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

[m.sniffles.esq]

For those who are curious on this thread, the Egret Mini blows the Astro City (regular and V) out of the water in every respect in the hardware department. The size is so much better, the controls are so much better, and they did a really neat thing with the screen where they added a lens that simulates a curved CRT that makes it look so good. The rotation mechanic also works super well. I'm hoping these become general purpose gaming machines at some point, but until then the difference is down to the hardware. The Egret slaughters the Sega machine in every respect sans the game list. I doubt I'll see much use out of either Astro City going forward, but the Egret makes me want to play it.

ARrrGgggGHhh!!

But...
They're charging $80 to ship to the US

[BrianC]

Damn I would love Outzone on the Egret as well! MegaDrive Mini pads also work on Egret, that’s cool!

Do the Astro City Mini pads work on it ? Just curious.

Astro City Mini pads and the Mayflash sticks both work on the Egret II mini (have to use the button on the mini cab for menus, though). F300 Elite has to be on Dinput setting at start up to work. Too bad it's not the other way around (Egret II stuff on Astro City Mini) too since the Egret II stick is pretty cool and supports 4/8 way without opening the stick up. Egret II Mini stick works great with PC and MiSTer, though.

Edit: For some odd reason, the F500 controller settings aren't consistent with the F300 settings. F500 Elite needs to be on console mode (the gamepad icon) to work. Not sure why it's different, but it does work.

[m.sniffles.esq]

So... Going back to the Astro Mini, has anyone had an issue with it crashing??

I just ran into a thing with Gunbird. I was playing as the old man, and while exiting the stage 1 boss dialog, the screen turned solidly gray and everything locked up including the power switch. I had to unplug and plug back in to reset. Upon it coming back on, I chose Gunbird again, selected the Old Man, and this time as soon as the game started, it again locked up with the same gray screen.

The third time, I chose Gunbird, played the old man, and burned through two credits without incident.

Could someone do me a favor when they get a chance and just play a couple credits of Gunbird with the old guy? I want to see if the issue is universally repeatable or just something wonking out with my unit. tia!

[lovecraft]

Astro City Mini pads and the Mayflash sticks both work on the Egret II mini (have to use the button on the mini cab for menus, though).

I received my Egret II Mini blue buttons edition, and indeed the Astro Mini pads work flawlessly on it !

I agree with what was said above: from a hardware and comfort quality point of view, the Egret is the best Mini, it's a gem ! But nothing can beat the amazing games list offered by the Astro City V and it plays great too.
Both are fantastic and offer so much fun. If you have the cash, my advice is 'buy both of them!', you won't be disappointed

It would be nice if Taito released a base for the Egret Mini like SEGA did for the Astro Mini's, but alas I'm not sure the sales of the Egret II Mini lived up to the expectations ? Does anyone have any info about it ?

[Ghegs]

I moved the few posts about Egret II Mini to that device's own thread.

[Jonpachi]

So... Going back to the Astro Mini, has anyone had an issue with it crashing??

I just ran into a thing with Gunbird. I was playing as the old man, and while exiting the stage 1 boss dialog, the screen turned solidly gray and everything locked up including the power switch. I had to unplug and plug back in to reset. Upon it coming back on, I chose Gunbird again, selected the Old Man, and this time as soon as the game started, it again locked up with the same gray screen.

The third time, I chose Gunbird, played the old man, and burned through two credits without incident.

Could someone do me a favor when they get a chance and just play a couple credits of Gunbird with the old guy? I want to see if the issue is universally repeatable or just something wonking out with my unit. tia!

I played a few credits with the old guy. Tried just playing a game, using up a few extra credits, letting it go back to the title screen, and then started up another game. No crashes. Could just be some random thing you stumbled onto. Has it happened again since this post?

[m.sniffles.esq]

Has it happened again since this post?

I just got done playing a few credits with him and a few other characters, and everything seems a-okay.
Although, during all the unplugging and replugging because of the crashes, I did notice the usb power cable I'm using fits very snugly into the unit. Because of this, it's very easy to have it 'half in/half out'. And since the unit is so light and easy to move around while playing, my current hypothesis is that I may of been cutting the power just for a millisecond.

If it happens again while I'm certain the cable is fully inserted I'll go back to the drawing board. But for now, I'll just run with that hypothesis.

Thank you for giving it a gander.

[Ghegs]

Savestated my way through V-V just to get a better feel for the game overall. The difficulty takes quite a jump at stage 3, which is a peculiar stage on its own because the first half feels like an easy bonus stage. Despite the game having a minor case of Gradius syndrome, it's not that bad since it's quite generous with the power-ups. Having Shot usable as both focused fire and spreadshot is really fun, though I'm not sure if focused Shot has better DPS than focused Missile. I did the whole thing with Shot, but I can see some spots where Missile's different behavior might make things easier.

[OmegaFlareX]

In the superplays I've seen, you need missiles for scoring. You can get a lot of points off of the bonus-spewing invincible zakos in stage... 3? Especially on the 2nd loop, where they spit out 10k panels.

It seemed like lining up all the missile pods was pretty good DPS, but I don't have enough experience with the game myself to compare it to the fully-focused Shot.

[Bear78]

Limited Run is going to have some of these along with an exclusive extra game for it (Super Zaxxon)

https://twitter.com/LimitedRunJosh/stat ... lmlL5pT_8w

[BEAMLORD]

For any UK people interested, I've just seen the Astro Mini V up on Amazon UK for pre-order for February 2023, for £229. I'm not sure of its original price-point when it released in Japan, but that seems like a spicy meatball

[Martinov]

Including postage and handling fees, it comes out a shade under £150 on Amazon Jp.

[arcade-stg]

I got the European model from Amazon:

https://youtu.be/LeQrtnKzZ7I