Martin_H

@weekendroady That's my take too. A wannabe surrealist, but Dali he ain't.

Fans of the original probably wouldn't like it, but I wish they'd include shadows so you get an idea of depth. That would help with some of the frustrating jumps.

One of my favourite games of all time, Landstalker on the Mega Drive, has the same problem. I can't believe I actually managed to complete it back in the day without save states. I must have had the patience of a saint back then.

I hope Piko will do something decent preservation wise. Oddball flops like the Super A'Can deserve a place in gaming history alongside the big hitters.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the technical details, but this is good news all round!

What I haven't seen yet is a convincing argument about why the "creative industries" deserve a special status and protection.

What do these people actually contribute that shouldn't be democratised by AI?

@-wc- I think it's more of a case of what fans of a system can do versus the half-arsed efforts of a mega corp.

If we left it up to the 'official' , 'legal' route none of these games would exist and there would be no means to play them except for original hardware.

@SuperRetro64 Stop asking questions! We've got a witch hunt going on here!

I remember encountering the NeoGeo library for the first time in the mid 2000s via emulation. I had that "wow" moment, which lasted for about an hour. Then it sunk in: it was all about the hype.

Once you peel away the graphics, both the the SNES and Mega Drive had far superior games to anything that appeared on SNKs machine.

It's not clear to me how AI was used in this work or what sort of AI was employed. Everyone is assuming Gen AI, but it could be he used AI to isolate a subject from a background. Or maybe some form of generative fill or expand?

Either way, if the image really took weeks to complete it's nowhere near the same as lazy prompt jockeying to splurge some rubbish on a social media account.

@MisterStu 100% He should be funding Restore and Rupert Lowe.

@KingMike "Well, it is one of the most imitated games in existence, so it would be great to see the original available."

Breakout called. It would like to have a word!

@-wc- Sums up the Dreamcast. So much unfulfilled potential.

I wish I had bought one at the time. I had no reason not to, except somehow or other I convinced myself I was a one console person, that being the PS2.

We live in a very strange time.

I'm a tech enthusiast and I'm generally optimistic about the benefits technological advances bring to humanity. But AI has me completely conflicted. I use AI and have found it hugely useful. It should be a slam dunk positive. Then you see stuff like this.

On the face of it, and in the greater scheme of things, fake 90s ads don't matter. But what it represents does: somebody woke up one morning and decided the best use of AI was to try to deceive other people. Power coupled with a complete lack of ethics seems like a recipe for disaster.

I suspect the next few decades are going to be a bit rocky.

The sheer insanity of this warms the heart!

£110 is a serious nostalgia tax for some very underwhelming hardware.

Why does it have a 16:9 display when the systems are both 4:3? I'd also worry about the hinges. Even the bigger companies have had issues with hinges cracking and breaking.

It's something I might consider at £40-£50, but when there are so many other retro emulation handhelds that are far better than this for a lot cheaper, it's a no from me.

@Porco I've had the McBazel ODV GBS-C for a couple of years. I'm still impressed with its ability to make PS2 games look like they're running on a next gen system.

I'm sure there are plenty of videophiles out there who can tell me the umpteen +1 things wrong with it, but to my tired old eyes I don't think I'd get much more utility by spending 3-10 times the amount I paid for it.

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.