Apparently they're 100% reproductions of the original things -- note the Transformers one loudly says "Generation 2," which was the name for the toy line's relaunch in the early 90s.
Which I did fine funny since they are using the G1 art on it.
Apparently they're 100% reproductions of the original things -- note the Transformers one loudly says "Generation 2," which was the name for the toy line's relaunch in the early 90s.
Not quite, it seems. Here's a little old vs new for you. Old:
New:
My guess is that this is something to keep parts costs down by reusing the same molds across the lot whenever possible.
I don't know if there's some sort of Tiger Electronics collector's community out there, but this would also no doubt assuage any fears of someone not being able to tell new from vintage.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Spectrum Next update. After some units arrived with box inserts damaged and, in a handful of cases, with keys broken off the keyboards - all of which seem attributable to the couriers in the UK, internationally shipped units seem to have been handled much more carefully in transit - it seems that, while the accelerated units are in final assembly (they are also by far the largest batch), some tweaks are being made to packaging to better protect them from devil-may-care couriers. Not sure yet what form it'll take, and obviously it can't be too elaborate, but we'll see. The team aren't giving estimates on time yet (obviously, that'll only cause bitching if they miss a date), but I think we're still at the "a couple of weeks" phase, hopefully - although it feels like we're perpetually stuck there. They are coming, it's just a case of when.
Replacement parts are being sent out to anyone whose unit has suffered any damage; obviously the team took into account that spares might be necessary.
But this really isn't helping the reputation of certain courier companies in the UK (mentioning no names, Yodel). When these things are making it to Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Mexico, and so on and so forth without a mark, but they can't make it a few miles without damage, something is seriously messed up. The packaging was subjected to some severe abuse in testing some time ago, and dummy units sent through the post, and everything stood up to every test, so some of them are really taking a battering in Yodel's hands. But their reputation was shit anyway, the only lingering question is how they got the business in the first place.
I've got several Next-native games on hand ready to play on it, there are more included in the OS distro, and quite a few in the pipeline still. It's not going to be a Steam-like flood, obviously, but it's clear I'm going to be spoilt for choice (as well as having the entire original Spectrum line-up to revisit old favourites or discover other stuff from).
I also found a USB-to-PS/2 adapter kicking around that I'd forgotten I had, so I can see if any of my existing USB mice work on it before having to go and buy a PS/2 mouse for it.
In the meantime, Nostalgia Nerd on Youtube made an excellent and comprehensive video about his base model, which has subsequently had all the upgrades too:
I hope those fail miserably. That trash doesn't deserve to be purchased. They felt like disappointing ripoffs even 30 years ago, why bother now?
Really strange seeing them be reproduced. Back when they came out, it made more sense since they were way cheaper than the Gameboy and its games, but these days...just a complete waste. Most of them are unplayable garbage too. After a few minutes, most people who buy these will stop playing.
Amazon UK are still showing my CoreGrafx Mini as arriving on the 19th and haven't sent me an email or anything. I suspect that'll get updated in due course. (Edit: they're still order-able too.)
It's entirely understandable, but yeah, a huge bummer.
I've still got my Spectrum Next to look forward to, at least. And the prices on eBay are getting ever sillier...
Worthy of note: that auction was legit, it started at £0.99, and it was at the time the last one on eBay. Since then, one more has appeared, at a Buy It Now of £700.
Which is still flabbergasting, but £2,050 is just insane. Now we wait to see if it gets "relisted due to time-waster" or something.
I'm not gonna lie, if I can get two grand for mine I'll probably do it, as much as I'm looking forward to it. And then of course I'd just pledge for another one when the second Kickstarter happens, which will be fairly soon.
Remember, the pledge amounts for these things were £175 for a Base unit, £215 for a Plus (real-time clock and wifi module added), and £230 for an Accelerated (Raspberry Pi Zero also added as well). Or £99 for a board only. Oh yeah, and £10 shipping.
We don't know yet what the KS2 tiers will be. Apparently the board only is unlikely to resurface as that proved to lose too much money (although they shipped out two years ago; all the delays were to the cased units). The entire project has in fact made a loss, so it's possible the tier prices may climb a little. But it's reckoned that, if these things were to hypothetically make it to retail, the overheads would likely double the cost of them, and that's even before trying to find investment to build enough of them in advance to sell to retailers. So that's not going to happen.
