Retroblox

[jerseystyle]

Has this been released? I stopped following once it came out they were manufacturing in Myanmar. Nothing against the country (lived there three years and loved it) but they don’t exactly have high tech facilities there.

[Bill Loguidice]

23 minutes ago, jerseystyle said:

Has this been released? I stopped following once it came out they were manufacturing in Myanmar. Nothing against the country (lived there three years and loved it) but they don’t exactly have high tech facilities there.

It's been released, but there are still many like me who are waiting a year or two or three for their packages to ship still. 

 

For all the missteps and justifiable criticism directed towards the project over the years, the only real negative that remains at this point (and it's a BIG negative) is getting the system and modules into more hands. Otherwise, the system definitely delivers on its promises for the lucky handful who are presently enjoying them. I look forward to receiving mine and being more active with all of the platforms it supports rather than breaking out all of the individual systems and/or FPGA systems that I have now.

[5200Fanatic]

Didy ou ever get yours Bill? I did not, ugh.

[cybercylon]

I just looked myself, and they say something like the deluxe version is supposed to ship in Q4 of 2023. How many times has that date slipped?

[Bill Loguidice]

On 9/30/2023 at 1:10 AM, 5200Fanatic said:

Didy ou ever get yours Bill? I did not, ugh.

I did not. I *hope* to get a shipping notification by the end of the year, but I really don't know. I'd get a refund at this point, but I don't think I can easily replicate what I want to use it for, so I'll wait at least until then (but probably not much longer).

[5200Fanatic]

Are they giving out refunds? They haven't been answering the emails I send them.

[cybercylon]

This project aims to accomplish what was the original intent of the Polymega system.... use FPGA technology to emulate a wide variety of consoles and arcade machines (and older computers as well I assume):

 

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/10/could-mister-rival-mars-fpga-be-the-new-king-of-retro-gaming

 

It is worth keeping an eye on since some real names are attached to it.

[roots.genoa]

Do they plan to have cart readers, though? If not, it's not really like the Polymega, more like a souped-up MISTer.

[Bill Loguidice]

36 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Do they plan to have cart readers, though? If not, it's not really like the Polymega, more like a souped-up MISTer.

I agree. The Polymega, if mine ever comes, should more than fit my needs. If this new project works and is well supported, I could see eventually going for that as well (even though I have various FPGA things, including a MiST/er). But at the same time, I kind of like the emulator-based extended features of the Polymega, so we'll really have to see.

[thedoppelganger]

Gave up on Retroblox/Polymega 2 or 3 years ago. Fortunalely I never paid them anything. Is there any real sign of activity at their end these days. Has anyone actually received their order recently? Most consoles have been superseeded by the time they have been around 7 years like this has.

Edited October 11, 2023 by thedoppelganger

[Bill Loguidice]

5 minutes ago, thedoppelganger said:

Gave up on Retroblox/Polymega 2 or 3 years ago. Fortunalely I never paid them anything. Is there any real sign of activity at their end these days. Has anyone actually received their order recently? Most consoles have been superseeded by the time they have been around 7 years like this has.

They're delivering, just super slow still. The claim is by year's end they'll start to catch up, but that remains to be seen. Fortunately, it's the type of platform that's not really time dependent in terms of technology.

[5200Fanatic]

I dunno - its November and no word on my order, ugh. I try to support retro projects but this is a turn-off to supporting retro start-ups.

Edited November 4, 2023 by 5200Fanatic

[5200Fanatic]

Looks like they'll start shipping soon -- they sent emails out to customers. Fingers crossed!

[Bill Loguidice]

7 hours ago, 5200Fanatic said:

Looks like they'll start shipping soon -- they sent emails out to customers. Fingers crossed!

Yeah, I got mine, as did a bunch of others. It's unclear what's going to be in the order as I literally ordered everything, save for extra system-specific controllers. There's supposedly a chance that even the light guns will be shipped, but I'm not sure if that and the N64 module will be part of this batch. Either way, I'm looking forward to it and hope it's the "convenience" machine I'm expecting.

