BulbasaurusRex

I'm already using DOSBox to play the best PC games of that era on my modern PC (either sticking to the free shareware episodes, the full versions of the ones officially declared freeware, or buying the full versions from GOG), so I've no need for something like this.

@Azuris Maybe not extensive damage, but such things do cause some damage. I know my family personally cost people some VHS sales back in the day by just taping some movies off of TV instead of buying them.

@mikegamer For the intended use, yes, although I'm worried too many people will use this device to easily preserve their old games improperly, as well, by illegally uploading their dumped ROMs for others to download them. They probably should've restricted the device to save data only, or if possible made only the dumped ROMs impossible to transfer to PC.

@Dirty0814 You still lose your old save files that way. While you'll still need to change dead batteries, this will allow you to backup your save data and reload them to the new batteries so that you can still continue your saved games where you left off (or at least when you last made a backup).

@Azuris Do we now have PC emulators that run CD-based consoles by reading the ROMs directly from inserted game discs in the PC's CD drive and run them well? If so, that's very impressive and something I was not aware of.

However, if not, then you're relying on downloaded ROMs which are illegal, and the Polymega is worth it just to play some of these systems legally with your legally purchased games if original hardware is no longer available or too expensive and/or troublesome to fix or replace.

@Doktor-Mandrake Nintendo dominated the U.S. video game market during the 8-bit era (both consoles and handhelds) to the point that the name "Nintendo" was synonymous with video game systems in the same manner as Kleenex, Jell-o, and Roller Blades. Only with the release of the Genesis did Sega become popular on this side of the pond.

Who cares about the SG-1000?! Most people don't even know Sega released a video game console before the Master System. Heck, most people here in the U.S. haven't even heard of the Master System, let alone the SG-1000.

@Menardi That's hard to say, since we've never had a game other than its own remaster that's truly tried to recapture the magic of "64." I'd like to see just one Star Fox sequel that truly focuses mostly on the classic flight battles of that game (with a good mix of on-rails and all range sections) without mucking it up with alternate genres (save for perhaps a few stages) or experimental controls before we can truly determine what is the best way forward for the Star Fox franchise.

@Coffee_Drinker You could say the same thing about "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike." The ground mission aren't terrible, just not up to the standards of the flying missions and not what players really want.

@Menardi At least the gimmicks in "Skyward Sword" actually work and are fun to use, unlike "StarFox Command" and "Zero" (save for the minority who can actually come to grips with the latter's control scheme).

@kobashi100 The only real knock against "Adventures" is that the StarFox license was shoehorned into it. On its own merits, it's a very good action-adventure game.

"Star Fox Command" - A major example of the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's also a reason I'm not a big fan of the DS library in general. Except for its excellent roster of RPGs, many DS games in traditional genres like this suffered by having lame DS specific functionality shoehorned into them, or developers just weren't making them for the DS at all in favor of yet another puzzle game or experimental title.

No, I didn't know, but I don't care, since both control methods suck. The only good FPS control schemes are mouse/keyboard and motion controls (without dual sticks).

I don't get the appeal of this when you could spend a similar amount on the NES/SNES/Genesis Classic or decent NES/SNES clone system and get a much better library of games. If the portability is that important to you, you're better off in the long run to save up for a (2/3)DS or Switch with their own superior libraries of retro classics along with so many great modern games as well.

@mikegamer You should care when they offer a good looking authentic experience with zero lag for MUCH cheaper than things like this cost.

I'll give you credit for correctly posting "couldn't care less," though.

@mikegamer That's why we generally keep a CRT set around to go with it.

The rolling D-Pad is such a brillaint design. I have no idea why the other console makers never adopted it. Nintendo could certainly use it given their very shaky recent history of D-Pads dating back to the GameCube Controller.

@Atariboy Well, it's not software emulation, but based on the technical definition of the word "emulate," you could still call it hardware emulation, couldn't you?

So then give us 32X compatability in SD as a stopgap solution! It's not like I play these retro systems on anything other than an SD CRT, anyway.

@ThanosReXXX Well, of course it is a tabletop, but it needs to also be a portable to be any good. Like I said, that's only the secondary function of any good tabletop device. People buy them to be portable first and foremost and prefer to play them on the tabletop without requiring it to be plugged in all the time (at which point it's both a tabletop AND a portable). Any tabletop electronic that does require a constant outside connection just sucks and fails to attract many consumers, especially when it's such any easy design issue to fix. Even giving it a slot for AA batteries would be preferable over absolutely no portable functionality whatsoever. Otherwise, it's just not worth it to the consumers to even bother including a tabletop screen at all.

