You'll have to forgive us for posting so much about the SuperSega FPGA system, but there's so much drama surrounding it we're honestly struggling to look away right now.
Announced earlier in the year, the system aims to run games from all of Sega's key home consoles. The Spanish team behind it – led by Alejandro Martin – has had to deal with difficult questions from day one, including the use of the 'Sega' branding and the legitimacy of its demonstration videos.
The latest issue surrounding the project stems from the fact that people who have pre-ordered the console for three euros are now finding that the entire 420 euro cost has been charged to their payment method.
The SuperSega team has already given us a statement regarding that issue, but it has also furnished us with more information ahead of Martin appearing on a "popular" Spanish channel to discuss the project.
We've reproduced the supplied Q&A session below. The only things we've changed are some spelling errors (at SuperSega's request). We have made it clear where changes have been made; we have otherwise left the text unedited.
WHY THIS PROJECT LOOKS NOT SO WELL AT ALL ?
We are not rich people, we are just enthusiasts, developers and so on. We are currently accomplishing the timeline.
WHY [CAN YOU NOT] DELIVER SOME SUPERSEGA PROTOTYPE TO SOMEONE?
We only have 2 boards, which cost us 15K euros per not finished board.
If we send some unit, it may be damaged, loosen, etc, and also can be taken by other company like say Analogue etc.. and then they can reverse and copy us the cores and design.
WHY [DOES] THE BOARD NOT [SEEM] FINISHED?
It is not finished at all, only 1 hdmi output, one USB input, the 5V auxiliary, the FPGA , the Bluetooth and minimal things were designed to show a working videos.
We [do not have] enough money to finish, as of today, a full board with all the traces.
But the 3-4 layer board is working, people can not say that functional traces are missing, cause they cannot see the intermediate layers.
WHY THOSE CRAPPY VIDEOS?
Not [enough] resources.
HISTORY
Over the last 2 years we got a running DC core, then we started the project, putting and showing a timeline, that until today was followed and not failed.
We are using a FPGA chip 50% faster than Cyclone V used on Mister FPGA. Mister FPGA and similar chipsets cost about 50 usd, ours cost about 200 USD.
We've been using a 3K EVO board with a 350-400 K Logic cells. The videos showing DC games (Crazy Taxi etc..) were using a 3000 euros evo board, then once we released some PR showing a board with that Ultrascale + chipset, we failed to get one (random) image of a board that cost 20.000 euros, then the problems begin on [a] bad reputation.
Some channels, like Pixel Cherry Ninja, said we are using a 20K board to try to [sell] a console for about 500 bucks, we replied [to] him showing the target FPGA model, but he did not change the picture or update any new video about [it].
CURRENT BUGS
There are a few, as shown [in the] last video.
First video, [there] were cuts, trying to hide those small bugs, very small, cause if anyone replays the videos, the cuts on video with me on the ground in front of TV, are for about less than half a second.
After many critics, we launched another video in another 4K TV (with current sound issues on 4K TVs) but nothing was [shown] behind the TV, and people start to comment that something [was] connected to [it], rather than [the] SuperSega.
Then, in the last video, we show the back of the TV; we [show] that the USB rear port is too auxiliary, as this is just a prototype board.
WHY ALL THIS?
Basically [because] we want to agree with the published timeline, as opposed to other projects that still [are] stacked for months or years.