
|
Pros:
Traditional cross-shaped D-button. Yes!
Sharp bright backlit TFT Screen.
TV-Out
NES and SEGA games to go.
Very good value for the price, (I paid $30.00 USD and it came with a
free 99 in 1 NES game cart. That is the total price which includes
shipping and it was imported!)
Multi-carts
Cons:
With some people, if they are, Pirated Games would be an issue.
NO SAVE STATES!!!
The MD carts are fragile and tedious to fiddle with to make them
working..
Needs a screen protector.
Game carts extend past the system housing.
TV-out very problematic.
.
The OneStation games come in a nice plastic case while MD games are in
a simple bubble pack.

This is the inside of a OneStation game cart.
The round glob is the NOAC.
TV-Out Feature:
At the right side of
the cartridge port is
the TV-Out jack. This is something that you will not find on any of the
popular handheld systems. I have only the NTSC available to test this,
no PAL. It is supposed to support both, but I have read that there is
some problems with PAL sometimes. It worked great on both of my TV sets
that I tried it on. One is an old Sanyo that needed a box for hook up.
The unit requires Audio Video RCA jacks. The other set is a Panasonic
that has a much higher resolution and sharper screen. It had the jacks
that are required. One has a 19" screen and the other is 27." One must
remember that the NOAC technology does not mimic the NES system
perfectly. On the older TV the games looked better though some of the
colors were off and some did bleed a little at times. The biggest
problem that I had was, some of the game carts would only show up in
"black and white." Going to a smaller TV screen solved this. I would
suggest 13" or smaller. I had only one game cart where screen size did
not matter. I never got any of the Sega carts to show up in color. The
games look their best and shine on the OneStation's screen, in my
opinion. All of the NES game carts worked in color on my small 5" LCD
screen that I have attached to my PS1.
|
 |
Games:
The carts, that
contain the games, are multi-carts. Meaning that there are more than
one game included on each cart. I have seen carts available with as
little as 2 and some with as much as 101 games included on a single
cart. The MD carts being the carts with the fewer games. There seems to
be four categories of games; NES, SEGA Genesis, Gameboy, and
JungleTac's own original games. An NES cart contains a miniature NES on
a chip and a specific number of games. Among the NES sometimes you may
find a Gameboy game mixed in, like Donkey Kong Country 2. Try
playing that through without a save feature.
The SEGA Genesis games need the MD Converter
to enable you to play them on the OneStation. The converter contains
the SEGA Genesis on a chip and the individual carts contain only the
games. My guess, as a reason for this, is that maybe it is a bit more
expensive to produce the "SEGA on a chip." They seem to be trying to
keep within a certain price point. The design, for the SEGA carts,
causes the games carts to be very tiny and fragile. The thin PC board
connectors, unlike the NES carts, stick out past the plastic housing
leaving them unprotected and maybe easily damaged. Ironically the NES
game carts come in a nice little protective plastic storage case and
the MD carts, that I have found, only have a flimsy soft plastic sleeve
for storage. One could store them in the original packaging, which is
an open and closeable bubble pack
The NES games seem to be mostly from early in
the system's lifespan and they are the "original" NES games. A lot of
the games are arcade type games, along with games like the first Super
Mario, Super Contra, Jetsons, etc. The SEGA games are the "original"
games but, not as many titles are available compared to the NES.
Outrun, Sonic, Tinytoon Adventures, Batman & Robin, Steel Empire,
to name a few. The biggest problem with purchasing more than one cart
is repeats of games. You may end up with repeats of some games that are
on the previous cart that you have. Some carts have a better mix than
others. This might be just personal preference though. One would be
wise to study the contents of the game list on the carts before
purchasing.
The biggest thing to consider about the games
is that it is retro gaming. Nothing new, just old fashion dated games.
If you like the old stuff, NES, SEGA, then you are going to have fun.
Another thing to think about is that there
does not seem to be any permission from or credit given to Nintendo, or
SEGA, to use or market their stuff. But then again I do not read
Chinese. If not, then this would lead one to assume, or automatically
brings you to the conclusion, that maybe the games are pirated? I have
no idea.
