The Mega Sg will play almost every classic 1990s Sega game
Sega's Genesis Flashback was kind of a flop -- so this company made a better one.
The Mega Sg
If history is written by the winners, then Sega almost certainly lost the 1990s-era console wars. The company stopped making hardware. It lent its Mascot out to Nintendo to star in Super Smash Bros. and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. It even seems to get less attention from retro gamers. There have been tons of modern retro game consoles designed to play Nintendo games, but relatively few designed exclusively for Sega's classic library.
That last part, at least, is about to change. Analogue, the company behind high-end NES and Super Nintendo retro consoles such as the Nt and Super Nt, just announced the Mega Sg. It's a $189 high-end retro console that plays Sega Master System and Genesis (Mega Drive) games.
So what, you might ask. Isn't there already a modern retro Sega console on the market? There is. But the Sega Genesis Flashback suffered from choppy frame rates and shoddy audio-visual output. Analogue promises an experience "free of compromises," in contrast. It's big talk, but the company has a strong history of delivering on it.
Like Analogue's previous throwback consoles, the Mega Sg doesn't so much emulate the original console hardware as simulate it on a custom field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. The end result is a console that promises to let you play almost any classic Sega game from its original cartridge on a modern display in full 1080p with perfect performance.
Players will be able to customize the visuals with a variety of scan-line options and visual filters, too. You'll even be able to use your old gamepad: The Mega Sg is compatible with original Genesis, Mega Drive and Master System controllers.
The Super Nt. vs the Mega Sg
The base console will support 16-bit Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges by default, as well as 8-bit Master System cartridges via an included adapter. Analogue also plans to add support for Game Gear games, Mark III games, Sega MyCard titles and more through adapters that will be sold after launch. Sega CD games are compatible too, but you'll have to have an original Sega CD unit handy.
The Mega Sg may be designed to be the ultimate Sega gaming console, but it doesn't come with everything you need to play. If you want a wireless controller, you'll need to buy the $25 8BitDo M30 gamepad separately. Want the console itself? It's available for preorder today, but won't ship until April 2019.
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