Mini Console Skirmish

dylanfills

Heyo

I’ve recently come across a Sega Genesis Mini for a reasonable price.

However, the main reason I had been looking for one in the first place was to have a way to play Landstalker.

However, that is also on the Genesis collection for switch. There are a lot of overlap games between the two collections. The games I’d be interested in that are NOT on the switch collection but ARE on the mini guy are

Monster Works 4
Wonder Boy in MW
Contra Hard Course
Castlevania Bee Lines
Strider

You know what, I’m pretty sure I can either access all of those elsewhere and don’t really care anyway

So- am I wrong to be so callous in my disregarding of the thought of frivolously purchasing more plastic? I DO have a PC Engine Mini that I barely touch. Do you all have opinions about these thingies?

fridgeboy

dylanfills I bought an SNES classic and basically played FF6 on it for the 100th time. Then I started a file of FF6 with my daughter so that I could subtly turn her into the same unsuccessful sort of dork that I am. That was really cool to do together with the OG feeling controllers and stuff. Besides these nostalgia blast experiences it’s been a useless chunk of plastic. I keep telling myself I’ll use it to play earthbound, since that’s not on the switch.

Long story short, I wouldn’t get one without good reason. I have the Sega collection on switch and it’s really nice. Although I’ve also barely touched that… got like 5 hours into a run of Phantasy Star 4, realized it really was inferior to all of the Final Fantasies (though I still love it and it’s unabashed weird sci finess) and then stopped.

Fran

dylanfills Last year, I was gonna buy a PC Engine Mini, but I ended up buying a Switch instead. Not that they have any games in common, but I can’t say I regret my decision.

The thought of a PC Engine is nice though.

tapevulture

dylanfills i tried to play landstalker via the genesis collection on Switch and actually couldn’t really play it because of the controls and all movement being diagonal. Never played it elsewhere so maybe that’s just how it is but I suspect that it’s something to do with the switch d-pad being an arrangement of 4 separate buttons vs. something you can anchor your thumb to and rock back and forth

christoffing

That Genesis collection is fine and Switch is a real nice fit for retro games imo. I’ve heard people say the emulation is substandard but for a scrub like me it’s serviceable. I like the mini consoles cause they make playing retro games a bit of an event, which is the exact opposite of what emulating them on PC feels like to me, but I can’t deny they’re just an unnecessary piece of plastic.

antillese

I’m a known mini-console-liker around here for a few personal logistic reasons and a few philosophical reasons.

Let’s assume that we agree on a few statements about emulation. The emulation on the embedded consoles is “pretty great” but not what a technical expert will be able to get out of a PC emulation setup for myriad reasons. Additionally, assume that you’ve added whatever canonical games you think that your mini-console is missing. (There are only a very few games I’ve been interested in playing that the Nintendo or Sega/M2 emulators haven’t been able to run.)

Personally, I like that I can have something hooked up to the TV that I can leave there and it’s ready to go. They are also incredibly accessible to my kids and I really don’t want kids crowded around the family PC that runs our household. Additionally, COVID has landed the PC in our bedroom and anytime kids are in that room, it devolves to them wrestling on the bed which drives me insane.

Philosophically, I also argue that they are great. They help re-contextualize these games back into a shared space in front of a TV which is often a more relaxing posture and mood than being at a PC. The presentation of the games themselves and the emulator functionality is absolutely better and more accessible than what you get on a PC without being an emulator power user. Save states, rewinds, a few filters and boarders; everything just works out of the box.

