@cleveland124 You made some valid points there. But even though there aren't any comparison videos yet, or at least not that I know of, there ARE plenty of standalone videos, that give a pretty decent impression of how all the various games and systems run on the Polymega.
As for the way it updates: the system has both online capabilities and side-loading through SD card for firmware and such.
@cleveland124 With all due respect, as @Damo pointed out so correctly, you simply cannot make a 1:1 comparison, which is why the label "just a simple emulation box" just doesn't fit the bill. For all the rest of the ACTUAL info and facts on this thing, I'll leave it up to Damien, seeing as he's the only one out of ALL of us who has actually play-tested this device, and as such, his review is worth far more than any of our basically prejudiced armchair criticisms.
I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure either whether or not I'll buy this, much less if I even NEED it (then again: we actually don't need any console, so yeah... ), but I'm at least willing to keep an open mind, and I'm even up for play-testing it myself, without having a predetermined negative mindset about it.
P.S.
You may have had a point when listing the emulators/cores, but you forgot one MASSIVELY important factor: with many of these cores and BIOS'es, they've enlisted the help of the ORIGINAL builders/hackers to reverse engineer or sometimes even completely re-engineer them to fit the custom design of the Polymega hardware, such as in the case of the Saturn emulator, which by the way is actually based on Yabause, a notoriously difficult to run and tweak emulator, even on higher end PC's.
I'm kind of assuming they probably chose this path due to them having left behind the original plan to base everything off of FPGA cores, so custom building/re-engineering them for this console was probably the second best option.
And it would certainly explain why everything is running so well, even though it is only software-based emulation.
@Damo Exactly. To be fair though, they did, probably in their unbridled enthusiasm, initially promise us the (FPGA) moon, so at least part of the criticism actually is warranted, but the whole "bleh, it's just a way too expensive emulation box" comments are beyond short-sighted.
And it's not like your review wasn't elaborate enough, but apparently, most of these negative commenters skipped over the important parts...
@Steel76 I wouldn't say that a console that emulates 5 CD-based systems (edit: or actually 10, if you factor in that it emulates both PAL and NTSC versions of these consoles) straight out of the box is insanely expensive at that price point.
No one is saying that it's cheap either, so let's not overreact. It's a fairly decent price for what you get in return.
@AtlanteanMan No offense, but the idea that pirated games had any significant influence on the speed of the Dreamcast's demise is complete and utter nonsense.
The primary reason, or rather reasons are several consecutive bad decisions and gross mismanagement, NOT piracy.
There is an official documentary about this, made by G4TV, which features all the key people involved at the time, so that's the actual story from a first hand source.
Besides, only gen 1 Dreamcasts could read burned discs/copies, so that made the impact even smaller than it already was, not to mention that for most people, internet download speeds were excrutiatingly slow back then, so acquiring a significant number of downloaded games would have been an almost impossible task, or at least one that took next to forever...
All kidding aside, though, I am to this day still a proud and happy owner of a first generation Dreamcast. Far as I'm concerned, it's still the most "arcadey" home console ever made, with the Neo Geo as a close second.
@DrDaisy Wow, you must be so much fun at parties...
All kidding aside, nobody is forcing you to read any of it, either on here or on any other web site, so why get so worked up about it?
As for the titles mentioned: seeing as the Witcher and Castlevania are partially related to Nintendo no matter which way you look at it, it's really not all THAT strange that any other stuff related to these titles and others is also mentioned on here as a bit of additional information, that might (and does) interest quite a few of us.
@Damo "Yes, that's right Nintendo fans – we're going off the beaten track again to tell you about something that isn't Nintendo-related, but should be interesting to retro fans all the same."
Man, the fact that you even have to include such a sentence in an article. Kinda makes me sad to some extent...
@FargusPelagius Most of those titles that you've sold and/or lost are now only a download away. There's tons of Dreamcast repositories, with either 1:1 rips or downscaled rips, which will fit on a normal CD, so all it takes is a bit of Googling. Unless of course you're a purist and are strictly against such practices. But it is an option, nonetheless.
@Brady1138 There's actually two ways to play on this: either install the games, aka "rip the ROMs" or play straight from the media itself, so you could play from a disc without installing. That's the whole point of the system: replacing all these separate boxes into one that plays multiple. Sure, it is pricey, but if you look at all the CD-based systems that it supports straight out of the box, you're still getting good value for money, considering what it would cost you to buy all these systems separately.
@denis09 You might wanna reconsider EuroGamer as well, then. Seeing as they're part of the same partner network as NLife and all its sister sites...
@cleveland124 But that's the thing: until you've tried it out, you can't just go and assume all kinds of things, based upon general factoids, because some may not apply, such as with Saturn emulation, which regardless of it not being FPGA based, apparently pleasantly surprised plenty of people, NLife crew included.
Did you even know that the people behind the Polymega have hired the original programmer of the best Saturn emulator out there, to write a whole new core for them, tailor-made for this system?
That might be the ACTUAL reason it works so well. None of us would be able to say something sensible about it without having that all important hands on experience, so although I absolutely agree with you that they've said and done some weird things up til now, I still think that we should go by actual experience and proof, instead of being influenced by goings on from the past.
@cleveland124 I'm far from being that kind of person. What I actually am, is a realist, and the fact remains that every time a Polymega article is published, people are constantly commenting on it in a negative manner, while having no hands on experience, which the NLife crew clearly does.
