Retroblox

[godslabrat]

Another long post from Polymega in heir forum, this one is juicy and not particularly flattering:

 

 

So we go right into defensive mode with WE DON'T OWE YOU AN EXPLAINATION. But not only that, they're pre-emptively blaming other projects for copying "their" idea! Because they've revealed SO MUCH Up until now that they're basically giving their competition the blueprints.

 

How soon until they start naming Hater Brigaders?

[dj_convoy]

So many new projects out there, ripping off their patented hybrid emulation. For shame.

[Flojomojo]

So we go right into defensive mode with WE DON'T OWE YOU AN EXPLAINATION. But not only that, they're pre-emptively blaming other projects for copying "their" idea! Because they've revealed SO MUCH Up until now that they're basically giving their competition the blueprints.

 

Ha! Ha! Talk about gaslighting!! Almost as silly as John "Chameleon" Carlsen stalling for time by suggesting they were waiting on their jet-powered Silicon Valley patent attorneys before revealing anything. They didn't exhibit this level of caution when they were trying to gain publicity. Why did they even put up a discussion forum if they don't want to have some discussion about their work?

 

"We've already seen imitators run with our ideas, packaged in open source code" <-- as if to suggest that MEGAPOLYP wasn't ripping off open-source ideas, no no! The non-profit open-source community stole from them! OK, good luck with that one. Then, in the VERY NEXT BULLET POINT,

 

"We're not worried about competition." Wait, what did they just say about "imitators?"

 

 

Perhaps the imitators went BACK IN TIME???

 

 

BTW 16X of those third-party Timex Sinclair 1000 64KB RAM modules would be needed to make ONE MEGABYTE, to the tune of $2400 in 1983, which is almost SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS in today's money. How much would a stack of POLYPMEGA modules cost? Could this bespoke hardware possibly be cost-effective?

[godslabrat]

"We've already seen imitators run with our ideas, packaged in open source code" <-- as if to suggest that MEGAPOLYP wasn't ripping off open-source ideas, no no! The non-profit open-source community stole from them! OK, good luck with that one. Then, in the VERY NEXT BULLET POINT,

 

"We're not worried about competition." Wait, what did they just say about "imitators?"

 

 

Yep, that's definitely the tell of the lie. If they're so confident in their product, why not reveal it? If they aren't ready for "pre-order launch", why were they supposedly ready to launch a kickstarter in April? And WHAT, out of all that they've shown, could have given away any meaningful secrets?

 

These guys keep saying one thing and doing another.

[keepdreamin]

"We've already seen imitators run with our ideas, packaged in open source code"

 

Game Ploy
Amply Ego
Lag Mopey
Mega Ploy
Mopey Gal

 

GO, YE PALM

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by keepdreamin

[godslabrat]

"Our concept is completely new and original, that why we've seen our competition offering similar options using off-the-shelf code!"

[derFunkenstein]

Their "hybrid emulation" buzzword is pretty simple to figure out, right? It's a ROM dump and 100% emulation. Also seen in the RetroN5, RetroFreak, Genesis Flashback, and who-knows how many other systems.

 

I also like how "we're not a crowd-funded company so we ain't gotta tell you nothin" while their initial funding was planned as a Kickstarter (as documented on page 1 of this thread). I bet they're thinking, "whew...dodged a bullet there!" Otherwise it'd be featured on another episode of StopDrop&Retro (which, btw, I find to be really informative).

Edited December 22, 2017 by derFunkenstein

[godslabrat]

The retroblox forum is getting sad. Only one or two posts a week, and its always one koolaid drinking fanboy saying Can we incorporate this weird feature that only I care about? Only to be met days later with I dunno, we havent heard an update in a while. Then another round of back-patting for the Kewlest Console Ever and weeks of silence.

[cybercylon]

Guess there is nothing more to say....

[Flojomojo]

The target audience for their thing has got to be infitesimally small. It probably won't feel much different to the "retro gaming game world" whether MEGAPOLY FORMERLY KNOWN AS RETROBLOX comes out or not.

