Mark said that the PSPgo goes nowhere you haven’t been. He wasn’t impressed to say the least. Perhaps the fact that it has been hacked and someone added a Sega Genesis emulator will make him change his mind.

But then, that’s nowhere where you haven’t been before, so probably he won’t give a damn either. And I won’t blame him. [Joystiq]

A lot apparently. To actually play games on this SNEGENES P portable, you have to jam actual cartridges into the back of the portable.

It’s not an issue for collectors, obviously, but in this day and age of cheap emulators, it seems a bit excessive. Let’s see a lite version.

Note: The modder recorded the demo video incorrectly. This system doesn’t actually play games in reverse. [Ben Heck Forums via Technabob]

Really, this controller-gone-bug is the work of Industrial Design student James Killinger. Using just three screws from an external source, he rearranged and reattached the joystick’s parts to create this completely new form. (There’s not even much fudging with mass since 70% of the joystick’s original components are seen in the recreation.)

Now if only Sega had released the gruesome robo-insect controller in the first place instead of the typical version directly above, we might all be playing Sega Siis right now, and it would be Sony/Nintendo releasing all the Sonic games…somehow or other.

I want to recount the story for you here—I really do. The feeling of running down the stairs that morning, tearing into a tower of gifts balanced on one of the tall, pink chairs of our formal living room. I want to tell you about almost opening a small, rectangular box just two gifts into the unwrapping (one with an eerie resemblance to the size and shape of a Sega Genesis game box), before my parents recommended I work my way through the the pile in a different direction to save the pièce de résistance for last.

But to tell this story again, the pinnacle of my Christmas experience, one properly softened by a Vaseline-coated lens while simultaneously sparkling with double starburst filters, feels disingenuous.

You see, I wrote it all down on paper once before. I was 10, putting me in fifth grade. Still obsessed with my Genesis, this tale of Christmas morning 1992 (late adopter) would be the perfect narrative for the English portion of Mrs. Lustig’s class. And I have little doubt that my adultish perspective—one that has difficulty tuning out today’s culture for a time when kids only got gifts for big holidays, one that is so spoiled it can call in any toy at any time from any company—has clouded the importance of that Sega Genesis to me. I’ll simply never recapture the unbridled love placed on paper via number two pencil with this clunky MacBook keyboard I’m typing on now. And an LCD does so little justice to childhood memories when compared to a piece of looseleaf, pulled without regard from a spiral notebook.

The Sega Genesis was my Red Ryder BB gun. It offered me the elation of its receipt, the disappointment of Tazmania and the eventual perspective that memories will forever be altered by the ones that follow. I’m not sure I’ll ever relive a moment quite like ripping through paper to find, in complete shock, that I’d gotten exactly what I’d wanted that Christmas. But there’s always next year.

The Dream Cat Venus is coming to Japan this month for $US110. Both touch and sound sensitive, the Venus (no relation to the planet or the feminine razor) reacts to your petting and talking with a proper amount of nudging and purring. And like the Sony Aibo, the Dream Cat can actually “see” through its camera-enabled eyes.

But does this poor robot need to look like the product from a My First Taxidermy kit? Drop the realism for a moment, Sega, and let these helpless kittenbots out of your dungeon in the uncanny valley. Such amoral plush tactics may work fine to tease the buffets of Melmac, but no one wants to see Japan become Melmac…any more than it already has. [Sega Toys (pdf) via CrunchGear]

You’ll be able to create your own “shows” with 55 different explosions which you can then take anywhere, as the device is designed to be portable—it takes AAA batteries for power and looks fairly diminutive. It’ll retail for around $US160 when it’s released, but that release isn’t until August 1st. Releasing a fireworks machine, virtual or no, four weeks after both July 4th and Canada Day is like investing in pumpkins in mid-winter. [Sega via OhGizmo]

The Retro-Gen (branded Sega, though we can’t imagine Sega actually had anything to do with it) features a USB-rechargeable battery and comes pre-loaded with 20 “classic” games (we’re not sure what they are, hence the quotes). It says it’ll only play licensed ROMs, though who knows what that means; we’d imagine you can just load it up with whatever you’ve got. It doesn’t look like it has an extra port for another controller, which would come in handy for multiplayer games using the handheld’s TV-out, but you can’t have everything, right? It’s available for pre-order now, for a $US50, $US10 off the usual price. [Video Game Central via The Mirror]

UPDATE: ThinkGeek responds in the comments below.

Ho. Lee. Crap. ThinkGeek has started selling brand new Dreamcast packages for $US99. If you never owned one, you should sign up to get one when they’re back in stock. [ThinkGeek via Kotaku via Dvice]