The MD Converter is sort-of iffy at best.
Meaning that you have to have the Converter in the cartridge slot "just
right" and the Game Cart in the Converter "just right" for everything
to work correctly. Find the sweet spot. If you don't, you may loose
sound or some graphics, or some control like "up" will not work or "A"
button will not work. Or one of the games may not load. This makes the
MD Converter very tedious to use. The NES game carts stick up beyond
the Game System's housing. The Converter does as well with the Game
Cart stuck in the back in the opposite direction overlapping the unit's
backside. This puts the game cart at an angle. Nothing fits inside of
anything on this system. The Converter sticks past the system with the
game extending beyond the Converter. I have, presently, three MD (SEGA)
game carts. All of the games work perfectly, only if, everything is
inserted just right. Wiggle here, wiggle there, take out reinsert, and
take out reinsert. Finally, whew! It gets easier as you fiddle with it.
And NO HIGH SCORE OR GAME SAVES!! To some this
would be a big issue. But this is to be expected. JungleTac, for some
reason, could it be cost, have never included this feature on any of
their systems. This might become a problem, if you wish to finish a
game and it becomes a race to the finish against "how long before your
batteries give out." Stressed? You bet. I have read that battery life
is around 5 to 8 hours. I really don't know. I have yet to check this
out. I would assume that it would depend on whether you are playng 8
bit NES or 16 bit SEGA games.
|
|
Hardware:
I read as much as I could on
the system before purchasing. (What little there is on the net.)
I read some things concerning the size being the same as the Gameboy
Micro. I was very skeptical of this and with good reason. Every
handheld system is plagued with the same problem, being that, it has to
be at least big enough to accommodate its screen size. The OneStation
is a lot bigger than the Micro. The 2.5 TFT is very comfortable on the
eyes. One can tell very easily, though, that the Micro influenced the
aesthetic design of the unit along with its game cartridges.
Size:
*Length: 4.13"
*Height: 0.91"
*Width: 2.36"
*Weight: 5.08 oz (with game and batteries installed)
*Length: 10.5 cm
*Height: 2.3 cm
*Width: 6.0 cm
Weight: 144 gram
Powered by 3 x AAA batteries (included). Said to last 5 to 8 hours
under typical use.
TV out cord included
Control buttons: D-pad, A, B, Start, Reset, Turbo, Volume, on and off
switch.
The system is not 8-bit, nor is it
16-bit. The handheld unit, itself, is nothing more than control
switches, a screen, a speaker and the amps required to run them,
everything else is passed to the cart slot. There is no CPU in the
unit. The CPU for whatever system that is needed comes built into the
cartridge with the games. Presently the carts use the "SEGA on a chip"
and "NOAC technology." The main unit is just a shell with controls, a
screen and battery compartment, all of which are accessed directly
through the cartridge port by the different carts. The design is not
unique to this system. Milton Bradley introduced the Microvision in the
US in 1979. The console itself was nothing more than controls, LCD
panel and a controller chip for the LCD panel. Each cartridge contained
the microprocessor, which happened to have a small amount of ROM space
on it that MB loaded the game code onto. Really this makes the
OneStation an extremely flexible gaming system. One would only have to
produce the system on a chip technology for any retro gaming system and
put it on a cartridge along with some games. The systems that are
available at the moment is the NES and SEGA Genesis (Mega Drive). One
begins to wonder "What if" N64, SNES, Atari Jaguar, etc, etc, etc, were
on a chip for this little gadget. Oops, then you are brought back to
reality when you look at the manufacturer's lack of foresight in
design. "Button configuration." Not enough buttons for some games on a
lot of those systems. In reality, the unit is limited to retro systems
like Commodore 64, Atari 2600, PC Engine, etc.

The MD Converter on the OneStation with game
inserted. Back view. A terrible way to design a converter, but it does
work,...sort-of.
|
 |