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[drizzle]

Most of GAF probably knows that Brazil is a very weird country. We don't get the newest consoles for sale here (and when we do, they're 3 times the actual price, most of the times imported and sold illegally) mostly because we have a stupid tax policy. (60% importing taxes and VideoGames fall in the same tax bracket as Gambling).

As most of GAF is probably aware, we're also the last official manufacturers of the Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System. It seems that every 2 years TecToy releases a "new" version of what they call the "MegaDrive 3", with a buncha games packed in, no cartidge port and at an abusrd price. I swear to god, they must have released 4-5 "MegaDrive 3" down here the last 8-10 years.

The last iteration of this beast had brand new games, provided by EA. NFS ProStreet, Fifa 2008 The Sims and SimCity IV were all provided by EA. In reality, they were just the existing titles released to cellphones ported to the MegaDrive, in all 16 bit glory. More information in this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334059.

The newest bet, in a joint venture by QuallComm and TecToy is the Zeebo http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341860, which I think, in all sincerity, that it'll never work.

That's not the reason of this thread, tho. This time, we're presented with something I've never imagined possible - and yet, it's perfect market opportunity. The "MegaDrive Guitar Idol"

It comes with 50 games built in, including those "new" EA games I talked about (complete list here: http://www.tectoy.com.br/pagina.php?tag=jogosmd87), but the main attraction here is "Guitar Idol", which comes with 50 songs:

Nacional:
Envelheço Na Cidade - Ira!
I Saw You Saying - Raimundos
Irreversível - CPM22
Outro Lugar - Detonautas
Razões E Emoções - Nx Zero
Regina Let’s Go - CPM22
Uma Música - Fresno

Internacional:
Ace Of Spades - Motörhead
All Day And All Of The Night - The Kinks
All Right Now - Free
All Star - Smash Mouth
All The Small Things - Blink182
American Woman - The Guess Who
California Sun - The Ramones
Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas
Cochise - Audioslave
Come On,Let's Go - Los Lobos
Dammit - Blink182
Dream On - Aerosmith
Dreamin' - Blondie
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Fall To Pieces - Velvet Revolver
Freak On A Leash - Korn
Gimme All Your Lovin'-Zz Top
Head On - Jesus And Mary
Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
I Hate Everything About You - Three days Grace
I Love Rock 'N Roll - Joan Jett And The Blackhearts
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At The Disco
Infected - Bad Religion
La Bamba - Los Lobos
Lonely Is The Night- Billy Squier
Middle Of The Road-The Pretenders
Misirlou - Dick Dale
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
No Rain - Blind Melon
Overkill - Motörhead
Police Truck - Dead Kennedys
School's Out - Alice Cooper
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Suck My Kiss - Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Anthem - Good Charlotte
The One I Love - R.E.M.
The Warrior - Scandal
Walk This Way - Aerosmith
What I Like About You - The Romantics
You've Got Another Thing Comin'- Judas Priest

I'm pretty sure they're all horrible 16 bit renditions of these songs (there's even some Brazilian songs in there, so somebody had to actually do some research on this!). I don't know, i'm just amazed how TecToy can keep pumping out this old stuff/amazing projects to the market. Nobody buys these kind of releases, yet, every 2 years, they come up with another one.
I'm really interested in this one tho. God forbid i'd ever put down money for this. But considering that TecToy actually coded Duke Nukem 3D for the Genesis, and that it didn't come out all that horrible, considering the system limitations, I wonder how the hell will this come out.

Suggested price: R$369, around 201 USD. Yikes.

Here's TecToy's "blog", where most of the information surfaces from time to time: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/

 

[manzo]

I want those sexy white pads for my Megadrive II.

 

[OnPoint]

I really, really want to hear the music in that game.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

Oh wow, this looks like a mismatch made in heaven given the limitations of the Genesis/Mega Drive's sound chip. Hopefully, someone will youtube what the songs sound like, chances are they might resemble the chiptune renditions of pop songs that were all the rage ages ago.

