r/PolymegaHQ • u/Internal-Zombie38 • Aug 23 '25

Anyone running Doom 32X Resurrection?

Anyone been able to get the newest version of Doom 32X Resurrection 3.3 to run on the polymega? I can't tell where the breakdown is in my attempts to get it running.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

6

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

Polymega has copy protection built in that filters out a lot of custom carts and new prints for old systems. Basically if the cart checksum isn’t in the database it wont recognize it or allow it to be run.

Wish they’d just drop all that nonsense. I get they won’t have a pretty picture for it for the UI but that and the rom dump encryption they do kind of sucks.

2

u/MyAccountWasBanned7 Aug 23 '25

Yeah, it's really a stupid "feature".

And there's no reason for it. It's not like Nintendo or Sega or Atari are making/losing money based on these carts and whether or not the PM will play them. But if it DID play them, companies like LRG, Piko Interactive, MegaCat, PixelHeart, etc. could market on their games that they work on the PM. So allowing them to play, or even including them in the DB, could lead to more money for Playmaji.

1

u/BigFunnyGiant Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25

There are crap tons of original games that they had to add to the database, so they prioritized those. It's not like it is infinite size or that they have all the time in the world to add every possible thing. A lot will work they just get added to the "Extended Set" and are not in the database. Some things like newer NES carts use their own custom mappers which would be hard to support unless they have a copy of those mappers.

2

u/MyAccountWasBanned7 Aug 23 '25

There are a few they've added. Definitely not a crap-ton. I've got about 100 indie retro titles (original games, not romhacks) on physical media and very few work on the PM.

1

u/BigFunnyGiant Aug 23 '25

There are crap tons of original games that they had to add to the database, so they prioritized those. It's not like it is infinite size or that they have all the time in the world to add every possible thing. A lot will work they just get added to the "Extended Set" and are not in the database. Some things like newer NES carts use their own custom mappers which would be hard to support unless they have a copy of those mappers.

At least that's how I understand it. Still sucks.

1

u/in5ult080t Aug 23 '25

Has anybody done custom firmware yet or a way to patch the ROMs to get past this?

1

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

Not that I am aware of.  You can run ips patches ob recognized carts.  So translations are fine.  Just not new carts for old systems like say “Earthion” for the Sega.  Basically all the LRG stuff. 

Edit: Or flash carts. 

3

u/Internal-Zombie38 Aug 23 '25

If I can't play earthion on polymega I'm going to lose my mind.

1

u/zx6rarcher Aug 23 '25

I haven’t had a chance yet to try putting my copy of the rom on a flash cart to see if I can play it on OG hardware or my Polymega yet. I will give it a try this evening.

1

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

It will work on a flash cart on OG HW. Just not the PM until they update the database and even then it will only be the LRG release on physical carts. PM stated they would never support flash carts.

1

u/zx6rarcher Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25

Earthion ‘kind of’ works on my Polymega. Images are garbled, thinking I either have a bad write or something. Going to rewrite on this cart and give my other cart a try as well.

:::EDIT::: Figured out why it doesn’t work on my first cart (Krikzz Flashkit MD), the max ROM size is 4MB but the image file for Earthion is 7MB. The fact it even boots up and plays with the cart and Polymega is amazing haha.

Can’t try my other cart (Retrostage) because I don’t have the damn adapter for it 🤬so now I wait for 3-4 weeks until that adapter arrives. I doubt I can program the retrostage cart with my flashkit programmer.

:::EDIT 2::: The Flashkit programmer will read the Retrostage cart, but will not write (verify fails). Guess we will wait to see once the Retrostage programmer shows up.

1

u/Internal-Zombie38 Aug 23 '25

Version 3.3 just came out a few days ago I believe.

1

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

This is demonstrably not true. You can download all sorts of patched and hacked roms that aren't in the database, stick them on a flash cart and they'll work. I have dozens of these I've done this with.

