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

djjimmyjames

NG.com Tattoo Artist.,
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Well it hasn’t shipped yet. 600k preorders though so not horrid. However no promotion at all lately seems odd. I like the fpga idea a lot. Wish they went all fpga with it.
 

FTL

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Was a pointless idea anyway. I never get why people even buy Neo Geo CD's these days. It made sense at the time as a cheap way into Neo Geo. Now just go the MVS route if you want original hardware and don't have much money. Neo Geo is arcade hardware. Loading times just spoil that. For me even the 'enhanced' CD soundtracks spoil the arcade-ness of the system. Super-produced CD quality music just doesn't fit with a 16bit-style arcade game.

truer words were never spoken.
 

GohanX

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That's okay, I'll keep the Best Neo Geo to myself.
 

Gaston

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So in the end it uses 'best in class emulators'?
What a hoax.
 

wataru330

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Well the original idea is that this was going to be much better than that. I bet the finished product will just be some low end PC on a chip running Retroarch that just happens to be able to take real carts and CDs.


This.

I’ve already been able to play neo/PCE/sega cds in my modded xbox for over a decade.

Polyyawn.
 

Heinz

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So in the end it uses 'best in class emulators'?
What a hoax.

The ambiguity of the inner workings of the product should be a huge red flag for most of us here. Did they write their own emulators? Likely no, is everything built from the ground up in an FPGA? No.

But I guess you can play all of your original games on it to save your precious retro consoles from actually being used. :thevt:
 

Neo Alec

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Was a pointless idea anyway. I never get why people even buy Neo Geo CD's these days. It made sense at the time as a cheap way into Neo Geo. Now just go the MVS route if you want original hardware and don't have much money. Neo Geo is arcade hardware. Loading times just spoil that. For me even the 'enhanced' CD soundtracks spoil the arcade-ness of the system. Super-produced CD quality music just doesn't fit with a 16bit-style arcade game.

Sounds like you didn't have a CD system back in the day. These days I tend to agree with you, to the extent that I now prefer the music produced on-board. However, back in the 90's CD soundtracks in games were glorious.
 

Bishamon

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I seem to be in the minority, but I actually like this concept. I have sizable collections of games for old systems, and was planning to purchase an OSSC, SCART cables, SCART switch, and somehow have them all connected (not enough room, really). This will cost about the same and take up much less space. Sure, I can already emulate a lot on PC, but the idea of being able to install the games from my actual discs and carts is really appealing. I also like the idea of being able to use different BIOSes, and install patches for things like English translations of Japanese games.
 

ShootTheCore

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If you're patient, RetroArch and a Raspberry Pi 4 will give you the better capabilities than a Polymega at a fraction of the price by the end of the year.

Specifically:
Retroarch supports run-ahead on the Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce latency. Polymega has stated that they won't support run-ahead latency reduction.
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-runahead-and-raspberry-pi-4-the-results-are-in/

Retroarch announced development of the Disc Project to enable running original CDROM game discs, with a targeted release of the end of the year
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-the-retroarch-disc-project/

The INLRetroDumper lets you dump your original Famicom, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance carts
https://www.infiniteneslives.com/inlretro.php

Sure, this gear isn't plug-and-play like the Polymega is, but you do get more platforms supported, better emulation, and native HDMI support for around $100USD.
 

ggallegos1

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If you're patient, RetroArch and a Raspberry Pi 4 will give you the better capabilities than a Polymega at a fraction of the price by the end of the year.

Specifically:
Retroarch supports run-ahead on the Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce latency. Polymega has stated that they won't support run-ahead latency reduction.
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-runahead-and-raspberry-pi-4-the-results-are-in/

Retroarch announced development of the Disc Project to enable running original CDROM game discs, with a targeted release of the end of the year
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-the-retroarch-disc-project/

The INLRetroDumper lets you dump your original Famicom, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance carts
https://www.infiniteneslives.com/inlretro.php

Sure, this gear isn't plug-and-play like the Polymega is, but you do get more platforms supported, better emulation, and native HDMI support for around $100USD.
I love the pi setup, but I'm also in the mindset to have a plug and play solution for my existing collection. I don't want to just Pi it up and sell my stuff if it doesn't cure the problem of using upscalers and such to force 20+ year old cd based tech to work.