 

[DungeonO]

This has the potential to be really epic.

In a good way.

 

[A Black Falcon]

I really, really want to hear the music in that game.

Same.

... Videos of the EA cellphone ports would be awesome too. It's too bad that the price is so high no one wants to buy the things...

 

[Binabik15]

This sounds so bad it has to be great.

If it isn´t, I´ll give you a BC PS3 phat for some hot womenz

 

[firehawk12]

That's fucking epic. It'll be like the tracks in Moonwalker!

 

[_bluemoon]

I concur with the so bad it's good comments. That's awesome. :lol

 

[sixteen-bit]

Awesome

 

[Sixfortyfive]

This has the potential to be really epic.

In a good way.

EA never had the greatest composers for the Genesis. Dunno if that might have changed in the past 15 years, though.

Do not know if want.

 

[Dash Kappei]

I love this kind of threads, awesome stuff!

 

[Gazunta]

STOP BUMPING THIS THREAD IF YOU DON'T HAVE VIDEO OR SCREENSHOTS OF THIS STUFF!

STOP BUMPING THIS THREAD IF YOU DON'T HAVE VIDEO OR SCREENSHOTS OF THIS STUFF!

Oh shiiiiiiii

 

[Megadragon15]

Now that is longevity of a console. Over 20 years and still going.

 

[Eric C]

Now that is longevity of a console. Over 20 years and still going.

The Genesis also has "Pier Solar" a new RPG, it's been delayed for almost a year but it's going to be released *soon* I hope.

Wow. Look how nice those white 6 button Genesis controllers are, I kind of want them to play my Genesis VC on my Wii. Sega should release a Saturn Pad that plugs into wiimote and works like the snes classic controller.

I wonder if Sega will ever make a "Sonic and Sega All Stars Fighters" and bundle it with the Saturn pads. Kinda like what happened with SFIV. I would buy it day one just for the controller if it was on Wii.

 

[jamesinclair]

I Saw You Saying - Raimundos
Irreversível - CPM22
Outro Lugar - Detonautas
Regina Let’s Go - CPM22


Id pay for these in a real GH

 

[Jiguryo]

I Saw You Saying - Raimundos
Irreversível - CPM22
Outro Lugar - Detonautas
Regina Let’s Go - CPM22


Id pay for these in a real GH

Raimundos and Ira! are ace, but I could do without the teeny emocore sludge from NX Zero and CPM22.

 

[Leonsito]

No Andre Matos, Angra or Shaman -> Fail

 

[Arpharmd B]

I would actually rather play 16 bit renditions of tunes any modern guitar hero game.

I'm just oldschool like this.

Sega, where's my Genesis Guitar Idol for USA?

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhHOaMXYXU4
The more the better

 

[Link1110]

Guitar Hero for Genesis with that songlist? I want it now!!!!

 

[drizzle]

Pictures of the EA stuff (since they're already available on the Mega Drive 3 that's out for sale right now). Mega Drive Guitar Idol is not out yet, so no pics or videos of the music game thing:

Fifa 08: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=145

Sim City: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=125

The Sims 2: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=119

Need for Speed Pro Street: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=140

I guess EA didn't bother to change the aspect ratio on the Need for Speed game? :lol

 

[drizzle]

So, yeah... pictures:

 

[A Black Falcon]

Pictures of the EA stuff (since they're already available on the Mega Drive 3 that's out for sale right now). Mega Drive Guitar Idol is not out yet, so no pics or videos of the music game thing:

Fifa 08: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=145

Sim City: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=125

The Sims 2: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=119

Need for Speed Pro Street: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/?p=140

I guess EA didn't bother to change the aspect ratio on the Need for Speed game? :lol

The Genesis would be hard-pressed to do 3d that good, that's for sure... if that's actually a shot of it, I seriously wonder if they're somehow not Genesis games but running on something else in the same box? I don't know...

I mean, 3d on the Genesis was like Race Drivin' at best, not exactly on that level. With the SVP or 32X you could get a lot closer, but I doubt this has that hardware...

