Ten years ago, I just got started—without a grand plan, but with plenty of curiosity and a deep passion for old games and systems. The first two C64 releases, along with “Technische Maschinenfabrik,” were more of a small experiment than anything else. And yet, that was precisely the starting point for a journey I couldn’t have foreseen back then.
This was followed by further projects with usebox.net on the CPC and later the fantastic interactive fiction games by Stefan Vogt, which have found their way onto many different platforms. Little by little, this has grown into something that now encompasses around 50 systems—from classic home computers to very specialized, exotic models like the Watara Supervision, Osborne 1, Kaypro II, or the CBM-II series. Newer retro systems like Spectrum Next and Mega65 are now naturally part of it as well.
In total, over these ten years I’ve had the privilege of serving over 8,000 customers, processing more than 12,000 orders, and shipping around 60,000 items—numbers that often feel unremarkable in day-to-day life, but which, in retrospect, say a lot about the scale of this journey.
A special milestone was “Sam’s Journey” for NES and Famicom. A project that grew significantly larger than I could have imagined at the start—with a soundtrack, various editions, and many small details that made it something very special to me.
Of course, not everything was easy. There were repeated delays due to missing materials, disrupted shipping routes, or new customs regulations. Order fulfillment didn’t always go smoothly either—sometimes things got stuck or got lost in the daily grind. If there are any outstanding or unresolved issues, please be sure to contact me again. It was never my intention to leave anything unanswered.
Over time, poly.play has grown beyond simply publishing games. In addition to new titles, we’ve also developed sections for “New Old Stock” games for collectors, hardware and replacement parts, as well as a small merchandise selection. Much of this just happened naturally because the scene is vibrant and new ideas keep emerging.
At the same time, the organizational and financial burden has increased significantly. Inventory management, running the web shop, game production, packaging, shipping, and bookkeeping are all intertwined and, taken as a whole, are difficult to plan and only partially calculable. Many of these areas incur ongoing high costs that cannot be covered by the project’s revenue alone.
That is why, over the years, I have repeatedly relied on other professional activities to keep poly.play going at all. It is therefore not a classic “self-sustaining” project, but one that has been made possible largely through personal investment and cross-subsidization. That is precisely why, after 22 years of self-employment in the media sector, I will be taking a permanent position again and continuing poly.play on a smaller scale in the future.
My responsibility toward my family with four children also plays a very important role in this and makes this step necessary.
This isn’t easy for me, because I’ve poured my heart and soul into all of this. That’s why I’m all the more interested in your perspective: What’s important to you? More new games for old systems? Hardware and replacement parts? Or rather collector’s editions and special projects?
