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omnispiro

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The issue they face is that unlike the Big 3 or heck, even Hyperkin, they want preorder money to proceed. This is just never going to sit well. They need to ask for money when the thing is ready to go.

It's just another thing they backtracked on. Back when it was still a magical FPGA wonderland, they didn't need crowdfunding because of their angel investor. Now that it's a tiny x86 PC running software emulation, they need the preorders to succeed. I don't buy the notion that if it doesn't succeed preorders will be refunded. Customers are the LAST thing on the list to get any money when it comes to bankruptcies. Creditors first, and the creditors will be paid with money received for goods that were never produced and the guys in charge of this clusterfsck will walk.

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You're being needlessly pessimistic on this for odd reasons imo. Then again, I understand how these sort of troubled launches bring out the fun in people.

 

I'm still just gonna be on the fence with this until they show more video footage of it in action. Call me an optimist.

 

Not really. More and more are entering the retrogaming scene to try and capitalize on it. People the don't know shit from shinola when it comes to games we play and how we play. We have to be on guard for bogus products.

 

The issue they face is that unlike the Big 3 or heck, even Hyperkin, they want preorder money to proceed. This is just never going to sit well. They need to ask for money when the thing is ready to go.

 

Back in the old days, a company had to conceptualize, design, produce, test, deliver, and distribute a product to the store shelves all by themselves. They didn't see a consumer dollar till all that happened! And it worked! A new industry was born, and what an industry it became!

 

Not this whiny millennial kickstarter stuff. All of which needs a swift kick in the ass.

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It's just another thing they backtracked on. Back when it was still a magical FPGA wonderland, they didn't need crowdfunding because of their angel investor. Now that it's a tiny x86 PC running software emulation, they need the preorders to succeed. I don't buy the notion that if it doesn't succeed preorders will be refunded. Customers are the LAST thing on the list to get any money when it comes to bankruptcies. Creditors first, and the creditors will be paid with money received for goods that were never produced and the guys in charge of this clusterfsck will walk.

 

Money that YOU, as a consumer, paid!

 

Most all of these projects end up this way. FPGA is highly niche in a niche hobby to begin with. And once the full complexity of what needs to be done smacks the would-be kickstarter tycoon in the face, they start a whimpering and run home to mommy (convert to software emulation).

 

They quickly find out they don't know what to do, then they backtrack while scrambling together a suite of software emulators that have been in development for 10, 20, years..

 

Atari VCS, Intelivision, Odyssey^2, Atari 400/800, Vic-20, C64, Apple II, and a boatload more - All of these did NOT need funding from consumers to succeed. They earned their marketshare through advertising, product placement in the retail store, user's groups and loyalties, and more. But one major factor was that the consumer did not need to pre-pay anything. It was as simple as drive to the store and buy one. No internet circus acts. Not even buying a circus ticket. Not even knowing anything about circuses.

 

Today, kickstarter presents us with new sideshows every single day!

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So, reading their broken site FAQ that was posted here and comments on their Facebook page, it seems they finally realized that accessing the cartridge in real-time through software emulation was unpractical, for all the reasons we already explained in this thread. Well, it's about time I guess (I find suspicious they waited until preorder launch to announce it as they likely knew it for quite some time). For the record, here is Byuu's recent comment about this, which pretty much sum up what I already tried to explain (although not mentionned, it is clearly about the Polymega): https://mobile.twitter.com/byuu_san/status/1037367119028125696

 

And now, people who wanted to buy it are pissed that it is just another emulation box and not the super-accurate & lag-free modern console clone they though it would be because of how magic 'hybrid emulation' sounded. Great job :-/

 

Another thing that baffles me is the prize of that thing with modules, it is quite expensive, especially considering the base unit already fully emulates PC Engine and Genesis (since it IS required for PCE-CD and Sega-CD emulation to work in the first place), so you are basically paying expensive modules that only serve as ROM dumpers and eventually passthrough to original controllers (if that is still planned of course and not canned with the rest of 'hybrid emulation').

