Taito Egret II Mini

[GhostSeed]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1443408696000741377

 

[Ralfakick]

Coming to the west

The Taito Egret II Mini Is Getting A Western Release

Thanks to United Games Entertainment

www.nintendolife.com

 

[GhostSeed]

https://store.strictlylimitedgames....ucts/egret-2-mini-arcade-cabinet-blue-edition

$369.99 / 319.99€ (excluding tax and shipping costs)




https://store.strictlylimitedgames....roducts/egret-2-mini-game-center-blue-edition

$499.99 / 439.99€ (excluding tax and shipping costs)

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Preordered the Astro City Mini and it was already pricey but 440 € is way too much for this one. A PS5 Digital is 400 €.

 

[Ajax]

The cost of that is hilarious. Cool stuff, no doubt, but fuck no.

 

[Ralfakick]

2005/6 I bought my 4 slot cab with the board (I don’t have anymore) for $500 off of this forum from a local seller.

2022 Plastic emulator mini arcade machine more than that after shipping and tax

 

[Jag-Master]

I'd be tempted if they made a bartop sized version, maybe like a 13-19inch screen. It looks dope but I know this would get about a weeks worth of play before it's placed back in the box and goes on the shelf. To expensive for a plastic paperweight.....

 

[Catoblepa]

Way too little, and probably underpowered on the emulation side (even if they'll hack it) to actually play games on it... but let's face it, these things are just pieces of furniture for collectors.

And yet... just like the Mini Astro City ultimately gave us a really good six button USB gamepad, I'll keep an eye on the trackball controller: it's sold separately on Amazon Japan... if it's well built, and if it works with MAME, it could be quite interesting. I don't know how many trackball+spinner USB controllers are out there, but this sure looks pretty neat. Right now it's too pricey (something like 85 USD), but we still don't know how much it'll cost in USA and Europe.

 

[Ralfakick]

Anyone know what play Asia had it for before they sold out?

https://www.play-asia.com/egret-ii-mini/13/70em8d

Anyone have a Kaiser Knuckle F3 board for sale? Been looking for one for a while now.

 

[Ralfakick]

Their other imprint games rocket has just the mini for $229?

It links to this website directly from the strictly limited website too

Partner Store

Exclusive Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation Vita games in strictly limited quantities.

gamesrocket.com

 

[Johnny16Bit]

Anybody knows if you can plug your own USB arcade stick to this mini, or if you have to use the not-very-exciting one they sell separately?

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Works with the Astro City Mini arcade stick to play but you need to press menu or so on the Egret Mini itself. Brook universal fighting board should also work since it works fine with the Astro Citi Mini.

 

[pixeljunkie]

Has anyone updated their FW yet? I am curious if the lag is improved? Sounds like it is?

 

[GhostSeed]

So you can get all this stuff directly from Amazon US now.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED872D06-C9E2-4E0E-9B25-09B961DF830C

Taito Egret II Mini - Limited Blue Edition $230
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Paddle and Trackball Game Expansion Set $120
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Control Panel $90
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Control Pad $35

 

[pixeljunkie]

So you can get all this stuff directly from Amazon US now.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED872D06-C9E2-4E0E-9B25-09B961DF830C

Taito Egret II Mini - Limited Blue Edition $230
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Paddle and Trackball Game Expansion Set $120
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Control Panel $90
Taito EGRET Ⅱ Mini - Control Pad $35

Fairly competitive pricing. Considering the shipping if you bought off YAJ. No Taito Station Vol 2 though. People need that, it's great. I am (this close) to buying that damn trackball.

 

[pixeljunkie]

I feel like Tom Hanks in Family Ties but instead of fucking with Alex I'm fucking with Riding Fight on the E2 Mini. Rad game. Rad system. I hope they release more "carts".

In an alternate universe, they release a Cave Classics Pack.

 

[jro]

I caved on this when I saw it on Amazon, got the unit today with trackball/paddle arriving tomorrow. As has been noted, it's extremely cool. The Astro City Mini is fine and I also have the Neo mini cab, but this one is significantly better than either one at first impression.

So many really great games with what appears to be very good emulation and I'll be damned if rotating the screen isn't awesome every single time.

 

[pixeljunkie]

I caved on this when I saw it on Amazon, got the unit today with trackball/paddle arriving tomorrow. As has been noted, it's extremely cool. The Astro City Mini is fine and I also have the Neo mini cab, but this one is significantly better than either one at first impression.

So many really great games with what appears to be very good emulation and I'll be damned if rotating the screen isn't awesome every single time.

Since the trackball was added to Amazon - I've been adding it to my cart every other day, almost pulling the trigger. Please let me know what you think of that particular accessory/games. Yeah, I find myself using it as a legit console quite a bit. Really dig it.

 

[heihachi]

It's OK. I thought the trackball was terrible at first, but just needed to up the sensitivity in menus. It still doesn't feel as heavyweight as one you'd find in an actual cab like golden tee though but it gets the job done. I like the spinner more, and it feels really solid but I can't remember if I turned the sensitivity up for that too.

