Sega to release the Astro City Mini - Including Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder

[tehpope]

We may soon be reaching Peak Mini Retro Console. After the excellent Genesis/Mega Drive Mini and the baffling Game Gear Micro, Sega has unveiled an even more improbable product: meet the Astro City Mini.

For those unfamiliar with the original Astro City, it wasn’t a platform per se but a specific sit-down arcade cabinet that operators could buy and install one of a huge variety of game boards inside. Sega developed a whole range of “City” cabinets, with 1993’s Astro City proving to be by far the most ubiquitous and iconic. They’re still a very common sight in Japanese arcades.

As such, the Astro City Mini comes preloaded with a bunch of Sega arcade games. There’ll be 36 in total, and here are the confirmed titles so far, via Game Watch:

• Alien Syndrome
• Alien Storm
• Golden Axe
• Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
• Columns II
• Dark Edge
• Puzzle & Action: Tant-R
• Virtua Fighter
• Fantasy Zone
• Altered Beast

The Astro City Mini looks like a shrunken-down arcade cabinet, similar to the Neo Geo Mini. Unlike that system, though, Sega says that the stick uses proper microswitches, so it should be a lot more satisfying to use. There’s an HDMI-out on the back as well as two USB-A ports, a Micro USB port, and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, there’s no word on whether it’ll have a built-in battery.

The Astro City Mini is set for a release in Japan around the end of the year, and it’ll cost 12,800 yen (about $120.)

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/7/21315726/sega-astro-city-mini-arcade-cabinet-retro-price-japan

If Sega can nail the emulation, then this is GOAT. Hopefully M2 is on board handling the emulation. I hope if it sells well, we can get a stand alone version or a arcade stick edition.

Info on some of the games:

• Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (Arcade only!!!)
• Columns II (Arcade and Saturn only)
• Dark Edge (Arcade only; 2D fighting game with scaling and rotation to make psudo-3D.)
• Puzzle & Action: Tant-R (Arcade, Game Gear, PS2)
• Virtua Fighter (Arcade, Saturn, and 32X. Saturn port was rushed to meet the launch of the Saturn. The 32x Port is the best out of the bunch. Sega did make a Remix version of the game, but its it own thing. There's a 10th Anniversay edition, but its just a skin ontop of VF4.)

The others have had various ports and remakes over the years. Some even arcade perfect. The most exciting release here is The Revenge of Death Adder. Its never been released to the homes and is apparently real fucking good.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Oh so thhhhhhhats what those "weird Japanese style arcade machines" are called. I sort of just figured that was the style over there.

 

[sasazuka]

Alien Storm (Arcade, Micros, and Master Sytem only)

While I know both arcade games are included on the Astro City Mini, I think you're confusing Alien Storm with Alien Syndrome.

Alien Storm got a Sega MegaDrive/Genesis port (as well as a Master System version).

Alien Syndrome never got a MegaDrive/Genesis release (though it surprisingly did get a Nintendo Entertainment System version on Atari's Tengen label in addition to the Master System version. I've never played the NES version but it's supposedly a little closer to the arcade than the Master System version since the NES version had 4-way scrolling while the the ships on the Master System version were split up into screens).

 

[The Real SVP]

"weird Japanese style arcade machines"

They are called candy cabinets.

 

[tehpope]

While I know both arcade games are included on the Astro City Mini, I think you're confusing Alien Storm with Alien Syndrome.

Alien Storm got a Sega MegaDrive/Genesis port (as well as a Master System version).

Alien Syndrome never got a MegaDrive/Genesis release (though it surprisingly did get a Nintendo Entertainment System version on Atari's Tengen label in addition to the Master System version. I've never played the NES version but it's supposedly a little closer to the arcade than the Master System version since the NES version had 4-way scrolling while the the ships on the Master System version were split up into screens).

I was looking on the Sega Retro page for it and didn't notice the link to the separate article for the MD port. Oops.

 

[Myles the Potatophile]

I've always liked these style of cabinets. Dedicated cabinets for games wasn't a thing in Japan like it was in the West. To save space and money, venues would buy these types of cabinets that could be easily reconfigured to swap games and other hardware.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Revenge of Death Adder is interesting. Aesthetic-wise it's fantastic. Gameplay isn't as refined as Golden Ax 1 and 2. The A.I. is just dumb 90% of the time but to make up for this it does shitloads of damage and like to interrupt your combos. So you could be attacking an ogre and they interrupt your string and get their combo that takes half your life bar.

Still better than Golden Ax 3 on the Genesis.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I've always liked these style of cabinets. Dedicated cabinets for games wasn't a thing in Japan like it was in the West. To save space and money, venues would buy these types of cabinets that could be easily reconfigured to swap games and other hardware.

And to hold the ashtrays!