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The Analogue Mega SG wins the retro gaming console war
There's never been a better time to be a retro video game enthusiast. Playing old video games on modern screens used to require elaborate cabling and detailed electronics knowledge, or you would have to wade into dodgy ROM sites and tinker with confusing emulators. Today, however, we are blessed with a panoply of options, led by Nintendo's "classic" mini-consoles. But the premium, top-of-the-line retro console maker remains the hipsterish British-American company, Analogue. Analogue's Super NT, a Super Nintendo (SNES) hardware emulator released last year, was a revitalization of the SNES library ready to plug and play (and upscale) to modern HD televisions with a graphical fidelity unmatched by even Nintendo's own offerings. But the Super NT was just the tip of the retro spear, because, as any '90s kid will tell you, some console wars never die. And sure enough, Analogue has just released their take on the other dominant console of the 16-bit era: the Sega Genesis. Analogue's Mega SG is a beautiful little piece of hardware that does for the Genesis/Sega CD/Master System library what the Super NT did for the Super Nintendo -- and is the better value proposition of the two.
‘ToeJam & Earl’ is more Diet Coke than fine wine
When I was young -- and I mean young, around six or seven -- my extended family would get together at my grandmother's house nearly every Sunday. And often on those days, for at least an hour or two, my cousin and I would play on her Sega Mega Drive (aka Genesis) together. Our go-to game was ToeJam & Earl, I think mostly because we needn't fight over one controller and it was co-operative, rather than competitive. Though my memories of the game are fond, the sequels released over the following decade completely passed me by. That's why I've had my eye on ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove -- an homage to the '90s classic that secured initial funding on Kickstarter in 2015. As it turns out, though, some memories are better being just that.
Gaming's first-person history lesson: 1958 to 2008 edition (video)
There's just so much to love about this video, described by co-creator Florian Smolka as a university video-project from Munich. In a little over four minutes, we're given a first-person tour of console gaming from 1958's Tennis for Two (played on an oscilloscope) through late 2008's Rock Band for Xbox 360 (using a Guitar Hero drum set, but hey, nobody's perfect). Not every console gets a mention -- apologies to Atari Jaguar and 3DO apologists -- and it unfortunately stops before new hotness Move and Kinect get a nod, but that should in no way deter you from setting aside a handful of minutes to watch. Be sure to note the passage of TVs, too, and remember fondly the CRTs of your youth. Unless you grew up with LCD flatscreens, you lawn-lounging whippersnapper, you. Video after the break.
Sega lighters: smoking will never be cool again
Lighters are more often than not outside the scope of our coverage here at Engadget, and while we don't condone smoking or lighting anything on fire... well, these are just awesome. Banpresto's launched a pre-order of these two beautiful Zippo-style lighters, a Sega Mega Drive and a Sega Saturn which runs through November 6th, with a shipping date sometime in December. Each lighter runs ¥10,500 (around $115). We'll definitely keep our eyes peeled for more of these smokers.[Via Joystiq]
VC Friday: Is it sequel day?
Hope you're in the mood for sequels today, because if you're itching for a new retro title, that's what Nintendo's offering up, at least when it comes to Sega. A couple of today's titles were also released in the U.S. this week, which means you can check out the video wrap-up for a little game footage. Also, for some reason the format of the releases on the Nintendo Europe site seems to have changed, so let us know if these costs are not correct -- we're basing this off past VC pricing. Dragon Spirit -- TurboGrafx -- 600 Wii points Ecco: The Tides of Time -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Golden Axe II -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Sonic the Hedgehog 2 -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points
Sega Mega Drive controller gets modded up
Just because NES mods get all the love doesn't mean we don't have a special place in our hearts for hot Sega mod action, and this new Sega controller MP3 player seems to fit the bill nicely. For extra cred, the hackers not only used a Sega Mega Drive controller (known as the Sega Genesis here in the States, you might have heard of it and its little blue mascot), but managed to toss in some acetate tape as well. As for controls, the A and B buttons manage volume, the d-pad skips tracks, and the start buttons starts and stops playback. We can't say their USB plug positioning is optimal, but we're also aware of who carries the soldering iron in this relationship, so we have little room to judge.
