A few videos back, I had a look at the Fei Hao HDMI Mega Drive clone, and during that
review I mentioned the AT Games Mega Drive, and how I'd heard the controllers weren't
as responsive as perhaps they should be.
The thing is, I'd never used the AT Games Mega Drive Flashback.
I was relying on what I'd heard on the grapevine, and given the grapevine isn't always entirely
accurate, I thought I'd take a look myself.
So here it is.
The AT Games Mega Drive Flashback HD.
The question is, does this box contain a world of wonder... or a world of pain?
In terms of style, the packaging is very similiar to this previous AT Games contraption; The
Reactor Wireless gaming console - an earlier attempt at pushing out a Sega licenced incarnation.
It looks a lot like a Wii, even down to a pair of dubious motion controllers, but in
a far cheaper and shoddy package.
The whole console is based around a Firecore Titan ARM CPU - or as far as I can tell, there
have been many different models - enabling it to both emulate Sega Mega Drive games and
run these additional "motion sensitive" titles.
Clearly this version can't accept Mega Drive cartridges - you just get what's built in
-
AT Games also released Classic Genesis & Mega Drive models that could load most cartidges
but the original Firecore released in 2009 could load most cartridges, excluding titles
like Virtua Racing and Everdrive carts, which just don't mesh with the emulation.
This version also appears to have been a Genesis on a Chip implementation, but regardless,
this time we're back to emulation.
This new HD console can take cartridges, whilst also sporting an impressive 85 titles, wireless
pads and naturally, HDMI.
AT Games have also now licenced the Mega Drive's appearance, so this console looks decidedly
more Mega Drive Genesisy than their previous offerings.
Inside the box for which I paid a princely £79.99, we have an instruction sheet, the
console, 2 wireless pads, an HDMI cable and a power supply.
This thing isn't tiny like the SNES mini by the way.
Side by side you can see that it's still a reasonably bulky unit, although still smaller
than an original Mega Drive.
The controllers are very, very similar to the ones bundled with my Fei Hao Mega Drive,
and feel just as shoddy.
If you're looking for points out of the box, the SNES Mini is in a completely different
league to this.
If you hold a SNES mini it feels solid, dependable and tactile.
This feels like a slab of cheap plastic, chucked together with some bargain basement pads;
exactly what it is.
OK, let's plug it in.
Pretty simple, one plug for the HDMI and one for power.
Wait a minute, why is that power light on?
Hmmm, apparently the HDMI lead provides enough power to make the LED glow..
WHEN IT'S TURNED OFF... interesting design choice.
Of course, this machine has it's own power supply, unlike the SNES Mini with it's fangled
USB power straight from your TV.
Now I actually like getting a good old fashioned power supply, and I'd have appreciated it
if Nintendo had provided a usb wall adaptor.
I'm going to plug a standard Mega Drive pad in to begin with - I think it's a nice touch
you can do that.
So after switching on and getting a brighter LED glow, we are presented with a brief AT
Games logo... which by the way, seems to be every bloody where, and then we're straight
into a reasonable looking interface.
Now, I'm not gonna lie, I've heard people complain about this interface, and I must
admit the navigation is a little clunky to begin with.
You have to press B to choose from the menu on the left, then select games using the D-Pad,
but it's not going to ruin the show.
It took me about 3 minutes to get used to it, and then it works fine.
It's a little strange how they've grouped Mortal Kombat Games together and then Sega
Games.
I would have preferred genres, and even a split by console type, given we've also got
Master System and Game Gear games here, but that's just being picky.
OK, let's give Sonic 2 a whirl and check out those response times.
On the left, we've got Sonic 2 running on an original Mega Drive and on the right we
have the Flashback, and yes, there is a very slight delay - in Sonic 2 at least - between
pressing a button and an action occurring, but really, I wouldn't have noticed had I
not investigated it so carefully.
Using the wireless pad, the delay seems no different to a plugged in controller.
The average gamer isn't really going to care.
Given this is emulation, this delay could be worse on some titles, and better on others,
but I've played most of the games on here and for my needs, it was fine.
If we stick with Sonic for a bit, I'll explain a few of the features.
By pressing either the "reset" button or the menu button on the wireless pads we get a
menu!
From here we can do numerous things including turning on scanlines.
Which incidentally, looks quite nice, but given Youtube compression makes it look terrible,
I'll turn it back off.
You can also rewind up to 6 seconds of the game at any time by pressing the REWIND button
on the pads.
This allows you to avoid obstacles you didn't avoid or just watch someone being killed in
Mortal Kombat over and over again.
Nice!
You also get 10 save game slots per game.
These are a doddle to use and if you exit a game you'll automatically be asked if you
want to load your save game on the next session.
This also works for cartridges you load in.
The game data is held in memory until you next load it up.
The selection of games on offer is a bit of a curious one.
We're seemingly limited to strictly Sega releases or Mortal Kombat, and that's not bad.
We've got titles such as Sonic, Sonic Spinball, Alien Storm, Bonanza Bros, Super Thunder Blade
and even some RPG's such as Sword of Vermillion.
Along with those there are some Master System classics like Alex Kidd in Miracle World and
Fantasy Zone.
You even get the built in game Snail Maze from the Mk1 Master System... a nice touch,
either that or scraping the barrel, I can't tell, or even care.
Firing up one of the Game Gear titles gives us a nice Game Gear frame and actually turning
scanlines on here does help create a Game Gear like experience - just without the horrific
motion blur.
We also get region exclusive titles such as Golden Axe 3 and Virtua Fighter 2, of which
the latter is pretty... terrible.
BUT, never mind, because Mortal Kombat 1 through 3, more than makes up for that.
