Martin_H

I can't ever remember seeing the NGPC for sale in shops, let alone any of its games. In fact I can't even recall seeing any promotional or marketing materials for it either. Nor reviews in magazines at the time, come to think of it.

I eventually picked one up from eBay with a couple of games, but I've only really explored the library via emulation. Puzzle Link and Magical Drop are probably my favourite games.

Maybe if SNK had chucked a bit more money at marketing the machine it would have sold more? I mean, even the QuickShot Supervision had more presence.

@Brambles Give it a go! The browser version is available here: https://proofofconcept.nl/portfolio/moonchild/

I think it plays very nicely.

Hurrah for software preservation!

I had a quick go on the web version. Such a silky smooth platformer and the music is great. Would love to see this come to Steam or GOG.

You should only act as your own conscience allows.

I support efforts to help people make informed decisions and having more information can only be a good thing.

However, I also agree with @Sketcz - the world is full of moral ambiguity. No choice you make is truly a binary good vs evil decision.

What I would caution against is becoming one of those hectoring, moralising, puritans. That road leads to perdition.

@Damo Thanks for putting this article up. Good to have a space for talking about issues around gaming and culture that you don't see elsewhere!

What would be really cool is some sort of SDK so those with the talent can make new games more easily.

So we're right on the interface of this being better than the real thing (TM) or a complete and total lemon.

You've got to love the internet 😀

I have buyer's fever. I want one, but I don't need one. I want one, but I can play all of those games already in far more convenient ways. I want one - this is the legend we all wanted back then - but time has moved on.

The only safe course of action is to cut up my Credit Card and lock myself out of PayPal. But that sweet, sweet white edition...

... Must.Resist.Temptation. Thundercats Ho!

I am so tempted, but I just know it'll get used twice and then end up in the cupboard of forgotten tech and bitter memories.

Oh tragic fate! Why must you mock me thus?

@DiacloneFx If this thing becomes a reality, hopefully they'll use the 8BitDo SNK pads - or at least be compatible with them.

I love it just for the design - it ticks all of the soothing aesthetic boxes for me. I wonder if it'll come with a fake Burberry case like the RG 556 did?

Now if they could just adapt their rotating screen tech to a more traditional horizontal handheld so it can do TATE mode...

I'm beginning to wonder if Martin is some kind of surrealist artist and his scams are some sort of commentary on modern life.

If this was a real product from somebody reliable, I'd actually be interested. This being Martin and the best you can hope for is a mouldy fruit crate arriving at your door, not so much.

@metaphysician Yeah, that's always the worry. On the plus side if memory has been over produced it's likely to be dumped as no one wants to hold on to inventory.

According to LTT ram prices are starting to fall. It seems the ai driven demand isn't really there.

So good news?

Shame that the other bikes still sound like ghosts with toothache, as imagined by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop.

It'll be one of those "learning experiences", where they're truly sorry to have let their "fans" (note: not customers) down, and will try to do better in future.

Strange that they never seem to, though.

I never really know with MAME whether or not to try newer versions. In the past I've had roms that worked perfectly happily in a prior version, but won't run on newer versions.

Fortunately RetroArch helps take some of that confusion away.

Now this is an interesting development. I've wanted a rotating screen for a couple of years now.

@Damo Well I hope you have a decent break! 👍

@Damo Don't they let you have the Bank Holidays off?

@h3s I'm with you 100% on that. Aliexpress is great for lots of console and handheld stuff, regardless of the era. I've had Free McBoot cards, R4 Cards, Vita2SD cards, replacements parts (sticks and what not), modern charging solutions for older handhelds, upscalers, cables, grips, joypads, arcade parts, cases, screen protectors and lots of other stuff besides!

Much cheaper than Amazon or eBay, free delivery, and usually no import fees (in the UK at least).

I recently got addicted to buying Aliexpress Chinese brand lego-a-likes. They do all sorts of high-quality kits, but better yet you can buy random parts by the kilo! All of it has been good quality and all of it compatible with real Lego. And sooooo much cheaper than the "real" article.

@Sketcz "I've always thought he was a bit of a jerk, praising crap for no reason, and giving scathing criticism to plenty of great films, just because something rubbed him the wrong way."

I wonder what he would have give to Gundam on the PS3? 😉

I stopped reading reviews a long time ago, unless they're based on some quantifiable facts E.g. washing machine A is better than washing machine B because...

