Jimgamer8

Some great examples above, and I def preferred Gradius / Salamander on the PC Engine - d-pad alone makes it easier.

Could almost include any PC Engine shooter given accuracy of conversions but accessibility - Ordyne, Ultimate Tiger/Twin Cobra, R-Type, Side Arms etc.

Gauntlet 4 on the Genesis. Didn’t need to keep feeding money into it.

Just got mine yesterday and have to say it feels great - a bit of Metroid Prime and Super Mario Sunshine on the Switch - will try GC tomorrow, but overall excellent controller

Was amazing seeing the PSX playing Ridge Racer at CEX in London a couple of days after the Japanese release.
A lot can be said about the premature abandonment of 2D games at the time, but this has proved to be a seminal moment in the industry’s history and I will be firing up my OG console today.

So a quick 5 mins with the update leaves me very positive.

New scanline/picture modes all look great. RF mode is v cool.

Latency is much improved and while still noticeable is in the range of “I can get used to this” vs “I can’t get past this”.

Looking forward to giving it a good run through

@LowDefAl this immediately came to mind for me as well. They are tapping into the preference for retro folks for physical media, like Evercade, but the price seems awfully steep.
It could be a cool concept, but with the console and modules, the price points are tough to see as mass market given emulation alternatives.
Hopefully the software update fixes the latency issues - I have a hard time enjoying any 2D PSX games on my Polymega.

This is a really cool concept and as an Evercade owner it’s great to see a 4th iteration of the hardware to use carts you own (handheld/Vs/mini handheld). Won’t be for everyone but with the attention to detail in emulation, screen scaling, and quality of life stuff, these guys really get it.

That’s a solid list. I loved Maximum. Amazing photo spreads.
While short-lived, The Games Machine was a neat multi-format effort. Still have the R-Type/ PC Engine cover that helped drive my longing for that machine.

Just tried out Delta emu. SNES and GBA work great so far

Very pleased with the port and yes the snes buttons are perfect. Looking forward to seeing how this ports to the PC Engine…

Hard to describe how exciting it was reading these magazines. Still have all 4 issues, and it’s still great to thumb through them and remember how as a C64 owner I was blown away by what was coming round the corner. It says something about that era, and nostalgia for it, that we are still getting new games or ports for the OG hardware (XenoCrisis pre-ordered for SNES!) or modern indies in that style (Iron Meat feels great on SteamDeck). Thanks for the reminder today TE

@TeamBigRig similar to my experience, sadly. Lag varies a lot between systems and even games. Obviously 2D shooters and platformers seem worst affected. I’ve found the best results with a PS Classic mini controller connected by USB on my gaming monitor. An OG Genesis pad via the module is pretty good. Lag with the included pad is poor.

Great piece Damien. I’m 53, and can relate to many points in the article and many of the responses. Nostalgia, immediacy of older games, time available to play, and the ability to buy and collect now I can pay for them myself are all factors for me.
Key for me though, is I’ll dabble in emulation, on a big TV, but I also can’t get away from using original hardware, often on my CRT. Having said that, just got a Polymega (so convenient) and just ordered an Evercade (I like cartridges). I’m lucky to have the space, and budget to have that stuff, and I’m grateful for modders that can keep the old stuff running, and making it work well on modern displays.
Every time I see that Zzap Christmas cover I think of my C64 and walking to Boots or WH smiths to look at the game section. Putting on Ultimate Tiger on my PC Engine and im back in my first year at Uni, playing this tiny white box on a rental tv that’s blowing everyone’s minds. I hope I never grow out of it.

Two weeks in with my Polymega. Liking the convenience, and have got used to the display modes on my monitor. Still having latency issues, esp with 2D stuff from Playstation. PSX mini pad by USB seems better than most, but any other owners have a go-to controller solution?

@Jimgamer8 Well, I've used it for a couple of hours, ripped a bunch of N64, PSX, Saturn and PC Engine CD games. It's slick, user friendly, and does all the processes around ripping / cataloguing and so on very well.
Major disappointment with the display modes and latency. I'm spoiled by the retro-tink, my CRT, and Analogue's products. The RGB and composite filters just don't look right on 2D games. This is especially true using it on a 32" PC monitor a foot from my face. Was hoping it would be better on a big telly at several feet, but just not sure I like the visual side yet. N64 and 3D games on PS1 / Saturn look far more forgiving.
Latency with the official pad is bad. With the 2.4ghz M30 its a bit better. Plugged in mega drive mini pad is ok. Awaiting my PSX mini USB pad off eBay. Gradius / Gradius Gaiden my go-to games for this and its just not good enough.

