ramu-chan

@abdias You're not comparing like for like. Polymega is offering extremely accurate emulation with 1ms of lag. It's the Analogue of the software emulation world.

If you're happy with frame skipping, lag, horrible UIs and zero support then you're free to bug a pirate box from Aliexpress. Heck but two or three of them, they're cheap enough.

@abdias Oh really? Polymega has arcuate, full speed Saturn emulation. Good luck finding that on a cheap knock off Android box from Aliexpress stuffed to the gills with stolen games.

I think the point has been rather spectacularly missed. This is a collectable, a novelty, a deluxe gashapon toy. That it actually plays games is cool bonus.

I always preferred the original Commodore 64 version of the Robocop theme. Nothing can touch the SID for 8-bit sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFgXGw_kXpc

Pricing for this in Europe is.... bold. Given that the world is entering the next great depression, and there's a new Xbox and Playstation on the horizon, they may struggle to find customers.

@mikegamer True, but there's no FPGA Sega Saturn available.

@DrDaisy Sounds like you should try another website then. Personally I like the diverse mix of articles.

@BustahWolf

a) So what?
b) It might come to SEGA AGES someday
c) If it doesn't interest you, then read something else and stop whining.

Revenge of Death Adder is genuinely great, a real lost SEGA arcade gem. That SEGA have re-released the other Golden Axe games countless times, but never this one, is maddening and baffling.

I had a pre-order for this but I got bored of waited and cancelled. They've just delayed it too many times. Perhaps it will finally come out someday, and I wish them all the best, but Analogue deliver, which is why I've spent my retro funds with them.

Guess that US version is going to be a hot item on eBay for the rest of us. Those "international regulations" are most likely German.

@Yorumi Well let's see. They claim they've been working directly with the emulator authors to perfect things and they're claiming 99% Saturn compatibility. Looking at their gameplay videos so far (which largely come from Twitter suggestions) I'm not seeing any inaccuracies. Time will tell.

@Painkiller_Mike This article was written by Jeremy Parish. If you don't know who that is, look him up. He's pretty much THE expert on retro gaming. To call him a shill is extremely disrespectful.

@ouroborous That simply isn't true. I have hundreds of original carts and discs and have never had a single failure. Not one. I'm sure some are failing somewhere, but based on my own personal experience such failures are extraordinarily rare.

@subpopz Name a plug and play box which runs original Saturn games for under £300. I have a real Saturn but it's in another room on my PC monitor via a Framemeister. To me the appeal of this is to bring my Saturn collection to my TV with minimal hassle and crucially as little lag as possible. Ever emulator I've ever tried as an insane amount of lag, so if they can solve that I'll be impressed.

And it doesn't support Everdrives.

@Godzil

How can you possibly know it will work as well? Have yourself tested the Polymega? A Raspberry Pi is an incredibly low power device. To emulate the Saturn at full speed requires at the very minimum a system on the level of an Nvidia Shield, and even then there will be countless performance issues, and masses of lag.

If you want to set up a Pi and stuff it with stolen ROMs then go ahead, it's clear the Polymega isn't designed for you.

@Dog Try reading the review.

@Agent721 The main interest is around Saturn emulation, which is incredibly difficult to pull off. So difficult in fact there are no off the shelf solutions to my knowledge.

I use mostly real hardware for retro gaming, so my main concern with this is lag. It can completely kill retro games as they simply aren't designed around latency. The mixture of HDTV lag, emulation lag, and wireless controller lag is difficult.

I'd like it to succeed, so consider my interest piqued.

@stylon No. Analogue devices aim to recreate the original hardware to 100% accuracy, then add HDMI output, nothing more. There are no extra features beyond a simple scanline option.

They're beautiful pieces of hardware of course. Built like tanks and extremely high quality. You can tell they're extremely proud of what they create.

@KennyBania

That's a hack, it has nothing to do with Analogue.
If you ever see Analogue supporting piracy, I'll eat my hat.

@Jokerwolf It doesn't play ROMs from the SD card. Analogue are all about original cartridges.

You could of course use an Everdrive if you're really hell bent on stealing, but I can't really see the point. Analogue make products for collectors.

Looks like a nice product, and I may well pick up one of the wireless pads to use on my real MD and MCD.

If they come back with a V2 with a build in MCD I could be tempted, as the idea of hooking that tiny little box up to a huge MCD isn't very appealing. It would look pretty absurd.

As a big retro gamer (I keep a JP Saturn and JP MD/MCD hooked up to my Framemeister) I've been watching the Polymega develop.

There are still some big unanswered questions though, such as how do you control Saturn games? There's no Saturn controller port on either the base unit or any of the modules, and using the supplied dual shock clone just isn't going to cut it. The Saturn needs 6 face buttons. Nothing else is going to be acceptable.

Will it work with bluetooth pads? Such as those from 8BitDo, or the upcoming SEGA pads from Retrobit?

The Saturn is notoriously difficult to emulate, and there is no Sat emulator with anything like 100% compatibility. We need to see the compatibility list, and long before launch. If it's just missing a few visual novels then fine, but if the likes of Radiant Silvergun, Battle Garegga, Hyper Duel, Panzer Dragoon Azel, and Street Fighter Zero 3 aren't indistinguishable from real hardware, people are not going to be happy.

They also need to show some other systems up and running. Show the MD and the SNES, including games with difficult to emulate sound tracks and sound effects. Let's see some Thunderforce IV, Yoshi's Island, and Alien Soldier up and running.

Not to be so down on it, I think it's an interesting idea, but their pricing is so high they need to deliver an AAA grade product.

16:9 on a retro system. Well that's intelligent...

@Abstract3000 oh boy. You're either trolling, out just clueless. The Saturn is one of the most expensive and desirable consoles to collect for because the (Japanese) library is so outstanding. The Saturn was the last hurrah for 2D, and as such has a huge array of incredible 2D shooters and fighting games. Radiant Silvergun alone makes the Saturn one of the all time greats.

Any word on what sort of output this will have? I assume 1080p, but what about CRT effects? A good CRT filter (such as CRT-Royale, CRT Easy Mode, and Hyllian) can make a modern display look so much better with old games. The CRT filter in the SNES Mini was utter garbage.

Interesting idea, although swapping modules sounds like a bit of a chore. What do the modules do other than read original media and allow the use of original controllers? Is there any actual processing in them?

I still have original hardware set-up and working (MD, MCD, and SS) so I don't technically need one of these, but I'll keep an eye on it.