At least the resolutions of those shots are right, though, 320x240 or so (320x224 I think, specifically)... apart for NFS, which is 240x320. Hmm, yeah, not quite going to work unless it's sideways on the television or those aren't actual shots. The music game shots there are similar, way over a resolution the Genesis could do I think. (600x453? Unless it's being scaled up, I don't see how that could be actually running on Genesis hardware. Of course it could be scaled up, though, lots of shots are, so it's probably not a factor... but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

 

[Father_Brain]

So, yeah... pictures:

Those are definitely not running on Genesis hardware. Too many colors.

 

[Shawsie64]

:lol

Epic as

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Why would you port a 3D game to the genesis? Unless it had the Virtua Racing chip built in.

 

[Fyodor Dostoevsky]

No Os Mutantes, no sale.

 

[dablemont]

Ah, Brasil! Hehehehe. I think it is awesome for us Brasilians in which we get our own kinds of songs in it, but I'm hoping they don't rip off with the price like they are doing with Zeebo.

 

[ZealousD]

EA never had the greatest composers for the Genesis.

A-HEM!

 

[skybaby]

Hmm why not for the Zeebo? That could be it's killer app!

 

[A Black Falcon]

Those are definitely not running on Genesis hardware. Too many colors.

Yeah, that's a good point as well, some of those colors are definitely outside of the Genesis' palette.

 

[drizzle]

While it does seem a little too colorful, those are the pics everybody is posting as being ingame.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/09/tectoys_mega_drive_4_guitar_id.php

And they're even on the Downloadable Version of the console manual:

http://www.tectoy.com.br/img/downloads/2342manual_MD_G_Idol.zip

Here's a piture of the .PDF manual with the screenshots:

So yeah.. i don't know.. Maybe they're mock up pictures and the actual version will have less colors/more dithering?

I don't know. Also, the Genesis can display all those colors. Genesis problem is the amount of colors on screen AT ONCE, not the palettes itself.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

I agree, it should look more like this (just some quick tinkering in Photoshop, I was too lazy to add dithering for "fake" colors like many Genesis games did it).

 

[samratty]

No Os Mutantes, no sale.

That would be amazing

 

[mik]

Mandou Bem!

 

[Jme]

I would import this if the total cost to me wasn't more than $50 USD. Unfortunately I'm sure that's far from the case and it would come to more like $200 USD.

 

[Danthrax]

How much does this thing cost?

 

[Chiaroscuro]

I would import this if the total cost to me wasn't more than $50 USD. Unfortunately I'm sure that's far from the case and it would come to more like $200 USD.

The machine itself costs between US$ 100-200 (depending on the retail price, which flutuates a little, and the conversion rate).

The other problem you will have is the colour system: here we use PAL-M (actually a very strange system variant, it has the the NTSC resolution + a colour scheme similar to the European system). All our tvs are NTSC/PAL-M, but the newer Megadrives from TecToy only outputs PAL-M. I have tried myshelf, I bought the pack with the EA games...

 

[digita1alchemy]

I'd be willing to bet that besides the Megadrive chipset the console also runs BREW. Lots of cable boxes run BREW, and this would allow the system to easily run ports of these mobile games in addition to completely original stuff developed in BREW such the Guitar Idol game. Would explain the expanded color palette. I think the Zeebo was said to run a BREW OS as well so this is pretty likely.

 

[Kyzer]

Brasileiros safados n'eh?

 

[A Black Falcon]

I'd be willing to bet that besides the Megadrive chipset the console also runs BREW. Lots of cable boxes run BREW, and this would allow the box to easily run ports of these mobile games in addition to completely original stuff developed in BREW such the Guitar Idol game. Would explain the expanded color palette and would also allow it to do the 3D in the NFS game. I think the Zeebo was said to run a BREW OS as well so this is pretty likely.

That sounds like a very good guess. When I saw those shots I was wondering if it was something like that, as I think I said... so it is feasible? I'd bet that's what it is then.

