DF Retro: Analogue Mega Sg Review: The Ultimate Genesis/ Mega Drive Clone?

[@MikePavone]

Hi, author of BlastEm here. I can explain the glitch in the Road Rash bike menu at 31:39 as I fixed the exact same bug in BlastEm a few months ago. This is not caused by CRAM dots, but instead by an accidental mid-screen update of the name table (i.e. the table in VRAM that tells the VDP which tiles to draw for a background plane). VRAM is only byte-wide, but name table entries are 16-bits in size so only half of the nametable entry gets updated at time and these updates are somewhat spaced out during active display as VRAM is pretty busy with reads during that time. If you apply the high byte of the word first, you get the glitch seen in the video, but on hardware the low byte is written first and the mid-screen update is imperceptible unless you step through the individual frames.

[@Deanster101]

Mike Pavone yup exactly what I thought.

[@Kangorrilla]

I was just gonna say this.

[@theharvardyard2356]

Thanks for the insight! BlastEm is amazing.

[@Jucelegario]

To anyone reading this: Is there a bluetooth receiver to connect an Xbox One controller from 2016 with bluetooth to a real Genesis and or another one for a real Super Nintendo? Yes, I know it sounds crazy stupid but still...it would be awesome the controller could be recognized as a generic controller.

[@undercoverweeb]

J.C. L. 8bitdo makes a bluetooth adapter for the genesis and mega drive. if it's a an X controller that's actually bluetooth and not their original version then it should in theory work

[@philscomputerlab]

Fantastic review! You covered so much in-depth details.

[@Jucelegario]

Is there a bluetooth receiver to connect an Xbox One controller from 2016 with bluetooth to a real Genesis and or another one for a real Super Nintendo? Yes, I know it sounds crazy stupid but still...it would be awesome the controller could be recognized as a generic controller.

[@roycejohnny9541]

Instablaster...

[@cormano.]

Yeah! Maybe John wasn't the first reviewing the SG, but he made the best one. I only missed a latency/lag test.

[@thanksbetotap]

There’s zero added latency with the Analogue consoles, in case anyone was still wondering.

[@vaugna1620]

"It was the first system to challenge Nintendo and it's not hard to see why" *camera pans over Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!* I see John is a man of taste

[@quatjohn4375]

Well... it took 30 years but we've finally developed the technology to create a Sega Genesis

[@codydfwn]

Exactly. Ironic, isn't it? Lol.

[@Cotivity]

It took humanity this long to catch up to "blast processing"...

[@demons12]

The amount of detail in these videos always blows my mind. Amazing work John!

[@mindprison88]

John, you are nothing short of a beast! A video over 40 minutes long? Well done for all of your effort!

[@Voultar]

The best Mega SG review on KZbin, bar none.

[@themblan]

Blast Processing also referred to Sonic 2's scrolling-speed, in which the developers sped up the scrolling-speed by suspending the animations of enemy-sprites.

[@loganderbin3495]

Thanks so much for the detailed audio comparisons! The ladder effect bit in particular, other Mega Sg videos just kinda glossed over it and I had no idea what it was

[@Astfgl]

Great video! Concerning Maui Mallard: if you enter Game Genie code EAAT-BL1T (which you can do with the Mega Sg) you can bypass the region lock and start up the game in 60 Hz. It works perfectly that way and plays beautifully.

[@Meisuko]

These DF retro videos have such great production quality.

[@DriveCancelDC]

and usually without Alex's pretentious voiceovers

[@alexanderbattaglia6048]

@@DriveCancelDC usually _>

[@wingman-1977]

Meisuko It would be better without his gargoyle face face being shown.

[@kevineleven131]

Not sure if you guys read the comments but I wanted to let you know that these DF retros are the highlight of my Sunday after my 10 hour shift. Takes the edge off reaaaalll nice. Thanks guys!

[@dashe_8989]

Excellent video, I love when John does these RetroDF videos, his passion and painstaking attention to detail shines through.

[@Yesterzine]

Just watched this and the Super NT one, it's good to see a problem teardown of exactly why these matter and you're showing everything we need to know.

[@drspod]

Another fascinating and remarkably thorough DF Retro episode. Thanks John! These videos really are a treat.

[@DamedaZenZenDameda]

That intro! Got me so hyped! Good work John!

[@Jucelegario]

This is the product GIGANTIC corporations like Sega, Nintendo and Sony should have come up with. And being them the originals, it should have been at 4k. Don't be so cucked to say "emulation is to reduce costs", remember the target audience can pay more because its for 35 year olds + and we can already emulate from our devices and computers.

