Sega Announces Genesis Mini
- Paul Thurrott
- Mar 30, 2019
-
26
Good news for nostalgic video game fans: Sega announced that it will ship a Genesis Mini retro console in September.
“SEEEEGGGGAAAA!” the official Sega account on Twitter announced. “The iconic Sega Genesis returns September 19, 2019, with our lovingly crafted Sega Genesis Mini for $79.99! Simply plug-in and play 40 of the console’s legendary titles, 10 of which we’re announcing today.”
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
The Sega Genesis Mini is a miniature replica of the original 16-bit Sega Genesis video game console that took the market by storm in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The firm sold over 30 million units worldwide and the Genesis was Sega’s last truly successful console, thanks in part to Sonic the Hedgehog, the marque video game series.
Right now, details on the Mini are a bit light. The console will ship with Ecco the Dolphin, Castlevania Bloodlines, Space Harrier II, Shining Force, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Toe Jam & Earl, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, Gunstar Heroes, and, of course, the original Sonic the Hedgehog, plus 30 other titles. And it will include two classic wired 3-button control pads that are modeled after the Genesis control pad, a USB power adapter, power cable, and HDMI cable.
You can learn more at the Sega Genesis Mini website. But if you’re interested in this topic, I strongly recommend reading Console Wars by Blake J. Harris. This is a great history of the video game market during this time period, and Sega and the Genesis factor in quite prominently.
Tagged with
Conversation 26 comments
-
skane2600
<p>It's too bad that none of these retro devices allow you to play games beyond what is embedded in the device itself. One wonders if the original binaries are even running inside or if they are some kind of port.</p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417400">In reply to Brazbit:</a></em></blockquote><p>I was just pondering based on the fact that these devices didn't support running additional games out-of-the-box. If they use fully-compatible emulators it makes sense that they should be able to run all the games as you say.</p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417067">In reply to stevek:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think trying to duplicate the Atari 2600 would be a challenge. Low-level video characteristics such as vertical blanking are controlled by game software and I'm not sure if HDMI has any way of passing that along to the video display (I've never studied HDMI specs). </p><p><br></p><p>As far as emulators are concerned, given the very slow clock rates of the original game units, I don't think lag would be a problem in many cases (of course, if they are implemented on low-end Raspberry Pi or similar processors, that might be different). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if intentional delays are incorporated into the emulators so the games don't run too fast. </p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417294">In reply to maethorechannen:</a></em></blockquote><p>The device you link to uses composite video, not HDMI and isn't entirely implemented using FPGAs as the original poster suggested.</p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417282">In reply to luthair:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm guessing your point was that FPGA's are digital building-blocks, and additional analog circuitry would be required to fully implement these devices.</p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417403">In reply to Brazbit:</a></em></blockquote><p>Nintendo did something with their system that we working in the industry a few years earlier assumed was illegal – making it virtually impossible to make NES games without their permission via a lock-out system.</p>
-
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#417496">In reply to Brazbit:</a></em></blockquote><p>Bushnell was long gone before the rise of third-party games on the Atari and he was actually in favor of more open systems than the VCS which was one of the disagreements with Warner that lead to his departure.</p><p><br></p><p>The inner workings of these consoles were trade secrets which is how they discouraged third-parties from developing games. Due to it's very primitive and idiosyncratic design the VCS in particular was difficult to reverse engineer. Any lawsuits that these firms filed were based on their claim of a violation of NDA's, not merely suing on the basis of a game being developed. If they could sue on such a broad basis that would have meant that nearly no third-party games would have been sold and we know that was far from the case.</p><p><br></p><p>Nintendo's limiting the number of games third parties could develop, was of course , a strategy that depended on the lock-out, not independent of it.</p><p><br></p><p>I worked at Mattel and we did actually talk about lock-out schemes but this was among developers and we didn't really mix with legal folks, so we had no idea what they thought. One rather simple, low-tech lock-out idea we had was for the console to scan all the code in the game cartridge and only allow it to start if the string "Copyright Mattel Electronics" was embedded in the code. So if a third party created a game without it, it wouldn't run, if they included it, the IP belonged to us. Probably not legal but we weren't lawyers.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>