 

[drizzle]

I have tried myshelf, I bought the pack with the EA games...

You did? So are the pictures i posted earlier faithful to the games?

I mean, basically, I'm asking if Need for Speed is really in 3D. And really in that messed up aspect ratio.

I'd be willing to bet that besides the Megadrive chipset the console also runs BREW. Lots of cable boxes run BREW, and this would allow the system to easily run ports of these mobile games in addition to completely original stuff developed in BREW such the Guitar Idol game. Would explain the expanded color palette. I think the Zeebo was said to run a BREW OS as well so this is pretty likely.

Certainly would explain the price, but why not just sell it on the Zeebo then?

 

[Razien]

What a shitty national selection. Fresno and two CPM songs? Is that a bad joke?

 

[test_account]

Ah, i missed this thread earlier. This Guitar Idol stuff looks pretty cool i must say I wonder how the 16-bit tracks sounds, does anyone know where i can listen to some of these? I tried to search on Youtube, but i couldnt find anything :\ I only did a quick search on Youtube though, so maybe i missed something or that i didnt search for the right words.

 

[drizzle]

I wonder how the 16-bit tracks sounds, does anyone know where i can listen to some of these?

You won't find anything for now, as the thing didn't come out yet. The console is a "Children's Day" release (October 22, if I'm not mistaken?). Pictures took a long ass time to surface, and they're probably bullshots.

Look at all the crap they're releasing along with it:

- Mega Drive Guitar Idol, discussed in this thread. (R$369, around 201 USD)
- Master System Evolution, with 132 games built in (R$199, around 108 USD)
- Master System Portable, with 30 games built in (it's the horrible blue controller on the left, R$69, around 38 USD)
- DVD Kids, a Portable DVD for kids with a colorful motif and a 7inch screen (R$499, around 273 USD)
- MD Play, some portable Mega Drive thing with 20 built-in games and a proprietary cartridge slot for game packs that will be released later (R$149 or about 85 USD)

Seriously, how the hell Tectoy manages to release so much expensive crap every 2 years and stay in bussiness? I'll never know.

I guess their DVD (and now Blu-Ray) player + Karaoke market keeps them afloat.

Here's TecToy's "blog", where most of the information surfaces from time to time: http://www.tectoy.com.br/tecblog/

 

[M3d10n]

I mean, basically, I'm asking if Need for Speed is really in 3D. And really in that messed up aspect ratio.

The game is 3D, and textured. However, those screenshots are from the mobile version (the resolution gives it away), and seems nobody had enough guts to buy one of these overpriced Mega Drives and post pictures of the games on the net.

The game runs at like 10-15fps and looked a lot more grainy, though.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

The game is 3D, and textured. However, those screenshots are from the mobile version (the resolution gives it away), and seems nobody had enough guts to buy one of these overpriced Mega Drives and post pictures of the games on the net.

The game runs at like 10-15fps and looked a lot more grainy, though.

You are right. I bought one at discount (still US$ 100 however) at its launch (hell I am crazy, and I do collect games). I posted some pictures of the system and games in one of the Markman's pickup threads. Let me search for them again...


Need fo Speed is the worst of the package (the others are quite decent actually). It is a port from the mobile game, and it runs like shit.

here they go...

 

[Chiaroscuro]

You won't find anything for now, as the thing didn't come out yet. The console is a "Children's Day" release (October 22, if I'm not mistaken?). Pictures took a long ass time to surface, and they're probably bullshots.

Check my pictures above.

Children´s Day here is October 12th. And although the official price for a Megadrive is R$ 299 and for a Master System is R$ 199, it is very common to find them at discount in large supermarket chains for less than R$ 179-199 (Megadrive) and R$ 129 (Master System). No excuse for the high price (except the absurd taxation on videogames here because they fall on the "gambling machines" category). And that price is usually split in 10 montly payments.

 

[bengraven]

DREAMCAST RETRO!

It's official (lol), they're bringing the MD3 to every country packed with Guitar Idol. 9/9/89 - I mean 09!