Playmaji, the company behind the Polymega ecosystem, has announced a new hardware: the Polymega Remix. This portable device, pictured above, coupled with the free Polymega app (launching first on Windows 11-compatible devices), offers a plug-and-play solution to digitise CD-based retro games. Cartridge-based games are also supported via the Element Modules, which are sold separately. Once digitised, the game can be played via the Polymega App on a compatible device.

The Remix Base Unit comes with support for:

• Original CD/DVD game compatibility (via optical drive) for titles from consoles such as PlayStation 1, Saturn, Sega CD, and more.
• Original Cartridge game compatibility (via Element Modules, sold separately), for systems like NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari, and even Nintendo 64.

The Polymega App offers the same premium user experience as the full Polymega console, including advanced features such as:

• Virtual Display modes
• Patch support
• Custom playlists
• Extended Set game installations
• Polymega Collection game support

“Polymega Remix is all about flexibility,” said Bryan Bernal, CEO at Playmaji, Inc. “Whether you’re a retro game collector looking to digitize your physical collection or simply someone looking for a more portable way to enjoy your games, Polymega Remix is the perfect solution. The best part is, you can take your entire library with you wherever you go, and for an incredible price.”

Polymega Remix is priced at $199, and pre-orders will open on April 16, at 8 AM PST, with shipping expected to begin in May.

SOURCE: GBAtemp Inbox

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Assuming that this thing can't read special discs like Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox, it doesn't do anything any cheap internal or external CD drive made since the 90s couldn't already do. PCs can already natively read PSX, Sega CD, etc. and many emulators already let you play directly from disc.

You do need to be smart enough to install things like imgburn to rip discs and Retroarch to play the games, but I assume anybody into retro gaming enough to buy this would already know how to do that.

I expect that it uses a completely normal CD/DVD drive running completely ordinary firmware so it's just not possible to read non-standard discs. Not much they can do about that unless they were to design a custom firmware, and designing *one* custom firmware that can read every proprietary disc format would not be an easy task. They have to work with the hardware that's available, and those few drives capable of reading proprietary formats aren't easy to come by plus they're only good for one console.

Dreamcast is just an impossibility, because they aren't CDs nor DVDs but rather a special format that nothing else (well, maybe some arcade games?) ever used. The hardware is not being made anymore (not that you could buy it even when it was) so you'd have to rip working drives out of actual Dreamcasts to make this shit.

 

[lightwo]

This is HUGE! And it doesn't even come with cartridge readers unless purchased separately, only a measly DVD drive? Why?!

Only scenario where the price would be "understandable" (read: from an uninformed perspective) would be to dump games from multiple owned consoles that have all lost the ability to read games. But even then, it's not unlikely getting a new console/replacing cartridge/disc drive would cost less money, and on top of that, the disc ripping functionality of this monstrosity looks to be borderline useless at best.

It looks more like a mini PC than some lousy ripper.

 

[Karoi]

no ps2? its basically overpriced ewaste slop imo. a raspberry pi and many other systems can do more for cheaper. this is just a gimmick product imo

Yeah no PS2 is no-go for me. I would have considered this (not to use portable ofcourse, that size is insane for portable and can be made way smaller imo).

 

[Chellarina]

I presume this is just for people of a certain age and wealth who just want a quick way to play their own collections on their phone. I get it as a capitalist product, but has little meaning beyond that.

People have already pointed out how few mediums it does, particularly without add ons. Furthermore, I highly imagine the rips will be (or try to be) in a proprietary format only their app can read (wait for it to be subscription only as soon as it has any success). So if the hardware, software, firmware and backups are all proprietary instead of open source and available for others to use and expand upon, they have not been preserved or archived in any meaningful way.

And for those asking, preservation is important for the same reason history is important. Trying to capture that moment and that context to understand and learn from in the future. That's how we make progress. Even the crappy games no one played are important, because they happened.


WARNING RANT: Particularly important now where it is easier than it has been since the invention of the newspaper to manipulate peoples' perceptions and memories of cultural events.

 

[Skv0ra]

Haul that to a Gamestop to rip whatever they have on shelves OR myabandonware/vimm without moving an inch at home......hmmmm. lol

 

[munnimann]

Not everyone wants to rely on pirate downloads and believesdumping your own carts to be more ethical, YMMV of course.

For carts the main advantage of dumpers is being able to backup/restore saves if you own original carts.

Not everyone, no. In fact, if you'd take GBAtemp users by their word everytime a major video game company takes legal action against an emulator, then everyone here dumps their own legal copies. And yet I don't expect this device will be flying off the shelves somehow.

 

[lordofcombo]

While i understand purist with fpga mindset.Computers these day are emulating flawlessly any console until the n64.So any piece of hardware achieving that is worth 200 dolar to me.

 

[bonkmaykr]

"Digitize" is misleading. They're all already digital. You're not scanning film.

Also... just buy a Blu-Ray drive?
$199 for a glorified disc reader and some unoriginal software that depends on a very anti-user platform, and the only actually useful addition (cart readers) is a separate add-on?

Here's an idea:
- Any cheap optical drive
doubles as a burner, btw - you can get a Blu-Ray M-Disc burner for like 60 USD or less and if you don't want that you can find any shitty DVD drive from an old office computer for the price of a fast food meal
- FOSS emulator program
- a snazzy frontend if you seriously can't live without one
- profit???

and all that money you saved can be put towards other hardware to read the cartridges.