[@KyoshoLP]

Did you intentionally wear a shirt that features dithering? :P

[@HAZARDOUS88]

Hahaha

[@samghost13]

Your screen maybe suck's ? I only see some nice Pixel Perfect Scanlines. "SEGA!!!"

[@retrosoul8770]

As an avid MD/Genesis fan, I knew every game except for one that you displayed, Battle Mania 2, Thunder Force 3&4, Musha, Alien Soldier, Pulseman, Dynamite Headdy, Ranger X etc all system greats but for those who don't know and/or want to learn maybe you can put the titles in a corner or display page like how you do with the music? Thank you for the coverage Jon, you give the system its proper justice that it deserves without needless bias unlike many others. This is an easy buy for me.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Oh wow, that demo is honestly insane. I’m amazed anyone even went and coded that, that’s mental.

[@j0nnyism]

Yep if he went back in time and sent that off to sega in say 1992 that’d be a guaranteed job offer!

[@DenkyManner]

The sound section is so in-depth I wouldn't be surprised if future firmware takes these settings into account.

[@PookaBot]

Gawd the Thunder Force III soundtrack is amazing

[@SarahLJP]

31:33 まじかるハットのぶっとびターボ！大冒険 (majikaru hatto no buttobi tābo! daibōken) Magical Hat's Turbo Flight! Great Adventure. It was reworked for the west into what would become DeCap Attack. I recently bought a copy off eBay.

[@vuetoob3983]

Finally.....what I have been waiting for after Game Sack and My Life in Gaming dropped their video.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

By the way Jon, if you are running a game made for 50Hz PAL systems, like Maui Mallard, it won’t be running slow, it will be designed around that speed. That’ll be why certain effects break, because it was intended to run at 50Hz. It’s like running Titan Overdrive without cycle accuracy, the speed isn’t right, so the per-scanline effects glitch.

[@PATR01T]

I'm new to DF you guys are my favorite for all the questions I would have to ask plus your production values are great! Thank you all

[@SmokeMonster]

Really great video. I've been waiting for this one :D

[@adamyo9003]

What a fantastic review of an incredible system. I received mine a few days ago, and while obviously I haven’t tested it as thoroughly as you or MLiG, I’ve been fully enjoying the system. Thanks for this in-depth review.

[@jpviegas]

I was waiting for this review for the most in depth view of this console and DF didn't disappoint

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I had an idea about dither blending, perhaps the Mega SG could be modified to detect when dither patterns are drawn by a game, memorise which pixels are dithered, and blend them all, avoiding the weird edge artefacts. Rather than just scanning for patterns it thinks are dithered.

[@pachinkor83]

Nice and in depth, just the way I like it. Good stuff John! sounds like there's only a handful of quirks left to work out and this thing will basically be perfect. I've already ordered one myself :D

[@Xpert74]

Nice review; this console looks very impressive! It's always nice to see another in-depth DF Retro episode :3

[@sameold23]

I’ve always wanted to go back and play Aladdin because I never knew how to beat Jafar at the end. I also want to play Lotus Turbo Racing, Outrun 2019, X-Men 2 Clone Wars, Batman and Robin, Tiny Toons, etc

[@JizzburnGigaqueer]

Thank you so much for including a music selection! So many godlike tunes in this ep~

[@chrishowson2031]

Noooo! Can't play Fred Couples 36 holes?! My heart is broken... Another amazing vid John, a great companion to the Super Nt, love the infomation here, totally worth the wait for your look at the Sg and can't wait until I can pick one up for myself to sit next to my Nt, thank you!!

[@mechanizedattack5100]

Thanks for mentioning the MiSter project. I believe it is a real alternative to MegaSG for those wanting the "accuracy" of fpga, but don't have/want to use cartridges.

[@Horos_de_Vega]

Magnifique!!! I have been waiting for this review and I have not been disappointed. Thanks!!

[@TechRyze]

One of my favourite things about the Mega Drive is that I'm constantly reminded that I only ever played a relatively small sample of its library during the 1st half of the 90s. Videos like this show me the gems that I completely missed, that Sega are useless at highlighting. They just re-release Altered Beast and Sonic over and over. I have a fully loaded Ever Drive, and I'm definitely going to load up Batman & Robin to check that out. Come to think of it, I also need to play the Mega CD version of that game as well. Can't wait. I'm really looking forward to getting one of these, and pairing it with the 8bitdo controller that I've already bought, and with my EverDrive. Nice. Perfect for HDMI displays.