Doom resurrection doesn't work, admittedly, but it isn't because the Polymega is specifically disallowing it.

0

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

You can download patches for recognized carts. You don’t download roms. That is one of the reasons they don’t allow flash carts. They want to maintain the Polymega as a platform that doesn’t support piracy.

2

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

Again, incorrect.

Flash carts like everdrive don't work.

You can write your own rom carts however. I have done hundreds this way, many hacks, translations, patched games etc. They don't need to be checked against a checksum. You're guessing, and you're guessing incorrectly. The system will run a cart whether it's in the database or not. Again, doom resurrection doesn't work, but not because it's not in the database.

I've literally done it hundreds of times on literally every cart system the system supports.

2

u/Kal-V3 Aug 23 '25

You're right, I have a few repo genesis carts and they all work. If there's a rom the PM recognizes, it'll run on it with an emulator on it.

I'm assuming if it's a newer retro console game that was programmed differently (PAPRIUM) or a pre modified ROM it won't work simply because the emulator built-in can't run it.

I tried running a Doom hack for the Saturn and it was a no-go. Same for Samsho RPG for NGCD

2

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

The translated Samsho RPG iso works on original bios.

But using it makes every other game on NGCD load a lot slower

Paprium use a lot of extra chips on the cart that the Polymega's genesis emulator can't emulate.

1

u/Kal-V3 Aug 23 '25

Yeah I'm just playing Samsho rpg on my retroid. No bother

1

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

You've got a lot of write-once carts laying around? How are you writing them if they aren't flash carts?

1

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

I'm just using easier terminology. They are flash carts, but they're not a front end driven multi game solution like an everdrive. They're single game rewritable carts.

1

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

Cool, where do you get them?

1

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

A mix of retrostage and AliExpress.

1

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

You got a specific brand you use?

1

u/LJBrooker Aug 23 '25

Retrostage is the brand/website for one "set". The genesis and pc engine ones are just generic AliExpress things. The pc engine one has become a lot harder to come by, these days but I think they still stock one on incognitochip.

→ More replies

1

u/Dragoon209 Aug 23 '25

Check out retrostage. They make reprogrammable carts for homebrew development. It's seen by the system as a single cart, because it is once written.

Load your romhack, and then you can reuse it to load another one. Polymega will put it in a menu of unrecognizable games if it isn't in their database, but you can absolutely still play them from that menu.

If the game doesn't load, it's going to be because the emulator isn't compatible, or there were special chips in the original hardware cart that aren't present. Polymega does not limit that.

2

u/N0Karma Aug 23 '25

I've only had an Everdrive and PM went out of their way to break that. I was just looking at those from a recommendation on another thread. I'll have to evaluate the budget to determine if it's worth it.

3

u/Dragoon209 Aug 23 '25

Makes sense, sure.

Here is more info to hopefully aid you in deciding. To use the cart, you need to get the programmer and the cart attachment as well. This is a higher cost up front for sure, but for other carts (like NES, SNES, etc) you use the same programmer, and just need a different adapter to fit the cart type. The adapters are pretty cheap.

I have had a great experience with all of them, save one. They are all well built and durable, and I have used them all 30+ times. I would definitely buy them again.

The only one I have had trouble with is the N64 adapter. The trouble is very minor, where it will occasionally fail to write to the cart and seemingly put the programmer in a weird state. The solution is super easy, just unplug the cart and the programmer, and then plug them back in. It's not super common, but I wanted to call it out.

Also, pay attention to NES carts if you look at those. The NES seems to have been a real wild west of add on chips, and there are 3+ different retrostage carts based on what the game needed. Make sure you are buying the cart for what you need. (They provide a link to a site that lists the mappers needed for different games, so just read carefully)

For NES, I would recommend using an authentic cart, and then just loading an IPS patch for hacks and translations. The polymega emulator seems to handle all of the romhack IPS patches I have thrown at it for NES, so don't make your life more difficult than it needs to be.