Basically, if any of you are interested in acquiring one, I suggest keeping an eye on www.specnext.com or the ZX Spectrum Next group on Facebook for news on the second Kickstarter. And I'll try to remember to mention it here, of course!
Worthy of note: that auction was legit, it started at £0.99, and it was at the time the last one on eBay. Since then, one more has appeared, at a Buy It Now of £700.
Which is still flabbergasting, but £2,050 is just insane. Now we wait to see if it gets "relisted due to time-waster" or something.
I'm not gonna lie, if I can get two grand for mine I'll probably do it, as much as I'm looking forward to it. And then of course I'd just pledge for another one when the second Kickstarter happens, which will be fairly soon.
Remember, the pledge amounts for these things were £175 for a Base unit, £215 for a Plus (real-time clock and wifi module added), and £230 for an Accelerated (Raspberry Pi Zero also added as well). Or £99 for a board only. Oh yeah, and £10 shipping.
We don't know yet what the KS2 tiers will be. Apparently the board only is unlikely to resurface as that proved to lose too much money (although they shipped out two years ago; all the delays were to the cased units). The entire project has in fact made a loss, so it's possible the tier prices may climb a little. But it's reckoned that, if these things were to hypothetically make it to retail, the overheads would likely double the cost of them, and that's even before trying to find investment to build enough of them in advance to sell to retailers. So that's not going to happen.
Basically, if any of you are interested in acquiring one, I suggest keeping an eye on www.specnext.com or the ZX Spectrum Next group on Facebook for news on the second Kickstarter. And I'll try to remember to mention it here, of course!
Knowing me I'll forget all about the next Kickstarter so I'd be happy if you did ping me or the thread about it.
Worthy of note: that auction was legit, it started at £0.99, and it was at the time the last one on eBay. Since then, one more has appeared, at a Buy It Now of £700.
Which is still flabbergasting, but £2,050 is just insane. Now we wait to see if it gets "relisted due to time-waster" or something.
I'm not gonna lie, if I can get two grand for mine I'll probably do it, as much as I'm looking forward to it. And then of course I'd just pledge for another one when the second Kickstarter happens, which will be fairly soon.
Remember, the pledge amounts for these things were £175 for a Base unit, £215 for a Plus (real-time clock and wifi module added), and £230 for an Accelerated (Raspberry Pi Zero also added as well). Or £99 for a board only. Oh yeah, and £10 shipping.
We don't know yet what the KS2 tiers will be. Apparently the board only is unlikely to resurface as that proved to lose too much money (although they shipped out two years ago; all the delays were to the cased units). The entire project has in fact made a loss, so it's possible the tier prices may climb a little. But it's reckoned that, if these things were to hypothetically make it to retail, the overheads would likely double the cost of them, and that's even before trying to find investment to build enough of them in advance to sell to retailers. So that's not going to happen.
Basically, if any of you are interested in acquiring one, I suggest keeping an eye on www.specnext.com or the ZX Spectrum Next group on Facebook for news on the second Kickstarter. And I'll try to remember to mention it here, of course!
Knowing me I'll forget all about the next Kickstarter so I'd be happy if you did ping me or the thread about it.
Amazon are still showing my PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini as arriving on the 19th, and still available to order, despite the coronavirus related delay. What is going on?
Amazon are still showing my PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini as arriving on the 19th, and still available to order, despite the coronavirus related delay. What is going on?
.
I'm eager to hear how this goes.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Amazon are still showing my PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini as arriving on the 19th, and still available to order, despite the coronavirus related delay. What is going on?
.
I'm eager to hear how this goes.
I'm either going to be glumly confirming the delay when (if?) Amazon UK finally get around to updating it, or happily posting pictures on the 19th, basically
As I understand it, some of the Japanese white units were ready and will be released to pre-orders over there, but I've not heard anything about that being true of the European machines.
Amazon are still showing my PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini as arriving on the 19th, and still available to order, despite the coronavirus related delay. What is going on?
.
I'm eager to hear how this goes.
I'm either going to be glumly confirming the delay when (if?) Amazon UK finally get around to updating it, or happily posting pictures on the 19th, basically
As I understand it, some of the Japanese white units were ready and will be released to pre-orders over there, but I've not heard anything about that being true of the European machines.
Interesting. I just checked Amazon US and it is now showing an ETA of December 31, 2020.
Edit: My pre-order order also shows the same date.
Edit #2: What is funnier is that HORI is showing their accessories releasing on March 19, 2020.