I've also seen several people on YouTube testing it out, and all of them are quite positive about their experience with the system so far.
@Ooyah Well, while I actually AM laughing, I'm laughing WITH you and not at you, because to this day, I'm still a proud owner of three Amiga systems, amongst which a CD32 with an SX32 expansion.
Oh, well, all the whatevers and complaints of individuals who base their opinions solely on personal ideas/misconceptions and hearsay, instead of having any ACTUAL experience with the system...
@Damo You're asking me? The reason I tagged you is because I don't know, and I figured since you made the article, you might, seeing as @GravyThief wanted to know.
Perhaps it works the same as how I do it on the Wii, then. Or perhaps there are settings in either Swiss or the menu of the device itself, to load a BIOS. But that's just me guessing...
@GravyThief Well, I only know Swiss, so I've no idea if that also works with this SD card gadget. On my soft-modded Wii, I've simply added the GameCube BIOS to the main folder, so each time I boot up a GameCube disc, I get the official GameCube intro. Like you, I also prefer to have the experience as authentic as possible.
Seeing as the GameCube itself already contains the BIOS files, I'd assume that it will indeed display it when booting up a game, or the console, but perhaps @Damo could tell you more about whether or not that assumption of mine is correct.
@eltomo The "elements" are only for cartridge-based systems. When you buy a starter pack, you'll get the base unit, which plays ALL supported CD-based consoles right out of the box, such as Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD, Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn & PSX. (15 CD-based systems in total are compatible, according to their website)
Each additional element you buy plays cartridge games from one console, and they can be switched out. Each element comes with five pre-loaded games from the relevant system.
@GravyThief The answer to your question is yes. At least, if you use Swiss, which has a built-in feature for reading discs (correction: ISOs) from all regions. (one of the pictures in this article even shows a US/NTSC game being selected/loaded)
But that is far as I know, so for all we know, those very same features could also be built into this device itself.
@Julien You're welcome. Concerning the whole ROM issue:
downloading an illegally uploaded ROM from some shady website is something entirely different from ripping a ROM (or ISO) from your own, legally acquired cartridges or discs.
The laws/rules seem to vary on a "per country" basis, though, seeing as over here (Netherlands), it's perfectly legal to rip (legally acquired, obviously) CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays to another device, as long as you don't do it for commercial purposes and/or financial gain, meaning that a single copy for home use is perfectly fine and allowed.
Personally, I've ripped my entire GameCube collection (146 games, viewable in my profile) to an external hard drive, because it's easier to have access to than to have to get the boxes with the discs out of the closet every time, and search the game I want to play, and it spares the disc drive of both my GameCube and my Wii, and then there's the faster load times and improved picture quality as well, so it's a win-win all around.
@Julien If you still have a Wii lying around, you could also use that to rip discs to an external drive or SD card. You will need to softmod the Wii to be able to do that, though.
@samuelvictor Man, that all sounds mighty interesting. Guess I've got to keep an eye on you now. Or, you could tag me whenever you've got something new and interesting to report...
@samuelvictor Well, I've never even met them, but most of what I've read about them, only speaks in favor of them, so I'll easily take your word for it that they're good people.
By the way, have you ever considered talking to the NLife management about featuring your game-related stuff on here? It could potentially be good marketing for you.
@samuelvictor I am well, thank you, global pandemic and some other things considered, and good to hear you got out okay on the other end of that tunnel you were in. And a solid addition to the comments section AND the article. I didn't even know there was that much to know about these games. I only ever played the Amiga versions, and probably not all of them either.
@Damo I figured the slogan was already known, but the way it was pronounced, is still horrible, no matter which way you cut it. And not all commercials were bad in the early nineties. Over here, the worst offenders were, and to some extent still are, the dishwasher and detergent commercials, but other than that, I've never seen or heard a commercial as bad as this Ariston commercial over here.
@Tim_Vreeland Well, then I'm starting to wonder if THEY actually know the correct meaning of 1/4... Perhaps if you stack 4 on top of each other, so only length-wise...
@Tim_Vreeland What other 1 to 4 ratio could they be, then? 1/4 literally means "scale of one-fourth", so I would definitely expect them to be a fourth of the original model.
@JimmySpades When I first heard of them, I actually immediately linked their name to putting quarters in an arcade cabinet, NOT to them making cabinets at a quarter of the size...
WAY too small and the controls are also WAY too flimsy to support real arcade gameplay, so for the actual arcade fan, these kinda defeat their own purpose.
And usually, we'd be crowding around them, or be doing two player games on them, and that too is completely impossible with these flimsy miniatures.
Maybe they should consider making 1/2 scale models instead, that would immensely improve just about everything.
They'd also have to change their name then, obviously...
@DinnerAndWine I'm not taking offense to any of that, haha... (not)
I'm just a bit tired of people with zero knowledge about this crying "vaporware" or "scam", while it's anything but. Like I said: if it's not for you, or for any of the other uninterested people, then that's perfectly fine, but don't try to convince other people, who might actually be on the fence, of how "bad" this system is, because the truth is that we simply don't know, and as mentioned, people that DO know are pretty enthusiastic overall. I have yet to hear the first negative hands-on review or first impression.
And with that, I mean from a reputable source, not from any random YouTuber or game forum commenter...
