atm94404

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?"

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.

But were those business cards NFTs? XD

Since this Twitter poll was also posted on the Amico thread, it seems only fair it also be here:

Since this Twitter poll was also posted on the Amico thread, it seems only fair it also be here:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"? .

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?

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.

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...

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).

I do find it funny how they think their videos of a single box playing some games totally exonerates them. If anybody on this forum had eight months and over half a million dollars, they could make a box that does what they've shown. Even Mike Kennedy (with a couple of days and maybe $50 worth of parts) was able to fool people with his SNES-in-a-Jag for a little while. He was only caught because he couldn't resist gloating by posting videos that accidentally showed the back of the box. Even if you had no technical skills, you could figure out how to make such a box they've shown from watching Youtube videos. Playing NeoGeo CDs? I can do that with an 17 year-old OG Xbox that anybody can buy for $30 at a thrift store. Anybody can install Mednafen on an Intel PC and play Saturn games. Making a PC interface for cartridges? Tons of videos doing that for fun or as a learning exercise (or disproving faked Atari 2600 records) with RPi kits. Check out Element14 and Ben Heck videos. Now if you had $500,000 and eight months (at least), could you have a (slightly) custom PC motherboard and enclosure made that you could have a production run of a few thousand? Possibly, although given that this company of ever-shifting employees has never produced anything remotely equivalent, it's much less likely. GPD does this sort of thing with relative success, but Kickstarter is littered with failures similar to just the hardware of what Playmaji is promising. The fact they are opening up for another round of pre-orders before shipping actual hardware makes me think they simply don't have the money to actually manufacture the hardware. Now, given $500,000 and eight months and the tiny group at Playmaji (with seemingly more ex-engineers and marketing people than employed engineers) capable of producing 10+ (or 30 in Polymega math) LEGAL emulators on their own? If they had said they were licensing all their emulators, I would say they were being more realistic and possibly had a chance at success. They licensed the Saturn emulator, but do you think without resorting to using open-source emulators they can write 10+ systems including some which require a clone HLE BIOS? Pretty much impossible (unless right next to the "Core Store" there is an "HLE BIOS Store" on that same street with the old Chinese shop that won't sell you Gizmo because "Mogwais require great responsibility"). So maybe they can ship their box with just Saturn emulation, but the Playstation and PC Engine will be stuck in permanent "coming soon" mode. They might be softening their customers up for that reality with their admission that PSX emulation is only at "90%" right now. The emulation for the Playstation, Saturn, and PC Engine will definitely get scrutinized by the lawyers of the respective companies so they can't risk going the open-source route and using a real BIOS. As for the cartridge systems, it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to release with open-source emulators they didn't properly license (like the Retron 5 allegedly did). It's one thing to show a one-off prototype, it's quite another to mass-produce and ship a finished, legal product. See the Vega+ for how that usually goes even when the makers eventually do ship *something*.

The headline is misleading because it says "From GDC" but there initial article was all just from the Twitter posts from yesterday. Well I WAS just at GDC looking for these guys. I thought it was odd in their "tweetstorm" they didn't bother to say WHERE at GDC they were going to be. GDC is quite large and is spread across three multi-story buildings. It can take hours to go to every booth. Also, I thought it was REALLY odd they were going just for Friday. This is the last day of the show and most people who aren't exhibitors either skip Friday or leave after the morning in order to catch a flight home. The exhibition booths also close early on Friday because they have to clean-up. I knew Playmaji weren't exhibitors because no one buys exhibitor space for one day. I figured they might be slumming in some other booths and walked around. I even went to the NESMaker booth and talked to the guys there around 1:00PM (which is two hours before they were closing up). I asked if they had seen or knew where the Polymega guys were. They too wanted to know that. "They were supposed to come by." I asked if they had seen the thing work, and they said they hadn't. The exact quote was :"I just want to make a game here, flash it, and see if the *blank* thing can actually play it." From the tone, they were getting skeptical of the whole thing as well. Once I got back to where I was staying and checked Twitter, I see they posted some videos from an "offsite location". Looks like a hotel room or something. From what the NESMaker guys said, they were supposed to attend and come by the booth, so communication is an ongoing issue with these guys. And frankly, that HUGE box they are showing could have anything inside it. There literally could be an Intel NUC and an external CD-ROM drive in that enclosure running the Seedi software. We don't have video (yet) of the box itself booting up to see if it's just running Windows and any number of existing Saturn emulators. We don't know if it is really playing off discs or is simply using the disc to identify the game and then using a disc image (on that fancy NVME SSD). The interface offers the option to load a save state after it identifies the game, so I'm not sure what their videos prove. Is this supposed to be their "99% compatible HLEBIOS"? I actually brought a case full of Saturn and PS1 discs to test on the off chance they were there (not surprised they weren't), so I could try a random game they didn't already have and see if it required dumping first and how it handled a cold boot.

But here's the thing, by their own admission the software isn't done. "90%" on PS1 emulation? People have had PS1 emulation with legal, HLEBIOSes since the 90s with Virtual Playstation and Bleem. Plus the very recent chip shortage is something that only would have affected them once they were already late with the hardware. The console was supposed to be shipping on April 1st, so manufacturing of the boards would have happened months ago. Assuming absolutely everything they've said is true (that's a big assumption) they've known since January (at least) they weren't going to make their ship date. But they waited until the week before to say anything, just like how they waited until to the day before preorders to quietly drop "HYBRID EMULATION!"- the main selling point of their console. No. I take that back. They did break their silence a week earlier to trash-talk Analogue- whose latest console is shipping right now AND ahead of schedule. So giving updates to paying customers is less important than taking potshots at a reputable competitor. Nice priorities.

Anybody want to see if their "custom" PC board is actually an existing PCB with their name label stuck on it? Also, if they are "just waiting for chips", they would have finished engineering samples of the final board that they could put in a clear case and play while someone records them with an iPhone. Better yet, send one of these engineering samples to an independent third-party reviewer. Or better, better yet- why didn't they bring this wonder box to GDC so that technically-savvy press people could see it and poke at it (or did the Atari VCS folks warn them not to do that?)? Again, they don't have time to simply take a real disc (just one of the "99%" of games that works perfectly with their HLE BIOS), put it in their "finished" hardware, power it on, and play it. But they do have time to setup glamour shots complete with 90s porn lighting of random closeups of the case and components that don't even come standard (I know what an NVME SSD looks like, thank you very much). Someone at Playmaji needs to take a course on time management. Edit: They are now claiming they will be at GDC tomorrow. This will be interesting. Of course, if they don't stick a real disc and instead do the "load-from-game-state" thing again, it's going to be telling.

Analogue shows them up yet again: https://twitter.com/...571034197520385 So next week, after constantly trash-talking Analogue, we can expect the Polymega "it looks like we aren't going to make our April 1st ship date but only because we are making the system so much awesomer" announcement. Meanwhile Analogue is shipping the "small idea" system ahead of schedule. The karma and irony are so delicious.

I can't believe they are channeling Kennedy's "You'll be able to pull this out of the closet in 30 years and it will still work thanks to our soon-to-be patented cartridge insertion technology".

Are we supposed to be impressed that this thing's alleged motherboard has an NVME slot? Seems like a waste/overkill for a machine that is meant to play pre-DVD era games. It'll be sad if they justify the thing being late because of this "upgrade" in performance. I almost hope they try to pass off the motherboard from some existing product as their own. It would be fun to have another crowd-sourced fraud-busting event like the Coleco Chameleon prototypes. Pat and Ian could get another podcast out of it.