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My Asian region Mega Drive Mini arrived today! It’s pretty slick! Loving it so far! :D 

 

Just in case anyone is wondering, the Asian region system defaults to English, includes 6 button pads and yes, you do get English region US NTSC versions of all the English language releases; including Alien Soldier and MUSHA! (Easily making it the best of the three different versions!)

 

I’m not really feeling any input lag or any noticeable sound delay with this thing.  So far? I’m a very happy chappy! :D 

 

Currently playing through Castlevania Bloodlines for the first time... whose bright idea was it to have limited continues!?

 

I’ll save my thoughts on the game until my inevitable entry in the Your Gaming Diary thread, but I’m greatly enjoying it so far! With this? I now own every single 2D Castlevania game (except for Castlevania MSX and Castlevania Legends on the original Game Boy).

Edited by Dcubed
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5 hours ago, Dcubed said:

My Asian region Mega Drive Mini arrived today! It’s pretty slick! Loving it so far! :D 

Nice, that was fast. Where'd you order from, Play-Asia?

My case arrived today. Makes me want to get one for the other Mini consoles/ Don't think there was any as nice as this though.

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37 minutes ago, Ike said:

Nice, that was fast. Where'd you order from, Play-Asia?

My case arrived today. Makes me want to get one for the other Mini consoles/ Don't think there was any as nice as this though.

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Indeed I did.  I was told that it wasn’t due to arrive until Wednesday, so it was a VERY pleasant surprise to see it arrive today! :D 

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Finally, a decent retro HDMI cable solution that's relatively affordable and better than the average cheaper cables which really don't seem to work.

I probably won't be buying many of these as I already own the RGB Scart cables from the same company (Retro RGB) but that Nintendo cable which works on ALL consoles which have the same multi-out port, with automatic RGB signal detection makes that cable in particular very tempting for when playing Nintendo consoles on different TV's makes trying to get a decent picture difficult without the right cables; with this cable it implies that it will just work which is a brilliant selling feature, plus I could use this for my AV Famicom unit.

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1 hour ago, S.C.G said:

Finally, a decent retro HDMI cable solution that's relatively affordable and better than the average cheaper cables which really don't seem to work.

I probably won't be buying many of these as I already own the RGB Scart cables from the same company (Retro RGB) but that Nintendo cable which works on ALL consoles which have the same multi-out port, with automatic RGB signal detection makes that cable in particular very tempting for when playing Nintendo consoles on different TV's makes trying to get a decent picture difficult without the right cables; with this cable it implies that it will just work which is a brilliant selling feature, plus I could use this for my AV Famicom unit.

That looks like a pretty neat solution for those looking for a low-end way of hooking up your consoles to a modern display; the lag test is particularily impressive.  Shame that it doesn't support S-video for N64 though (only Composite and RGB), but it looks like the best solution for your average joe who doesn't want to break the bank to get your games working and looking at least decent on modern displays.

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So having played the Mega Drive Mini for a little bit, there's a couple of other little bits I've noticed that some might be interested in hearing...

 

Firstly, all PAL region versions of games run at 60hz! They seem to have accomplished this by speeding up the games by 12.5% (Probotector/Contra Hard Corps' intro runs too fast - but thankfully the gameplay itself looks like it was never PAL optimised originally, so it runs at the correct NTSC speed).  Sonic 1 has music playing at the correct NTSC speed for instance!  You can access the PAL versions of games by selecting any European language (Selecting English defaults to the US "Genesis" games, complete with matching menu design - so I'm not quite sure what's gonna happen with the EU version itself in that regard, if they'll have a seperate English (UK) and English (US) option here?)

 

Speaking of which, you do indeed get a European "Mega Drive" menu that is seperate from the Japanese "Mega Drive" design!
 

Next, something quite interesting, turns out that the different game versions all share the same four save state slots.  So if you're playing, say Castlevania Bloodlines, make a save state and then swap to Castlevania: The New Generation; you can then load up that save state from Bloodlines from the EU menu and it'll load up the US ROM with that same save state you made before! Handy if you want to swap between game versions without having to swap languages each time!

 

Another thing that's interesting... they're using the default versions of games from their original regions without any of the bug fixes that M2 introduced in their Wii VC/3DS/Switch releases.  So you still have the spike bug in Sonic 1 and the level 99 bug from Phantasy Star 4 unpatched for instance.

 

Finally, the CRT filter is, sadly, a big pile of rubbish.  It looks absolutely terrible; don't bother using it.  It's blurry, doesn't integer scale the image properly and the scanlines look pants.  Thankfully the normal 4x3 mode looks fantastic! Sharp, crispy goodness :D 

 

Any questions? Feel free to ask!

Edited by Dcubed
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According to an article in Retro Gamer, the version of Tetris on the Mini isn't the exact same as the unreleased game, apparently they changed some stuff (like adding hard drop). They felt they could do that since as it was never released.