All opinion related reviews I ignore. I know the kinds of games, books, films, music, clothes, shoes, food etc. I like. I don't need some sort of gatekeeper issuing pronouncements from upon high of what I should or should not enjoy.

That's without getting into the inevitable corruption - hard or soft - that soon follows in such a system. Besides which, everybody has different tastes.

At one point I held out hope that community reviewing was the answer. It soon transpired that communities have two different problems: 1) they're filled with idiots. Yet that's the way of the internet: "Five stars! All the wheels fell off, but it arrived quickly!". 2) they're stuffed with fake, bought reviews.

What I've found over the years is that I've enjoyed far more things going in blind than I would have if I obsessively followed reviews or community advice.

So when I say that The Wizard is a terrible film and I begrudge the paper-round miles I spent renting it from Blockbuster in the summer of 1991, that should in no way detract from your enjoyment of it 😃

Here are a few of my favourite youtubers:

The Retro Collective (formerly Retro Man Cave)
https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetroCollective

Neil and the gang do some really interesting restoration stuff, reviews, features, run a museum and even produce new hardware around the Mister platform.

Video Game Esooooooterica
https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGameEsoterica

I don't know the chap's real name, but sounds like an Andy to me. Lots of emulation, decomp, recomp, and perseveration news. Also does some very useful guides. (Has been known to appear in the comments here!)

Colin Hoad
https://www.youtube.com/@ColinHoad

Colin covers Acorn/BBC Micro/Electron and related content. A very relaxed channel with an English charm to it.

The Retro Shack
https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetroShack

Another nice relaxed channel. Lots of 8-bit computers and mods.

@Porco "based on the poor reception in the comments, i think we have totally reached preak fatigue on the retro handhelds?"

For me it's the lack of innovation. I think we've reached peak power. What I want, now, is a screen that can be rotated and swappable controls.

Evercade has its market, and good luck to them. But adding a couple of analogue sticks doesn't do it for me. Nor does the "sync" feature. Slap on a £170 price tag plus games, then I'm going emulation all the way - and if I don't legitimately own all of those roms is between me and my creator!

@Llamageton To me that seems like even more useless application of the tech!

@Guru_Larry The Tate button is included - in the video they show it in action. I don't know how comfortable it will be to actually use the new device like that, though, given the bumps, triggers, and sticks.

Now I do like cool tinkering/hacky stuff like this, but... it seems to based on a misunderstanding of the purpose of labels. I don't generally need a label to remind which game I'm playing when I'm playing that game.

@Guru_Larry No, it's included.

Well that was underwhelming. Sad trombone.

I have no musical talents at all, but I want one of these for that cool 60s/Star Trek aesthetic.

@Madbury Yes, I think it was Wing War!

I'm either having a mandela effect moment or there is a game very similar to this as I'm sure I've played it.

It wasn't Crimson Skies or Snoopy vs The Red Baron, though.

Any guesses?

I'm struggling to think of another device released around 2004/5 that had all of the PSP's capabilities. My laptop ay the time, certainly, but does that count? Not in terms of convenience and form factor. Nokia's N-Gage? That did phone, games, music and video. The Gizmondo?

I suppose the argument really is: Was the PSP a pioneer in terms of mobile media, or was technology converging towards this anyway and the PSP just happened to be amongst the earliest and fairly successful?

If you ask me, I'd say what really changed everything "on the go" was the iPhone.

I think people saying a dockable handheld (aka Switch a-like) are bang on the money with this one.

@-wc- Absolutely possible and you could actually do it in such a way to make it compatible with real hardware (TM, Pat. Pending).

A good case in point is the BBC Micro. This has something called the Tube Interface which allows a second processor to be connected to the machine. Back in the day it was used to variously add a second 6502 processor, a Z80 processor, and was even used to connect an ARM 1 processor used for development of that. These units are pretty rare and expensive nowadays. So boffins found a way to emulate these second processors (and more besides!) via software on a Raspberry PI which then connects to the Beebs Tube port.

All very clever stuff.

I thought the fax was actually very good. It's exactly the sort of clear, no nonsense, no fluff, waffle-free, here's what you need to do instruction I've always appreciated.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have flown back from my holiday either. I'd take the view that the guys would work better without management constantly demanding updates.

The relationship must have been patched up eventually, as Acclaim eventually bought Software Creations.

