing, and on an XRGB you get a literal dropout as it loses sync.
Yes the cable you have likely has either a sync stripper, or a sync boost, or capacitors to manage the RGB/sync signal mismatch. She makes cables with circuitry to deal with the inherent issues of the console. But they are therefore expensive.
theSlacker
Member
Do you? Just googled them and can't find any on their store. Looks like a bunch of custom systems though. Maybe I got the wrong place.
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, local guy out here does Genesis repros as well, i bought Pulseman, Wily Wars, Centy & a few others off him a while back
ah, didn't know about any of that, thanks for clarifying man. and fortunately her cables are (were?) relatively inexpensive, she's out of my home state so most were < $30 shipped, totally worth it to not experience any of that.
ah, didn't know about any of that, thanks for clarifying man. and fortunately her cables are (were?) relatively inexpensive, she's out of my home state so most were < $30 shipped, totally worth it to not experience any of that.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It took me until 2013 to realize that Genesis looks as bright and beautiful as SNES.
It's not just that it was trapped behind composite... it was trapped behind particularly BAD composite.
99.9% of people in the states (and still most in PAL or Japan, most likely) never saw Mega Drive as anything but a muddy, jailbarred mess.
Oh well... it only adds to my sense of enjoyment of this machine every time I boot it up now.
Gunstarheroes
Member
https://www.etsy.com/shop/8bitevolutiongaming
Mind you, we only have a fraction of the Sega games we carry here. We are actually working on a Psy-O-Blade release soon, but yeah, we can basically do any Sega game with at least the case, and most of them have manuals. My boss is kind of crazy for Sega, so we offer games only the craziest of collectors would want.
theSlacker
Member
Ah cool. I was looking at some direct website, not the etsy site. Prices aren't bad either. I know you are probably bias, but hows the quality for it all? Do they look and feel like a real release in official packaging/manual/cart?
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Is it ready yet? *poke*
...
Is it ready yet? *poke*
Gunstarheroes
Member
Basically. If you ever decide to get something from us though, make sure to ask for an old Sega case. We use new cases, and well for most people its fine, for a collector you may very well just want an authentic case, which we have, its just limited. Otherwise, inserts and labels are pretty high quality. Manuals are paper though, so no glossy covers, but they are all in color, so a bit of solid trade-off there.
theSlacker
Member
Thanks for the info. I see like 4 or 5 games that I am interested in so will keep them in mind.
Bog
Junior Ace
I met those guys at Too Many Games last year. Love their GBA repaints.
Yup, gonna back this up as well. Went from thinking the Genesis looked alright to seeing how beautiful it could be a couple of years ago.
Man I need to be able to preorder Project Y soon -_- I'd rather not have to wait 5 years again to get the game!
I can't find them on your site.
Do you do custom orders? Like, I mail you the ROM and you put it on a cartridge with a label and insert of your creation or something?
Gunstarheroes
Member
Like i posted before, we have an etsy where we carry all our repros. Though, you (or anyone here) feel free to shoot me a PM if you are looking for anything, and regardless whether we have made it or not, we can do it. Just don't ask for MUSHA or any officially released in the US game. We won't. You'd (probably not) be shocked how often we get asked to.
Piston Hyundai
Member
the centy thirst is real
(also may be giving you guys some business; been hankering for some monster world iv)
Laws00
Member
Does anybody know if all RadioShacks are closed now?
I need to get some fuses and stuff to fix my damn Sega CD that my friend borrowed from a friend but didn't return and I just took it (he gave it to me) but ya.
I would go right now but there is a snow storm in NJ and although radioshack is a less then 10 minute drive I don't want to go till this is over possibly even tomorrow
I need to get some fuses and stuff to fix my damn Sega CD that my friend borrowed from a friend but didn't return and I just took it (he gave it to me) but ya.
I would go right now but there is a snow storm in NJ and although radioshack is a less then 10 minute drive I don't want to go till this is over possibly even tomorrow
Hector Garfria
Member
Anyone here know indepth stuff about the Model 1 Revisions?
I opened my Model 1 Genesis to find out what VA it would be but it has IC#'s that go from VA3 to VA6. It has TMSS so it's at least a VA6 when it comes to important stuff, but I'm wondering if it's one of those weird VA's like VA6.5 which I can't find any metrics for, only that it exists. I found a .zip file with images of what the inside of a VA6.8 looks like but mine looks nothing like it.
I'll list the IC#'s
IC1 Motorola MC68000P8
IC2/IC3 Hitachi(I think) HM65256BLSP-12 <---Yes it's a B not an 8.
