Hey guys i wanted to share this really cool little gadget with you in case there are any retro gamers or Sega Genesis fans on the forum. Iv been wanting to replace my my long lost Sega Genesis so the other day i was looking around the internet too see if i could find one for a good price. I found plenty of them, and they are fairly cheap between $50 and $60 for a complete system (system, controllers, hookups ect.) So i figured cool, ill buy a Genesis and start collecting Genesis games again. (i used to have a massive Genesis collection, over 100 Genesis games, plus i had the Sega CD and 32X addons with over 30 games for each, but like a dummy i sold it too a friend about 15 years ago, always regretted that!)

But anyway i found a Genesis and was going to buy one, but then i started looking up all the games i wanted to collect, and Genesis games have gotten expensive, i would have had to spend $100's of dollars to get most of my old games back so i could play them. And that bummed me out cause im not paying $50 to $100 for my favorite games. But then i came across this little gem of a system called

"Sega Genesis AtGames Arcade Ultimate Portable".


Its basically a hand held Sega Genesis, and this awesome little system was the answer.

It's about the size of a Sony PSP and the screen is the same size as a Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance. Its got a nice design to it, very nice and smooth D-pad and 6 buttons that are very smooth as well (no sticky buttons).. The screen quality is surprisingly good, very bright and colorful and clear, and the system is extremely light weight. And it uses a rechargeable battery. Now this thing as some really cool features.

1) it comes with 40 classic Sega Genesis games built right into the system (ill provide a list of them below) And it also comes with another 40 generic arcade style games (that you will probably never play)

2) It also has a AV out port on the top so you can hook it up to your TV and play it like a console. (AV chord sold separately for $7 at the manufacturers website)

3) This is the best feature of them all.. It has a SD-Card slot on the top. And you can download Sega Genesis ROMs off the internet, put them on the SD card, plug in the SD card and you can play all your ROMs on the system as well. This is what sold me on the system, I have a 4GB SD card for it, and have downloaded over 400 Genesis games for it. The majority of the games released in the USA. And a whole bunch of games that where only released in Japan and Europe. (yes its region free, so it can play any Genesis game from any country.) Also the ROMs have to be in .BIN format, to work. Which most you find will be. But they also come in .SMD, and .MD format, but you just change the extension to .BIN on the ROM file and usually they will work fine. Also iv tested maybe 100 games so far, and found a few that didn't work, but downloading a different version of the ROM usually fixed it. Although i still can't get the first Road Rash to work, but Road Rash 2 and 3 work fine.

The system itself isn't the actual Genesis hardware shrunk down to portable size, its just a little portable emulator basically.

Now before you get worried about the legality of playing ROMS on the system. The system is licensed by SEGA. Its not manufactured by them, its made by a company called ATGames, but its a fully licensed SEGA system..

Anyway this little system is really awesome, i got mine in the mail last night, and when i got home from work i threw some games on and could not put it down. The nostalgia factor alone was through the roof, but on top of that the games play perfectly, graphics looks great and the games play at the proper speeds. Then emulation is great. And i wanted to share this little thing with you guys in case there where any old school retro games or just plain Sega Genesis fans who might want to pick one up. They are very cheap at only $40 on Amazon.com. Then $5 for a SDcard, and an hour or two spent downloading games, and you can have yourself a portable little Sega Genesis with every game ever made for it on a single SD card.

Now the system does have a few downsides.

1) it only has one speaker built in, and a crappy one at that, so the sound quality is not great, and since its one speaker, its in mono not stereo. Its not horrible by any means, but it does sound a bit off when you play games through the systems single little speaker, you get a little more bass than playing on a real Genesis. Especially if you have the volume maxed out, you get alot of distortion in the sound, but keep it at about mid volume and its sounds like a normal Genesis again. But it has a headphone jack, and if you have a decent pair of headphones, then the sound is pretty much perfect.

2) It didn't come with the AV out chord. This isn't a major downside or anything, as you can buy the chord from the ATGames website for only $7. But since its so cheap anyway i see no reason why they couldn't have just included it in the box with the system. More of a personal annoyance than a actual downside against the system.