Will assess with a bigger library of 3D games, but as it stands, I feel like returning it. $500+ is a LOT of money for a subpar experience. What a bummer.

@Gerald that’s a bummer and hope I didn’t rub salt in the wound.

Thanks to Damo and Time Extension for having the most in-depth review of this, it is appreciated. I’m expecting my base unit next week (ordered May ‘22), and my Ultra module in the next week (ordered yesterday). Really looking forward to a seamless way to play my old carts and CDs without having to have them all out. Love my og hardware and Analogue systems, but I’m a married 53 yr old that a) can’t have this stuff lying around everywhere all the time - I have no “setup”; b) a makes the barrier to entry for quick sessions on 16-bit games a little harder. I’ve never loved emulation, always seems to be a compromise, and the Retrofreak - the last cartridge ripping emulation system I had - and the Retron 5 both went on ebay as they just lacked quality. Hopefully Polymega fixes this.

Small company manufacturing in Myanmar, amidst a global supply chain crisis, I’m pretty glad I’m not just ending up with a refund from a dead company. In the context of issues tech behemoths like Sony and Microsoft had, and seeing how small co like Analogue has fared, Polymega is thankfully finally getting its act together.

This is a niche part of a global hobby and we are all spoiled by modern fulfillment standards from Apple and Amazon. If you went through the struggle of the grey import market, the Pal vs NTSC frustration, the shift from CRTs to flat panels, the price of retro games in the ebay era, this is just an unfortunate aspect of the hobby. I wonder what it is like in the world of classic cars, classic cameras, or any hobby using old stuff.

@Sketcz I think if you look hard enough you will always see stuff that isn't a perfect CRT look. This is as good as anything I've used, and I've used the lot (think 4K aside).

I recently sold my Ayn Odin 1 on eBay. It was a really nice piece of kit, but two things put me off. The d-pad was fine - similar style to the Vita but less fluid. It's placement and movement made playing retro 2D games less pleasant than, say, the Milo Mini+. Second, and this may be my inability to set up my emulators correctly, I definitely sensed a bit of lag. Main culprits were shooters like Gradius V on PS2, and Gradius on PS1.

@TeamBigRig I’m more a plug n play person, so I found the profile / settings stuff on Framemeister too fiddly. OSSC was nice and simple. Tink 5X is best of both. You can just plug it in or tweak settings a lot. It’s especially good with 480i content like PS2. Check out the upscaler comments from Retrorgb.com for more info. Good luck!

Amazing product with nothing really competitive in the price range. I still have a 24” Sony CRT, a 14” PVM, and have used multiple cheap cables, scart to component converters, the Framemeister, the OSSC. Aside from the Insurrection Carby for GameCube, and Mike Chi’s / RGC’s RAD2x cables, there is nothing easier or more satisfying to use for your old gaming gear.

Can't say enough good things about the Deck. I mainly play Switch in hand-held, so to have a machine (albeit a huge machine) that can play may of those games and lots more that never made it to Switch is great. OLED is a big jump in screen quality and fits better with the overall size.

great review - thank you. Looking forward to getting mine. Worth noting for the six-button games, the Polymega Turbo Pad is pretty decent and inexpensive. Hopefully the M30 gets compatibility - best 6 button pad ever.

I remember walking into the 1st shop not long after it opened. A few Lynx and Megadrive games on a small shelf and a lot of PC stuff. Downloaded my shareware version of Doom from their PC back in 1993
The Rathbone place store was great for a while - I saw the PlayStation on demo a few days after it launched in Japan in December ‘94. Crazy times.
I can’t remember when the imports disappeared, but I think either Sony or Nintendo wanted to shut down the grey import scene. I scooped up most of my PC Engine collection from there before that happened.
Thanks for the great article.

