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Sega's Mega Drive Mini won't arrive until 2019
The retro console craze kicked off by Nintendo's NES and SNES classic systems, with Sony's miniature PS1 inbound, has proven bountiful for nostalgic gamers keen to relive their 8- to 32-bit glory days. But Sega's plans to join the rose-tinted celebrations with its own Mega Drive Mini has hit a speed bump. Slated for release in Japan this year, the iconic console is now being delayed until 2019, the company announced on Twitter.
Ben Heck's multi-system retro controller
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Using a build idea from the element14 Community, Ben takes an ESP8266 module and creates the ultimate all-in-one retro gaming controller for the Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive / Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System. To get the digital signals from the buttons across the wireless transmission to the receiver, Ben will have to use shift registers such as the 74HC595 to combine the bits into a data stream. It's not all straightforward, though: Felix steps in to help with LUA scripting and the team hits a snag with the programming. Fortunately, designing the enclosure is a lot simpler thanks to Autodesk Fusion 360. After a lot of testing, soldering and taking apart a Sega controller, the team creates a controller of wonder. Which consoles would you control? Would you design it any differently? Suggest a build on the element14 Community.
Project Unity stuffs 20 classic consoles into one: if you can't play it, it's probably too new (video)
Most gamer who want to play with more than one or two vintage console platforms often turn to software-based emulators that may or may not be above-board. How about stuffing all of the authentic hardware into one controller and one base unit? Modders at Bacteria's forums have developed Project Unity, an attempt to natively address 20 consoles across 17 actual platforms folded into a single device. The gamepad, arguably the centerpiece, includes two each of analog sticks and directional pads, along with multiple shoulder buttons and a central button grid that can either be used to steer an Intellivision or fill in for otherwise missing controls. Stuffing the unique controller hardware into one gamepad obviously presents problems with board sizes and the laws of physics, so much of the relevant circuitry sits in modified NES cartridges. Our only dismays are the lack of original Xbox support and the slightly imposing challenge of aggregating and modifying that much classic gaming componentry in one place -- if you're more concerned about convenience in your retro gaming than preserving the original feel of that Sega Master System or SNK NeoGeo, though, you've just found Utopia.
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: Shining Ninja
Four games again this week, with some really great variety, despite the fact that they come from only two consoles. Platformer? Check. Puzzle? Check. SRPG? Check. But you know what we're lusting over: awesome side-scrolling ninja action. C'mon, you knew what we would choose. We all have our biases.Available this week no the Virtual Console for European gamers: Drop Off -- Turbografx -- 600 Wii points Dynamite Headdy -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Shining Force -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Shinobi III -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points
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.
