Nobody expects the Mega95! Hyperkin’s Dockable Genesis Handheld Finally Entering Production
It only took nearly three years, but Hyperkin’s Mega95 (great name, amirite?) is finally becoming a real product you will be able to buy. Hyperkin recently announced that R&D plus community testing are complete, mass production is starting, and packaging is being finalized.
For anyone who missed the saga: the Mega95 is a dockable handheld that plays original SEGA Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges, a spiritual successor to SEGA’s own Nomad from 1995. The handheld has an 8-way D-pad and six action buttons, a rechargeable battery rated for around 10 hours, and a 5-inch IPS display with a switch that lets you toggle between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. The packed-in USB-C dock connects it to a TV and has two ports for original Genesis controllers. There’s also a switch that toggles between NTSC and PAL regions, making it region-free for collectors on both sides of the pond. The Mega95 is also not an FPGA device; it dumps the cartridge to memory and runs it via emulation, the same approach as Hyperkin’s MegaRetroN HD. There is also no word on whether the Mega95 will have flash cart support or some way to allow for SEGA CD or 32X games, but I wouldn’t count on any of that.
Hyperkin unveiled the Mega95 way back at CES in January 2024, then went dead quiet on the project for so long that some fans wondered if it had been shelved. In January 2026, Hyperkin finally explained that the holdup wasn’t the hardware, which was locked and finished, but the software was producing visual artifacts and occasional screen tearing when translating game graphics. By February 2026 the team revealed that it had found a solution and was sending demo units to trusted “retro specialists” in the community (how does one get on that list?).
Now that the expert testing is done, the factory lines are starting up. Hyperkin has yet to announce a price or a targeted release date for the Mega95, but pre-order news is expected soon.
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