I was so excited when I saw a video on the Polymega this morning. The Polymega is a sort of uber-emulator console that can take your PS1, Sega Saturn, Sega TurboGrafx 16, and Neo Geo CD games, rip them to internal storage to keep them safe forever, and from then you can play them on a cool looking console while your original games are stored safely away. I’ve got an original copy of Panzer Dragoon for the Sega Saturn, which (last time I looked) was worth over $600. I want that kept safe.
Polymega also offers plug-in modules that can play cartridge games, for the NES and SNES to begin. All very cool. I bought the original Colecovision Atari 2600 plug-in module in order to keep playing my extensive library of Atari 2600 games (which I still have) while also playing the much nicer looking Colecovision games. (I wonder if they ever came out with an Intellivision module…?)
I have a huge collection of those 2600 and Colecovision games, as well as SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, PSX, PS2, PS3, N64 and Gameboy games. I would absolutely love to have a one-stop shop that can play them all. I’d finally be able to get rid of all those old game consoles I have stored in the basement.
The Polymega is a step in the right direction. But it’s not quite enough. I already have an Analogue Super NT that plays my SNES and Super Famicom games really well. I don’t have a PS1 or PS2 anymore, but I use emulators for those. I’d rather play on a console, but the Polymega has no plans to support the PS2. It will soon support the Sega Saturn, but it won’t support the N64. I don’t really need a console that will really only give me Saturn emulation; I still have my Saturn and as far as I know, it still works.
I just don’t have anywhere to put it. I really need to rearrange my gaming space.
But I am not writing this post because I think I really need a Polymega right now (and especially not for US$400). I’m writing it because, on the video we were watching, they played A GAME THAT I WANTED.
Viewpoint
It looked like a crazy combination of Zaxxon and Xevious, two arcade games I really enjoyed playing at Funspot (the one in Somersworth, not the one in Laconia) back in the olden days. I was never really good at either of those games, but I had fun playing them, which was the entire point.
Based only on that short video of the game, I performed some google-fu and found it. Viewpoint for the Neo Geo and the PSX. It found its way into my PSX emulator… somehow… as I read the reviews. Looks like the PSX port changed up the music and made the game much harder. But that’s okay, because losing at arcade games is my meta.
It always takes me awhile to remember to ignore the thumb sticks on my XBox controller when playing a PSX game — thumb sticks only came to the Playstation world with the PS2. But soon I was in there, dodging and blasting. You can see some of that in the video above. Yes, I know I wasn’t playing that well. I never claimed to be good.
And then the music came in, and I was transported back to the 80s. I used to buy a roll of tokens in Funspot and just play whatever until they were gone. I would have loved this game. That music… I feel bad if you’re in Denmark, because Youtube blocked the video in Denmark because of the music.
Everything in this game is SO 80s, it’s hard to believe it came out in the 90s.
Now I have to get back to the game, I THINK I figured out the trick to that stage 1 boss…
Still haven’t figured out that Stage 1 boss.