Been buying their products since the first SNES style pad, and having been buying 3rd party stuff since the days of the Wico trackball, Speed King and Quickshot II, these guys make the best controllers out there. SNES for my Super NT gets a lot of use, but the M30 is the GOAT with that d-pad. White version arriving today.
The ultimate pad is close to perfect and while expensive it feels premium.
Only minor disappointment is the PC Engine/Turbo pads - don’t feel quite right. Tho part of that is the slight lag inout on the PCE mini. We’ll see how it goes on the Analogue Duo.
Love these guys and long may they keep taking my money.

Great game I need to revisit. Love those chunky pixels on my DSi XL.
The Mummy Demastered on Switch is a nice modern chunky pixel game from the WayForward team that reminds me of this.
Shout out to Aliens (C64) and Alien Resurrection (PSX) as other super atmospheric games in the series

Brilliant article. Fond memories of Zzap, Complete Guide to Console Gaming and then Mean Machines guiding my purchases, and generating such excitement. Love the nostalgic posts from Jaz on Twitter these days, and Richard’s great work at Digital Foundry and EuroGamer. Damien and the crew at Time Extension / Nintendolife are doing amazing work these days as well.

Waiting for my Rendering Ranger cart from Limited Run....adjacent topic, but would be nice for the PC Engine to get some love. A machine I'd like to see some remakes on, and maybe a Contra port. Big miss for Konami to skip PCE with Contra, and Genesis with Gradius.

Pretty happy to get these to go with my Vita, MegaDrive, Switch versions. Sold the excellent Dreamcast version with my system last year.
SNES would make sense for sure - the music would be interesting to hear - though I would be concerned on slowdown as a potential issue. Super Aleste / R-Type 3 / Contra 3 all suggest it can handle a busy screen in the right hands, so maybe we will see it eventually. After the PC Engine and Gameboy ports, perhaps?

I bought a PAL RF PC Engine back in 1989, and only shortly after realized there was this thing called SCART and my parents telly supported it - at 60hz NTSC as well. What a difference. Moved to the States and had to switch to component which is very close in quality. HDTV messed everything up until the Framemeister / OSCC / Retorting came along. Still use some SCART stuff for my PVM, and to put into my Retrotink 5. Component is great, and very much essential when using my Gamecube.

@Gamecuber my bad, I’d always assumed it was a port of the PS3 game.and a quick visit to Wikipedia and I see the PS3 version was the port.

Dead Space Extraction and Manhunt 2 both brought a bit of mature game violence and novel control to the Wii with a couple of solid ports.

I have this on my PS2 Taito Legends 2. Not a great example of emulation, but the game seems fantastic. Sort of a vertical Rolling Thunder with more doors/puzzles. Great to see a re-release.

Fantastic list, I own and replay many of these games to this day. One title I also revisit is Sub-Terrania. I just love the clean visual style, the music is atmospheric, and of course the Thrust-style gravity/inertia centered gameplay. Nothing else quite like it and while it is uneven, and a steep learning curve, there’s something compelling about it.
Two others that were great in their time were The Immortal (exploding heads) and the mani two-player duels in Star Control.

@BulkSlash yeah the gyro is cool - touch sensitive sticks to toggle it is neat.
Nothing wrong with the old stuff. Amazing how quickly you accumulate stuff from Steam sales.

Some great items here. Couple of suggestions:
Shadow Complex
Binary Domain
Dead Space
Enslaved
Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate
Strider (reboot)
Titanfall 2 (too soon?)

@roadrunner343 I hear ya. They’d never do it, but a PCEngine GT remake, with a big screen, HDMI out would be great. With Switch, and Vita, it was one of the few software formats that really worked for console and handheld.

Awesome news. The Super NT is an incredibly high quality piece of kit. My only dissociate that they don’t have a PC Engine NT yet. Killing me with the hint about doing handheld.

@Dreamcaster-X I'll clarify my point - out of the box, it will play the CD-based library of those systems - without the added modules (which add the ability to play carts/use OG controllers, i.e. nothing to do with what I was ascribing value to). Thanks for the input.

I think $250 is reasonable if the compatibility out of the box is as they say. Between PS1, Saturn, Mega-CD and Turbo Duo you have a vast assortment of classic games that are not available on any digital store, previously only playable on original hardware, with the convenience of one box compatible with modern TVs. a LOT of questions remain, of course, and nothing here to drag me away from my Super NT (incredibly professional launch and support) or original hardware. Look forward to the reviews