TATE Astro mini with Batrider, Batsugun, Outzone and more!

[Jonpachi]

Just got notice that my V from Play-Asia is shipping.

I fully understand some of the frustrations around these mini consoles, but this one feels like such a gift. Would I prefer M2 to be doing these games instead? Absolutely. Am I going to play Batrider and Batsugun until I wear this fucking this out? ABSOLUTELY.

[Bassa-Bassa]

A gift full of latency once again. I read elsewhere that Famitsu got their hands on one and the lag was noticeable through HDMI. If a journo can notice it, hmm...

[Jonpachi]

The lag police are onto me!

I'm not saying we shouldn't note these concerns, and rate the quality of emulation across releases, but I personally find these things completely playable. I was able to 1CC a ton of games on the TurboGrafx/PC Engine and Megadrive minis, and also found the first Astro City mini to be well within an acceptable level of latency.

Again, yes, let's note when things are amiss, but I think we've gotten a bit mired in this debate. The disciples of the Electric Underground are coming for the head of anything 5 frames or above, and it's getting repetitive.

[Jonpachi]

Also, wait, is THIS the quote you're referencing?

"The delay of the external output is something that can't be helped. I think that if you are a super-working person, you will probably feel it, but for me, it doesn't bother me at all. However, it's still a little different from the feeling when playing with an actual arcade cabinet."

I mean, ok. Order cancelled!

[Steven]

I keep forgetting this thing releases in 5 days...

Looks like I should amend what I said earlier, as the Famitsu review says that at least some games have multiple autofire rates. I'll figure out what's going on with autofire (and everything else, for that matter) when I get mine on Thursday.

Don't ask me about lag because I will likely be completely unable to detect it unless it's as bad as it is on that Shitty Connection Cotton abomination. Might be able to tell on Same! Same! Same!, though, so I'll try it.

[MintyTheCat]

Again, yes, let's note when things are amiss, but I think we've gotten a bit mired in this debate. The disciples of the Electric Underground are coming for the head of anything 5 frames or above, and it's getting repetitive.

I agree.

[Jonpachi]

Oh god, this clown's tier-list video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm8uydwfpls

If someone on this forum made this, delete your account, sell your shmups collection, and post a public apology as a follow-up video.

[DMC]

"Buttrider" sounds like the next Astro Port title.
At least he showed all the games, but some justification of why a game was trash or awesome would have been nice.

Is the wrestle game any good?

[Redfox]

LOL he sure hated Truxton "Straight in the Trash!" lol.

Time to get the tar and feathers out...

[Ice Beam]

Oh god, this clown's tier-list video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm8uydwfpls

If someone on this forum made this, delete your account, sell your shmups collection, and post a public apology as a follow-up video.

Not as controversial as I had imagined (which was all shooters being placed in poor or trash). I can understand someone not liking checkpoint systems.

[DMC]

Like ranking movies based on trailers. Not entirely inaccurate but quite unreliable.

Spoiler

Godfather.

This american crime film was released in 1972. A lot of the times, scenes are dark and difficult to see. And the music is pretty annoying. Godfather, with it's annoying soundtrack is a poor movie.

[Steven]

There is absolutely no way in hell that Batsugun is better than Out Zone, V-V, Batrider, or 2P Same!. 1P Same! maybe, but definitely not 2P.

[Sumez]

I'm getting serious credit feeder vibes from those takes. I also feel like it's intentionally trolling people, though.

[Steven]

I'm getting serious credit feeder vibes from those takes. I also feel like it's intentionally trolling people, though.

It does seem like trolling, at least a little bit, mostly due to the placement of Tatsujin at the very bottom. I don't know, I didn't watch it; I just clicked to the end to see the list. Seriously, why the hell does everything need to be in the form of a fucking video these days? Whatever happened to just writing your shit down and calling it good?

Anyway, of the games on this thing that I have played (about half of them), I do agree with Tatsujin Ou being one of the worst games on there, though; the game is poorly designed and everyone knows it. The graphics and music are absolutely incredible and I do enjoy playing the game because of those aspects, but I really wish they were attached to a better game. The game has some very nice aspects, so it's really too bad that the game has stupid shit like the items never resetting, pitifully weak/impractical weapons, poor stage design, weird difficulty spikes, the fact that sometimes you just can't fucking see anything (I honestly have way more visibility problems in Tatsujin Ou than I do with shit like Garegga or whatever), and the stage 3 boss that apparently everyone prefers to time out instead of actually fighting. Game's a mess for sure, but it's a damn beautiful mess, which is why I like playing it even though I don't actually like playing it, as weird as that sounds.

Tatsujin... I don't really play this game much because the music on MiSTer is still broken, but while I'm neutral on the game as a whole, it's definitely not a trash-tier game like Deep Blue or Action 52 or something. I really don't like it when enemies suddenly appear behind you without warning and ram into you, so I don't really enjoy Tatsujin that much. Maybe I'll like it more when I play it more, so hopefully either the music on MiSTer gets fixed or M2 releases it soon.

[Buffi]

Tatsujin might not be trash but its absolutely miserable to play.

[Sumez]

I have a lot of issues with Tatsujin, but it's a super fun game that's hard to put down regardless.

