It hasn’t been since March that we’ve heard a peep from the Polymega, and that was mostly technical information and emulation progress. But if you haven’t considered buying one thus far, that might soon be changing.
Light-gun games have been the scourge of retro gamers in modern times. They simply don’t work on flat-screen TV’s – and even though there have been attempts at rectifying this (The LightGunVerter comes to mind) there is yet to be a universal solution that well and truly removes a CRT from the equation. I’m all for keeping one around personally – but I understand that not everyone has the space or want.
Playmaji, creators of the upcoming converged emulation system currently known as the Polymega, may have just secured a reason for you to give them your money. Working alongside Sinden Technology, they’ve announced a light-gun peripheral for the Polymega that’s completely self-contained (so, nothing like a light-bar is required) and will work with high definition, flat-screen televisions.
So far, compatibility on the system includes the NES, SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega/Mega CD, PS1, and Sega Saturn – with Time Crisis, Point Blank, Virtua Cop, House of The Dead and Duck Hunt specifically being mentioned. It will simply plug in by USB – with more than one that can be connected at a time.
This partnership between Playmaji and Sinden Technology came about after Sinden’s successful Kickstarter campaign for the light-gun technology which raised over £238,000. Here, they’re calling it the Retro Gun Controller, or RGC01.
But what is this black magic? How can such a thing exist after all these light-gunless years? Well, as before mentioned, it doesn’t require any sensor bars or other additional setups. Instead of relying on the precise timings and bright screens of the CRT’s of old (modern TV’s are comparably dim) the Sinden utilises a high-speed camera which calculates where the user is pointing by capturing the video output. The only noticeable visual change to the user will be a thin white border around the image so the light-gun can centralise itself.
Thanks to differing regulations around the globe on selling imitations of guns, Playmaji will be selling two versions of the RGC01. The North American and Japan versions will actually resemble a pew-pew stick, while everyone else gets something that more looks like it belongs in Mass Effect.
Playmaji will be selling the RGC01 for US$99, and they’ll be at the upcoming E3 demo’ing the tech if you’re lucky enough to be attending.
Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.
