Analogue is back with the Mega SG, promising to do for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive what it’s already done for the Super Nintendo. The Mega SG is powered by the same hardware that makes the Super NT possible, and will ask the same $190 price they did for their Super NT system. More or less, Analogue creates high quality, 1080P HD classic video game console clones without the $500 price tag of their original NES creation.
Sega exited the console market after their final system, the Sega Dreamcast (which people are still using to this day via ROM hacks). You’d think with the success of the NES Classic, Super Nintendo Classic, a rumored N64 Classic, and the upcoming PlayStation Classic Mini that Sega would delve back into hardware. That is, if their licenses would allow for it. Remember, even their Genesis Collections were released on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 respectively.
Now, many of us had those weird, junky 3rd party bootleg clone systems. I remember buying an FC Twin for my sister that played NES and SNES games. They had triplet versions that played NES, SNES, and Genesis games. It only got more convoluted and bootleggier from there.
In an interview with Polygon last year, Analogue’s Christopher Taber had said, “We want to do more systems, there’s no question. We’d like to go through video game history — especially a lot of the stuff that’s especially, or unlikely, to ever get any OEM treatment from the original company, like Nintendo is doing — and make systems that are made with respect and care and attention to detail and allow people to celebrate and explore those platforms.”
“Most people who follow us closely knew that this is going to be our next product,” Taber said. “I don’t think it’s too hard to put the pieces together.”
“We’re just following up [the Super NT] with what we have the duty to follow up with, it’s not even a choice. It’s our fucking duty to make the ultimate Sega system, especially because there’s just … there’s just nothing available at all when it comes to the Genesis, the Mega Drive or Master System. There’s more of a void versus something like Nintendo.”
So Analogue is making the Mega SG to fill that void, and it will begin shipping in April 2019. And now, finally, my personal dreams can come true…
…of playing Columns in 1080p. Enjoy.
