I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the winter (a hibernation, if you will). I’m currently working two jobs, as well as (as every other college grad says) trying to “figure things out,” so I could use some time to focus on more important things, especially during the holiday season. I’ll try blogging again in the spring, but I’m not leaving without sharing a little something I discovered…a little oddball trinket for 16-bit video game fans.
AtGames, an “innovative interactive entertainment” company who apparently has a knack for wrapping tons of Sega Genesis ROMs in cheap plastic casings and selling them en masse, recently released some budget-priced plug-n-play video game machines just in time for the holidays containing tons of built-in software. A Sega Genesis one was offered, as well as Atari, ColecoVision, and Intellevision consoles, all of which plug right into a TV using A/V cables and are ready to go. Plug-n-play game machines are nothing new, as a certain funny Internet guy can tell you. But a portable one? With a rechargeable battery and over 80 Sega games on it?! How could I NOT be into that? I slapped down $35 at my local Walgreens to try out this potentially lovely trip down memory lane, and it turned out to be…lackluster, to be honest. But it was also a lot more than I gave it credit for.
The system itself is very pocket-friendly. It’s around six inches long with a 2.5 inch screen. There’s a power switch and headphone jack on the bottom, while the top holds the volume control, an A/V Out jack for on TV play (which was not tested…not sure I want to invest any more into this thing), a mini-USB jack for battery charging, and, most surprising to me, a SD Card slot (more on that later). It’s got a D-pad as well as six face buttons, just like that super-neato Six Button Controller for Genesis that was only good for, like, three games. Now if you’re thinking that this thing looks super cheap just by looking at it…well, you’d be right. It has a very “cheap plastic” feel to it. The buttons feel a bit clicky, though the D-pad seems to feel alright, cheap as it may be. I do like the color scheme going on, though. Blue and black are the best at representing Sega’s old claim to fame. While the system feels like I got it out of a Hong Kong knock-off marketplace, it at least looks pleasant.
But do the games look just as nice as the portable itself. Actually? Yes!
Despite the puny screen, the games shine through pretty well. Naturally, there isn’t any Retina-level resolution going on here. Getting the “sweet spot” to avoid glare can also be an issue. If you remember playing with an old Sega GameGear, you’ll know what I’m talking about (you could say that adds to the nostalgia factor). But considering the budget price of this thing, I’d say the screen does the job well. Despite these games being console titles, they can easily be enjoyed on this tiny screen.
What is NOT good here, however, is the sound quality. It is HORRID. The system’s whopping one speaker isn’t strong enough to transmit the bleeps and boops of classic Sega. Not only that, but all the music in every single Sega game included have been altered for some reason. While playing Sonic 2, for example, I noticed that most of the music was played at an octave lower than the original soundtrack. I’ve played Sonic 2 enough in my life to know what it’s supposed to sound like, and this…this isn’t it. And as I’ve mentioned, every single game’s music and (most) sound effects have been altered to sound more muted or something. It just feels weird, hearing the music sound much different than it should. Guess that’s the price of going bootleg.
Also, this probably goes without saying, but there’s no multiplayer support on this thing, even though a few of the Sega games do support multiplayer play. You’re going solo on this one.
So the games look okay and sound horrible on this thing. But how they play? About the same as they do on a Genesis, really. Aside from the buttons not being super responsive like some would hope for, the controls for every game feel like they should. And man are there a lot of games on this thing! Naturally, you have all the Sonic The Hedgehog titles in here, (excluding Sonic 3, which is heresy in my book) as well as all three Streets of Rage games, both Vectorman games, Ristar, Flicky, Kid Chameleon, Alex Kidd, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, the Golden Axe trilogy, among other Sega-developed hits. You gotta admit, there’s a lot of quality titles in this thing! But you’ll notice on the box that it includes 80 games pre-installed; at first you might think they’re all Sega titles (as I did), but as it turns out, only half that amount are actual Sega Genesis ports. The other 40 are original games, developed (?) by AtGames (???) themselves. Some of these original games include Bomber (a somewhat decent clone of Bomberman), Sparkling Truffle (think Simon but with mushrooms), Cross The Road (Frogger clone), as well as some generic takes on the likes of chess, sudoku and majong. None of the original games are terrible by any means (except for their take on Snake, which has the most abysmal music I’ve ever heard in anything), but they’re nothing to write home about, either. Anything outside the Genesis ports are strictly “meh.”
