Martin_H

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.

@GravyThief Me too!

"Some might say Commodore make the best computers.... in the world!"

I'm still waiting for a home release of Planet Harriers.

Do it Sega. DO IT!

This is definitely something I'd like to see in the more budget friendly arena, but the market seemed to go towards more power. Another cool feature would be a rotatable screen for Tate play.

I'm intrigued to see how the Gamesir x Hyperkin controller pans out. Coupled with my tablet that could be a sweet spot.

What happen?
Somebody set up us the bomb!
Main screen turn on!
All your base are belong to us.

No AI needed in that shoddy translation 😀

@Sketcz I've got the t-shirt, poster, and placard campaign ready to go: T&A is A-OK!

Back in the day I had a Competition Pro for the Beeb (in beeb colours!). It was a shame that so few games I had actually supported a joystick, and those that did (Revs, Elite, Aviator) were expecting an analogue input rather than digital.

I thoroughly enjoyed Shining in the Darkness back in the day. I would replay it, but I don't think I have the stamina anymore and I don't really feel the need.

Shining Force was an interesting one, which I came to much later when I first got into emulation. I never completed it... I lost interest after realising that you can't really restore MP except via a priest. It spoiled it for me.

I have played Shining Force 2, but only for about an hour and never went back.

I almost bought Shining Force CD in the late 90s from Cash Converters (I think they wanted a couple of quid). Not sure why I didn't go for it, except I was more into PS1 and PC gaming at the time, and my main "collecting" focus was expanding my Master System library.

I might try Shining Force III - hopefully a modern emulator makes the graphics a bit more tolerable.

To my great regret I never visited a CEX back in the legendary days as the shops were too far away. Mind you I had little enough money back then I probably couldn't have bought much anyway.

We did have a few good independents locally, but they had mostly gone by the mid 2000s, leaving only the chains.

I really miss those days. There was something special about walking into a shop and talking to people about games and taking something physical home that online can't replace. It's the same with music, film, and other media. Getting a recommendation from somebody who's passionate about the subject is far superior to algorithmic suggestions and "5 stars! All the wheels fell off, but it came quickly" reviews

That's a somewhat, um, unfortunate title given current events.

Sounds like a good cause to me.

Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is probably my most played Mega Drive game, although I'm not sure it did much for me cognitively! I did manage - quite by fluke - once to get an absolutely massive combo chain worth somewhere north of 400,000 points. Otherwise I pretty much stick to staircase building.

@Shaw_Brothers I think they'll be ok. As far as I understand the emulator is a "clean room" effort, meaning there's no copyrighted Sony owned material included. This is what scuppered the Switch emulators - they included Nintendo owned code.

As you say, though, Sony have so far seemed to not really care about emulation, so hopefully it never comes to anything anyway.

RPCS3 really is a phenomenal effort. If you had asked me 10 years ago I'd have said it would be unlikely the PS3 could ever be emulated well.

I had to give Kula World a download to try. What's weird is I'm sure I've played it before, but I don't ever remember buying it. Did it come on a demo disc or was it a NetYaroze title?

I'm very interested in this. The TrimUI Smart Pro (and now the S variant) is by far my most used handheld. I hope they get the controls right.

@Sketcz I think part of problem was that Microsoft (and Sony?) made cheevos mandatory for games, leading developers to shoehorn them in when they weren't necessary or appropriate. However lots of developers embraced the concept and came up with decent sets of achievements which extended the games in meaningful ways. I found this particularly true with XBLA titles - I spent ages unlocking Pacifist on Geometry Wars Retro Evolved!

I'm going to checkout Retro Achievements, if for nothing else than looking for new games to try.

Ok, here's my submission*... ready?

3'55"521

Believe it or not, that represents progress. At the start of the week I could barely make it on to lap 3, now I'm starting to hook up sequences of corners... but still bumping too many walls. I think if I had more time to play during the week I'd have improved even more.

*Not sure if it counts: I played the NTSC iso via Duckstation. I didn't record a video, but can provide a screenshot of fastest laps if required.

@retrogamer1 Good shout, thanks for the info!

@BulkSlash I was going to submit my own time... but I don't think I'll bother now!

