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I bought a Raspberry Pi a few years ago so I moved all of my original hardware into storage in the basement. Today I was checking to see what I have left for Sega and SNES. I came across my model 2 as well as a model 3 I totally forgot I snagged from my in-laws basement a few years ago. I don't think I've ever used a model 3. Is there really a big difference? The model 3 does feel cheaper but seems more mobile to travel with. I wanted to see if I had a 6-button controller while I wait for my wireless Retrobit one to arrive. I ended up finding a weird third-party 6-button controller(far right in image below) that also has an L and R button. I don't remember the MK-1653 having those buttons but then again I never did own one growing up. I hated hitting the Start button on the 3-button controller to switch between kicks and punches in Street Fighter. Grrr!!

Anyways this is my 8 and 16-bit hockey collection. One of the NHL 94 copies contains the instruction booklet while the 95 copy contains a booklet with the rosters and overall attributes. I thought I had 96 for SNES but I guess not. The weird controller is on the far right as well as the EA 4-way play. I've always wanted a copy of Mutant League Hockey but haven't been able to grab it for under $50. Plus, I've played it recently and the frame rate is awful. It's not what I remember growing up lol.

image.png 

For tournaments do people usually play on original hardware or modded original hardware(HD, Retrobit wireless controllers, etc).?

I'm curious about getting an Everdrive for Sega and SNES but I have the Pi so I don't know if it's worth it for me. Thoughts anyone?

 

 

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The Model 3 is an official clone console if that makes sense.  It was licensed by Sega, but produced by a 3rd party, and even had its own 6 button controller complete with autofire options.  It works with the 1st party 3/6 button controllers.  It lacks the ability to work with the add on consoles like the Sega CD, but is region free, meaning you play foreign carts with it.  It's very light and doesn't take up much space.  I have either 2 or 3 of them, and they work great for tournaments.  My major complaint is that due to their lack of weight, they are prone to moving.

I run the Edge of 94 Midwest annual tournament.  We use all 3 models of Genesis, with CRT displays, but use Analogue's Mega SG FPGA console for the main stream setup, which plays in glorious HD with no scaling lag.

I'm not aware of any relevant tournaments using emulators for local tournament play, but obviously that's how the community does online leagues and tournaments.

 

 

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@kidswasted

My thoughts on the Model 3 from last year, but the post is mostly about the Retro-Bit, USB repros. The Model-3 was made by Tectoy, a company from Brazil. They produced SEGA consoles in Brazil in the 90's and into the early 2000s'.

On 6/13/2019 at 12:02 AM, clockwise said:

Update:

The Saturn pads are the best pre-analog stick pads ever created, and I don't judge cheap knock-offs of this legend kindly. I've had a few over the years as well (humble brag).

  Reveal hidden contents

They Saturn pad is really good and hard to distinguish from the original. The d-pad isn't quite the same feel, but the Saturn d-pads are like a good pair of leather shoes: they wear better after being broken in. So, I'd have to play more to give a final verdict. Nice thing is you can swap parts with an original Saturn pad.

This Gen pad is far superior to the model-3 Gen pad and on par with other 6-button versions; Sega CD for example. 

EDIT:

Just want to clarify if there is a bit of confusion, I was referring to the Model-3 SEGA console, not a controller of some sort. It's the 6-button pad that came with this:

tNGKGQr.jpg

I had this system. It feels one of those balsa wood paper air planes we used to get at the hobby shop as a kid. Also, the cable is really short. Which was intended, because if it was any longer you'd try to hang yourself with it once you realize how bad the build quality actually is.

Some are a fan of the batwing Genesis pad, and I do respect it for just being iconic built like a tank, but I don't like it. Thankfully the repros from retro-bit are more than serviceable.

Good buy.

 

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I love my everdrive. It’s caused me to sell most of my game collection. One thing you’d notice playing on real hardware compared to a software emulation box (rPi) is input lag. This is extremely noticeable in platformers. Real hardware just performs much better. 
 

Everdrives can add up in price. My new special toy is a MiSTer. It’s $150 for the de10 board, and all the emulators (cores) for it are open source and free. It is an FPGA based solution (like the Analogue products) and instead of emulating with software like the rPi does (or any PC emulator), the cores emulate with hardware. It uses the FPGA and programs it to act like the real hardware. The results are great. There’s a lot of different cores (the usual consoles, and even better, arcade cores!). Check it out. Playing the arcade version of games like SF2 are great. And more cores are still in development.

one thing about everdrives, is they don’t have the special chips for some games (like super fx for star fox). So there are some games that are incompatible with it. 

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2 hours ago, chaos said:

one thing about everdrives, is they don’t have the special chips for some games (like super fx for star fox). So there are some games that are incompatible with it. 

Yeah. Was pretty disappointed to learn that I couldn't play Super Mario Kart. Not that big of a deal since there aren't that many games that use the DSP and Super FX chips.

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1 hour ago, clockwise said:

Yeah. Was pretty disappointed to learn that I couldn't play Super Mario Kart. Not that big of a deal since there aren't that many games that use the DSP and Super FX chips.

I think they have a beefed up snes ever drive that allows fx games to be played. Didn’t even think about Mario Kart. Probably my favorite MK of all time. 

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56 minutes ago, kidswasted said:

I think they have a beefed up snes ever drive that allows fx games to be played. Didn’t even think about Mario Kart. Probably my favorite MK of all time. 

Yeah they do. It's like, $200 bucks, though.

0t0c68u.png

 

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16 minutes ago, kidswasted said:

I think they have a beefed up snes ever drive that allows fx games to be played. Didn’t even think about Mario Kart. Probably my favorite MK of all time. 

Yeah Mario Kart uses the DSP chip. The Super Everdrives had a spot on the board where you can solder one on to. Mario Andretti's racing also has the DSP chip, and goes for like $5 on eBay, so you could take the chip out of there and put it in the Everdrive and can play games like Mario Kart.

I don't think theres a spot on the new versions to do that though.

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7 minutes ago, clockwise said:

Yeah they do. It's like, $200 bucks, though.

0t0c68u.png

 

The FXPAK Pro used to be called SD2SNES. You can prob find them on eBay for much cheaper now.

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