Polymega system claims to now run neo geo cd games with faster load times

Emulation box that still uses the original media; the worst of 2 worlds.

I just hope that the Zimba 3000 will look as good as those renders. If he ever manages to complete his project, that is.

retro said:

Emulation box that still uses the original media; the worst of 2 worlds.

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To be fair, it only uses the original media once, as you can dump it to the system's memory then play them from there. Alternatively you can use the Everdrive.

Nostromo said:

To be fair, it only uses the original media once, as you can dump it to the system's memory then play them from there. Alternatively you can use the Everdrive.

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Seems like a rather expensive solution to copy some roms over.

retro said:

Seems like a rather expensive solution to copy some roms over.

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I guess it is ok for people who already own games collections. As for everdrive, you cannot dump them to the PolyMega's memory so you will need to play via the device. But in the end it is all about the quality. If I can put say a SNES running via Framemeister side by side with PolyMega running SNES and I can see or hear no difference, I'm ok with that. But if there are issues, changes or sound is off, then they don't even have to bother. So yes, I'll wait for reviews from people who actually know what to look for.

Those kind of reviews will be hard to come by since the kind of players who care are already sticking with original hardware. Unfortunately most reviews will be people like Gamester saying it's awesome.

Gamester is basically a video gamer nerd video blowjob of anything that is given free. Can't trust much of anyone.

Tanooki said:

Gamester is basically a video gamer nerd video blowjob of anything that is given free. Can't trust much of anyone.

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He has got to be one of the worst youtubers going for game related stuff

Not sure if this is gonna be the end all be all system....what's the catch?

Naika said:

Not sure if this is gonna be the end all be all system....what's the catch?

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The catch is most likely to be spotty software emulation running on a old mobile chipset. The second most likely catch is high prices for each console add-on module.

That was my guess. The third catch would be a shit quality build like anything from Yobo or the original version of the Hyperkin stuff like the flimsy bendable Retron5 with the also easily crushed pins. Maybe all the drive motor parts will be the weakest usable plastic guaranteed just to make it through the 90day to 1yr warranty whatever it has on it. And being a cheap piece of chinese junk, good luck getting a repair or RMA on it. Corners are bound to be cut on something of this magnitude as deadlines come due and something has to hit the market.

Meh, emulation crap and ya gotta sell a kidney for it.

Can't we at least wait that the thing actually available before bashing it

It's not 'bashing it', it's bashing the concept. To paraphrase Indy: emulation belongs in a PC .

I love that it plays CD-ROMS out of the box.. Will it play other rewritable CDs too? Will it also be able to play disc images that haven't been ripped in the machine? I wish the machine had all the different systems natively built in rather than having to add/remove modules. This is inconvenient/expensive. Besides the history of module add-ons is a graveyard of consoles; 32X, Sega CD, Pioneer LaserActive, etc.

Looks cool and I like that you could run cd's but so far I skipped out on most of these emu boxes and dont regret it one bit.

KRONOS said:

I love that it plays CD-ROMS out of the box.. Will it play other rewritable CDs too? Will it also be able to play disc images that haven't been ripped in the machine? I wish the machine had all the different systems natively built in rather than having to add/remove modules. This is inconvenient/expensive. Besides the history of module add-ons is a graveyard of consoles; 32X, Sega CD, Pioneer LaserActive, etc.

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That's called a PC with a DVD drive, buddy.

I think the appeal is not having to sit at your computer or set a computer up to be run through your big TV. If someone doesn't care about that though, all the better not to buy the polymega as you get more options.

KRONOS said:

I love that it plays CD-ROMS out of the box..

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Barring flat out piracy, how are they expecting this thing to work out of the box without required BIOS files?

Azathoth said:

Barring flat out piracy, how are they expecting this thing to work out of the box without required BIOS files?

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Clean-room reverse engineering?

oliverclaude said:

To paraphrase Indy: emulation belongs in a PC

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Tanooki said:

I think the appeal is not having to sit at your computer or set a computer up to be run through your big TV. If someone doesn't care about that though, all the better not to buy the polymega as you get more options.

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Raspberry Pi 3 w/ Retropie....

xsq said:

Raspberry Pi 3 w/ Retropie....

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That's quite a fine purchase I did last xmas.
Did you manage to get one already?

I think what a lot of people are missing is the fact that this is a clone console with support for Disc-based media. Yes, you can do the same thing with a computer and a disc drive blablabla that much is obvious. So I don't believe this console is made for the console elitist because they will just play on real hardware on a regular TV anyhow. I have a game room where some consoles are hooked up to a PVM for personal play and I have a recording station where I have some more real hardware hooked up for recording. However, I STILL would like to get me one of these just out of convenience. When I have game nights, I like to have people come over and bring some of their favorite games depending on what consoles we are playing that day. It'd be cool to just have peeps come over, bring whatever games, poppin em in and playing within a couple minutes. No need to fiddle with shit or disrupt my gameroom. I especially don't want to disrupt the consoles in my video capture area. So for me, this would serve a purpose.

I got to play with the prototype when it was Retroblox and again as the Polymega when the NGCD support was added. Load times are almost non-existent on CD games. One of the drawbacks for me was not having the ability to hook up a neo joystick or pad to it. However, they're talking about maybe making a Neo module down the line. Although, you could prolly USB to Neo adapter to it.

In any case. I'll prolly get one for reasons stated. I feel people will yell at clouds no matter what though, so I guess it's just a game of wait and see.

Ren-chan said:

That's quite a fine purchase I did last xmas.
Did you manage to get one already?

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Nah, I'm fine emulating on the PC in our study. I'll buy one eventually though, to turn into a headless torrentbox...

This project is getting more interesting, but I'm still not a fan of their approach given what's possible these days. FPGA clones with enhancements are more impressive to me compared to these swiss army knives that above all aim for quantity of systems supported. Although, I suppose it's only a matter of time until we see very accurate FPGA clones that can handle multiple systems out of one box too, like what's being done with the Analogue NT mini unofficial firmware. Hell, we might even see the Neo Geo done this way some day. Properly deliver on the failed promise of the Neo Geo X.