Amazon UK usually is - they bumped my Cyberpunk 2020 pre-order (physical Xbox copy) back when that delay was announced, both for the game (to the new date) and the hardback strategy guide (to an unspecified date, oddly enough, although it should still be the same day as the game). So this is weird and that's why I'm scratching my head a bit.
Change! It's no longer orderable! "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." (That's what I get for linking to it.) But mine is still doggedly showing on my orders as Thursday, March 19th.
It took longer than it should have in the year 2020, but my Sega MD Mini came in from Japan. As expected, it came in a very true-to-form Japanese Sega-branded box of the era, and is as tiny as you would think.
For some time, modding the MD Mini was a bit more of a complicated affair, involving potential network options or whatnot. I wouldn't know the exact details, because the Hakchi community stepped in and the whole hacking process is absurdly simply now to the point where I wasn't even lazy enough to re-format my ROMs from the Megadrive games I was putting on my SNES Classic (some of which, like Ailisa Dragoon and Bare Knuckle II were already on the device.
So, in the meantime, I've populated it with the remainder of the games (which, conveniently, I can remove from my SNES Mini, which will allow for the very storage-hungry Neo Geo games I ended up deciding against for lack of space....or maybe I should put them on the MD Mini?): After Burner II, Arrow Flash, the rest of Bare Knuckle (i.e. Streets of Rage), Battle Mania 1 and 2, Eternal Champions, Forgotten Worlds (kind of surprised it wasn't already on there), and Sexy Parodius (not because that was on the MD obviously, but because I wanted to confirm MAME2003 worked).
The whole process was absurdly easy (though that reflects the SNES Mini has a learning experience). With two interesting, and generally not serious, issues:
1) You can play any of the MD Mini region models in any of the supported languages, but it does result in issues: some of the games have multiple regions of box art, and names in multiple languages, but others do not--and the English language font unsurprisingly doesn't support Japanese text (and is kind of ugly, on top of that?). So the names show up as blank. You could edit all of this with Hakchi though, but I ended up just switching it back to Japanese after adjusting the settings as necessary, for the slick Japanese MD grid background and the better game region artwork.
2) I've run into some weird issues after installing a MD ROM that was set to use the Genesis Plus GX (since I was running it on my SNES Mini), but removing the core (to compare it with it's in built Engage emulation solution, which is perfectly serviceable, even though apparently one of the Ninja Turtles games won't run with it?). Alisia Dragoon got nonstop down inputs (only that game). Also, obviously, After Burner II wouldn't run, but that's probably because the command line needed to probably reflect the in-built solution. I was feeling lazy, so I just installed Genesis Plus GX again....but I was wondering, putting aside the much more comprehensive RetroArch solutions, I wonder if the actual emulation is superior to Engage.
ROM abuse aside, it seems like a perfectly serviceable little plug-in-play device with a good selection (depending on one's preferences, potentially superior to the SNES Mini?) even if you don't hack it. The six-button controllers are a little smaller (though very comparable in size to the SNES controllers), and the Mode button acts as a "Insert Coin" input in arcade emulation, fortunately. Plus, Sega very kindly made them USB, so I'm pretty sure you can plug one into a PC (and possibly other devices) if you wanted a early-1990s gamepad.
I tried one of the three-button pads my UK one came with on my PC, specifically for Genesis/MD Classics on Steam. It took a bit of manual configuring in the front-end, it's definitely not Xinput levels of universal, but once configured it worked perfectly. Haven't tried it on anything else, but shouldn't be hard to get working.
Yeah, but time seems to be the one thing they have in abundance right now, and M2 has tweaked things in such ways before (Kid Dracula on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection comes to mind). Why not add the SEGA CD translation?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Kid Dracula was a LOT less work than what is basically an RPG with some spoken dialogue. Sure they are getting paid while fans often do full translations for free, but the amount of work isn't remotely comparable.
Not sure where M.2 is getting tons of time, they are always busy with new projects, and only get paid X on Y timetable for any one project.
It's likely now that we won't see this machine before the end of the year, and the criticism that Snatcher is only in Japanese has been a common grumble about it because of Kojima's cult following. I can only assume it's something they'll discuss, even if we never hear about it and it doesn't happen. It would be a massive coup for the machine if they could do it, though, and it already has a few of those in its line-up, so never say never, I guess.
