Anyone here ever get a Sega Nomad?

[commanderkaiser]

Just been on google and had a quick search for portable Mega Drives, I didn't even know they existed. They sounded pretty good really, it's a shame it was never released over here.

On that note is there actually any other portable mega drive player available today? (I can totally see why there wouldn't be with emulation and all that but still) I don't mean those blaze things with the games built in I mean a cartridge based one?

[AmigaJay]

I bought Nomad 10 or so years ago, great machine, poor battery life, so use a mains with one! Virtua Racing looks great played on one!

Pretty sure there isn't any other handheld can that play cartridges, unless you mean a Brazilian or Taiwanese knock off!?

[The Laird]

I bought Nomad 10 or so years ago, great machine, poor battery life, so use a mains with one! Virtua Racing looks great played on one!

Pretty sure there isn't any other handheld can that play cartridges, unless you mean a Brazilian or Taiwanese knock off!?

There are some Blaze / (Sh)At Games machines with a cart slot but they are not 100% compatible

[commanderkaiser]

I bought Nomad 10 or so years ago, great machine, poor battery life, so use a mains with one! Virtua Racing looks great played on one!

Pretty sure there isn't any other handheld can that play cartridges, unless you mean a Brazilian or Taiwanese knock off!?

There are some Blaze / (Sh)At Games machines with a cart slot but they are not 100% compatible

I did not know that I thought they all just had the games built in and that was that

[AmigaJay]

I bought Nomad 10 or so years ago, great machine, poor battery life, so use a mains with one! Virtua Racing looks great played on one!

Pretty sure there isn't any other handheld can that play cartridges, unless you mean a Brazilian or Taiwanese knock off!?

There are some Blaze / (Sh)At Games machines with a cart slot but they are not 100% compatible

Yeah but I think he wants a portable one, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Megadrive-Player-Console-Games-built/dp/B003ZJ28HQ that's the one I think your thinking of, I don't think there is a Nomad type remake anywhere?

Edit: after a bit of searching I've found this which was released in the us a couple of years ago http://www.cerebralpop.com/2011/04/tech-review-sega-retrogen.html looks cheap and nasty tbh I would get a Nomad, sure it costs more, but it would be more compatible and you would own a nice piece of Sega history and not some cheap clone!

[adippm82]

I rather like my Nomad, it does not have the prestige of something like the PC Engine GT, and it is not the most attractive machine in the world, but it has a pretty good screen, if a little blurry, and a huge speaker to blast out sound with.

What is really cool though is it can be connected up to a TV, and being an American machine it plays the games at full speed and with no borders, it even has a joypad port for a second player.

It also does not seem to suffer with the Game Gears awful capacitor problem, I at least still have a nice bright screen and blasting sound.

I have no idea how much they go for these days, mine cost £111 pounds on e-bay with 12 games, but that was a long time ago.

It is a great machine, but as has already been said, it runs off a battery pack, which lasts for only a couple of hours, so it really has to be run off the mains.

[samhain81]

I don't own one but its always been a desire of mine to get one.

[DreamcastRIP]

I bought my Sega Nomad via eBay a few years back and haven't regretted it for one moment.

Yep, the battery life is atrocious but, in common with my Lynx and Game Gear, I play it off the mains anyway.

It may be a bit ungainly and not exactly the most ergonomic handheld device out there but other than that I rate it highly. The screen, although understandably not great by todays standards, is nice enough and certainly doesn't have the godawful motion blur which blighted Game Gear. I'm aware that it's possible to replace the screen with a better more modern one but have resisted the temptation so far for various reasons.

The d-pad is outrageously good and the six action buttons are responsive and well placed. I've not yet played on Nomad in two-player mode but the inclusion of the controller port so to be able to plug in a standard Mega Drive controller was a stroke of genius, imho. Two-player gaming might be a bit cramped when viewed on the system's own screen but when on a TV screen it'd be just the same as using a Mega Drive (or Genesis, to be more correct).

One real highlight, for me at least, is that when hooking Nomad up to my TV screen (via the same RGB SCART lead I used with my Mega Drive II) I can play games at full speed/60Hz. Going back to playing the likes of Sonic The Hedgehog at 50Hz on my PAL Mega Drive is now a painful experience so I now use Nomad to play all my compatible Mega Drive cartridges and only my Mega Drive when wanting to play Mega-CD and/or 32X games.

[ShadowMan]

I've got a modded one so it outputs in both 50 and 60hz (handy mainly just for getting around region protection on stuff like Probotector and Megaman Wily Wars) and I really like it. As others have mentioned the battery life isn't the best (it lasted about long enough for me to clear Sonic 3 and Knuckles with all the emeralds) but its a superb handheld none the less as I can pretty much play my entire MD collection on the handheld (or connect it up to a TV if I want).

[Jay]

I've got a modded one so it outputs in both 50 and 60hz (handy mainly just for getting around region protection on stuff like Probotector and Megaman Wily Wars) and I really like it. As others have mentioned the battery life isn't the best (it lasted about long enough for me to clear Sonic 3 and Knuckles with all the emeralds) but its a superb handheld none the less as I can pretty much play my entire MD collection on the handheld (or connect it up to a TV if I want).

I've got a modded one too. A switch for 50/60hz and region change on the mode button. It's a lovely machine, which, at the time, had an excellent screen. Now of course the screen doesn't look very good compared to modern systems. Being able to hook it up to a TV is a massive plus.

[RetroBob]

I have one with all the bits, got in on ebay a few years back for £90 which was a bit cheaper than the going rate for complete ones at the time.

It's a cool device although I don't use it much. Currently it's at my parents house, I tend to go to where it's kept once a year, open it up, think "yep, still there" then pack it up again.

[ahb]

I've owned a few nomads in the past there really fun to own and play, they also are quite good little investments ive made a few profits out of them on ebay in the past

i know the battery life is terrible but you can do a battery mod if you know how to those type of things. if you want my advice its better to buy a nomad on the us version of ebay because its cheaper in the us ebay rather then the uk ebay which can be quite expensive.

[killbot]

For years Another World in Nottingham seemed to have a Nomad sitting on their shelf that never seemed to get sold. I was always put off it by reports of poor battery life and a below-par (although better than the GG) screen. I get that I can play it off the mains, but if I'm going to be restricted to playing it at home then why not just, y'know, buy an actual MD?

[DreamcastRIP]

... I get that I can play it off the mains, but if I'm going to be restricted to playing it at home then why not just, y'know, buy an actual MD?

Because,

* It's more portable to transport than a Mega Drive
* It runs most PAL Mega Drive games at full speed/60Hz with no modification necessary - a HUGE plus
* If you already own a Mega Drive II then there's no need to buy another PSU as they both use the same one
* It's oh so cool (!) and as it uses proper Genesis/Mega Drive hardware it doesn't suffer from the 'issues' those nasty Blaze systems do

[nakamura]

They are utterly terrible as a standalone product. Battery life is shocking and far worse than anything nowadays due to not having a lithium battery. The screen is fairly mediocre and the console itself is far far too big to be any good.

That said, still had a lot of fun playing it back in the day.