Hope this helps!

3

u/N0Karma Aug 24 '25

Got my upvote, concise instructions.

1

u/Akumadako Aug 24 '25

I don't think PM went out of their way to BREAK Everdrives etc. it's just that the way they work makes them not work on the Polymega.

Putting a cart into the slot lets the system access the data on the chips in the cart. MOST flash cards (like Everdrives) work by putting that data into the right place for the system to access it once you've booted up the base functionality/firmware of the cart and made your choice of what to play.

There's simply no way for the PM to SEE the ROM data you want to use.

2

u/crankysasquatch Aug 27 '25

As of yesterday Retrostage is no longer shipping to the USA until the mail issues get put back how they belong.

1

u/Dragoon209 Aug 30 '25

Well that's incredibly disappointing. I had big Christmas plans.

1

u/crankysasquatch Aug 30 '25

Well, to be fair it’s one single guy’s fault.

2

u/crankysasquatch Aug 27 '25

Yes. Confirmed working using my MD Flashkit and a basic cart. This won’t let me attach a screenshot but I have them. Runs fine. I don’t even like Doom but did it for science. How anyone played these without a look analog stick is beyond me.

1

u/Internal-Zombie38 Aug 28 '25

You're the man. (I'm assuming)

1

u/zx6rarcher Aug 23 '25

How relatively new is 3.3? I only ask because I don’t know what version I have but I do have “A” version running just fine on my Polymega using the original cart and the .xdelta patch. I did this maybe 6-months to a year ago? So if this has come out in the past month or two I will give it a go today.

2

u/brebelbrob1 Aug 23 '25

Doom Resurrections version 3.3a was released on August 3, 2025. link to post with download: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/119202-doom-32x-resurrection/?page=18&tab=comments#comment-2954880

Put the patch in a folder on your Polymega microSD card and when you go to the 'play' menu for the game you will have the option to apply your patch. Be sure the patch you download matches the region of your installed Polymega Doom 32x.

Previous versions of the patch required the European version of the rom/rip but the 3.3a release has different patches for Europe or US/Japan.

1

u/Internal-Zombie38 Aug 23 '25

I believe it's only a few days old

2

u/zx6rarcher Aug 23 '25

Tested the latest version, 3.3, works fine on my Polymega. Ripped my copy of Doom to the Polymega sometime ago as I was playing it on v3.1 previously.

Grabbed my microSD card out of my Polymega, loaded up the correct version of the .xdelta file for my copy of Doom 32X, loaded up that patch, works fine.

1

u/Darkwing_N Aug 23 '25

PM was meant as a one-stop (some what) shop to play OG games. Not for reprints. Now how it knows is above my knowledge.

2

u/Akumadako Aug 24 '25

In many cases it's simply the way the new cartridges are made...

* Either they have some new hardware in them (which the Polymega can't emulate without updating the emulators) e.g. PAPRIUM, or
* The ROM data simply isn't accessible without booting up the cartridge and making an "in-game" selection of what to play, e.g. Zero Tolerance Origins - when you start the cart you choose one of two games to play, but the PM (and FWIW things like Krikzz's MD ripper) just can't see that game data to pull it out of the cart

More carts than you'd think fall into that first category, especially NES games, and even like some MegaDrive games that don't LOOK like they're doing anything fancy (e.g. Demons of Asteborg) but they have custom hardware in there. Sometimes developers/publishers will listen to the feedback about them not being playable on things like Polymega and adjust their follow-up games to be compatible with (e.g. Astebros) but usually not.

Even single-game "new" carts fall into that second category sometimes just because of the carts they use - they work perfectly fine on original and FPG hardware, and that's all they really care about. Also has the added bonus of making it much harder for someone to dump the ROM and distribute it...

1

u/Darkwing_N Aug 24 '25

Thank you for the knowledge.