Edited by philyso
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Okay, I think it's time to drop this. I've been sitting on it for months, and felt that since it didn't really change the map at all when it came to the system (merely reinforced my existing suspicions) that it was best left until after pre-orders started. I wanted to give Polymega every chance it could to handle this the right way, before they started taking money. Now that their hand is out, it is what it is.

 

Bryan decided to hit me up on Facebook a while back, after not liking what we were saying on AA, and REALLY not liking that I asked a question on the FB page.

 

attachicon.gifbryan1.PNG

attachicon.gifBryan2.PNG

 

 

attachicon.gifBryan3.PNG

 

 

attachicon.gifBryan4.PNGattachicon.gifbryan5.PNGattachicon.gifBryan6.PNGattachicon.gifBryan7.PNG

 

Here are my takeaways:

 

  • Playmaji is reading this forum, but apparently don't think it's worth their time to comment here.
  • I definitely see some dialing back of expectations
  • Criticism or skepticism of the project is NOT appreciated
  • If I had to characterize the project as a whole, it would seem that the lawyers and marketers are running things. Engineers (if there are any) are on a short leash.

I'll leave the rest to you. A few other good observations to be made, but you're smart tacos, you'll see 'em.

 

 

Edit: for some reason, the files didn't upload correctly.

To be fair most of our questions ‍would of helped Playmaji market and develop their box correctly

 

​Believe most of the criticism

1.The usage of hybrid emulation, which other software developers have developed years ago, while using non traditional programming methods such as system-level modeling languages or crazy Assembly skills and how unlikely they could emulate 100% of the 1000 games in Real Time, or how many programming hours it would take

2. How difficult it would be to design a Bios file that would maintain it 100% accuracy for all the hardware and software of a given system and not violate either US or EU Copyright law

3. How overly difficult it will be supporting a stack-able device since it depends on users installing the stack-able devices, and likely problems this will cause on its hardware. This part also sound way to Greedy

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Another thing that baffles me is the prize of that thing with modules, it is quite expensive, especially considering the base unit already fully emulates PC Engine and Genesis (since it IS required for PCE-CD and Sega-CD emulation to work in the first place), so you are basically paying expensive modules that only serve as ROM dumpers and eventually passthrough to original controllers (if that is still planned of course and not canned with the rest of 'hybrid emulation').

 

Basically it's the chinese Retrofreak modular expensive console but with the primary device not being some slim piece of plastic with 2 USB ports and their own controller. No this one costs far more and has an optical drive a few systems bred into it, and then they charge $60 a pop for a cart slot/controller jack lock on device that dumps games to an emulator. They're going to burn for this. If it were popular RetroFreak would have been in so many more homes, same with the locked down Retron5 because at least the RF could run stuff off a SD card. it's the worst of both with a higher price. It may be fine if you just want a modern faux console to run CD games on specific systems far faster without aging parts, but that's it.

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The longer this farce goes on, the less I'm willing to believe them taking their forum offline was a coincidence.

 

The Facebook page is a real sh!tshow ... I've never seen an "official" from a company talk down to potential customers like that.

 

This is nothing more than a feeling, but I would not be at all surprised if they turn around and say "more research and development is needed to meet consumer demand" while they ask there funders for an extension and more money. There's no product here, and the "gamers" are the ones being played. Maybe the founder can get away with yet another name change (Retroblox, Polymega, Playmaji) and take a shot at duping someone new. Word on the street is that the brainless zombie brand that makes Atari shirts would be open to licensing deals ... but they'll probably want some cash up front.

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The Facebook page is a real sh!tshow ... I've never seen an "official" from a company talk down to potential customers like that.

 

This is nothing more than a feeling, but I would not be at all surprised if they turn around and say "more research and development is needed to meet consumer demand" while they ask there funders for an extension and more money. There's no product here, and the "gamers" are the ones being played. Maybe the founder can get away with yet another name change (Retroblox, Polymega, Playmaji) and take a shot at duping someone new. Word on the street is that the brainless zombie brand that makes Atari shirts would be open to licensing deals ... but they'll probably want some cash up front.

