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    I've noticed before you like Magical Hat, I always did too, it was just zany enough. I have the MD game stored somewhere.

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      I looooove magical hat everything about it i totally adore, the box art is amazing the character is really pleasing and the controls are spot on. Plus it's weird & wacky, for me it's the best platform game on the system. I always get a thrill sproinging off those flagpoles milking those extra lives.

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        Originally posted by importaku View Post
        I looooove magical hat everything about it i totally adore, the box art is amazing the character is really pleasing and the controls are spot on. Plus it's weird & wacky, for me it's the best platform game on the system. I always get a thrill sproinging off those flagpoles milking those extra lives.
        Haha I was going to mention the poles but I didn't... I also used to love the secret items in Super Shinobi, still knew them when I played it 2 decades later, I would randomly want to jump in the air and fire and 'pow' I'd get a power up. We all grew up with cartoons animated in Japan but titles like this and Devil Crash really made me appreciate their 80s and 90s art, music and atmosphere. I didn't like what they did with Decap Attack (spelling?). I know why, but the drab colours just are the polar opposite of the original. I'm still laughing that all these years back I would pick up the strangest looking games by box art and they were often really good.

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          Originally posted by importaku View Post
          Guess who has been hacking this morning.

          Magical magical haaaaato


          it supports putting the title names in japanese so thats one less hassle, have yet to play around with all setting to see if anything can be done with scanlines but for now i can add the games i really love and fill in the missing gaps. Works like the snes where you can store games on internal nand. Image adding and spines work correctly too im glad i put in the prepwork in tracking down the covers & spines

          edit) just checked scanlines, nope still llook terrible as ever. Something for later down the line to be fixed.
          Did the bundled USB cable work for you or did you have to use another?

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            Originally posted by Jaz View Post
            Did the bundled USB cable work for you or did you have to use another?
            No you are specifically told in the installation instructions on the website not to use the supplied USB cable as it doesn't have any data lines in it so you will need to find another micro USB cable to do the hack.

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              Originally posted by importaku View Post
              No you are specifically told in the installation instructions on the website not to use the supplied USB cable as it doesn't have any data lines in it so you will need to find another micro USB cable to do the hack.
              Yeah I saw that but wondered if it was true. Seems odd.

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                Hakchi now supports the Genesis mini with full UI integration.

                Thank ****. Lunar bricked my console and it took me a long time to get it back to stock.

                Hakchi works like a charm.

                I just hope patches are released for the few games that don't seem to work with the stock emulator.

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                  Originally posted by Jaz View Post
                  Lunar bricked my console and it took me a long time to get it back to stock.
                  Do you know what caused this? I thought they'd gone out of their way to make sure Lunar would not brick systems? How did you restore it to stock?

                  Bit worried about trying it now myself.

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                    Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
                    Do you know what caused this? I thought they'd gone out of their way to make sure Lunar would not brick systems? How did you restore it to stock?

                    Bit worried about trying it now myself.
                    During the install it went into a recovery mode by itself. Then the unit wouldn't boot. I had to rerun the installer and then pull the plug when it said rebooting. Seems to be fine now. Cost me many hours. And I have modded a SNES mini, SFAM mini, NES mini, PS3 etc so I'm not an idiot.

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                      So I hacked it and...

                      Wow, the audio is truly terrible in the stock emulator, noticeable on games like 007 The Duel and Mercs. But the graphics are OK once you disable bilinear filtering.

                      I tried RetroArch and the audo seems flawless to me. Plus the there's the option for CRT style shaders. Except... I spent the last 45 minutes fiddling with the menus and am no closer to getting anywhere near what I'd call decent.

                      Does anyone have any pre-made config files they just upload and I can bung on the machine?

                      For starters, with shaders disabled, RetroArch produces a hideous shimmer effect, both vertical and horizontal. This is obviously because it's not outputting at the correct upscaled native resolution. Meaning there's a few X and Y pixel columns which are doubled. You can see it on any game which has a pixel chequered pattern to produce pseudo-transparencies (Ranger-X for example).

                      So how do I make it produce an upscale but correct pixel ratio image such as the stock emulator produces? This should be basic stuff and it's so complicated trying to use the menu that I can't do it.

                      Next, what shaders do people recommend for a 720p HDTV? I tried a few, but the right side of the screen ended up with a lot of distortion. I really just want a mild, subtle scanline effect. Nothing fancy.

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                        @Sketcz

                        In RetroArch, go into the video options and choose 'Integer Scale'. Also, make sure the aspect ratio is correct., and save the settings before leaving.

                        You might have a small border at the top and bottom of the image because of 'integer', but it should remove any shimmering etc...

                        It's good to know you can now mod the MD Mini and improve the emulation and add decent scanlines. I'll probably buy one.
                        Last edited by Leon Retro; 30-01-2020, 15:17.

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                          Cheers. That fixed it. Integers on, 1:1 scaling x4, and in the bezels and overlays section, a scanlines overlay. It's not as nice as the SNES Mini scanlines, but it's just about serviceable.

                          I tried messing with the shaders, but loading Shader Presets causes it to crash, while manually setting up the shaders causes a crash 50% of the time, and the rest it looks awful (and yes, I made sure to turn off overlays since they conflict with shaders on this).

                          I guess I'm stuck with RetroArch until someone works out how to fix the scanlines in the stock emu. I played a few games, but went back to my SNES Mini since I enjoy it more.

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                            Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
                            Cheers. That fixed it. Integers on, 1:1 scaling x4,
                            It's nice when the shimmering and other nasties disappear.

                            I still use my SNES Mini and Pi quite a bit, but I'll grab a Mega Drive Mini at some point. It is a nice looking bit of kit.

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                              Currently available for £53-£55, depending on where you choose to purchase from.

                              Now that it's been available for a little over four months, the Sega Mega Drive Mini has been reduced to £55 or under a…

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                                Just took delivery of one of these today; finally went for one. Currently £48 on Amazon. Very LTTP but I think this is the best 'mini' I've tried (NES, SNES, PlayStation). Certainly the equal of the Nintendo efforts.

                                Only issue was the CRT filter, which did make my eyes go funny - something I've not experienced with filters before. I last owned a MD2 with the 6-button controller, so picking up the original 3-button controller again was such a nostalgia rush to my first MD. One benefit of this lock-down has been re-familiarising myself with my old Xbox, PS2, Wii, NES/SNES minis and Pimiga (on Pi 3B+).

                                Fantastic and really high hopes for the PC-Engine Mini. Although I don't like the £99 price on Amazon.

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