- It's retro time.
- Kind of.
- It's not super retro time
but this guy here is pretty retro.
The Polymega.
this thing was first announced back in
like 2017
as the RetroBlox.
It's a console
sort of that can have modules
that slot in and slot out
to change what you can plug into it.
So in this case
it just comes with a CD rom drive,
actually a BB Rom drive.
But there's other modules here that we'll get into.
People have actually accused it of being a scam
and vaporware for a long time now,
because like it missed its first ship date in April of 2019.
It finally shipped in September of 2021
which is a long time (chuckles).
But here we are
it actually came out.
You can actually buy it.
It's currently back ordered I think
till the second half of this year.
This here is the base unit PM01.
It comes with a standard wireless controller which I think
is a game serve BM1 or so like that.
You can play classic compact this games,
you can digitize your game collection.
Yes this thing actually lets you rip your games
to the internal storage of the Console.
So you don't have to wear out
the contacts on your classic games which is actually
like straight up a problem.
Can you do that with your CD games too?
Because that's another thing CDs,
they will scratch up.
It's online ready
with built in wifi, Bluetooth and ethernet.
You get instant access to box art, screenshots, metadata
and more of thousands of games
the robust onboard game database.
No internet connection required.
That's actually kind of interesting
Cause as far as I know
this actually comes with a 32 gig EMMC storage module
for the operating system everything.
So it must be able to fit all
of that into if that
if that is just completely on board.
I am curious what this looks like
and how it connects together
and what's inside cause this is just an,
this is a PC.
Like this thing runs an eighth gen Intel processor.
There's the Polymega.
And it came out with the foam.
It got here in one piece
actually no.
In two pieces.
Look at that I love it.
We've got a little box in here
which presumably has the cables and stuff.
Here's our gamesir
control pad branded Polymega.
And what's this?
Oh a little USB drive thing.
Oh this must be the dongle
for the Polymega controller.
Construction manual
HDMI cable
the actual power brick which is provided by FSP
this is a 12 volt 6.25 amps
so that's a 75 watt.
Turns out this is the gamesir G3S.
It's lightweight
six feel okay.
Triggers are a little bit Spongy
like they're a little bit stiff.
D-pad feels a little weird.
So these expansion units,
this one is just
I think this is literally just blank
that just slides onto these rails here,
feels pretty nice.
Then on the side we've got this ejector button.
Of which we push that
and it comes off.
This connector here
is supposedly proprietary.
I get that this is the M.2 bay,
but I'm not sure why there's a a peal on it,
but you know
(paper pealing)
Round back we've got DCN HDMI out
that's gonna probably be HDMI 1.4
ah network
that's gonna be geek of it.
And they've got an SD card slot okay
I have an SD card here, micro SD.
Well let's go ahead and slot that in now.
Hopefully I'll be able to dump some ROMs.
In order to do that,
(module banging on the table)
We need modules.
This boy here
is the power element module set.
This is for the NES/famicom.
Okay.
Little locking points
and there's the other side of that connector.
And in here we have an NES controller
controller?
cartridge port
controller ports are over here
and yes those are NES controller ports.
And this
Is an NES controller.
Ooh that's that feels kind of creaky
the pins aren't aligned in the holes.
It's actually
a problem with lining up with these holes.
You can use other controllers though.
This controller though,
oh it doesn't feel nice.
This feels a lot nicer.
The buttons don't feel as nice.
They don't snap quite the same way.
(chuckles) all right let's get into the next one.
Super gaming.
Starts now
this is the super Nintendo module.
Oh yeah that's weird.
It's got like bulb-like shapes on the back here.
They got the original controller connector.
Oh no
this also not
It doesn't feel like these are very well anchored.
Do you wanna get me an ifixit kit real quick?
The reason I took it apart,
you can actually see the ICS
and the car control slot and everything here
was I wanted to take a look at these ports
and apparently they are just on there
with these rather robust port like posts
which is similar to how it was on
for the original hardware.
But the original hardware also had
like plastic housings kind of clamping it in.