The execution of this product is my issue. I love the modules, but the price point and perceived reliability is my hang up.
 

pixeljunkie

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Dec 12, 2003
Posts
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If you're patient, RetroArch and a Raspberry Pi 4 will give you the better capabilities than a Polymega at a fraction of the price by the end of the year.

Specifically:
Retroarch supports run-ahead on the Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce latency. Polymega has stated that they won't support run-ahead latency reduction.
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-runahead-and-raspberry-pi-4-the-results-are-in/

Retroarch announced development of the Disc Project to enable running original CDROM game discs, with a targeted release of the end of the year
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-the-retroarch-disc-project/

The INLRetroDumper lets you dump your original Famicom, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance carts
https://www.infiniteneslives.com/inlretro.php

Sure, this gear isn't plug-and-play like the Polymega is, but you do get more platforms supported, better emulation, and native HDMI support for around $100USD.

EXACTLY! I am stoked for the new batch of Pi4's to start coming out and retropie to get officially released for it. Then I am definitely going to migrate over from 3b+. I've used run ahead on my PC and it's made emulation officially not suck.

I love the pi setup, but I'm also in the mindset to have a plug and play solution for my existing collection. I don't want to just Pi it up and sell my stuff if it doesn't cure the problem of using upscalers and such to force 20+ year old cd based tech to work.

The execution of this product is my issue. I love the modules, but the price point and perceived reliability is my hang up.

Also this - if it were a little cheaper I'd probably hop on it. The whole Pi thing is separate from my actual collection, it's a great gameplay solution though.
 
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GohanX

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Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,490
If you're patient, RetroArch and a Raspberry Pi 4 will give you the better capabilities than a Polymega at a fraction of the price by the end of the year.

Specifically:
Retroarch supports run-ahead on the Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce latency. Polymega has stated that they won't support run-ahead latency reduction.
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-runahead-and-raspberry-pi-4-the-results-are-in/

Retroarch announced development of the Disc Project to enable running original CDROM game discs, with a targeted release of the end of the year
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-the-retroarch-disc-project/

The INLRetroDumper lets you dump your original Famicom, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance carts
https://www.infiniteneslives.com/inlretro.php

Sure, this gear isn't plug-and-play like the Polymega is, but you do get more platforms supported, better emulation, and native HDMI support for around $100USD.

You are correct of course, but I don't think anyone interested in a Polymega is also interested in fucking with a Pi.

Me? You know I'm down.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,924
I seem to be in the minority, but I actually like this concept. I have sizable collections of games for old systems, and was planning to purchase an OSSC, SCART cables, SCART switch, and somehow have them all connected (not enough room, really). This will cost about the same and take up much less space. Sure, I can already emulate a lot on PC, but the idea of being able to install the games from my actual discs and carts is really appealing. I also like the idea of being able to use different BIOSes, and install patches for things like English translations of Japanese games.
You already have an ideal setup.
 

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
15 Year Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Posts
4,474
If you're patient, RetroArch and a Raspberry Pi 4 will give you the better capabilities than a Polymega at a fraction of the price by the end of the year.

Specifically:
Retroarch supports run-ahead on the Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce latency. Polymega has stated that they won't support run-ahead latency reduction.
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-runahead-and-raspberry-pi-4-the-results-are-in/

Retroarch announced development of the Disc Project to enable running original CDROM game discs, with a targeted release of the end of the year
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-the-retroarch-disc-project/

The INLRetroDumper lets you dump your original Famicom, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance carts
https://www.infiniteneslives.com/inlretro.php

Sure, this gear isn't plug-and-play like the Polymega is, but you do get more platforms supported, better emulation, and native HDMI support for around $100USD.