IC4 SEGA 315-5433
IC5 Never found it/didn't know where to look
IC6 Zilog Z0840004PSC Zilog Z80
IC7 Sanyo LC3664RL
IC8 SEGA 315-5313
IC9/IC10 Samsung KM424C642-10
IC11 Yamaha YM2612
IC12 Sony CXA1034
IC13 Sony CXA1145P
IC14 Signetics LM358N
I have images for most of the IC chips too if it's relevant at all. I just want to know if this is worth keeping around or if I should try for something better.
I opened my Model 1 Genesis to find out what VA it would be but it has IC#'s that go from VA3 to VA6. It has TMSS so it's at least a VA6 when it comes to important stuff, but I'm wondering if it's one of those weird VA's like VA6.5 which I can't find any metrics for, only that it exists. I found a .zip file with images of what the inside of a VA6.8 looks like but mine looks nothing like it.
I'll list the IC#'s
IC1 Motorola MC68000P8
IC2/IC3 Hitachi(I think) HM65256BLSP-12 <---Yes it's a B not an 8.
IC4 SEGA 315-5433
IC5 Never found it/didn't know where to look
IC6 Zilog Z0840004PSC Zilog Z80
IC7 Sanyo LC3664RL
IC8 SEGA 315-5313
IC9/IC10 Samsung KM424C642-10
IC11 Yamaha YM2612
IC12 Sony CXA1034
IC13 Sony CXA1145P
IC14 Signetics LM358N
I have images for most of the IC chips too if it's relevant at all. I just want to know if this is worth keeping around or if I should try for something better.
Incoming Battle mania 2 and Monster World IV flood.
Gunstarheroes
Member
I still need to get to the first Genesis release at some point. I have it...just havent sat down with it. Also nice on having complete repro creations at an affordable price. Whats the deal with Vampire Killer or that Phantasy Star 2 cart? Retranslations?
Bar81
Member
The Vampire Killer seems to me to be for people that prefer the JP art and that badass name that don't collect JP games.
Gunstarheroes
Member
Vampire Killer is basically for people that prefer the JP artwork and stuff, basically.
PS2 is the Text Adventure games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasy_Star#Spin-offs
Are you making the boards or repurposing old ones?
What's the problem with reproducing stuff that was released in the USA?
Bar81
Member
People try to pass it off as original.
gasega68k developing G-Zero. Eventually all the assets with be replaced by original art.
Test ROM here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/30cs9ty9liuc6m2/G-zero_test.rar
Test ROM here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/30cs9ty9liuc6m2/G-zero_test.rar
ResidentDante
Member
gasega68k developing G-Zero. Eventually all the assets with be replaced by original art.
Test ROM here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/30cs9ty9liuc6m2/G-zero_test.rar
But...but...mode 7?! Can the Genesis mode on the seventh level what Nintendo can?
I'm not a programmer, but what I take from his description is that he's essentially using the ROM itself as extra virtual RAM (I think this is also how Factor 5 did all their cool stuff on the N64?). It would also be possible to just rely on the system's 16k backup RAM to do this, but then the tiles would need to be half the size and thus more pixelated.
ResidentDante
Member
Sounds impressive. Could they essentially have done it back in the day by adding some RAM inside the cartridge, or would that have been to slow going through the cartridge port?
sixteen-bit
Member
Re: Vampire Killer vs Bloodlines
In VK, Eric looks more androgynous in the cutscenes and the game difficulty tuned easier. You don't get passwords at the end of the levels though; only after you deplete your life stock.
In VK, Eric looks more androgynous in the cutscenes and the game difficulty tuned easier. You don't get passwords at the end of the levels though; only after you deplete your life stock.
You can buy any genesis repro with box and manual for 18$ shipped now.
They're extremely cheap thanks to Kryxx (can't remember the proper spelling) releasing a self rom burner for 50$
Actually the scaling/rotation on the Sega CD is way better than Mode 7.
This is a Megadrive ROM though.
Shadow Hog
Member
So yeah
Piston Hyundai
Member
snatcher is good shit
maybe not several hundred dollars good, but still
Sapiens
Member
I think there are some serious framerate issues with the background scaling/rotation that the CD does. Very choppy and only half the screen can be filled.
The sprite scaling is another conversation though, and it is a shame that more devs did not take advantage outside of core.
IrishNinja
Member
congrats hog, one of the greats right there
shame the saturn one still hasn't seen translation
shame the saturn one still hasn't seen translation