$199 for something like this is horrible value.

forgive my ignorance but like...do we really need this? is there really still such a need for game preservation??

For home computer games (where there were literally an infinite number of unlicensed releases distributed in limited official capacity), leaked prototypes of games, etc, absolutely.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Doesn't look much more portable than their original model. Color me confused on what looks like pure redundancy.

 

[SuffahBish]

Doesn't look much more portable than their original model. Color me confused on what looks like pure redundancy.

It seems to me like this is literally a glorified $199 cd-rom drive you can add $79 (a pop) cart readers and controller adapters to. It's basically the regular Polymega but with the built in PC ripped out. Now you have to provide your own hardware to use with their emulation software. It seems like a gigantic rip off.

 

[zfreeman]

Creating accurate, 1:1 disc images of PS1 games requires specific optical disc drives, particularly if you are aiming for a "perfect" rip that matches the Redump database. While any CD/DVD drive can create a basic ISO, many standard drives cannot accurately read the subchannel data, audio tracks, or the exact sector layout of "mixed-mode" PS1 games. They will skip over the AP data, thinking it's a defect.

http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drives:_CD_Compatibility_Technical_Details

 

[SuffahBish]

Creating accurate, 1:1 disc images of PS1 games requires specific optical disc drives, particularly if you are aiming for a "perfect" rip that matches the Redump database. While any CD/DVD drive can create a basic ISO, many standard drives cannot accurately read the subchannel data, audio tracks, or the exact sector layout of "mixed-mode" PS1 games. They will skip over the AP data, thinking it's a defect.

http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drives:_CD_Compatibility_Technical_Details

I seriously doubt they're doing anything special with the disc drive. This is the same company that initially sold the system as FPGA based and then switched to software emulation anyway. Because it was cheaper and easier to license and modify software emulators on a custom Linux based OS.

 

[Gozaburo]

Another great Idea idea for collectors that hardly fails in practice. Here is why:
- No support for SDC, PS2, NGC, Wii, XBOX. It should cover all the old stuff.
- Additional coasts for adapters. (Better and cheaper alternatives on the market)
- Better investing in a few TB of HDD's and get the good stuff elsewhere.
- Not really pocketable and not out of the box.

 

[Jayro]

no ps2? its basically overpriced ewaste slop imo. a raspberry pi and many other systems can do more for cheaper. this is just a gimmick product imo

Yeah, I'll stick with my MiSTerStation™. Plays everything from gen 5 on down nearly perfectly, including a crap-ton of 8-bit computers and arcade systems up to CPS2 (with CPS3 coming Soon™).

 

[tech3475]

Not everyone, no. In fact, if you'd take GBAtemp users by their word everytime a major video game company takes legal action against an emulator, then everyone here dumps their own legal copies. And yet I don't expect this device will be flying off the shelves somehow.

I won't deny it's a niche, but people like that do exist. IIRC someone doing a presentation on some console was boasting about it.

That said, even if everyone on this site relied solely on their own rips, I wouldn't be expecting this thing to fly off the shelves because there are cheaper alternatives such as a £15 USB DVD drive or just hacking the consoles.

 

[ps3king1336]

If anyone wants to find a better way to play with polymega's app, first find a pc with a DVD drive, second use that with polymega app then use official or burned discs and lastly BOOM you made your own polymega console, $200 is still too much for a dvd drive with modules.

 

[lordofcombo]

Creating accurate, 1:1 disc images of PS1 games requires specific optical disc drives, particularly if you are aiming for a "perfect" rip that matches the Redump database. While any CD/DVD drive can create a basic ISO, many standard drives cannot accurately read the subchannel data, audio tracks, or the exact sector layout of "mixed-mode" PS1 games. They will skip over the AP data, thinking it's a defect.

http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drives:_CD_Compatibility_Technical_Details

That is totally not true.Im one of Redump Submitter and i have submitted hundred of cds .A simple Drive can dump All cd consoles up to ps2 ,the exception being DC,GC .

 

[zfreeman]

That is totally not true.Im one of Redump Submitter and i have submitted hundred of cds .A simple Drive can dump All cd consoles up to ps2 ,the exception being DC,GC .

Are you submitting for new dumps or verifications only? Which drive do you have?
http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drive_Compatibility:_CD

Have you tried dumping any of these games from the following list?
https://consolemods.org/wiki/PS1:List_of_Multi-Track_PS1_Games

"few optical drives are compatible with it to the extent of being able to truly fully copy a CD."
https://consolemods.org/wiki/PS1:Creating_Game_Backups

You can still dump a workable disc image with a regular disc drive. It just won't have all the metadata; that's why the PS1 won't boot the CD-R without a bypass method (e.g., modchip).

 

[lordofcombo]

Are you submitting for new dumps or verifications only? Which drive do you have?
http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drive_Compatibility:_CD

Have you tried dumping any of these games from the following list?
https://consolemods.org/wiki/PS1:List_of_Multi-Track_PS1_Games

"few optical drives are compatible with it to the extent of being able to truly fully copy a CD."
https://consolemods.org/wiki/PS1:Creating_Game_Backups

Unless in the past 3 years redump revisited their way of dumping ,most pc drives have absolutely zero problems dumping correct data.Ive noticed in your link they are talking about drives unable to do that,that is very new to me.So i'm sorry for calling you wrong.This is recent Redump guidelines.