Thread by @gosokkyu

Sega's classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari spoke to Famitsu about the Mega Drive Mini 2 famitsu.com/news/202206/03…🇯🇵

https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1532712532804534272

on the reception to the OG MD Mini: when Nintendo announced the FC Mini in 2016, Okunari put together a proposal for a MD Mini the very next day; during the pitching process, Nintendo also put out the SFC Mini

bc the MD Mini was designed under the shadow of Nintendo's minis (>)

...they designed it from the perspective of being a latecomer & thinking hard about how they could clear the bar set by Nintendo, which meant going above & beyond

the SFC Mini had 21 games, so they had have 42—they had Starfox 2, so he wanted to add two big bonus games, etc

they initially planned on 30 games, but the number went up because they simply didn't want to have to leave out so many games

re: other minis announced later like the Neogeo Mini, they weren't especially conscious of those as they'd already settled on their plans by then

on the popularity of the included games: he figured a lot of ppl knew of the MD library but hadn't actually played it, and that there were also a lot of diehards, so he chose a lineup with both classics & core games that he hoped would would have at least 70% appeal to both sides

the long story behind the decision to make MD Mini 2: rather than being pitched to mgmt by devs, the OG Mini was basically top-down, with mgmt tapping ppl from different department to assemble a team for the specific purpose of producing the Mini alongside their usual work

Okunari himself was a producer for Sega's Asian branch at the time

right after the OG Mini wrapped up, Okunari returned to his regular work, but then the Game Gear Micro kicked off in another dept & through twists & turns, he ended up being transferred to their dept until 2020

after the OG Mini was a success, the company had a medium-term policy to continue with mini-style projects, and the GG Micro was one such project Okunari took on while also mulling over the next Mini

the GG Micro did well enough that they considered doing another Micro, but...

...then the pandemic drove up the price of semiconductors—their mockup for a second GG Micro cost 1.5x the manufacturing price of the OG Micro; they couldn't afford to sell at the same price & didn't want to bump up the RRP for a second model, so the Micro line ended there

he found himself in a new dept with the task of making new mini hardware but unable to get anything off the ground, so that's where the MD Mini 2 comes in—bc it was an extension of the OG Mini, it seemed more manageable as they had precedents for schedule, manufacturing, etc

he's sure ppl will be like "what about Saturn/Dreamcast Mini?" & it's not like they didn't explore the idea—the MD Mini's internals can't adequately handle Saturn games, and both developing and manufacturing new chipsets during the pandemic is a difficult & expensive process

...so, even if they'd forged ahead with a Saturn Mini anyway, it might've been extremely expensive—he jokes that he might like to release a mini that costs as much as an authentic modern console

so from there, the MD Mini 2 was officially underway... or not, as once they started procuring parts, they started becoming even more scarce & expensive and the mini project was put on ice once again

ultimately, they decided to just do it anyway, using whatever parts they could acquire for a decent launch, and so they're going into the Mini 2 with a much lower production run than anticipated, which they intend to focus on stocking within Japan

the interviewer's like "but didn't the Mini sell more overseas?" & Okunari says yeah, it sold way more units in NA/EU, and they do plan to sell them overseas, but their focus is on Japan where they know the market …but even so, there won't be as many available units as last time

the OG Mini was handled quite well in Japan, sales-wise—they were able to accurately stock them in line with demand & it stayed within the target price range, with no clearance sales or massive markups, & even with the lower unit number, they're confident they can do it again

on why they went with the mini MD2 design; if cost was an issue, why not reuse the old Mini shells?

Okunari acknowledges that the MD1 design is more recognisable, but part of the appeal of the Minis is their toyetic nature & reproducing all the little hardware design gimmicks

the big issue is that the MD Mini 2's even smaller than the MD Mini & there was a concern that the internals wouldn't fit, but the designers (the same ones who worked on the OG Mini) were able to slim it down a little—once they knew it'd fit, MD Mini 2 was a lock

the interviewer asks if he ever considered making a "Wondermega Mini" if he couldn't get the old internals to fit; Okunari says the Wondermega's more of a Victor product, so he wouldn't been more inclined to release a mini MD2+MCD as a bundle & put the internals in the mini MCD

on the price, which is slightly higher than that of the OG Mini: it's increased for many reasons—not only has the chipset improved but they also need more memory to fit the MCD games, and the pandemic naturally drives up the cost of components, shipping, etc

they're also including more games than last time, so he thinks the price will be justified in the eyes of the fans... but of course, that's all dependent on how they take to the final lineup, much of which has yet to be announced

on whether there's any particular part of the hardware design he wants ppl to notice, he points out the cartridge slot—he was worried you wouldn't actually be able to stick mini carts in there due to the internals being so jam-packed, but they managed to make it happen

ofc, it maintains compatibility with the OG Tower Mini, and they're also producing a Tower Mini 2—the size difference between real MD/MCD & MD2/MCD2 + 32X necessitated plastic extensions to accommodate gaps or protrusions, and they've made mini versions of those too

adding those spacers was a no-brainer for everyone involved; Okunari jokes that they're only useful for people who own the OG Mini & Tower Mini, so to those who are only going to own the MD Mini 2 & Tower 2, he's sorry for saddling them with the extra plastic

on hardware elements of the MCD2 Mini that he wants ppl to notice, he points out that you can actually put a mini disc in there—bc the MCD1 is a front-loaded, making it open would've necessitated a motor, but the MCD2's a top-loader so he could make it open with a simple button

on why it's called "Tower" despite not really being a tower: easy-to-grasp naming convention, basically

on whether the MCD2 will have a paper PCB inside a la the MCD1 Mini: he didn't even know the design team had done that the last time, and he's heard nothing this time, too

