We've given the SuperSega project a fair amount of coverage in recent months, and with good reason – who isn't excited about the prospect of an all-in-one system that runs Master System, Mega Drive, Saturn, Mega CD and Dreamcast software, all via FPGA?
Since the project broke cover, there's been a wave of scepticism surrounding it – and again, this is very understandable. The team behind the venture hasn't shown anything concrete as yet, despite announcing that it would be opening pre-orders soon. The team also seems to be curiously relaxed about any legal challenge from Sega regarding the name of the system, and the fact that it uses the Sega logo in its branding.
As we stated previously, we were recently offered the chance to hold a live Q&A with the people behind the SuperSega project – an offer we felt we had to respectfully decline due to the fact that no working prototype has been shown so far.
YouTube channel Pixel Cherry Ninja – which has a particular focus on FPGA emulation – did take them up on the offer however, and put together an extensive series of technical questions regarding the system. Sadly, these questions largely went unanswered.
Speaking with project lead Alejandro Martin, Pixel Cherry Ninja asked some probing questions about how the FPGA system would work with a console as powerful as Dreamcast, and was told that Martin "wasn't the FPGA developer", which brought that particular conversion to an abrupt end.
He did, however, make it clear that the Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA chip which the team intends to use in the console is very powerful – certainly more powerful than the current generation of FPGA chips seen in the likes of the MiSTer and Analogue Pocket. He also showed the motherboard CAD drawing, which had previously been shared with Time Extension.
Regarding funding and pre-orders, Martin suggests that without financial support from the community, the project's future is in doubt:
When you try to do this kind of business, we are speaking of 300,000, 400,000 Euros – I don't have this money. We don't have this money. Even I had a Ferrari and still own a Lamborghini, blah, blah, blah... I'm not the right man. I was a labour man. I'm currently with no job at all, and to bring this this project alive it is very difficult.
Martin remained sanguine on the prospect of a legal challenge from Sega, saying that "if we receive some complaint, then for sure we will change the name, but I think that we will not."
Reaction to the Q&A session has been almost entirely negative, with one viewer calling it "a complete car crash of an interview." Others have attacked the SuperSega team for having nothing more than a "proof of concept" and not a commercially-viable product.
As we have previously reported, a pre-launch campaign for the console will be held at some point this month, where customers will be able to pre-order a SuperSega for just 3€ / $3 – and get 30% off the price of the final system.