[@paulunga]

As someone who had a Model 2 as a kid I'm not nearly as attached to absolutely perfect sound emulation as some of the Mega Drive community seems to be, especially since there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But I appreciate the options and actually think there's something to the "cleaner" low pass filter disabled sound. Also, holy heck, does Maui Mallard feautre a lot of dithering. Sure didn't look like that on my blurry 15" CRT.

[@OldsXCool]

23:26 Come on John, I expected more from you. You left no stone unturned when it came to the Mega SG but you don't know that Kega Fusion has a low pass filter sound option? It's in the sound menu and is simply called "filter".

[@ribenasquash]

All hail Steve Snake. Lej

[@GeminiJay654]

Great work as always, John! Shame about 36 Great Holes starring Fred Couples though..

[@Teremei]

Thanks John. When I get one I will use your settings to more closely mimic the original soundcard.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I actually quite like dithering. It’s nostalgic to me as I grew up (in the 2000’s) spending a lot of time drawing picture in MS Paint on a crappy Windows 2000 laptop, which was running 98 for whatever reason, I got it from my Nan who had kinda buggered it and after a few days my dad and both my uncles were able to fix it for me. It was only capable of about 256 colours, and it lacked a lot of ones I wanted like brown, orange, and purple. So the program automatically dithered the colours to make these, and I’d do my own dithering to create more shades. I found it fun, and I remember being kind of disappointed when my dad updated it to a more modern version of Windows, I think it was XP, but it still looked like my copy of 98 since dad set it up using the basic UI and I didn’t know how to change it, because I no longer had to dither and could use more colours. I also just quite like the way it looks, so I like dither effects in Mega Drive games. Of course, there’s a limit to this, in some games it goes too far, but stuff like pseudo-transparent effects and extra shading sometimes look really cool to me. Mega CD video is far, far too dithered though Jesus Christ.

[@shouryuuken4147]

2:09 I love how Greendog is becoming sort of a meme.

[@SylverstoneKhandr]

I had to go back and see if it was actually Greendog. 😂

[@Drinkabeerandplayagameofficial]

The demos really set this review apart, great work

[@garaschneider4808]

Kega Fusion DOES have filtering options in its sound options. It's required for certain games like Comix Zone, which in that case is supposed to simulate the sound of a hi hat in some of its tracks. If you leave the "Filter" and "Super HQ" options off, you get that irritating beep in certain songs (much like in Sega's own Sega Genesis collection on modern consoles, which is pretty pathetic. Guess M2 wasn't available to help out).

[@fafling]

Yes, with "Filter" and "Super HQ" options enabled, Fusion sounds very close to the original hardware.

[@sidebar254]

As a gamer with a hearing disability, you had my complete attention. I prefer the warmth of the Model 1 VA2 sound but CANNOT hear the comparison tone at 20:57 ( It's like someone didn't insert the tone audio to the vid). I assumed a stream of 1s and 0s would've produced the same result in the case of emulating this sound chip, but lesson learned!

[@JetWolfEX]

I can barely hear it, my hearing isn't great either.

[@amilyester]

Incredible coincidence with the Genesis/Mega Drive Mini announcement, or DF is incredibly quick to produce content, or John is a psychic? All 3?

[@gamerxt333]

the Sega mini was known about ages ago (when at games was making it for example)

[@RetroTechSelect]

Great video, John! I expect meticulous work from DF Retro and this video does not disappoint. I give you guys a quick shout out in my own review :)

[@pferreira1983]

Best review I've seen of the Mega SG. Great video John!

[@MonochromeWench]

Even though I have a working model 2 Mega drive that i've modded in a number of ways, region switching, overclocking switch, mega amp with selectable low pass filter a basic jailbars fix, this is appealing to me

[@AlyxxTheRat]

The ladder effect seems basically like vinyl crackle to me. It's dirty and adds some texture to the sound.

[@MrMario2011]

That AtGames console stacked up against the Mega Sg sounds like an absolute trainwreck.

[@Winnetou64]

Phenomenal review and explanation, John! ❤

[@fcukugimmeausername]

24:00 Screen Space Reflections way back in 90's. God damn amazing.

[@sahasrahla7]

Great video, as usual! Was hoping for a comparison with the Sega AGES version of Sonic or Thunder Force IV. Perhaps you get around to it with SEGA's new mini console then?

[@PalmDesertRock]

You know the machine is gonna be good if the manufacturer has the confidence to send it to DF for testing purposes.

