Mega SD. FPGA Mega CD via the cartridge slot

[Kevvy Metal]

I've ordered one of these suckers. 

 

LETS DO THIS

 

 

[NEG]

No CD compatibility with the 32X on is a big disappointment.

[Alexlotl]

2 hours ago, Kevvy Metal said:

I've ordered one of these suckers. 

 

LETS DO THIS

 

 

PCM audio sounded pretty unpleasant - trebly, and that emphasised the noise. I hope they can fix that. CDDA audio clearly has different EQ, but it's not a disaster.

 

[spanky debrest]

I preferred the audio capture from the real the Mega CDs too.

[Treble]

3 hours ago, Alexlotl said:

pretty unpleasant - trebly

 

 

[MikeBeaver]

 

[gone fishin]

3 hours ago, MikeBeaver said:

 

Pffft, this was the same guy shilling that Playmobius thing the other day and even says he’s been sent a unit for free (although he only says that to ensure people know it’s a pre-release unit). 

 

I cant be arsed with these retro Youtubers who are pseudo influencers in exchange for any old retro tat for free.

[MikeBeaver]

40 minutes ago, gone fishin' said:

Pffft, this was the same guy shilling that Playmobius thing the other day and even says he’s been sent a unit for free (although he only says that to ensure people know it’s a pre-release unit). 

 

I cant be arsed with these retro Youtubers who are pseudo influencers in exchange for any old retro tat for free.

He's not your usual influencer / shill, he's an actual coder, who has done a lot of good work in the past, ported Postal to the Switch and ported SDL to the original Xbox back in the day.

 

I'm pretty sure he mentioned he had paid for his Polymega pre-order, he always starts his video's with a disclaimer if it was a bought or supplied item from the manufacturer.

 

If anything, I think he is one of the more honest reviewers, along with Spawnwave.

[Lorfarius]

1 hour ago, gone fishin' said:

Pffft, this was the same guy shilling that Playmobius thing the other day and even says he’s been sent a unit for free (although he only says that to ensure people know it’s a pre-release unit). 

 

I cant be arsed with these retro Youtubers who are pseudo influencers in exchange for any old retro tat for free.

 

That shill as you put is quite well respected in the the community and does some amazing reviews as well as hacks for hardware himself. Nothing wrong with a person being sent stuff for free if they do a decent, fair review as he has done many times before.

[KriessG]

Considering I have a Mega SG and the original mk1 hardware and a Nomad, I’m tempted by this... should I?

[Ninja Doctor]

You obviously like mega drive stuff and have the funds to afford it. 

[KriessG]

I don’t think I do have the funds right now really thinking about it. I can wait, I’ve got plenty of carts to play through yet.

[Dudley]

I don't know much about influencers but I've seen a bit of MVG's stuff and he absolutely struck me as someone with a clue.

[Kevvy Metal]

Modern Vintage Gamer is an excellent and reputable channel. 

[bwi]

On 24/06/2019 at 18:26, MikeBeaver said:

He's not your usual influencer / shill, he's an actual coder, who has done a lot of good work in the past, ported Postal to the Switch and ported SDL to the original Xbox back in the day.

 

I'm pretty sure he mentioned he had paid for his Polymega pre-order, he always starts his video's with a disclaimer if it was a bought or supplied item from the manufacturer.

 

If anything, I think he is one of the more honest reviewers, along with Spawnwave.

 

 I really used to love his stuff, ( especially the OG xbox videos), but lately i just seem to be getting an uneasy feeling about his videos..... well the review ones especially.

[gone fishin]

Let’s see when it comes out, but giving a glowing (and I mean glowing) review of a product (they received for free) that a) was just announced the week previously b) is 2 months away from being released and c) just started taking pre orders makes me suspicious. Especially after a similar glowing piece of feedback on the polymega which again isn’t available until August.

 

Anyone remember when Immortal John Hancock did a glowing review of this before it launched?

 

 

Only for it to be a complete bag of shit that didn’t even have the arcade roms, instead used NES roms? To the point he had to do a second video on it and update the original title. But go back to the description of that original video and he stated that the unit was given to him by ATGames for review. 

 

Or how about this 

 

 

Another glowing review of the Genesis Flashback which, again, turned out to be shite  And again, he had to do an apology video about it. Oh but it didn’t stop him having commission tracking links in the body description, so not only did he get it for free l, he was getting paid for any purchases made through the video description.

 

This was a guy that was highly respected in the retro community, his videos were great and then he succumbed to basically shilling products or trying to sell them for commission via tracking links in the video description.