Well let me put it another way, Konami would have to not be cheap bastards and actually fund M.2's time to move the localization over. And it is time-consuming because you rarely see fans copying RPG localizations to other systems. Far as I know most fan-translations of games this old rely purely on hex editing, that would mean matching up each line of both languages by hand which is no small feat. Hence fans tell you to play the localization on the existing platform and not bother. If Konami still had functioning tools or source from the Snatcher team AND were willing to share those with M.2 it might be a different story, but I doubt it.
Then we add that this is a Kojima game, and I wonder whether anyone at Konami can be moved to pay even one cent.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
The Japanese PC-Engine Mini actually did get released. A few people on the hacking Discord server I'm on ordered theirs from Amazon Japan and it's been shipped out.
Posts
The whole Generation 2 thing was kinda lame.
Not quite, it seems. Here's a little old vs new for you. Old:
New:
My guess is that this is something to keep parts costs down by reusing the same molds across the lot whenever possible.
I don't know if there's some sort of Tiger Electronics collector's community out there, but this would also no doubt assuage any fears of someone not being able to tell new from vintage.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
(Base units are consistently topping £500 on eBay. Absolutely crazy.)
Steam | XBL
For the land levels. :P
Steam: betsuni7
Replacement parts are being sent out to anyone whose unit has suffered any damage; obviously the team took into account that spares might be necessary.
But this really isn't helping the reputation of certain courier companies in the UK (mentioning no names, Yodel). When these things are making it to Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Mexico, and so on and so forth without a mark, but they can't make it a few miles without damage, something is seriously messed up. The packaging was subjected to some severe abuse in testing some time ago, and dummy units sent through the post, and everything stood up to every test, so some of them are really taking a battering in Yodel's hands. But their reputation was shit anyway, the only lingering question is how they got the business in the first place.
I've got several Next-native games on hand ready to play on it, there are more included in the OS distro, and quite a few in the pipeline still. It's not going to be a Steam-like flood, obviously, but it's clear I'm going to be spoilt for choice (as well as having the entire original Spectrum line-up to revisit old favourites or discover other stuff from).
I also found a USB-to-PS/2 adapter kicking around that I'd forgotten I had, so I can see if any of my existing USB mice work on it before having to go and buy a PS/2 mouse for it.
In the meantime, Nostalgia Nerd on Youtube made an excellent and comprehensive video about his base model, which has subsequently had all the upgrades too:
Now I'm wondering if the Next or the PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini is going to be here first!
Steam | XBL
Steam: betsuni7
Really strange seeing them be reproduced. Back when they came out, it made more sense since they were way cheaper than the Gameboy and its games, but these days...just a complete waste. Most of them are unplayable garbage too. After a few minutes, most people who buy these will stop playing.
Amazon has gone from taking pre-orders to listing it as "unavailable."
Not sure it'll be any better elsewhere:
Man, this sucks. This is what I was most hyped for this month (and maybe next).
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
It's entirely understandable, but yeah, a huge bummer.
I've still got my Spectrum Next to look forward to, at least. And the prices on eBay are getting ever sillier...
Steam | XBL
I wondering about that and am OK with the delay. Honestly I'm expecting everything coming from China to be delayed by a few months.
Steam: betsuni7
Holy fuck. :eek:
Steam | XBL
Which is still flabbergasting, but £2,050 is just insane. Now we wait to see if it gets "relisted due to time-waster" or something.
I'm not gonna lie, if I can get two grand for mine I'll probably do it, as much as I'm looking forward to it. And then of course I'd just pledge for another one when the second Kickstarter happens, which will be fairly soon.
Remember, the pledge amounts for these things were £175 for a Base unit, £215 for a Plus (real-time clock and wifi module added), and £230 for an Accelerated (Raspberry Pi Zero also added as well). Or £99 for a board only. Oh yeah, and £10 shipping.
We don't know yet what the KS2 tiers will be. Apparently the board only is unlikely to resurface as that proved to lose too much money (although they shipped out two years ago; all the delays were to the cased units). The entire project has in fact made a loss, so it's possible the tier prices may climb a little. But it's reckoned that, if these things were to hypothetically make it to retail, the overheads would likely double the cost of them, and that's even before trying to find investment to build enough of them in advance to sell to retailers. So that's not going to happen.
Basically, if any of you are interested in acquiring one, I suggest keeping an eye on www.specnext.com or the ZX Spectrum Next group on Facebook for news on the second Kickstarter. And I'll try to remember to mention it here, of course!
