The Game Gadget

[alistair_thomas]

I've just been having a browse on the website, and I have to agree that things do look a little troublesome at present. From what I can gather, you would potentially be spending the best part of £100 on a handheld Megadrive emulator, capable of playing only thirty (somewhat questionable) games.

That said, Eternal Champions? If I had money to burn, that would be tempting

[mainvein]

if they a fiver for MD games then i wonder how much they want for the proposed saturn games in the future?
isnt the SNK machine going to be around the 4 to 500 mark?

[jcdentont1000]

They can't have it both ways. They should either be making their money on the hardware OR the software - not both. Expensive hardware with very cheap software (the model they tried to implement with the PSP Go) OR cheap hardware with more expensive software (the Nintendo model).

If the console was priced at £35 and sold at, say, a £10 loss per unit, they could claim it back in those first two £4.99's, that the hypothetical owner is quite willing to pay to have the few games they are desperate to own again. If it is sold at £80, a £35 profit per unit and sold the games at £1.99, the software margin isn't huge and they'd need to sell a lot more games than at a higher price point, but the initial cost for a new, relatively unsupported system is very prohibitve and off-putting for the more casual gamer (I'd not pay more than £40 for something which may bomb).

Obviously I am only speculating about the manufacturing costs of the hardware, but as I understand it, the machine is essentially an emulator software porting costs are basically nil, making each of those £4.99's is almost pure profit. BUT by pricing the hardware more than its competitors and the software being frankly overpriced, I can't see this working out at all. The average person can get a quality smartphone app for £1.49-£2.99 without having to buy an additional £80 console.

Seems they have badly, badly ballsed this one up.

[kiwimike]

They can't have it both ways. They should either be making their money on the hardware OR the software - not both. Expensive hardware with very cheap software (the model they tried to implement with the PSP Go) OR cheap hardware with more expensive software (the Nintendo model).

If the console was priced at £35 and sold at, say, a £10 loss per unit, they could claim it back in those first two £4.99's, that the hypothetical owner is quite willing to pay to have the few games they are desperate to own again. If it is sold at £80, a £35 profit per unit and sold the games at £1.99, the software margin isn't huge and they'd need to sell a lot more games than at a higher price point, but the initial cost for a new, relatively unsupported system is very prohibitve and off-putting for the more casual gamer (I'd not pay more than £40 for something which may bomb).

Obviously I am only speculating about the manufacturing costs of the hardware, but as I understand it, the machine is essentially an emulator software porting costs are basically nil, making each of those £4.99's is almost pure profit. BUT by pricing the hardware more than its competitors and the software being frankly overpriced, I can't see this working out at all. The average person can get a quality smartphone app for £1.49-£2.99 without having to buy an additional £80 console.

Seems they have badly, badly ballsed this one up.

Well said...and after they got dream coverage in many industry mags.

Still no reply in regard to upcoming games.

[Lord Innit]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't their description for Virtua Fighter 2 describing the Saturn version rather than the Megadrive version?
http://www.gamegadget.net/games/info_24.html

[DPrinny]

Well spotted.

There is nothing I like about this handheld.
It looks big, buttons look rubbish (four face? some Mega dirve games need six on the front), the D-pad is the annoying PSX stile one and its not exactly good looking

[kiwimike]

Update: Received a reply from Game Gadget powers that be. They apologised for the delay (good start), but then it went downhill.
In answer to my question: All games currently available are up on the website, but the good news is everything is free atm! In other words, those megadrive ones.
They went on: More downloads will be available in the upcoming weeks. That's it. No details, of what, from what system, or when, or how much.

Will spend a few bucks and get the ultimate MD collection for 360 instead. I'm not investing that much in what is effectively vapourware. They're expecting you to pay that much for a machine with no guarantee of what is available when?! Disappointed, and will keep an eye on it in case things change...for now, no thanks.

[kiwimike]

Just sent a reply, expressing my concerns in regard to no announced upcoming titles, and my unease about that. Invited him to pop onto this topic if he wished to address concerns to anyone interested.