Games are mostly mediocre but Cameltry is super cool with the spinner and I end up playing bowling the most with the trackball.

The one thing that pisses me off to no end though is that the memory card with the games doesn't just add them to the menu with everything else. If you have the mem card in then you can only play trackball/spinner games. To play the main set, you have to take the mem card out so I think there is a real risk of losing the memory card at some point if you aren't careful.

 

[pixeljunkie]

It's OK. I thought the trackball was terrible at first, but just needed to up the sensitivity in menus. It still doesn't feel as heavyweight as one you'd find in an actual cab like golden tee though but it gets the job done. I like the spinner more, and it feels really solid but I can't remember if I turned the sensitivity up for that too.

Games are mostly mediocre but Cameltry is super cool with the spinner and I end up playing bowling the most with the trackball.

The one thing that pisses me off to no end though is that the memory card with the games doesn't just add them to the menu with everything else. If you have the mem card in then you can only play trackball/spinner games. To play the main set, you have to take the mem card out so I think there is a real risk of losing the memory card at some point if you aren't careful.

I mainly am looking forward to the Arkanoids and Puchi Carat

 

[sirlynxalot]

Does the trackball and spinner work with a regular PC and mame or does it need some sort of custom driver that doesn't exist yet?

 

[jro]

It's OK. I thought the trackball was terrible at first, but just needed to up the sensitivity in menus. It still doesn't feel as heavyweight as one you'd find in an actual cab like golden tee though but it gets the job done. I like the spinner more, and it feels really solid but I can't remember if I turned the sensitivity up for that too.

Games are mostly mediocre but Cameltry is super cool with the spinner and I end up playing bowling the most with the trackball.

The one thing that pisses me off to no end though is that the memory card with the games doesn't just add them to the menu with everything else. If you have the mem card in then you can only play trackball/spinner games. To play the main set, you have to take the mem card out so I think there is a real risk of losing the memory card at some point if you aren't careful.

Trackball/paddle makes a terrible first impression. So far, it works flawlessly (for me at least) with Arkanoid 2 and none of the other nine games. Seems like maybe they're defaulting to two-player but not recognizing a controller? I dunno, but man, it's not good. Trackball works in the menus but then nothing happens at all in game when I use it or paddle. Does a firmware update fix this?

Agreed on how dumb it is to have a new menu with none of the original games.

How TF does a company get the basic thing so right but fuck up everything else so bad? Feels like a bad cash grab on fans, definitely not recommended in its current state. AND FUCK ME it's priced at 60% of the main unit. Don't waste money on this unless Taito (Squeenix, I guess) fixes it.

Main unit still rocks just don't buy this crap add-on.

 

[pixeljunkie]

Trackball/paddle makes a terrible first impression. So far, it works flawlessly (for me at least) with Arkanoid 2 and none of the other nine games. Seems like maybe they're defaulting to two-player but not recognizing a controller? I dunno, but man, it's not good. Trackball works in the menus but then nothing happens at all in game when I use it or paddle. Does a firmware update fix this?

Agreed on how dumb it is to have a new menu with none of the original games.

How TF does a company get the basic thing so right but fuck up everything else so bad? Feels like a bad cash grab on fans, definitely not recommended in its current state. AND FUCK ME it's priced at 60% of the main unit. Don't waste money on this unless Taito (Squeenix, I guess) fixes it.

Main unit still rocks just don't buy this crap add-on.

Thank you, noted. I updated FW when I got mine...but yeah that sounds like no bueno.

 

[sirlynxalot]

I heard this thing has been pretty well hacked. Is it powerful enough to do dreamcast/naomi or sega saturn, or is it stuck at the level of raspberry pi3 quality: cps2/cps3/neogeo/ps1 stuff?

 

[jro]

Thank you, noted. I updated FW when I got mine...but yeah that sounds like no bueno.

As it turns out, I am in fact apparently retarded, as it dawned on me that having multiple USB ports might not all work the same. Checked it again tonight and yeah, they're separated to individual player outs, not just universal ports. The one that's closest to the left side, when facing the unit at least, actually activates as 2P for most games (but not all, some are universal, oddly).

So anyway, my bad on the basics of whether it work right or not (mostly, I could not, for the life of me, get the continue function to work on Arkanoid 1 still), but I also still wouldn't really recommend it based on a few hours' play tonight. The biggest positive, by far, is playing the few games that are there with a proper control method. Dunno how many times I played ports of Arkanoid over the years or similar and lamented trying to use a controller to do so, having an actual paddle is very cool. Same for bowling and maybe one or two of the other games.

Negatives, though - build quality makes a bad impression IMO. The trackball and paddle themselves are nice, feel very sturdy and work well, but the heft of the controller as a whole doesn't match what it looks like, it's too light, doesn't have a premium feel to it like it looks like it should. And the biggest drawback is the game list. Just not great at all. Sylvalion is a cool idea that doesn't work well, the Arkanoids are fun but very similar to each other obviously, though I gotta admit I could play Cameltry for quite a while.

Not as much a hard thumbs down as more of a meh, grab it if you just can't resist.