SEGA announces the Astro City Mini

[cave hermit]

I wonder if this thing can do tate...

[DMC]

I wonder if this thing can do tate...

or at least let us open the cabinet door at the bottom, see some wires hanging there along with a mini circuit board, and feel the smell of old arcade cabinets.

Is that too much to ask for?

[SuperDeadite]

Latest official trailer shows all the new games, and Gain Ground clearly has borders.

[cvaniafan]

The remaining 13 games should be revealed tomorrow during a Famitsu live stream...

[Hornet]

Crossing my fingers for Ninja Princess, Thunder Blade, Desert Breaker and Thunder Force AC.

I also wonder if there's any hope for Hyper Duel?

[Ghegs]

Final set of games released:

Alex Kidd with Stella: The Lost Stars
Arabian Fight
Flicky
My Hero
Puyo Puyo Tsu
Quartet 2
Rad Mobile
Scramble Spirits
Sega Ninja
Sonic Boom
Space Harrier
Stack Columns
Thunder Force AC

THREE Columns games in total in this thing? And two Puyo Puyo titles...the two Puzzle & Action...

Rad Mobile is a bit of a surprise.

Full line-up of all 36 games in alphabetical order:

Alex Kidd with Stella: The Lost Stars
Alien Storm
Alien Syndrome
Altered Beast
Arabian Fight
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
Columns II: The Voyage Through Time
Cotton
Crack Down
Cyber Police ESWAT
Dark Edge
Fantasy Zone
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden Axe
Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
My Hero
Puyo Puyo
Puyo Puyo Tsu
Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R
Puzzle & Action: Tant-R
Quartet 2
Rad Mobile
Scramble Spirits
Sega Ninja
Shadow Dancer
Shinobi
Sonic Boom
Space Harrier
Stack Columns
Thunder Force AC
Virtua Fighter
Wonder Boy
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Wonder Boy in Monster Land

[Marc]

I think I'm in just for Arabian Fight, Death Adder, and Rad Mobile to be honest.

[FinalBaton]

Alien Syndrome is one of those games where the console ports never did the arcade game justice.

I'm pretty stoked about :

Alien Syndrome
Cotton
Fantasy Zone
Gain Ground
Golden Axe : RODA
Quartet
Shadow Dancer
Shinobi
Space Harrier
Thunder Force AC
Virtua Fighter
Wonder Boy
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Wonder Boy in Monster Land

And trying out whacky shit. Like, Dark Edge is so motherfucking edgy, I don't think i can take all that edge


So the game selection has enough to get me buying this thing. The question is : how will it play? (on the machine and also how is the emulation and TV-out aspect ratios and scaling)

[Jeneki]

There was a Quartet 2? (looks around online) Sounds like this is a 2-player version of Quartet. Ah well.

[FinalBaton]

There was a Quartet 2? (looks around online) Sounds like this is a 2-player version of Quartet. Ah well.

Oh damn, I missed that. That's real cool actually, I really really want a version of Quartet arcade. added on my list

[TransatlanticFoe]

Oh neat, Scramble Spirits arcade. Don't think that's ever had a release before..... but I don't think anyone has really been asking for it. Decent game, the SMS port was the first video game I ever bought.

[cvaniafan]

I think I'm in just for Arabian Fight, Death Adder, and Rad Mobile to be honest.

Same here

[cvaniafan]

Shame on Sega to have not included Out Runners

[bigbadboaz]

Thunder Force AC as somebody was just hoping for is a pretty inspiring get.

Did anyone get a look at that arcade stick?!?

[Marc]

Shame on Sega to have not included Out Runners

I'm still hoping desperately for a Switch Ages port if nothing else.

[Ghegs]

Shame on Sega to have not included Out Runners

I'm still hoping desperately for a Switch Ages port if nothing else.

The Sega Ages line has been ended with Herzog Zwei as the last entry, unfortunately. [source]

[cvaniafan]

Thunder Force AC as somebody was just hoping for is a pretty inspiring get.

It was already in the Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 on Sega Saturn.
In the end, we have only 3 or 4 previously unseen games, the line up could have been so much more appealing... SEGA has been taking strange decisions for quite a while (the Game Gear Micro too... lol!)

Did anyone get a look at that arcade stick?!?

http://www.gameblog.fr/images/actu/news ... Stick.html

It's great quality stuff, this is also why the final line up is such a disappointment.

[Herr Schatten]

Oh neat, Scramble Spirits arcade. Don't think that's ever had a release before..... but I don't think anyone has really been asking for it. Decent game, the SMS port was the first video game I ever bought.

Strange port, that one. On one hand it's ambitious enough to meticulously recreate the levels, even including the scaling effect at the first boss, on the other hand it's technically so incompetent it's almost unplayable. That flicker is excessive.

