QCF: Sega Astro City Mini

here Names like Nintendo, Atari, and SEGA respectively boast a large zenith of the home console market between themselves the past thirty years, no brand commanded a foothold in the coin-operated world of Arcade gaming quite like SEGA did. Beyond the global hits like Golden Axe, Space Harrier, and Virtua Fighter, the Japanese Gaming giant spanned a wide array of genres and gimmicks that redefined the arcade scene with Astro City line of Arcade cabinets. The horsepower behind their intricate PCB boards made way for unique experiences that deployed a wide array of technical marvels that set them apart from their upright peers like super scaling graphics, over-the-top, and JAMMA quality stereo sound.

As the preservation for Arcade software gets harder with each passing year, SEGA took to celebrating its 60th anniversary with a bang with the release of the Astro City Cab Mini—a scaled-down take of their signature 1993 arcade cabinet that’s packed with 37 games that shaped SEGA’s storied legacy of its quarter-fueled library. While it’s a shame that the retro gaming wizards at M2 weren’t programmers for this nifty little machine, the unit’s nostalgic design and collection of titles more than make up for its above-average emulation.

One of the appeals of Arcade gaming is the proprietary architecture of the units themselves, and none are more pleasing to the eye than the sleek design of the Astro City Cabinet, earning it the nickname “candy Cab” because of just how sweet they are to look at.  Thankfully, the AC Mini nails the aesthetics by nailing down all of the same curves, decals, and neon light marquee of its big sibling. There are even optional accessories to dress up the machine into being more than a tabletop device, wherewith the option of a Coin-Paneled Riser and companion stool to give it that authentic Akihabara look and feel. Just like the NEO•GEO Mini, the unit can either be played as a stand-alone unit, or a plug-n-play console with an HDMI out that outputs at 720p resolution, and USB Hub to plug in proprietary external controller options, and the performance slightly varies between the two modes, for better or worse.

For starters, it’s important to note that this machine wasn’t programmed by the masterminds at M2, and was instead, developed internally by SEGA themselves. Where M2 isn’t the “end-all-be-all” standard in emulation that they’re propped up to be (especially when you take the TurbGrafx16 Mini into account) their pedigree still has no equal, so needless to say I was a bit apprehensive about the overall operation of the thing—until I spent some time with it, and learned I was mercifully wrong to worry. One of the coolest things about this device (and what determined whether or not I should do the review in all honesty) is just how import-friendly it is. At initial startup, players will have access to many different language settings for the operation much like the Sega Genesis Mini, making navigation and selection a great deal easier for anyone playing the Cab outside of Japan. The one bummer is that the region of the games included are the Japanese version, regardless of language preference, so some of the more text-heavy games won’t do anything for those not familiar with Japanese text. Examining the visuals in its tabletop setup, the arrangement is a little awkward but serviceable. Despite the 4-inch real estate of the native display area, the vertical scaling is only 3 inches, and since all the games included are portrayed at a 4:3 aspect ratio, the surrounding bezel space is a little thicker than it should, giving off this illusion of screen crunch on the main display.

Ironically, SEGA came at the emulation with a very Nintendo-like mindset, because each game appears to be emulated by their own proprietary emulator. I say appears because I can’t definitively make that conclusion, my personal experience with emulation allows me to discern a few of the telltale signs that allude to such a case, along with it making the most logical sense when you factor the wide variety of software that’s loaded on to the Cab. A majority of the games have great emulation, running the Arcade-perfect version with little, to concession to the operation of the game. Virtua Fighter is especially impressive, and is notable for being the genuine arcade version, an iteration that never saw release for the home in any format, despite the numerous re-releases and bundles that the game has been a part of. The title animates at 30 frames a second like the original upright, showcasing the high-end character models and their excessive polygon counts in high definition without any slowdown or jittering in the process. The Super Scaler games like Space Harrier, Dark Edge, Rad Mobile, and Arabian Fight are a different story though, as there have been moments of noticeable screen-tearing during points of the game where there’s a lot happening on screen. Weirdly enough, the games still animate at 60 frames without any drops, or slowdown though—even so, the faint points in which the graphics split during scaling transitions are minimal enough that only the arcade purist will be able to discern them when they happen. Of all the games in the lineup, the few that do suffer from subpar emulation issues are the Westone titles. Wonder Boy, Monster Land, and Monster Lair are plagued with frequent bouts of pixel shimmering and sound inaccuracies that make these renditions wildly inferior to the real thing. Not to say that they aren’t playable by any means, but out of the 37 titles included, these titles are the ones that seemed to have struggled on a technical level more than any of the other games packaged with the Mini.