On a side note: we actually agree on the hardcore/high end retro gamers, but many other people, the ones that also buy systems like the Retron 5 and such, might very well be interested in this far more polished product, so like you yourself actually already said, it's a nice mid-range option.
@DinnerAndWine Erm... because of the superior emulation? Like I said, this is dedicated emulation, with optimized cores made ONLY for the Polymega, by all the people/developers involved with the device, some of which are the ACTUAL makers of the emulator, like with the Saturn one, so having these people on board, is a BIG plus.
And not every PC is the same, and more often than not, it requires quite a bit of tweaking to get emulation to run as it should, because of that, whereas in this system, where the only purpose IS emulation, it will always run at the best possible setting.
That is also their aim, as mentioned on the website.
As also mentioned, their CD module plays 15 systems straight out of the box, so it's a VERY good option for a backup for whatever CD-based systems you own.
And I never said I was "impressed", but I most definitely AM interested.
If it's not for you, then that's perfectly fine, but don't knock it until you tried it. I don't think that it's fair for people to criticize or ridicule a system that they know practically nothing about, while the people that actually HAVE seen it and have now also tried it out, are all quite enthusiastic, and these people also know that there's many other options out there to play these older games.
So, that really ought to tell you something, and perhaps we should consider the possibility that they're really on to something good here...
Wow, there's a lot of clueless, prejudiced people in this thread. I was kinda hoping that this news would finally shut all these Vaporware or "this is a scam" people up, but sadly enough, I guess I was wrong...
Let's sum up some facts for all you people that have no idea why this is not something you should whine or complain about, but something you should actually be interested in, if you're into retro gaming:
Yes, they started out programming on FPGA's, but ultimately, that would have made the units even MORE expensive than they are now, so they switched to software-based. But they have already gone above and beyond (such as by reprogramming/refining individual BIOS files and cores) to assure that their emulation of all the various systems is the best it can be, even when compared to other solutions. And if anything, the Saturn emulation is a perfect example of that.
Why is this better than a Retron or a RetroPie or emulation on a PC? Because this is dedicated, customized emulation. It may not be FPGA anymore, but it's still focused on aiming for the highest quality, and games are played from the original media, so the system does NOT support ROMS or flash cartridges/Everdrives.
You CAN add cartridge and disc games to the games library of the system, but only your own. And far as I've understood, they want to implement official licensing for any and all titles including digital distribution of these titles, so you'd literally have to hack this system to be able to play illegal ROMs.
And in the case of the Saturn emulation: they've contracted the maker of original (and best) Saturn emulator Yabause, to make a new and more compatible version of his emulator core, including a whole new custom BIOS, exclusively for this system, so you're not going to find better Saturn emulation anywhere.
On a side note: and having a brand new CD-based module that can function as an all-in-one solution to play all your old CD games once the drives in the original consoles break down, doesn't sound to shabby to me either.
A CD unit that's compatible with 15 retro systems out of the box, by the way...
@KitsuneNight True. I've always been more of a multi-platform gamer myself. There's good games on every platform, so why people are so adamant of "defending" only one platform, is beyond me.
And it's not like any of these companies really need defending in the first place...
@Seacliff That was not my point. And far as I'm concerned, and probably many others, licensed products are only official in name, but do not necessarily reflect the actual companies values and quality, as the inferior products from AtGames have clearly shown, multiple times over.
And furthermore, the whole mentioning Sega was irrelevant in the first place, seeing as the PC Engine has nothing to do with that, but he brought it up, for whatever reason.
@mesome713 "Sega ones"? There's only been one (official) Sega Mini console (I'm not counting all the licensed AtGames trash) and that's actually of a better and more detailed build quality than the NES and SNES Minis. And I would know, because I own all three of them.
And seeing as PC Engine has nothing to do with Sega, naming them as making bad quality mini consoles makes even less sense than your original comment already did.
Again, all mini consoles are based on the same hardware, the only difference is another shape of their respective plastic shells, but there's no distinct quality difference between them. The only and most important difference comes down to the emulation, and seeing as M2 is taking care of that on this mini console, it's going to be of the highest quality.
@PickledKong64 I wouldn't take any of his comments seriously, to be honest. The emulation will be done by M2 and on the hardware side they've contracted HORI, so this mini console is going to be top notch. He's clearly confusing AtGames consoles with all of the more recent, and far higher quality, mini consoles.
This is well worth the money, even for the included CD titles alone. Rondo of Blood is arguably the best Castlevania ever released, and as mentioned in the article, if you had to buy/collect some of these titles in their actual, physical form, you'd have to expect to pay thousands of dollars/euros/pounds, so 99 bucks for a system with FAR more games than any of the previous minis is definitely a worthwhile purchase.
Needless to say, I'm definitely getting one. And obviously, I'll be adding my own favorites to it by soft-modding it.
@mesome713 The "machine" is just a plastic shell. It's obviously not a real console. All minis have a system on a chip, and more than likely use the exact same hardware, so that doubt or criticism is completely unwarranted. And seeing as the rest is taken care of by M2, this is going to be a VERY high quality product.
This new version of the console looks a heck of a lot more stylish than the original all-white concept, so it does now definitely give that nod to its original predecessor, and although I do have a soft spot for the original Colecovision, I do have the same reservations that some of the other commenters on here have, but I'm willing to wait and see how this is going to pan out.