@ThanosReXXX Nothing is designed purely as a tabletop electronic, at least they shouldn't be. If an electronic is capable of being played on a tabletop while connected to an outlet or other external power source, it's almost always a secondary feature of a portable electronic device. After all, it's not any more difficult to give an electronic device internal battery support (whether rechargeable or not) than it is to give it support to access an external power supply, yet the former is easily the superior functionality.

Well, on second thought, devices that are too bulky to easily carry around may forego internal battery support, but that's clearly not the case here.

@ThanosReXXX Well, I think @NEStalgia was referring to people like us who religiously follow the video game scene and constantly check for news and updates rather than the average gamer. I didn't hit that point until my late teens, whereas when I was a kid I was just an average gamer with a Sega Genesis who had never heard of any consoles made by anyone other than Nintendo or Sega.

Isn't "Metal Slug X" just (widely considered to be) an improved version of "Metal Slug 2"? Why would the Japanese version pick 2 over X?

@electrolite77 Did you see the list of games for the international version? It has more variety than the Japanese version.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, but Nintendo's offerings don't include a portable screen that then wrecks the ergonomics of the controls. This thing was designed to be a portable system, yet somehow it's not.

Without it working as a portable system (at least not without jumping through hoops), I don't think they should've bothered including the small screen at all. It would've been better to just design it like a traditional console with an ergonomic controller. They could cut the price a little that way, as well.

While it's not my usual preference, I admit that giving the the D-Pad the more prominent placement makes sense for a controller that will be playing mostly 2D games, but who's the idiot who designed the face buttons so that A and B are no longer next to each other?

@JayJ Most people who complain about 32X failures just don't know about the easy fix. Whatever happened with AVGN must've been with a rare failure of a different cause.

Sure, SoJ gave up on the thing early, but only after ordering SoA to make the thing in the first place and then not pulling the plug when they had the chance, effectively hanging the NoA marketing team out to dry.

Anyway, the 32X was indeed a big mistake, but the Saturn was just as big of a mistake. SoJ made the terrible decision to turn down Sony and then tried to make a 2D console somehow work when 3D graphics were now all the rage. Even the 32X had better graphics than that thing! The only reasons the Saturn wasn't as ill-fated as the 32X are because it had a full development cycle and was actually left on the market for a few years rather than being pulled after only a matter of months. If the 32X had been fully developed (which would've ironed out those hardware issues and given it even better specs) and given the same amount of time on the market, it would've easily surpassed what the Saturn was able to accomplish.

You know, I think a large part of the issue with the feuding branches of Sega and the fact that people wouldnn't speak up about bad company policies is simply due to cultural differences between Japan and the West.

In the West, a greater emphasis is placed on the individual, and people are taught to show initiative and speak out when needed; whereas in Japan the culteral emphasis is on the group, and people are taught to be more compliant and follow the company line. Naturally, as a Western company, Microsoft allows their employees to be more outspoken.

@JayJ Probably the majority of 32X failures can be easily fixed by opening up the case and simply reattaching a certain ribbon that sometimes comes loose, no mechanical, technical, or engineering expertise required. I once fixed mine that way.

As for the games, you are highly underrating the gems it did have. Besides the Knuckles game, "Star Wars Arcade" was amazing at the time and still holds up decently well today, while it has a number of highly accurate arcade ports that were unmatched outside of the original arcade versions at the time. Also, as an experienced owner, the nature of the system is not too complicated, and the graphics are much better than those on the Genesis.

Meanwhile, how can you possibly say everything was Sega of America's fault, when it was Sega of America who suggested teaming up with Sony and Sega of Japan who turned Sony down?! That was the very worst business decision Sega ever made, and that was all the Japanese branch's fault! Also, why are you ignoring the part of the article that explains that the 32X project was only greenlit in the first place due to SoJ's orders? If the Japanese branch had truly hated the idea, they would've ordered the discontinuation of the project themselves.

Finally, I've been waiting years for this article! Although, it's disappointing that you had to copy someone else's article instead of writing your own.

Anyway, there's no denying that the business strategy was horrible and the library is abysmally small, but the 32X is actually a pretty good system, especially given the rushed development. As mentioned it does 3D graphics better than the Saturn, the "backwards compatibility" (so to speak) with the Genesis is a nice feature, and it does have some really good games like "Star Wars Arcade," "Knuckles Chaotix," "Virtua Racing Deluxe," and the very first near-perfect console port of "Space Harrier." I've always enjoyed my 32X.