So you were distributing that force a little bit more.
You can see
How it kinda just moves.
You know you've done a good job
when you always have a leftover screw.
Now it's together.
I am a Sega kid
The mega element
it's based on kega fusion
but it's like a new version of Kega Fusion.
They actually got Sir Steve snake to actually
like update it.
Oh this feels weird.
This whole thing is like super curved.
I'm not sure if I like that or not.
Perfect.
It's so unstable.
Look at that.
Finally.
The turb eeeh
I bit my tongue.
The turbo element.
This is for the PC engine
and turbografx 16
as well as the super graphics I guess as well.
These buttons feel really far away from my thumb
aah
(buttons clicking)
Yep.
That feels weird.
It doesn't feel great.
Oh no, there's no cartridge slot gatherers.
PC engine games/turbografx 16 games came
- Whoa
- On cards.
Cue cards they called them.
So let's power it on
and see what we can make it do.
Shall we?
But first,
let's talk about our sponsor,
Karma.
Karma is a free app and browser extension
that uses sophisticated AI
and machine marine technology
to improve your shopping experience
with over 50,000 stores.
Karma scans the web for coupons
and applies them automatically at checkout.
Meaning you'll always get the best coupon code
or price drop.
You can create shopping lists to organize your purchases
and shop more mindfully.
Receive real time notifications When products go on sale
or come back in stock
and earn cash back from select retailers
when you shop while using karma.
Check the link in the description box below
to sign up with Karma for free today
and start shopping more smartly.
All right.
First time boot.
We've got the controller.
It is lit up here
on the right like it says
I think that indicates player one 1080P 60Hz.
All we can do is 1080P 120Hz.
Interesting.
Oh, hey?
There's actually stuff on it.
There's no games in there.
So let's just format it.
All right.
Let's try the most difficult system to emulate first
that being the Sega Saturn.
Whop, hey
it picked it up right away.
So well, not right away
but after it figured out what it was,
Daytona USA right up there at the top.
So I can manage that.
I can add to my collection.
I can add to the collection
and install to the local storage device.
Let's play it.
Well start classic mode
with save state and other enhancements disabled.
Oh, okay.
So it has enhancement hell of a box.
What enhancements would those be?
Oh God the brain rate
and the draw distance.
But that's actually,
it's the version
that I'm playing
- You
- Oh God, what what's happening?
Did the controller glitch out?
Like I couldn't stop turning.
I'm not familiar with this version of Daytona
other than the fact that it's actually pretty terrible.
Ah
but it seems to be working okay.
Oh never mind.
And you can save state,
you can load state.
What can they do with settings?
Virtual display,
What?
Screenshots
So virtual display
Okay so I can adjust.
Oh, okay.
So I can add filters and stuff.
So this is like RGB.
This is RGB plus curvature
to kind of make it feel like you're looking
at a old school.
(both laughing)
Yeah.
Resident evil 2.
Here it goes.
Resident evil 2 Leon
ohoo
(Jono laughing)
I don't actually know the controls of the game anymore.
So this is a problem,
I don't actually remember where to go.
All right we'll just not put that in the video.
(people laughing)
However, I did notice
I do not have dual shock.
Now I don't know if that's in an Amulator thing
or if that's this game.
If this version of the game
just doesn't have dual shock support.
Oh
Analog on,
rumble on.
Now we will restart the game.
I still don't seem to have dual shock.
I don't think I'm gonna spend any more time on that.
Okay I do have a like gun game genre.
I've got lethal enforcers here.
I didn't need it,
but I just put the Sega adapter on there.
I'll just start a virtual racer in there.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
So I can play both of these.
Let's head to collection install
on the external storage.
I wanna see what happens.
I wanna see if that shows up
as a ROM on the external storage.
If so,
Ooh, this is good.
This is a legitimate way to play your games
without having to deal with cartridges.
All right, let's play this straight off of them
straight off the console.
You can also patch the games too.
And it works.
This is based on Kega Fusion.
