Soon You'll Be Able To Play Classic Sega Games In HD

Retro consoles are an in-thing right now. A lot of people love rekindling the classics that make up for a large part of their nostalgia when it comes to interactive entertainment. Sega has had several retro consoles make their way onto the market, but the latest attempt will allow you to play classic games in HD come April, 2019.

Over on the Analogue website, it explains how the game set out to bring the classic games from the 16-bit era in for a full HD experience in today's generation of gaming. The pitch for the console is that Analogue has teamed up with Sega to offer a true 1:1 gaming experience on the home console that allows for gamers to use classic Genesis, Mega Drive, and Master System cartridges in the new system. The hook is that Analogue has bypassed emulation and any sort of latency or performance issues that can sometimes crop up with emulation.

The device also supports the ability to connect to the Sega-CD and upscale the games to run at full HD in 1080 progressive scan format. The Mega SG unit utilizes what's described as an advanced HD upscaler for lossless performance when running the games, and lagless video output.

This is supposed to be a fix over the previous Sega Genesis Flashback systems from ATGames, which have been criticized for a number of issues. These include the fact that the standard 85 games that have been advertised to be bundled into the package are oftentimes composed of a lot of homebrew software, or that the output isn't that great at 720p, and that navigating the menus is always a pain.

Sega decided to partner with Analogue this time around for the retro console following a string of complaints from critics and gamers alike. The new console will still use the traditional 2.5Ghz wireless controllers, but this time the controllers are being provided by 8BitDo, which features six face buttons, left and right bumpers, a digital pad, and three system buttons, in addition to a big blue start button. The wireless controllers will be sold separately and will come with a wireless adapter.

Like many other retro consoles, you'll be able to play classic games like Gunstar Heroes and Sonic The Hedgehog with new-school video filters, including multiple resolution options, scanline options, scalers, and HD sprite filters. The sound is also fine-tuned at 48KHz with 16-bit stereo output.

Also, unlike the NES and SNES Classic Editions where Nintendo gave each region their own specified livery, Analogue will allow gamers to choose from four different colors based on the different regions that the Sega consoles released in, including the U.S.A. livery, E.U. and Japanese liveries, and a special white livery, which is probably more reminiscent of the Saturn or Dreamcast.

You'll be able to use the various 1990 era Sega add-on devices with the Mega SG unit, including the Sega CD add-on, the Mega CD add-on, and the Game Genie for the Genesis.

There are definitely some things done right with the system, but having to pay extra for all the add-ons and wireless controllers might turn some gamers off. We'll see how well it does when it finally ships next year, in April of 2019.