The rise of 'Mini' / 'Classic' consoles (and did you hack yours?)

Thread: The rise of 'Mini' / 'Classic' consoles (and did you hack yours?)
DonDonDonPata

DonDonDonPata

Bridge Burn Man
 
Lot of these released in the last few years. NES Classic, PC Engine Mini, Genesis Mini, Game Gear Mini, Playstation Classic, SNES Classic, etc

These were not the first 'Mini' consoles, but their predecessors were typically cheap third-party IP harvests and/or illegal rom dumps. They all suffered from a mix of similar issues:

- mediocre to straight-up bad hardware, especially the controllers
- mediocre list of available games
- poor emulation, causing games to stutter or slow down
- little to no potential for hacking

NES Classic kinda changed all that. I remember a lot of coworkers hacked theirs to add more games (the SNES Classic, too), and it was the first time I saw a lot of normies "get into" hacking, in order to add more titles to their Mini. Out of those, a few more took the next logical step and built themselves a PC for emulation, bought a MiSTer, bought a Pi, hacked one of their other systems, and/or some other sort of tool aimed at emulating even better than the Mini consoles.

Playstation Classic was kind of a bomb. Genesis is fairly oversaturated but the emulation was excellent (handled by M2). PC Engine/TG-16 barely made a peep, and I'm doubtful that many people jumped on the Game Gear Mini. Either way, it's cool that these things are gaining momentum.

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Anyone on d-pad jump into these? Opinions?
 
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I have the NES, SNES and Genesis. I've hardly played any of them even though they work nicely. I spent some time hacking the SNES and loading tons of stuff on it, never to play it after.
 
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Falcs said:
I got a SNES Mini. Don't know why when I have a dedicated emulation PC with all the retro games I could want.
Click to expand...
Yeah PC -- and other hardware that supports it -- has run-ahead which is a true advantage over legit console and arcade hardware (basically running the games smoother than their original release). I can appreciate the ease of use and small form factor for these. If your aim is "play a few classic SNES games with a real SNES controller" then one of these is the obvious choice. It can also be accomplished on PC, but with 5x as many steps.
 
Yep, had a NES mini and sold it when I realized I could just add NES games to my SNES mini. Had a Genesis mini, never took it out of the box, sold it at a yard sale.

The PS Classic isn't too bad with some modding, it's the one that's easiest to expand your storage space on because of their decision to make the controller ports USB. Got that one for $20 once they hit fire sale status so I'm happy with it.
 
I have a Snes classic that I haven't taken out of the box yet. I also want a TG16/PC Engine mini so that I can have it and not take it out of the box because I'm dumb.

I'll use it at some point and will definitely mod it to get the most out of it.
 
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I got a NES mini and SNES mini relatively cheap after the hype had died down. Honestly barely used them and the NSO service on Switch is a much better way to play these games. I'm definitely going to hack them both when I get round to it and play some games that I've really missed from that era. Some of the Capcom NES games and a lot of 3rd party and licensed SNES stuff I loved as a kid. Top Gear and Aladdin are the big two I'm after. Also going to look into a HDMI to Scart converter and plug them into an old CRT I have lying round for dat' slightly more authentic experience.
 
I don't have any and I don't get the appeal tbh. I can get a small computer and emulate all day.
 
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