[HN Gopher] Sega announces a tiny Sega CD retro console
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Sega announces a tiny Sega CD retro console
Author : thunderbong
Score : 47 points
Date : 2022-06-05 05:32 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| nanna wrote:
| Come on Sega, release a new console. Come on. Get back into the
| game...
| asciimov wrote:
| I honestly would love to see Nintendo have a direct competitor
| again. Another company that isn't chasing resolution and fps
| counts, but focusing on family and group gaming.
| danans wrote:
| > The console is all you need to play the games, Sega CD titles
| included, but for maximum authenticity, Sega is selling a purely
| cosmetic Sega CD accessory
|
| I had the original Sega CD, the one with the motorized tray for
| the CD that sat under the Genesis/Megadrive console, not the
| discman-esque top loading device they are copying here.
|
| I suppose I'm the exact target market for this, as a pure
| nostalgic impulse purchase. But I have to say even as a kid I was
| so disappointed in the games available for it, that to impulse
| buy this would be to relive that disappointment, so ... pass.
|
| Credit goes to the original device's included Video-CD for
| introducing me to Jimi Hendrix though (it had Manic Depression
| with a multimedia accompaniment) . That definitely changed me!
| trzy wrote:
| The non FMV library on the Sega CD is surprisingly good! Give
| it another look. Back in the day the FMV games had all the
| spotlight.
| bena wrote:
| Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue were great.
| HideousKojima wrote:
| Snatcher (by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame) is one of
| the best. Basically a Blade Runner-esque adventure/detective
| game with a bit of action too.
| lostgame wrote:
| Terminator is a notable _original_ CD title, not a port
| unlike a lot of its cousins.
| cgriswald wrote:
| We had the top loading version. I'm really glad this version is
| cosmetic only, because we had to return the original several
| times for suddenly refusing to read discs.
| tombert wrote:
| There are definitely a few gems on the Sega CD; Lunar and
| Popful Mail are two common examples.
|
| I also do find that, in hindsight, there's a bizarre charm to
| the Full Motion Video games that were popular in the 90s. Night
| Trap and Corpse Killers aren't "good" games in any kind of
| objective sense, but at the same time they're extremely
| _entertaining_ games in 2022, at least worth playing on an
| emulator.
| cgio wrote:
| Not Sega, but Gabriel Knight 2, the FMV one, is still my
| favourite gaming memory.
| danans wrote:
| > There are definitely a few gems on the Sega CD; Lunar and
| Popful Mail are two common examples.
|
| Alas the video gaming portion of my life ended right after I
| got the Sega CD, so never knew about the later better titles.
| shaunxcode wrote:
| Shining Force CD is worth playing as well.
| makerofspoons wrote:
| The version I played was the CDX, which bizarrely you could put
| batteries in and carry around like a Discman:
| https://retroconsoles.fandom.com/wiki/Sega_CDX/Multi-Mega
| lostgame wrote:
| It was also notable for being a miniature but combined SEGA
| CD and SEGA Genesis.
|
| IIRC it did not officially support the 32X, but it did work?
| fcsp wrote:
| I would really appreciate if those reissue consoles would rather
| be FPGA based mimics of the original hardware instead of
| essentially correctly shaped plastic around a raspi and retropie.
| The perceived success of devices like the Analogue Pocket
| indicate to me there's a market for this, and at the audience
| scale of first party devices this might actually hit non-
| enthusiast pricing
| toast0 wrote:
| FPGA probably costs too much for these; and there's not likely
| enough money in them to make an accurate single chip system.
| (single chip NES asics exist, but accuracy isn't quite 100%;
| I've read that at least one of the atari 2600 retro consoles
| was built with one and they just ported the games to the NES)
| fcsp wrote:
| The analogue pocket sits at 219 USD retail currently, and it
| has a screen with very high density and pretty high quality
| build in general. They are however having issues with
| sourcing parts leading to long preorder cycles. With the
| scale of these reissue consoles, and lack of a screen or
| batteries, I'd think it would be possible to reach the price
| point of these toy reissues if they came as FPGA based builds
| from first party. Not the profit margin though unfortunately
| speeder wrote:
| Tectoy is a Brazillian company that still manufactures SEGA
| consoles (they have the license back from the 90s).
|
| They still use the original motherboard and whatnot...
|
| Yet, somehow, they still manage to make it have issues, seemly
| they replaced several of the original chips with cheaper ones
| that don't have same algorithms, some games notoriously have
| issues (Sonic 3 for example has audio problems).
|
| Also they removed the cartridge port from the mobo... but still
| left the holes and space on the mobo for it.
|
| I find all this so confusing, why not just sell either the
| original hardware or an FPGA based one instead of stupid hacks?
|
| Picture of the mobo with missing cartridge slot:
| https://i.imgur.com/tqOM56N.png?3
| protastus wrote:
| Are you certain the ICs were replaced for cost reduction, and
| not because the original parts were discontinued?
| manaskarekar wrote:
| > Sega is selling a purely cosmetic Sega CD accessory
|
| Seems like a missed opportunity.
| imiric wrote:
| It's Sega, after all. I'm surprised they're still alive.
| lostgame wrote:
| Sadly; though, they announced not to expect a miniature Saturn or
| Dreamcast anytime soon; which - the Saturn being my all-time
| favourite console - couldn't be much more of a disappointment.
| pkdpic wrote:
| One might expect this to mean that they might someday announce a
| dreamcast mini. I will choose to believe this even though I don't
| actually believe this.
|
| Anyway Yu Suzuki can always just make a kickstarter for a shenmue
| specific dreamcast mini and get another $4 million in 2 hours. I
| want another chance to donate $10,000 so I can get Ryus jacket.
| danbolt wrote:
| Maybe it came from hearing the past tracks from _Sonic CD_ as a
| child, but I 've always been curious about sample-based chiptunes
| using the Sega CD's Ricoh RF5C164. It always seemed like an
| incredible compliment with the YM2612+PSG, but sometimes Googling
| can feel a bit scarce.
| racl101 wrote:
| Buy it, enjoy the novelty for 30 minutes, put it in the closet,
| forget it existed, sell off at garage sale 2 years later for a
| pittance.
| causality0 wrote:
| I'm happy they're releasing one in the shape of the North
| American console. I'm sad about the recent announcement they
| decided not to make a Dreamcast Mini.
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