Damo

@-wc- Thanks! I'm pretty proud of it! There are some amazing custom GBAs out there now, and they're not too expensive, either.

@atrac17 Apologies if this article or any of the others we've posted has led to unwelcome or unpleasant behaviour being directed to yourself on social media; the intention has always been to provide some context to delays relating to MARS.

Launching a piece of hardware is something I don't think I'd ever have the skill, talent or patience to do myself, so I'm very sensitive to people jumping to conclusions when they don't know all of the facts - that was the sole reason for including personal information (which I wouldn't have included had it not been posted to a public social media platform).

I realise TE isn't blocked by the MARS account but by blocking it from your personal account I won't see stuff related to the other FPGA projects you're working on - for example, the WWF core wouldn't have gotten a news story the other day (I assume you blocked the account recently).

I've been on the end of social media hate many times myself and can fully appreciate how difficult it is, but I can assure you TE's intention has never been to create such issues; we're here to report on exciting developments in the world of retro gaming, which MARS / your FPGA work certainly counts as.

@atrac17 Apologies, the information was included here because it offers a valid and understandable explanation as to why the MARS project was delayed. There was no intention to offend, and I'm happy to remove that portion of text from this piece.

Having said that, I hope it's obvious from the amount of coverage we've given MARS (and your FPGA cores) on this site that we're not the "enemy"; blocking us on Twitter simply means we won't have the chance to report on the good work you're doing, which seems a shame to me.

@Diogmites I know what you mean. Just looking at that photo makes me want to grab a polishing cloth!

@KingMike Shadow Dancer on the MS is essentially a port of the arcade game, so we've left it off here. The MD version is a totally new game

I realise there are some inconsistencies with this as we've included the SMS version of Shinobi here as well, but rest assured, it will all make sense in the final list!

@DestructoDisk As noted in the piece, they said it wasn't compatible but it fits my OLED fine. The issue is that the screwdriver included in the package won't remove the screws, so you have to buy another one.

@michaelf I must have missed it! I've edited the review to reflect this. Thanks!

@-wc- Ah yes, the famous "quality over quantity" approach that gave us (check notes) Superman 64, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and Blues Brothers 2000

Joking aside, while Nintendo's strategy, in the beginning, was (reportedly) to focus on a smaller group of developers (the ill-fated "Dream Team" - that was a marketing dud if ever you saw one - Acclaim? Gametek?!), I don't think there's a single person who was at the company during this time that would tell you with a straight face they were happy with the level of third-party support the console got during its entire lifespan.

I mean, look at the pathetic number of RPGs on the machine – the genre that is basically the difference between success and failure in Japan.

There's definitely a case of "reframing" that narrative in this interview to make out that it was all part of Nintendo's masterplan, when we know for a fact that developers hated carts and were sick of paying the massive fees to manufacture them.

@VeldinX This was a mistake, we've corrected the piece. Apologies for the confusion

@BulkSlash Doh, I've added that in!

@JJtheTexan We picked PlatinumGames as it was the role he seemed to be the most proud of (and certainly the most high profile), but point taken - I've edited the headline.

@KingMike He means the 2021 VCS.

@Diogmites @madgears @somnambulance The rankings are based solely on user votes. These will likely change over time - you can even change them right now by voting for your favourite games

@Poodlestargenerica It's definitely not one of their best songs but that is often the way with a lot of bands, I find. I still love the song myself; it's dumb but technically quite clever.

@-wc- @Poodlestargenerica I take your point, but this is literally a puzzle game in which you can jump from platform to platform, so it's perhaps the purist example of that definition

@-wc- We actually submitted a question about that (the lack of analogue control) after the initial batch of replies came in, and will update this piece when we get an answer.

@L-Sand Thanks for making a game which has sucked up all of my free time!

@N00BiSH That's the best response to one of my comments I've seen in a LONG time, so bravo!

@N00BiSH Most people's point of reference is going to be the DS though, the world's best-selling clamshell device (and the best-selling handheld console ever).

@vidjagames That's the plan - watch this space! 😃

@Razieluigi Nobody, and that's the issue; they burned through all of the pre-order funding and are now looking to leverage what assets they still have (games, the controller) to generate more capital so they can actually create the console people paid money for four years ago.

I think it's obvious by now that that isn't likely to happen.

@-wc- It said news because our content is either news, features or reviews - those are the established categories when we built the site. I've tagged this 'random' to make it clearer though.

@Razieluigi Doh, that has been fixed - that was my bad!

@-wc- Not everything covered on this site is news; we do light-hearted pieces, too, of which this is obviously one.

I thought it was pretty obvious by now that we're not a typical news site

@Nua You are 100% correct, fixed!

@Nontendo_4DS Marble Madness and Arch Rivals are both ports and not original Rare games, so they aren't included in the list.

@Tasuki Software Creations handled that port.

@metak @KingMike @Poodlestargenerica This list is by no means definitive and we'll update it with some of the suggested games - although Tetris is staying because I think it's a great version

@MontyCircus Precisely!

@Poodlestargenerica Lists based on the opinions of the many rather than the opinion of just one person seen more accurate to me, but thanks for the feedback regardless. I'll take it in to account!