[@skins4thewin]

Fantastic video by the way! Probably the best video yet as far as showing off just how accurate the system is. I have noticed a few graphical and audio bugs here and there. The biggest graphical glitch I have found is when playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2. There is a small row of glitched graphics along the bottom of the screen that spans the entire bottom and this is not present on original hardware. Also, FM sound seems to sound "off" compared to an original Master System with Tim's FM mod. Perhaps these things can be fixed with a future firmware update.

[@gc3k]

What a great episode that really explains in depth why certain emulators and clones just don't cut it for playing Genesis classics accurately and fairly, it's been frustrating reading/watching/explaining the subject to retro gamers who don't care about quality. I'll pick up the Mega SG for sure. It'll be interesting to see how Sega's in-house Genesis clone stacks up, even with M2 doing the emulation. And nice oldies playlist btw.

[@dudacy]

68000 views and counting!... I was waiting for the DF review for the Mega SG! Spectacular work. Definitively worth the 190 bucks charged for it. The only machines par to it in terms of image and sound, as I understood, are Genesis "HD Graphics" models.

[@penyuwan]

I still have about 12 cartridges of my Mega System, can't wait to try it out.

[@wsdevelopmentbackupaccount7339]

Thanks for an epic review! Ordered one yesterday!! 🤘🏼

[@samghost13]

My Old Mega Drive don't run very well anymore so i am really up to getting something to run my old games. The Mega Drive is and was a cool game system! Thank you for showing us some nice retro gaming. "SEGA!!!"

[@emmettturner9452]

36:46 Why would “Zero Delay” (60hz) mode introduce “a tiny bit of latency?” The entire point is to eliminate the buffer and associated latency. The only latency introduced beyond the unavoidable latency of transmitting the frame should be the latency of your display’s internal processing/scaling, which has nothing to do with the Zero Delay setting.

[@TheRedRaven_]

Which reminds me, Gunstar Hero’s was and still is a masterpiece. That music aged so well for 16 bit.

[@shatted9]

Thanks for another entertaining and informative video, John. It breaks my heart that I sold my Genesis/32X/SegaCD and all of my games at a garage sale in the late 90's.

[@LemonRush7777]

Just buy an Everdrive

[@Sithedd]

This will definitely be my first console from them. Thanks for the video.

[@TheBroz]

Had my Mega Sg since it was first released and I still love it to bits.

[@Gramsci89]

you are such a legend, thanks for all your hard work John!

[@mbe102]

I wish Analogue would release a Sharp X68000. Like an Analogue Honed X68

[@fredocuomo5386]

john you are my favorite df'er...these vids are always awesome

[@bennyblancofromdabay9280]

Im sorry your going through some things John but you do excellent work 👍. Keep your head up and don't burn yourself out.

[@Renk1]

An incredibly detailed review, best I've seen so far and I've looked at bunch of them. Thanks DF! The system itself is so great that after buying it and two M30 controllers (BT and 2.4GHz) my Mega Drive/Genesis -collecting has risen to new levels and my wallet is crying mercy is I've bought many great games I've not previously found. Luckily the Mega Drive -games are generally cheaper than for example SNES-games.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

I love mine! But I noticed the borders are too small in PAL mode and on Overdrive 2 the border comes back with star explosion pattern on real MD but not on Mega SG! Hopefully a firmware update fixes it, I like borders. Also I really hope they make an option to turn on the CRAM dots, it's not quite a Mega Drive without them!

[@FlergerBergitydersh]

One extra note on the emulation option front: Any frontend that uses the Genesis Plus GX core for Genesis games, such as Bizhawk and Retroarch, are great options, as Genesis Plus GX and BlastEm basically compete for the top spot in terms of quality genesis emulation, and your favorite with vary on your needs. Of course, if you want to play the Overdrive 2 demo and require certain visual tricks to work, BlastEm is definitely your best bet. But Genesis Plus GX has it's own strengths and I feel that it should be more heavily noted, as it's still leagues above other available emulators. Aside from BlastEm, of course.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Damnit, John. Halfway through the video was more than enough for me to whip out my wallet and order one of these. Amazing analysis. Thorough videos like this really shows why FPGA-based hardware replication of retro consoles is amazing.

[@mrb3991]

Hi i hope to get one soon ,but its expensive to import to the UK, great video thanks

[@madfinntech]

16:33 Indeed. I think it's the most pleasing sounding retro machine I know of. In the right hands of course. Not fanboying or anything. One reason for this poor reputation is also that most western developers didn't know how to program sound with it. I think that's the original source for that reputation. Sure, the ones you mentioned are later ones and sure not help the situation.

