PlayPal Portable Player - Relive the Retro Days / Possible New Homebrew Console ?

[wraggster]

Heres a new console released that will please all retro fans. 20 built in classics from the Master System/Game Gear era, firstly heres the screen of the packaging:

http://image1.play-asia.com/640/55/pa.92922.2.jpg

features
Plug & play portable video game system
TV out connection
20 built-in 8-bit SEGA licensed games
Built-in speakers
Function key: start / pause
Direction key: A, B, up, down, left, right
2.4" LCD TFT color screen
Requires 3xAAA size batteries. (battery not included)

The PlayPal Portable is a video game player, which is pre-loaded with 20 classic games from SEGA Master System and Game Gear games. There is no need to buy game cartridges. The high quality 2.4” TFT LCD and built-in speakers allows arcade like playing experience in the palm of your hand. The PlayPal Portable game player has an A/V connector and with the included cable the player can be connected to any TV. The built-in SEGA games provide action adventure while testing your intelligence and skill. Enjoy playing classic SEGA games anytime, anywhere with the new PlayPal Portable video game Player.

Games Include
Ecco Tides of Time
Sonic Triple Trouble
Fantasy Zone
Columns

DiGG THIS (http://digg.com/gaming_news/New_Handheld_Playing_Retro_Sega_Titles)

http://digg.com/gaming_news/New_Handheld_Playing_Retro_Sega_Titles

Buy from Play Asia (http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-2pz-71-8y-49-en-84-j-70-1zp6.html) for Price: US$ 29.90 (~15.11 GBP)

Could this be hacked for homebrew too ?

[Basil Zero]

Umm...there's nothing new about it

It was released over a year ago

I should know, since I work at Fry's Electronics, and see this thing lol

It contains 20 sega mastersystem/gamegear games, only a few are good.

And impossible to hack it, its such a mediocre and primitive device, the so called "LCD" screen is just plain ol fake glass alike.

Nothing special about it, and its being sold for 59.99 at Frys.

[kcajblue]

frys sells that for 59.99!?! thats a total ripoff for something like that.

[robocelot]

Homebrew?

About the only homebrew you'll be running on that is homemade SMS and Game Gear (and maybe SG-1000).

They seem to be implying that someone could hack this to run an emulator for another system on it. I suspect it's a FPGA SMS, or could even be a NES on a chip with SMS look-a-like games programmed for it.

I think someone is getting the terms 'hack' (as in hack this to run other SMS games) and 'homebrew' mixed up.

[Gene]

No offence, but this looks like a cheap piece of shit for $60.

[Basil Zero]

frys sells that for 59.99!?! thats a total ripoff for something like that.

Ya, I hated that the fact I had to sell it to someone, they actually bought it:(

[yoshinatsu]

No offence, but this looks like a cheap piece of shit for $60.
And much more piece of #^#$ when talking about homebrew. This device could never have homebrew. There's no card reader (whatever type), no usb connection, no rom support, no open-source, no firmware, no nothing. It's just a game console for old-schoolers who just want to play those 20 SEGA games (where you can play ALL of them on your PSP, including Genesis').

[kcajblue]

Ya, I hated that the fact I had to sell it to someone, they actually bought it:(did you try to talk them out of it?

[wolfpack]

20 games?
ill stick with my psp thankyou :p it already has those and more

[Mikaa]

Feh. Maybe for US$20. MAYBE. And only if it showed up at work so I could get a discount.

Having said that, I do have to marvel at the lack of complaining or gripes from consumers in general over the price of portable "# in one unit" systems. My personal favorite rip-off is one of the units carried by Game Stop and Best Buy (that I know for sure). Said unit claims to have a wide assortment of classics, of which Frogger is the only one cited. Oh, and it's US$40 or so for the thing.

Sheez. If I wanted Frogger that bad, I'd buy Konami's Arcade Advance for half the price when it was new.

And don't get me started on the single units you find in most retail toy departments. Oooh, a color LCD, portable edition of Asteroids. Oh, why not Missile Command?

Given how "inexpensive" things have become to make, why is it that these companies have to resort to technology that makes the Game Boy seem advanced (and not the system)?

Side note - the other day I came across a Plug-and-Play game at Target (aka work) that went nuts to claim that it had a collection of games built in, all running with "16-Bit Power!"

Since when is claiming to be running with a 16-bit system (either graphically or CPU, or both) going to get attention when you are not Sega or Nintendo?

And people wonder why I wish for these classics to be ported to a simple DS cart...

[kcajblue]

i see those plug and play things at target all the time.
and other places.

[Basil Zero]

did you try to talk them out of it?

I did, told them that GBA SP was a better choice, but they decided to get this cheap piece of crap:(

Its a ripoff indeed.

They wanted something "cheap", i can promise you, 59.99 of something of this caliber is not cheap(in terms of price) but cheap in terms of quality.

[kcajblue]

that sucks.

well. they obviously didnt know what they were talking about.

[AcerVentura]

It's not really a rip-off, since you get the console games built-in and you can plug it into your tv screen, which you can't do with your PSP, lest you forget.

But if you're not into Sega, there are other themed old-school units available too. I picked the Ms Pacman one which is basically a controller with the game rom built in and you play it using the TV. - It was only like $20.