Saw newest at games sega genesis handheld it saves kind of?

[Tanooki]

I saw the newest, white unit with a 25th Sonic logo on the front. It has Phantasy Star 2 and 3 along with Sword of Vermillion, yet oddly no Sonic 3??

Question is I saw this at Target and I snuck a peek at the manual, PS2 alone has a note about time for the game to load the data which I thought odd. Also why no Sonic 3if they fixed saving and included 3 RPGs? Have any of you braved this to see if they did anything other than a halfassed coding bandaid to get those 3 games working but not say like Phantasy Star 4 and Sonic 3 on there and also not including Mega Man Wily Wars which they had on there in the past (which NEEDs the battery too.)

Curious what if any upgrades or repairs were done. Anyone here hae it maybe threw a SD card at it and found Sonic 3 working or some others perhaps? Finally made the audio suck a bit less?

If this actually will save anything Id buy it and go find a cheap SD card somewhere as this is far cheaper than tolerating the used Nomad market.

[nightrnr]

It probably just saves SRAM battery back up games.
I believe there are patches for Phantasy Star 4, Mega Man the Wily Wars, and Sonic 3 (maybe just for S3&Knuckles) to make the roms SRAM compatible, but the actual carts still won't save.
Still kind of neat, even if the sound is yucky.

[Tanooki]

Hmm I wish I had remembered that not all Genesis games use the same save format. Either some Chinese pirate caught half a brain and atgames aped the code or they decided to figure it out themselves or steal it from some public source emulator perhaps.

Whatever the case is, if this thing could handle all that Id like to know if they fixed anything else.

The other week I found the last year model of it at a flea market for under $20 complete in the box and had been considering keeping it for laughs. Maybe sell it since dumb people pay like $40 for them and this could be a fun research pet project.

[Tanooki]

I did some poking around and question throwing into the wind. It appears only those 3 games can save, nothing else if you threw another cart or ROM at it. But I was teased that something better maybe in the works next year under a new setup.

I think I will keep what I have as I prefer Streets of Rage 1-3 over those RPGS and their loss in the new unit now and see what shakes out later.

[nightrnr]

Weird...
That's progress, I guess? But if saving is now possible on these, you'd think they would run with that feature.
Some of my favorite Genesis games require saves.

Semi-reversal of topic:
I actually don't mind older games that use passwords (for problems similar to the AT systems). If it is simple enough (as in not complex information to store), just bypass the requirement altogether.
I don't have any Genesis examples, except for Road Rash and Castlevania.
--EDIT--
Ooh, and Gauntlet IV, although I do find the long passwords mildly annoying sometimes.

Do you have any links to talk about the limited save feature of this system, or of what better is coming?

[Tanooki]

I bumped into an offbeat site I never heard of before that reviewed it in better than usual detail, but lacked that part. I wrote the guy and I got a pretty fast email back saying that 2017 atgames has a new architecture design for the genesis coming that should resolve most/all peoples gripes with the current handheld and console due to the list of problems.

My guess they bought a license to a well working genesis emulator and theyll throw it on an ARM chip setup like the coleco, atari, and intellivision boxes use. If that is a good guess and correct Id buy a handheld of that instantly.

I guess brand new one for right now, that one has a special hack in place that jsut works for those 3 games which is a shame, but its better than nothing if youre really into those 3.

[nightrnr]

Interesting.

I actually am a fan of Phantasy Star II and Sword of Vermillion (eclectic and mediocre as it is). But I can already play those (legit) on other portables, (or the originals, but I don't bust out my wall tethered Nomad too often). Also am quite done with them for the next decade, I think (3 and 1 playthroughs respectively).

I was most tempted to pick up the portable that had Super Street Fighter II on it, as I can't think of another portable that has the nice 6-button layout. But I think I'll just hold off for another year for something better.

Definitely need the save option though.
Hey, so if you used a Mega Everdrive on this, could you just save state your way through games?
Oh wait, that's just the console version with the cart slot, huh.
I'm not even sure if it is compatible, or what it would do to battery life. Plus, it would seem a shame to waste the other SD slot.

Too bad there isn't a universal save patch for the games to work on this. Maybe there could be, but I doubt that it is prolific enough to capture the attentions of hackers able to make patches for other games.

But I am nothing if not patient...plus I have a PSP and DS for my portable emulation needs.

[Tanooki]

ATgames sells their own copier cart for their console version of the thing so I know it is likely the everdrive would work actually. I would not be surprised if someone threw a save state at it that it would stick because it is not trying to write to SRAM or EPROM doing that but saving a game snap shot to its card.