 

And he’s not the only one. Maybe it’s because the revenue from YouTube has dropped and they’re looking for other ways to make money. That’s fine, but too often it feels like the retro YouTubers are trying to come across as passionate but impartial, but they’re either being paid or are getting items for free in order to boost pre-orders.

 

So let’s see when this is launched if it’s just as amazing as that original video claims it is (including the sound). Because for over $200, it should be. 

 

I also noticed he’s got direct link to the product website in the body description, which can be easily tracked through Google Analytics as a referral. So forgive me for being suspicious of it.....

 

 

[spanky debrest]

I understand the cynicism but there's really no equivalence between what ATGames and Terraonion do (or what John Hancock and MVG do either IMO).

 

Products like the Mega SD (and other high quality FPGA devices) only ever improve over time as their cores become more accurate and firmwares more feature laden, dependent on demand from enthusiasts. ATGames are all about the quickest easiest route to profit and treat their demographic accordingly.

[Kevvy Metal]

22 hours ago, gone fishin' said:

Anyone remember when Immortal John Hancock did a glowing review of this before it launched?

 

 

Yeah, and John Hancock is totally coming at everything from a complete different direction. 

He's from that metaljesus crowd of tat collecting and is not in anyway discerning. 

 

as mentioned, metaljesus is the same! He has absolutely no idea what he's talking about when given these kind of devices, and goes for some sort of ignorant "I just want to play" gamer pov. 

 

If you want to know the nitty gritty details of something from a reputable source then Modern Vintage Gamer can be included in there. 

 

There is also -

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalFoundry

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/mylifeingaming

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroRGB

 

smokemonster - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCskJUZ8X__mwcoU9HvGKCMg

 

...and definitely NOT Adam Koralik, ever. 

[gone fishin]

56 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

Yeah, and John Hancock is totally coming at everything from a complete different direction. 

He's from that metaljesus crowd of tat collecting and is not in anyway discerning. 

 

as mentioned, metaljesus is the same! He has absolutely no idea what he's talking about when given these kind of devices, and goes for some sort of ignorant "I just want to play" gamer pov. 

 

If you want to know the nitty gritty details of something from a reputable source then Modern Vintage Gamer can be included in there. 

 

There is also -

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalFoundry

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/mylifeingaming

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroRGB

 

smokemonster - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCskJUZ8X__mwcoU9HvGKCMg

 

...and definitely NOT Adam Koralik, ever. 

 

I used to like Immortal John Hancock, although his videos seemed to become more focused on him showing off his collection and various games he'd been given for free - which only ended up on a shelf never to be played. The final straw was when he clearly was just shovelling any old tat on his videos as various "stocking fillers" at Xmas as well as giving pre-order videos on products that were either duping him into thinking they were the final release (which is acceptable as an excuse, he should have learned) or worse they were clearly sub par and he was saying they were great - only for people to actually buy them and then complain the quality was poor (the Genesis console).

 

Thanks for the links, yes, there are some great retro YouTubers out there who don't do it "for the money", but because they're passionate about it!

 

ChinnyVision is another good one, he recently did a review on the C64 Mini and, to be blunt, didn't give a very good review of it. That caused a load of negative feedback in the comments section, so he did a response video on his Patreon channel (his only source of income is Patreon, he doesn't even enable advertising on his Channel). He has given reviews of units he's been given for free, but he makes it absolutely clear in his video (to the point of a massive flashing Jimmy Hill picture on the screen!) and even then, he does take that into consideration in his review.

 

I'm just really suspicious of anyone giving glowing "reviews' to what is essentially vapourware just now, but needs to generate enough pre-orders in order to be manufactured. It could be something as simple as "we'll give you a $230 unit for free if you give it a review" and the reviewer feels compelled to give it a glowing review, is no longer seeing it from an impartial point of view because they are being paid, even if it's just the $230 unit being given to them. 

 

Plus when it comes to the law, even being given something for free is classified as an Advert by the Advertising Standards Authority and has to have clear indication that it is an Advert

 

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/online-influencers-is-it-an-ad.html

 

Quote

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a technique that has evolved alongside the rise of social media and modern technology.

It involves brands engaging with figures popular on social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to discuss, photograph, recommend and sometimes just insert themselves into conversations about a product.

Sometimes these engagements are authentic in nature and the “influencer” may just be posting a genuine opinion. In such cases, these posts are not considered ads.