Finally, playing say a retro console game with a purpose-built original controller that is effectively new-in-box as opposed to 20-30 years old is a really cool experience. I generally use an X-Box One controller for PC emulation, but having the specific 3-button layout with those huge Genesis buttons that are much much bigger than you remember is fun in a way that is difficult to value.

fridgeboy

antillese i agree with all of this. The “works and looks great out of the box” thing can’t be overstated. And I also do love that it forces you to sit around the tv - the snes classic at least has hilariously short controller cords. One problem being that my television now is 65” UHD monstrosity - rather than the 22” or whatever CRT those cables were designed for. I forgot to mention before my kids also use it to play Super Mario World and that’s a god danged joy to watch. They suck at it.

dylanfills

antillese I almost mentioned this in the original post, and I’m glad someone else did. I have an 8bitdo genesis-style controller that I love for 2d games. The only barrier for entry with that is that it takes a mind bending amount of button remapping to sync up the controls to the physical buttons (although I imagine most of the games on the switch collection don’t use the x/y/z)

I don’t have a computer that can do much at all, so, for the time being, that’s not a great option for me. I also live with roommates and don’t have kids, so my games are already centered around the living room

antillese

fridgeboy And I also do love that it forces you to sit around the tv - the snes classic at least has hilariously short controller cords. One problem being that my television now is 65” UHD monstrosity - rather than the 22” or whatever CRT those cables were designed for.

I got extension cables. They are a requirement for the Nintendo ones.

fridgeboy I forgot to mention before my kids also use it to play Super Mario World and that’s a god danged joy to watch. They suck at it.

My kids love Balloon Fight or as I like to call it “Good Joust”. They also love Kirby’s Dream Course which I never in a million years would have tried myself, but it’s a huge hit. My daughter also claims to be an expert at Mario 2. She’s gotten to 1-3 once or twice.

tapevulture Sounds like you need to play the game on a brand new Genesis controller. 😋

pasquinelli

tapevulture my recollection is that, yes, you’re constantly moving on the diagonals. i’d love for the option ofusing character relative controls (i think this is called tank controls by some, but i think of controls like katamari for that.)

like resident evil is what i mean. or, the old resident evils.

like grim fandango, or at least before the remake.

i think you know what i’m saying. i never had a problem with those sorts of controls, and it would make a lot of isometric games more reasonably playable.

GigaSlime

I was liking the mini consoles but I also just got a MiSTer, and I’m not sure I have many reasons to go back now other than a few minor accessibility quibbles I can work around (really hope someone figures out how to make save games write to the sd card immediately without having to open up the core menu). Plus it’ll recognize any controller, even the ones that come with the mini consoles! So I can still use those USB Genesis controllers and not have to map that weird button layout to a normal person controller, lol

fetus8

GigaSlime I was kind of this way too, have a bunch of the mini consoles, but recently built a small emulator pc and lucked out and got a Super NT during the last restock.

I really think some of the modern conveniences like save states and access to save files makes it way to hard for me to go back to the mini consoles. I know they’re some “modding” and software tweaks available, but being able to plop my SD card from my FxPak Pro into my PC and move some save files around and jump back into the game is just too easy.

I will admit that I really really really prefer to play with the original controllers, which the mini consoles all do excellently. Trying to play SNES or Genesis games on RetroArch with an Xbox controller feels weird and takes way too much effort to remap properly. The Super NT with the wireless adapters and the 8bitDo SNES style controllers is life changing tho. Lol

arauz

I’ve got the NES, SNES, GENESIS, and PS1 mini systems and I am happy with those purchases, the PS1 slightly less so. Mostly down to game selection. It’s been a great little fun box to show non gaming friends some older games that are still fun, it really shifted some of their perspectives on “old games”.

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee

I’ve gotten great joy out of the NES, SNES, and Genesis Mini. I’m especially fond of having essentially free access to all the Japanese ROMs on the Genesis Mini for language practice. I also find the presentation of the game libraries quaint and charming in a way that a folder on a desktop just can’t capture, and having the controllers that each were originally designed for is fun.

That being said, I got all three at retail price (showed up at a distant Wal-Mart for their 6 am opening to get the SNES Mini), so I suspect how strongly I can recommend these items falls off as the secondary market prices rise.

robinhoodie

The emulation on the Genesis Mini is decent enough. The system is easy to hack. And for me the big draw is you cannot get the three button controllers anywhere else. I bought an extra system just to get another set of the controllers to use on my MiSTER. They just feel more correct for certain games like Sonic than the 6 button pads do.

