Atariboy

Folks, no need to ask about Everdrive support when you see that it's using software emulation. Multicarts like Everdrives require multi-loading, which necessitates a live cartridge bus.

So any device that dumps a cartridge and runs the resulting rom image that's created, which all emulation based systems do out of necessity, will not work with your Everdrive. At best you'll get the Everdrive menu and nothing else.

Will believe it when I see it.

Stick to selling us on Analogue products, please. Those deliver on their promises and then some, and deserve this sort of coverage. So far Polymega hasn't done a thing to convince the community they'll live up to even half their promises, have been caught in numerous lies, have backtracked on their stated intentions several times, have engaged in a foolish smear campaign against Analogue, and have downright attempted to scam us.

@Deanster101 While Analogue is great and I love what they've been doing (And can't wait to order a Mega SG later this year to join my Super NT), fpga isn't automatically better than emulation.

While Polymega is a scam, you won't find someone like Kevtris ever bad mouthing quality software emulation such as Stella, Higan, etc. Extremely accurate and very good.

A fpga simulation can be as lousy as the worst NOAC clone. It's all up to the talent involved, their level of understanding of the hardware they're reproducing, their eye for details, etc. Just because it's fpga doesn't automatically elevate it above software emulation. It's not some magical elixir and at the end of the day, a skilled programmer still has to sit down and code their recreation of the original hardware no matter if it's fpga or emulation.

They both have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance of an advantage of emulation, save states aren't directly viable in Analogue's products. Of course with expensive multicarts, you can work around that to a degree, but for technical reasons I've forgotten (Which he's spoken about at AtariAge), Kevtris can't directly support them.

Yet Analogue's products offer such advantages as zero input lag thanks to things like the lack of an operating system slowing everything down, can interact directly with original cartridges, etc.

@mikegamer I'm defending them? lol

I suggest you use the find feature on your browser and reread my posts. All I did was tell you that a fpga simulation of an old console isn't automatically better than software emulation, after reading your very inaccurate impression of fpga hardware simulations versus software emulation that I've quoted below.

"Essentially, FPGA uses hardware emulation, which is nearly cycle-accurate, but much more difficult to pull off "

In actuality, it all comes down to the quality of the work going into the project, which isn't debatable. Fpga versus software emulation has nothing to do with one or the other being cycle accurate. It all comes down to the talent of the coder and their understanding of the system that they're reproducing.

And lastly, here's some of those choice words praising Polymega that you've accused me of posting here...

"For those looking forward to this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that's a great deal that I'll sell to you cheap. I hope to be hearing from you."

"It's emulation based, so if by a miracle they eventually release something a few years from now, it won't work with multicarts."

"Being fpga doesn't make it cycle accurate. It's the quality of the hardware simulation or the software emulator that does."

Also note that I just spent all morning playing Sim City on my Super NT. I hope you get your preorder money refunded from Polymega eventually, Mike, since I'd be sour too if I had fallen for the scam. Invest it in Analogue products in the future if you ever get it back.

@mikegamer Being fpga doesn't make it cycle accurate. It's the quality of the hardware simulation or the software emulator that does.

It takes a lot of time and talent to arrive at what's believed to be a fully accurate implementation of the original hardware (Such as Higan for a SNES emulator or the Super NT for a SNES fpga recreation). One is as difficult as the other, requiring a lot of talent, trial and error to develop an understanding of how the original hardware works, detective work, and testing.

The value of a fpga configured into a replica of something like the Super Nintendo are that that the hardware requirements are comparatively cheap since it doesn't require the horsepower that powering a software emulator does (Looking at system requirements for Higan, there's no way you could release a $200 emulation based SNES console capable of running it), a live cartridge bus is possible which allows full interaction with original cartridges rather than the flawed dump system that emulation based devices utilize, and it offers zero input lag thanks to thanks to things like no operating system, frame buffer, or USB overhead.

@Erchitu It's emulation based, so if by a miracle they eventually release something a few years from now, it won't work with multicarts.

It would presumably be able to read rom images and disc images off internal memory, serving as its own multicart just as your PC's HDD does when doing something like playing a SNES game via Higan and so on.

For those looking forward to this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that's a great deal that I'll sell to you cheap. I hope to be hearing from you.

@roadrunner343 You're a class act. Thanks for the nice response.

@Synthatron_Prime Because it's entirely incorrect. Hardware like a NES-on-a-chip isn't emulation in any way, shape, or form. It is a hardware based solution with the hardware natively executing old game code.

@roadrunner343 Which isn't emulation. Emulation is a software program that virtually replicates functionality of an older system within a software program that's operating on a newer platform that otherwise wouldn't be able to run game code from the older platform. This isn't what's going on here, so I suggest you do more research since your confidence very much is misplaced.

A Genesis-on-a-chip, much like the infamous NOAC, is a hardware replica in miniaturized form on a single integrated circuit. There is no software middleman operating as a translator of sorts. It is hardware only and natively will run Sega Genesis software. This is why it's able to interact with an Everdrive, where as emulation based clone systems, which don't have a live cartridge bus and instead dump the contents of a cartridge and run the resulting file, won't.

How emulation based systems operate with cartridges breaks how a flash multicart and other devices with multiple step loading like Game Genies operate. This is why you won't find a single emulation based clone system out there that will interact with something like an Everdrive, SN2SNES, Cuttle Cart, Harmony cartridge, Powerpak, and so on (And is why one can confidently state that this isn't emulation if a Genesis Everdrive is working).

These ASIC solutions are doing exactly what a FPGA based system does to directly execute game code from an older platform, just in a non-reprogrammable way where as a FPGA based system can have its integrated circuit be reconfigured on the fly by the customer after manufacturing just by loading in a new profile or updating firmware.

If an Everdrive cartridge works, this isn't emulation. Rather, it's a hardware based clone using Genesis-on-a-chip technology.

Why is arcade Sega Rally shown off in the trailer when they're showing off how it allegedly plays Saturn games?

@WesCopeland This isn't emulation, which is why multicarts like Everdrives work here but don't on something like the Retron 5 that has to dump the cartridge and then load the resulting rom image. Only the Retro-Bit Generations and Retro-Bit Super Retrocade rely upon emulation.

Vaporware