I'm sorry to say that his name only rings the vaguest of bells. Guess I've seen it pop up in some of the EDGE magazines that I used to buy/read, but other than that, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him or his work.
Reading this really nice tribute to the man almost makes me feel bad for not knowing him, but that's just how things go sometimes.
Either way, awful to read that he lost the battle. Cancer is a horrible disease, and I too have lost family members to it. However horrible though, most of them were already relatively old. Being almost 50 myself, and still feeling pretty fit, makes me realize all the more that 52 simply isn't an appropriate age to die at, although of course, we have very little to no say in that, but it's very sad nonetheless.
I wish his family, friends and co-workers all the strength and comfort they need, and just like this article, I hope they'll keep all the good things in mind, and hold on to those great memories.
Long as we keep the people that we love in our hearts and minds, they're never truly gone.
@LoveEmpath There's only one person here who's confused, and if you're that pathetic that you feel the incessant need to spam each and every article about football claiming people are "wrong" for calling it that, then you've clearly not shown any adult behavior whatsoever, so I'll assume whatever the hell I want, and I'll keep calling you boy for as long as I see fit, BOY.
(I edited out the last bit of my comment, because in retrospect, it was far too harsh, but that is what your annoying know-it-all behavior brought out of me. Your user name definitely belies your attitude, which is neither lovely nor empathic)
@LoveEmpath Wow, more than a month further and that still bothers you? And who the hell is mes?
Either way, the checkmate is only happening in your head, pal. In real life, football is the game where two teams of 11 players fight over a ball, exclusively using their feet or heads to get the ball in the opponent's goal. Hence the name FOOTball, not "carry it under your arm and run with it" ball...
In reality, American Football is just the US version of Rugby.
P.S.
I'm from California, so I can speak for America just fine. I'm just more aware that there's actually a larger world out there because I live in Europe, and in that larger world, most countries actually do mean football and not American Football, when they're mentioning that sport.
Now run along, boy. You're never gonna win this one.
@LoveEmpath There's only one person stating incorrect things here, pal. As far as kicking goes, there's only a small percentage of that going on in American Football, because more than 80 percent of the time, players are running around with the ball under their arm or in their hands, whereas in actual football, it's what the entire game is built around, so it's abundantly clear which of the two is actually football. You can also deduce that from the fact that the number of countries where football is called "soccer", can be counted on two hands, versus almost 230 countries and/or regions where it's called football, so I'd say that the numbers already speak for themselves...
Don't be that guy that thinks that only America is leading and greater in any and all things, and as such what happens there and what is said there must "surely" be the only correct thing. The world is a hell of a whole lot bigger than that, so step out of that myopic bubble and learn, just as I have, during my travels across Europe, and ever since living here.
But even if you don't, at least consider being civilized enough to not bother other posters with your personal views and naggings about "the incorrectness" of calling "soccer" football. All you'll get is needless discussions and negativity, so why even bother?
Especially seeing as it's blindingly clear that you're wrong anyway.
Comments 226
Re: Hardware Review: Despite The Delays And Drama, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@cleveland124 You made some valid points there. But even though there aren't any comparison videos yet, or at least not that I know of, there ARE plenty of standalone videos, that give a pretty decent impression of how all the various games and systems run on the Polymega.
As for the way it updates: the system has both online capabilities and side-loading through SD card for firmware and such.
Re: Hardware Review: Despite The Delays And Drama, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@cleveland124 With all due respect, as @Damo pointed out so correctly, you simply cannot make a 1:1 comparison, which is why the label "just a simple emulation box" just doesn't fit the bill. For all the rest of the ACTUAL info and facts on this thing, I'll leave it up to Damien, seeing as he's the only one out of ALL of us who has actually play-tested this device, and as such, his review is worth far more than any of our basically prejudiced armchair criticisms.
I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure either whether or not I'll buy this, much less if I even NEED it (then again: we actually don't need any console, so yeah... ), but I'm at least willing to keep an open mind, and I'm even up for play-testing it myself, without having a predetermined negative mindset about it.
P.S.
You may have had a point when listing the emulators/cores, but you forgot one MASSIVELY important factor: with many of these cores and BIOS'es, they've enlisted the help of the ORIGINAL builders/hackers to reverse engineer or sometimes even completely re-engineer them to fit the custom design of the Polymega hardware, such as in the case of the Saturn emulator, which by the way is actually based on Yabause, a notoriously difficult to run and tweak emulator, even on higher end PC's.
I'm kind of assuming they probably chose this path due to them having left behind the original plan to base everything off of FPGA cores, so custom building/re-engineering them for this console was probably the second best option.
And it would certainly explain why everything is running so well, even though it is only software-based emulation.
Re: Hardware Review: Despite The Delays And Drama, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Damo Exactly. To be fair though, they did, probably in their unbridled enthusiasm, initially promise us the (FPGA) moon, so at least part of the criticism actually is warranted, but the whole "bleh, it's just a way too expensive emulation box" comments are beyond short-sighted.
And it's not like your review wasn't elaborate enough, but apparently, most of these negative commenters skipped over the important parts...
Re: Hardware Review: Despite The Delays And Drama, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Steel76 I wouldn't say that a console that emulates 5 CD-based systems (edit: or actually 10, if you factor in that it emulates both PAL and NTSC versions of these consoles) straight out of the box is insanely expensive at that price point.
No one is saying that it's cheap either, so let's not overreact. It's a fairly decent price for what you get in return.
