Back in April , I covered the announcement of the budget-minded Polymega Remix, an external disc/cartridge drive for Windows 11 PCs that allows you to easily play your retro game collection and back it up to desktops, laptops and even various handheld devices like the ROG Ally X.

Apparently, you can bypass the Remix entirely and install games directly to the Polymega app with many generic disc drives , but that still leaves you without a way to transfer cartridges or HuCards.

Also mentioned around the time of the Remix reveal was an imminent update to the standalone base Polymega unit, which doesn’t need a PC t0 run and can be plugged directly into a TV or monitor via HDMI. The Remix has no horsepower of its own, by the way. It’s simply a conduit to access, collect and organize your library.

Pre-orders are now live for the refreshed Polymega console, which features a better CPU for more cutting-edge performance, as well as a new disc tray that replaces the original machine’s—as well as the Remix’s—disc slot. It’s giving 2001 Xbox vibes, even though you can’t play Xbox games on the Polymega. At least not yet, anyway.

What can you play, then? Well, a ton of stuff, actually. PS1, Saturn, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD, and that’s in addition to many cartridge-based platforms via separate Element Modules, like N64, SNES and Genesis. Still no Dreamcast support, sadly. There is a Polymega light gun now, however, so you can blast your way through Time Crisis .

FEATURED | Frase By Forbes ™

Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

Keep in mind that the Polymega is a software emulation machine, which stands in stark contrast to offerings from its competitors, such as ModRetro and Analogue. Boxes like the M64, the Super Nt and the Analogue 64 are FPGA consoles and therefore provide more accurate recreations of retro games. Software emulation can still get the job done, just not as faithfully.

Playmaji is doling out orders for the upgraded Polymega base unit in batches, and you can reserve your chance to partake by providing an email address. It seems the initial two batches are already accounted for, but as of this writing, the third batch still has just under 500 spots left.

Priced at $549, the 2026 Polymega will include the console itself, one of Polymega’s second generation universal wireless controllers, a power adapter, an HDMI cable, a dust cover, plus a 1-year limited warranty. For comparison, the Switch 2’s price will increase to $500 on September 1 , and that can’t even run your scratched copy of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos from 1997. It can play Splatoon Raiders , though.

Despite the challenges Polymega has faced in the past, and with shipping delays remaining very much part of the overall customer experience, I really dig how Playmaji is staying the course. Do I wish the Polymega was FPGA? Sure, but giving gamers a simple, streamlined way to digitize and perennially experience their massive shelves of old games is commendable, even if the more tech-savvy among us wouldn’t exactly need this sort of pre-packaged (and rather pricey) emulation.

I’ll be interested to see how the beefier CPU affects raw performance, especially for N64 titles, and perhaps if the changed disc tray will prove more reliable in the long run. What’s cool is that existing pre-orders for the base unit Polymega will be upgraded to the new one free of charge . And they say romance is dead.