Sega Wants To Know What Mini Console Fans Would Like To See Next

Which Sega Mini-Console would you like to see released next?

  • Saturn

    Votes: 11 55.0%

  • Dreamcast

    Votes: 12 60.0%

  • Game Gear Micro, Part 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Megadrive Mini, Part 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Master System

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • None

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Total voters
    20
G

gvx64

Limp Gawd
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https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...-fans-would-like-to-see-next?ref=upstract.com

So, we already got a couple of Sega Genesis Mini's (Megadrive outside the US) and a Game Gear Micro. I really think that this survey will come down to the question of the Saturn Mini vs. the Dreamcast Mini.

Now, I love both consoles but I am definitely on the side of a Saturn mini. Yes, it was much less popular in the west than the Dreamcast, but that is exactly why we should want it. Western Saturn games were often produced in extremely low quantity and are now some of the most expensive used games on Ebay right now. I would love to see some of the Saturn's amazing gems like Panzar Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, Dragon Force, Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Wisdom, etc become available to gamers in a legitimate way that doesn't involve paying hundreds of dollars to some random seller on Ebay. It would also be great if Sega would offer the games they release on the mini console on Steam as well like has been done with their Genesis library for a while now.

I will be curious to see how emulation goes for the Saturn on a mini-console. Saturn is a nasty console to emulate and even an overclocked Raspberry Pi 4b doesn't have an easy time with it thanks to the 8 processors that the Saturn had. Frankly, emulating the Dreamcast is a lot easier even though it is more advanced hardware. I am not sure how the emulation is done exactly on the mini-consoles, maybe Sega will opt for hardware-level emulation on the mini which might provide a much better results than the software level emulation that is done on Retropie. If Sega is going to stick with software emulation though I am not sure that the Saturn Mini will be feasible unless the hardware is going to be considerably faster than a Pi 4b.
 
They really need to cut it out with these cheap mini consoles. It is a missed opportunity for not being able to connect to a service and pay a few bucks to download more games. I rather just make a raspberry Pi with RetroArch then having a pile of these mini consoles. That said I would go for a Saturn mini. While it crashed and burned in the US there were so many good games on the Saturn that never made it over here. That is a big opportunity there.
 
My vote goes for a Saturn mini - and hoping we get to see Japanese-only or limited run games on it brought over (ie: Dragon Force 1+2, Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc).
 
Verge said:
Pretty much answers your question homie.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but do you think that Sega might do a hardware-based emulation option like this instead?

https://hardforum.com/threads/mister-fpga-retro-console-hardware.1992861/page-6#post-1045493127

vegeta535 said:
I rather just make a raspberry Pi with RetroArch then having a pile of these mini consoles.
Click to expand...
I totally agree here that is why I badly want to see these games released on Steam as well. I will not buy a mini-console, personally, but I am hopeful that if Sega has to revisit these 32-bit games for a mini-console they will finally put >16-bit gen games on Steam for download. Sega (unlike Nintendo) is already offering basically their entire Genesis library on Steam as unprotected ROMs at extremely low prices which is amazing. This means that you can 100% legally play Genesis games on Retropie which is great because it adds legitimacy to the Retropie community. As grateful as I am that Sega is doing this I am really confused why they aren't doing the same with Saturn and Dreamcast games on Steam. Maybe it is just that Saturn games don't emulate well, but seriously if you have a decent computer that isn't more than 10 years old, playing on Steam shouldn't be a problem. And honestly, more Saturn games than would expect emulate reasonably well on a Pi4 as well assuming that you can live with the odd bug.

Also, games have a shelf life. I think Nintendo is finding this out now with the N64 games that they have released on Nintendo Switch Online. Back in the Wii Virtual Console days people were excited to play the odd N64 game that was made available on the platform but in 2022 240p is painful to most folks. Less and less people actually want to play games from that era and those that do often want to use their own emulators to benefit from an upscaled res. I really want to see these games get a new release before their popularity declines to the point that the demand for them fails to cover the necessary cost that it will take to actually release them. This mini-console may be our last chance for that.
 
gvx64 said:
Yeah, but do you think that Sega might do a hardware-based emulation option like this instead?

https://hardforum.com/threads/mister-fpga-retro-console-hardware.1992861/page-6#post-1045493127
Click to expand...

FPGA emulation is not cheap. Mini consoles need to be. If there was enough market, it might make sense to build new cost reduced SH-2 cpus and use FPGA for everything else, but the minimum number of units to get that done and be economical is probably millions if not tens of millions. Better to wait until software and cheap arm processors catch up.
 
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toast0 said:
FPGA emulation is not cheap. Mini consoles need to be. If there was enough market, it might make sense to build new cost reduced SH-2 cpus and use FPGA for everything else, but the minimum number of units to get that done and be economical is probably millions if not tens of millions. Better to wait until software and cheap arm processors catch up.
Click to expand...
OK, I didn't realize the economics would be that bad.

Given that a Pi4b is not fast enough to do software emulation without a lot of bugs then it is probably doubtful that we are going to see a Saturn mini anytime soon. It's a shame that Sega is baiting us making is sound like it is a possibility.
 
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gvx64 said:
OK, I didn't realize the economics would be that bad.

Given that a Pi4b is not fast enough to do software emulation without a lot of bugs then it is probably doubtful that we are going to see a Saturn mini anytime soon. It's a shame that Sega is baiting us making is sound like it is a possibility.
Click to expand...
Who knows. They might still have the Saturn engineers on staff and can work some magic to make it work on a cheap arms CPU.
 
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gvx64 said:
OK, I didn't realize the economics would be that bad.

Given that a Pi4b is not fast enough to do software emulation without a lot of bugs then it is probably doubtful that we are going to see a Saturn mini anytime soon. It's a shame that Sega is baiting us making is sound like it is a possibility.
Click to expand...

Well, maybe they're gonna release a 32x or a Nomdad or something. Or a Sega Pico.

maybe, someone at Sega figured out how to pull a rabbit out of a hat and get good at emulation, but it kind of seems unlikely. The Saturn is a pretty complex architecture and developers didn't tend to use high level libraries where you might be able to hook the library and reimplement it with good success. But, maybe... especially if you pick only a handful of games.
 
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