 

I've more than once thought that branding the PolyMega as the "Ataribox" would be an out for both these shysters... but they would get stalled trying to decide who got to keep the majority of profits.

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The Facebook page is a real sh!tshow ... I've never seen an "official" from a company talk down to potential customers like that.

 

This is nothing more than a feeling, but I would not be at all surprised if they turn around and say "more research and development is needed to meet consumer demand" while they ask there funders for an extension and more money. There's no product here, and the "gamers" are the ones being played. Maybe the founder can get away with yet another name change (Retroblox, Polymega, Playmaji) and take a shot at duping someone new. Word on the street is that the brainless zombie brand that makes Atari shirts would be open to licensing deals ... but they'll probably want some cash up front.

Hmmn now you got me wondering. Do we have the name of the developer person behind this? It's starting to sound like a hardware version of the Chris Roberts crapfest with Star Citizen. YES fans we need another 1M to get it to the next stage of alpha, let us sit back, ponder, and delay away while we gauge interest and update as needed to string you along more.

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I'd say the RetroVGS launch was worse.

 

It was funnier, at least, and Kennedy/Woita/Carlsen were fun to watch as they contradicted each other in their press appearances. Their websites never went down, and they attempted to speak kindly to their potential customers. Never mind the underlying disrespect of asking for money to perform a job you can't do. Maybe these "modular" guys are just over their heads too.

 

Not sure what's worse, the way RetroVGS played whack-a-mole with critical comments on Facebook, or how Retroblox/Playmaji/Polymega (I can never remember the real name, fortunately they all direct back to the same place) did the same thing with their dedicated forum, which is still offline.

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Not sure what's worse, the way RetroVGS played whack-a-mole with critical comments on Facebook, or how Retroblox/Playmaji/Polymega (I can never remember the real name, fortunately they all direct back to the same place) did the same thing with their dedicated forum, which is still offline.

 

Methinks Kennedy would've done the same thing if he had a Retro VGS shill forum to keep a well-maintained, hype spouting echo chamber, but since he didn't think that far ahead it's a mute argument. Then again, Polymega is being smart enough to not try to delete criticizing comments on social media; this way they won't be as quickly called out by their potential buyers for trying to control their narrative. The true comparison that should be drawn is whether or not Polymega pulled the same hat-trick as Kennedy with their public demo unit at E3, only more effective as to not be called out within two hours for having a SNES Jr crudely fitted into a Jaguar shell with electrical tape.

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heh ... when we're talking about self-destructive behavior, it's hard to decide whether pills or hanging are "worse" when the result is the same either way!

 

It's funny, a lot of these retro inspired or retro aftermarket emulation boxes are trying to ape a market that has zero interest in the design philosophy of them (as others here have said: retro gamers either will want original hardware or as incredibly close to the original hardware as possible, or will rather emulate the games themselves), and then don't want to take the time or have the responsibility to be clear, concise and transparent as to how to will accomplish what they want with said console. Then after months upon months of subterfuge, with failure assured if not imminent, they wonder why people were being repelled by them.

 

Self-destructive seems to be a massive understatement, especially when they want to play the blame game on their former customers/supporters and critics after they failed.

 

Seriously, all people like Playmaji and Atari SA need to do is just be more forthcoming with their [potential] customers and be realistic with themselves and to their supporters about what to expect with their hardware from moment one and people will not be so damn critical about them or try to dig so deep to find info. Then again, I might be asking snake oil salesmen to simply drop all pretense and just admit they're selling herbal soda water.

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These guys spent almost TWO YEARS avoiding answering questions. Every single time they were pressed, they promised the full details would be answered at rhe "next" big event... the next convention, the next show, the next crowdfunding. The "next" event conveniently NEVER ARRIVED. It was always coming down the road. Then they reverse all their design decisions the day they start taking orders.

