Sega Genesis Flashback HD 2017 Console 85 Games Included

Our story begins back in early 2017. A company called Atgames had been making Sega branded products including Mega Drive and Genesis since 2008 as well as Atari Flashbacks since 2011. Business was good at Atgames but their Sega customers complained that the Atgames Sega Genesis Firecore Systems had poor sound emulation and that their infrared wireless controllers did not respond as good as they would like them to. This troubled Atgames because these problems were hurting their reputation with their customers. Atgames wanted to make their customers happy. So Atgames looked at the current market and saw that Sega’s former rival Nintendo had just released the NES Classic, a mini console, much like the ones that Atgames made, only this one had built in NES games instead of the typical Sega or Atari games that you would find on an average Atgames mini console. Atgames also heard rumors that Nintendo would be releasing an SNES mini before the end of 2017. Since the NES mini sold well, Atgames thought that the SNES mini would sell just as well or maybe even better and since Atgames already had a contract with Sega, Atgames convinced Sega to let Atgames license not only the Mega Drive games, cartridge slot, controller ports and controllers but also the very appearance of the original Model 1 Mega Drive and Genesis. This made Atgames very happy. They got right to work making their brand new retro console. It was going to be a console like no other, “The Ultimate Genesis”!!! Only one problem, in order to beat Nintendo to the gate and restart the 16 Bit Wars! Atgames had to have the console ready in 6 short months. The engineers and programmers were not very happy when they found out about this deadline because they knew that it would take an entire year to make a proper console. The corporate executives told the engineers and programmers that they had to release “something” for the 2017 holiday session, but promised that they would be able to finish their dream console for the 2018 holiday session. The engineers and programmers knew this was a bad idea but went along with it anyway firstly because they wanted to keep their jobs and secondly wanted to see their vision of the perfect Genesis console released in 2018. So this became a 2 part plan. Release one console in 2017 and revise and improve the console for 2018. Thus creating 2 separate and different consoles with the same name: “The Atgames Sega Genesis Flashback” (2017 & 2018 Models). So the engineers and programmers knew there was no way to have a finished product ready for review by the fall of 2017, so they just sent out “Alpha” prototypes of the system to reviewer with unfinished software. The reviewers were unhappy with these very early prototypes so they threatened to write bad reviews unless Atgames fixed the software problems. Atgames agreed and had the reviewers return the consoles to Atgames and Atgames did everything they could to fix the software problems, thereby creating “Bata” prototypes to send back to reviewers. The reviews of these “Bata” units were mixed, but Atgames had no choice, time was up, so Atgames had to release the “Bata” prototypes as “The 2017 Atgames Sega Genesis Flashback HD” in order to complete with the SNES Classic for the 2017 holiday session. Customer reviews were mixed as well for the 2017 Model. Many complained about the menu, controllers, appearance, emulation and compatibility. This made Atgames sad. All they ever wanted to do was make the perfect console and now everybody thinks they make bad consoles. This is not good. It even cost Atgames their relationship with Sega and resulted in Sega ending their contract with Atgames at the end of 2018 and Sega would no longer allow Atgames to work on Sega’s upcoming Sega Genesis Mini for 2019. So the engineers and programmers continued to work on the 2018 console and took all of the 2017 console customers feedback into consideration. They wanted to show everyone, even Sega that Atgames could make a good console. They worked as hard as they could and finally finished “The 2018 Atgames Sega Genesis Flashback HD” right before the 2018 holiday session. Atgames was happy again. They finally released a good console. Unfortunately, they were so hard at work on the Genesis Flashback that they mistakenly neglected another Atgames project, Blast! When Blast review copies went out, they did not have the same ROMS as the ones that went out to stores. This made the reviewers mad so they said that they would not review anymore of Atgames products. This made Atgames sad again because they finally made the perfect Sega Genesis, but there was nobody to review it. They released the 2018 Sega Genesis Flashback anyway, “under the radar” with almost no reviews and very little coverage. They had spent most of their advertising budget on the 2017 model and any money they had left on finishing the 2018 model. Because of this most people do not even know that a 2018 model exists. That’s too bad, because this is one of the greatest consoles that Atgames ever made and that, my friends, is why two consoles have the same name. The 2018 Atgames Sega Genesis Flashback HD has many upgrades, a few downgrades and a few things even stayed the same. For starters let’s talk about the CPU. It’s a Dual Core 32 Bit ARM Cortex A9 SOC rated at 1.5 GHz (1.6 GHz with Overdrive enabled) and a Quad Core Mali-400 MP GPU rated at 400 MHz. This CPU is 50% faster than the 2017 model. How’s that for Blast Processing! Next let’s talk about system memory. The memory is 256 MB DDR3 SDRAM (the same as the 2017 model) and the onboard flash storage is 256 MB Nand Flash (down from 4 GB for the 2017 model). As far as ports on the console itself; it has 1 HDMI port, 1 USB power port (new for 2018), 2 9 pin controller Ports, Mega Drive/Genesis cartridge port, SD card port (new for 2018), on/off switch, menu button and an LED power indicator light. The console shell is also new for 2018 including a cosmic volume slider, revised cartridge slot, revised logos, revised button and switch, revised light bar and revised dimensions (the 2018 model is slightly deeper giving the console a larger appearance without taking up much more space). As far as the controllers, the changes include removing the rewind and menu buttons from the second controller, converting the p1/p2 switches to on/off switches, easy access battery cases and p1 and p2 labels. An HDMI cable, USB power supply and instruction poster are also included. The box is almost identical to the 2017 model.