However when the brand has control over the content of the post and rewards the influencer with a payment, free gift, or other perk, the post becomes an ad. If the commercial intent isn't clear from the overall context of the communication, it should be labelled as an ad so as not to break the ASA’s rules and mislead the influencer's audience.

Consumers should always be aware when they are being advertised to. Failure to disclose the commercial relationship an influencer may leave a brand at risk of a complaint to the ASA.

 

 

All that video says in the description is "Thanks to Terraonion for providing me a preview unit for this review". IMO that isn't clearly stating it's an advert to the 100k+ viewers.

 

Maybe it's all very innocent, because I guess it's easy to not realise what constitutes an advert when being an "influencer" instead of a "journalist",  but again I'm suspicious of anyone giving a glowing review for a pre-order unit (and then, IMO, fails to clearly disclose it's an advert). 

[ulala]

9 minutes ago, gone fishin' said:

 

I used to like Immortal John Hancock, although his videos seemed to become more focused on him showing off his collection and various games he'd been given for free - which only ended up on a shelf never to be played. The final straw was when he clearly was just shovelling any old tat on his videos as various "stocking fillers" at Xmas as well as giving pre-order videos on products that were either duping him into thinking they were the final release (which is acceptable as an excuse, he should have learned) or worse they were clearly sub par and he was saying they were great - only for people to actually buy them and then complain the quality was poor (the Genesis console).

 

 

 

I think this is such an interesting and important discussion that a thread should be made about it (rather than take up the Mega SD thread). 

 

I feel exactly the same about John. When i first watched his videos he seemed a really likable and genuine person - with a great family and an amazing game collection.  (i always wonder how such humble people can afford all of this) But he has slowly changed into more showing off. Some videos and twitter posts are just blatant advertising of utter crap, so it is lost as to which is genuine and which they are getting paid to shill.

 

The same is true of twitter influencers, once they get past a certain amount of followers it becomes more about them and less about their content - even blatantly stealing content from smaller channels.

 

 

[Kevvy Metal]

22 minutes ago, gone fishin' said:

I'm just really suspicious of anyone giving glowing "reviews' to what is essentially vapourware just now, but needs to generate enough pre-orders in order to be manufactured. It could be something as simple as "we'll give you a $230 unit for free if you give it a review" and the reviewer feels compelled to give it a glowing review, is no longer seeing it from an impartial point of view because they are being paid, even if it's just the $230 unit being given to them. 

 

Bob at RetroRGB has a prototype unit and is basically singing it's praises. That's totally convinced me to put my money down. 

 

Bob has been a vocal critic of Terraonion and especially the Super SD System 3 - basically the same device as the Mage SD but for the PC Engine - and it even lead to modding services from Voltar and Firebrand X to fix the video and audio issues. 

 

This has lead to people like Firebrand X being involved in the development of the Mega SD! ...and there's a later revision of the Super SD System 3 coming out later this year with all the initial issues fixed. 

 

This is all totally the real deal. 

[ianinthefuture]

1 hour ago, gone fishin' said:

 

Plus when it comes to the law, even being given something for free is classified as an Advert by the Advertising Standards Authority and has to have clear indication that it is an Advert

 

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/online-influencers-is-it-an-ad.html

 

All that video says in the description is "Thanks to Terraonion for providing me a preview unit for this review". IMO that isn't clearly stating it's an advert to the 100k+ viewers.

 

Maybe it's all very innocent, because I guess it's easy to not realise what constitutes an advert when being an "influencer" instead of a "journalist",  but again I'm suspicious of anyone giving a glowing review for a pre-order unit (and then, IMO, fails to clearly disclose it's an advert). 

"However when the brand has control over the content of the post and rewards the influencer with a payment, free gift, or other perk, the post becomes an ad. If the commercial intent isn't clear from the overall context of the communication, it should be labelled as an ad so as not to break the ASA’s rules and mislead the influencer's audience."

 

Terraonion provided a unit to him, they don't have control over the content of the video. It's not a reward either - it's a review sample for reviewing purposes, which is and has always been standard practice.

 

I'll be the first to say a lot of Youtubers should angrily ignored for their incessant, awful shilling, but I don't think just because this guy was given a thing and said it's good it's shady.

 

My disclaimers here are: I don't even like his videos, I find them intensely dull, and Terraonion struck me in the past as an awful company for stoking up ridiculous tribalism around their NeoSD stuff, so I have no love for either party.

 

Sorry, this is all off topic. Mega SD actually sounds ace, but really I'm not about to spend £200-plus just for Mega CD compatibility when I already have a Mega SG and an Everdrive.

