zappi

Small point of order but the new Xboxes can be tinkered with as they can be booted into a Developer Mode - it costs $19 for a developer licence but after that you can switch between Developer and Retail modes as much as you want. People are already running Retroarch etc on it, no doubt a strong dev community for it will build up soon. More here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/11/how-to-turn-your-xbox-series-x-s-into-an-emulation-powerhouse/ Wouldn't be surprised if the ease of "hacking" the VCS OS was intentional as that encourages the same kind of tinkering, although that would probably render the VCS shop (such as it is) pretty useless.

Nice, what kind of songs are on it? I love snooping on others via the things they leave behind digitally, I bought a Wii for £5 last month and had a fun time going through the saves trying to figure out what kind of person owned it before (a lot of Lego games and Fifa, probably a 8 year old boy)

yeh the GBA Summon Night games have been going up in price, so much so that they were heavily bootlegged a year or so ago - type "Summon Night gba" into ebay and you get all sorts of listings from China :/

Lately I've been on the lookout for an original version GBA, as I want to attempt a backscreen mod on one. Yesterday I lucked out and found one in a junk shop, it came in a carry case with - 3 games: Pokemon Blue, Warioland, and Super Mario Land (damaged label) - 2 rechargable battery packs, although one is missing its battery - a GBA-Gamecube link cable and all for a grand total of £8!

Xbox have made Launch Editions of their consoles that were produced in limited quantities and given only to staff. Now it seems that people are using the phrase as you say "spice up" their ebay listings this has reminded me of the AtariXbox, a one of a kind Atari branded Xbox given away as a prize at a gaming convention this might be a picture of it? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/204974-original-xbox-atari-edition/

The higher rewards are not live yet (if ever?) but can be viewed in the HTML code (rightclick rewards page, view source page) in case they remove them, here they are for posterity/your amusement LEVEL 7: BASIC SOCIAL NETWORK ($2.25mil) "Make a profile, create a friends list, chat with other users on Polymega" LEVEL 8: CHEATS DATABASE ($2.5mil) "A digital cheats database will be implemented for supported systems." LEVEL 9: EM07: COLECOVISION MODULE SET ($3mil) "The Classic Colecovision system will receive a worldwide module release on Polymega" LEVEL 10: ADVANCED SOCIAL NETWORK ($3.25mil) "A fully integrated social network for sharing your screenshots and game videos to other players on your Polymega" LEVEL 11: SIDEBAR APPS ($3.5mil) "A new application ecosystem will be created that allows you to create and share custom per-game widgets for on-screen tools like timers, strategy guides, tweaks, translations and more." LEVEL 12: EM08: GAMEBOY MODULE SET ($4mil) "The Classic Gameboy (GBA/GBC/GB) systems will receive a module release on Polymega" LEVEL 13: ACHIEVEMENTS SYSTEM ($4.25mil) "An Achievements System will be implemented to Polymega so you can share your accomplishments with friends and followers." LEVEL 14: NETPLAY MATCHMAKING ($4.5mil) "Starting with select games, go head-to-head with other players using Polymega’s online Matchmaking and Netplay service. Create game lobbies, invite friends, and see who’s best." LEVEL 15: EM09: SEGA MASTER SYSTEM MODULE ($5mil) "The Classic Sega Master System will receive a worldwide module release on Polymega" LEVEL 16: TOURNAMENT NETPLAY ($5.25mil) "Create and participate in tournaments using Polymega’s Matchmaking service" LEVEL 17: PHILIPS CD-I SYSTEM ($5.5mil) "The Classic Philips CD-i System will be playable on Polymega" LEVEL 18: SEGA DREAMCAST ($6mil) "The Classic Sega Dreamcast will be playable on Polymega" LEVEL 19: 3DO ($7mil) "The Classic 3DO system will be playable on Polymega" LEVEL 20: NINTENDO 64 MODULE ($8mil) "The Classic N64 System will receive a worldwide module release on Polymega"

lots of interesting details in the faq https://www.polymega.com/faq/ I've seen some speculation that the emulators are mednafen based? e.g. "The team at Playmaji has spent a good amount of effort on a piece of technology called Active Cartridge Reading, an experimental subset of Hybrid Emulation that allows you to use any games or peripherals that work on a real classic console using a live blend of software-based emulation and memory mapped hardware. This technology, while it exists, is not yet fast enough for some of Polymega’s supported systems, and would result in a degraded overall experience if launched prematurely. Now, support for game cartridges with on board DSP chips such as Everdrives, Starfox, or live-reading of devices like Game Genies is blended. First, we’ve licensed standard DSP-compatible emulators for systems with those types of cartridges, which will allow games with special chips to be played via software emulation. That means you can now play backed up games such as StarFox and others regardless of whether you have the cartridge inserted, a convenience that most gamers will appreciate. We’ve also added a software-based Game Genie and Pro Action Replay as a reward level for supporting the console beyond its initial funding goals. The Super Game Boy is no longer compatible with the EM02 SNES SFC module, however, we have set up a GB / GBC / GBA module as an additional reward tier if reached. Second, certain systems are going to be FPGA based. The first example of this is going to be the dedicated Famicom module, which will be released after the launch of the system. Famicom is particularly important to be implemented in this manner as it included accessories such as the Famicom Disk System (FDS), which was a critical part of its library and one that we will not be creating a dedicated module for. The tech to support FPGA modules is built in to the launch version of the Polymega™ Base Unit, and we may continue to release other FPGA modules in the future. FPGA modules will have a slightly higher price point than standard modules. This decision / change overall has freed up our team to focus on matters that more factually push the needle in terms of overall system compatibility, as evidenced by our recently-announced support for the Sega Saturn, adding over one thousand new compatible games to Polymega™. What made this possible is that by removing the larger size FPGA from the base unit, we were able to opt for a higher clock-speed dual core chip rather than a slower quad-core chip for the main CPU, which now opens up the door to more demanding systems like Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, and more — which is what many people have expressed to us that they want."

Bought a Wii for £1.50 from a junk shop. No leads, power cable, controls etc just the base unit. Figured if mine died it would be a cheap replacement if it booted, or spare parts if not. It was clogged with dust so opened it up to do some cleaning, damn this thing has a lot of screws. Anyway it booted up fine! Had some fun snooping around, although they'd never opened the eshop so no free VC downloads boo hoo. Seems like it was owned by a young kid, a lot of Disney type shovelware save files. Maybe in 20 years he'll get nostalgic for SpongeBob: Atlantis Squarepantis and buy an overpriced mint copy on eBay