on how hardware/software compares to the OG Mini: the hardware's all the same, with the only difference being that they're only selling it with one controller, but it's compatible with controllers from the previous MD Mini

on the software side, there are two additions:

an audio setting to set the FM levels to match either the MD1 or MD2

a setting to handle the mode button, which brings up the main menu (& is something ppl accidentally press): you can disable it, set it to hold instead of tap, etc

as with last time, there's an MD Mini 2 DX pack on ebten: it comes with 18 mini replica cartridges & 2 mini replica CDs plus a display frame, but because most of the games haven't been announced yet, they're not currently pictured ebten.jp/sega/p/7015022…🇯🇵

on the first batch of announced games: without tooting his own horn, Okunari thinks the OG Mini had a good lineup of classics, fan favs & historically important games... which meant that all the obvious games were already used and they couldn't run the same playbook again

this time, Okunari decided to focus squarely on Mega Drive fans—they wouldn't typically narrow their focus, as they want to make broadly appealing products for everyone, but knowing that shipping numbers would be low, they aimed to satisfy that particular market segment

on supporting Mega CD games: M2, the company in charge of the software, had been surreptitiously working on MCD emulation on their own, so when Okunari casually mentioned the prospect of including MCD games on a potential second MD Mini, they were like, "yeah, already on it"

when M2 told him they'd gotten MCD emulation to the point where it'd be feasible, it essentially clinched the MD Mini 2, as having MCD games was a big, obvious differentiator from the OG Mini

the issue was that, in the 18 years that Okunari & M2 had worked together, they'd...

...never once worked on MCD reissues, so just getting the basic framework up and running took a while, and they were also required to individually analyse each game—at the pace they were working, there was no way they'd be able to include 50 MCD games

M2 asked that they narrow down the included number of MCD games to something more manageable; Okunari asked "what do you think you can handle?" & they said "around 15 games", and then he asked "what if you go all out?" & they said "20..." so he was immediately like "20 it is"

...so, it's confirmed that 20 of the 50+ games are MCD games—any more than that and they'd be at it for the rest of time

unlike, say, the PC Engine CD which is basically just a CD drive and not much else, the MCD has a second CPU & other extra hardware that have to be emulated

incidentally, they didn't include any 32X games for similar reasons—the 32X's dual processors put it off the table; those processors are in the Saturn, so if they could've pulled off 32X, maybe a Saturn Mini could've been possible

(he's being glib, Saturn has way more junk)

on the increase in games, from 42 to "50+": adding so many games & bonuses isn't easy, but the decision was made in tandem with the higher RRP—ppl reading interviews like these might understand the price increase, but the easiest way to justify it is to just add more games

another factor is that he never thought he'd be making a second MD Mini and he doesn't expect to make another one after this, so there's an element of just trying to throw in as much as possible while he has the chance

M2 was like "the MCD games might be tough, but the cartridge games should be fine…" but even some of those have caused issues

on selecting MCD games: most haven't played MCD at all, nor have many MCD games been reissued, so he's picking all the masterpieces he wants ppl to play

ofc individuals will have their own preferences, but he thought of Silpheed as one of the marquee MCD games and made a point of announcing that game first—he also figured it'd be tough to emulate & had M2 work on it first; "if Silpheed can work, anything else'll work too"

Magical Taruruuto-kun, a licensed anime game, was another surprise—they included Yu Yu Hakusho on the OG Mini & while it was a particular pain to include, the response was so great that they knew they had to keep it up & announced Taruruuto off the rip as a statement of intent

Virtua Racing is a game they considered for the OG Mini but gave up on due to scheduling & performance issues, but this time... "well, if you can do MCD now, you can make VR happen, right?"

VR's SVP co-processor, which had to be fully analysed, was only used for this one game

on the bonus games indicated by "50+": Okunari's blunt about saying that the OG Mini's bonuses, Tetris and Darius, were a miracle convergence of different factors, including the generosity of licensors, so people shouldn't expect them to match or exceed those bombshells

that said, being that this is a sequel Mini & ppl are naturally going to expect something along those lines, they did meet expectations with a fresh MD port of Fantasy Zone—like Darius, this was ported from scratch by OB/GYN-by-day, programmer-by-night Hideki Konishi (hidecade)

on M2's side, the Fantasy Zone port is being supervised by Kazuki Kubota, who's recently directed their M2 ShotTriggers series—he's a FZ expert & fanatic who's helped them out since the Sega Ages FZ PS2 collection & eventually ended up working for M2, so he's sweating the details

Okunari basically left the port to them, but he did request that they add a "super easy mode", as Fantasy Zone has unique systems that can make the game quite tough until you grasp them

when the Mini 2 was greenlit, Okunari went back to Konishi, as they knew he'd been working on Fantasy Zone on his own & figured they'd make it official—they were tossing up between FZ & Darius for the OG Mini, actually, but Okunari picked Darius bc they already had Super FZ

in the event that Taito had've refused their request to include the Darius port on the OG Mini, they might've ended up including a Fantasy Zone port instead, but Okunari doesn't believe it would've been up to the standard of quality they've managed to hit right now

Okunari's stressing that the extras in the Mini 2 are more like "bonuses" than bombshells, but he's doing his best to please ppl

his personal goal with the Mini 2 is delivering on things he couldn't achieve prior, and he thinks ppl will see that reflected in future announcements

finally, while Okunari approached the OG Mini like a one-off celebration, he's approaching the Mini 2 as a way to cement these minis as a series—even within Sega, ppl are unsure about whether this one will hit like the OG or not, so he hopes ppl order over the next few months

...and that's that, sorry if I missed anything, AM brain