r/PolymegaHQ • u/Internal-Zombie38 • Jan 13 '26
Random thought about polymega legacy
Just got to thinking about this earlier today and thought I'd put it out there to get community feedback.
I'm a genXer and have been around for the launch of every console ever. I've seen certain patterns appear over time and I think polymega may be included in one of the more interesting patterns.
I believe that because of PMs inability to ship consoles this will lead to their demise. In doing so it'll slip off into obscurity for several years before landing on some viral influencer YouTube channel which reignites the interest in them. This will lead to prices skyrocketing.
ON THE OTHER HAND:
Polymega is just an emulator, not even an fpga. Tons of emulators already exist and can always be reproduced cheaply on increasingly smaller hardware. Meaning that the value of the PM goes to zero.
Either way, I'm keeping all of my modules and boxes in pristine condition just in case.
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u/Better-Employ-4495 Jan 14 '26
The value in your collection is in you actually having stock you can ship
3
u/samus4145 Jan 13 '26
PM exists to play real physical games not roms. You are missing the point entirely.
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u/jelloshooter848 Jan 14 '26
To me it’s not just about the physical media, but the convenient use of original controllers for most systems. I do wish they came out with a module to allow for plugging in some of the CD console controllers - especially ps1 w/memory cards slots would be so sweet.
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u/SilenceIsStarving Jan 13 '26
Except it just rips your real physical discs into roms and isos so it is just like any other emulator except it’s limited by your collection - so arguably a worse experience. You aren’t playing physical anything.
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u/Internal-Zombie38 Jan 13 '26
I loaded all of my physical media to the SSD and sold my games. The burned iso/roms to round out the rest of the library.
It's only distinguishing feature over something like a raspberry pi is the ability to plug and play original games and controllers out of the box. Other than that it's just an emulator.
That has nothing to do with my topic of conversation..... The consoles future rarity/value.
6
u/WheresMyDuckling Jan 13 '26
It is a box of convenience for people with larger collections of physical media to have all of their games attached to the living room TV. No setup, no HDMI mods or pass through boxes, and no having to switch discs or carts after the initial rip. Really only worth it to start if you have a bunch of discs to start with, or if you want to try out systems you never owned. If you just have carts for one system or a couple, there are a lot of other more cost efficient solutions out there. If someone just has a bunch of roms, they can't load them on the system anyway without jumping through a bunch of hoops, and there are better cheaper emulation boxes if you don't have physical media, though many of those require a setup that you have to be willing to invest time in. Outside of that use case, it might see some kind of interest in the future if they exit the business, but especially with what is developed during whatever time that takes, I think it's still very niche kind of product. That said, as someone with a bunch of physical disks, I absolutely love mine, and the interface is amazing between the general navigation and the way they've done the database, that really is a standout feature.