 

You have GOT to be kidding me.

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heh, herbal soda water

in a year

for three hundred dollars

pay now

no refunds

 

What bugs me about the "Ataribox" is how unambitious it really is ... it adds nothing that can't be done elsewhere for cheaper (streaming) or better (a real computer).

 

Retroblox is kind of the opposite, it seems over engineered and certainly overpriced, and it seems odd to go around the long way with cartridges and modules just to end up right where we started, with software emulation.

 

Both are being ineptly handled, in part because of incompetent marketing, but mainly because their products are fuzzy concepts, something that no one* asked for, needs, or wants.

 

The cheap toys actually on store shelves are so much more interesting, compelling, and fun to me. I like AtGames toys, even when they aren't "authentic." And hey, according to Retroblox, it's "snobby" to want that anyway.

 

*yes yes, both have their boosters, I get that

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These guys spent almost TWO YEARS avoiding answering questions. Every single time they were pressed, they promised the full details would be answered at rhe "next" big event... the next convention, the next show, the next crowdfunding. The "next" event conveniently NEVER ARRIVED. It was always coming down the road. Then they reverse all their design decisions the day they start taking orders.

 

You have GOT to be kidding me.

It's been fascinating to watch this long slow-motion train wreck finally release the brakes, speed up, and jump the rails while doing a fast U-turn.

 

Looking at what has happened, I expect that they have just burned their way most of their angel-investor's money, were unable to secure any more funding after their lackluster E3 performance, and desperately needed to come up with a throw-it-together "Plan B" in order to have any hope of shipping something that might keep their company afloat, and keep the angel-investor from shutting them down and salvaging whatever he/she could from the remains (like their patent and any other things that the founders had pledged in order to get the money).

 

Then again, I'm a cynic. ;)

 

 

If nothing else, it's another lesson to warn folks to be wary of people who trumpet all sorts of authority-figure claims about wonderful past deeds (in unrelated products) when they come up with a new scheme that sounds too good to be true.

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The website is back up. Not impressed with the crowdfunding goals on something with an already-set release date.

 

 

 

LEVEL 2 LOCKED.

REWARD: COLLECTION INSIGHTS SCREEN.
Learn about your game collections, see your most played games, and more.

$750k

 

I mean really, wtf?

 

 

 

LEVEL 3 LOCKED.

REWARD: EM05: FAMICOM MODULE SET
The Japanese Nintendo Famicom will receive a worldwide FPGA module release on Polymega™

$1M

If you give us enough money, we'll make another piece of Lego for you to buy!

 

 

 

LEVEL 4 LOCKED.

REWARD: PLAY MOVIES AND AUDIO DISCS
Listen to your CD’s and watch DVD movies on your Polymega™

$1.25M

Eat turds, PolyMegaBuxx. My Xbox 360 can do that and it only ran me $200 seven years ago.

 

and it goes on from there. PC-FX and classic Atari system modules. Not that it matters. After the initial "rush" of orders it'll die down.

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Seriously, all people like Playmaji and Atari SA need to do is just be more forthcoming with their [potential] customers and be realistic with themselves and to their supporters about what to expect with their hardware from moment one and people will not be so damn critical about them or try to dig so deep to find info. Then again, I might be asking snake oil salesmen to simply drop all pretense and just admit they're selling herbal soda water.

 

I believe playmaji and atari sa NEED to conduct subterfuge and BS'ing and all this farcing around. There is nothing more boring than an x86 box full of freeware emulators. Every gamer will tell you that.

 

These upstarts on kickstarter somehow have to differentiate themselves at any cost, make their product sound exciting at any cost - lest they fall into oblivion of the masses and me-too's. And the announcement of some new kind of tech allows that to happen - never mind it may be totally infeasible.

 

So they create all these grand delusions about some flashy new technology. And gamers flock to it like bugs to a light. They get all sorts of initial aggrandizement, press coverage, internet shoutouts, social media buzz. Then when it comes time to deliver there's nothing there.

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