Very handy. I bought Heart of China a few years back, but never got around to making a DosBox for it. Now I don't have to!

@Razieluigi I always thought the SVP version played a lot better than the 32x version, even if it didn't look as good.

Mind you, I don't think either was particularly good value for money on release.

Are we about to see a schism in the industry, where we see the rise of hand built artisan games versus an AI driven mainstream?

Is there going to be room for the equivalent £100 cheese pizza versus the £1.99 Iceland special?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address. If you send a stamped, addressed envelope I'll send you a free copy of my newsletter.

Calling the PSP a failure is... well... just plain wrong. Great console, lots of amazing games, easy to hack.

The Vita is a different story. Great device, wrong place and time and too little support. Getting one now, however, is something I highly recommend, not least because it's a perfect PSP once modded.

I've always liked handheld/mobile gaming, going all the way back to the early 80s. When the DS and PSP came out, it was a no brainer for me to get both. Same with the 3DS and Vita.

@The_Nintendo_Expat

Did Bob's work use other artist's work, before the accident, uncredited? I'd argue yes. As Ecclesiastes tells us, "there is nothing new under the sun".

I keep thinking about an episode of Star Trek TNG called "When the bough breaks"*. In the episode children use devices that stimulate creativity. One child is shown using the device to "carve" a fish/dolphin without knowing how to work with wood or other materials. The device unlocks that creative potential.

It got me wondering. Suppose you had a very talented artist. We'll call him Bob. People love his stuff, he's well celebrated. One day Bob is involved in a serious accident. He survives, but loses the use of his arms and legs. He can, however, prompt an AI to help him create his artistics visions.

Is Bob's art less valid, due to the tools he uses?

*I used AI to lookup the name - I simply fed it what I could remember of the episode, and it found it straight away.

Blimey, these recomps are coming thick and fast!

@romanista Fair point, I think there will always be a place for specialist devices. However these tend to sell fewer units to a more specialist market.

I think we'll know for sure if Sony ever release another handheld device whether or not there is still mass market appeal.

I had Fable for Windows (I must still have Fable for Windows, somewhere), which I bought on a recommendation. I went through the tutorial level and found a bug where I had this big fireball in my hand which I couldn't get rid of which then prevented me from completing the tutorial.

I've never been back.

@cawley1 I think that's true, but I think Campbell was also arguing about the types of experience people would want from mobile gaming. So for example, if you're waiting for a bus do you want to play a multi-hour rpg or would you be satisfied with a quick go on something simpler and more focused, like Fruit Ninja?

Adding physical controls to phones can be done, though. I was rummaging in the cupboard of forgotten tech the other week and found my iControlPad which was released in 2011. A very early attempt to add physical controls to phones with a number of flaws. Now of course you can get your GameSirs and Abxylutes and away you go.

This may well be anecdotal, but I get a lot of public transport. Planes, trains, busses, trams, ferries, you name it. Very rarely do I see people with Switches or any sort of handheld console. I don't think think I've ever seen anybody with a phone controller. But I'm always seeing people with their phones playing games.

I can understand why Nintendo (and Sony, with its Vita) wanted to cram as much technology as possible into the 3DS, given at the time the big disruptor to mobile gaming was the iPhone.

Stu Campbell wrote an excellent article on his blog just before the Vita released, where he argued that the iPhone replaces the need to carry around separate devices (phone, mp3 player, camera, movie player, computer for browsing etc etc.) so why would you want to carry around another device to play games?

I do wonder how many more units 3DS and Vita would have sold had the iPhone (and smartphones more generally) didn't have games.

@The_Nintendo_Expat I think it's a combination of competition, the way these companies source parts, and the (comparatively) low productions runs.

I think there's also the factor that none of these companies actually make games, so they're either locked in an arms race to provide the best bang for buck, designing to a given price, or hoping that some novel feature pays off.

@Guru_Larry Shiny Dave Perry it is, then!

@Guru_Larry was that bandana Dave Perry or Shiny Dave Perry?

@AnonUser thanks, I'll check it out!

Excellent news! I'll be sticking the Linux version on my Steam Deck - widescreen Mario 64, with boosted resolution, at 60 FPS, on the go. What's not to like?