[Keatah]

Should we be wasting time on this (and other crowdfunded vaporware) when we could be organizing and enjoying our own classic gaming stuff?

[godslabrat]

Should we be wasting time on this (and other crowdfunded vaporware) when we could be organizing and enjoying our own classic gaming stuff?

I'm going to say "yes". Historically, AA is one of the few real watchdogs in the hobby. As long as this is out there, we should keep an eye on it.

[Flojomojo]

Should we be wasting time on this (and other crowdfunded vaporware) when we could be organizing and enjoying our own classic gaming stuff?

I think I can afford ten minutes every couple of months to check in on this thread, if for no other reason to say, "yep, still dead."

 

[godslabrat]

 

Theyve made an announcement that, sometime soon, they will make another announcement.

[Flojomojo]

Theyve made an announcement that, sometime soon, they will make another announcement.

until they delay it to make it even better!

[Tanooki]

So there will be an upcoming announcement about an announcement for an announcement announcing their future. Makes sense to me.

[leods]

Hmmm. So from what I got in the first post in this page, this is a super innovative ripoff of the Retron 5, but you'll have to buy a bunch of different adapters, because, well... screw you. This way it's more expensive, so you give them more money.

 

Did I miss something?

[cybercylon]

Oh.... goodie... the "sometime soon" time vortex again which could be tomorrow, next week, next month, or the 6th Taco Tuesday in June of 2020....

[godslabrat]

 

"Yeah, we aren't sharing news because unlike those other companies, WE DONT WANT TO SPOIL CHRISTMAS FOR YOU! Yeah, actually knowing what you're waiting for is too much stress for our customers! Also, we don't need to tell you anything anyway, so shut up. Nevertheless, everyone's ripping us off because our render and Kodi front-end were so revolutionary that the bootleggers are beating a path to our door!"

[Keatah]

Yeh yeh whatever.. Meantime people are having fun with real vintage hardware, or quality replacement hardware, or even PC-based emulation!

[philyso]

In my opinion, they are facing technical issues with their initial idea of 'hybrid emulation' (i.e interfacing the cartridge directly through the software emulator while it's running) as already predicted by some others in this thread and are slowy turning back to more traditional method that is proved to work (i.e first dumping the whole ROM into internal memory then emulating the game as with any other emulator).

 

That would explain why they are suddenly blaming 'competitors' that are 'stealing their ideas' although none of the existing product is using the concepts they were advertising (separated 'console' modules and real time interfacing with controller/cartridge hardware from emulation software)

Edited February 18, 2018 by philyso

[Keatah]

I really don'wanna dick around with half-assed emulation and funky interfacing. Let alone module stacks. Give me full software emu or full hardware. None of this inbetween "exotic" crap.

 

Better to make multiple consoles. Make them small enough like the new Analogue Super NT and there won't be a storage or display problem.

 

---

 

Sometimes people come up with a concept that "just has to work" no matter what. The pet project mentality. They'll take a whimsical or unusual idea and manhandle it in all sorts of strange ways till it becomes a patchwork and kludge that duplicates a simpler concept. All the while bragging and spouting ridiculous claims born of a flight of fancy.

[godslabrat]

I just wonder where this "we don't need to talk about anything" attitude was when Kotaku and Polygon were giving them peer publicity out the yingyang.

[cybercylon]

If that post doesn't scream "stick a fork in this, it is done", i don't know what does.

 

So at best, they will probably go back and just make an emu box and use software not intended for commercial use without permission just like others have done already. Yea.

[Flojomojo]

I just wonder where this "we don't need to talk about anything" attitude was when Kotaku and Polygon were giving them peer publicity out the yingyang.

They were just aping the press release and preliminary material. I can't find anything on Polygon about this, but Kotaku wasn't exactly in love with the concept.

 

There's something to be said for chronicling this stuff in my opinion ... especially when the "visionaries" don't stick to their original plans.

 

Kotaku

Of course, there are other ways of doing that, and no shortage of devices to emulate roms you can find all across the Internet on, but there’s always room at the table for one than do all of those things legally and more easily, with a UI that doesn’t feel like it’s from the late 90s.