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atm94404

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  1. Obviously achieving FCC certification IS a problem or else they would have done it by now. The issue is in saying they passed "FCC tests" doesn't mean they passed them all. It's like asking a job applicant "Did you graduate?" and their reply is "I passed classes". If they passed PE, they could truthfully say they "passed classes". Now we've heard secondhand (at best) accounts of people saying "I heard they passed this test- which is the hardest test". The person saying that could be lying. The person saying that could have misunderstood (they passed their own test but not an official one- because that testing costs $$$). The person who told that person that they passed those tests could be lying. We don't know because all OFFICIAL information is that they DID NOT receive FCC certification. In fact, Nick and others admitted they had FAILED tests, and they never said they had subsequently passed previous tests they had failed. If you disagree, find a DIRECT QUOTE from an official saying that they passed all their tests. BTW, Nick summarizing his thoughts of FCC testing during a livestream doesn't count because Nickloved to talk in generalizations, but whenever asked directly "Have you passed all the tests" he has never ever said "Yes". He's hemmed and hawed and said things like "we passed these tests and this test and we expect to pass the remaining a few weeks" but that's just another way of saying "No. We have not passed all our test". Prove me wrong with a direct quote. You can argue all day long that it's "just paperwork" or "they can get that at any time", but if that were true there's no reason for them NOT to have done it already. If you argue they are doing it to save money, that's just a silly argument. They are going to have less money going forward (paying salaries, acquiring parts, lining up manufacturing, etc). Not having that certification also gives people yet another reason not to give them money (either new investors, retailers, or preorders). Having this "we totally can have FCC certification at any time" come from non-official sources is itself shady. It looks like IE wants to spread what should be good news, but they don't want to open themselves up (more) for lawsuits from investors who could claim fraud. Just look at the ridiculous hair-splitting going on. "Well they don't need FCC certification to start manufacturing". Technically true but also unbelievable. If they manufactured units without certification, they can't sell them until they get that certification. Even if the unit passed every test before manufacturing, there's no guarantee that when they go to get that final certification that the government might not have changed requirements. IE could cry "But we passed all the tests and have already manufactured all our units! We can't sell these now! We're ruined!" all they want, but the bureaucrat's response would be "That's your problem. The regs have changed. You should have got the certification when you had the chance. What kind of idiot manufactures units they can't legally sell?"
  2. Let's not forget most of the guys with equity were also drawing salaries. In the case of Nick, he was collecting rent for a property that almost certainly would have sat empty during the pandemic (a juice bar used to occupy the space). And what do you want to bet that Tommy charged his travel and miscellaneous expenses to the Amico marketing budget (because otherwise what DID they spend all that marketing money on?) for his "hands-on" event that happened to coincide in Austin with a VGL performance? Why would Tommy spend his own profits from VGL when he could get crowdfunding to pay for a first class plane ticket and hotel? There's so many vague items in the StartEngine SEC filing that you could hide quite a few "perks" (like cushy jobs for family members) for those who invested equity to ensure they got all their money back plus interest no matter the outcome. I think after the film version of The Secret, Tommy's favorite movie is probably The Producers- the original with Gene Wilder, not the crappy Matthew Broderick update.