@MARl0 @BlaizeV The list is based on user votes, so it will change over time. Tekken 5 is low because it wasn't in our database prior to this list being created; if you want to see it move higher, vote for it and you'll change the running order.

@RaeDawnChonglingBay I've updated the article with the removed games.

@RootsGenoa A fair point, fixed!

@Uncharted2007 @GhaleonUnlimited @RootsGenoa Our lists tend to evolve over time, so I'm not against bumping this from 10 to 15 entries and including MK2, NBA Jam, Doom etc - watch this space!

@BulkSlash Your assumption is correct, I think - it will probably just spit out hints and tips based on what it has scraped from the internet. Something I hope becomes illegal on copyright grounds sooner rather than later.

@belmont If you have an ODE, yes. If not, Action Replay carts can be flashed with Pseudo Saturn and allow you to retain the 1M/4M expansion (as they have it built-in).

@BulkSlash Agreed, it's real godsend!

@Hydra_Spectre Apologies, that has been amended.

@bring_on_branstons Hopefully things will improve this year. You cite Analogue as an example of how to do things, but it's worth pointing out that, until very recently, the wait for Analogue Pockets was almost as bad. Ant, who works with me here at Hookshot, had to wait almost a year for his. These issues have impacted many companies, not just Playmaji.

@romanista Exactly - everyone's use case is going to be different. I'm just happy we have so many options when it comes to retro gaming in 2024!

@blondeandy I'm sorry to hear you've had such a poor experience with Playmaji. Rest assured, we've been filtering back issues with pre-orders to them for the past year or so. The situation with the Polymega is awful, and while it's not totally Playmaji's fault (component shortages and civil wars are beyond the company's control), the lack of communication over the past couple of years isn't good, and we've said as much to them.

I can only hope that 2024 is a more positive year for Playmaji and Polymega, because, as you can see from this review, I feel the system itself is excellent.

@gingerbeardman Having re-read the review for what feels like the millionth time today, I realised that I'd already stated in the text that issues like discs being spat out or showing as unsupported were remedied by a previous system update (it's important to remember the original review was based on beta hardware / software). However, I've given that paragraph another go-over to make it clearer to readers in 2024.

"According to Playmaji, the retail firmware features some low-level changes in the way the system behaves, so these could just be teething troubles that will be fixed with future software updates – or, as we just mentioned, it could be down to decades-old CDs starting to become unreadable (it's worth noting that we've since had another update of the retail firmware which has fixed some of the incompatibility problems we encountered previously). Whatever the reason, Playmaji has spent the past three years fine-tining compatibility and ironing out any issues, and the abovementioned problems have largely been eradicated in 2024. Like many other pieces of modern consumer hardware, Polymega is likely to continue to evolve and improve over its lifespan."

@Stocksy On our review scale, even 10/10 isn't perfect, as there's arguably no such thing as a perfect game. 9/10 certainly shouldn't be seen as perfect and without fault, but it's highly recommended and does what it sets out to do amazingly well.

@gingerbeardman The review is based on the one originally written in 2020, so it has been adjusted accordingly to reflect 3 years of software updates. I changed the con you mentioned to better reflect the situation now, in 2023, when compatibility has improved dramatically.

The disc-spitting is also a thing of the past (at least in my experience) so I'll probably give this another pass to update it. I didn't want to totally re-write the review, but there's some legacy stuff in there which perhaps needs amending (I'm technically on holiday at the moment but wanted to get this updated asap).

Returning to the matter at hand, I would continue to recommend this system to anyone with a sizeable collection of retro games who wants to play them on a modern TV. It's a great option for that particular gamer, and, as I said before, it's been my most played system for the past 3 years. I just wish Playmaji could get them into people's hands faster.

@gingerbeardman I think you might have misunderstood the story - GB support hasn't been announced, it was discovered by users who have the N64 module.

Not defending Playmaji's inability to hit deadlines, but in this case, nothing was promised officially.

@gingerbeardman You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, of course. But speaking personally (I wrote the review), Polymega has been my most played system since I got the review unit in 2020. Compatibility has improved massively since then, with only a small handful of games not working 100% (as is the case with a lot of emulation-based options - in fact, even FPGA systems have compatibility issues). The user experience is also fantastic (not sure where you got 'uneven' from?) with games installing easily and the end user getting a rich library to browse, complete with screenshots, descriptions and other data. Compared to many other emulation options, it's incredibly streamlined.

And there's no hand-waving here, as you say - 9/10 suggests a product which isn't quite perfect, and Polymega certainly could be better - but, if you own a large collection of physical games and you want a one-stop solution for playing them on a modern TV (with the ability to use save states, patches, etc) then it doesn't really have any rivals at the moment.

I'm not sure why this review should leave a bad taste in your mouth when you haven't used a Polymega personally, but I would highly recommend you give it a go. It's a wonderful way to reconnect with your physical retro games.

@isitafox As noted in the review, this cart was released before the Evercade Amiga emulator was done. From this point on, we should see a lot more collections with Amiga games on them.

@iconmaster We got our 1 and 7 mixed up! Thanks!

@Gerald Excellent news! Hopefully the base unit isn't too far behind!

@-wc- The UI design is terrible