3) SD-Card compatibility is very picky. Only certain SD-Cards will actually work with the system, i did a little research on the internet though and found a certain SD-Card that is known to work perfectly, (which i will provide below) so its not a huge deal either.

4) No controller port. Again not a huge downside if you plan to do most of your gaming alone. But it would have been nice if they could have added a single controller port so when you hook the system up to your TV you and a friend could play some 2 player games. But i guess there just was not enough space on the system to fit one. It has a micro USB port on the top though (for the charger to plug in) and i read they are working on a plug in adapter that will have a controller port on it so you can. No release date on it yet though.

5) this is in my opinion the biggest flaw of the system, is you cannot save your game. Very few Genesis games even featured a battery backup save, mainly just some RPG's. As most Genesis games where either arcade style games that didnt even feature a progress save, or used a password system like most old school games. But the few RPG's that did have battery backup, (like the Phantasy Star series, Shining Force series, and Light Crusader) will not be able to save your game. So you would probably just want to skip downloading those. Although they will play on the system just fine, you just have to finish it in one sitting since you cant save.

6) Also not really a downside, as it is a "Genesis" not a "32X", but it won't play 32X ROMs. Again more of a personal annoyance for me, as most Genesis PC emulators will also play 32X games, so it would have been an easy feature to include..

Anyway that's it, thought id share this cool little gadget with you guys in case anyone might be interested in it. Here's all the links you need to get what you need to set this up.

System:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pr...00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Compatible SD-Card:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pr...00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

AV-Out Chord:
http://www.atgames.us/Accessories_c3.htm

There is also a Charger adapter too if you want to use your charge cable like a normal outlet plug in style. Instead of using the provided USB cable and using your computer to charge your system.

And here is a list of the 40 Genesis games that come built into the system:

Alex Kidd
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Arrow Flash
Bonanza Bros
Chakan
Columns
Columns III
Comix Zone
Crack Down
Decap Attack
Ecco
Ecco Jr
Ecco 2
ESWAT
Eternal Champions
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
Jewel Master
Kid Chameleon
Mean Bean Machine (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine)
Ristar
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
Shinobi III
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic Spinball
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog II
StreetsOfRage
StreetsOfRage 2
StreetsOfRage 3
The Ooze
Vectorman
Vectorman II
Virtua Fighter2

Anyhoo.. Happy gaming.

They also have a actual box console version of this system too, has the same built in games, but it comes with two wireless controllers, and it can use actual Genesis Carts. It has no SD-Card slot though, so no playing ROMs on it, you need the actual carts. I think the console version is $60..

[This message has been edited by Jonesy (edited 01-25-2015).]

Really good read!
Thanx!

One important question......Can you play with the AC adapter plugged in or does it only run on a charged battery? That would be the downside for me.

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: One important question......Can you play with the AC adapter plugged in or does it only run on a charged battery? That would be the downside for me.

Nah you can play with the charger plugged in, or not. Up to you. Mine came fully charged up out of the box, it basically uses a Cell Phone battery, and the manual says it takes 3 hours to fully charge it, and you get about 5 to 6 hours of gameplay on a full charge. But you can play with it plugged in if you want. I was last night for a couple hours cause i ran the battery down low, lol.. It has a light on top too, glows orange when its charging and when the battery is full it turns green. Turns red when your battery is low. You would probably want to invest in the outlet adapter for the charger so you can plug it into an outlet. The chord is only about 4ft long, unless you have a laptop or something you can plug it into. And apparently your PC does not have to be powered on for it to charge through USB. Cause i had my computer shut down last night and it still charged my Sega.

[This message has been edited by Jonesy (edited 01-25-2015).]

Thanks for creating this thread! This sounds very cool

This has me wondering if I still have my Sega Game Gear hanging around anywhere...

I have this machine as well, and while it is good, It isn't great. The buttons specifically, are really bad which cause some of the games which require more precise control to be nearly impossible to play. I also have an issue with mine where if the thing flexes the wrong way, it will cause the screen to go completely white, and have to reset the system, which is beyond annoying when you loose game progress. That could just be mine though.

The two major problems with this device are:
1. No save states or saving what so ever. While that may be fine for some games which never had saving in the first place, It is very annoying to have to start playing games over from the beginning everytime, which also kills all RPG's on the system.
2. The AtGames Firecore OS is very bad, and not user friendly whatsoever. It's not HORRIBLE, and it is functional, but barely.