Re: The PocketGo S30 Is Basically A SNES Pad That Plays Retro Games
@Zuljaras Yeah, it actually does. Too bad that I now have yet another "don't really need it, but I still want it" item on my to buy list...
Re: The PocketGo S30 Is Basically A SNES Pad That Plays Retro Games
@Zuljaras Well, thank you very much. Now I've spent the entire evening looking at web pages and videos of the Retroid Pocket 2...
Re: The Untold Story Of The Bug That Almost Sank The Dreamcast's North American Launch
@AtlanteanMan No offense, but the idea that pirated games had any significant influence on the speed of the Dreamcast's demise is complete and utter nonsense.
The primary reason, or rather reasons are several consecutive bad decisions and gross mismanagement, NOT piracy.
There is an official documentary about this, made by G4TV, which features all the key people involved at the time, so that's the actual story from a first hand source.
Besides, only gen 1 Dreamcasts could read burned discs/copies, so that made the impact even smaller than it already was, not to mention that for most people, internet download speeds were excrutiatingly slow back then, so acquiring a significant number of downloaded games would have been an almost impossible task, or at least one that took next to forever...
EDIT:
Here's that documentary:
Re: The Untold Story Of The Bug That Almost Sank The Dreamcast's North American Launch
"How disaster was averted"
Albeit only temporarily...
All kidding aside, though, I am to this day still a proud and happy owner of a first generation Dreamcast. Far as I'm concerned, it's still the most "arcadey" home console ever made, with the Neo Geo as a close second.
Re: Hardware Review: Terraonion MODE - The Ultimate Upgrade For Your Saturn And Dreamcast?
@DrDaisy Wow, you must be so much fun at parties...
All kidding aside, nobody is forcing you to read any of it, either on here or on any other web site, so why get so worked up about it?
As for the titles mentioned: seeing as the Witcher and Castlevania are partially related to Nintendo no matter which way you look at it, it's really not all THAT strange that any other stuff related to these titles and others is also mentioned on here as a bit of additional information, that might (and does) interest quite a few of us.
Re: Hardware Review: Terraonion MODE - The Ultimate Upgrade For Your Saturn And Dreamcast?
@Damo "Yes, that's right Nintendo fans – we're going off the beaten track again to tell you about something that isn't Nintendo-related, but should be interesting to retro fans all the same."
Man, the fact that you even have to include such a sentence in an article. Kinda makes me sad to some extent...
@FargusPelagius Most of those titles that you've sold and/or lost are now only a download away. There's tons of Dreamcast repositories, with either 1:1 rips or downscaled rips, which will fit on a normal CD, so all it takes is a bit of Googling. Unless of course you're a purist and are strictly against such practices. But it is an option, nonetheless.
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Coalescence
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Brady1138 There's actually two ways to play on this: either install the games, aka "rip the ROMs" or play straight from the media itself, so you could play from a disc without installing. That's the whole point of the system: replacing all these separate boxes into one that plays multiple. Sure, it is pricey, but if you look at all the CD-based systems that it supports straight out of the box, you're still getting good value for money, considering what it would cost you to buy all these systems separately.
@denis09 You might wanna reconsider EuroGamer as well, then. Seeing as they're part of the same partner network as NLife and all its sister sites...
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@cleveland124 But that's the thing: until you've tried it out, you can't just go and assume all kinds of things, based upon general factoids, because some may not apply, such as with Saturn emulation, which regardless of it not being FPGA based, apparently pleasantly surprised plenty of people, NLife crew included.
Did you even know that the people behind the Polymega have hired the original programmer of the best Saturn emulator out there, to write a whole new core for them, tailor-made for this system?
That might be the ACTUAL reason it works so well. None of us would be able to say something sensible about it without having that all important hands on experience, so although I absolutely agree with you that they've said and done some weird things up til now, I still think that we should go by actual experience and proof, instead of being influenced by goings on from the past.
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@cleveland124 I'm far from being that kind of person. What I actually am, is a realist, and the fact remains that every time a Polymega article is published, people are constantly commenting on it in a negative manner, while having no hands on experience, which the NLife crew clearly does.
I've also seen several people on YouTube testing it out, and all of them are quite positive about their experience with the system so far.
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@cleveland124 It's not public shaming, and it is warranted if it's an undeniable truth...
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Ooyah Well, while I actually AM laughing, I'm laughing WITH you and not at you, because to this day, I'm still a proud owner of three Amiga systems, amongst which a CD32 with an SX32 expansion.
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
@Damo A lovely bunch indeed...
And they never stop. Almost like those avalanches of mindless zombies in that Brad Pitt movie...
Re: Hardware Review: Believe The Hype, Polymega Is The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
Inb4 all the...
Oh, well, all the whatevers and complaints of individuals who base their opinions solely on personal ideas/misconceptions and hearsay, instead of having any ACTUAL experience with the system...
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@Damo You're asking me? The reason I tagged you is because I don't know, and I figured since you made the article, you might, seeing as @GravyThief wanted to know.
Perhaps it works the same as how I do it on the Wii, then. Or perhaps there are settings in either Swiss or the menu of the device itself, to load a BIOS. But that's just me guessing...
Re: Polymega Will Launch For Real This November - Or Earlier, If We're Lucky
@eltomo You're welcome.