Recently sold almost all my consoles and built a dedicated emulation PC a few weeks back. Got it running Big Box. Dolphin runs great. Bought a monitor that tates for MAME and Steam SHMUPS. Got Fight Cade up and running. Its truly a All in One solution. Highly recommend building a dedicated emulation PC. Makes it very hard to go back to having a house filled with crap and worrying about how to get RGB out of every console, and old, faulty hardware. Now I can play Neo Geo games with actual people instead of spanking off to an AES cart on the shelf. Yesterday there were over 100 people in KOF 98. Last Blade people cued up every day. I can handle a few inaccuracies and slight lag if it means gaming with actual people.
 
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max 330 mega

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Dec 14, 2004
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I just bought a pretty powerful gaming laptop and will be going the exact same route. Feel pretty stupid for not having gone this route years ago.
 

Bishamon

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Posts
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I went the emulation route 15 years ago, and it was a lot of fun, but today I'm just not into 'da ROMz' and would prefer something like Polymega, if the emulation is as good as it appears. Honestly, I never knew I wanted something like Polymega, and now I am seriously looking forward to its release. It will be a lot easier than continuing to collect multiples of aging consoles for redundancy in case they start failing, and having one of each connected so I can play conveniently without having to dig them out when I want to play. What I really hope is that they add an MVS module down the road. They have hinted at Dreamcast and N64 support, but I want to plug in my MVS carts and upload them to an SSD so I can scroll though them in a menu, next to my Saturn, Playstation, NeoCD, Genesis, and SNES games.
 
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oliverclaude

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Its truly a All in One solution. Highly recommend building a dedicated emulation PC. Makes it very hard to go back to having a house filled with crap and worrying about how to get RGB out of every console, and old, faulty hardware.

Pros and cons... with emulation you have to worry how to get lag-free and accurate settings and tweak, and tweak, and tweak -- sometimes for each game individually. You have to deal with faulty crashes and spend a lot for a good controller. On the whole, I agreee, it's great, just not that postcard idyll you pictured.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
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You know Oliver that having to tweak settings to get the game to run 'just right' probably only matters if you're a good player. To a casual like me? Well I can't see the difference.
 

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
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You know Oliver that having to tweak settings to get the game to run 'just right' probably only matters if you're a good player. To a casual like me? Well I can't see the difference.

I've never had many issues getting the video setup, and switching my monitor to gaming mode. Plenty of FAQs out there where some guy perfected and posted the settings.
 

oliverclaude

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You know Oliver that having to tweak settings to get the game to run 'just right' probably only matters if you're a good player. To a casual like me? Well I can't see the difference.

Apt observation, no doubt, lach. Indeed, there's no 100% with emulation, just about as much as one agrees on in order to have fun. For me personally, some aspects, like lag, need to be at least 99% accurate, though, some other, like tearing, maybe about 45%. It's always an individual balancing and varies from game to game. I bet there would be a point, where you'd notice a difference, too. Anyway, in my opinion, the "real" thing still makes for a good competition, with its own pros & cons.
 

RAZO

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Pros and cons... with emulation you have to worry how to get lag-free and accurate settings and tweak, and tweak, and tweak -- sometimes for each game individually. You have to deal with faulty crashes and spend a lot for a good controller. On the whole, I agreee, it's great, just not that postcard idyll you pictured.

This is the biggest problem I find with emulation. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to play rare games I'll never be able to afford on my pc monitor via the romz but the experience just isn't the same. I notice it all the time when I was playing a game on the Nes Classic and would follow up with playing my Rgb Modded Nes on PVM. It was a big difference. In some games that 1/2 second makes all the difference when pushing buttons. FPGA is just so much more accurate.

I would avoid this Polymega console like the plague. Yea, it's probably going to run your original games and it's going to look great on your tv but the timing is going to be off.
 
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