[ulala]

By its very nature, the idea of giving people on youtube or twitter a "gift", a "sample", a "review copy" has an implied contact. 

 

They are influencers with following. If they show a product or talk about a product - it's advertising. Thats the only reason they received the product in the first place, to advertise it in a positive way.

 

Now you may say that if they run the product down, or dont like it, they could... i'm sure they _could_ ...  But if they do, that has a negative impact on the product and a negative impact on them receiving another product from other companies. To lots of influencers, it's their business now. So it would have a negative impact on their business too.

 

If I have a product out, i want to give it to Hancock. Why? Because i know he can be trusted to say something is good when its not. 

 

 

[Camel]

By that logic you would never see a bad review of anything from a journalist.

[ulala]

8 minutes ago, Camel said:

By that logic you would never see a bad review of anything from a journalist.

 

Most of these people are not journalists, they are regular people who like getting freebies. 

[gone fishin]

5 minutes ago, Camel said:

By that logic you would never see a bad review of anything from a journalist.

 

it's the difference between Journalists and Influencers though. 

 

https://muckrack.com/blog/2018/10/18/whats-the-difference-between-a-journalist-and-an-influencer

 

Quote

As its name would imply, an influencer is an individual who has the power, or impact, over the purchasing decisions of a group of people who follow him or her.

Although the definition of influencer has changed in recent years, it isn’t a new idea. In the past, celebrities of any craft -- such as famous musicians or athletes -- have earned a living as influencers through their paid endorsement of various products.

But the boom in social media use over the last decade has lead to a rise in a new type of influencer: the digital influencer.

Unlike their traditional celebrity counterparts, these digital influencers have earned their fame (and their money) directly through the endorsement of products and services to their online audiences, rather than first catapulting into the spotlight through some other medium.

This shift has made it much more difficult to truly identify the right influencer for a particular campaign, because who holds influence is different for everyone.

For example, even in a niche industry like finance, influence can be extremely relative. There may be an analyst with a high level of expertise in a certain area that’s has a large impact (or influence) over one group of people, say those who work in mutual funds, but their opinions have little weight to someone interested in blockchain technology.

The rise of micro-influencers

In addition, professional communicators now need to pay attention to micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers tend to have smaller audiences compared to traditional influencers, but those audiences are typically highly engaged, so their opinions can carry much more weight.

These influencers are highly sought after by brands due to their power over profitable target markets. They provide a way for companies to spread brand awareness in a word-of-mouth technique, only scaled up by the thousands -- sometimes millions -- depending on the size of the influencer’s audience.

And when 75% of consumers say they are more likely to buy something based on a social media reference, it makes sense that influencers are also becoming a highly sought-after target for PR professionals, too.

 

Quote

Influencers are typically dependent upon their relationships with brands to find content to share, earn their living and continue to grow their audience. With that in mind, it’s hard to consider an influencer’s content as 100% unbiased, especially when the endorsements they make could effectively be paying their bills. More on compensation to come.

On the other hand, journalists are considered to be the objective, third-party collectors and distributors of information. Their role is often to provide an unbiased perspective on current news and events.

People typically do not seek opinions from the journalists they follow. In fact, for a journalist to provide their opinion while covering a hard news story is considered unethical in most cases. Journalists are by nature critical and investigative, constantly searching for truth in a story.

 

 

[Camel]

23 minutes ago, ulala said:

By its very nature, the idea of giving people on youtube or twitter a "gift", a "sample", a "review copy" has an implied contact. 

 

 

So we're not talking about everyone on YouTube then? Because that's what this ^ sounds like.

[Kevvy Metal]

On 20/06/2019 at 13:29, Kevvy Metal said:

I've ordered one of these suckers. 

 

LETS DO THIS

 

 

 

So yeah, I did order one of these and it’s now in transit with DHL. 

 

Worth noting, I got absolutely SMASHED for import tax on this one to the tune of £55 which is the most I’ve experienced for anything. Don’t even want to think what the full total is. 

 

I though as its coming from somewhere in mainland Europe that it would be unaffected - like the Krikzz stuff, but nope! 

[ulala]

4 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

So yeah, I did order one of these and it’s now in transit with DHL. 

 

Worth noting, I got absolutely SMASHED for import tax on this one to the tune of £55 which is the most I’ve experienced for anything. Don’t even want to think what the full total is. 

 

I though as its coming from somewhere in mainland Europe that it would be unaffected - like the Krikzz stuff, but nope! 

 

is it from an EU country?

[Goemon]

Just looked on the website and it says that it ships from Andorra and may be subject to charges.