Steam | XBL
Knowing me I'll forget all about the next Kickstarter so I'd be happy if you did ping me or the thread about it.
Steam: betsuni7
Will do
Steam | XBL
Steam | XBL
Steam | XBL
I'm eager to hear how this goes.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I'm either going to be glumly confirming the delay when (if?) Amazon UK finally get around to updating it, or happily posting pictures on the 19th, basically
As I understand it, some of the Japanese white units were ready and will be released to pre-orders over there, but I've not heard anything about that being true of the European machines.
Steam | XBL
Interesting. I just checked Amazon US and it is now showing an ETA of December 31, 2020.
Edit: My pre-order order also shows the same date.
Edit #2: What is funnier is that HORI is showing their accessories releasing on March 19, 2020.
Steam: betsuni7
Amazon UK usually is - they bumped my Cyberpunk 2020 pre-order (physical Xbox copy) back when that delay was announced, both for the game (to the new date) and the hardback strategy guide (to an unspecified date, oddly enough, although it should still be the same day as the game). So this is weird and that's why I'm scratching my head a bit.
Steam | XBL
Steam | XBL
One week till the world knows...
Steam: betsuni7
Steam | XBL
Oh well.
Just wonder why it took 'em so long.
Steam | XBL
They were watching you post here.
Steam: betsuni7
It's Amazon. They know everything.
Even that.
Steam | XBL
For some time, modding the MD Mini was a bit more of a complicated affair, involving potential network options or whatnot. I wouldn't know the exact details, because the Hakchi community stepped in and the whole hacking process is absurdly simply now to the point where I wasn't even lazy enough to re-format my ROMs from the Megadrive games I was putting on my SNES Classic (some of which, like Ailisa Dragoon and Bare Knuckle II were already on the device.
So, in the meantime, I've populated it with the remainder of the games (which, conveniently, I can remove from my SNES Mini, which will allow for the very storage-hungry Neo Geo games I ended up deciding against for lack of space....or maybe I should put them on the MD Mini?): After Burner II, Arrow Flash, the rest of Bare Knuckle (i.e. Streets of Rage), Battle Mania 1 and 2, Eternal Champions, Forgotten Worlds (kind of surprised it wasn't already on there), and Sexy Parodius (not because that was on the MD obviously, but because I wanted to confirm MAME2003 worked).
The whole process was absurdly easy (though that reflects the SNES Mini has a learning experience). With two interesting, and generally not serious, issues:
1) You can play any of the MD Mini region models in any of the supported languages, but it does result in issues: some of the games have multiple regions of box art, and names in multiple languages, but others do not--and the English language font unsurprisingly doesn't support Japanese text (and is kind of ugly, on top of that?). So the names show up as blank. You could edit all of this with Hakchi though, but I ended up just switching it back to Japanese after adjusting the settings as necessary, for the slick Japanese MD grid background and the better game region artwork.
2) I've run into some weird issues after installing a MD ROM that was set to use the Genesis Plus GX (since I was running it on my SNES Mini), but removing the core (to compare it with it's in built Engage emulation solution, which is perfectly serviceable, even though apparently one of the Ninja Turtles games won't run with it?). Alisia Dragoon got nonstop down inputs (only that game). Also, obviously, After Burner II wouldn't run, but that's probably because the command line needed to probably reflect the in-built solution. I was feeling lazy, so I just installed Genesis Plus GX again....but I was wondering, putting aside the much more comprehensive RetroArch solutions, I wonder if the actual emulation is superior to Engage.
ROM abuse aside, it seems like a perfectly serviceable little plug-in-play device with a good selection (depending on one's preferences, potentially superior to the SNES Mini?) even if you don't hack it. The six-button controllers are a little smaller (though very comparable in size to the SNES controllers), and the Mode button acts as a "Insert Coin" input in arcade emulation, fortunately. Plus, Sega very kindly made them USB, so I'm pretty sure you can plug one into a PC (and possibly other devices) if you wanted a early-1990s gamepad.
Steam | XBL
That's still neat, though.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Steam | XBL
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Not sure where M.2 is getting tons of time, they are always busy with new projects, and only get paid X on Y timetable for any one project.
And fair point on time, I meant until this thing will be out.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Steam | XBL
Then we add that this is a Kojima game, and I wonder whether anyone at Konami can be moved to pay even one cent.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!