Now then, let’s discuss that there SD Card slot at the top. What’s that for? Is it for save data or save states? Nope; this system isn’t made for saving data, so once you turn it off you’d best say goodbye to all your progress (not much different than the good ol’ days of gaming, to its credit). The SD Card functionality is actually used for extra downloadable games. Pretty neat function for such a cheap piece of hardware, huh? The AtGames support site has some “game trials” you can download from your computer onto a SD Card to play on the console. Most of the demos offered were already available in full in the system, so that seemed like a waste of time. But something really piqued my interest when I looked at their download/import help page. To quote, “drag the game file (.bin format) into the GAME folder in the SD card.”
.bin, you say? As any Genesis emulator aficionado will tell you (not that I would know anything about emulating games I mean I’ve never ever done that IM A GOOD BOY), the .bin format is the file type most associated with Sega Genesis ROMs. Remember when I mentioned having Genesis ROMs wrapped up in cheap plastic? Looks like I wasn’t too far off there. Could this thing be just a mere portable Genesis emulator?
To test this theory, I went to a very seedy ROM website and downloaded a couple Genesis game ROMs (.md format). Sorry, Sega, but the Console Wars are over and it’s very clear who won…no hard feelings, right? Anyway, I got a couple games that wern’t included in the pre-installed bundle, including Sonic 3 & Knuckles (the ONLY way to Knuckles), and one of my childhood favorites, QuackShot (as a Disney-licensed game, it was not included in the Sega-licensed bundle). As a disclaimer, I DID actually own those two games in legit cartridge form in the past, so it’s technically not stealing. I mean OBVIOUSLY. Pssh.
But I digress. I put them into the SD card as per the instructions and booted the SD card menu on the portable. And wouldn’t you know it…
…it played them all like a charm. They had to load first, but they worked. This proves it: this portable machine, SUPPOSEDLY made with content under licence from Sega, is actually nothing more than a Genesis emulator. There’s actually something cool about that; you can play any and all illegally-obtained Genesis games in the galaxy on a portable screen, with actual buttons in lieu of “virtual” buttons on a smartphone or tablet. At an MSRP of $40, however, that’s asking FAR more than what it’s really worth. If you’re going to emulate games, just do it like the rest of us cheapskate nerds and do it on your PC for free. If you prefer to pay for your classics like a good boy, Sega Genesis bundles, compilations and even individual titles are dime a dozen nowadays (be it on consoles or on Steam, there are tons of ways to get your Decap Attack on that will make Sega happy). There are much more better looking, WAY BETTER SOUNDING, and overall more functional ways to play classic Sega games than on this overpriced thingamabob.
It’s hard to suggest this as a gift to anyone this Christmas. The more astute gamers out there would no doubt avoid this at all costs, just by how cheap it looks. The rest of us probably found ways to play these classics on other ways (more legit, less get-arresty ways). I suppose this would be good for older folks who aren’t entirely into modern technology but would still like to give video games a try. It feels cheap in the hands and there are much better ways to play Columns, but it’s not terrible by any means. It’s playable, and both the Sega games and originals are good time-wasters for your great uncle while he, I dunno, sits in the…waiting room at…Sears…whatever it is old people do. If you think this would be a fine gift for that younger gamer in your family (as in, single digits), they’ll probably find it amusing for the first hour or so and then forget it forever. In the end, it’s probably best to skip this one.
Thanks for reading! Time to set this blog to bed while daddy gets ready to figure out what to do with his dumb life. I’ll be on Twitter in the meantime. See you in a few months!
Charu-Cola 