Nomad, Bro?

This comes as a surprise... Retro-Bit, the makers of the Super Retro-Cade I reviewed last year, is releasing its own version of the Nomad. That's the portable Genesis Sega launched at the tail end of 1995, and while it may have seemed like a good idea at the time, my personal experience with the original Nomad was, um... less than impressive. A milky, low contrast screen and a cartridge slot which can't keep a solid grip on games does not add up to a quality handheld gaming experience.

Hello... Newmad.
(image from Segabits)

That was nearly twenty five years ago, though. We've got the technology to do a portable Genesis justice now, right? I guess we'll find out once the system is released, although judging from Retro-Bit's past track record, that might take a while. They announced a series of Sega-inspired USB and Bluetooth controllers at last year's CES show, and those still haven't been released... although at least now, we have a solid launch date for those. Expect the joypads to hit stores by the end of February. Special thanks to GameTyrant for the scoop.

Before I go, I should probably offer a correction... the Pseudo Saturn Kai software that I mentioned in my last post has a higher compatibility rate than previously suggested. Before you break out the tar and feathers, let me just state in my defense that I based my comments on the software's official compatibility list. However, that list hasn't updated in a while, and some games that were marked in red actually work just fine with the latest version of PSK. In way of examples, I spent an hour with Saturn Bomberman last night, and didn't have any issues with it. Just something to keep in mind if you're on the fence about installing the software.