[Jeneki]

Seriously, why the hell does everything need to be in the form of a fucking video these days?

Because modern youtube is all about monetization, and videos made to stir the pot (lots of comments, likes/dislikes (both are good), and external linking) work the algorithm in a favorable way. When you reward crap, you get crap.

[lovecraft]

When you reward crap, you get crap.

ditto

[cawley1]

While I have not had shipping confirmation, the money for both the Astro City V and what I am guessing is the stand/stool set has been taken from my account today by Amazon Japan.

Still looking forward to receiving this, hopefully lag is not too bad on the system itself - I have been playing lots of Mame on an Odin Pro I was lucky enough to get sent a few months back, so that's definitely taken the shine off wanting some of the games on this in an easily accessable way.

[Jonpachi]

Play-Asia took my money too, but have yet to ship the thing. I have a 3 day weekend coming up, and was hoping to dig in... Has anyone actually gotten a shipping confirmation yet?

[Steven]

I literally just got mine in the mail. Unfortunately, I have to go to work now. Sadness.

[Ghegs]

I got my shipping confirmation today from Amazon.jp, with an expected delivery date in two weeks, which feels like a really long delivery time for Amazon - I think when I ordered the original Astro City Mini and Egret II Mini from them, I had it in like three or four days. Hopefully it's just a really safe estimation and I'll get it quicker.

[Steven]

I got my shipping confirmation today from Amazon.jp, with an expected delivery date in two weeks, which feels like a really long delivery time for Amazon - I think when I ordered the original Astro City Mini and Egret II Mini from them, I had it in like three or four days. Hopefully it's just a really safe estimation and I'll get it quicker.

They tend to overestimate; I once ordered something from them with regular shipping and it told me it would be 3~7 days. I had it in my hands about 16 hours later.

[Ghegs]

Heh, yeah - 10 minutes after writing that post I get a text message from DHL saying I have a delivery from Amazon coming next Tuesday.

[Steven]

lol that's what I'm talking about! Amazon Japan absolutely does not fuck around with getting people their shit.

[cawley1]

My Amazon shipping confirmations for both Astro City and the stand set have now come through - I am in the UK and DHL is estimating Tuesday, which means more likely Sunday or Monday based on past experience.

[Steven]

Good news: Se~ga~ when powering it on
seems integer scaled when screen is rotated (but I don't have a display that I can rotate, so I'm still fucked)
Japanese and English
Tatsujin Ou stereo sound works!!!!!!
the build quality of the thing itself is identical to the previous one
you can start on 2P side on the system itself by holding D as you launch the game or with a controller plugged into controller port 2 when playing on your connected display (no need to hold D for this)
Mega Drive Mini controller works, but having everything on the XYZ buttons is super awkward

Bad news: everything else, but of note is:
Same! Same! Same! is actually the 1P version
sound emulation is at least partially fucked; play Same! and put a coin in and listen to how shitty it sounds
no other language options if you don't know Japanese or English
no options to change autofire rates or buttons; the assigned rates and buttons are what you get
you need a second controller to hit the 2P start button, so no Dogyuun ship fusion if you play on the unit itself without a controller attached
absolute worst scanline filters I've ever seen
no integer scaling unless you rotate the screen and the artifacts from improper scaling are way more obvious than on the previous Astro City Mini
the background isn't black, it's grey (whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy)
the volume when used on an external display is REALLY FUCKING LOUD, so be sure to turn your volume down first if you want to play it that way
no Batsugun Special (to be fair, they never said this would be on here, but it's mildly disappointing that it isn't in the game's options menu like Tatsujin Ou's stereo sound)
Retro-Bit 2.4GHz controllers do not work

So yeah, I expected to be disappointed and this is more disappointing than I expected. Lag isn't too bad, though the only games I can really tell on are Tatsujin Ou and Same!. It seems to default to Tatsujin Ou when I power cycle it. It's like it knows exactly what I am most excited for.

[Ghegs]

Honestly, those negatives don't sound too bad, at least not to me personally. I never use scanlines, and I'm not picky about sound emulation. As long as the games play well, and the input lag is the same (or better) than in the original Astro City Mini, that's good enough for me. But we'll see what I think once I get my own unit.

[Tarma]

Got my DHL notification first thing this morning, should be with me Tuesday as well.

Thanks for the run-down so far Steven, appreciated

Disappointing to hear about the scanlines - they were bloody awful on the first Astro Mini, so I was really hoping they'd fix that for this release. I mean, very few retro offerings deliver truly bad scanline filters nowadays - just look at Shottriggers and Hamster's ACA - but it seems that Sega want to be the exception.

I don't mind the picture with no filter, but it would look so much better with a decent filter.

Maybe someone can come up with a patch?

[lovecraft]

Disappointing to hear about the scanlines - they were bloody awful on the first Astro Mini, so I was really hoping they'd fix that for this release. I mean, very few retro offerings deliver truly bad scanline filters nowadays - just look at Shottriggers and Hamster's ACA - but it seems that Sega want to be the exception.

I second that. Even the old SNES Mini offers a decent scanlines option; while the MVSX delivers an excellent image with the Scanlines filter ON... Why is it so bad on the Astro City Mini ?