I hope they bring Dreamcast back. Modding the old dreamcast is a hassle. Also, hopefully there would be an easy way to load all the games on the mini version.
6th gen mini consoles seem unlikely for a variety of reasons.
There's the more powerful hardware needed, which will push the price up, along with the more complex controllers, which basically won't be any cheaper to make now than they were at launch.
Then there's storage. If people are expecting 30-60 games, and all of those games are a gig each, you're probably going to need a 64GB micro SD card, which is another increase to the BoM bill. The PS Classic probably avoided putting too many multi-disc games and analogue sticks for this reason, but you can't ignore this in the 6th gen.
The big killer is going to be licensing costs though. 5th gen and earlier games generate basically no revenue. Even the more popular ones only sell for $5-$10 when they're rereleased, and most don't sell at all. By the 6th gen though, the basic level of graphical fidelity is high enough that "HD Remasters" are now a thing that you can sell for $30 each, or maybe $60 as a trilogy and can be produced for very little upfront investment. This makes convincing rightsholders to license inclusion of a game for probably $1 per unit a hard sell, as for most of them, that's severely undercutting themselves with the same target audience.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Given all the roadblocks you mentioned towards getting a legit way to play such old games, is anyone surprised that piracy is still a thing?
ah what a fantastic console that was. Still remember first time playing Soul Caliber, thinking how the graphics was possible. (not to mention all the cool characters like Sung Mina, Yoshimitsu, Cervantes...)
What? The DreamCast is one of the easiest systems to mod, assuming you mean replacing the optical drive with an ODE. You don't need to solder anything.
Besides, the mini would just be an emulator anyway.
I'm still waiting for Nintendo to treat us to an N64 mini. And it needs to have 4-player support. Maybe we need to wait for this chip shortage to sort itself out before we can have cool things (at realistic prices).
I think it's pretty understandable why they didn't bother: analog controllers, licensing issues with rare games and finally, they'd rather people just buy the online expansion pass and play multiplayer Switch instead.
The Mega Drive Mini 2 is a complete unit that retails for $99 including 60 games. Just the DE-10 nano alone is more than double that, and a full MISTer kit probably can't be had for less than $400, and you still have to (legally, of course, and those retro carts ain't cheap, and you're going to need to buy some adapters to dump the ROMs). "I'm more compelled by this thing that's at least four times the price, probably more" isn't really saying much.
Why "Of course". Likely the percentage of MISTer owner legally dumping retro cards small. It's a subset of a subset of a subset. Gamer -> retro gamer -> hardcore retrogamer -> hardcore retrogamer that has high enough regard for copyright law that an unenforceable rule that doesn't benefit the original developers should be obeyed.
I love mini consoles. I know some of them have been a mixed bag, but it's difficult to find any other affordable means to play that many old game libraries legally. Old hardware can get expensive quick with repairs or modernization. And don't get me started on ebay retro game pricing for original copies.
The fixed selection of games on them means that if your goal is to play the games legally, the cost is either very reasonable or effectively infinity, depending on what you want to play.
Post-composite and pre-cd hardware doesn't really need to be all that expensive, if you don't go wild with modding (and use something like a retrotink to upscale composite directly, regardless of console). But of course some games are quite expensive. CD consoles and games do fail a lot more, though.
The Sega Genesis mini consoles are great - the problem was there's no sports games. I realize there's licensing issues and all that, but sports games was one of the biggest things that the Genesis had over the SNES.
It's almost certainly the difference between high school gamers remembering the sports games and elementary/middle school gamers remembering sonic. Mortal Kombat straddles the line between.
Looks like they aren't producing that many (seems out of stock in some regions). Always a hard balance to reduce e-waste and ensure scalpers aren't "balancing the market".
How close are emulators to the real thing? I mean for someone who spent years in their youth developing muscle memory and would be irritated by slight differences
Both Mega Drive Minis are handled by M2, so I would expect the emulation to be excellent based off of that (M2 has something of a reputation in gaming circles for producing extremely accurate emulation/ports with lots of quality of life features that their competitors sometimes lack)
Most lag is typically caused by processing in modern flat-screen TVs, not by the emulator. Some TVs have a faster "Game Mode" though.
Assume that the emulator will add one frame of lag. The code in 16-bit console games was typically synchronised with the raster beam.
If the gamepad adds lag compared to the original is something that someone would have to measure to find out. It depends on the USB version and on how the gamepad's microcontroller is programmed. But in 6-button games, the result from reading an original 6-button controller was typically used first in the next frame anyway because of the weird timing in its protocol.
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There's the more powerful hardware needed, which will push the price up, along with the more complex controllers, which basically won't be any cheaper to make now than they were at launch.
Then there's storage. If people are expecting 30-60 games, and all of those games are a gig each, you're probably going to need a 64GB micro SD card, which is another increase to the BoM bill. The PS Classic probably avoided putting too many multi-disc games and analogue sticks for this reason, but you can't ignore this in the 6th gen.
The big killer is going to be licensing costs though. 5th gen and earlier games generate basically no revenue. Even the more popular ones only sell for $5-$10 when they're rereleased, and most don't sell at all. By the 6th gen though, the basic level of graphical fidelity is high enough that "HD Remasters" are now a thing that you can sell for $30 each, or maybe $60 as a trilogy and can be produced for very little upfront investment. This makes convincing rightsholders to license inclusion of a game for probably $1 per unit a hard sell, as for most of them, that's severely undercutting themselves with the same target audience.
Sure the Neo Geo AES was technically the same as the Neo Geo MVS but they weren’t sold in my region.
What? The DreamCast is one of the easiest systems to mod, assuming you mean replacing the optical drive with an ODE. You don't need to solder anything.
Besides, the mini would just be an emulator anyway.
Post-composite and pre-cd hardware doesn't really need to be all that expensive, if you don't go wild with modding (and use something like a retrotink to upscale composite directly, regardless of console). But of course some games are quite expensive. CD consoles and games do fail a lot more, though.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgb6alm3M1M
So when you played (for example) the same EA Sports title on both consoles, the Genesis version usually played faster/smoother.
Probably because of the Blast Processing (tm)
Assume that the emulator will add one frame of lag. The code in 16-bit console games was typically synchronised with the raster beam.
If the gamepad adds lag compared to the original is something that someone would have to measure to find out. It depends on the USB version and on how the gamepad's microcontroller is programmed. But in 6-button games, the result from reading an original 6-button controller was typically used first in the next frame anyway because of the weird timing in its protocol.