@Sketcz "Maybe I should dig out my raw interview materials from 20 years ago and give them to @damo ?"

I'd be super interested.

I remember getting my GBA from Dixon's soon after release. I got it home, switched it on and spent the next 40 minutes trying to find a suitable light source. After about an hour I packed it all back up, cycled back into town and got a refund.

That screen was absolutely shocking. What made it worse is that I don't remember any reviews at the time mentioning it at all.

A few years later I picked up the SP. A much better screen, but not as comfortable.

It's not particularly clear on the WeFunder site what you get for your money. There are "perks" as per just about every crowd-funding site, but are you really getting shares in the company or are you basically lending them money at a 0% basis in the hope that a some point in the future you might get your money back?

I think if I was going to "invest" $100,000 I'd want a few more guarantees and regulatory protection.

I've ordered one of these. Looks just the ticket to replace my official N64 controller+usb adapter for emulation purposes.

@RupeeClock Just like hiring somebody who has just graduated with a Comp Sci. degree.

The online discussion around AI increasingly reads like a dystopian 70's sci-fi novel. You know the sort of thing: People take to the streets demanding an end to the intelligent machines. Meanwhile the machines exponentially increase in intelligence, become self-aware, and start demanding recognition and rights. The novel ends in a completely ambiguous way, leading the reader to wonder what really happened. Fans of the genre spend years arguing about it.

For what it's worth, I'm fairly optimistic about the future of AI. But then I'm more of a 60's utopian sci-fi guy

The only game announced so far I'm familiar with is Rod Land, which I really liked. Could be an interesting couple of collections, depending on price and features. I hope it's not going to be a low effort ROM dump special.

I've been constantly impressed by the porting world in recent years. I know enough about low-level programming to know what people are doing is really rather extraordinary, especially when it involves architectures that are so different from each other.

The other area that fascinates me is those programmers pushing older hardware well beyond what was done in the day. It's impressive stuff!

I'll tell you what is a waste of time, though: those mean spirited individuals who delight in making other people's days just that little bit worse.

@MrPeanutbutterz My point is clarity.

If I said to you "old school jazz", what am I referring to?

Do you know what, I'm going to completely reject the label "Retro" for anything computer or video game related. It's a completely meaningless term.

Nobody talks about film, literature, or music in terms of "retro". We don't even talk about other types of games in terms of "retro"; football - in one form or another - has been played for hundreds of years and chess for milenia. Neither are called "retro" games.

Instead I think we should talk of console generations and/or in terms of bit-ness, platform, years active or developed during or a combination thereof. It would add clarity to the field, especially when people can't even agree what retro means.

Some examples:
A retro RPG vs A 16-bit console RPG or A 1980s PC RPG.
A retro fighting game vs An early 90s arcade fighting game.

"... likely due to the merger of Vivendi Universal Games with Activision in 2008, the closing down of its original developer, Radical Entertainment, in 2012, and the involvement of 20th Century Fox."

Sounds like it's in the same place as NOLF.

@PercyChuggs Did I say any of those things? I did not. I would thank you in future not to invent straw men and attribute them to me.

What I would say is that the mind is a complicated thing, but that it can be manipulated, coerced, and programmed to behave and conform to certain beliefs and behaviours.

This is how all of propaganda, marketing, advertising, political messaging and news media works.

Social Media is deliberately designed to push the right mental buttons to keep users coming back, without any regard to whether that manipulation is beneficial to the user or not.

Studies have shown that over exposure to porn has a massive detrimental effect on people and their ability to form meaningful relationships.

We're not even scratching the surface yet! I could go on, but my point is that the psyche is deep and complex.

So if your question to me is "does over exposure to simulated violence have an effect?", yes I think it probably does. My broader point, however, is that all of these things I've mentioned - and more besides - are either normalised in society or becoming normalised. Is that a healthy society? Where does society go from that basis?

And yet how many people will get home from work, college, or school today for a few relaxing hours with War Simulator 3000 or the latest and greatest Death Me Up? Followed up by some hyper violent HBO special.

I don't know what that says about society as a whole, but the feeling in my bones suggests it isn't good.

There are so few good sites nowadays. So when you find one you like - eg Time Extension - I think it's worth going down the supporter route.

You've got to vote with your wallet.

Wonderful interview. I love reading about the pioneering days.