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."

Comments

Wow

[ObviousGuy]

I remember when these consoles took up a whole shelf in the TV cabinet. These days miniaturization is making the same hardware tiny.

One question, will the snail maze game be included?

Re:Wow

[AndyBusch]

That maze game rocked, but it was on the Sega Master System, not the Genesis.

Pong in a TV Remote

[justanyone]

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)...

Why not this:

[mnmn]

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...

Re:Why not this:

[shibbydude]

Why dont they build the screen in like the GBA and use sony flashsticks to transfer binaries they can sell online?

Maybe because that's not the segment of the market this is targeted at? The market share this is going after is the nostalgic people. There was already a sega 16-bit portable called the NOMAD. It was mildly successful untill Sega stopped producing it.

Like the Ique

[foidulus]

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.

Re:Deja Vu...

[hiroshi912681]

http://www.nesworld.com/gs-arcad.htm

I haven't seen a Genesis clone from them (or from anyone as a matter of fact), but maybe you're confusing it this? it was the first completely legal Famicom/NES clone (patent expired on system, games licensed from Color Dreams)

I'm confused

[Orien]

There definately seems to be a retro-gaming kick going on right now in the industry. I'm all for it considering how much I use my homemade MAME cabinet, but there is one thing that I don't get at all. Companies like this and Nintendo, Atari, Namco, etc. have all these old titles that they keep releasing on controler packages or collections for Playstation or whatever, but yet they refuse to give people a legal way to use roms to play the games (with the exception of Atari of course who struck a deal with StarRoms). This kind of retro gaming would be a lot more popular if they gave people more choice about it. Imagine if instead of selling a handheld controler with 20 set games in it, instead they have thier whole collection online you bought the thing online (or activated it online) and got to choose 20 of the games that you actually like to be able to play on the unit. I wouldn't even care if they DRM'ed the files like iTunes does with purchased music, just give me a cross-platform app that I can use to flash the games onto the handheld unit. If I had choice about it and could do it without breaking the law, I would be all over it. The problem with those units, and with StarRoms is that 99% of the games are games that I don't like. I would be willing to pay for roms if they gave me ones that I like.

Re:I'm confused

[RdsArts]

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?

Re:I'm confused

[torinth]

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.

Re:Sonic and Knucles

[hiroshi912681]

yes, it is emulated. originally, it wasn't because they didn't dump the game properly (missed a chip). they're available in goodsets nowadays, but if you have the properly dumped roms you can just: Copy /b s&k.bin + s2.bin = s2k.bin I would hope that they include all of the possible lock-ons for Sonic. Sonic 2 and Knuckles was my favourite.

Sega Nomad

[sofakingl]

So basically, this is the Sega Nomad with built in games? With a limited amount of games for it, it might be better to just get a Nomad off of eBay with a bunch of games instead.

I'm hoping for...

[_Sexy_Pants_]

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

Only 7?

[SamSim]

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.