 

It also looks like the Analogue Duos are hitting very soon as well, as I just got a commission to review it for IGN, with a mid-December embargo date. Similarly, the Duke Nukem Edition Evercade VS systems just shipped, and of course the VCS+ was released not that long ago. It's a busy, busy time for retro gaming.

[Ricdeau]

I wish you well with your Retroblox system. Sadly, after all the fiascos I'm done with them and will not give them my money.

 

The news about the Duo is great to hear though. I have that on order and am looking forward to it. I never had a TG16 and have recently amassed a small collection of games for it.

[5200Fanatic]

The Analogue Duo -- now that's something to be excited about!

[Bill Loguidice]

Mine finally came. I'll be doing a review for IGN.
 

 

 

It's a pretty massive amount of stuff. Hopefully, it breaks down to something a bit more compact.

The only thing I don't have from them are the light guns, which I ordered, but haven't been released yet.

[insertclevernamehere]

9 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Mine finally came. I'll be doing a review for IGN.
 

 

 

It's a pretty massive amount of stuff. Hopefully, it breaks down to something a bit more compact.

The only thing I don't have from them are the light guns, which I ordered, but haven't been released yet.

I look forward to seeing the review.  
 

My hope for the light gun is that with the new strategic collaboration Atari has with Playmaji, we get an Atari branded light gun along with a rerelease of Alien Brigade, for use with the 2600+.  And the 7800 version of Crossbow, although I guess a deal with Activision would have to be worked out for that one. And of course, some new light gun games would be good too.

Edited February 1 by insertclevernamehere

[Bill Loguidice]

33 minutes ago, insertclevernamehere said:

I look forward to seeing the review.  
 

My hope for the light gun is that with the new strategic collaboration Atari has with Playmaji, we get an Atari branded light gun along with a rerelease of Alien Brigade, for use with the 2600+.  And the 7800 version of Crossbow, although I guess a deal with Activision would have to be worked out for that one. And of course, some new light gun games would be good too.

I have no doubt if they ever get the store launched that we'll see light gun-compatible games on offer, but I personally doubt there will be any Atari branding or bundling of specific games. For me, I'm most looking forward to playing Saturn and PS1 light gun games, as well as, hopefully, some of the classic light gun arcade titles. It seems a bit odd that they STILL haven't released the light gun, though, as we know the technology is already out and working and available in other products.

[phoenixdownita]

On 2/1/2024 at 6:11 AM, Bill Loguidice said:

I have no doubt if they ever get the store launched that we'll see light gun-compatible games on offer, but I personally doubt there will be any Atari branding or bundling of specific games. For me, I'm most looking forward to playing Saturn and PS1 light gun games, as well as, hopefully, some of the classic light gun arcade titles. It seems a bit odd that they STILL haven't released the light gun, though, as we know the technology is already out and working and available in other products.

Are you planning a CPU update? as for 

I mean a "mere" 100$ more at that point ....

[Bill Loguidice]

No CPU update for me. I don't feel it's necessary. I'll assume they'll smooth out N64 performance through additional software updates.

[Bill Loguidice]

I guess I didn't post it here, but here's my IGN review: https://www.ign.com/articles/polymega-review

[Bill Loguidice]

I just wanted to point out that, for me personally, I bought four 8BitDo Wireless Adapter 2's and paired them with Xbox One controllers. I prefer the d-pad on the Xbox One controller over the newer, generally nicer Xbox Series X/S controller. I also tried some third party Switch Pro-style controllers with the adapters, but they wouldn't stay consistently paired. I really dislike the wireless controller that comes with the system and I don't always want to use the wired controllers that always come with their respective module (not that some of those are all that good either).

 

The nice thing with using the combination of 8BitDo adapter and Xbox controller is that the system recognizes it automatically without having to do the "press d-pad right" thing. I use a simple USB cable with four USB-A ends on it (when I need multiplayer) since only one dongle fits at a time with the too-close USB-A ports on the front of the console.