All that being said, It is a fun device if you can get it for cheap. Also, the SD card slot is a huge plus, and roms are plentiful.

Now, because of all these issues with mine, I wanted to upgrade to something better. Luckily, there is something MUCH better out there. It is called the GCW Zero ( http://www.gcw-zero.com/ ). It is a linux-based open-source handheld console that can run just about every emulator from the advent of video games to the 64 Bit era (and it has saving!). The community is trying to perfect the N64 and Ps1 emulators, but everything before those runs fairly flawlessly.

Now, I haven't bought one for one sole reason. The price. The thing is $150 bucks, which is about $70 more than I am willing to pay. Especially when I can get a PSP or Android Tablet which does the same thing for way less.

[This message has been edited by BlackEmrald (edited 01-25-2015).]

quote Originally posted by Jonesy: 5) this is in my opinion the biggest flaw of the system, is you cannot save your game. Very few Genesis games even featured a battery backup save, mainly just some RPG's. As most Genesis games where either arcade style games that didnt even feature a progress save, or used a password system like most old school games. But the few RPG's that did have battery backup, (like the Phantasy Star series, Shining Force series, and Light Crusader) will not be able to save your game. So you would probably just want to skip downloading those. Although they will play on the system just fine, you just have to finish it in one sitting since you cant save.

This is the one thing I find that bugs me with these type of systems. One of my favorite Genesis games was Shinning Force and I also liked Shinning Force II. You aren't going to finish either of those games in one sitting. Luckily, I still have my Genesis and the cartridges so I can play it every now and then. However, I have tried several emulators for the SMS, NES, Genesis, SNES and old DOS games and all the ones I've found have that flaw of not being able to save your game. It kind of sucks because most all the games I enjoyed playing were long played adventure/tactics/maze type games.

I think that the NES one (nesticle?) allowed you to save state...

Practically every modern emulator on PC let's you save state.

quote Originally posted by BlackEmrald: Practically every modern emulator on PC let's you save state.

Then I'm going to have to look into getting some again. I haven't done it for quite a few years.

quote Originally posted by BlackEmrald: I have this machine as well, and while it is good, It isn't great. The buttons specifically, are really bad which cause some of the games which require more precise control to be nearly impossible to play. I also have an issue with mine where if the thing flexes the wrong way, it will cause the screen to go completely white, and have to reset the system, which is beyond annoying when you loose game progress. That could just be mine though. The two major problems with this device are: 1. No save states or saving what so ever. While that may be fine for some games which never had saving in the first place, It is very annoying to have to start playing games over from the beginning everytime, which also kills all RPG's on the system. 2. The AtGames Firecore OS is very bad, and not user friendly whatsoever. It's not HORRIBLE, and it is functional, but barely. All that being said, It is a fun device if you can get it for cheap. Also, the SD card slot is a huge plus, and roms are plentiful. Now, because of all these issues with mine, I wanted to upgrade to something better. Luckily, there is something MUCH better out there. It is called the GCW Zero ( http://www.gcw-zero.com/ ). It is a linux-based open-source handheld console that can run just about every emulator from the advent of video games to the 64 Bit era (and it has saving!). The community is trying to perfect the N64 and Ps1 emulators, but everything before those runs fairly flawlessly. Now, I haven't bought one for one sole reason. The price. The thing is $150 bucks, which is about $70 more than I am willing to pay. Especially when I can get a PSP or Android Tablet which does the same thing for way less.

With this can I play all my Zelda favorites?

I'd gladly pay the right person to set up a few decent emulators on one, with as many games as could shoved onto it. I need something decent to play. This is about perfect.