Geoff

I like the Genesis Mini a lot.
I like the NES and SNES Minis too.

They have decent game selections.
They are/were cheap. They are small, they output through HDMI, and they come with fantastic controllers.
The Genesis Mini has by far my favorite UI of the bunch. I actually enjoy turning it on and choosing a game from the menu.

FPGA systems with original controllers in good condition are a better way to play older games, but with the Mini systems you don’t need to source good controllers, they come with a selection of games on them, and they tend to be available and affordable comparatively.

tokucowboy

I like them all (minus the PlayStation one) conceptually, but this recent late-capitalist trap of “every new nerd item must be a frenzy of FOMO scalper Black Friday Is Everyday difficulty” really takes the shine off them. One of their key appeals, I feel, should be accessibility, but they’re hardly accessible. For most of them, you could get the actual original hardware for close to the price they’re being hawked for already, which is a downer.

Geoff

For both the NES Mini and SNES Mini I got mine by walking into game stores and buying them sometime after they were released, but before they were discontinued. I didn’t do anything like check ahead, go on a special day, or go to multiple stores for either of them. The Genesis Mini was readily available online, and maybe still is.

The mini systems seem to have short-ish production runs, and then get marked up heavily. The latter isn’t really the fault of the companies making them. The production runs could be longer, but they certianly don’t seem as FOMO-y as many other products.

but generally yeah, “the frenzy of FOMO scalper Black Friday Is Everyday difficulty” is unfortunate.

pasquinelli

sorry if i’m highjacking the thread a little, but i’d love mini consoles that you could develop for. let me plug a usb into it and push my code on it, let me debug it, let me plug it into my tv and play with authentic controllers. i know i could also put roms on it, but i can put them on everything else. i know the audience is really small, but i still want it.

maybe there’s no point and it would be better to use original hardware and one of those everdrive pros, but original hardware won’t last forever.

i don’t know.

exodus

Not sure where to put this so I went here - who’s getting that Egret II? I’m on the fence because, frankly, it’s pretty expensive for a cute little thing I’ll use a couple of times. but the paddle controller is compelling! maybe that’ll make me use it more! either way, preorders are up at Strictly Limited and I’m not surrrrrrrrrre what I wanna do!

antillese

exodus All I know is that @Personasama is throwing this into my feed despite me not directly following him on Twitter!

Apologies/regards to you Mr. Kim! 🤗

chazumaru

exodus I am getting it.

I deeply regret buying an Astro City Mini (especially because Sega gifted me one afterwards aaaaaugh). I realized too late that did not care much about the arcade games featured but I just could not let go of the pre-order. I am especially peeved that almost none of the games actually belong to the Astro City generation; the software catalogue is more Aero City Mini if anything…

The Egret fixes all of the issues I have with the Astro. It prominently features the generation of Taito games I care about (F3), many of the games are contemporaries of the actual Egret II, it’s a much more comprehensive look at the publisher’s output from Space Invaders until 1995ish, there is also that whole Lupin III thingy, the hardware experience with the (hopefully sturdy) rotating screen and the trackball panel is an actual plus over standard emulation… It just needs Dead Connection, Lightbringer, Cleopatra Fortune and Landmaker to make me 100% happy, really. I doubt emulation will be perfect but, unless it’s a lagging disaster, I should be able to swallow it.

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Sidenote: as time goes by, it’s crazy how much better the PC Engine Mini is than its competitors. It is the only mini-console or mini-cabinet I would blindly and wholeheartedly recommend to anyone.

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee

exodus

I did in fact pre order the Egret 2 Mini, but it should be noted that my Astro City Mini was my most played game console for like two months. I just love those little cabinets, and the idea of having a good controller for future use in trackball arcade machines or a twiddle knob for Arkanoids is very enticing to me.

It sure is expensive, though! Not sure I could easily recommend it to people who don’t play on their mini console as many lunch breaks as they can get away with!