Thoughts on the Polymega?

[PocketTim]

Have seen that the beta version of this has landed in the hands of a few tech journalists.

Legacy Gaming Lives on Polymega®

Play legacy video games on Polymega® including PS1, Saturn, Sega CD, Mega, CD, 32XCD, Neo Geo, TurboGrafx, PC-Engine, Supergrafx, NES, FC, SNES, SFC, MD, 32X.

www.polymega.com

Even though I'm equipped with a self compiled and highly customised RetroPie set up, I can't help but be impressed by this, in particular the Saturn emulation. It's very expensive but very cool.

 

[pool7]

From https://www.polymega.com/faq/

IS POLYMEGA™ 100% EMULATION?
Polymega’s Modules use top tier emulators with low latency controller inputs.

What hardware does Polymega™ use?
Processor: Intel Coffee Lake S Series Processor
Memory: 2GB DDR4 RAM
Connectivity: Realtek RTL8822BE Wi-Fi / Bluetooth Combo Module, HDMI 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 2.0, Polymega™ Expansion Bus
On-board Storage: 32GB eMMC Flash Memory
Expansion Storage: M.2 2280 SSD, Micro SDXC (SD Port on back)
Optical Drive: 8X CD/DVD Slot-in Optical Disc Drive

What Software does Polymega™ use?
Architecture: x86
OS: Proprietary Linux-based.
User Interface: Codename Richter (Proprietary, Linux Based).
Emulators: Legally licensed versions of Mednafen, Mesen, Kega Fusion, and MAME with additional bug fixes, CD BIOS development, and replaced YM2610 for Neo Geo CD from Playmaji.

So yeah, it's just a PC with emulators.
Sure, it has controller ports and can read cartridges, but is that really worth the price?

 

[StevO9389]

One reviewer praised the Saturn emulation, Neo Geo CD load times and ability to install/remove game patches. Considering the asinine prices of a ODE modded Saturn you could buy the Polymega bundle and come out ahead.

 

[PocketTim]

One reviewer praised the Saturn emulation, Neo Geo CD load times and ability to install/remove game patches. Considering the asinine prices of a ODE modded Saturn you could buy the Polymega bundle and come out ahead.

You're not wrong. When I first saw the price of this I was shocked, however for my RetroPie I spent about £50 on the Pi4, £15 on the SD card, £30 on the case, £40 on an 8BitDo controller, £10 on API access for ScreenScraper.fr and then I'd hate to think how many hours I spent carefully compiling, customising, scraping meta data, cleaning rom lists etc. Thats not far off £200 + maybe 50 hours work.

This however, plug in and off you go. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal at all.

 

[PopetherevXXVIII]

I want one. I was going to buy a Japanese PS1 and 2nd Saturn for games that give my framemeister problems. But I think this is a more convenient option plus I get PC Engine CD and Neo Geo CD.