AtGames Sega Genesis Classic Game Console

This was a birthday present for my 38 year old son. He wanted to play nostalgic games, I told him they were ugly with the most horrible graphics. He said that was the fun of it.It was easy to find on Amazon because there are lots of new and refurbished systems from the dark ages of game playing.When I received the unit I was a bit confused because it was not in a box like the one shown. There is a console, 2 game controllers, an a/c adapter and stocked with 80 games. Everything was there just no original box.My son was happy with it and said everything worked fine. So this is just a heads up where you receive it is just in an Amazon brown box.

Ah, yes, the Firecore Genesis system, marketed and sold under many different names and iterations over the years. I'll spare you the needless details that everyone else has covered here and will get right to the important points:1. 40 of the 80 games are, yes, well-known and beloved Genesis titles, including all of the Sonic games (except for Sonic 3, which is quite noticeably absent), Vectorman 1 and 2, Altered Beast, Eternal Champions, all three Streets of Rage games, Columns and Columns III, all three Golden Axe games, etc. These alone are worth the cost of this little plug-and-play system -- I bought mine here on Amazon for about $40 or so, though as of this writing the price has gone up. Still worth it. The other 40 games, in case you are wondering, are sort of "homebrew" style games, mostly clones of more well-known titles, but some of which are interesting in their own right (the Bomberman clone, for example, is pretty cool).2. Yes, the system can play Genesis carts, but it warns you that not all games may be compatible and/or will work with it. I can't say I have experience with this myself, as I sold all of my original Genesis cartridges long, long ago. You'll have to test out your old games yourself, and it may be hit or miss.3. Yes, the graphics are a little grainy and the sound is a little tinny, especially if you're hooking this little thing up to an HDTV (as I do). That's to be expected -- what this is, really, is a Genesis emulator that you plug into your television. It's not going to be perfect, nor should you expect it to be. This is 20-25 year old technology, folks. The 16-bit era was a long time ago.4. It comes with two infrared wireless controllers -- my advice to you is to put them in storage as backups, because to get them to work flawlessly you do have to aim them directly at the unit itself (like a remote control for a television). What I suggest is to get a couple of wired, third-party Genesis controllers or to plug in your old original Genesis controllers to the front of the unit. Believe me, that'll work much better. The wireless controllers included also require two AAA batteries each, while wired ones won't.5. Some reviewers have claimed there's an SD card slot on the machine so that you can play your downloaded ROMS on it if they're .bin files and in a folder called "Games." If there is one, I've not found it and/or it's not included on the model I have, so take that advice with a grain of salt. You can purchase extra peripherals from AtGames, the manufacturer, that will allow you to plug an adapter and SD card into the cartridge slot, though (they show pictures in the manual). No, I do not know how much those said peripherals are.6. I've not had any problems with blurring or scaling on the TV with my games, as others have said. I play this system on a Philips 22" widescreen LED HDTV, 720p, and the picture and sound is fine for what it is.7. No, as others have said, there is NOT any sort of save-game feature. This is the one big problem with this little system and its games-on-chip technology, and my only true gripe thus far with the product.Overall, if you're looking for a good replacement for your original Genesis at a decent price, this may be your best option. Again, I've not tried any actual cartridges with it, but with the included games, most of the games all of us grew up on are on there anyway. There are those notable absences (I, for one, would've loved to have seen a few more Sega-developed but licensed titles), but many of the games included on the chip are hard to find in cartridge form anyway -- try finding a copy of Golden Axe III or Streets of Rage 3 for under $30-40 used). It's definitely worth your money if you want to relive some old memories or introduce the games you played to your children. Go for it.

Edit: 10/6/2014 - I ended up returning this unit a week after I bought it. It stopped reading my sega genesis controllers, and I refuse to use the infra-red ones that come packed-in. I would file this under "too good to be true." Some units might work consistently (based on the reviews) but it seems to be VERY 50/50. As a result, I'm changing my previous rating from 2 stars to 1. Don't waste your time.To break it down simply, let's start with pros and cons:Pros:1) Composite video output is crisp and clean2) My Sega Genesis controllers work3) My Genesis cartridges work4) Packed-in genesis games play as good as their physical counterpartsCons:1) Infrared controllers2) Sound is poor quality and wrong pitchThe cons greatly outweigh the pros, even though there are more "pros" than "cons."The fact that they made these controllers infrared limits their usefulness - or more accurately, renders them useless - because IR requires a clear line of sight and is not exactly known for responsiveness. IR works great for TV remotes because reflexive and repetitive button pressing is not required for watching TV. They simply made the controllers IR to cut costs and say they have wireless controllers. It would have been just as cheap (and more reliable) if they'd packed in wired controllers. After reading the reviews, I didn't even bother with putting the batteries in...I simply know better.The sound chip is tuned to the wrong frequency. For those less technically inclined, it means that everything (music and sound effects) play at a lower pitch than normal, like a cassette walkman when the batteries are low. It might play at the right tempo, but the pitch is distinctly lower. For folks that used to own a Genesis, or played the Genesis collections that have come out over the past 10 years, this is very distracting.That said, I put in my Ghouls & Ghosts cartridge and my Sega Genesis controller, and gave the system a system a legitimate go. The lower-pitch music made the game more haunting and creepy, but some of the higher-pitched sound effects (or sounds that were SUPPOSED to be higher-pitch) were crackly as the poor sound chip tried to crunch them out. The buttons were sometimes non-responsive, but that is likely because my controller is from 1990.After playing a couple stages in Ghouls & Ghosts, I played Sonic & Knuckles on the system itself. Navigating the menus was simple and straightforward. Each game had a brief description, instructions, and a screen shot of their respective games. Given the general cheap quality of this system, I feel like some kind of effort did go into making it a reality.I don't dislike the system, but I can't in good conscience recommend it. Paying $35 for wrong-sounding games, even with the packed-in games as a bonus, just isn't worth it when you can buy Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection on PS3/360 for $10 and an old Sega Genesis off of ebay for $10.This console would be perfect if they had:A) Done quality testing to recognize the sound chip was wrongB) Included 2.4 GHz wireless controllers or wired controllers.I don't dislike it enough to return it, but I will say that the pricepoint doesn't warrant the sacrifices made on the manufacturer's part, and so I have to give this console a 2-star rating for the two "cons" of this console, and take a third star off for the cut corners.

Ok...first...I saw this at Walgreens (?!?!) right before Christmas for HALF what the 'holiday price' was on Amazon...But...this is a sweet little combo console. It comes with 80 games in memory (ok...85% are not that good but they're there). AND...it takes Genesis carts. This is much cheaper than buying an old gaming system..and it's got modern connectors in back.If you're looking for an inexpensive game system to throw in a guest bedroom for the grandkids...or want to recapture you're glory days from the late 80s...this is the console for you.Recommend it for what it is....