The Sega Nomad

Hey everyone - the flu is going to kill me!

In other words, good news for everyone - especially me, since it means that I can finally get away from the rough coughs, bad sleeps, blocked noses, deaffened ears and general misery I've been going through.


Having said that, plenty of reasons to live!

My Sega Nomad arrived on Friday and I've just won myself a Gizmondo with a slew of games and accessories for £80! Talk about a steal! But that's for another blog (I do say that a lot lol)

No prizes for guessing what this little blog will be about - the sad failure that was the Sega Nomad. I got mine unboxed from America for £50 which I was really chuffed with. Sadly it didn't come with the battery pack for portability so I have to plug it in to use it. Seriously uncool!

Mind you, this handheld is so damn cool, it makes plugs seem cool! The Nomad was released in the mid 90s as a way to help keep the Megadrive alive. It didn't succeed, mainly due to the public's distrust of Sega after the Mega CD and 32X fiascos, and the advent of the Saturn. That doesn't mean the system was rubbish, oh no!

This truthfully was probably the only one of the the Megadrive add-ons that actually is worthy of true, unbiased praise. Why? It was (and still is) one of the few handhelds that have ever been released that supported a console's medium of game. Basically it could play Megadrive cartridges that you owned, and was in every way shape and form a true portable Megadrive.

Oh yeah and it's region free too! That got you interested yet?

I have to say the system is pretty bulky for a 'portable' system - it's pretty damn large, but yet it's still really comfortable to hold and play. Sega remembered what worked with the Game Gear and kept ahold of the hotizontal design so the hands don't get cramp. It has all the buttons that the Megadrive controller had, along with volume and brightness controls and a headphone jack.

The big thing though is that you can also attach a Sega Megadrive controller to the bottom of it and play two player games on the Nomad. NOTHING had that! I can't think of a single handheld that was able to do that without needing another handheld in the mix. Bloody cool, it has to be said!

The screen is far bigger than most handheld screens and is also backlit so you won't be getting a headache anytime soon! However, something I've learned is that select Megadrive games will not work with the handheld unless they're American Genesis versions. This is the case with Ecco: Tides of Time but I don't know about other games released. Finding an American version of the game though isn't a big issue these days; they can be found for a couple of dollars on Ebay easily.

I must admit, playing games like Sonic and PGA Tour GOlf 3 on the Nomad was a joy. They both play exactly like they would on the Megadrive and are no harder to control or play at all! I'm amazed the system didn't take off as it's clear that sega did do things 100% right with the system. I really can't fault it.

Except one thing! Battery Life. I may not have the battery pack but I know the horror stories. The Nomad can only really handle about and hour or so with 6 fresh AA batteries! That is abysmal! I'm glad I've got the bloody plug or the system wouldn't be bloody portable!

This really is a minor niggly flaw though in a rather brilliant handheld system. It really was a powerhouse handheld and the ability to play Megadrive games on the move shouldn't be understated. We still haven't got a portable PS3 or 360 (though they use full size CDs so bit of an issue there anyway).

They aren't too hard to find, but they are hard to find cheaply - but keep looking and you'll find a good deal out there for Nomads without a problem.

Right I need to try and recover some more from the flu so I'm going to watch some comedy on TV and then go to sleep and dream of my new bed arriving! See you all later ;D