Jenovi’s Retro Impressions recently posted an excellent video that discusses the “Sega Mega Mouse”, it’s hardware region differences and how it works with all compatible games. I highly recommend it for all fans of the Genesis / Mega Drive.
One of the most interesting aspects of the video is that a few “Mega Mouse Compatible” games had different versions released and not are compatible with the mouse. In cases like Marble Madness, you can try to find the Tengen version for trackball support (more info in the video), but other games aren’t as clear cut: Rise Of The Dragon and Star Blade do support the mouse…sometimes. At the moment, it’s not clear what’s the exact detection issue that’s failing.
I wonder if some of the amazing members of the retro gaming community could take a look at these games and see if anything can be done. Maybe a patch that permanently enables mouse support for games like Rise Of The Dragon that would really benefit from it?
Edit: Jacques Gagnon aka Darthcloud did an analysis of Genesis controllers for support in BlueRetro and has some information on the mouse that might be of interest: https://hackaday.io/project/170365-blueretro/log/180790-evolution-of-segas-io-interface-from-sg-1000-to-saturn
In fact, this all makes me wonder what version of Marble Madness I was using when I tested it with the SMS Sports Pad…and if there’s a patch that can be applied that lets the SMS controller be used with the official trackball support? Hopefully some creative romhackers will help us find out!
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