Retroblox

[godslabrat]

Yikes, so there goes the main reason people were still on board the PolyMega train.  Now all it has going for it is the pretty box.  (That sounds SO FAMILIAR...)

 

They have drug out the development of this thing for so long that every supported system is already available (or will be soon) in cheaper, better forms.  And apparently Poly "Interim solution" Mega's Plan is to ask us to not notice.

[Flojomojo]

The "pretty box" looked like a VCR from the most recent pictures I saw. 

[mr_me]

I thought playstation emulators have been doing this for years.

[godslabrat]

10 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

The "pretty box" looked like a VCR from the most recent pictures I saw. 

Did we mention it's MODULAR??

[Flojomojo]

OK, a VCR with another VCR on top. Mmmmmm, boxysexy. 

[dj_convoy]

The Digital Foundry cat walked away impressed from his hour with the thing at E3 but says he will reserve judgement until he has one in his hands. Of course, as Flojo just pointed out, their whole reason for being just sort of went up in smoke.

[SegaSnatcher]

With Raspberry Pi 4 proven to handle run ahead latency reduction no problem I think Polymega needs to step up their game.  

I'm not on the Raspberry Pi train, but even I found that impressive and at $40 it makes the Pi a serious contender for really hardcore retro gamers that want the least amount of lag. 

[Keatah]

Indeed. Homebrew and "generic" freeware emulation seems to always win out over these kickstarter projects. Besides, this retroblo thing has been bandied about for years with nothing to show. Noise.

[Newsdee]

They could just sell the case with internal cabling for an RPi and a prepared SD card.

Then offer a little option to assemble it for the clueless.

[godslabrat]

 

 

These guys discuss the system from personal experience.  They're very even-keeled and fair, IMO.  The bait-and-Switch is addressed but the conversation goes on.  TLDR: the system is solid but the target audience and value for the dollar is unclear.

[godslabrat]

Seedi opens up their project to the public and provides dummy-proof instructions to build your own rig.  Also supports formats PolyMega doesn't.

 

 

 

 

[RetrogamerX]

Wow the Polymega still hasn't released?   Is this ever going to come out?  The price needs to come down or it's doomed.

[derFunkenstein]

We're getting close to the date they pushed it back to, so it's about time for them to announce another delay. 

 

edit: "date", whoops. They targeted Summer. Only 4 weeks to go. https://www.megavisionsmag.com/polymega-delayed-due-to-supply-shortages-currently-at-99-percent-saturn-compatibility/

Edited August 19, 2019 by derFunkenstein

[godslabrat]

2 hours ago, derFunkenstein said:

We're getting close to the date they pushed it back to, so it's about time for them to announce another delay. 

 

edit: "date", whoops. They targeted Summer. Only 4 weeks to go. https://www.megavisionsmag.com/polymega-delayed-due-to-supply-shortages-currently-at-99-percent-saturn-compatibility/

What are the odds they pull a Hyperkin and say "Well, we have Indian summers here..."

Edited August 19, 2019 by godslabrat

[mario64]

Anyone know if it’s possible to cancel a pre-order and get a refund? Can you just email them?

[Keatah]

Of course you can email them. Whether you'll get the response you want is to be determined.

 

Lesson be learned - never ever ever pre-order things on the internet. Especially videogames and kickstarters.

[derFunkenstein]

Hard to believe it's really been almost a full year since preorders opened on September 4, 2018, and their glorified budget PC still hasn't shipped. Yikes.

 

Which happens first:

 

• Polymega ships
• Lakka and RetroPie support finalizes on RPi 4

 

I'm betting the latter. I have the Pi 4 and it's just not using the GPU yet, so there's a ton of screen tearing and Lakka is generally not a lot of fun to play yet. Give it a couple months and I think drivers will finally be mature. Right now Raspbian Buster has the same screen tearing and stuff.

Edited August 30, 2019 by derFunkenstein

[Flojomojo]

It's quite expensive and heavy. Interesting that the shipping date is mid December 2019, just like the "Atari VCS" (ptui)

[atm94404]

On 8/29/2019 at 6:16 PM, derFunkenstein said:

Hard to believe it's really been almost a full year since preorders opened on September 4, 2018, and their glorified budget PC still hasn't shipped. Yikes.

 

Which happens first:

 

• Polymega ships
• Lakka and RetroPie support finalizes on RPi 4

 

I'm betting the latter. I have the Pi 4 and it's just not using the GPU yet, so there's a ton of screen tearing and Lakka is generally not a lot of fun to play yet. Give it a couple months and I think drivers will finally be mature. Right now Raspbian Buster has the same screen tearing and stuff.

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.

[Keatah]

10nm is not required to run any emulator.

[Newsdee]

On 2/2/2017 at 2:55 AM, dj_convoy said:

Man, people really just buy into ideas, huh? Execution of said ideas doesn't matter... just as long as the idea is cool.

 

Why would you be so psyched before there are any concrete details? I don't get it. I, too, like the IDEA of this, but there is ZERO to get excited about at this point.

The same could be said of all religio... er... marketing schemes.

 

I wonder if these guys are behind another retro "modern remake" with their tech but not advertising it. That may explain how they survived so far...

[godslabrat]

We're now hitting that point again... where if R-blow is going to make their shipping date, this box needs to be rolling off the assembly lines *right this second*.  They should be able to show photos of Chinese fabricators cranking them out.  And of course, the actual design should have been set in stone weeks, if not months ago.

 

If this crew isn't able to show systems ready to be piled onto a boat... then a TOTALLY UNEXPECTED AND UNFORSEEABLE delay should be announced right after thanksgiving.

[derFunkenstein]

US tariffs will be the next excuse. Just waiting to see when it comes. 

[Keatah]

Whatever excuse they offer is fine by me. Means more entertainment and laughs.

[derFunkenstein]

It's fine by me, too, but I just wanted to get on record so I can say "called it!" or you guys can call me out. LOL