Konami were so good at producing incredible soundtracks in the late 80's - whatever the format or the game.
I think the most amazing thing is that their soundtracks are usually instantly recognisable as music from a Konami game. Not a "Video Game" but a Konami game.
No one who ever finished it will ever forget the first time they played through Star Fox Command...
...and saw the (cannon) ending where Krystal leaves Fox for Panther and the whole Star Fox team goes on to lead terrible depressing lives. Video games rarely give you such a downbeat ending.
I’d love to see a sequel on Switch (with normal controls). There was a lot of potential there that was held back by the budget and the format. Bigger, more asymmetric levels with some larger (more scripted Star Fox 64 boss style) encounters and some linear stages (as intended by Dylan Cuthbert in the article) could make for a pretty special game.
...so long as the plot went completely off the wall again like the original.
I think it looks like a good product... but a particularly niche one.
It's clearly not the best solution for playing 8 or 16 bit cartridge games. For those the FPGA machines from Analogue are the gold standard and there are plug-and-play mini-consoles with much cheaper emulation boxes that read original cartridges in-between. Polymega is neither fish nor fowl there.
For playing 32 bit CD based games though it's a good solution. There aren't many (if any) cheap off the shelf devices that do that job well. Yes you can do it on a decent PC but that's a bigger cost and not the convenience that this device promises. To my knowledge there aren't any FPGA consoles that emulate those systems perfectly in hardware at present.
Of course, how many people actually have a worthwhile collection of early CD games and how many early CD games hold up is a different question and that's what severely limits the target audience for this device.
The audience for these devices don’t care about 100% accuracy - they just want ‘good enough’ and in most cases won’t be playing for long enough or remember the details of old games well enough to spot that they’re not playing something 100% accurate anyway.
An FPGA based device that’s even £10-20 more expensive moves out of impulse buy territory so it’s a non starter.
Which is unfortunate because a handheld FPGA console would be the dream for enthusiasts. Surely someone will make one eventually?
Comments 5
Re: Feature: Hidehiro Funauchi Mastered The Game Boy's Sound Chip, Then Seemingly Disappeared
Konami were so good at producing incredible soundtracks in the late 80's - whatever the format or the game.
I think the most amazing thing is that their soundtracks are usually instantly recognisable as music from a Konami game. Not a "Video Game" but a Konami game.
Re: Hardware Review: Analogue Pocket - Potent FPGA Power In Portable Form
Serious question - does it support the gba-gcn connector?
In other words is it the final piece I need for Four Swords perfection?
Re: Feature: The Making Of Star Fox Command
No one who ever finished it will ever forget the first time they played through Star Fox Command...
...and saw the (cannon) ending where Krystal leaves Fox for Panther and the whole Star Fox team goes on to lead terrible depressing lives. Video games rarely give you such a downbeat ending.
I’d love to see a sequel on Switch (with normal controls). There was a lot of potential there that was held back by the budget and the format. Bigger, more asymmetric levels with some larger (more scripted Star Fox 64 boss style) encounters and some linear stages (as intended by Dylan Cuthbert in the article) could make for a pretty special game.
...so long as the plot went completely off the wall again like the original.
Re: Hands On: Polymega Is Shaping Up To Be The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Emulation Box
I think it looks like a good product... but a particularly niche one.
It's clearly not the best solution for playing 8 or 16 bit cartridge games. For those the FPGA machines from Analogue are the gold standard and there are plug-and-play mini-consoles with much cheaper emulation boxes that read original cartridges in-between. Polymega is neither fish nor fowl there.
For playing 32 bit CD based games though it's a good solution. There aren't many (if any) cheap off the shelf devices that do that job well. Yes you can do it on a decent PC but that's a bigger cost and not the convenience that this device promises. To my knowledge there aren't any FPGA consoles that emulate those systems perfectly in hardware at present.
Of course, how many people actually have a worthwhile collection of early CD games and how many early CD games hold up is a different question and that's what severely limits the target audience for this device.
Still, best of luck to them!
Re: Hardware Review: Sega's Heritage Deserves Better Than The Mega Drive Ultimate Portable
@TheMudHutDweller cost surely?
The audience for these devices don’t care about 100% accuracy - they just want ‘good enough’ and in most cases won’t be playing for long enough or remember the details of old games well enough to spot that they’re not playing something 100% accurate anyway.
An FPGA based device that’s even £10-20 more expensive moves out of impulse buy territory so it’s a non starter.
Which is unfortunate because a handheld FPGA console would be the dream for enthusiasts. Surely someone will make one eventually?