In fact, if Sega had dropped the idea of the Saturn and given the 32X a full development period towards a Holiday 1995 release, it may have actually competed decently against the PlayStation and N64, which in turn may have prevented the rushed release of the Dreamcast and allowed it compete in the next generation with somewhat better specs and DVD playback, and then who knows where Sega could be today? Of course, this is highly hypothetical and ultimately unlikely, but I do think they would've been even better off putting all their eggs in the 32X (with its better 3D capabilities and pseudo backwards compatibility) than even if they had put all their eggs in the Saturn.

@YANDMAN Perhaps, but most of the good exclusive games are available, and even then there aren't that many all-time classics. Its library pales in overall quality compared to either the SNES or Genesis / Mega Drive (and if you're going to include the games that require add-ons as part of the Turbografx library, then you need to also include the 32X and Sega CD games as part of the Genesis library).

As great as this device is, it's still really expensive for a retro gaming solution, and that's on top of buying the system itself and any of its games. Most people would be better off just buying the games they want from the Wii / Wii U Virtual Console.

I still don't get the point of playing these retro games in HD. The minimal graphical improvements aren't worth the input lag, in my opinion. I recommend just saving a bunch of money by getting the original Super Retro Trio and playing on a good ol' CRT set as the games were meant to be played.

These are decent knockoffs but ultimately pointless when you can just get a GBA instead.

@blackice85 Of course most people are happy with that! It's how the games were originally played, so they don't need to look any better than that. That kind of performance does not by any means look awful, and the downgrade that you do get is more than worth the money you save and the lack of any input lag (as well as compatibility with the Zapper). It's certainly looks better that way than having the pixels stretched and colors bled out on a modern TV.

By the way, I forgot to mention that while a huge CRT set may take up too much room, we're talking about a secondary TV used solely for retro gaming, so you don't need more than a 25 to 30 inch screen or so.

@blackice85 I don't know what that means, but it's not too hard to find one that will accept both analog (for older retro systems) and composite cable (for relatively newer systems like GameCube and Wii) inputs.

As for physical space, yes they take up more room than modern TVs, but they don't require a huge amount of space. Most people could easily clear out a corner of their living or rec room for one.

So CRT sets aren't justified but this is? While it's cheaper than its direct competition, it's even cheaper to just grab a CRT TV off of Ebay or the like.

I still prefer the RetroTrio, simply because it's true clone hardware that doesn't rely on emulation at all, and I don't care about fancy features like upscaled graphics or game patches. It already provides me with perfect performance, perfect compatibility, and lag-free control.

So basically it sucks.

Awesome!

@Simbabbad The dialogue sounded pretty good to me. Are you one of those killjoys who considers all cheesiness to be a bad thing?

Wow, that's a pretty nasty con job. I bet they were just going to take all the Kickstarter money and retire to a Carribean island or something.

@bezerker99 I was stuck on that level for a long time, too (at least without using any of the cheat codes). Remember that you have to get pretty close to those shield generators before you can nail them with your charged ion cannon then immediately break away and turn back around while charging the ion cannon for your next shot before attempting another pass. Once you get into the prison structure itself, your primary objective to bomb (your lasers barely make a dent) the guard towers, which are the radio tower like structures that shoot at you. Also, make sure you've collected the "Advanced Shield" tech upgrade from the Death Star level.

Anyway, this is a great game. It truly is one of the best launch games ever made for a Nintendo system alongside gems like "Super Mario World" and "Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition."

There's very little chance of a rerelease, though. Not only is the original developer kaput along with massive licensing issues, but the reboot of the Expanded Universe means Disney wouldn't be too keen to promote the original missions in those games (although the "Prisons of the Maw" level already contradicted the old EU in the first place; they must've skipped over the "Jedi Academy" novel trilogy in their research).

Maybe Michelangelo was right about the 1980's being medieval times (from the latest TMNT episode).

I wish you guys would give us some way to search through old hardware reviews, so I can go look back at some of them on occasion without searching through a massive amount of archive pages.

Hmm, he's friends with Ben Savage. As a child of the 90's, I'm more familiar with Ben in "Boy Meets World" than I am with Fred.

Nintendo Power still manages to remain relavent through the use of exclusive reveals and other new info in their previews, exclusive interviews, and their various fun sections like the Pulse (reader questions and comments with responses), the polls, Playback (retro game spotlight), and the Community section.

I've never seen this, but now I want to rent it (if I can find it).