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Sega Genesis Latest To Get All-In-One TV Game
Thanks to 1UP for its story discussing Radica's deal to produce a collection of 16-bit Sega classics built into a Genesis controller. According to the piece: "Similar to the JAKKS TV Games, Radica's Genesis controller-shaped Arcade Legends Sega Genesis unit will house seven older Sega games including Sonic the Hedgehog. Radica intends to have it out on the market at a price of $29.99." The story also notes a deal "with Taito for the rights to Space Invaders" in similar all-in-one controller style, mentioning that the unit will also "include four other Taito classics: Phoenix, Lunar Rescue, Colony 7, and Qix."
You know, it'd be great if I could play pong with my TV remote control and maybe an RCA jack passthru connector with some kind of IR port on it.
Somebody ought to do that...
While they're at it, make the TV remote work on my wife (grin)...
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Why dont they build the screen in like the GBA and use sony flashsticks to transfer binaries they can sell online?
If such devices could have good mileage, everyone on public transportation will be playing Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Bare Knuckles and Rock n Roll Racing.
I better get soldering...
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Actually, I wish they would have made this like the IQue Nintendo released in China, all they would have had to of done is add a little bit of USB storage and a somewhat safe way to add games to it at video stores. The hardware is already there, they could have made a bunch of money selling all the sega genesis games for a slightly larger investment. I for one would love to play genesis games(of my choosing, not some part of a lame collection) for about $5 a piece.
If you sell a ROM, you get one sale at a pitiance.
If you sell a controller, you can sell them ANOTHER controller later with 2 more games, a all-in-one collection of two systems' games, GBA ports, PSX ports, PS2 ports of the PSX port, and so on.
Take a look at the Namco museums. How many times have they sold Rally Race and Pacman now?
Networkable bomberman controllers! It's a pretty simple little game so I don't think it would be technically impossible. But I would love to just play it at the drop of a hat, maybe keep it in my car so I could break it out at a friends' house.
Honestly, these controller systems are one of the best ideas video games have seen in a while
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
Dude.
Although your idea seems "Totally awesome" to you as a consumer, you have to understand how ridiculous the logistics are for something like that.
The rights for at least 50% of roms you're playing on your MAME cabinet probably belong with the roomate of the nephew of the brother of the guy who started the company that built and sold the original game. However, that doesn't immediately make the rights defunct, and because of that ROM pirating is illegal (though I wouldn't personally hold it against anyone).
So yeah, an iTunes like thing would be a great way for these ROM pirates to legitimize their usage of these retro games, but building an iTunes like system is completely different. The music collections in iTunes largely belong to five major labels, although smaller proactive indie labels are trying to get their place. But if you were to start iRoms, even once you hit the big names (Atari, Sega, Konami, etc) you still don't have a very big collection and you'll be missing out on a lot of the most memorable games. And until you have a big selection an iRoms service just isn't going to attract many users.
So it's much easier for all these publishers who are still active (Sega, Atari, Nintendo) to take the titles that they already have the rights to and release them in controlled fashion, like this. And because they *can* do this and there is a market for it, you certainly can't expect all these companies just let the ROMs go into public domain. If they're publicly funded they'd get sued for that kind of fiscal irresponsibility.
I hope you're less confused now.
I can't help thinking that it seems kind of a cheat that they only include 7 games - only one of which has been named, Sonic The Hedgehog, which, while a groundbreaking game and pretty good in its own right, was vastly overshadowed by its sequels on that console. Surely you could fit a hundred into something that size these days.
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