The Mega Sg will play almost every classic Sega game

If history is written by the winners, then Sega almost certainly lost the 1990s-era console wars. The company stopped making hardware. It's time to go to Super Smash Bros. and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. It seems to get less attention from retro gamers. Nintendo games has been designed for you by Nintendo Games, but is usually designed for Sega's classic library.

That last part, at least, is about to change. Analogue, the company behind high-end NES and Super Nintendo retro consoles such as the Nt and Super Nt, just announced the Mega Sg. It's a $ 189 high-end console that plays Sega Master System and Genesis (Mega Drive) games.

So what, you might ask. Is not there a modern retro Sega console on the market? There is. But the Sega Genesis Flashback from choppy framerates and shoddy audio-visual output. Analogue promised to experience "free of compromises," in contrast. It's big talk, but the company has a strong history of delivering on it.

Like Analogue's previous throwback consoles, the Mega Sg does not so much emulate the original console hardware as simulate it on a custom FPGA (field programmable gate array) chip. The end result is a console that promises to let you play the game.

Players will be able to customize the visuals with a variety of options and visual filters, too. You will be able to use your old gamepad: The Mega Sg is compatible with original Genesis, Mega Drive and Master System controllers.

The base console will support 16-bit Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges by default, as well as 8-bit Master System cartridges via an included adapter. Analog also plans to add support for Game Gear games, Mark III games, Sega MyCard titles and more through adapters that will be sold after launch. Sega CD games are compatible too, but you'll have an original Sega CD unit handy.

The Mega Sg may be designed to be the ultimate Sega gaming console, but it does not come with everything you need to play – if you want a wireless controller, you'll need to buy the $ 25 8BitDo M30 gamepad separately. Want the console itself? It's available for preorder today but will not ship until April 2019.

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