mike_intv

Hope to see this effort completed and released. Far too often it seems, 7800 projects are shown off as tech demos and never make it into wider distribution.

Mine will be here the first of the month. Looking forward to adding this to my book collection.

I definitely am interested. I might wait for results of the actual product — and hope a North American distribution deal is struck.

This reminds me of how the "companies" that make games for classic systems (pre-crash systems) tend to operate. But even these "companies" are only a couple to a few months before shipping.

I put "companies" in quotes because they are generally one-person operations — and often side-gigs for that person as well.

For a real company, these type of continual delays are inexcusable.

That dual-function PC is cool. Too bad a version never came the US. (I know with PAL consoles, that might have been difficult). But Amstrad did sell its PC1512 units in the US. So the market connections existed. (My first PC-compatible machine was a PC1512DD. It was always fun finding games with the Amstrad graphics package).

I tried to watch this video. I stopped when he started misstated such well-known facts. I could go no further.

This reminds me of the situation with the GameGear. The original models did not have the Sega splash screen and thus will play pirate carts. (I acquired an SG1000 multicart). Unfortunately, when those systems failed, not knowing they could be repaired, I disposed of them. As a result, I only have later-issue GameGears. I wonder if the Game Gennie trick will work.

He is right thematically. But he may be wrong legally.
The question is who owns the IPs.

@KGRAMR I am thinking pre-crash systems. Sometimes it seems that people forget there was a rich history of gaming before the NES or before the North American Video Game crash.

@RetroGames
There certainly seems to be a date disclaimer on "every system ever made."

Given the way that Sega of Japan has been portrayed as mismanaging the business, maybe they should have listened more to Sega of America on this issue rather than hold grudges three decades later.

In reading the original review, I wonder if it was being played on an HD TV or on a older CRT.

I think this game was designed with the CRT in mind — which would make a lot of its presentation look far poorer on a larger, more focused television.

@OwningYou Even though China (and some other countries) do not seem to enforce IP laws and conventions (unless it applies to IPs from their own country), it still not legal for those to be sold.

The news report never noted that the unit is made to look like the SNES Mini - it only referenced how it looked like the original SNES.

Also, as others have pointed out, the report never noted that these games violated copyright laws, even the real ones.

To me, the "J" referred to Japanese-style, as in turn-based gameplay and distinctive from Action RPGs. Since the lines are so blurred today, describing what something does/is rather than where it is from is more useful.

I too never remember the term being derisive. But then again, I did not start playing RPGs until they were much more accepted (mid 1990s). Certainly, I can see that the term may be used dismissively by some individuals who did not like that genre of gameplay. But that would have been decades ago.

@ambifx A lot is what counts. With digital games and such, it is hard to have a real number.

It would be interesting to see a distribution of how many games people own. I imagine the median is the low hundreds, if that high.

I just heard yesterday that the record was now 24,000+

These games might be new. But Songbird's support for the Lynx (and the Jaguar) are not. They have published numerous titles over the years as well as offering other stock (games and parts).

@Fluff86 When I watched LD, it was usually to hear about obscure Euro-only consoles or to hear a Euro-centric take on a system.

I did not realize — though I am not surprised — that the information presented was not always original content.

Finally, I am familar with the American You-Tubers you noted and have watched them and in some cases subscribed.

It is nice to finally hear the details.

From the bit I had gathered from the content creators, it was over a picture of the person who was complaining; I did not realize that it was a picture taken by the person making the claim.

I am glad I never fully watched the video about the situation.

That all being said, I do like watching videos about obscure consoles, especially ones that never made it to North America. Any suggestions for other creators I might want to check out?

Wow!
I am usually skeptical of "Word vs. Word" Debates. But this one shows good research and really makes you think.

This started with Dan posting his list of books. And it has just grown and grown over the last few months. A great resoruce.

This makes me wonder if should part with my Saturn version. (Hard to believe that GameStop sold it for $20).

