Earlier in September, Polymega released a launch trailer for their upcoming clone console. As part of that reveal, they also announced that the Polymega would support SEGA Saturn software. This produced a lot of smiles but also raised a few eyebrows, as skeptical retro gamers are well aware of how difficult the Saturn’s hardware is to emulate.

To add fuel to the fire, sharp eyes noticed that the Polymega launch trailer was not actually displaying Saturn footage of racing title SEGA Rally Championship, but rather footage of its arcade counterpart. After receiving inquiries aimed at clarifying the matter, Polymega responded that the arcade footage was included due to “human error” and that they would soon upload footage of the Saturn version of SEGA Rally running on the Polymega hardware. Late last week, they did just that. You can check out some of their sample footage of SEGA Rally Championship below.

The new footage looks legit enough for me to believe that the Polymega is at least capable of running Saturn titles, though I’m admittedly not sure what subtle cues I should be looking for. There still appear to be skeptics out there, and many of them probably won’t be fully convinced until the console releases in 2019. To be honest, it’s hard to blame them. The gaming community has been inundated with misleading advertising and high-profile empty promises when it comes to both hardware and software for the last few years, with the Coleco Chameleon perhaps being the most prominent case.

Several questions remain regarding how exactly the Polymega will perform when asked to reproduce the SEGA Saturn hardware, including how Japanese imports that require the RAM expansion cart (i.e. X-Men vs. Street Fighter) will fare. In the meantime, if you’d like more footage of the Polymega running Saturn games, you can watch the Fighting Vipers footage below.

The Polymega is scheduled to release in early 2019, with the base model priced at $249.99. You can learn more about the Polymega here or by visiting the Polymega website.

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