On the control front, the joystick and button response of the unit itself is phenomenal, implementing micro-switch components in their inputs for a layout that accurately represents the control panel of a real Astro City. All the clicky responses, smooth detection, and twitchy movement of the joystick’s octagonal gate have the same quality as its counterpart, driving home that signature feel no matter what game you’re playing. The drawback, however, is the placement of the Stick in relation to the button as it’s all a little too compact, which will especially annoy those with sizable mitts, leading to some fierce hand cramps after lengthy playtime.

The unit does allow the option of plugging in external controllers when it’s in the Tabletop setting though, which brings the two main options into play, the Astro City Control Pad, and the Arcade Stick, complete with actual Sanwa Denshi parts in its design. I can’t stress just how precise the production quality of the stick, with a look and touch that’s nothing short of sawing off a bonafide Astro City Panel, and slapping a USB cable on the back of it. The Arcade Stick as impressive as it is, however, is unreasonably expensive, coming in at the same cost of the Astro City Mini console itself, which is a shame because it limits a lot of the appeal for the casual demographic that might want to check out the arcade experience it’s trying to sell. The Control Pad is a far more affordable option coming in just under a $30 price tag, and arguably, a more accessible option because the quality of the pad is deceptively better than it may appear at first glance. The controller’s size and shape not only offer a great grip, but the floating directional pad wonderfully juxtaposes the sensations of an 8-way D-Pad on an octagonal gate for a result that makes the best of both worlds. As enjoyable as these external control options are, they’re also the only options that you have, which is bizarrely shortsighted (and cash-grabby) of SEGA considering all of the options a USB input is afforded to the machine.

As ergonomic as the control options may be, however, how they play and respond to the action on-screen is what’s really important, and thankfully, the input latency is mostly negligible, even with reaction-intensive games like Virtua Fighter and Thunder Force AC that demand receptive control from its players. Digital emulation of course will never be one-on-one with the analog original, but the latency is nowhere near as rough as some of the other retro mini’s on the market, and is an overall splendid utilization of the tech on board for the machine.

Now that all of the particulars have been covered on the Astro City Cab Mini, we come down to the games, the real attraction to the piece; well, it’s safe to say that several killer apps really make the Astro City Cab Mini worth owning.

Although I already covered a good number of them when talking about the emulation quality of the Cab, I really want to drive home one huge factor with a lot of these titles; this is the first time they’re getting a commercial release for the home market from the Big S. The only way these games have been accessible before this was from community emulation, and now they’re her it an official production-value to their emulation.

Games like Arabian Fight, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder, and Dark Edge have never left the flashing-light corridors of the Arcade, and are welcome additions to a solid list of titles. Other standouts include the arcade versions of games like Fantastic Nights: Cotton and Thunder Force, Quartet, and Shadow Dancer—all of which have had successful, but admittedly compromised console ports across different platforms can now be played in their most advanced form. Aside from the staples in attendance, the list isn’t perfect as there are a few notable games absent from the list. Iconic titles like After Burner, Outrun, Super Hang-On, and Virtua Fighter 2 are nowhere to be found—with no real reason as to why they weren’t included, especially when you look at some of the games that were (SonicBoom and Ichidant-R come to mind.)

Just like other Mini replicas before it, the Astro City Cab Mini also offers some Quality of life features to modernize the playing experience like save states and rapid-fire turbo input on the other buttons that's normally not used in the game. These features may seem like standards at this point, but they definitely help to curb a lot of the unforgiving Arcade difficulty that these titles are infamous for, especially the rapid-fire options. Speaking of difficulty, that’s one of the biggest flaws in the Astro City’s emulation—there are no additional options for DIP switch settings that affect the difficulty or pace of the game like their PCB brethren.  Everything included is set at the hard-as-shit stock settings they’re known for, with no wiggle room to around them aside from credit-feeding the Free Play mode, and utilizing Save States whenever you can.

Retailing for $120.00 American does make the Astro City Cab Mini a hard sell as a curio piece, but the attention to detail that went into preserving the arcade-sensation of the packaged games is what really sets it apart from a lot of the other miniature retro consoles on the market. SEGA fans owe to themselves to grab the unit, and even those who’re looking to get their feet wet with some of the best gaming the eighties and nineties had to offer—the Sega Astro City Cab Mini is an incredible addition to your entertainment center, and easily the best thing to come out of SEGA’s 6oth Anniversary celebration.