[Marc]

Shame on Sega to have not included Out Runners

I'm still hoping desperately for a Switch Ages port if nothing else.

The Sega Ages line has been ended with Herzog Zwei as the last entry, unfortunately. [source]

Oh, that sucks. Though it does mention the possibility of more ports. God damn it Sega.

[bigbadboaz]

It's great quality stuff, this is also why the final line up is such a disappointment.

That's what I mean. Surprised a bunch of us aren't raving about the new Astro arcade stick.

Probably straight USB only, though, so that's a thing.

[Specineff]

Review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neTkeQ39Zvsn (Not mine, of course)

[BIL]

Oh neat, Scramble Spirits arcade. Don't think that's ever had a release before..... but I don't think anyone has really been asking for it. Decent game, the SMS port was the first video game I ever bought.

Strange port, that one. On one hand it's ambitious enough to meticulously recreate the levels, even including the scaling effect at the first boss, on the other hand it's technically so incompetent it's almost unplayable. That flicker is excessive.

OT, but this is something I regularly notice with Micronics' infamous FC/NES ports. Every Ikari rock and tree and bunker in its correct place, only the port performs like shit and plays worse. :/ Better devs tended to make tailored adaptations, even if it meant outright jettisoning stuff (Guevara's lovely in-house FC port, which wisely declined to jam a square LS-30 peg into a round dpad hole, and now feels like a worthy companion to the arcade Ikaris)

[Dochartaigh]

I haven't been following this much... but the 16:9 widescreen on the cab kinda kills it for me. Would not buy just because of that.

[Jonpachi]

Got my mini yesterday, and the controller today (just base controller, not the big arcade stick). Some initial impressions:

The good:

- Overall build quality for the cab is really nice. The joystick has a nice, short throw, with clean microswitch action that worked great in the games I've tested so far. The buttons are little clicky, but that's perhaps to be expected for their size. The screen is sharp, with nice color and no blurring. Emulation quality feels quite responsive, and the overall feel of the unit is really sturdy and well-made. You could play a game "for real" on just the base cabinet, so it's not just a gimmicky toy.

- The controller feels quite a lot like a Sega Saturn pad, with a very similar d-pad and nice-feeling face buttons. One minor complaint is that the d-pad is made of smooth, hard plastic, and lacks the texture a d-pad generally has. It's not slippery, but it does feel slightly alien at first.

The bad:

- There are basically no options. You can adjust menu language, brightness, volume, and turn on a CRT filter, but that's it. You cannot adjust anything within the games -- no DIPs, no screen options, nothing. Scramble Sprits and Sonic Boom both run in letterbox on the 4:3 screen, with no option for Tate.

- On my tv with HDMI out, the games are slightly zoomed in, so things like the score at the top of the screen in Cotton are cut off slightly. Not a huge problem, but another place where the lack of options hurts.

- Sound quality in some games seems to suffer. Scramble Spirits has muffled sound effects, which seem to be an artifact of the emulation process. This was not a widespread problem, as most of the games sound fine, but when it's bad it's pretty bad.

- It's not rechargeable or portable. I probably should have read the fine print, but I assumed it would be rechargeable. You'll have to keep it plugged in to play it.

[Ghegs]

- On my tv with HDMI out, the games are slightly zoomed in, so things like the score at the top of the screen in Cotton are cut off slightly. Not a huge problem, but another place where the lack of options hurts.

You sure that's just not a problem with your TV settings? I found this video where the camera's pointed at the TV and the image seems to be just right.

I'm still kind of tempted at this, and it's nice to hear that the system itself can be used for "seriously" playing the games and it's not just for decoration.

[Jonpachi]

Yeah, it was indeed my TV. I was able to correct it in the TV settings, so now it fits perfectly. It's a quality piece of kit for the price, so long as you can find something in the game selection to make it worth the price for you.

[Sengoku Strider]

Youtuber Sega Lord X just posted a pretty good review of it here, he's kinda iffy on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv1VjhGCUgo

[Jonpachi]

I'd say that's a pretty spot-on review. The biggest negative is the lack of options, and it really hurts the overall package more than anything else. Sonic Boom is a pretty fun shmup for its time, but it is tough to play in letterbox, and the compression of the image to make it work in that ratio leaves it looking pixellated as hell.

[Sengoku Strider]

I'd say that's a pretty spot-on review. The biggest negative is the lack of options, and it really hurts the overall package more than anything else. Sonic Boom is a pretty fun shmup for its time, but it is tough to play in letterbox, and the compression of the image to make it work in that ratio leaves it looking pixellated as hell.

I generally find his stuff pretty good. The guy's played just about everything and has perspective from being there for the 80s arcades, year 1 Genesis, year 1 import Saturn etc.