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@GravyThief Well, I only know Swiss, so I've no idea if that also works with this SD card gadget. On my soft-modded Wii, I've simply added the GameCube BIOS to the main folder, so each time I boot up a GameCube disc, I get the official GameCube intro. Like you, I also prefer to have the experience as authentic as possible.
Seeing as the GameCube itself already contains the BIOS files, I'd assume that it will indeed display it when booting up a game, or the console, but perhaps @Damo could tell you more about whether or not that assumption of mine is correct.
Re: Polymega Will Launch For Real This November - Or Earlier, If We're Lucky
@eltomo The "elements" are only for cartridge-based systems. When you buy a starter pack, you'll get the base unit, which plays ALL supported CD-based consoles right out of the box, such as Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD, Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn & PSX. (15 CD-based systems in total are compatible, according to their website)
Each additional element you buy plays cartridge games from one console, and they can be switched out. Each element comes with five pre-loaded games from the relevant system.
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EDIT:
The base unit also comes with built-in games, over a dozen in total.
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More about how it works, and what you'll get can be found on the home page of their website:
https://www.polymega.com/
Their FAQ page might also help to clear up any leftover questions:
https://www.polymega.com/faq/
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@GravyThief The answer to your question is yes. At least, if you use Swiss, which has a built-in feature for reading discs (correction: ISOs) from all regions. (one of the pictures in this article even shows a US/NTSC game being selected/loaded)
But that is far as I know, so for all we know, those very same features could also be built into this device itself.
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@Julien You're welcome. Concerning the whole ROM issue:
downloading an illegally uploaded ROM from some shady website is something entirely different from ripping a ROM (or ISO) from your own, legally acquired cartridges or discs.
The laws/rules seem to vary on a "per country" basis, though, seeing as over here (Netherlands), it's perfectly legal to rip (legally acquired, obviously) CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays to another device, as long as you don't do it for commercial purposes and/or financial gain, meaning that a single copy for home use is perfectly fine and allowed.
Personally, I've ripped my entire GameCube collection (146 games, viewable in my profile) to an external hard drive, because it's easier to have access to than to have to get the boxes with the discs out of the closet every time, and search the game I want to play, and it spares the disc drive of both my GameCube and my Wii, and then there's the faster load times and improved picture quality as well, so it's a win-win all around.
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@Julien If you still have a Wii lying around, you could also use that to rip discs to an external drive or SD card. You will need to softmod the Wii to be able to do that, though.
Re: Evercade Retro System To Receive Oliver Twins Collection Cartridge, All Profits Will Go To Charity
@samuelvictor Man, that all sounds mighty interesting. Guess I've got to keep an eye on you now. Or, you could tag me whenever you've got something new and interesting to report...
Re: Evercade Retro System To Receive Oliver Twins Collection Cartridge, All Profits Will Go To Charity
@samuelvictor Well, I've never even met them, but most of what I've read about them, only speaks in favor of them, so I'll easily take your word for it that they're good people.
By the way, have you ever considered talking to the NLife management about featuring your game-related stuff on here? It could potentially be good marketing for you.
Re: Evercade Retro System To Receive Oliver Twins Collection Cartridge, All Profits Will Go To Charity
@samuelvictor I am well, thank you, global pandemic and some other things considered, and good to hear you got out okay on the other end of that tunnel you were in. And a solid addition to the comments section AND the article. I didn't even know there was that much to know about these games. I only ever played the Amiga versions, and probably not all of them either.
Re: Evercade Retro System To Receive Oliver Twins Collection Cartridge, All Profits Will Go To Charity
@samuelvictor Hey, look who's back.
How have you been doing, mate?
Re: Feature: How RoboCop's Epic Game Boy Theme Tune Lives On, 30 Years Later
@Damo I figured the slogan was already known, but the way it was pronounced, is still horrible, no matter which way you cut it. And not all commercials were bad in the early nineties. Over here, the worst offenders were, and to some extent still are, the dishwasher and detergent commercials, but other than that, I've never seen or heard a commercial as bad as this Ariston commercial over here.
Re: Feature: How RoboCop's Epic Game Boy Theme Tune Lives On, 30 Years Later
@Antraxx777 Yeah, I can agree with that. It's just the song/slogan that I don't like, as well as the drone-like voice.
Re: Feature: How RoboCop's Epic Game Boy Theme Tune Lives On, 30 Years Later
Wow, that's one laughably bad commercial. Who ever came up with that, should have been fired, or thrown into the river Thames.
The way it is pronounced as well, with that infinitely boring tone...
@graysoncharles Ocean actually made plenty of good games, back in the day. I've got dozens of them on the Commodore Amiga.
Re: Feature: OutRun 2 On Xbox - How Sumo Digital Helped Bring Sega's Classic Home
One of my all-time favorite arcade racers, and I still own it.
Nice, lengthy article, @Damo. It was a pleasant read.
Re: Feature: Quarter Arcades Is Bringing Coin-Op History Home - And It Wants To Work With Nintendo Next
@Caligvla I never thought they were smaller than 1/4, someone else told me, so you're addressing the wrong person.
Re: Feature: Quarter Arcades Is Bringing Coin-Op History Home - And It Wants To Work With Nintendo Next
@Tim_Vreeland Well, then I'm starting to wonder if THEY actually know the correct meaning of 1/4...
Perhaps if you stack 4 on top of each other, so only length-wise...