Will not work with many cartridges, specifically it will not run 2 player on one of my favorites (Herzog Zwei) and the Mrs. pac-man cartridge I purchased has major lag in the directional pad. This Console should include Pac-Man, but it does not. Over 85 games and no Pac-Man or Mrs. Pac-Man. Not many 2 player games on here are available on this console. The HD is not worth mentioning because you cannot make a 1992 cartridge look better than SD. THERE IS NO :Pitfall, Lion King, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, Contra, Battle Toads, Pit Fighter, Street Fighter, Virtua Racer, Sonic 3, Ecco the dolphin.You cannot hook up a 32X either, so no Knuckles Chaotix or any other 32x title. Seriously, I bought this to play 2 games : Herzog Zwei and Mrs. Pac Man and neither work on this console, so it is now useless to me. Anyone wanna buy mine?

This isn't a bad console at all. Yes, it's by AtGames, not Sega. Sega hasn't made a console since the Dreamcast. The last unit they produced that played Genesis games was the Nomad, even the Genesis 3 was made by a different company (Majesco.) However, this is officially licensed, that's why they're allowed to model it after the Sega Genesis model 1. It's very light, because it's basically a couple of boards inside and not much else. The plastic isn't super cheap feeling, it has a solid feel to it. It has an on/off switch, menu button, (instead of reset) two controller ports, an HDMI hookup, power hookup and a cartridge slot. That's about all there is to it. The controllers are OK, 2.4 GHz wireless instead of the old IR "line of sight" controllers AtGames used to do, so I've experienced no issues with them not working. Also, you can use wired controllers with it. The controllers are a bit on the small size, about the size of the 6 button controller from the Genesis 3. The main negatives (for me) are the fact that the battery cover on them is screwed on, assuring that quick battery changes won't be so quick, and there's an annoying blue LED that flashes whenever you push anything on the controller. That gets aggravating in your peripheral vision. The unit also takes longer than a regular Genesis to boot up because it's running modified Android, and loading a cartridge takes an additional few seconds.Game play is actually pretty smooth on this. I play with my TV on GAME settings, which some people probably aren't doing. This turns off all HDTV "enhancement" filters, allowing for smoother game play. Is it perfect? No, but it's good. I haven't noticed any slowdowns, and I've played a good portion of the 66 official games on this. (I won't be playing any of the 19 shovelware titles) I've also done considerable cartridge testing and the only issue I've noticed is a slight popping sound in the audio on one game (Captain America and the Avengers.) I know it's not my cartridge, because I play that game regularly.The real value of this console comes in the bundled games. The Raspberry Pi crowd won't be impressed, but some of these games are quite up there in price, most notably Shining Force, Shining Force II and Golden Axe III. Those three games alone will cover the cost of the console. In fact, Golden Axe III was produced in tiny numbers and is pretty rare, so even reproduction carts are over $30. Anyway, if you add up all of the games and source them on the web, then you've got at least a couple hundred dollars' worth in games, possibly even more. I personally only already owned 4 of the games on carts, so it's a great deal for me. Plus, it comes with several Master System and Game Gear games, which would require additional hardware to run their carts. As I said, the number of actual Sega games is 66, the largest number on an AtGames Genesis console. That leaves only 19 "bonus" games to pad the number to 85 games. Another nice feature is save states, even on cartridges. It seems each game gets a generous 10 save slots. I've tested it with cartridges and it works great. In fact, when you go to load the cart, you get the option up front to continue your save or start from the beginning. Even if you start from the beginning,the save state stays where it is.So, all in all, this is a good console. I wouldn't recommend it for hardcore gamers or purists, most of them will be playing on original hardware and CRT TVs anyway. This is more for people like me, people who were alive during the Genesis era and remember how great it was and just want to play some games. Some of us still have cartridges and no Genesis, and we want to game on a HDTV. We aren't worried about absolute perfection, though I haven't found many flaws in this console. It's also good for people starting out with the Genesis who want a console that works great on a HDTV and that comes with a great collection of games built in.