Editor's Note: You may have noticed from photography that our Mega Drive Mini review unit is actually the US version of the Genesis Mini-the same hardware. It has the same features and game lineup as the European model, and if there are no changes other than the appearance of the case, we will return to this review for updates.
Sega Mega Drive-or Genesis, widely known in North America-is considered one of the greatest consoles of all time, and its spectacular library of brilliant games is still in use today. To celebrate this machine and its game, Sega has launched the new Mega Drive Mini, which goes to great lengths: the reproduction of micro hardware surpasses similar efforts of Nintendo and Sony, with a larger title library and more sophisticated choices, while the imitation itself is made by M2 Delivered-A recognized master of bringing past games to today's hardware.
Sega's 16 masterpieces first appeared in the late 1980s. Despite the slow start, they still have to challenge the market leader Nintendo. Super NES vs Mega Drive saw the first skirmish in today's never-ending game console. war. At that time, bringing the arcade experience to the home was still the company's goal. Mega Drive has achieved impressive results throughout its life cycle, but similar to Nintendo, it is actually a first-party game such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage, taking Sega to the next level .
I've never stopped playing games or collecting games for it after falling in love with the system, but for many, it's been decades since they last held the iconic gamepad. That's why form factor is so important for mini gaming consoles-you want to convey this nostalgia through hardware that looks critically important to the look feel
The power switch, reset button, and volume slider are all moveable parts (even if the volume slider doesn't actually do anything!), And the authenticity has improved to the point that even the expansion port cover can be removed. In detail to the next level, even the main cartridge slot has a working baffle that can be inserted into a small fax cart (not included). The controller is of course USB-based, but the ports on the console are still similar to real hardware, as opposed to the bezel design on the Super NES Classic. It even has proper holes for connecting Sega CD / Mega CD-its version is not available on some markets. Many of these details may be decorated on the window, but I think this is more because Sega is committed to making the product the right promise based on its physical form factor. The company seems to want everything to be as real as possible.
Detailed video review of Sega Mega Drive Mini-John Linneman grew up in North America, if you are interested in product photography, you can play games on "Genesis"!
The two bundled controllers themselves are also sturdy and perfectly replicate the look of the original three-button keyboard-although I feel that the d keyboard is a bit hard and the plastic feels significantly different from the original hardware. Some potential buyers are disappointed that Sega did not include a six-button board in the Mini's Western distribution, but I feel nostalgia plays an important role in the design and most players at the time probably only had the original three-button, button pad . The six-key keyboard is included in the Japanese version, and obviously, games such as Street Fighter 2 also benefit-so to get the most out of these games, users need to research other options.
Inside the case, the Mini is powered by the mysterious Allwinner-based ZUIKI Z 7213 system-on-a-chip-very little information is disclosed on this processor. It may be on a par with Nintendo's recent retro mini product, but it is unclear what the extended range of its features will be. In addition to the processor, the motherboard also has 512MB of flash memory for storing the accompanying games. In terms of I / O, in addition to the controller port, there is an HDMI video output-which provides 720p 60Hz output-and a micro-USB port for power.
After connecting the Mini to the display, you will see a simple, clean menu system. The game is displayed in a large grid format, and the cover is changed by changing the language in the options menu. There is also a nice spine view, which also highlights one of my favorite details-when looking at the "Japanese Super Drive" selection, the "Super Fantasy Zone" is presented in a smaller case-just like the real thing-and Road Run uses a slightly thicker box design, just like all the original EA versions of the period. It is this attention to detail that sets M2 apart from other things.
Speaking of attention to detail, when you change your language, not only does the art style change, but each game has different regional variations. In this case, it is important to include a multi-region ROM, because for many titles there are significant differences between different regions. For example, the Japanese version of Dynamite Headdy has other story elements, different artwork, and reduced punishment as a whole. On the contrary: Hard Corps' Japanese version is also easier, and of course, if you choose the European version, you will get a disinfected Probotector variant. You don't need to import different Minis to get all the different versions of the game-they already exist.
For European users, the most important thing is that if you choose to use the PAL area for gaming, the game will run at 60Hz instead of 50Hz, so you don't need to deal with slower games or trembling as the 50Hz output is resampled to 60Hz We saw it on PlayStation Classic. Of course, the original PAL mailbox was completely eliminated.
As you would expect, the settings menu offers a range of different video options. A total of three types are provided: column packing mode, stretched 16: 9 mode and CRT filter. Mega Drive can output different resolutions, but the two most common resolutions are 320×224 and 256×224-the latter is the same as Super NES and other systems of the era. Most games are 320 pixels wide. Here, the Mini's execution ratio is 3×3, with no linear filtering-so the pixels are very clear and the scrolling won't flicker.
When using widescreen mode, 5x scaling is used on the horizontal axis, but the vertical direction is now slightly stretched, resulting in uneven pixel scaling-for every four Mega Drive pixels using 3x scaling, the fifth pixel uses four pixels. When scrolling vertically, this causes visible lines to appear on the image, creating some weird artifacts that don't look right. However, the results are different for a 256-pixel-wide game-in widescreen mode, a perfect 6x scaling is used horizontally, while the vertical resolution suffers from the same problems mentioned earlier.
However, in these games, there are some problems with the "Oven" mode, in which the zoom ratio of every few pixels alternates between 4 and 5 times, resulting in very obvious flickering during scrolling. So why use widescreen mode? I can think of two reasons: if you are a tablet user, you can use the TV's built-in controls to adjust it to an appropriate 4: 3 aspect ratio. Or, in weird edge cases, you can connect the Mini to an appropriate CRT computer monitor for a smooth scrolling effect. However, to achieve 4: 3, you need to use a combination of widescreen mode and monitor adjustment to stretch the image to fill the entire screen. However, due to how the CRT works, you won't introduce any scaling artifacts because the image is not actually scaled. Looks good!