Never thought of the Saturn as Japan's (or technically the Japan region, using the terminology of the article) best-loved Sega machine.
As a Saturn fan, I would love to have seen that point explored in more detail.

@JackGYarwood
Glad to help. I've been a reporter — so I know that misreading notes can happen.
Also, I think it is instructive because too many people without an international perspective think what happened in the United States/North America was global.

The C&VG article (which was in November 1983 — not January) describes the changeover of the US market to something more like what was found in the UK — a preference for computers that could do more (and play better games).

Commodore's aggressive price cuts made the C64 cost-competitive with the game systems. The glut of games for the Atari 2600 had caused financial issues for many companies that released video games (and especially those that only released games for the Atari 2600). There were also far too many game systems on the market in the US that could be supported by consumers (Atari 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2 — as well as the Astrocade, the Emerson Arcadia 2001, and the Vectrex). Warner's bad financial reporting and outcomes had soured investment. So bankruptcy and retreat from the market became quite common in 1983 and 1984 for almost all companies.

Will you be doing any stories about how classic (pre-NES) systems are STILL getting new games from a variety of homebrew and small-scale developers? (Feel free to steal this story idea)

I both wish I had something like this and am glad I did not order something like this because the idea seems more complete than the ability to produce the wanted items.

This is not a knock on the people who are working hard on this project (or any similar project) but rather a statement about the global supply chain meeting over-ambition.

Not sure what this really means since the company made most of its staff redundant. Given that there are few people supposed to be working on this, it does not make sense to have a lot of space.

The biggest issue with this — as it generally is with emulation — is the legality of getting access to the games (or getting legal access to the game).

I wonder if this will show up on Switch in a year. Would not be the first time for a mobile game.

I would love this since I have a small fortune invested in original software. But I will not buy until it is actually shipped and on store shelves (or at least in warehouses). In other words, probably not for a long time, if ever, unfortunately.

Micro Center is showing it "In Stock" in 15/23 stores. The only units it has are the $399.95 package (reduced from $449.95). They are not available to ship.

Best Buy only offers the $399.95 package. It is available for pickup in 9 days (June 24).

Gamestop has various packages — including the entry point, controller-less $299.95 unit. But it also says it releases on July 2.

I wonder if anyone will actually get one today.

I left a comment in the now updated (removed) story that it would not be surprising if this happened — but that people should not judge a company today by its actions 15 years ago.

I also noted that Microsoft did not always do its due diligence about rights in the early Xbox days — there are stories that it thought it had bought Donkey Kong with Rare that persist to these days.

That all being said, would it surprise anyone if around E3 time, the remake drops on XBLA and NSO with cross-play? Sort of Nintendo returning a favor for some of the MS games that have come to Switch. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend — think about it).

I ordered a Founders Edition. It sold out (2600 units) at $100 USD deposits in about six hours.
There is demand. The question will be will the games expand the audience beyond those who yearn for the nostalgia of the original system.
We shall see what happens.

Interesting closing comment: ... [A]lthough even at over $100, we're not sure it will be able to compete with the likes of the Analogue Super Nt and Mega Sg when it comes to emulation quality.

The two systems mentioned by Analogue are close to $200 (USD) each. This is about half the cost of one of those systems and one-quarter the cost of both. If it does an adequate job, there will probably be some market for it.

Interesting. Coleco Holdings has not even Tweeted about this.

Interesting. There were a lot of unique things done in Japan.

One note — Are the price conversions historic or current. For example, the value of the Yen was actually higher against the dollar in 1994 ($1 USD varied between 97yen to 112yen) than it is presently ($1 USD=118yen) .

Any word on where this can be viewed after Microsoft's exclusive period — since most of us who had Ataris do NOT have Xboxes.

This seems like it would be a good game to develop for WiiU.
And if put in contact with the right person (Dan Adelman with NoA), they probably could get that free dev kit.

Too many people in this industry (and in life) seem to hold onto what happened in the past too long. That can lead to bad decisions.