  3. Since this Twitter poll was also posted on the Amico thread, it seems only fair it also be here:
  4. Since this Twitter poll was also posted on the Amico thread, it seems only fair it also be here:
  5. But that is the paradox of the Polymega (which is independent of the ability of Playmaji to even deliver the damn thing). The target audience is someone who is enough of a purist to want to use original media EXCEPT they feel something like an Analogue is "overkill". The target audience wants the convenience of an all-in-one box EXCEPT to play original carts and use original controllers requires swapping a module that itself is the size of an Analogue box every time you switch cartridge platforms (or controllers). The target audience are such enthusiasts they want to play original CDs EXCEPT they're not interested in playing games they don't already have copies of. I mean, you're such a huge Sega Saturn fan that you want to play your original discs (that you've probably already played to death) BUT you have no interest in playing ultra rare games like Panzer Dragoon Saga? Now I'm sure someone will point out that they could download the ISOs for PDS, burn them to CD-Rs, and use those with the Polymega. But there goes the "all-in-one, standalone, convenient, push a button" argument. The same for the "Polymega will have a digital store" answer because 1) I highly doubt it will rights to titles like PDS 2) I thought one of the big selling points of these boxes was to get away from the "it's digital, it will go away when the company does" fear because it plays your or physical discs and won't need the internet. Also, how many people have a large enough collection of original carts or cds from multiple systems to make the "it can play everything" argument worthwhile? Not that many. Sure, some kids were rich or had divorced parents who engaged in escalation of buying their kid's affection ("Oh, your dad got you a Saturn, eh? Well how about this Playstation?") but people with original discs and cartridge tended to stick to a single platform for a console generation. Now I'm curious about about platforms I never owned, but I'm certainly not going to go to eBay and hunt down original discs and cartridges to satisfy that curiosity for something like a Polymega. I'd try a free emulator or two, and after THAT if I REALLY liked it I'd want accuracy with something like an Analogue box (and a multicart) or a MiSTer. I wouldn't "upgrade" to a $200 generic box + more $$$$ for each module and cartridges to play the same free emulators I explored the unit with. I'd throw that money towards a multi-cart. Again, this box uses existing off-the-shelf emulators. You can use Retroarch to play physical discs now with the same (or better) emulators on your own hardware for free. Yet supposedly there is a crowd of people who say "I don't have time to watch a ten minute video on how to setup RetroArch or download the app" but they're willing to wait over a YEAR while Playmaji misses deadline after deadline? You can watch an awful lot of "How-to" Youtube videos in a year's time. The Venn diagram for people who find the Polymega a good value is exceedingly small- as evidenced by Playmaji missing all their initial funding goals and having to extend the pre-order deadline by a month to (allegedly) reach just the first one. People on Twitter asking about future modules (and Playmaji being coy with "we don't have specific plans at this time but we'll see") are really in for a massive letdown.
  6. Over a month since Playmaji's last Twitter post and a couple weeks since their last reply to queries for an update. Even then, all they promised was "we're working on an update". I don't know what more proof people need to see this thing is not coming out anytime soon. Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday would be the time for a company to make a play for disposable income if they had any chance of delivering something in the next few months. They're still accepting pre-orders, so the fact they didn't even try to grab people's attentions when holiday shoppers at their most susceptible with their money says a great deal about Playmaji's lack of confidence in the Polymega shipping in the near future. Maybe they'll claim that "April 1st, 2019" was a typo and they always meant 2020.
  7. I find this one even more illuminating So much for "they're totally done. We're just waiting for Intel chips". I and others have pointed out that the Intel processor they said they were going to use is readily available from multiple online sites. Some Polymega apologists (or employees) tried many impotent defenses like "Maybe they're using a different chip now" or "That's not how chip production works! Those chips online aren't bulk chips, they're retail". Neither is a very good excuse. If they switched chips in April (when they took the exact chip off their FAQ), they're morons because 1) if the chip is pin compatible, they could always use the one that is now readily available 2) If it's not pin compatible, the whole "everything is done, we're just waiting for chips" was a total lie. Also, no chip manufacturer will fill retail orders before bulk orders. The chips for bulk orders are identical, but require extra testing and packaging. You can fit dozens of bulk order chips in a box that is needed for a retail package. Profit margins on bulk orders are way more even with the higher individual sale price for retail SKUs. And if any of these excuses were real, shouldn't this "new, more transparent" Playmaji we were promised in January have communicated it to their loyal followers? They certainly have enough bandwidth to post screenshots of games that in theory will someday run on their console and take vapid polls like "Which Nintendo Power do you think had the best cover?". They are not "working night and day" and have tons of time (waiting for The Great Pumpkin to bring Intel chips) so they could at least spend time crafting a new, more plausible excuse. And if they're JUST NOW getting production samples, they weren't just waiting on Intel chips this whole time unless the person writing their Twitter feed has no clue what "production samples" means or they're hoping people following their Twitter don't know what it means. Meanwhile, people keep asking if it will be ready by Thanksgiving. Don't have the heart to tell them that if they just now got production samples AND they finished all their testing AND they found no issues with their last revision AND they had all the chips bought, delivered, and ready AND they pushed the button right now on the production pipeline, the Polymega isn't coming out this year.