Plus we actually get to use the full 6 button pad for once.
Once you're bored of all these titles, you can of course use your own cartridges.
For this you need to switch off the console, insert your game of choice, turn it back on
- whereby the game is loaded entirely into memory - You then simply click on the game
icon under the cartridge section and you're good to go.
Of course this doesn't work with cartridges which contain additional hardware such as
Virtua Racing, or even with the Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament J-Cart.
Nor does it work with the Game Genie or Action Replay.
Nor does it work for the Super Magic Drive, and that's simply because the emulator can't
rip a ROM from this kind of device, as they don't contain a conventional ROM.
For example, the Super Magic Drives simply acts as a middle man for the ROM, which is
contained on disk... video upcoming on this by the way.
So instead of this nice menu, followed by say, Universal Solider loading from disk.
The Flashback just completely ignores whatever is plugged in and boots normally.
Suffice to say, the Mega CD of course won't work, neither will the 32X and nor will the
Sega Menacer.
But of course, if you have ANY of these devices, you're also gonna be the kind of man or woman
who has the original hardware.
So let's get back to the core of this machine.
The games.
Now, a cartridge your typical gamer might own, is a multi-game cart.
Here's that one I got with the Fei Hao Mega Drive, usually it contains 18 games accessible
from a menu.
Now interestingly, the Flashback doesn't load it as a single cartridge.
It loads it as multiple cartridges, of which you can choose...
although it only finds 8 of them.
Even Sega's own compilations behave weirdly.
Mega Games 6 Volume 3 loads so we have itself and Revenge of Shinobi Roms visible, but apart
from loading the main menu, none of the titles will actually run.
An Everdrive cartridge won't work at all, just like with previous AT Games hardware.
Out of curiosity I tried a single game reproduction cartridge.
The faithful Dr. Robotniks Creature Capture, and that worked just fine.
It would be nice if these cartridges actually loaded onto the console though and you could
just go back to them at any time.
But no, you only get the game you've just inserted.
If you want to load in some Master System games, you won't be able to use the original
Master System converter, mainly because the cables on the back prevent it from sitting
flushly.
I would expect it to work with the Master System Converter II as it's simply a pass
through connection, however I've heard it doesn't work with newer converters such as
the Retro Freak Gear Converter.
So I'll have to leave that as a bit of a grey area.
OK, so, as with the Fei Hao machine, I want to test Streets of Rage 2, to see how this
thing handles sound.
Never fails me in these situations.
-actually, why the flip isn't the Streets of Rage series included on this console?
That seems like a huge hole- ANY-WAY....after loading it in, here's the
Flashback against original hardware.
The sound on the Flashback is pretty sharp at parts, that treble feels a bit rattly & piercing,
but it's not entirely bad, and we do have actual stereo sound as opposed to the mono
output of the Fei Hao machine.
The biggest gripe I have is the stuttering throughout, and it doesn't just happen in
the title music.
You get it throughout the game, although it's less noticeable when you're knee deep in cyber
punks.
This actually tallies with frame drop complaints which have been reported elsewhere.
The Flashback doesn't always seem to be able to keep up with the Mega Drive emulation in
a seamless fashion.
Most people won't notice this as it's programmed to simply skip frames rather than actually
slow down, but it may upset the hardcore enthusiast.
But suffice to say, we're only talking the odd couple of frames here, you're not going
to find yourself appearing somewhere entirely different on screen.
Let's move onto graphics.
Now this thing outputs at 720p, just like the SNES-Mini, but how does it compare to
the original hardware using it's RGB output?
Well, let's use Aladdin for this, mainly because it has nice jagged edges & plain backgrounds
which help to show up any artifacts, and as you can see, side by side, it's actually
pretty good.
Here we have the Mega Drive's RGB output upscaled to 720p and there's very little difference
between that and the Flashback.
What's important is the pixel FIDELITY and the Flashback is actually a bit crisper here,
putting out an image you'd expect to see from a typical emulator on your PC.
This seems an appropriate time to also point out that the Flashback is of course, region
free.
So no issues like I faced with the Fei Hao clone....
well apart from Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker, which again, refuses to load.
So you may find the odd game which remains stubborn and defiant.
So there we go, it's not overly bad.
In fact, my main gripe is the built quality of this thing, and the fact that it doesn't
feel like a quality product, and although that might sound like a silly thing to be
concerned about, it actually puts me off playing this thing.
If you take the SNES Mini, then booting it up each time is a pleasurable experience,
from start to finish.
It's something you want to remember, perhaps tell the grandkids.
Whereas turning on the Flashback is like a drunken horror story where you urinated on
a passing dog or something you just want to forget.
Alright, maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but here's another example;
Remember those 85 games mentioned on the box.
Well, they're not all Mega Drive Games, nor Master System or Game Gear games.
In fact, 19 of them are just random shovelware games which came from god knows where.
They're like Flash Games... maybe that's the real reason this is called the FLASH BACK.
Hey?
But seriously, it cheapens the experience.
I'd rather they left them off and charged us 5 quid less for the console, rather than
shoehorning them under the guise of "BONUS GAMES", or spent it on a guy from Fiver.com
to fix the interface controls.
But hey, it doesn't matter.
Overall, it's not as bad as I'd been led to believe.
You get more games than the SNES Mini, with the option to load further, for the same price.
On the downside the build quality is no where near as good, but this is just the route Sega
went down.
Quantity of quality.
It's a shame for us Sega fans, but at least we have an official product, in a sense.
Personally, I'm happy with the original hardware, or failing that emulation, but if you want
a shiny box on your shelf then don't be entirely put off.
Or just put a Raspberry Pi in a black box.
Job done.
Thanks for watching! :D