Re: Feature: Quarter Arcades Is Bringing Coin-Op History Home - And It Wants To Work With Nintendo Next
@Tim_Vreeland What other 1 to 4 ratio could they be, then? 1/4 literally means "scale of one-fourth", so I would definitely expect them to be a fourth of the original model.
Re: Feature: Quarter Arcades Is Bringing Coin-Op History Home - And It Wants To Work With Nintendo Next
@JimmySpades When I first heard of them, I actually immediately linked their name to putting quarters in an arcade cabinet, NOT to them making cabinets at a quarter of the size...
Re: Feature: Quarter Arcades Is Bringing Coin-Op History Home - And It Wants To Work With Nintendo Next
WAY too small and the controls are also WAY too flimsy to support real arcade gameplay, so for the actual arcade fan, these kinda defeat their own purpose.
And usually, we'd be crowding around them, or be doing two player games on them, and that too is completely impossible with these flimsy miniatures.
Maybe they should consider making 1/2 scale models instead, that would immensely improve just about everything.
They'd also have to change their name then, obviously...
Re: Polymega Beta Units Are Out In The Wild, And Things Are Looking Pretty Impressive
@DinnerAndWine I'm not taking offense to any of that, haha... (not)
I'm just a bit tired of people with zero knowledge about this crying "vaporware" or "scam", while it's anything but. Like I said: if it's not for you, or for any of the other uninterested people, then that's perfectly fine, but don't try to convince other people, who might actually be on the fence, of how "bad" this system is, because the truth is that we simply don't know, and as mentioned, people that DO know are pretty enthusiastic overall. I have yet to hear the first negative hands-on review or first impression.
And with that, I mean from a reputable source, not from any random YouTuber or game forum commenter...
On a side note: we actually agree on the hardcore/high end retro gamers, but many other people, the ones that also buy systems like the Retron 5 and such, might very well be interested in this far more polished product, so like you yourself actually already said, it's a nice mid-range option.
Re: Polymega Beta Units Are Out In The Wild, And Things Are Looking Pretty Impressive
@DinnerAndWine Erm... because of the superior emulation? Like I said, this is dedicated emulation, with optimized cores made ONLY for the Polymega, by all the people/developers involved with the device, some of which are the ACTUAL makers of the emulator, like with the Saturn one, so having these people on board, is a BIG plus.
And not every PC is the same, and more often than not, it requires quite a bit of tweaking to get emulation to run as it should, because of that, whereas in this system, where the only purpose IS emulation, it will always run at the best possible setting.
That is also their aim, as mentioned on the website.
As also mentioned, their CD module plays 15 systems straight out of the box, so it's a VERY good option for a backup for whatever CD-based systems you own.
And I never said I was "impressed", but I most definitely AM interested.
If it's not for you, then that's perfectly fine, but don't knock it until you tried it. I don't think that it's fair for people to criticize or ridicule a system that they know practically nothing about, while the people that actually HAVE seen it and have now also tried it out, are all quite enthusiastic, and these people also know that there's many other options out there to play these older games.
So, that really ought to tell you something, and perhaps we should consider the possibility that they're really on to something good here...
Re: Polymega Beta Units Are Out In The Wild, And Things Are Looking Pretty Impressive
Wow, there's a lot of clueless, prejudiced people in this thread.
I was kinda hoping that this news would finally shut all these Vaporware or "this is a scam" people up, but sadly enough, I guess I was wrong...
Let's sum up some facts for all you people that have no idea why this is not something you should whine or complain about, but something you should actually be interested in, if you're into retro gaming:
Yes, they started out programming on FPGA's, but ultimately, that would have made the units even MORE expensive than they are now, so they switched to software-based. But they have already gone above and beyond (such as by reprogramming/refining individual BIOS files and cores) to assure that their emulation of all the various systems is the best it can be, even when compared to other solutions. And if anything, the Saturn emulation is a perfect example of that.
Why is this better than a Retron or a RetroPie or emulation on a PC? Because this is dedicated, customized emulation. It may not be FPGA anymore, but it's still focused on aiming for the highest quality, and games are played from the original media, so the system does NOT support ROMS or flash cartridges/Everdrives.
You CAN add cartridge and disc games to the games library of the system, but only your own. And far as I've understood, they want to implement official licensing for any and all titles including digital distribution of these titles, so you'd literally have to hack this system to be able to play illegal ROMs.
And in the case of the Saturn emulation: they've contracted the maker of original (and best) Saturn emulator Yabause, to make a new and more compatible version of his emulator core, including a whole new custom BIOS, exclusively for this system, so you're not going to find better Saturn emulation anywhere.
On a side note: and having a brand new CD-based module that can function as an all-in-one solution to play all your old CD games once the drives in the original consoles break down, doesn't sound to shabby to me either.
A CD unit that's compatible with 15 retro systems out of the box, by the way...
Re: Hardware Review: PC Engine Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
@KitsuneNight True. I've always been more of a multi-platform gamer myself. There's good games on every platform, so why people are so adamant of "defending" only one platform, is beyond me.
And it's not like any of these companies really need defending in the first place...
Re: Hardware Review: PC Engine Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
@Seacliff That was not my point. And far as I'm concerned, and probably many others, licensed products are only official in name, but do not necessarily reflect the actual companies values and quality, as the inferior products from AtGames have clearly shown, multiple times over.