[@shadowflash705]

That's the main reason. When my father heard Sonic Spinball he said something like "what's this? Someone rubbing 300 years old rusty cooking pot against bench grinder wheel? What an awful sound hardware". 3 days later he changed his opinion after hearing Ecco 2 and Castlevania Bloodlines music.

[@JamiePryke]

Oh god the comparison with the AtGames machine made me die laughing. The way it just produces the most out of tune nightmare fuel is hilarious to me XD

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Jamie Pryke I was rewatching this video with headphones on and honestly the disastrous sound is made even worse with a good headset. It’s SO bad how did AtGames even release it in such a state!? How do they even make it produce audio that bad unless it’s deliberately broken!?

[@rowanunderwood]

~Look's for glitch in SG's sound hardware~ Finds glitch in original hardware's sound lol!

[@ZetZatar]

Superb video as always! Will be using your settings recommendations! 👍

[@xuano666]

An astonishing job as usual, thanks Jhon!

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Which Sonic game is it at 34:05? I can’t say I’ve ever seen it before. Is it a ROM hack? It’s got Sonic 3’s Sonic Sprite, but I don’t recognise anything else.

[@EspireMike]

The upcoming analogue 3d has got me looking at old coverage of the previous consoles. Exciting!

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Although I’m choosing to use a CRT, I always used to hate interpolation. But now that I think about it, the sharpness loss from using analogue video on a CRT (even a Trinitron like my beautiful Sony KV-21X5U) is probably worse than the sharpness loss from interpolation. Not that I really need exactly perfect sharp pixels though.

[@videogameobsession]

I wonder if implementing the addition of an actual analogue Yamaha FM clone chip would have solved the issue of a non-exact audio solution. That seems to be the sticking point for hardware accurate aficionados.

[@57Rye]

Love the dutch camera angles John :)

[@Alianger]

Great work. Does the YM2413 on SMS have the same audio options as the MD? Fusion also changes the instrument envelopes slightly with added distortion to some instruments, from my own tests with some chiptunes.

[@FlergerBergitydersh]

What an amazing piece of hardware this is. It's incredible that we have such a useful device in our midst that can basically fit any Mega Drive based application we could want from it. I would appreciate a harder look at the Master System functions, though. The Master System has a GIGANTIC library of games that were never released in the US, and a lot of those are PAL 50hz exclusive. If this system could be the magic bullet that I hope it is for Master System titles, that would be incredible. Also, something I've been wondering about: how do systems like this respond to variable refresh rate monitors? It may seem silly, but I'm genuinely curious about it's benefits when running games at non-integer refresh rates. I greatly appreciate the depth you people go to explaining this stuff, by the way. So many people just gloss over extremely important facts that you always, ALWAYS go into.

[@Immorpher]

Imagine Analogue doing an N64 but with the option of turning the bilinear filtering off? That would be so awesome!

[@darkdoescosplays]

I'm glad the hybrid scanlines option is there. I've always hated scanlines, as it looks like there's a horrible black mesh on the screen. But I've wondered as I've gotten older whether this is because I'm so used to PAL, which squashes more lines into about the same area as NTSC, so it doesn't have a nostalgic effect for me?

[@AceTrainerX3]

Well, the monitor type you grew up with (Shadow mask, Slot mask, aperture Grille, ect.) can also affect your perspective on scanlines.

[@lurad9396]

Like retro and old horror movies. John Linneman voice is perfect for videos like this.

[@frankjohansen3132]

Digital Foundry rocks again and again....so refreshing...compared to other youtube channels which is based on "Dude, i`m so cool and i will show how cool i am in this video".

[@joejoe4games]

This sounds like an Awesome product, I've always been a bit of an FPGA fan and this is a great use. I wonder if they could have added VESA Adaptive sync to fix the frame rate problems. One think I would have loved to see is a UHD video mode for better integer scaling of different source resolutions so you don't have to decide between 720p and 1080p.

[@Jprime777]

I love this series. Keep up the good work!

[@ΔημήτριοςΒασιλειάδης-ν8ξ]

Damn you nailed it with that intro. Keep the good job.

[@gojohnniegogo]

Stirling work once again, John!

[@ugzz]

Honestly i saw this pop up and i thought "not another one.." but this one may be the best and was entertaining and informative throughout!

[@webfatigue]

Excellent review. Just what I was looking for.

[@MannequinSmiles]

glad i get to see some lovely john in this episode.