  8. In the meantime, RetroArch has added the ability to play from real CDs (one of the big marketing bullet points for the Polymega) and has added support to perform on-the-fly translation of game text from one language to another. Playmaji's excuse that there is an Intel chip shortage becomes less believable each day when the chip they originally said they were using, the Intel® CM8068403377713, is readily available online from places like TigerDirect, NewEgg, and Amazon. That's probably why on April 4th (after missing their original ship date), they changed the FAQ page to simply say "Intel Coffee Lake S Series Processor" (thank you, Wayback machine). So as we near the one year anniversary of pre-orders, who wants to make a guess as to what new excuse they will use? Will it be: A) "We decided to switch to AMD processors because they offer more performance for the dollar. This means we will have to design a new motherboard and scrap the existing design (that we pinky-swear was complete, debugged, and in no way suffered from thermal issues)." B) "Because of new tariffs, we had to move manufacturing out of China. We are now waiting for our turn to come up at our new facility in South Korea|India|The North Pole." C) "Because we love our customers (and the interest their pre-order money continues to give us), we decided to wait until Intel switches all its processors over to their new 10nm process. We are assured this will happen any week or year now." Bonus points if you can tell what is wrong with this sentence from the official Polymega FAQ: 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.
  9. The new "pre-order" for Polymega is up, although from all the technical glitches they are having they learned nothing from the previous pre-order fiasco. Just before it went up, they had this post: Followed by this You would think after all the warnings bells that people might be a little more cautious, but then you see replies like this: "clear and consistent"? .
  10. atm94404

    Untitled Album

  11. A couple highlights (as in milk squirting out my nose trying to contain my laughter): "people who want a 60fps UI"- yeah, because the game selection screen is the part everyone wants optimized "this is a 14-layer PCB"- because that's the magic number to make it a legitimate product? Bryan is clearly not an engineer but a "big idea guy" a la Mike Kennedy. He actually name drops Playmaji's FORMER CTO (so the guy had no involvement in the current SFF PC version) and BRAGS he's now the CTO at Atari. Bringing up the guy responsible for the "new" Atari VCS DUMPSTER FIRE is supposed to impress us?
  12. While Kega Fusion is good, it's not perfect. Digital Foundry did a review of the Mega SG and compared it extensively to other emulators including Kega and the Mega SG trounced them all. In fact, the Mega Drive's famous "Blast Processing" is perfectly replicated on the SG, while on others not so much: https://youtu.be/_ZCQ6kN9Ie0?t=883 Similarly, audio on the Kega was good (but not perfect) while the Mega SG was indistinguishable from the real thing (or better). So if you want as close to the real thing as you can get, you'll have to go with either the Mega SG or possibly a MiSTer if you're more tech-capable and patient for the community to perfect each core.
  13. I hope the people who are licensing their emulators to these guys were smart enough to be paid upfront and didn't fall for the "We can't pay you now, but we'll give you a percent of each unit sold*. Well, after the first batch ships out...". Of course, by licensing some (all?) of their emulators, it just gives them more potential excuses to delay. "Due to licensing disputes, we have to delay shipment until we can write our own emulator inhouse...". I mean, they're already using an Intel chip shortage as an excuse even though their software isn't done. And of course nothing is preventing them from showing us a stack of hundreds of finished Polymega cases and motherboards just anxiously waiting for those precious Intel CPUs to arrive...
  14. Kevtris, Random question. Since I'll soon have a Mega SG in my hands AND I have 3D TV, I was wondering if it was possible to add a "3D Mode" option for Master System games. I know the Sega glasses won't work without an analog output, but I would think it might be possible to take the SMS field-based 3D and turn it into a mode usable by "modern" 3D displays. I don't know if the Mega SG supports 1.4 HDMI, but even if it just did simple Over-Under or Side-by-Side mode over 1.3, that would be fantastic (even if it did require manually selecting the 3D format).
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