Brad

[This message has been edited by Fats (edited 01-25-2015).]

quote Originally posted by BlackEmrald: I have this machine as well, and while it is good, It isn't great. The buttons specifically, are really bad which cause some of the games which require more precise control to be nearly impossible to play. I also have an issue with mine where if the thing flexes the wrong way, it will cause the screen to go completely white, and have to reset the system, which is beyond annoying when you loose game progress. That could just be mine though. The two major problems with this device are: 1. No save states or saving what so ever. While that may be fine for some games which never had saving in the first place, It is very annoying to have to start playing games over from the beginning everytime, which also kills all RPG's on the system. 2. The AtGames Firecore OS is very bad, and not user friendly whatsoever. It's not HORRIBLE, and it is functional, but barely. All that being said, It is a fun device if you can get it for cheap. Also, the SD card slot is a huge plus, and roms are plentiful. Now, because of all these issues with mine, I wanted to upgrade to something better. Luckily, there is something MUCH better out there. It is called the GCW Zero ( http://www.gcw-zero.com/ ). It is a linux-based open-source handheld console that can run just about every emulator from the advent of video games to the 64 Bit era (and it has saving!). The community is trying to perfect the N64 and Ps1 emulators, but everything before those runs fairly flawlessly. Now, I haven't bought one for one sole reason. The price. The thing is $150 bucks, which is about $70 more than I am willing to pay. Especially when I can get a PSP or Android Tablet which does the same thing for way less.

You may have one of the older versions. From what iv read about the system it was released in 2012 and has had 3 revisions since then. Iv got the newest 2014 model, so there's a chance they have made some improvements. The buttons on mine are great, very responsive, and they don't stick. They are very close together and kinda at a sharp angle compared to most controllers, so its taken some getting used too, but they seem fine on mine. I agree the D-pad is a bit touchy though, not real bad, in most games i don't even notice and control is flawless. But when i play fighting games like Street Fighter 2, or Mortal Kombat, i find i have difficulty getting special moves off. But then again i used to have the same problem when playing those games on a real Genesis using a stock Genesis controller with its huge clunky D-pad.. So at least the replication of the Genesis experience is left intact! lmao..

I haven't had that flexing issue either with the screen going white. Might have gotten a unit with a slight defect. Or its possible you get really into your game and put a little too much pressure on the unit while playing lol.. I know iv been guilty of that before. lol.

And i agree the battery backup save feature that some games had not working really sucks. You would think it would be easy to do, especially using an SD-Card for save storage. Bums me out a bit as i would love to play some Shining Force, and i really would love to play through Light Crusader again.

I agree the Firecore OS isn't great.. I wouldn't say it isn't user friendly, as its simple to navigate and use, you just flip through the pages of games, and select one. But it is very basic and there is nothing special about it, but at least it does what it was designed to do in a simple easy to use manner. Although customizing it is not very user friendly, like if you want to add screen shots to appear next to the games you downloaded in the list is a pain having to basically wright a batch file for it.

That emulator console you shared looks pretty cool.. But yeah kinda expensive. I wish Nintendo hadn't patched out the ability for home-brew games on their OS for the 3DS.. I would love to put a SNES emulator on there since Nintendo won't release any freakin SNES games too the 3DS eShop. They do for the WiiU but not the 3DS. They claim that the 3DS isn't powerful enough to emulate SNES games properly, so that's why it only gets NES, and Gameboy and Gamegear games.. But Sega has ported lots of Genesis games to it, and in 3D too. Plus when home-brew software was possible on the 3DS there where a couple SNES emulators made for it, and the games ran perfectly. So Nintendo's claim that the 3DS can't handle it is crap.. No idea why they are holding out, id buy a ton of them if they would just put some out.

Oh well, There is a handheld SNES console just like the Genesis one we are talking about here.. Its called the "SupaBoy" i think.. I'll just get one of those, i have tons of SNES games anyway, and the Supaboy uses the SNES carts. No SD-card support though which kinda sucks, but i already have like over 70 SNES games in my collection.

[This message has been edited by Jonesy (edited 01-25-2015).]

quote Originally posted by Fats: With this can I play all my Zelda favorites? I'd gladly pay the right person to set up a few decent emulators on one, with as many games as could shoved onto it. I need something decent to play. This is about perfect. Brad

I certainly hope it can play Zelda!

Here is a list of systems currently supported, with PS1 and N64 nearing completion:

Game boy
Game boy color
Amiga 500
Game boy advance
Super Nintendo
X86
NES/ Famicom
Arcade machine
MSX
Genesis
32x
Sega CD
DOS
Master system
Game gear