That's the image that is running right now.
So virtual racing is running off
of the internal storage now
or actually off of the SD card.
Meanwhile
I decided to plug this in because why not?
Yeah, there we go.
I warned you.
I'm not any good at this game.
Responsiveness seems really good.
I don't see any like major graphical glitches of anything.
The actual
like input length seems pretty good to me.
Like I don't feel any input lag when I'm
like touching the controller like this.
Yeah this is what passed as like the next generation
back when the Sega CD first came out.
I don't even know what if anything I'm doing.
He gave me a hug.
If I launched this game,
this game has saved data.
I'm not sure about the Fe RAM in this cartridge or F RAM
or whatever it is.
Does it have my saves?
No.
Hang on.
Is this directly reading the cartridge or not?
Cause I didn't install this.
Is this in RAM or is it in the cartridge?
(speaker growning)
Yes.
It was in RAM I think,
because it still kept playing for a little while
after I pulled it.
Let's try out a different console.
Super Nintendo
Game media.
Yeah I don't think this is gonna work.
This is Super Mario All-Stars
ah Mario All-Stars should work.
Wait
Why is this not working?
No, not this time.
I think this module's DOA.
Oh I did take it apart.
All I did was take the casing off.
I was really hoping
for all of these to work.
I didn't try out the TurboGrafx one
I only have two games for that anyway,
but none of my games worked on the super Famicom one
and I don't think it's because I took it apart.
Unlike Jono who does think it's because I took it apart.
I guess one last thing,
do you have an SD reader on your laptop there?
I wanna see if my 32 X game virtual racing came over
when I installed it onto this here SD card.
Okay looks like it's in file 32,
our BXB file.
So that's a proprietary format.
Well yeah it makes it
so you can't share it which is good
for you know copyright holders and stuff.
But it also means that anything you back up
is dependent on you still having this console
later on down the line.
It's kind of like you were so close moment, you know
because having the ability to dump your games
or run them directly off of the cartridge,
would've been awesome
but it's not running directly off the cartridge.
And yeah I was still able to move around
while the cartridge was out
and it was fading out.
It doesn't quite do what it purported to do,
which is to say
that it doesn't quite pass the cartridge through
and access it directly.
The way that they originally said that it would
instead it does more of a retro kind of thing.
So it reads your game
and puts it in the memory
and you can then install it to the hard drive or the
the SSD or SD card.
That being said it offers a very nice Plex like interface
for accessing all your games.
And when you install a game,
it stays right there
and it has safe state support.
It has everything that you kind of really want
out of a modern emulator.
This thing costs $300 for the base unit.
That's with nothing here,
just the CD drive.
And for some people
like if you're,
if you got a big Sega Saturn collection,
for example or Sunny PlayStation connection collection,
then maybe that would be useful for you.
I don't know.
And in fact it's not $300 anymore.
That was the pre-launch price.
Now it's $399
- Actually $449
- That's Canadian I think.
Unless it actually did go up.
If it is then holy crap,
stay away from this.
Is it a scam?
No, absolutely not.
It does what it says it's supposed to do most,
mostly.
All of those emulators that it has
Mednafen, Kega Fusion MAiM, Mesane.
Those are all top tier emulators.
Yeah setting up raspberry pie sucks
or setting up an emulator on your own
like on your PC sucks.
Trying to get your cartridges dumped sucks
right now
this solves like most of these problems in one box.
And if that calls out to you,
then yeah.
I think that it's worth buying,
but if it doesn't really jive,
like if you feel like you could spend
like the weekend out required
to get everything set up.
Ah to start dumping your games
to start doing everything else,
then you could do it for a lot less
and you would not be locked into a platform
that ultimately may or may not exist
in 10 years.
Yeah I like the concept.
It's just the execution
(speaker mumbling)
So, so
So close.
I really wish they could have pushed that little bit extra.
Just like you can push the subscribe button.
So you don't miss any other retro time inspired videos
or if not inspired videos,
we do cars.
We do shoes now
what don't we do?