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30 minutes ago, Ike said:

According to an article in Retro Gamer, the version of Tetris on the Mini isn't the exact same as the unreleased game, apparently they changed some stuff (like adding hard drop). They felt they could do that since as it was never released.

Yup it's true; I tried it out.  It does indeed have Hard Drop, as well as up to date copyright disclaimers and an altered rotation system.

 

Apparantly this version was actually rebuilt from scratch by porting over the System 16 arcade original and then making changes from there.  It is NOT the unreleased MD version.

 

Darius MD is also not quite the same as the homebrew release (though it was clearly built on top of it - since it still includes an in-game copyright note for the SGDK 1.34 homebrew dev kit); as it includes updated copyright notices and a new mode that lets you fight against all 26 bosses! (I don't think this was in the original homebrew release?)

Edited by Dcubed
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Sega Lord X with another video titled My Favourite Video Game Openings and Cinemas which is well worth a watch either for the nostalgia of seeing the intros again or if you've never seen them before, there are some real classics in there and one or two that I was completely unaware of, also it's good to see where the "Sega" intro for the channel comes from. :D

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3 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

You know, I like his videos but I really wish he wasnt named like a 13 year old edge lord...

Haha, yes I can completely understand that. :D

Though his content and production values are fantastic so I think it's something I'm willing to overlook, plus SLX does make for a good abbriviation at least. :smile:

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7 hours ago, Dcubed said:



Uh oh... The EU version of the MD Mini does NOT have access to the US NTSC ROMS!

 

While the PAL games are being run in 60hz... this does mean that the EU version is officially the worst version of the system.

Well that's disappointing. They could have just added English (US) and English (British) or something to switch between them. I am curious if the roms are on there (as they seem to be).

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Sega (Edge) Lord X with a video one The Sega Game Gear Top 10 well worth a watch, especially if you have the Mega SG and are waiting for that cartridge adapter. @Happenstance :D

That's what I'm planning on doing as I had some Sega Game Gear consoles and more games until recently but I sold them, only keeping the ones I'm really interested in. :smile:

I wonder how many I already have might be on this list and if not, I bet I end up considering at least one new Sega Game Gear game as a result of watching this video. :peace:

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Sega Lord X  with a video of Sega Mega Drive Hacks & Translations Part 2  with some quite interesting titles in there, probably none that I'll be trying but still nice to see.

Also on the subject of Sega, I was playing a bit of Shining Force CD  last night as I was testing a copy that I sold just to make extra sure it was OK even though I knew it worked.

This was because it also gave me a chance to play it on my Mega SG with the Mega CD II attached and all I can say is wow, the level of clarity and detail to it is astounding. :D

It still doesn't mean that I'm any good at the game mind, I got two battles in (basically the intro part) and got K-O'd on both battles but still, it's a game I'll return to for certain. :smile:

This also gave me a chance to check that the Back-Up RAM cart I bought a little while ago with a new battery installed was still good, as you need it to fully experience the entire game.

It's all fine, after a bit of a shock initially after the Mega CD telling me that no RAM cart was present, after taking the cartridge out and reseting it all worked just fine. :peace:

I'll have to get my main copy out again soon to give it a proper playthrough as the story, characters and presentation are all genuinely charming. :heart:

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Sega Lord X with a video featuring Games I really wanted for the Sega Saturn Part 2: The Cancelled Projects which shows some interesting games.

I would have definitely tried out that Raiden port if it had happened, Viewpoint looks pretty interesting for an isometric shooter as well.

Edited by S.C.G
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BTW: Nice find for owners of the EU MD Mini...

 

You CAN still play the superior US versions of CV Bloodlines and Contra Hard Corps!

 

BTW: Worth noting that there's also a few US versions of games available if you set your console's language to Japanese, Korean or Chinese (Like Earthworm Jim and Vectorman); for the games that never originally got released in Japan (I think that CV Bloodlines and Contra Hard Corps are the only games with major differences between the US/EU versions though).  CV Bloodlines and Contra Hard Corps are only available if you set the language to Korean though.

 

Also worth noting that if you make a save state in a different region version of the game, you can access that regional variant's save state from any language setting without having to change the language each time.  Handy in this case!

Edited by Dcubed
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John Riggs  with a video on the PSP Go - Celebrating 10 Years!

I didn't really bother much with the PSP at the time but I did win a PSP Go via a promotion, so that's how I got mine and it is a nice little system. :D

Digital only though and you can't access the store directly any more but you can connect it to a PS3 and grab some games for it that way.

I'm thinking of doing that after I get my setup sorted out a bit more, as I got a PSP Go dock and a set of Component cables with the intention of maybe playing it on the big screen.

Now that doesn't sound like the greatest idea overall but apparently you can get some decent results out of it, anyway just something for another time I guess.

But ten years... it was quite ahead of its time in a way. :smile:

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