And furthermore, the whole mentioning Sega was irrelevant in the first place, seeing as the PC Engine has nothing to do with that, but he brought it up, for whatever reason.
Re: Hardware Review: PC Engine Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
@mesome713 "Sega ones"? There's only been one (official) Sega Mini console (I'm not counting all the licensed AtGames trash) and that's actually of a better and more detailed build quality than the NES and SNES Minis. And I would know, because I own all three of them.
And seeing as PC Engine has nothing to do with Sega, naming them as making bad quality mini consoles makes even less sense than your original comment already did.
Again, all mini consoles are based on the same hardware, the only difference is another shape of their respective plastic shells, but there's no distinct quality difference between them. The only and most important difference comes down to the emulation, and seeing as M2 is taking care of that on this mini console, it's going to be of the highest quality.
@PickledKong64 I wouldn't take any of his comments seriously, to be honest. The emulation will be done by M2 and on the hardware side they've contracted HORI, so this mini console is going to be top notch. He's clearly confusing AtGames consoles with all of the more recent, and far higher quality, mini consoles.
Re: Hardware Review: PC Engine Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
This is well worth the money, even for the included CD titles alone. Rondo of Blood is arguably the best Castlevania ever released, and as mentioned in the article, if you had to buy/collect some of these titles in their actual, physical form, you'd have to expect to pay thousands of dollars/euros/pounds, so 99 bucks for a system with FAR more games than any of the previous minis is definitely a worthwhile purchase.
Needless to say, I'm definitely getting one. And obviously, I'll be adding my own favorites to it by soft-modding it.
@mesome713 The "machine" is just a plastic shell. It's obviously not a real console. All minis have a system on a chip, and more than likely use the exact same hardware, so that doubt or criticism is completely unwarranted. And seeing as the rest is taken care of by M2, this is going to be a VERY high quality product.
Re: New Game Footage Suggests The Intellivision Amico Will Struggle To Pull Families Away From Switch
This new version of the console looks a heck of a lot more stylish than the original all-white concept, so it does now definitely give that nod to its original predecessor, and although I do have a soft spot for the original Colecovision, I do have the same reservations that some of the other commenters on here have, but I'm willing to wait and see how this is going to pan out.
Re: Feature: A Tribute To Jason Brookes
I'm sorry to say that his name only rings the vaguest of bells. Guess I've seen it pop up in some of the EDGE magazines that I used to buy/read, but other than that, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him or his work.
Reading this really nice tribute to the man almost makes me feel bad for not knowing him, but that's just how things go sometimes.
Either way, awful to read that he lost the battle. Cancer is a horrible disease, and I too have lost family members to it. However horrible though, most of them were already relatively old. Being almost 50 myself, and still feeling pretty fit, makes me realize all the more that 52 simply isn't an appropriate age to die at, although of course, we have very little to no say in that, but it's very sad nonetheless.
I wish his family, friends and co-workers all the strength and comfort they need, and just like this article, I hope they'll keep all the good things in mind, and hold on to those great memories.
Long as we keep the people that we love in our hearts and minds, they're never truly gone.
Re: Feature: Remember When Video Game Football Shirts Were A Big Deal?
@LoveEmpath There's only one person here who's confused, and if you're that pathetic that you feel the incessant need to spam each and every article about football claiming people are "wrong" for calling it that, then you've clearly not shown any adult behavior whatsoever, so I'll assume whatever the hell I want, and I'll keep calling you boy for as long as I see fit, BOY.
(I edited out the last bit of my comment, because in retrospect, it was far too harsh, but that is what your annoying know-it-all behavior brought out of me. Your user name definitely belies your attitude, which is neither lovely nor empathic)
Re: Feature: Remember When Video Game Football Shirts Were A Big Deal?
@LoveEmpath Wow, more than a month further and that still bothers you? And who the hell is mes?
Either way, the checkmate is only happening in your head, pal. In real life, football is the game where two teams of 11 players fight over a ball, exclusively using their feet or heads to get the ball in the opponent's goal. Hence the name FOOTball, not "carry it under your arm and run with it" ball...
In reality, American Football is just the US version of Rugby.
P.S.
I'm from California, so I can speak for America just fine. I'm just more aware that there's actually a larger world out there because I live in Europe, and in that larger world, most countries actually do mean football and not American Football, when they're mentioning that sport.
Now run along, boy. You're never gonna win this one.
Re: Feature: Remember When Video Game Football Shirts Were A Big Deal?
@LoveEmpath There's only one person stating incorrect things here, pal. As far as kicking goes, there's only a small percentage of that going on in American Football, because more than 80 percent of the time, players are running around with the ball under their arm or in their hands, whereas in actual football, it's what the entire game is built around, so it's abundantly clear which of the two is actually football. You can also deduce that from the fact that the number of countries where football is called "soccer", can be counted on two hands, versus almost 230 countries and/or regions where it's called football, so I'd say that the numbers already speak for themselves...
Don't be that guy that thinks that only America is leading and greater in any and all things, and as such what happens there and what is said there must "surely" be the only correct thing. The world is a hell of a whole lot bigger than that, so step out of that myopic bubble and learn, just as I have, during my travels across Europe, and ever since living here.
But even if you don't, at least consider being civilized enough to not bother other posters with your personal views and naggings about "the incorrectness" of calling "soccer" football. All you'll get is needless discussions and negativity, so why even bother?
Especially seeing as it's blindingly clear that you're wrong anyway.