[Dirkshirt]

I just received the Gamegadet in the mail today. Serial number 00063. (That is my first worry. I hope it doesn't mean what I think because if so there sales will be in the toliet). It came with a free pair of headphones. Why? A small software bug with the sound. All you have to do is plug in a pair of headphones each time you turn it on. No joke. When they said cheep hardware I guess I didn't realize how cheap they meant. Oh, well. It gets better.......... I turn it on and it says you must register your device online before you can use it. So I go online and there is no software to register the device. They are working on it and will email me when they have it finished. This is no joke. I had almost decided to throw it against the wall for fun when I though well maybe someone will hack it and I can install MAME or other ROMS and emulators on it. Then I realized that more then 4 people would have to own the device for that to happen. DO NOT BUY THIS. And it's a lot bigger of a device the pictures make it look and it's cheaply made....... Oh ya and it comes with no software so you can't use it. The funny thing is and this is a quote from the letter they sent me with the device "The bug created a big dilemma for us, but we wanted to hit the street date, as closely as possible. We have express delivered the stock from Asia in record time at significant cost. I hope you agree we made the right decision." They just forgot to say that you can't use the device because we forgot to finish the software and put it on our site. Here is the link http://www.gamegadget.net/activation/info_9.html
I'm sure it will be up someday. I'm going back to my dingoo a320.

[kiwimike]

I just received the Gamegadet in the mail today. Serial number 00063. (That is my first worry. I hope it doesn't mean what I think because if so there sales will be in the toliet). It came with a free pair of headphones. Why? A small software bug with the sound. All you have to do is plug in a pair of headphones each time you turn it on. No joke. When they said cheep hardware I guess I didn't realize how cheap they meant. Oh, well. It gets better.......... I turn it on and it says you must register your device online before you can use it. So I go online and there is no software to register the device. They are working on it and will email me when they have it finished. This is no joke. I had almost decided to throw it against the wall for fun when I though well maybe someone will hack it and I can install MAME or other ROMS and emulators on it. Then I realized that more then 4 people would have to own the device for that to happen. DO NOT BUY THIS. And it's a lot bigger of a device the pictures make it look and it's cheaply made....... Oh ya and it comes with no software so you can't use it. The funny thing is and this is a quote from the letter they sent me with the device "The bug created a big dilemma for us, but we wanted to hit the street date, as closely as possible. We have express delivered the stock from Asia in record time at significant cost. I hope you agree we made the right decision." They just forgot to say that you can't use the device because we forgot to finish the software and put it on our site. Here is the link http://www.gamegadget.net/activation/info_9.html
I'm sure it will be up someday. I'm going back to my dingoo a320.

Holy **** that is terrible. You should get a refund mate.

It sounded so good...In my head, I had this idea I'd have this handheld with a perfect 'itunes for gaming' (as the buzz went). I'd get online, and think, Hmm, I'll get Back to Skool, Scuba Dive, Sabateur from the Specc, Sentinal, Last Ninja and Uridium from C64, Road Rash 2 & SOR 2 from MD, some NES/MS classics, let's see what Atari classics they have here...
The reality is somewhat different by the sounds...

[alistair_thomas]

That does not sound promising at all, shocking in fact. Imagine if Sony released the PS3 and then said 'by the way, there's no disc drive yet but we'll send you one soon!'

Surely any decent company would have postponed the product until it was 100% ready to go? This certainly won't do them any favours.

[kiwimike]

Update: Nothing. When I asked for specifics...the 'line went dead'...

I would advise caution about these by the looks, there's something not quite smoothly organised behind the scenes...

Anyone else bought into these? Whats the verdict? Anyone wanted a refund- and was it much hassle?

I just found it interesting I got a quick reply with vague stuff...but when I wanted further info they weren't interested in communicating. So let's see what the SNK H/H's like...

[flying_delorean81]

I was curious about this handheld, it's definitely a good idea on paper. Seems to have been executed terribly though, so I'll steer well clear

[kiwimike]

Update: Nothing. You are obviously supposed to buy it without questioning what games will be available when

[Nemesis]

Sigh, I was really hoping for the best about this when it was supposed to be based around the I-tunes download model. Lots of cheap retro games with plenty of variety. However, I guess Blaze aren't Apple. Shame, I hope more information is released soon to allay my fears for this venture.